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Background Staffing ratios based on hospital beds and norms do not adequately address the requirement of infection preventionists (IP) in hospitals. We, therefore, aimed to determine staffing of IP (nursing category) based on actual workload involved. Methods The study design was quantitative and longitudinal conducted for 1 year. The study was structured around the steps of the World Health Organization's Workload Indicators of Staffing Need (WISN). Results We identified infection control activities, support activities and additional activities to be performed by 4 IP with a total available working time of 6,132 hours for an annual workload of 6,238.25 (±372) hours in an acute care hospital with 182 beds and 69,331 annual admissions. Core infection control activities consumed 78% time. Support and additional activities consumed the remaining 22% time. Active surveillance required 44% time and education consumed 32% time. WISN ratio of available staff and required staff was 0.75. Discussion A WISN ratio less than 1 suggests inadequate staffing. Therefore, the WISN method recommends 4 IP instead of 3 based on existing workload. We compared our results with the existing quantification-based staffing studies. Conclusions WISN is a valuable method to measure all infection control activities and translate workload into IP (nursing) full time equivalents.

Purpose: The World Health Organization places the Optometrist as the primary eye care provider, clearly defining its competencies and scope of practice. In Portugal, there are no studies about Optometrists professional competencies and the profession remains unregulated. The aim of this study was to describe the Portuguese optometrists’ professional competencies model and to identify possible training needs felt. Methods: A questionnaire survey was carried out, with the Portuguese optometric population as target group, ascertaining the level of academic qualifications, the clinical procedures most frequently performed, the training needs felt and the confidence levels in the performance of certain procedures. Results: The 444 validated surveys represent 28.41% of the study population, making it a representative sample. The validated sample had 78.8% of Graduates, 20.5% of Masters and 0.7% of PhDs in Optometry. Conclusions: The results of this study allowed us to conclude that the competences most frequently performed by Portuguese optometrists are a very reductive view of the internationally stipulated, based on Refraction, Basic Ocular Health Assessment, Contactology and Paediatric Optometry in School Age (>6 years old). The most important training needs occur at the level of Applied Ocular Pharmacology, Prismatic Prescription, Optometry in Special Needs Populations, Contactology in Special Cases, Low Vision and Clinical/Hospital Internship. Professional experience of 10 years or more and Master's/PhD qualifications give rise to more skills, higher levels of confidence and lower training needs. Higher frequency of execution of certain procedures translates into high levels of confidence and less training needs in the area., (undefined)

We study the short-term manpower planning problem for transhipment container terminals.A deterministic optimization model is proposed for this problem.The model solutions are compared to the manpower policy adopted by a real TCT.We show when the terminal policy is effective or there is room for optimization.The model can be optimally solved even in the case of huge transhipment container terminals. This paper investigates the short-term manpower planning problem regarding transhipment container terminals. It consists of determining shifts, tasks and activities of the manpower working in these terminals in order to serve vessels in time intervals, which typically do not overlap with personnel shifts. This complex problem is modelled by an integer linear programming formulation. The optimal solutions of the model are compared with the decisions made in accordance with the manpower policy adopted by a real transhipment container terminal. The experimentation sheds light on when its policy is effective or when there is room for optimisation. The computational tests indicate that the model can be optimally solved even in the case of huge transhipment container terminals.

In this paper we study a realistic dial-a-ride problem which simultaneously considers multiple trips, heterogeneous vehicles, multiple request types, configurable vehicle capacity and manpower planning. All of these features originate from practical applications in recent years. To formulate the problem, we propose two mathematical models that use different methods to deal with requests associated with the depot. To further strengthen the models, we propose eight families of valid inequalities, and based on them, we propose a branch-and-cut algorithm to solve the problem. The branch-and-cut algorithm was extensively tested on a set of instances generated according to the data of a real world application. The computational results showed that seven families of inequalities can improve the lower bounds substantially and the branch-and-cut algorithm can solve instances with up to 22 requests within 4 h.

