International human resource management:review and critique

The research agenda for the field of international human resource management (IHRM) is clear. For a better understanding and to benefit substantially, management scholars must study IHRM in context (Jackson, S.E. and Schuler, R.S. 1995. Understanding human resource management in the context of organizations and their environment. Annual Review of Psychology, 46: 237–264; Geringer, J.M., Frayne, C.A. and Milliman, J.F. 2002. In search of 'best practices' in international human resource management: research design and methodology. Human Resource Management, forthcoming). IHRM should be studied within the context of changing economic and business conditions. The dynamics of both the local/regional and international/global business context in which the firm operates should be given serious consideration. Further, it could be beneficial to study IHRM within the context of the industry and the firm's strategy and its other functional areas and operations. In taking these perspectives, one needs to use multiple levels of analysis when studying IHRM: the external social, political, cultural and economic environment; the industry, the firm, the sub-unit, the group, and the individual. Research in contextual isolation is misleading: it fails to advance understanding in any significant way (Adler, N.J. and Ghadar, E. 1990. Strategic human resource management: a global perspective. Human Resource Management in International Comparison. Berlin: de Gruyter; Locke, R. and Thelen, K. 1995. Apples and oranges revisited: contextualized comparisons and the study of comparative labor politics. Politics & Society, 23, 337–367). In this paper, we attempt to review the existing state of academic work in IHRM and illustrate how it incorporates the content and how it might be expanded to do so.

Selection and application of risk management tools and techniques for build-operate-transfer projects

Construction projects are risky. However, the characteristics of the risk highly depend on the type of procurement being adopted for managing the project. A build-operate-transfer (BOT) project is recognized as one of the most risky project schemes. There are instances of project failure where a BOT scheme was employed. Ineffective rts are increasingly being managed using various risk management tools and techniques. However, application of those tools depends on the nature of the project, organization's policy, project management strategy, risk attitude of the project team members, and availability of the resources. Understanding of the contents and contexts of BOT projects, together with a thorough understanding of risk management tools and techniques, helps select processes of risk management for effective project implementation in a BOT scheme. This paper studies application of risk management tools and techniques in BOT projects through reviews of relevant literatures and develops a model for selecting risk management process for BOT projects. The application to BOT projects is considered from the viewpoints of the major project participants. Discussion is also made with regard to political risks. This study would contribute to the establishment of a framework for systematic risk management in BOT projects.

Knowledge management research and practice:visions and directions

This editorial paper outlines key directions for knowledge management research and practice. The editorial team presents the results from a small survey of academics and practitioners about the present and future of knowledge management, and the editors include their own informed views on how this journal can help promote scholarly inquiry in the field.

Modelling the relationship between local logistics management decisions and overall supply chain performance:A research agenda

Supply chains are advocated widely as being the new units for commercial competition and developments have made the sharing of supply chain wide information increasingly common. Most organisations however still make operational decisions intended to maximise local organisational performance. With improved information sharing a holistic focus for operational decisions should now be possible. The development of a pan supply chain performance framework requires an examination of the conditions under which holistic-decisions provide benefits to either the individual enterprise or the complete supply chain. This paper presents the background and supporting methodology for a study of the impact of an overall supply chain performance metric framework upon local logistics decisions and the conditions under which such a framework would improve overall supply chain performance. The methodology concludes a simulation approach using a functionally extended Gensym's e-SCOR model, together with case based triangulation, to be optimum. Copyright © 2007 Inderscience Enterprises Ltd.

Brilliant mistake! Essays on incidents of management mistakes and mea culpa

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine students’ perceptions of managerial mistakes and why (and why not) managers admit mistakes. Design/methodology/approach – This paper provides a reflective account of how students’ perceive management mistakes and deal with admitting “mea culpa” – “I am to blame”. Findings – The findings show a range of attitudes: they highlight the intermingling pressures associated with the cultural environment and mistakes; they identify media characteristics and its influences on mistakes and mea culpa; they highlight ceremonial processes and tasks that shape and influence the declaration of mea culpa; and they identify how the psychology and sociology of mistakes confronts and affects students. Taken together, the study highlights the varying degrees of wariness that is carried forward by the students from vicariously learning about management mistakes. Originality/value – This paper links up with recent discussions on retail failure and retail pedagogy. It is hoped that this paper will encourage more academics to address, and engage with, management mistakes creatively in their teaching.

