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Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to explore the challenges that face leaders when implementing business excellence programmes in the Jordanian public sector. Design/methodology/approach – The study adopted a content analysis approach to analyse the excellence assessment reports that have been produced by the King Abdullah II Centre for Excellence. The sample comprises ten public organisations which have participated in the King Abdullah Award for Excellence more than once and acknowledge in their reports that they have failed to achieve satisfactory results. Findings – The key challenges to effect the implementation of leadership criteria in the public sector in Jordan were found to be poor strategic planning, lack of employee empowerment, weaknesses in benchmarking performance, and a lack of financial resources, poor integration and coordination, and poor measurement system. Practical implications – This study proposes a conceptual model for the assessment of challenges that face managers when seeking to implement excellence in leadership in the Jordanian public sector. Originality/value – Leadership challenges in the public sector are generally widely studied, but it is important to gain a better understanding of how these challenges can be overcome. In comparison to many existing studies, this research has provided specific and detailed insights these organisational excellence challenges in the public sector and provides a conceptual model for use by other researchers into the future.

PurposeContinuous process flow is a prerequisite of lean systems as it helps to reduce throughput times, improve quality, minimize operational costs, and shorten delivery times. The purpose of this paper is to empirically demonstrate the application of a methodology that combines a time‐based study, discrete‐event simulation and the trial and error method to enable a leaner process through more efficient line balancing and more effective flow for a park homes production process. This method is replicable across other contexts and industry settings.Design/methodology/approachThe paper reviews the UK park homes production industry and, specifically, a major factory that builds these homes. It compares the factory method to traditional on‐site construction methods. An empirical study of production times was carried out to collect data in order to analyse the current workload distribution and the process flow performance of the park homes production process. Finally, seven discrete‐event simulation models were developed in order to test different scenarios and define the optimum line balance for every section of the production process.FindingsBy combining time study, discrete‐event simulation and trial and error methods, the workload distribution and process flow performance of the park homes production line were analysed and improved. A reduction of between 1.82 and 36.32 percent in balancing losses in some sections of the process was achieved.Practical implicationsThis paper supports current knowledge on process flow improvement and line balancing by exploring and analysing these issues in a real‐life context. It can be used to guide production management practitioners in their selection of methods and demonstrates how they are exploited when seeking to improve process flow, efficiency and line balancing of production operations.Originality/valueThe study uses a real industrial application to demonstrate how the methodological combination and deployment of process flow improvement strategies, such as time study, simulation, and trial and error, can help organisations achieve process flow improvements and, as a consequence, a leaner production process.

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to investigate the impact of layout configurations in a hospital on the implementation of lean management initiatives, to include different units of care. The research concentrated on the impact, the physical distance between dependent units could have on staff perception, use of staff time, time spent in the system by patients, and performance.Design/methodology/approachThe research examined the relationship between clinical units allocated within Northampton General Hospital and their internal providers. In addition, an adapted version of the SERVPERF questionnaire was used to measure the quality perception of staff.FindingsThe transit distances from each clinical unit to their internal providers have: a negative relationship with the staff quality provision of care; a positive relationship with the time the patient spends in the system; and no discernable direct correlation with performance.Practical implicationsThese findings will help hospital managers to understand the impact of the layout of a hospital on the implementation of service improvement activities, and will assist them in planning improved relocation of clinical units. This facilitates future service improvements whilst optimising the use of available and constrained resources within the present hospital facilities.Originality/valueThe ideas and results presented in this study are original and valuable to the study of hospital layouts, services improvements and the implementation of lean operation initiatives and quality improvement programmes in hospitals. The study also successfully tested the application of SERVPERF in a hospital setting.

The authors analyze recent FERC proceedings in respect of California's feed-in tariff (FIT), Assembly Bill 1613, for certain cogeneration systems and the potential new opportunities for implementation of state FITs under PURPA moving forward. They consider the remaining uncertainty in respect of FITs outside of the PURPA framework and conclude by recommending additional FERC clarification that could encourage additional renewable development.

A structured financing that was closed in late 2003 for the new St. Louis Cardinals Stadium was the largest private placement of debt for a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium, the first MLB stadium transaction using a bankruptcy-remote structure, the first set of cash flows from a baseball stadium to be rated investment grade by both Moody?s and Standard and Poor9s and insured to ‘AAA’ by Ambac Assurance, and only the third privately financed MLB home stadium. A special-purpose vehicle formed by the Cardinals will originate the contracts giving rise to the contractually obligated income (COI) pledged to support the ballpark financing. The SPV holds the naming rights, rights to conduct concession activities, rights to license luxury suites, and certain sponsorship (signage) rights, all collectively called dedicated property. The Cardinals conduct MLB games under a license agreement with the SPV. The dedicated property is isolated from the credit risk of the Cardinals because it is not owned by the Cardinals. COI from the dedicated property pledged to bondholders was sufficient to earn the bonds an investment-grade credit rating.

