Home About us Contact
|
Home About us Contact | ||
|
|
||
Internal Processes (internal + process)
Selected AbstractsNEW PUBLIC MANAGEMENT: PERSPECTIVES ON PERFORMANCE AND THE USE OF PERFORMANCE INFORMATIONFINANCIAL ACCOUNTABILITY & MANAGEMENT, Issue 2 2008E. Pieter Jansen Performance information is a key-element of NPM, but politicians and managers rarely use this information. On the basis of three case studies, this paper seeks to explain the use of the newly developed performance information. The paper argues that there is a distinction between the customer perspective and the citizen perspective on performance. NPM implies a customer and an internal perspective on performance. These perspectives may be relevant to managers, but politicians are primarily interested in a citizen perspective and a financial perspective. Two situations are identified in which governmental organizations more actively use performance information with a customer perspective and an internal perspective (as implied in NPM): (1) a crisis in the organization's internal processes with political and/or financial consequences and (2) loose coupling of the performance reports to politicians and to managers, which stimulates the information use by both politicians and managers. [source] Surface deformation induced by present-day ice melting in SvalbardGEOPHYSICAL JOURNAL INTERNATIONAL, Issue 1 2009H. P. Kierulf SUMMARY The vertical movement of the Earth's surface is the result of a number of internal processes in the solid Earth, tidal forces and mass redistribution in the atmosphere, oceans, terrestrial hydrosphere and cryosphere. Close to ice sheets and glaciers, the changes in the ice loads can induce large vertical motions at intraseasonal to secular timescales. The Global Positioning System (GPS) and Very Long Baseline Interferometry (VLBI) antennas in Ny-Ålesund, Svalbard that started observations in 1991 and 1995, respectively, observe vertical uplift rates on the order of 8 ± 2 mm yr,1, which are considerably larger than those predicted by postglacial rebound (PGR) models (order 2 mm yr,1). The observations also indicate increased uplift rates starting some time in 2000. A local GPS campaign network that has been reoccupied annually since 1998, reveals a tilting away from the neighbouring glaciers. The Svalbard glaciers have been undergoing melting and retreat during the last century, with increased melting since about 2000. We compared the observed vertical motion to the motion predicted by loading models using a detailed ice model with annual time resolution as forcing. The model predictions correlate well with the observations both with respect to the interannual variations and the spatial pattern of long-term trends. The regression coefficients for predicted and observed interannual variations in height is 1.08 ± 0.38, whereas the regression coefficient for the predicted and observed spatial pattern turns out to be 1.26 ± 0.42. Estimates of the predicted secular trend in height due to PGR and present-day melting are on the order of 4.8 ± 0.3 mm yr,1 and thus smaller than the observed secular trend in height. This discrepancy between predictions and observations is likely caused by the sum of errors in the secular rates determined from observations (due to technique-dependent large-scale offsets) and incomplete or erroneous models (unaccounted tectonic vertical motion, errors in the ice load history, scale errors in the viscoelastic PGR models and the elastic models for present-day melting). [source] Ilim Pulp, blending former Russian state enterprises, creates a corporate university to change culture, become an industry leaderGLOBAL BUSINESS AND ORGANIZATIONAL EXCELLENCE, Issue 5 2010Marina O. Latuha This article describes the establishment of a corporate university in a Russian company. Following the economic restructuring of the country, training and personnel development became vital ingredients in the company's long-term strategy. In these turbulent conditions, the company realized that it needed to have the training and personnel development characterized by continuity on the one hand and revolutionary changes in organizational culture on the other. If this could be achieved, it would encourage entrepreneurship, innovation, and change in the internal processes of the organization. The case describes the stages, programs, and basic components of the corporate university model. It not only illustrates the basic issues in the application of corporate training theory, but also analyzes the risks and problems for the company in the project's realization. The article concludes with a description of how the corporate university developed after its initiation, and some conclusions about the overall success of the project. © 2010 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] The stationarity of global mean climateINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CLIMATOLOGY, Issue 7 2004B. G. Hunt Abstract The observed climate exhibits noticeable fluctuations on a range of temporal and spatial scales. Major fluctuations are often attributed to ,external' influences, such as volcanic eruptions or solar perturbations, which obscure climatic fluctuations associated with natural climatic variability generated by internal processes within the climatic system. Although it is difficult to isolate the role of natural climatic variability within the observed climatic system, coupled global climatic models permit such a discrimination to be made in appropriately designed simulations. Thus, the CSIRO coupled global climatic model has been used to determined some basic characteristics of annually averaged global mean climate within a multi-millennial climatic simulation. Some examination of observed climate is also presented. A stationary climatic state was simulated for periods of up to 10 000 years using the CSIRO model, with equilibrium usually being maintained to within 1,2% for all climatic variables investigated. The means by which such stationarity is maintained is analysed and the necessity for rapid negative feedback mechanisms is emphasized. The role of topographically induced climatic