Writing and characterisation methods for UV-photosensitivity based devices and their applications

The underlying work to this thesis focused on the exploitation and investigation of photosensitivity mechanisms in optical fibres and planar waveguides for the fabrication of advanced integrated optical devices for telecoms and sensing applications. One major scope is the improvement of grating fabrication specifications by introducing new writing techniques and the use of advanced characterisation methods for grating testing. For the first time the polarisation control method for advanced grating fabrication has successfully been converted to apodised planar waveguide fabrication and the development of a holographic method for the inscription of chirped gratings at arbitrary wavelength is presented. The latter resulted in the fabrication of gratings for pulse-width suppression and wavelength selection in diode lasers. In co-operation with research partners a number of samples were tested using optical frequency domain and optical low coherence reflectometry for a better insight into the limitations of grating writing techniques. Using a variety of different fabrication methods, custom apodised and chirped fibre Bragg gratings were written for the use as filter elements for multiplexer-demultiplexer devices, as well as for short pulse generation and wavelength selection in telecommunication transmission systems. Long period grating based devices in standard, speciality and tapered fibres are presented, showing great potential for multi-parameter sensing. One particular scope is the development of vectorial curvature and refractive index sensors with potential for medical, chemical and biological sensing. In addition the design of an optically tunable Mach-Zehnder based multiwavelength filter is introduced. The discovery of a Type IA grating type through overexposure of hydrogen loaded standard and Boron-Germanium co-doped fibres strengthened the assumption of UV-photosensitivity being a highly non-linear process. Gratings of this type show a significantly lower thermal sensitivity compared to standard gratings, which makes them useful for sensing applications. An Oxford Lasers copper-vapour laser operating at 255 nm in pulsed mode was used for their inscription, in contrast to previous work using CW-Argon-Ion lasers and contributing to differences in the processes of the photorefractive index change

A comparison of histological and immunohistochemical methods for quantifying the pathological lesions of Pick's disease

Counts of Pick bodies (PB), Pick cells (PC), senile plaques (SP) and neurofibrillary tangles (NFT) were made in the frontal and temporal cortex from patients with Pick's disease (PD). Lesions were stained histologically with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) and the Bielschowsky silver impregnation method and labeled immunohistochemically with antibodies raised to ubiquitin and tau. The greatest numbers of PB were revealed by immunohistochemistry. Counts of PB revealed by ubiquitin and tau were highly positively correlated which suggested that the two antibodies recognized virtually identical populations of PB. The greatest numbers of PC were revealed by HE followed by the anti-ubiquitin antibody. However, the correlation between counts was poor, suggesting that HE and ubiquitin revealed different populations of PC. The greatest numbers of SP and NFT were revealed by the Bielschowsky method indicating the presence of Alzheimer-type lesions not revealed by the immunohistochemistry. In addition, more NFT were revealed by the anti-ubiquitin compared with the anti-tau antibody. The data suggested that in PD: (i) the anti-ubiquitin and anti-tau antibodies were equally effective at labeling PB; (ii) both HE and anti-ubiquitin should be used to quantitate PC; and (iii) the Bielschowsky method should be used to quantitate SP and NFT.

Use of a solvent-free dry matrix coating for quantitative matrix-assisted laser desorption ionization imaging of 4-bromophenyl-1,4-diazabicyclo(3.2.2)nonane-4-carboxylate in rat brain and quantitative analysis of the drug from laser microdissected tissue regions

A dry matrix application for matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization mass spectrometry imaging (MALDI MSI) was used to profile the distribution of 4-bromophenyl-1,4-diazabicyclo(3.2.2)nonane-4-carboxylate, monohydrochloride (BDNC, SSR180711) in rat brain tissue sections. Matrix application involved applying layers of finely ground dry alpha-cyano-4-hydroxycinnamic acid (CHCA) to the surface of tissue sections thaw mounted onto MALDI targets. It was not possible to detect the drug when applying matrix in a standard aqueous-organic solvent solution. The drug was detected at higher concentrations in specific regions of the brain, particularly the white matter of the cerebellum. Pseudomultiple reaction monitoring imaging was used to validate that the observed distribution was the target compound. The semiquantitative data obtained from signal intensities in the imaging was confirmed by laser microdissection of specific regions of the brain directed by the imaging, followed by hydrophilic interaction chromatography in combination with a quantitative high-resolution mass spectrometry method. This study illustrates that a dry matrix coating is a valuable and complementary matrix application method for analysis of small polar drugs and metabolites that can be used for semiquantitative analysis.

