Consulting project - Recidar

En cuanto al proyecto de consultoría que se ha llevado a cabo para Recidar, encierra un enfoque innovador para garantizar un futuro viable a su compromiso social de abogar por procesos de economía circular en Lima. La iniciativa recomendada se construye a través de la colaboración con diferentes actores clave que permitirán optimizar el alcance y la profundidad de la nueva Recidar. La asociación con actores locales clave es la clave para que Recidar desarrolle una mejor vía para su visión a largo plazo. Dado que Recidar está actualmente atascada con el alto nivel de actividad que se le exige a diario, el trabajo externo propuesto le dará una nueva visión para construir adecuadamente su negocio de modo que pueda resistir a las importantes fluctuaciones del entorno externo en el que opera.The following consultancy project analyzes the status of Recidar's strategic plan and recommends a greater emphasis on a long-term vision. The preliminary work has been based on the search for relevant academic articles covering the different dimensions of the circular economy. In addition, the literature review covers the different management practices that a social enterprise should foster to ensure a viable long-term vision for its operations. To successfully develop a comprehensive recommendation, an industry analysis (Porter's 5 forces), external analysis (PESTEL), internal analysis (AMOFHIT) and a detailed analysis of the problem at hand have been carried out. In terms of concrete recommendations, it highlights collaboration with universities, an engagement with a professional with inside knowledge of Gamarra, initiatives within the Gamarra ecosystem and the development of an e-commerce platform. These initiatives aim to improve brand recognition, promote a circular economy, create diverse revenue streams, and most importantly, respond to Recidar's request to build a long-term strategy for the future of its social mission

A framework for the implementation and practice of professional bodies

Professional bodies represent practitioners who continually seek guidance on industry related problems and challenges. Each professional body adopts values that are aligned to their own field of expertise. The operations of professional bodies are generally similar in many aspects and demands efficacy in order to maintain credibility and relevance. Research has revealed that professional bodies are lacking in efficacy and need to improve so that maximum benefit can be relished by practitioners. This research attempts to develop a framework that can be utilised as a guide by professional bodies so that they can achieve excellence. The aim of the study was to develop a framework that can be used for the formation, practice and management of professional bodies by exploring the views and opinions of a total of 1119 participants from management and members of professional bodies locally. The data was collected from interviews, a focus group discussion and two separate questionnaires, one for professional bodies and the other for practitioners. The data was analysed statistically primarily using factor analysis to determine the significant factors that contributed to the developed framework for professional bodies. The questionnaires espoused questions related to the demographics of the respondents, management, mandate of professional bodies, offerings and benefits, assurance mechanisms, role of members, needs of members and more. The research instrument used the seven point Likert scale for the respondents to rate each question. The questionnaires were posted online for the respondents to participate. The research significant factors for professional bodies and practitioners emanated separately through factor analysis. The factors were then combined resulting in a total of 14 research overall factors that were used to develop a framework for professional bodies. The beneficiaries of this study are primarily professional bodies, practitioners and also SAQA. The framework will also be useful to management in industry since it addresses partnership and collaboration efforts between industry, professional bodies and academia.Business ManagementD.B.L

The Impact Of Safety On Fleet Acquisition And Management In U.S Commercial Airlines

The topic of aircraft safety is pervasive in many domains of the airline industry and it influences all types of air transportation operations. Aircraft acquisition and fleet planning are key functions in a commercial airline to ensure the achievement of the airline’s operational goals such as matching capacity with demand. With fluctuations in passenger demand, it is vital to strategically plan an airline’s fleet to best accommodate these changes and to safely do so. Existent literature suggests that aircraft safety is factored into passenger decision to choose an airline which then impacts the economics of an airline. The purpose of this study is to explore the impact of safety on fleet acquisition and management processes in commercial airlines in the U.S. The findings suggest that safety plays a major role in the aircraft acquisition and fleet management activities in commercial airlines and generates contributory variables that influence and are influenced by safety events in relation to an aircraft type. The results from this study serves as a conceptual framework for commercial airlines to better gauge the crucial elements that drive fleet planning decisions and to effectively execute strategic fleet management decisions

Organizations driving positive social change:a review and an integrative framework of change processes

Academic and practitioner interest in how market-based organizations can drive positive social change (PSC) is steadily growing. This paper helps to recast how organizations relate to society. It integrates research on projects stimulating PSC – the transformational processes to advance societal well-being – which is fragmented across different streams of research in management and related disciplines. Focusing on the mechanisms at play in how organizations and their projects affect change in targets outside of organizational boundaries, we 1) clarify the nature of PSC as a process, 2) develop an integrative framework that specifies two distinct PSC strategies, 3) take stock of and offer a categorization scheme for change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices, and 4) outline opportunities for future research. Our conceptual framework differentiates between surface- and deep-level PSC strategies understood as distinct combinations of change mechanisms and enabling organizational practices. These strategies differ in the nature and speed of transformation experienced by the targets of change projects and the resulting quality (pervasiveness and durability), timing, and reach of social impact. Our findings provide a solid base for integrating and advancing knowledge across the largely disparate streams of management research on Corporate Social Responsibility, Social Entrepreneurship, and Base of the Pyramid, and open up important new avenues for future research on organizing for PSC and on unpacking PSC processes

