ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00143.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Success in today's competitive and complex world depends upon the ability to bring about effective strategic change. Much of the business literature has been preoccupied with finding more sophisticated techniques to formulate better strategies. But business success depends not only on finding the right strategy, but also ensuring it materializes in the form of a pattern of appropriate strategic actions. We know relatively little about this part of the strategy‐making process. This article shows how a better understanding of the use of power can provide the energy to ensure strategic action by driving the organization and its members through the strategy‐making proc

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00144.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The study examined the efforts of 11 manufacturing companies to regenerate competitiveness through implementing improvement programmes. Data were collected about the activities seen to constitute improvement programmes as well as the reasons and intentions given for their implementation. Companies were found to have shared a common set of strategic intentions whilst having used differently constituted improvement programmes to achieve them. This similarity in strategic intent was seen as evidence of companies using improvement programmes to facilitate movement from mass to lean production paradigms. AU of the 11 companies studied exhibited widespread use of improvement activities. However, significant differences in individual company choice was interpreted as contra‐evidence of improvements being driven solely by manufacturing fashions. This together with their similarities in strategic intent was seen as evidence that companies tailored their regenerative efforts to suit individual circumstances in pursuit of a generic strategic recipe. Some companies had discovered they had developed new capabilities through their regenerative efforts and these were seen as providing a distinctive competitive advantage. All of the companies set out with strategic intentions which centred on catching up with or imitating the best of their competitors – over a half discovered en route a means for changing the rules of the g

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00145.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

In recent years the application of lean production principles has been forcefully expounded as the route to high‐performance manufacturing. This paper examines the relationship between lean production and performance empirically, using data from a benchmarking study of 71 plants in the international automotive components industry. The top performing plants (and their suppliers and customers) showed consistently better process control than did the lower performing plants. UK plants did not perform very well in terms of either quality or productivity, and links between economic context and manufacturing performance are discussed in relation to the U

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00146.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The continuing controversy over the extent to which labour management has been transformed in recent years has sustained considerable interest in the basic issue of how management regulates the employment relationship. However, two curious features of these burgeoning discussions are the neglect of small firms and the rarity of intensive fieldwork methods of investigation. This paper examines particular methodological issues arising from an ethnographic study of the small firm‐dominated West Midlands clothing sector (Ram, 1994). The ethnographic approach was crucial to the unravelling of the complexities and tensions inherent in the management process. Insights generated by the method allow prevailing views of managerial practices in such settings to be questioned; and more generally, highlight the potential of ethnography as a means of management researc

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00104.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

This paper investigates the issues for purchasing and supply chain managers in the context of environmentally‐sound management.The discussion begins with an analysis of relevant consumer attitudes, legislation and concepts in environmentally‐sound management (life‐cycle analysis, waste management, product stewardship, etc.), linking them to supply‐chain management practices such as vendor assessment, total quality management, lean supply and collaborative supply strategies. In each case, parallels are drawn between established practice and new imperatives that require innovative solutions from managers.The paper then explores the results of fresh field research with five major UK companies, identifying the different ways in which the challenges introduced above are being faced, and adding some extra perspectives to the debate already covered. The discussion concludes with a projection of common issues and ideas for areas of supply chain management that might profit from better environmentally‐sound a

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00147.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The term supply chain management is used to represent a variety of different meanings, some related to management processes, others to structural organization of businesses. This paper identifies and discusses various definitions of supply chain management, summarizes the associated bodies of knowledge and connects them using a systems approach. Systems levels of supply chain management are identified as the internal supply chain, the dyadic relationship, the external supply chain and the inter‐business network.Empirical research on behavioural aspects of relationships, chains and networks in the European automotive aftermarket is discussed, identifying gaps in perceptions of requirements and performance held by customers and suppliers in the areas of quality, delivery, service, range and price. A combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis demonstrates substantial differences between approaches to supply chain management, though performance in relationships, chains and networks in the territories examined does not differ significantly.Customer dissatisfaction in relationships is shown to increase upstream in the supply chains examined, extending the applicability of the industrial dynamics ‘Forrester effect’ to softer, behavioural aspects of performance. Conclusions are drawn supporting the suggestions of operations strategists that position in the supply chain is an important strategic variable which, to date, have not been comprehensively proven empiri

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00148.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Action researchhas become increasingly prominent among management researchers as an espoused paradigm used to justify the validity of a range of research outputs. In this paper we introduce and discuss 12 contentions which, we argue, justify an action research project as quality research. The contentions are presented through a discussion of a number of important issues: generality and theory generation, the type of theory development appropriate to action research, the pragmatic focus of action research, designing action research and validity of action research.

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00107.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

Hierarchies, markets and networks have been described as three alternative styles of organizing, each of which may call for distinctive managerial orientations and styles. The question arises as to whether there is now a deep‐seated shift underway from organizational forms based on markets and hierarchies and towards more network‐based forms of organization.This paper assesses the significance of these broader developments with reference to changing managerial practice within a major UK organization (the NHS). It seeks to access the developing theory of network‐based organizations; to assess empirically the significance of these developments for managerial practice within public‐sector organizations such as the NHS; and to consider the organizational and managerial implications, for example, Human Resource Management (HRM) strategy. There have so far been few studies which have taken public‐sector settings for study or which have sought to connect network theory to practice, and this paper can make a useful contribution in thes

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00149.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY

摘要:

The aim of the paper is to illustrate how personal construct psychology and repertory grids (Kelly, 1955) can be used to produce cognitive maps, and to analyse psychological adjustment during the transition from university to employment. Cognitive maps are based on the principal component analysis of repertory grid data and provide a visual representation of the way in which the subjects see themselves in relation to other people, and in relation to their constructs. The cognitive maps produced by two graduates shortly after entry in employment and 6 months later are analysed and compared in order to identify trends of personal change. The case studies show that the analysis of the cognitive maps provides some valuable insights into the way in which graduates change their construction of themselves and of their work environment during the period of transition. The trends of change highlighted by the cognitive maps are discussed in the light of personal construct psychology concepts such as individuality, invalidation, fragmentation, and the mutual relationships between one's construction of oneself and one's construction of others.

ISSN:1045-3172    

DOI:10.1111/j.1467-8551.1996.tb00108.x

出版商:Blackwell Publishing Ltd    

年代:1996

数据来源: WILEY