Resource loading appears in many variants in tactical (mid-term) capacity planning in multi-project environments. It develops a rough sketch of the resource usage and timing of the work packages of a portfolio of orders. The orders need to be executed within a time horizon organized into periods, each of which has a known number of workers available. Each order has a time window during which it must be executed, as well as an upper and lower bound on the number of workers that can work on this order in a period. The duration of the order is not fixed beforehand, but depends on the number of workers (intensity) with which it is executed. In this article we define three fundamental variants of resource loading and study six special cases that are common to the three variants. We present algorithms for those cases that can be solved either in polynomial time or in pseudo-polynomial time. The remaining cases are proven to be NP-complete in the strong sense, and we discuss the existence of approximation algorithms for some of these cases. Finally, we comment on the validity of our results when orders must be executed without preemption. Although inspired by a number of practical applications, this work focuses on the properties of the underlying generic combinatorial problems. Our findings contribute to a better understanding of these problems and may also serve as a reference work for authors looking to design efficient algorithms for similar problems. ispartof: European Journal of Operational Research vol:244 issue:2 pages:404-416 status: published

The way in which service firms transform inputs into outputs is typically uncertain or unknown. Consequently decision makers, at best, can only make estimates of the underlying production function. The purpose of this study is to offer policy recommendations to service providers and to examine experimentally the sensitivity of estimates of production functions. The primary result of this study is a foundation for modeling manpower planning decisions for co-produced services when production functions are mis-estimated and/or mis-specified.

Skills are frequently advocated as a panacea for economic and social ills, and anticipation of changing skill needs is seen as playing a key role in ensuring education and training deliver the right skills. Although mechanistic “manpower planning” of education and training systems from the top down is not a practical possibility in free market economies systematic efforts to peer into the future can help both policy makers and individuals to make better informed choices. There are huge uncertainties, but many trends and patterns are robust. Education is not just about preparing people for work but also about changing the path of economic development. Decisions about education by both policy makers and individuals will influence how the future will unfold.

In this paper, the asymptotic behavior of the time-homogeneous mixed push–pull manpower model is studied under the assumption that the desired stock vector and the recruitment policy are fixed over time. In the mixed push–pull manpower model, the internal mobility of a personnel system can be regulated by both pull and push transitions. Based on those characteristics, we express and examine the dynamics of the personnel system by formulating the mixed push–pull manpower model by means of particular transition matrices, which we demonstrate to have interesting properties. We show that under certain conditions the stock vector converges. An explicit analytical form for this limiting personnel stock vector is found.

The current paper deals with the asymptotic behavior of a generalized time dependent Markov manpower planning model. This model, on the one hand takes into account the need of the employees for eternal training, and on the other hand its workforce demand at each time period is satisfied through internal mobility and two streams of recruitment; the first originating from the outside environment and the second from a supplementary auxiliary system. For the model under discussion we provide two sets of conditions concerning the existence and the specification of its expected limiting structure. A numerical application illustrating the present results in a typical manpower system follows.

Objective The resident component of the Canadian Thoracic Manpower and Education Study (T-MED) was conducted to understand the basic demographic of Canadian thoracic surgery residents, the factors influencing their selection of training programs, current work conditions, training and competencies, and opinions in regard to the manpower needs for the specialty. Design A modified Delphi process was used to develop a survey applicable to thoracic surgery residents. In May and June 2009, residents completed the voluntary anonymous Internet-based survey. All Canadian residents participated in the survey, providing a 100% response rate. Results Most respondents were male (11/12), and the average age was 34 years old with an anticipated debt greater than $50,000 on graduation. All residents worked more than 70 hours per week, with most doing 1 : 3 or 1 : 4 on-call. Two-thirds of respondents reported being satisfied or very satisfied with their training program. Rates of anticipated competence in performing various thoracic surgeries on graduation differed between residents and program directors. Two-thirds (8/12) of residents planned to practice thoracic surgery exclusively, and hoped to practice in an academic setting. Most residents (10/12) agreed or strongly agreed that not enough jobs are available in Canada for graduating trainees and that the number of residency positions should reflect the predicted availability of jobs. Conclusions This study has provided detailed information on thoracic surgery resident demographics and training programs. Most thoracic surgery residents are satisfied with their current training program but have concerns about their job prospects on graduation, and they believe that the number of training positions should reflect potential job opportunities. This survey represents the first attempt to characterize the current state of thoracic surgery training in Canada from the resident's perspective and may help in directing educational and manpower planning.

