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Analogous to the crew members of the fishing vessel Andrea Gail in the 2000 film of the same name, the Department of Defense (DoD) logistics community faces a 'perfect storm' [...]

What do you get when you mix together Systems Engineering (SE) and Lean Six Sigma (LSS) professionals? More than likely, you will get a high-octane exchange. If you need to [...]

Relation between corporate stockholding and composition of boards of directors of companies is described. Effects of convergence and divergence of ownership and management control are discussed.

It is difficult to discipline an employee when they have not committed any transgressions but other employees are concerned about their behavior.

Taiwanese enterprises generally display a tacit acceptance and practice of globally-recognized business ethics such as the respect of human rights. Yet some Taiwanese business supervisors subscribe instead to a philosophy of leadership, dubbed 'pseudo-harmony', which actively seeks to evade responsibility and any conflict of interest with profitability. Meanwhile other Taiwanese entrepreneurs are even less enlightened, dictatorially upholding self-serving regimes which operate on a philosophy which is euphemistically referred to as 'householder management'. These attitudes result in the sub-optimal development of 'organizational democratization' within Taiwanese enterprises and hi-light the fragility of 'ethical leadership' in Taiwan. There is a strong argument, therefore, that Taiwanese business needs to become both its own analyst and therapist if it is to enhance its 'governance ethics'. Only this way can the nation's enterprises evolve their ethical responsibilities to stakeholders and sustain their competitiveness in a global market that increasingly demands an adherence to ethical standards. KEY WORDS: business ethics, ethical leadership, governance ethics, stakeholders

The value in real options comes from the firm's ability to wait until conditions are optimal before moving forward with a project. There may be a loss of this optimal value if decison-makers anticipate preemptive entry by a competitor. Pioneers that enter markets early might ignore or spoil the real option value from delay. Although market pioneers may gain first-mover advantages, followers have important advantages as well. In this paper we discuss these follower advantages, providing examples of successful delay in the context of a real option on innovation., INTRODUCTION The value in real options comes from the firm's ability to wait until conditions are optimal before moving forward with a project. Engineers are concerned about the loss of [...]

Application of multicriteria mathematical programming, for strategic planning of business process infrastructure development in organizations, is discussed.

In this article the author describes from his own experience what it means to be a soft manager. It does not mean being weak but deliberate vulnerability, openness and the willingness to take the heat for unpopular positions.

This study explored the effect of gender on managers' conceptions and perceptions of those behaviors seen as demonstrating commitment to the organization. Three major findings are reported: (1) female managers and male managers with families evaluated 'traditional' commitment behaviors as less indicative of commitment than their single male counterparts; (2) managers' conceptions of behaviors indicative of commitment conformed to the views of the majority gender within their work-group; and (3) managers' perceptions of commitment were not affected by gender-based in-group biases.

This article presents the author's research what engenders loyalty among a company's customers, employees, suppliers and shareholders. He list six principles for business leaders: Preach what you practice; Play to win-win; Be picky; Keep it simple; Reward the right results; Listen hard, talk straight;

This article presents the results of a study of the implementation value-based management (VMB) in several companies. The authors found that the most important element in the success of VMB is a single-minded focus on shareholder value.

A former major league pitcher advocates the judicious use of blame to improve the performance of employees. He bases his advice on his experiences with savvy baseball mangers and coaches.

The paper explores the problem of motivation in organizations. This problem arises because people may prefer to pursue their own interest instead of the firm's common goals (the two underlying forces in any organization). First, the most representative economic proposals to motivate people are studied and summarized. The study leads us to the conclusion that those proposals do not mitigate the conflict of interests, because they do not make people pursue the common goals. To solve the problem, the common elements of the firm must be promoted. In order to be really 'common,' those elements must be composed of 'nonmaterial' goods, which are the only perfectly shareable ones. They motivate workers by attracting their internal faculties, making the job more interesting and appealing, and providing it with a meaning. Finally, these considerations imply that a richer model of human motivation must be developed in order to reach more comprehensive conclusions.

This study addresses a potentially significant deficiency of the extant innovation adoption paradigm: its inability to account for rhetorical actions as a component of the innovation decision process. A multi-stage empirical methodology was created and used to investigate how decisionmakers might be affected by arguments supporting an innovation, and how different arguments might influence the adoption process. Unlike most prior research, the arguments were generated systematically and the experimental treatments were developed based on empirical evidence. The results indicate that rhetorical action did influence the choices made by potential adopters. This research thereby suggests new elements and methods that may be used to better study and understand the innovation adoption decision.

In this article the authors demonstrate with graphs the advantages of using strategy maps. Such maps by giving a visual representation of the company's objectives help employees see more clearly their place in the plan.