Project-finance collateralized debt obligations (CDOs) will allow portfolio investors a greater opportunity to participate in power and other infrastructure debt markets and will bring additional liquidity and transparency to such markets. Project-finance CDOs also will allow commercial banks, which have a long and successful history with project finance, to better manage their balance sheets and asset-liability mismatches. This article reviews the structures and features of a CDO and why project-finance debt is an attractive asset for a CDO.

This paper analyses the role of networking in the creation of local management knowledge in the Republic of Moldova. At the outset, the paper sketches the economic and political context of this Eastern European country that has recently gained its independence from the Soviet Union. In so doing, the paper highlights the importance accorded to reforming management education in the successful transition to a market economy. Four models of reforming management education are then outlined and it is suggested that the networking model is the most viable for the Moldavian context. Having accounted for their involvement with the Moldavian International Institute of Management (IMI), the authors proceed to discuss the aims and objectives of the very first indigenous MBA programme developed by the Institute. While the “management of obstacles” at both macro and micro level has been an arduous task, IMI has emerged successfully out of this task due to the networking approach adopted in the construction of ...

This study reviews and analyses the changes in management systems in the People's Republic of China over the last decade. Within the wider context of the Open Door policy, the modernization of industry and increased enterprise autonomy, the contract management responsibility system (CMRS) and, more recently, the modern enterprise system (MES) have been introduced. These both provide enterprises (and the managers within them) with a framework within which to practise. This analysis describes the CMRS and the IMES and then, on the basis of discussions and interviews with factory managers, and with officials responsible at the macro level for monitoring the itnplementation of policy, analyses the implications of the changes. The authors conclude that, despite the introduction of a degree of management discretion and independence, differences in opinion persist on what, precisely, are the current industrial problems, and therefore what to do to address them. There have, consequently, been mixed reports on the...

The deskilling/reskilling controversy within the labour process debate is considered within the context of the implementation of Computer Integrated Manufacturing (CIM). Effective implementation of CIM is shown to require an appreciation of the social and organizational issues associated with organizational change. As such the deskilling/reskilling issue is worthy of analysis within the CIM context and aspects of the labour process debate are examined. The effects of technological change on the skills of shopfloor oerators and supervisors are examined by analysing two dimensions of skill, technical complexity and discretion or autonomy. The paper concludes that the outcomes of technical change are framed by managerial perceptions and consequent decisions on how technology should be implemented in terms of work organisation.

New evidence from a British electronics plant on the experience of a harmonisation programme is presented and questions the generally accepted favourable image of moves towards single status working. The presentation is novel in that instead of offering a traditional literature review followed by the empirical data, the article develops two forms of case description. The first case is a fictional “Composite” account derived from previously published materials in which we have assembled the key themes into a single narrative to convey an image of harmonisation as it is presented in the literature. This can then be compared with the more contradictory experience of harmonisation found during ethnographic research at the Collaborating Company, where management was more constrained and the process was not conflict free. The two cases can be read as a contrast between image and reality which then needs to be explained.

In 1979 the decision was taken to develop a Contract Responsibility System experiment as part of China's economic reform programme, and the system was eventually applied in 85% of China's iron and steel corporations. Before the CRS was introduced, these corporations were state‐owned and state managed; net incomes had to be handed over to the state, and funds for investment had to be examined, approved and distributed by the state. The task was one of reforming large state‐owned corporations through integrating government administration with enterprise management, and creating a sense of ‘enterprise’ on the part of workers in the process. As such the CRS operates at two main levels — enterprise level contracting with the state (the state contract system), and internal contracting within the Corporation's businesses (the internal contract system).

This paper considers the effects of economic reforms on the management of production in China. It is based upon empirical research in a range of manufacturing enterprises in Shanghai and Zhejiang Province, The framework of analysis adopted classified manufacturing decisions into four types operations strategy, design, production planning and control, and quality. Within each of these areas, the paper reviews the extent to which theory and practice developed in the West and Japan explains management practice and manufacturing activities in Chinese enterprises. Particular reference will be made to the processes of modernisation, decentralisation and increased foreign investment, and their combined impact upon manufacturing management practice. Finally a perspective of Chinese manufacturing management is presented in which the key points from the above analysis are summarised and conclusions given.