Background Recent advances in cataract surgery techniques have enabled these to be performed under less invasive local anaesthetic techniques. As a result, ophthalmic surgeons are increasingly prepared to give the local anaesthesia to the patient themselves without the need for the presence of an anaesthetist. Methods A national postal survey was conducted in 2008, asking all consultant ophthalmic surgeons for their choice of local anaesthetic technique, whether an anaesthetist or a surgeon performs the block, the current level of anaesthetic cover for the ophthalmic operating sessions, and the need for anaesthetists for phacoemulsification under local anaesthesia in future. No reminders were sent to the non-respondents. Results The response rate was 62%. The choice of local anaesthetic technique was sub-Tenon's 47%, topical 33%, peribulbar 16%, retrobulbar 2%, and others 2%. Twenty-eight per cent of sub-Tenon's blocks were given by the surgeons and 47% by the anaesthetists. Of peribulbar blocks, 9% were given by the surgeons and 85% by the anaesthetist. Seventy-five per cent of ophthalmic operating sessions had allocated anaesthetic cover. Ophthalmic surgeons felt that in their judgement, only 10% of the phacoemulsifications under local anaesthesia would necessitate the presence of an anaesthetist. Conclusions The consultant eye surgeons, based on their judgement, are prepared to undertake a bigger proportion of cataract surgeries under local anaesthesia without the presence of an anaesthetist. This development is bound to have a significant impact on manpower planning for ophthalmic anaesthetists.

This paper presents an integrated mixed integer linear programming (MILP) model for determining manpower requirements and related personnel shift designs for the build-up and break-down of the unit load devices (ULDs) at the air cargo terminal to minimize manpower costs. To utilize the manpower resources efficiently, we implement a new mechanism for demand leveling. In addition, we consider the qualification hierarchy between build-up and break-down workers. A case study based on the real-life data shows that the model is useful for manpower planning at air cargo terminals and the integrated approach is far superior to a traditional two-stage approach.

Manpower planning is a key part of after-sales field service support with a service guarantee. Accurate field travel distance approximation presents a good opportunity to lower the manpower level. By explicitly considering the uncertainties, a state-dependent travel distance approximation model is presented and used to find the optimized manpower solution. A simulation model is developed to study the relationship between staffing level, travel distance, and percentage of customers serviced on time. Numerical results show that the proposed travel distance approximation model performs much better than the classical ''square root law'' and other models in the literature.

This paper focuses upon employee rest breaks, or reliefs, in workforce scheduling. Historically, the workforce scheduling literature has largely ignored reliefs, as less than 18% of the 64 papers we surveyed scheduled reliefs. The argument has been that one need not schedule reliefs in advance, since they can easily be scheduled in real-time. We find this argument to be flawed. We show that failing to schedule reliefs in advance will have one of two undesirable outcomes. First, there will be a less profitable deployment of labor should all reliefs actually be taken in real-time. Second, if some reliefs are never assigned or if relief-timing restrictions are relaxed so that more reliefs may be assigned in real-time, there will be a disgruntled and less productive workforce and perhaps violations of contractual obligations. Our findings are supported by anecdotal evidence drawn from commercial labor scheduling software.