An exploratory study of management accounting and control systems in a developing country

This thesis reports on the results of case studies in four commercial banks in Nigeria. The study focuses how management accounting and control systems (MCS) operate in the four banks. The study is motivated by the dearth of literature on management accounting practices in the developing world in general and in Nigeria in specific. The case study approach adopted in conducting the research was useful in exploring the dynamics of the MCS in the organisations. Data was gathered from two sources. First, semi-structured interviews were conducted with managers at the head office, regional office and branches of each bank. The participants were selected from different backgrounds and managerial levels to provide broader understanding of the operations of the MCS. Second, various internal and external documents were reviewed to provide supporting evidence for the interview results. New institutional sociology (NIS) provided the theoretical framework to understand the results. NIS provided explanations for how the MCS in the four banks were shaped by diverse external and internal factors. The key factors identified as shaping the operations of the MCS were the need to comply with the regulatory environment (coercive isomorphism), the need to maintain social and cultural support (normative isomorphism) and the need to imitate successful organisations in order to appear legitimate (mimetic isomorphism). The study also examines the interplay between the institutional forces, market forces and infra-organisational power relations. This analysis is necessary to overcome the criticism of NIS that it downplays the role of market forces, agency and intra-organisational relations. The findings of the study have implications for understanding the operations of MCS in the developing world.

Innovation in teams : a qualitative and quantitative study of team behaviours

This thesis explores the processes of team innovation. It utilises two studies, an organisationally based pilot and an experimental study, to examine and identify aspects of teams' behaviours that are important for successful innovative outcome. The pilot study, based in two automotive manufacturers, involved the collection of team members' experiences through semi-structured interviews, and identified a number of factors that affected teams' innovative performance. These included: the application of ideative & dissemination processes; the importance of good team relationships, especially those of a more informal nature, in facilitating information and ideative processes; the role of external linkages in enhancing quality and radicality of innovations; and the potential attenuation of innovative ideas by time deadlines. This study revealed a number key team behaviours that may be important in successful innovation outcomes. These included; goal setting, idea generation and development, external contact, task and personal information exchange, leadership, positive feedback and resource deployment. These behaviours formed the basis of a coding system used in the second part of the research. Building on the results from the field based research, an experimental study was undertaken to examine the behavioural differences between three groups of sixteen teams undertaking innovative an task to produce an anti-drugs poster. They were randomly assigned to one of three innovation category conditions suggested by King and Anderson (1990), emergent, imported and imposed. These conditions determined the teams level of access to additional information on previously successful campaigns and the degree of freedom they had with regarding to the design of the poster. In addition, a further experimental condition was imposed on half of the teams per category which involved a formal time deadline for task completion. The teams were video taped for the duration of their innovation and their behaviours analysed and coded in five main aspects including; ideation, external focus, goal setting, interpersonal, directive and resource related activities. A panel of experts, utilising five scales developed from West and Anderson's (1996) innovation outcome measures, assessed the teams' outputs. ANOVAs and repeated measure ANOVAs were deployed to identify whether there were significant differences between the different conditions. The results indicated that there were some behavioural differences between the categories and that over the duration of the task behavioural changes were identified. The results, however, revealed a complex picture and suggested limited support for three distinctive innovation categories. There were many differences in behaviours, but rarely between more than two of the categories. A main finding was the impact that different levels of constraint had in changing teams' focus of attention. For example, emergent teams were found to use both their own team and external resources, whilst those who could import information about other successful campaigns were likely to concentrate outside the team and pay limited attention to the internal resources available within the team. In contrast, those operating under task constraints with aspects of the task imposed onto them were more likely to attend to internal team resources and pay limited attention to the external world. As indicated by the earlier field study, time deadlines did significantly change teams' behaviour, reducing ideative and information exchange behaviours. The model shows an important behavioural progression related to innovate teams. This progression involved the teams' openness initially to external sources, and then to the intra-team environment. Premature closure on the final idea before their mid-point was found to have a detrimental impact on team's innovation. Ideative behaviour per se was not significant for innovation outcome, instead the development of intra-team support and trust emerged as crucial. Analysis of variance revealed some limited differentiation between the behaviours of teams operating under the aforementioned three innovation categories. There were also distinct detrimental differences in the behaviour of those operating under a time deadline. Overall, the study identified the complex interrelationships of team behaviours and outcomes, and between teams and their context.