features is also discussed. Finally, the implications of the present, presumably greenhouse-related, global warming are considered in the context of the present results. Copyright © 2004 Royal Meteorological Society [source] Critical success factors for cross-functional teamwork in new product developmentINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2000Sarah Holland There is consensus that the effective implementation of cross-functional teams is critical to new product success. However, such teams face particular challenges because of well-documented barriers between functions. Furthermore, there is little evidence-based guidance for practitioners on how to achieve effective cross-functional teamwork. In order to address this gap, the literature on cross-functional teamwork was analysed to identify critical success factors. Using a heuristic team effectiveness model, these were categorized into six groups: task design, group composition, organizational context, internal processes, external processes and group psychosocial traits. Recent theory on group effectiveness has increasingly recognized the significance of a supportive organizational context, and this is particularly pertinent for cross-functional teams. Key success factors include strategic alignment between functions, a climate supportive of teamwork and team-based accountability. The findings are integrated into a diagnostic model which is intended to be of practical benefit to people designing, leading and facilitating cross-functional new product development teams. [source] Reflections on the Methodological Issues of the Sociology of LawJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 2 2000Reza Banakar The general focus of this paper is on the methodological limitations of the sociology of law in capturing the law's ,truth' as its practitioners experience it. The paper starts with arguing that the law does not have a monolithic ,truth'. Some aspects of its ,truth' are produced through its own recursively sealed operations, while its other aspects are generated with reference to empirically grounded knowledge, which potentially links the discourses of law and sociology. Notwithstanding this discursive kinship, the sociological studies of the law's internal processes cause difficulties even to those scholars who are versed in substantive law. To expound this problem, the sociology of law is compared with medical sociology and attention is drawn to the way sociology copes with the ,truth' of medicine. The final part of the paper initiates a quest for possible solutions to the methodological problems of the sociology of law by placing them in the context of the ongoing conflicts and competitions of the field of science. [source] Making sense of accountability: Conceptual perspectives for northern and southern nonprofitsNONPROFIT MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP, Issue 2 2003Alnoor Ebrahim This article examines the concept of accountability from various disciplinary lenses in order to develop an integrated understanding of the term. Special attention is devoted to principal,agent perspectives from political science and economics. An integrated framework is developed, based on four central observations. (1) Accountability is relational in nature and is constructed through inter- and intraorganizational relationships. (2) Accountability is complicated by the dual role of nonprofits as both principals and agents in their relationships with other actors. (3) Characteristics of accountability necessarily vary with the type of nonprofit organization being examined. (4) Accountability operates through external as well as internal processes, such that an emphasis on external oversight and control misses other dimensions of accountability essential to nonprofit organizations. The analysis draws from the experiences of both Northern and Southern nonprofits, that is, organizations based in wealthy industrialized regions of the world (the global North) and those in economically poorer areas (the South). [source] Dealing with damage: the desire for psychic violence to soothe psychic painPSYCHOTHERAPY AND POLITICS INTERNATIONAL, Issue 3 2005Raman KapurArticle first published online: 10 JAN 200 Abstract Damage and destruction in people's lives can be dealt with either through recognizing and resolving psychic pain and loss or acting out destructive human relationships. This paper highlights the internal processes within a patient and a troubled society where psychic pain may not be recognized, experienced and worked through, so leading to the possibility that psychic violence may be used to soothe heartfelt emotional injuries. Psychic pain is often associated with emotional poverty and inadequacy. This paper describes the idea that pain is acted out through psychic violence and how the therapist has to face and contain many facets of this human frailty disguised as ,sexed-up' violence. My observations of psychic violence in the everyday life of a society exposed to over 35 years of death and destruction are also described. Here, there is not the comfort of the consulting room to detoxify poisonous projections, which often present under the psychic guise of superiority and contempt. Intrapsychic formulations are outlined which underlie such violence and clinical interventions and suggestions to repair societal troubles are offered to help this disturbed state of mind move towards more whole-object human relations. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Social funds and decentralisation: optimal institutional designPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2006Jean-Paul Faguet Abstract Most of the 60+ developing countries that have established social funds (SFs) are decentralising their governments as well. But the question of how to tailor SFs,originally a highly centralised model,for a decentralising context has received relatively little attention in the literature. We first examine evidence on the ability of SFs to adapt to a decentralised context. We then lay out the implications of decentralisation for SF institutional design step-by-step through the project cycle. The topic is doubly important because social funds can increase their effectiveness, and the sustainability of their investments, by reorganising internal processes to take advantage of the political and civic institutions that decentralisation creates. Local government has an informational advantage in local needs and characteristics (time and place), whereas SFs have access to better technology and knowledge of sectoral best practice. The key is to create institutional incentives that best combine these relative advantages. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Finding energy in strategic project management: an essay in honour of Dean FangPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION & DEVELOPMENT, Issue 4 2001Donald CurtisArticle first published online: 16 OCT 200 A development project is an intervention that is designed to makes things better in a particular context or situation. It is always a problem to know what to do for the best. The Logical Framework, evaluated in this journal last year (Gasper, 2000), is a project-planning and management technique widely applied by multilateral as well as bilateral donor agencies in international development work. It was designed to prevent project managers from simply offering to do what they had always done before and instead to think strategically about cause and effect in context. The present article respects this logical approach but focuses attention upon context. Context is considered in the right-hand column of a Log Frame. The article seeks inspiration in ancient Chinese concepts of energy: Yin,Yang and Wu,Wei. The search is for a form of project management that minimizes energy consumption in its own internal processes and maximizes energy release in the context that the project seeks to transform. Context has to be examined for opportunities rather than constraints. The article advocates management by being a still presence, as against management by rushing about. It borrows the old-fashioned idea about being a catalyst and validates the now fashionable concepts of enabling and empowering. It also rediscovers at least some virtue in the Blueprint Project. The article seeks to be practical. A management development project in the Northern Cape Province of South Africa provides some illustrations and an incomplete example of what might be entailed if energy is brought into the equations of project management. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Helioseismology program for Solar Dynamics ObservatoryASTRONOMISCHE NACHRICHTEN, Issue 3-4 2007A. G. Kosovichev Abstract An overview of the science investigation program for the Helioseismic and Magnetic Imager (HMI) of the Solar Dynamics Observatory (SDO) space mission scheduled for launch in 2008 is presented. The HMI investigation encompasses three primary objectives of the Living With a Star Program:.rst, to determine how and why the Sun varies; second, to improve our understanding of how the Sun drives global change and space weather; and third, to determine to what extent predictions of space weather and global change can be made and to prototype predictive techniques. Helioseismology provides unique tools to study the basic mechanisms of the Sun's magnetic activity and variability. It plays a crucial role in all HMI investigations, which include convection-zone dynamics and the solar dynamo; origin and evolution of sunspots, active regions and complexes of activity; sources and drivers of solar activity and disturbances; links between the internal processes and dynamics of the corona and heliosphere; and precursors of solar disturbances for space-weather forecasts. We describe new unique opportunities for helioseismology studies with HMI data, in combination with data from the other SDO instruments, Atmospheric Imaging Assembly (AIA) and Extreme-ultraviolet Variability Experiment (EVE), and also from various space and ground-based observatories. The complete HMI science investigation and data analysis plan is available at http://hmi.stanford.edu. (© 2007 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim) [source] Why do firms adopt ,beyond-compliance' environmental policies?BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 5 2001Aseem Prakash This paper examines why firms selectively adopt ,beyond-compliance' environmental policies. It argues that existing explanations based on factors external to firms are under-specified and a focus on internal dynamics is also required. It draws insights from institutional theory, corporate social performance perspective, and stakeholder theory and relates them to internal processes. Beyond-compliance policies are adopted, if at all, due to two types of intra-firm process: power based and leadership based. These processes arise under different conditions and lead to different types of outcome. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment [source] A rhythm recognition computer program to advocate interactivist perceptionCOGNITIVE SCIENCE - A MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL, Issue 1 2004Jean-Christophe Buisson Abstract This paper advocates the main ideas of the interactive model of representation of Mark Bickhard and the assimilation/accommodation framework of Jean Piaget, through a rhythm recognition demonstration program. Although completely unsupervised, the program progressively learns to recognize more and more complex rhythms struck on the user's keyboard. It does so without any recording of the input flow, and without any pattern matching in the usual sense. On the contrary, internal processes are dynamically constructed to follow and anticipate the user's actions. We show that these processes are representations of the rhythms in the interactivist sense, and that they emerge from non representational grounds, avoiding the symbol-grounding problem. They are not copies or transductions of reality, but ideal internal constructions of the agent, avoiding the circularity pointed out by Piaget. In practice, the active nature of this recognition process allows it to work even with noisy and complex input flows. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||