This paper compares qualitative and quantitative methods to incorporate risk in manpower planning, using the case study of UK Naval Services. The methods provide complementary insights in forecasting risk, and thus, offer an improvement over the use of a single method. Qualitative methods alone overstate impacts that lead to inaccurate ranking of risks, resulting in a management response of compliance rather than action. The qualitative analyses support the quantitative analyses in identifying the range of potential explanatory variables and suggest appropriate management interventions. The quantitative method of risk forecasting using an Error Correction framework identifies more accurately the range of possible outcomes for which management must prepare. The quantitative approach also helps to identify significant explanatory factors in risk management. Its use may be limited due to non-availability of historical data, and could place too much emphasis on a limited set of explanatory factors. A staged approach of mixed methods is recommended. A higher weight should be given to past observations than to experts' subjective opinions. Periodic repeated validations by qualitative methods should help effective working of quantitative methods.

Consider an assignment problem in which persons are qualified for a subset of the jobs; assume the persons to belong to given seniority classes. Seniority constraints impose that the solution is such that no free person can be given a job unless an assigned person with the same or higher seniority becomes free. Similarly, jobs can belong to priority classes for which priority constraints must hold. It is shown that the assignment problem with both types of constraints can be solved by successively reoptimizing a (rectangular) linear assignment problem of increasing size. The related complexity is lower than for a known coefficient scaling approach. A further advantage of this approach is that it is easy to modify to solve the problem under the bottleneck criterion.

We model an optimal stopping problem describing the decision of an individual officer to retire from the Army. Our model incorporates the High Three retirement system and current compensation. We solve the resulting Markov decision process model by dynamic programming and investigate model sensitivities. Previous results from similar models suggested that the due course officer would reach an optimal retirement state at 23 years if passed over for promotion to Colonel, and at 26 years if selected for promotion. Our results suggest that the change in compensation structures and the retirement system have shifted the first optimal retirement state for most officers to be as soon as vested in retirement benefits, currently at 20 years. We explore manpower planning and policy implications of shifting retirement behavior and sensitivity of our model to altering model assumptions.

As part of a wide-reaching special message on civil rights early in 1948, President Harry S. Truman directed the United States military to cease discriminatory practices based on race as quickly as possible. Beginning in 1951, The Johns Hopkins University’s Operations Research Office (ORO) was asked by the Army to help determine whether this was truly feasible and then to assess the means by which this could be effected rapidly. An examination of the history of this effort (called Project CLEAR) is instructive in understanding the social history of the United States in the twentieth century, as well as in appreciating the emergence of operations research (OR) as a useful tool in manpower planning and more general social contexts. However, the story is not without controversy. An argument has been present ever since 1951 about whether operations research received too much credit for impacting policy and supporting positive social change. No matter how this issue is resolved, there is no question that an OR organization and its staff of OR professionals were involved in Project CLEAR. All together, this is a most interesting tale, whose complete documentation has not been previously shown.

A multiple objective model for manpower planning in a company sized, 100 person, military reserve unit was developed and tested. The model involves five objectives and consists of over 1150 decision variables and 650 constraints over a 12 month planning horizon. US Army Reserve officers were used as subjects in an experiment in which model solutions were generated interactively using two different solution procedures. One procedure asked subjects to identify their most preferred solution from a set of candidate solutions at each stage of the interactive process, while the other procedure asked subjects to identify their least preferred solution. Scope and purpose This paper describes the development and testing of a multiple objective model for manpower planning in a company sized, 100 person, military reserve unit. US Army Reserve officers were used as subjects in an experiment in which model solutions were generated interactively using two different solution procedures. Participants found the model and solution procedures useful in helping to meet their manpower planning needs.

This paper reports work done at Star Tribune, a leading metropolitan daily newspaper in Minnesota to improve integration among pressroom, mailroom and distribution operations. This work is subsequent to that already reported in IIE Transactions, which was focused on improving press operations only during the live-runs. An improved size-forecasting model is offered which allows preparation of more precise work-force schedules sufficiently in advance. Several system variabilities have been reduced by identifying homogeneous subclasses, and designing tailored operations for each subclass individually, and eliminating over-design to absorb between-class variabilities. Installation of flow sensors on presses has eliminated unnecessary over-production, and also allowed a better co-ordination between the press and the distribution operations. Installation of status sensors in equipment has allowed for collection of more reliable statistics on equipment utilizations, downtimes and so forth. They also have improved many aspects of capacity and operational planning.

