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Strategic Role (strategic + role)
Selected AbstractsPrivate equity and HRM in the British business systemHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 3 2007Ian Clark Who owns the firm? Do changes in owner matter? Will change affect the operational and strategic role of the HR function? For some, the answer will be no precisely because mergers and acquisitions, takeovers, buyouts and privatisations are central activities for a British-based business where short-term value for shareholders and financial engineering are key management objectives that structure and inform the work of HR professionals. For other readers, the answer may well be yes; ownership and owner strategies do matter, particularly if a firm is acquired by a relatively new actor in the market for corporate control , the private equity firm. [source] Customer satisfaction and the strategic role of university librariesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF CONSUMER STUDIES, Issue 2 2010Ulla Hakala Abstract The paper stresses the importance of listening to customers at university libraries and the need to move from a library-based view to a customer-based view. Largely on account of their public nature, academic libraries in Finland , where the study was conducted , have until recently, based their operations and development mainly on conventional procedures and library-based perspectives. However, in order to better serve their own clientele, as well as their parent organizations, they need to listen to the voices of their customers, the library users. One way of ,listening' is through a customer survey, in this case LibQUAL , a survey instrument developed in the US for libraries. It collects data on the quality of the services, thus enabling libraries to identify areas in which service levels should be improved. [source] Auditing the strategic role of operationsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT REVIEWS, Issue 3 2007Bob Lillis The literature relating to auditing the strategic role and contribution of operations has been dominated by methodologies attuned to the predominance of the environmental and competitive forces, and entry deterrence approaches to achieving and sustaining competitive advantage, broadly termed the outside-in perspective. However, tools suited to the resource-based and associated dynamic capability view to strategy formulation, deemed the inside-out perspective, are sparse. This paper makes a contribution to furthering understanding of the auditing of the strategic role and contribution of operations by conducting a review and critique of established ideas, practices and approaches from both strategy formulation perspectives. It argues that the reported methodologies reflect the traditional outside-in perspective to strategy formulation. It highlights the limitations of the available tools for an inside-out view and questions the suitability of the existing methods to the more recent inside-out emphasis, also a factor vital in circumstances where a firm typically is pursuing a combination or blend of the outside-in and inside-out approaches to strategy formulation. Finally, it presents the outline of an additional audit tool designed to address these limitations and describes next steps in future research. [source] Information Therapy: the strategic role of prescribed information in disease self-managementINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF RHEUMATIC DISEASES, Issue 2 2005Molly METTLER Abstract Information Therapy is a new disease management tool that provides cost-effective patient support to a much larger portion of the chronically ill population than is generally reached. Defined as the prescription of specific, evidence-based medical information to a specific patient, caregiver, or consumer at just the right time to help them make a specific health decision or take a self-management action, Information Therapy can be electronically integrated into the process of care. Information prescriptions made available through Information Therapy will support efforts to improve health outcomes and quality in disease management. [source] International briefing 6: Training and development in the United StatesINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF TRAINING AND DEVELOPMENT, Issue 2 2000Michael J. Marquardt Increasingly, training and development is playing an important and strategic role in the economic success of US organisations (Marquardt, 1999, Tannenbaum and Yukl, 1992). US organisations recognise that they now operate in a new global economy, an economy which involves the use of advanced technologies and increased responsiveness to customers' needs. It is becoming one that requires greater and greater innovation and flexibility in production, service delivery and market know-how. American firms realise more than ever that employee knowledge gained through training and development has become a strategic necessity and more and more the source of strategic advantage (Drucker, 1994). [source] The Antecedents of Middle Managers' Strategic Contribution: The Case of a Professional BureaucracyJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 7 2005Graeme Currie abstract Our study contributes towards a burgeoning literature that argues organizational performance is heavily influenced by what happens in the middle of the organization, rather than at the top. Examining the UK National Health Service, our study develops the work of Floyd and Wooldridge (1992, 1994, 1997, 2000). It utilizes role theory to conceptualize changing experiences of middle managers in organizations as a role transition. Associated with this are problems of role conflict and role ambiguity (Biddle, 1979, 1986; Biddle and Thomas, 1966; Kahn et al., 1964, 1966). Our study illustrates that there are limiting factors to a more strategic role for middle managers associated with the professional bureaucracy context. However, role conflict and ambiguity can be mediated by a socialization process, which values incoming identity and personal characteristics (Van Maanen and Schein, 1979). [source] Reluctant but resourceful middle managers: the case of nurses in the NHSJOURNAL OF NURSING MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2006BSc (Hons), GRAEME CURRIE PhD This study counters the widely held view that middle managers have little to contribute to strategic change in health care organizations. In particular, it argues that middle managers with a nursing background that manage clinical activity should be involved in strategic change beyond mere implementation of decisions