Issues in NASA program and project management

This new collection of papers on aerospace management issues contains a history of NASA program and project management, some lessons learned in the areas of management and budget from the Space Shuttle Program, an analysis of tools needed to keep large multilayer programs organized and on track, and an update of resources for NASA managers. A wide variety of opinions and techniques are presented

The safety and sustainability of mining at diverse scales: Placing health and safety at the core of responsibility

Mining plays a major role in meeting global resource demands with Europe hosting extensive mineral potential. However, few of these prospects are feasible for conventional exploitation due to their small size & ore grade, proximity to dense populations and tenement constraints. Hence, a significant paradigm shift towards switch-on, switch off small-scale mining (SOSO SSM) is needed in order to increase the viability of small, complex, high-grade deposits. The IMP@CT project developed mobile, modularised solutions to facilitate rapid deployment and in-situ extraction & processing, which necessitates the translation and extension of best practice safety and sustainability from established national regulations and industry standards. Despite decades of accumulated safety regulation, knowledge and experience, workplace errors and violations still lead to fatal accidents, particularly if immature safety attitudes and behaviours pervade an organisation. The presence of a mature safety culture is vital for mitigating the occurrence of injuries and fatalities, through a collective commitment to safety improvement. This study has aimed to consolidate safety and sustainability best practice that is tailored to SSM by identifying the critical safety considerations and applying safety culture maturity principles to the specific challenges associated with a semi-automated SOSO SSM system. Criteria-driven maturity modelling, informed by existing responsible mining initiatives and safety and socio-environmental culture perspectives from site personnel at all hierarchical levels, is developed to assess the environmental and social factors associated with small- to medium-scale regulated mining. The role of agile management for rapid adaptation and continuous improvement of safety and sustainability performance in SOSO SSM is discussed. This research has demonstrated that for SOSO SSM to effectively integrate a mature safety and socio-environmental culture within a flexible, containerised mining paradigm, managerial and technical agility, and human initiative must be encouraged to continuously drive progress in occupational health and safety and generate wider societal benefit

How and why do large private developers engage in green building practice? The case of Bangkok, Thailand

Sustainable building design and construction are increasingly adopted as a means to alleviate growing environmental concerns with particular emphasis on green building practice. However, despite the growing awareness, integration of green building practice in developing cities such as those in Southeast Asia remains slow. Barriers to green building practice tend to be conceived as pragmatic in nature; cost premiums, lack of expertise, technology, government incentives, and market demands have been identified as key constraints. While these factors may be significantly relevant through the lens of neoclassical economics, this study suggests that solely addressing pragmatic concerns may be a limited approach to understanding developer behaviour and an oversimplification of the factors involved therein. Developers are organisations; entities composed of groups and individuals with unique characteristics, values, and belief systems. Thus, it stands to reason that there may be other organisational and psychological constructs involved in shaping behaviour and organisational decisions. The aim of this research is twofold. First, it seeks to readdress the understanding of factors and mechanisms behind property developer behaviour and decisions to adopt green building practice; whereby a theoretical framework that draws on organisational behaviour theory is proposed. Second, with regard to the proposed framework and looking into the case study of Bangkok, Thailand where private developers are dominant, it investigates ‘how’ and ‘why’ large private developers engage in green building practice focusing on the softer psychological factors rooted in organisational culture and individual perceptions of top managers. Through a qualitative approach, the study explores the behaviour of 44 publicly listed property developers operating in Bangkok and their responses to green building practice through document analysis and semi-structured interviews. Findings show that green building practice in Bangkok is implemented through a top-down approach with significant drive from top managers. Notions of responsibility, leadership, and experience are discussed as psychological and organisational constructs that distinguish developers with green buildings from those without. The study concludes with implications for future research and policy, including reflections on the privatisation of property developers and the need to address sustainability through formal and informal institutions