Many manpower planning models assume age to be normally distributed. In this paper we have examined the suitability of beta distribution for age. Beta distribution has a few properties, such as finite positive intercepts in the x-axis and adjustable skewness, that make it highly desirable as a distribution for age in a manpower planning model. In this paper we have developed an approach for dynamically computing the retirement probability, and hence the retirement rate, when the age of manpower in a pool follows beta-distribution. We have made a comparative evaluation of the two distributions in the framework of a simple manpower planning system dynamics model, and we have shown that various manpower-related variables assume more reasonable values for the beta-distributed age compared to the normal-distributed age. Thereafter we have applied the approach to a two-stage hierarchical manpower planning model in an R & D laboratory and have studied the behavior of the manpower-related variables under two recruitment policies. We have demonstrated in this paper that assuming beta-distributed age presents no difficulty while modelling for time-scale promotion, a combination of time-scale and merit promotion, and recruitment of persons at different age groups.

This paper explores the implications of the contextual forces currently underpinning nurse education. It challenges the notion of a model of education which is principally founded on the concept of 'fitness for purpose'. Open acknowledgement is made that the driving forces impacting on the purchasers and providers of nurse education are different, and may be in conflict. The central tenet of this debate is based upon a growing awareness that the notion of practitioners being fit for purpose is increasingly being dictated and articulated by local purchasers. Their views may reflect financial expedience and short-term goals, arguably to the detriment of a longer term vision. Tensions also exist between purchasers' locally driven agendas and the reality that practitioners receive a nationally and internationally recognized qualification. The importance of manpower planning is also central to the debate. Solutions are offered which consider guidelines offered by a range of recent policy documents. Their contribution to the debate is assessed. Recommendations are made which recognize the need to equip practitioners with skills that have currency at point of registration, but argue that dominance must be given to the longer term goals of the educational enterprise.

The success of the US military recruiting depends not only on recruiting efforts but also on the labor market conditions. In this paper we review the econometric literature that examined the effects of marketing as well as recruiting effort on high quality enlistment contracts in the 1980s. A random-effects meta analysis is used to examine the systematic variation across studies of advertising, recruiter effort, and unemployment rate elasticities. The result of a meta analysis indicates that (1) the estimated effect of unemployment rate on military recruiting does not vary significantly over several military recruiting studies; (2) the average elasticity of high quality contract with respect to unemployment rate is estimated as 0.48; (3) elasticities of high quality contract with respect to advertising and recruiter forces are influenced by individual study characteristics; (4) although the Army recruiter elasticity (0.43) turns out to be higher than advertising elasticity (0.15), Army advertising appears to cost slightly less than recruiter forces on average when an additional contract is needed. However, this cost difference is not significant.

An important aspect of management is the periodic performance appraisal (PA) of subordinates. This paper focuses on inferring the criteria employed and weights attached to them by an assessor in any PA process. Linear programming (LP) is proposed as an alternative to policy capturing (PC) as the inference mechanism. The LP approach is illustrated and contrasted with regression-based PC approaches. We show that, at a minimum, LP provides facilitating inputs to complement PC.

INAMAPLA II is an essentially model-based decision - support system. Two general types of manpower planning dynamic models are incorporated into the model base : the flow model and the fractional-flow model of manpower systems. The structure of the models is generated in accordance with the manpower system goals. Intelligently combining the basic problems built in the model base not only well defined plans for a desired evolution of the manpower system can be developed but also answers to even more complex queries arising in the manpower management process can be given in an interaction with INAMAPLA II.