made by executive management. Constraints upon this are noted , the power of doctors and central government intervention , that means middle managers enact a semiautonomous strategic role. Antecedents for the semiautonomous role are investment in organization and management development, developing lateral organizational structures that allow middle managers to make a contribution to the development, as well as the implementation of strategy and allowing middle managers to interact with other stakeholders outside the confines of the organization. [source] Strategic inventory in capacitated supply chain procurementMANAGERIAL AND DECISION ECONOMICS, Issue 1 2008nar Keskinocak We study the strategic role of inventory in a sequential two-period procurement setting, where the supplier's capacity in the first period is limited and the retailer has the option to hold inventory. We compare the equilibrium under a dynamic contract, where the decisions are made at the beginning of each period, and a commitment contract, where the decisions for both periods are made at the beginning of the first period. We show that there is a critical capacity level below which the outcomes under both types of contracts are identical. When the first period capacity is above the critical level, the retailer holds inventory in equilibrium and the inventory is carried due to purely strategic reasons; as capacity increases, so does the strategic role of inventory. The supplier always prefers lower capacity than the retailer, and the difference between supplier-optimal and supply-chain optimal capacities, and the corresponding profits, can be significant. Finally, we find that the retailer's flexibility to hold inventory is not always good for the participants or for the channel. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Childhood depression: Rethinking the role of the schoolPSYCHOLOGY IN THE SCHOOLS, Issue 5 2009Keith C. Herman Schools play a privileged and strategic role in the lives of children acting as their principle environment away from home. Additionally, schools act as part of the community linking families and neighborhoods. These characteristics make schools a relevant setting for mental health service delivery and support to children and parents. In this article the role of the school environment on the development of childhood depression and as a leverage point in the prevention and treatment of depression will be discussed. Rationales for this viewpoint, as well as practical suggestions for reducing the deleterious effects of schooling on children's emotional well-being, are offered. © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Out of this World: The Advent of the Satellite Tracking of Offenders in England and Wales,THE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 2 2005Mike Nellis Satellite tracking, and the monitoring of exclusion zones which it permits, had been legislated for in the Criminal Justice and Court Services Act 2000, but the Home Office waited until putatively reliable technology , more reliable than that initially used for tracking in the USA , was available before commencing the pilots. Its arrival was formally announced in the context of a major review of ,correctional services', in which electronic monitoring generally is given a clearer strategic role than it has had hitherto in England and Wales. Although snippets of information about satellite tracking were drip fed into the media in the run up to the launch of the pilots, this has been a most under-deliberated initiative. This article was completed just before the commencement of the pilots and aims primarily to open up debate about this new measure. It also argues that the emergence of satellite tracking , monitoring movement rather than just single locations , sheds light on the development of electronic monitoring more generally, whose implications for more humanistic approaches to offender supervision, such as probation, are still not fully appreciated. [source] What about Design Newness?THE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 6 2009Investigating the Relevance of a Neglected Dimension of Product Innovativeness In several industries, new products are very similar in functional features but compete on their unique design. Firms like Alessi, Apple, Bang & Olufsen, Dyson, or Kartell all follow a design-driven innovation approach and use their products' visual appearance as the main mean for differentiation. In spite of this, design newness is never discussed among the dimensions of product innovativeness. Instead, conceptualizations of product innovativeness mostly focus on a product's technical newness or the changes it implies for the innovating firm or for the market it enters. This paper seeks to build an argument for why design newness should be considered as a dimension of product innovativeness. In addition to providing conceptual rationale, empirical evidence is offered on the influence of design newness on sales performance across a product's life cycle. To be able to put the findings into perspective, the performance effects of design newness are compared with those of technical newness. As several products exemplify that design newness and technical newness can go hand in hand, not only direct performance effects but also interaction effects between both newness dimensions are investigated. The arguments are tested on a sample of 157 new cars launched between 1978 and 2006 in Germany. The automobile industry is selected because of the strategic role of both technical and design aspects in product innovation. Putting a focus on this industry also has the advantage that historical information on car specifics and objective sales data over time are accessible. The results emphasize that both design and technical newness are important drivers of car sales. However, the effects differ widely across the product life cycle. While design newness has a positive impact right after the introduction and persists in strength over time, technical newness drives sales with a lagged effect and decreases toward the end of the life cycle. The test of a combined influence of design newness and technical newness on sales performance produces no significant results. These results open interesting avenues for future research on product innovativeness in general and design newness in particular. For management practice, the findings emphasize the importance of overall product innovativeness, clarify the different performance effects of design and technical newness across the product life cycle, and show the value of creating a unique visual product appearance to positively