Chemical and physical methods of enhancing the percutaneous absorption of antimicrobial agents

Contrary to previously held beliefs, it is now known that bacteria exist not only on the surface of the skin but they are also distributed at varying depths beneath the skin surface. Hence, in order to sterilise the skin, antimicrobial agents are required to penetrate across the skin and eliminate the bacteria residing at all depths. Chlorhexidine is an antimicrobial agent with the widest use for skin sterilisation. However, due to its poor permeation rate across the skin, sterilisation of the skin cannot be achieved and, therefore, the remaining bacteria can act as a source of infection during an operation or insertion of catheters. The underlying theme of this study is to enhance the permeation of this antimicrobial agent in the skin by employing chemical (enhancers and supersaturated systems) or physical (iontophoresis) techniques. The hydrochloride salt of chlorhexidine (CHX), a poorly soluble salt, was used throughout this study. The effect of ionisation on in vitro permeation rate across the excised human epidennis was investigated using Franz-type diffusion cells. Saturated solutions of CHX were used as donor and the variable studied was vehicle pH. Permeation rate was increased with increasing vehicle pH. The pH effect was not related to the level of ionisation of the drug. The effect of donor vehicle was also studied using saturated solutions of CHX in 10% and 20% ethanol as the donor solutions. Permeation of CHX was enhanced by increasing the concentration of ethanol which could be due to the higher concentration of CHX in the donor phase and the effect of ethanol itself on the membrane. The interplay between drug diffusion and enhancer pretreatment of the epidennis was studied. Pretreatment of the membrane with 10% Azone/PG demonstrated the highest diffusion rate followed by 10% olcic acid/PG pretreatment compared to other pretreatment regimens (ethanol, dimethyl sulfoxide (DMSO), propylene glycol (PG), sodium dodecyl sulphate (SDS) and dodecyl trimethyl ammonium bromide (DT AB). Differential Scanning Calorimetry (DSC) was also employed to study the mode of action of these enhancers. The potential of supersaturated solutions in enhancing percutaneous absorption of CHX was investigated. Various anti-nucleating polymers were screened in order to establish the most effective agent. Polyvinylpyrrolidone (PVP, K30) was found to be a better candidate than its lower molecular weight counterpart (K25) and hydroxypropyl methyleellulose (HPMC). The permeation studies showed an increase in diffusion rate by increasing the degree of saturation. Iontophoresis is a physical means of transdemal drug delivery enhancement that causes an increased penetration of molecules into or through the skin by the application of an electric field. This technique was employed in conjunction with chemical enhancers to assess the effect on CHX permeation across the human epidermis. An improved transport of CHX, which was pH dependant was observed upon application of the current. Combined use of iontophoresis and chemical enhancers further increased the CHX transport indicating a synergistic effect. Pretreatment of the membrane with 10% Azone/PG demonstrated the greatest effect.

A comparison of U.S. and Japanese management systems and their transferability to Singapore industry

This research compares U.S. and Japanese management systems and evaluates their transferability to the Singaporean manufacturing industry. The objectives were:- a) To determine the effectiveness of U.S. and Japanese management systems when applied to Singapore. b) Determine the extent of transferability of U.S. and Japanese management systems to Singapore. c) Survey general problems ecountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management systems to the Singapore industry. The study using questionnaire survey and interviews covered a total of eighty companies from four groups of firms in four industrial sectors comprising of U.S. and Japanese subsidiaries based in Singapore and their respective parent companies. Data from the questionnaires and interviews were used to investigate environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, management effectiveness, and firm productivity. Two-way analysis of variance was used to analyse the questionnaire data. The analysis of the perceptual data from the questionnaire survey and interviews suggested that both U.S. and Japanese parent companies performed better in almost all the management variables studied when compared to their subsidiaries in Singapore. U.S. subsidiaries have less difficulty in adjusting to the Singapore environmental conditions and obtained better results than the Japanese subsidiaries in management functions/practices and management philosophy than the U.S. subsidiaries. In addition, the firm productivity (in terms of labour and capital productivity) of U.S. subsidiaries in Singapore was found to be higher than those of the Japanese subsidiaries. It was found that the Japanese parent companies returned the highest score among the four groups of firms in all the four industrial sectors for all the four management variables (i.e. environmental conditions, management philosophy, management functions/practices, and management effectiveness) surveyed using questionnaires. In contrast, the average score for Japanese subsidiaries in Singapore was generally the lowest among the four groups of firms. Thus the results of this study suggest that the transfer of U.S. management system into the Singapore industry is more successful than the Japanese management system. The problems encountered in the application of U.S. and Japanese management in Singapore were identified and discussed by the study. General recommendations for the Singaporean manufacturing industry were then made based on the findings of the questionnaire survey and interview analysis.