Summary This paper describes the process by which manpower planning data are gathered relating to the UK physiotherapy service. A variety of sources are used to demonstrate that these data may be accurate but that no substantial effort is made to address the shortages they indicate. A brief description of the key elements in an effective manpower planning process is offered and the factors which get in the way of accurate planning for physiotherapy are suggested. The policy of Regional self sufficiency is discussed and the proposal is made that it should be physiotherapy schools that decide the numbers of students taken on to courses and that this number should be substantially increased. A number of alternative modes of attendance on physiotherapy degrees in addition to the traditional full-time course are made and the areas of greatest wastage, particularly to other countries, are indicated.

In this paper, we use the methodology of simulation to evaluate six approaches for handling employee requirements in an LP-based labour tour scheduling heuristic. We model employee requirements both as minimum acceptable staffing levels—where understaffing is unacceptable—and as target staffing levels—where both under- and overstaffing are acceptable. For each representation of employee requirements, we evaluate forms of the heuristic that use problem-specific and problem-independent information on the costs of employee surpluses and, if appropriate, employee shortages. Over an extensive test data set, the target-staffing approach using problem-specific cost information outperformed all other procedures. Specifically, it generated schedules costing less than 87% of those developed using the approach most commonly found in the literature. Its schedules were also almost 5% cheaper than those of its closest competitor. We discuss the managerial and research implications of the findings and provide suggestions for future research.

Modelling for age and retirement becomes essential in many situations where promotion is age based and retirement takes place on attaining a particular age. This paper presents a step-by-step approach to modelling retirement and average age of population through system dynamics. The equations for a deterministic situation, with fixed residence time, are presented first, and then the equations are modified to accomodate age distribution of individuals in the manpower pool. The proposed model has been tested for plausibility under various test conditions. The paper also discusses a few age-based policies. The model behavior with these policies is presented and discussed.

Stop-Loss is an Army policy which requires Soldiers to remain in the Army beyond their contractual obligation in order to complete a unit’s deployment to Iraq or Afghanistan. Stop-Loss was implemented to maintain unit cohesion and stabilize the force. We address projecting the quantity of Soldiers in Stop-Loss in the future, and analyzing strategies to eliminate the use of Stop Loss and the associated risks and costs that need to be mitigated when eliminated.

The paper presents an empirical method to infer employers’ requirements of operational research (O.R.) skills by analyzing the text of online job ads using content analysis. The method entailed collecting more than a thousand job ads from online sources, creating a hierarchy of sets of O.R.-related words and phrases, and then analyzing the job ads using content analysis software to count the numbers of ads using the hierarchy of words and phrases. The method is particularly well suited for the periodic analysis of job ads to understand changes and trends, and is replicable in that, when carried out using our proposed keywords, it would yield the same results for any set of O.R. job ads.

The phenomenon of Decision Support Systems has only just emerged. The theory has hardly been founded and even practical guidelines are not yet available. In this paper a framework to structure the design of a Decision Support System is presented. This framework describes the functions that a DSS should offer to a planner, and explains why these functions are required. How the framework can be implemented is illustrated by the description of a Decision Support System built for a strategic manpower planning problem of airline pilots.

The literature has recorded many models dealing with manpower (human resources) forecasting and planning. The approaches used by the various authors are clearly disparate. This paper offers an attempt at synthesis (a taxonomy) for manpower planning and forecasting methodologies as a means toward integrative reviews of a rather disjoint literature. Some of the landmark developments in this field are classified to illustrate both the robustness and the parsimony of the proposed taxonomy. The taxonomy is based on the various methods and decision factors invoked in the literature. It allows for the most complex model structure containing all those factors considered germane.

In this paper we review elements of manpower planning with emphasis on the large-scale problems faced by the military. After a brief introduction to some basic concepts, we describe transition rate (Markov) models, network models and network-like goal-programming models. Specific applications are reviewed, as appropriate.