trigger product diffusion. [source] Innovative versus incremental new business services: Different keys for achieving successTHE JOURNAL OF PRODUCT INNOVATION MANAGEMENT, Issue 3 2001Ulrike de Brentani In companies where new product development plays an important strategic role, managers necessarily contend with a portfolio of projects that range from high technology, new-to-the-world, innovations to relatively simple improvements, adaptations, line extensions, or imitations of competitive offerings. Recent studies indicate that achieving successful outcomes for projects that differ radically in terms of innovativeness requires that firms adjust their NPD practices in line with the type of new product project they are developing. Based on a large-scale survey of managers knowledgeable about new product development in their firm, this study focuses on new business-to-business service projects in an attempt to gain insights about the influence of product innovativeness on the factors that are linked to new service success and failure. The research results indicate that there are a small number of "global" success factors which appear to govern the outcome of new service ventures, regardless of their degree of newness. These include: ensuring an excellent customer/need fit, involving expert front line personnel in creating the new service and in helping customers appreciate its distinctiveness and benefits, and implementing a formal and planned launch program for the new service offering. Several other factors, however, were found to play a more distinctive role in the outcome of new service ventures, depending on how really new or innovative the new service was. For low innovativeness new business services, the results suggest that managers can enhance performance by: leveraging the firm's unique competencies, experiences and reputation through the introduction of new services that have a strong corporate fit; installing a formal "stage-gate" new service development system, particularly at the front-end and during the design stage of the development process; and ensuring that efforts to differentiate services from competitive or past offerings do not lead to high cost or unnecessarily complex service offerings. For new-to-the-world business services, the primary distinguishing feature impacting performance is the corporate culture of the firm: one that encourages entrepreneurship and creativity, and that actively involves senior managers in the role of visionary and mentor for new service development. In addition, good market potential and marketing tactics that offset the intangibility of "really new" service concepts appear to have a positive performance effect. [source] Cities and the Geographies of "Actually Existing Neoliberalism"ANTIPODE, Issue 3 2002Neil Brenner This essay elaborates a critical geographical perspective on neoliberalism that emphasizes (a) the path,dependent character of neoliberal reform projects and (b) the strategic role of cities in the contemporary remaking of political,economic space. We begin by presenting the methodological foundations for an approach to the geographies of what we term "actually existing neoliberalism." In contrast to neoliberal ideology, in which market forces are assumed to operate according to immutable laws no matter where they are "unleashed," we emphasize the contextual embeddedness of neoliberal restructuring projects insofar as they have been produced within national, regional, and local contexts defined by the legacies of inherited institutional frameworks, policy regimes, regulatory practices, and political struggles. An adequate understanding of actually existing neoliberalism must therefore explore the path,dependent, contextually specific interactions between inherited regulatory landscapes and emergent neoliberal, market,oriented restructuring projects at a broad range of geographical scales. These considerations lead to a conceptualization of contemporary neoliberalization processes as catalysts and expressions of an ongoing creative destruction of political,economic space at multiple geographical scales. While the neoliberal restructuring projects of the last two decades have not established a coherent basis for sustainable capitalist growth, it can be argued that they have nonetheless profoundly reworked the institutional infrastructures upon which Fordist,Keynesian capitalism was grounded. The concept of creative destruction is presented as a useful means for describing the geographically uneven, socially regressive, and politically volatile trajectories of institutional/spatial change that have been crystallizing under these conditions. The essay concludes by discussing the role of urban spaces within the contradictory and chronically unstable geographies of actually existing neoliberalism. Throughout the advanced capitalist world, we suggest, cities have become strategically crucial geographical arenas in which a variety of neoliberal initiatives,along with closely intertwined strategies of crisis displacement and crisis management,have been articulated. [source] A multiscale approach for reconstructing archaeological landscapes: Applications in Northern Apulia (Italy)ARCHAEOLOGICAL PROSPECTION, Issue 3 2009Marcello Ciminale Abstract This paper is focused on the joint use of multiscale remote sensing technologies for supporting archaeological prospection. Satellite imagery, aerial photographs and high-resolution magnetic surveys were adopted for studying the Tavoliere, an extended agricultural region located in Northern Apulia (Italy) that is characterized by an abundant presence of archaeological sites. A first recognition of the archaeological features was performed by historical aerial photographs and satellite QuickBird images were used to obtain an up-to-date synoptic view of the study area. Archaeological features extracted from both aerial and satellite images, were further investigated by high-resolution magnetic survey, which provided detailed identification of buried remains. All data were stored in a GIS in order to integrate them properly. This database was used to cross-check information of different types and determine significant correlations. The multilayer analysis in the GIS environment allowed for a comprehensive reconstruction of ancient landscapes and their palaeoenvironmental context, as well as the present geomorphological and territorial setting. Moreover it represents an open information system that could always be upgraded by inputting new data from future studies. Results from our analyses suggest that this multidisciplinary and multiscale approach, in addition to its important scientific implications, could yield meaningful information for the preservation, monitoring and management of the cultural resource, from a single site to a landscape perspective; thus this integrated tool could play a strategic role in defining proper policies of sustainable development in this region. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Hollowing out or filling in?BRITISH JOURNAL OF POLITICS & INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2000Taskforces, the management of cross-cutting issues in British government This article considers the problem posed by the need to build policy coherence across the levels of government but with a focus on the strategic role of the centre in the hollow state. It considers the Social Exclusion Unit (SEU) as an example of a structure, the taskforce, designed to meet the demands of coherence-building. It concludes that, far from the centre being hollowed out, resulting in a permanent loss of capacity, there is a growing emphasis in the core executive on strategic co-ordination and the emergence of institutions such as the SEU indicate a counter-tendency to hollowing out: filling in. [source] Green light for greener supplyBUSINESS ETHICS: A EUROPEAN REVIEW, Issue 4 2002Lutz Preuss The supply chain management function is currently undergoing a dramatic change: it is adopting an increasingly strategic role. However, this growing financial importance is matched in only a handful of exemplary companies by a greater contribution to environmental protection initiatives in the supply chain. This paper explores some of the obstacles to greater supply chain management involvement in environmental protection and offers suggestions for greener supply. At a personal level, the gap between public opinion on the environment and managerial values needs to be closed, and the support offered by management education and by professional bodies needs to be improved. Within the organisation, the reward structure for supply chain managers needs to move away from narrow economic criteria. Greener supply would also benefit from a larger supply chain management role in corporate strategy making; the function could even be offered a seat on the Board of Management. Changes to the mode of supply chain management, including improvements to the information flow on environmental issues, the decision,making tools used in the face of complex environmental challenges and novel approaches to supply chain management need to receive urgent attention. [source] Strategic inter-organizational environmentalism in the US: A multi-sectoral perspective of alternating eco-policy roles,BUSINESS STRATEGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, Issue 4 2002Mark Starik During the last several decades, numerous policies and programs intended to advance environmental goals have been formulated in the US by governmental bodies and implemented by businesses and nongovernmental organizations. This article forwards a multi-sectoral perspective that business and nonprofit organizations have also been significantly involved in environmental policy and program formulation, as well as implementation, and that governments have also fulfilled the latter strategic role in US environmental policy. In this article, nine US environmental initiatives are described and categorized according to which of the three sectors' organizations were significant formulators of the programs and which were significant implementors. Implications for future research include investigation of other environmental dyadic program combinations in addition to those presented, extension of the present analysis beyond dyads into environmental policy networks, inclusion of the strategic environmental program evaluation stage to complement formulation and implementation and exploration of effectiveness variables in cross-sectoral, inter-organizational collaborations. Implications for educators and practitioners are also presented. Copyright © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. and ERP Environment. [source] Role Expectations and Middle Manager Strategic AgencyJOURNAL OF MANAGEMENT STUDIES, Issue 2 2008Saku Mantere abstract Based on an analysis of 262 interviews, I argue that role expectations have the potential to both enable and constrain middle manager strategic agency. To explain why the same role expectations have contradictory effects on agency, I analyse enabling conditions corresponding to four strategic role expectations, based on Floyd and Wooldridge's work on middle manager roles. After presenting eight enabling conditions for strategic agency, specific to the four role expectations, I argue that the dominant functionalist view of strategic roles should be augmented from a middle manager viewpoint. I suggest a reciprocal view of strategic role expectations, which elucidates the tensions between dialogue, legitimacy and rationality within a set of strategic roles. [source] Effects of Administrators' Aspirations, Political Principals' Priorities, and Interest Groups' Influence on State Agency Budget RequestsPUBLIC BUDGETING AND FINANCE, Issue 2 2007JAY EUNGHA RYU This article addresses a long-standing question in public budgeting: What factors influence bureau/agency budget request decisions? Empirical results confirm the complexity of variables that explain different levels of budget requests by over 1,000 state administrative agencies. The expected significant influence of administrator (agency head) aspirations was clearly present. But other important sources enter into the decision of agencies to satisfy rather than maximize. These include the strategic roles, activities, and priorities of governors, legislatures, and interest groups. These political principals' influence operates to constrain, discipline, or even augment agency budget requests. [source] Paying the piper: choice and constraint in changing HR functional rolesHUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT JOURNAL, Issue 2 2002Catherine Truss HR directors are often exhorted to play a more ,strategic' role in their organisations. However, it is not necessarily clear what is meant by this, or whether it is possible for departments to change their role at a whim. In this article we examine the changing role of the HR function within two contrasting organisations , an NHS trust and a bank , over a period of seven years. Drawing on role-set theory and concepts of negotiated order, we illustrate how HR functional roles are located within a complex and dynamic social setting, and present a model that seeks to map these interrelationships. [source] | |||||||||||||||||||