The gold rush for business excellence awards

This thesis was submitted for the award of Doctor of Philosophy and was awarded by Brunel University LondonThere has been a proliferation of Business excellence awards (BEAs) in recent times, and the number of businesses entering and winning such awards is on the increase. Embedded in contemporary organising, business excellence awards have evolved to become a useful means to improving recognition in the marketplace, which in turn could facilitate the growth of a firm's customer base and drive it to achieve sustainable competitive advantage over their market rivals. In spite of its current relevance in contemporary organising, scholarly work examining this phenomenon remains scattered with the dominant narrative focusing on the intensive, even obsession with award entry preparation. This study examines how firms compete with each other for BEAs, and how they utilise them as symbolic tokens to achieve competitiveness. Drawing on the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens, the study explores how the material, meaning, and competence elements of BEAs, in context, interact and combine to give form and shape to BEAs as a practice in contemporary organizing. Adopting an explorative qualitative research design, the research contribution is developed in the context of a UK regional and national BEAs. Data for the inquiry comes from forty-five (45) semi-structured interviews with managers and owners of firms who won or were nominated for an award at one of the BEAs studied. This was supplemented with publicly available data on the BEAs, and the websites and social media pages of the firms studied. The study presents three main findings. First, emphasising the actions and situated practices that cohere to drive the competition for BEAs, the study identifies the internal and external influences that fuel firms desire to compete for these BEAs, suggesting that the significance of BEAs in achieving market competitiveness and other important organisational outcomes makes it an imperative ritual which firms cannot afford to ignore or boycott. Second, shedding light on why firms are keen on competing for BEAs, even if they cannot justify the value in terms of their balance sheets, the thesis unpacks the motivations and mentalities driving firms to compete for BEAs year in year out. Lastly, offering insight into why firms prioritise a particular BEA or award category, the thesis delineates the choices firms make when it comes to BEAs and identifies the potential value firms frequently capture from BEAs. The contribution of this study is also three-fold. First, the study in adopting the practice turn in contemporary social theory as a lens provides an alternative interpretation of how firms in their everyday organizing come to make sense of BEAs, and how the practice of BEAs in itself has evolved over time to shape the creation and capture of value for competitiveness. Second, it extends our understanding as to why many firms are keen to expend significant amount of their time and limited resources into preparing, entering, and competing for BEAs. Finally, in studying and theorising BEAs in the form of strategizing, the thesis extends our understanding of how firms could potentially turn their business excellence award fortunes into market competitiveness.Government of Ghana through the Ghana Scholarship Secretaria

Proceedings of the BEST EN Think Tank XVII: innovation and progress in sustainable tourism

BEST EN is an international consortium of educators committed to the development and dissemination of knowledge in the field of sustainable tourism. The organization's annual Think Tank brings together academics and industry representatives from around the world to discuss a particular theme related to sustainable tourism in order to move research and education in this specific field forward. We are pleased to present the proceedings of the BEST Education Network (BESTEN) Think Tank XVII entitled Innovation and Progress in Sustainable Tourism. The event was held in Mauritius, June 14-17, 2017, in conjunction with the International Center for Sustainable Tourism and Hospitality, University of Mauritius. The term 'sustainable tourism' emerged in the early 1980s building on earlier concerns about the negative impacts of tourism and linking tourism to the wider sustainability movement. Despite 30 years of discussion of tourism and sustainability in academic and government documents, recent reviews suggest that there is considerable room for improvement in the practice of sustainable tourism. The proceedings present work by academics and practitioners worldwide, conducted on various aspects of innovation and progress in sustainable tourism. They include abstracts and papers accepted by the scientific committee following a double blind peer review process. Twenty-eight research papers were presented at the conference. Presentations were held within the following themed sessions: • Assessing Progress, Contributions & Teaching and Learning • Innovation – Sustainable, Experiential, Product and Marketing • Tourism Impacts, Sustainable Tourism Education, Interpretation • Theoretical and Methodological Approaches for Researching Sustainable Tourism The contributions were thematically selected for each group and are arranged in order of presentation in the proceedings. The full proceedings as well as the PowerPoint presentations are available on the BEST EN website www.besteducationnetwork.org/ The Editor and the BEST EN Executive Committee anticipate that readers of this volume will find the papers informative, thought provoking and of value to their research

The applicability of lean six sigma in developing economies:exploratory research on manufacturing environments

Substantial literature has established the role of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) as a successful methodology for continuous improvement. Particularly in manufacturing environments, the synergetic approach between the individual techniques of Lean Production and Six Sigma has created an avenue for change in implementing organizations. However there exists a gap, as studies and implementation cases on the LSS subject are predominantly drawn from developed environments. Working culture and regional norms can affect the application of these techniques.This research adopts a multiple case study approach to assess the applicability of the LSS initiative, providing a comparative overview of cases in manufacturing environments of developing and developed countries. Using Nigeria as the main unit of analysis for developing countries, athree-stage data collection process was employed for the realisation of the overall aim of developing an implementation framework suitable for organizations in this clime.As the adopted research approach allows the researcher to be embedded in the implementation process of the case organizations, the need for a holistic approach for learning organizations’ implementation of LSS cannot be overemphasized. The findings of the study uncovered the role of the documented Critical Success Factors (CSFs) for LSS implementation and their effect on failing organizational implementation of LSS. This study is among the very few that examines the interaction of the CSFs as they affect the overall implementation of the initiative, particularly for organizations in developing countries.Based on the findings from the literature and the multiple-staged research process, this doctoral research presents an implementation framework for Lean Six Sigma, which provides a three phase approach to the applicability of the initiative. The framework takes into cognizance the needs of learning organizations and provides a structured and practical approach to implementation, based on the identified CSFs. A Delphi study, employing expert views, was used to validate the proposed implementation framework