This paper describes how a spreadsheet system was used to build a simple manpower planning model for a manufacturing company. The software used allowed modelling to be developed rapidly but the requirements of the project quickly dictated that more sophisticated software was required. The results produced were useful to management initially but by the time more sophisticated software had been organised management requirements had changed. Thus the ease of use of spreadsheet software allowed a short term gain to be realised but did not help in the longer term.

It is only recently that medical manpower planning has been seriously addressed in the National Health Service. Suddenly it is a popular and emotive subject. The sweeping changes in the provision of health care and medical training affect us all and could revolutionise our lifestyle, our method of working, and our type of contract. Will job security continue? Will 3 or 5 year rolling contracts arrive? Will the number of women in medicine continue to increase? Is our ‘turf' threatened by other professionals? Will we see an influx of doctors from the European Economic Union? Will visiting trainees continue to come or stay? This article will attempt to answer these points.

Year after year, English-as-a-foreign-language (ESL) programs at Saudi universities are experiencing significant increases in student enrollment. The current staffing conditions do not accommodate the enrollment demands. ESL programs are having difficulties in retaining experienced native-speaking teachers and in hiring qualified substitute instructors. This study explores the current staffing status and language and translation departments at 7 Saudi universities, describes the staffing status in men and women’s departments in terms of faculty numbers, faculty qualifications, faculty nationality, faculty teaching load, male and female student enrollments, total number of hours offered, numbers of sections offered, and section size; cause of faculty shortage; and how the faculty shortage is covered. Demographic data about faculty, courses offered, and student enrollment were collected. In addition, department heads and ESL coordinators were interviewed concerning the staffing needs, causes of faculty shortage, how the shortage is covered and hiring practices. It was found that women’s departments are more under-staffed than men’s departments. Understaffing is caused by the Ministry of Higher Education’s open admission policy, lack of communication and coordination between department heads and decision makers, and insufficient communication channels between English departments and job applicants. Technology is not used by most universities in the job advertising and hiring processes. Job vacancies are not advertised on the internet, information about vacancies is not available online, e-mail is not used in correspondence, and no online interviews (teleconferencing) are conducted. Other factors include insufficient funding, university and government employment policies and regulations, inefficient manpower planning, lack of prediction studies, high competition in neighboring countries, limited sources, and others. The study recommends that the King Fahad University staffing model is followed by other universities, in addition to an outline of a recruitment plan to meet faculty supply needs for ESL programs and to increase the collaboration between departments and decision makers will be provided.

The paper reviews developments in methods available for planning the link between education and employment. Eight techniques are described: manpower planning, rates of return, the basic arithmetic of youth employment, the ILO key informants system, local manpower planning, rapid rural appraisal, the use of existing information, educational planning. Areas for future development include a greater focus on the growth of rural work in relation to the criteria of social demand and equity; the creation of categories of economic activity which have local relevance; the integration of skill development arrangements as one of many factors contributing to economic activity; increased use of existing information; an improvement of networks for the sharing between ministries of education, employment and planning of data of mutual interest; an increase in the speed with which data collected at local level but collated and analysed at national level are redistributed to local level; the development of measures of educational quality.

The basic problem to which this paper is addressed is that of developing a system methodology for scientific manpower planning in Egypt. We integrate the main influencing components into one unified system for the purpose of policy assessment and dynamic evolution. A linear, deterministic model is constructed based on the scientific manpower supply-utilization disequilibrium conditions. Preliminary results over the period 1976-1985 have indicated that the propsed methodology is encouraging and works satisfactory.

Manpower planners within South African companies have very few, if any, decision support tools at their disposal to assist them in the formulation of their manpower strategies. Such quantitative tools as do exist are mathematically too sophisticated to be easily understood and implemented by manpower managers who are, on the whole, non numerate. The approach proposed in this paper, namely simulation modelling, discusses and demonstrates a powerful quantitative method which is conceptually easy to understand and whose results are easily interpreted. This particular simulation model examines the impact on organisational staffing levels over time as a result of specific present/proposed manpower policies in the areas of procurement and promotion. Through manipulating the inputs, the manpower planner can, with relative ease, examine the consequences of a range of alternative policies within a very short period of time.