A review of ethical literature demonstrates that the material presented to date is largely based upon theoretical and empirical research. While this information has contributory value, the information produced is largely observational rather than practical. Managers are anxious to receive assistance with the mechanisms by which ethics can be integrated into their organisations. Utilising the recent experience of the author with a large utility company in Asia committed to developing an ethical programme to enhance ethical awareness in their organisation, this paper intends to review current systems and procedures available to managers for integrating ethics into business. In addition to reviewing mechanisms for promoting an ethical climate, where appropriate, reference will be made to prior research and specific organisations where these practices have been used successfully. The paper concludes with a set of summary recommendations for managers embarking on the introduction of an ethical programme to their organisation.

How strategic decisions are made in public, private and third sector organizations is considered, with a focus on identifying and comparing practices for uncovering alternatives. Innovation, benchmarking, search and existing solution approaches are discussed.

Research is presented describing the development of a new managerial decision making tool to measure relative effectiveness in the workplace in relation to other companies.

A strategic management perspective is used to support the argument that little empirical or theoretical evidence exists to indicate that a firm's acquisition and diversification strategies are affected by its principals' monitoring activities.

Research indicates that corporate strategy is influenced by ownership structure. This finding was obtained through testable predictions drawn from agency theory and applied to the relation between diversification strategies and equity ownership structure.

Discourse analysis reveals that certain types of institutions operate more efficiently with higher degrees of role ambiguity and lower degrees of organization. These factors enable institutions to adapt more quickly to change by maintaining a wide variety of options. This requires a balance between structure, stability and flexibility to maximize achievement of objectives.

Chatter in the room subsided as the captain stepped toward the projector screen. In the room were all of the department's chief officers and the city manager. The captain's task [...]

It looks like the next few years could bring a record number of public works projects to city and county government, despite the otherwise difficult economy. Many local agencies face [...]

Decision making through rigorous thinking is a way of life for managers. However, their perception of how they are supposed to think and the decision processes they use is plagued [...]

A long-term study of the implementation of lean production principles by one company gave insight into whether these principles should be introduced sequentially or in parallel. The study indicated that management should first devote resources to implementing three principles in parallel. These principles are the structural changes to the organization, the implementation of core principles to eliminate waste, and the introduction of core principle support systems. Managers should move on to implementing a continuous improvement system once this foundation is established.

Questionnaires were distributed to 54 top management teams in order to evaluate the how team processes function and to shed light on the capabilities of boards of directors. Twelve process factors including team relationships, decision focus, leadership style, and consistency were observed using correlational analysis. Results revealed that the 12 measures were pertinent to corporate performance.

The theory which states that managerial decision making is affected by a variety of elements including environmental, organizational, decision-specific, and individual factors was tested through a survey of a 14 senior managers. Participants, which were divided into public and private sector groups, were subjected to convergent interviewing methods. Results revealed that managers perceived environmental and decision-specific to have significant influence on their decision-making processes.

The processes by which issues become salient and less salient or absent are explored using a manufacturing company as an example. The importance of construction labelling and consensus perception in the salience and ultimate resolution of issues is emphasized, through the notion of issue construction. Important elements in the analytical constructs of potential resolution are the naming of issues, their perception by others and their understanding of them.

In this paper we examine a dominant approach to management at the operations level which we refer to as management-as-planning. Our contention is that this approach to operations management rests on an implicit assumption of the plausibility of a particular theory of the nature of on-going, purposeful activity, the planning model of activity, which we describe in detail in order to draw out its underlying assumptions. We present three examples of the management-as-planning approach from the diverse settings of robotics, manufacturing production management and public sector policy formation and conclude that many of the assumptions of the planning model of activity cannot be satisfied in realistic environments. There is a need to found management at the operations level on a more realistic conception of the nature of purposeful activity which is currently being articulated in the fields of cognitive science and social theory. This change of view leads to a new approach to the nature operations management which we call management-as-organizing. The beginnings of this new approach at work can be discerned in three examples of counter approaches in use in the same three areas studied. Key words - operations management, planning and control, management theory, theories of activity, computer aided production management, lean production

Many firms have benefited from participation in interorganizational systems (IOS). However, participating members should cooperate in the implementation of IOS if they want to realize in full the benefits they can gain from these systems. The interorganizational and organizational factors behind the adoption of IOS is examined in the context of electronic data interchange.

The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) involves breaking a problem into components and putting together the solutions found for all the subproblems into a single conclusion. It categorizes perceptions, feelings, judgments and memories into a framework, which contains the factors that influence a decision, thus facilitating the decision-making process. The benefits of the AHP are presented and discussed.

A decision support system (DSS) has greatly contributed to the planning of the size and organization of the aircraft maintenance division of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines. Specifically, the airline company applied the DSS in determining the right number of maintenance engineers and their training needs and in assessing the efficacy of the department. The maintenance department, whose main asset is its manpower, is tasked with checking and maintaining airplanes while these are grounded at the airport.