The antecedents of direct management communication to employees in Mauritius

We measure whether, in a developing country, existence of a ‘hard’ strategic human resource management (SHRM) strategy developed at high organizational levels or one designed to enhance employee knowledge inputs and thereby promote employer–employee interdependence (EEIN) is a stronger antecedent of direct communication to employees. We use data from a comprehensive survey of HR practices in Mauritius, one of Africa’s most open and successful economies. We find that both SHRM and EEIN are antecedents, but that the latter is stronger in public organizations and in smaller and older companies. We conclude that EEIN is a significant analytic category for explaining management practices especially in a historic sense in this and possibly other developing country contexts

Using MACBETH with the choquet integral fundamentals to model interdependencies between elementary concerns in the context of risk management

Effective risk management typically requires the evaluation of multiple consequences of different sources of risk, and multicriteria value models have been used for that purpose. The value of mitigating a risk impact is often considered by risk managers as dependent on the levels of other impacts, therefore there is a need for procedures to identify and model these interactions within a value measurement framework. The Choquet Integral (CI) has been used for this purpose, and several studies in the performance measurement literature have combined the 2-additive CI operator with the MACBETH approach to model interdependencies in real contexts. In this paper, we propose an alternative procedure to model interdependencies and determine the CI parameters from one single MACBETH global matrix. The procedure is illustrated with the construction of a descriptor of impacts to evaluate the risk impacts at ALSTOM Power. The paper further explains the questioning protocol to apply the proposed procedure, as well as how decision-makers can interpret the CI parameters

The antecedents of direct management communication to employees in Mauritius

We measure whether, in a developing country, existence of a ‘hard’ strategic human resource management (SHRM) strategy developed at high organizational levels or one designed to enhance employee knowledge inputs and thereby promote employer–employee interdependence (EEIN) is a stronger antecedent of direct communication to employees. We use data from a comprehensive survey of HR practices in Mauritius, one of Africa’s most open and successful economies. We find that both SHRM and EEIN are antecedents, but that the latter is stronger in public organizations and in smaller and older companies. We conclude that EEIN is a significant analytic category for explaining management practices especially in a historic sense in this and possibly other developing country contexts

Managing Environmental, Health, and Safety Risks: A Comparative Assessment of the Minerals Management Service and Other Agencies

This study compares and contrasts regulatory and related practices—in particular, regulatory decisionmaking, risk assessment and planning processes, inspection and compliance, and organization structure, budgets, and training—of the Minerals Management Service (MMS, now the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation, and Enforcement, or BOEMRE) with those of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Comparing MMS practices with those of other federal agencies that also manage low-probability but high-consequence environmental risks provides a basis for identifying opportunities for enhancing regulatory capacity and safety performance in managing deepwater energy exploration and production. Our research finds important differences in processes for setting standards; peer review contribution to the rulemaking process; establishment of tolerable risk thresholds; and training of key staff. The paper concludes with several recommendations for how various EPA and FAA practices might be modified and used at BOEMRE to strengthen its regulatory and risk management processes.Minerals Management Service, Federal Aviation Administration, Environmental Protection Agency, risk management

Challenges and resilience: managers' perceptions of firm performance following M&As

We study M&As, resilience and performance, identifying links between managers’ perceptions of performance and resilience, using trans-national organisational-level survey evidence (N=3613) and follow up semi-structured in-depth interviews with managers involved in M&As and demerger. Drawing on the resilience and M&A literature, we identify reasons why employees in acquired firms may be less resilient in coping with the resultant changes than those of the acquirer and why this will negatively impact perceptions of performance. We explore the causes and consequences of variations in resilience and performance within firms that acquire others, and in those that have been demerged. As anticipated, we find that although managers in acquired firms tended to report worse performance than those in acquiring firms, both tended to be more positive than firms that had not taken part in an M&A at all. We draw out implications for theory and practice

Transnational economic governance

What role do contract enforcement institutions provided by the state play for economic development? This question has often been addressed. However, empirical research in this field looks predominantly at transactions that are conducted domestically. Less research exists regarding the enforceability of contracts in cross-border transactions. In other words, research that addresses the institutional foundations of international exchange processes is still in its infancy. The following case study investigates the contract enforcement institutions that enable German customers to purchase software in Asian and East European Countries. This paper`s main argument is that nation states are not capable of providing a workable legal infrastructure for cross-border transactions. Instead, economic actors create their own informal mechanisms in order to enforce their contracts. Particularly important are relational contracts and reputational networks. Furthermore, the empirical evidence shows that German enterprises comprehensively use the opportunities offered by new developments in information and communication technology, when it comes to the initiation and control of their foreign business relations. Due to such technical innovation, it therefore seems that both reputational networks and relational contracts gain more and more efficiency compared to state private law. --

Assessment of project portfolio management on public research institutions: a case applied to agricultural research in Brazil.

Portfolio management can be a major tool for selecting projects where scarce public resources will be invested with the best returns for society. This study aimed to propose a model for diagnostic of project portfolio management (PPM) on public research institutions and to apply it over a case study. The methodology used was literature review and a single case study applied to Embrapa Beef Cattle, a Research Center of the Brazilian Agricultural Research Corporation (EMBRAPA). Conclusion is that the model can be used for the diagnostic of PPM on public research institutions. The importance given to strategic orientation by the studied research center became evident throughout the work. This need to integrate project portfolio with institutional strategy influences the three dimensions of the model. From the results obtained it becomes evident that putting into practice an effective strategic planning for public research institutions is paramount for project portfolio success. The tool can be enhanced through incorporation of new criteria and dimensions, serving as a starting point for further work focused on public management

Quantifying and Explaining Machine Learning Uncertainty in Predictive Process Monitoring: An Operations Research Perspective

This paper introduces a comprehensive, multi-stage machine learning methodology that effectively integrates information systems and artificial intelligence to enhance decision-making processes within the domain of operations research. The proposed framework adeptly addresses common limitations of existing solutions, such as the neglect of data-driven estimation for vital production parameters, exclusive generation of point forecasts without considering model uncertainty, and lacking explanations regarding the sources of such uncertainty. Our approach employs Quantile Regression Forests for generating interval predictions, alongside both local and global variants of SHapley Additive Explanations for the examined predictive process monitoring problem. The practical applicability of the proposed methodology is substantiated through a real-world production planning case study, emphasizing the potential of prescriptive analytics in refining decision-making procedures. This paper accentuates the imperative of addressing these challenges to fully harness the extensive and rich data resources accessible for well-informed decision-making

Explicit and implicit structuring of genres : electronic communication in a Japanese R&D organization

Includes bibliographical references (p. 30-31).Research supported by the Center for Coordination Science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.by JoAnne Yates, Wanda J. Orlikowski, Kazuo Okamura