In this paper an outline of national specialized manpower planning(NSMP) is introduced briefly with related structure model and block diagram, then the mathematical model of the national specialized manpower education planning (SMEP) is indicated. Because of the complexity of the system, the established model is hierarchical multi-level dynamic one. The functions and main ideas of both coordinator-level and school-level model, and the main submodels of them, especially the enrolling assignment submodel and the algorithm for solution seeking are described.

This paper discusses a number of practical considerations of interest to organizations wishing to carry out manpower planning. The use of computer based models is recommended. The types of models developed in the literature are discussed briefly but detailed descriptions are not included. Typical data requirements for manpower planning are discussed together with practical points concerning data storage. The author then discusses the central role played by ability assessments in manpower planning. The reliability of such assessments must be taken into account when interpreting output from manpower models. Finally, the benefits of a modelling approach are discussed and guidelines for effective use of models provided.

The article reports a portion of the findings of a national study of manpower planning in criminal justice. The study and its findings have been reported more fully elsewhere. The present article reexamines and reconsiders the data specifically with respect to public policymaking, the behavior of public organizations, and the role of fact and value in the allocation of government resources.

If medical manpower planning is to be successful in terms of providing the correct future manpower levels to produce the desired (efficient) health care services then the planners must recognise the ultimate objectives of the provision of health care services and the production relationship between the services provided (inputs) and the effects on patient health status (outputs). Furthermore the planning of medical manpower should not be done in isolation under the implicit assumption that other important inputs will be available as required but should be part of an overall planning process for the future production of improvements in health status. Having determined the objectives for outputs the future levels of different types of manpower will depend on the identification of the efficient mix of inputs. In addition the values of other variables influencing the production relationship (e.g. trends in the consumption of certain goods) should be considered in the planning process since observed trends show that they do not remain constant over time.

Manpower planning is often considered as a subsystem within industrial organizations, containing a hierarchy of levels. In this article it is suggested that manpower planning has to reconcile the organization's profitability and employees' individual needs and goals. An attempt is made to analyse some recent manpower planning studies with special regard to the consideration of individual goals and their treatment. In conclusion, the authors propose an approach to considering individual needs and goals in manpower planning systems.

Forces of rapid change and strong competition are now operating in the world. Banking with its rapidly changing technology must keep pace with these forces but it must at the same time provide secure and continuous employment for staff. Personnel policy now encompasses manpower planning which is defined as ‘A strategy to acquire, utilize, retain and develop people by formulating and implementing sound manpower policies agreed with employees and their unions’.

At what ages should managers be recruited? Are the young managers receiving the right sort of experience at an early stage in their careers? What effect will the proposed merger have on the career prospects in the company.....? Questions such as these are likely to face every company from time to time, but finding the answers can be very difficult. The task may be made much easier through the application of some simple analytical techniques. These techniques are discussed here in the form of a case study.

A class of stochastic models with behaviorally meaningful parameters and manpower planning implications is presented. These models are used to reanalyze some previously published data on the durations of wars, strikes, and jobs. Job durations are found to be qualitatively different from strike durations. The concepts developed in this paper also allow researchers to “eyeball” and plot their data better even if a formal statistical analysis is not performed.

Results from a survey of 1008 National Health Service nurses and nursing auxiliaries leaving their current position are reported. These indicate that 1.3% of nurse leavers are leaving their positions for good solely because of back pain. Further, one nurse leaver in 29 is leaving their position with back pain as a main or contributory cause and 12% of all nurse leavers intending to leave for good cited back pain as either a main or contributory factor. The findings from this survey have implications for Health Authorities in relation to costs and manpower planning, and emphasize the need to provide further education and prompt referral and treatment to prevent long-term back morbidity and wastage, not only for registered nurses but also for nursing auxiliaries and aides.