Positioning the Destination Product-Can Regional Tourist Boards Learn from Private Sector Practice?

This article examines the role of positioning in the marketing of a tourism destination. The study focuses on the current positioning strategies pursued by the Regional Tourist Boards (RTBs) in England. A recent nationwide consumer research study into short holiday destination choice in the UK revealed that consumers were confused by the regional product message. The evidence suggests that current RTB positioning strategies are failing to keep pace with the constantly evolving needs of the consumer. This article explores the reasons for clearly positioning the destination product and suggests that, although RTBs could learn from marketing strategies employed in other sectors of the tourism industry, there are likely to be organisational and cultural barriers inhibiting this learning curve

There is a link between work life balance culture and strategic competitive advantage

This paper suggests a linkage between work-life balance culture and competitive advantage through commitment and firm-specific human resources. The paper argues that a workplace culture supportive of employees balancing their work and non-work lives leads to their commitment to their organisation being higher. Higher commitment leads to a greater willingness to invest in the development of firm specific resources – such as developing certain intra-organisational competencies or idiosyncratic technical competencies. This greater level of firm specific resources then enables the firm to have a stronger competitive advantage. The paper argues theoretically for these relationships, reviewing the relevant empirical and theoretical literature and concludes with suggestions for practice and future research

Struggling to 'fit in': On belonging and the ethics of sharing in project teams

This paper explores the links between belonging and ethics, which remain largely underdeveloped in project studies and are overlooked in everyday practice of managing projects. It focuses on belonging as the process articulating identity-construction of an inter-organisational project team from a global management consulting firm that was working in IS design. As the team?s experienced ?sense of place?, belonging becomes the space which highlights preferred affiliations and exposes how ? individually and collectively ? ethics are played out in the context of the management of projects. Four in situ belonging-narratives (of opposition, pragmatism, reflexivity, and the habitual narrative) represent ethics as part of lived action and of a life-world that emerge from deconstructing and reconstructing ?the team? and an ideal worker in projects. The team?s struggles to ?fit in? were experienced both when resisting and when collaborating with the dominant collective narrative of belonging. Modes of belonging are constituted in the relationship between self, others, and ?otherness?, creating a situated ethical imagination of how to ?be professional?. Implications concern the politics of belonging and call for a renewed practical ethics that engages with the social nature of ?being?, to change the current view of professional identities in projects

Strategic application of events

This paper explores the area of strategy and events through a qualitative study. Organisations are increasingly seeking to achieve strategic objectives though the delivery of events. Particularly, as regards the role of events in the communication of brand strategy. This paper seeks to illuminate the underpinning reasoning for this trend, and examine prevalent issues relating to event management and event experience. There is a critical evaluation of the factors that facilitate and constrain events in supporting organisational strategy, with a number of themes identified that impede events from realising their strategic potential

Corporate real estate asset management : aligned vision

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to evaluate the relationship between corporate strategy and corporate real estate (CRE) strategy. Design/methodology/approach – The paper will identify, and evaluate, a number of components that collectively form the CRE strategy. Linkages between the business environment, the aims and objectives of the organisation and the real estate solution will be explored. Findings – The paper will illustrate the alignment of the CRE strategy to the corporate strategy through the development of a CRE alignment model. The model will demonstrate that only when optimum alignment is achieved can the CRE strategy deliver added value and enhanced organisational performance. Practical implications – CRE managers can use the model to evaluate the alignment of their CRE strategy with their corporate strategy. Originality/value – The paper fills a void by proposing a framework that seeks to identify the true impact of real estate to business by examining the benefits of optimal alignment between, planet, position, purpose, place, paradigm, processes and people to produce performance and productivity.</p

Rethinking leadership to construction partnering projects

In recent years there has been a growing interest in the use of partnering in construction. Central to any successful partnering arrangement is the change in cultural and behavioural characteristics towards mutual trust and understanding. According to Schein, cultural and behavioural characteristics can be shaped and reflected by proper leadership. This research probes leadership as the response to address complex relationships of behaviour and culture in large scale partnering projects. This involves understanding, interpreting, explaining and mapping complex human behaviour. Therefore it is very important to comprehend and implement a suitable research methodology to carefully extract appropriate information. This paper justifies the social constructionism stance and case study approach for the leadership study as the response to address complex relationships challenges of behaviour and culture in construction partnering projects. For this purpose, the nested approach is used, highlighting the main facets of the arguments to justify the selection of appropriate research philosophy and research approach

Revisiting leadership development:the participant perspective

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to address limitations of prevailing approaches to leadership development programmes and make suggestions as to how these might be overcome. These limitations are an outcome of the dominant rational functional approach to leadership development programmes. Based on empirical research, and underpinned by organisational theory, the paper suggests a shift towards a socio-constructivist perspective on design and implementation of leadership development programmes. The explorative study proposes that context and participant differences need to be recognised as factors impacting on the effectiveness of leadership development initiatives. Design/methodology/approach – The paper is based on a review of relevant literature and qualitative data collected using the case study method. The study presented is explorative. Findings – The paper finds that participant interaction with leadership development programmes varies depending on individual and/or contextual factors. Current design logic neither recognises nor utilises such situatedness as programmes develop their linear and unidirectional logic. Designers of programmes underestimate the extent to which programme participants create a context-specific understanding of leadership learning as they interact with the programme. Their personal and organisational context shapes this interaction. A socio-constructivist perspective can provide theoretical foundation for the argument that leadership development programmes can become more effective if context-specific dimensions are recognised as shaping and constraining factors impacting on programme participants. Originality/value – The paper argues that it is time to move away from offering leadership development programmes which emphasise input over interaction. The paper encourages commissioners and designers of leadership programmes to recognise that an overly didactic approach may limit the effectiveness of such programmes

Technology Strategy for Re-engineering Design and Construction

Automation technology can provide construction firms with a number of competitive advantages. Technology strategy guides a firm's approach to all technology, including automation. Engineering management educators, researchers, and construction industry professionals need improved understanding of how technology affects results, and how to better target investments to improve competitive performance. A more formal approach to the concept of technology strategy can benefit the construction manager in his efforts to remain competitive in increasingly hostile markets. This paper recommends consideration of five specific dimensions of technology strategy within the overall parameters of market conditions, firm capabilities and goals, and stage of technology evolution. Examples of the application of this framework in the formulation of technology strategy are provided for CAD applications, co-ordinated positioning technology and advanced falsework and formwork mechanisation to support construction field operations. Results from this continuing line of research can assist managers in making complex and difficult decisions regarding reengineering construction processes in using new construction technology and benefit future researchers by providing new tools for analysis. Through managing technology to best suit the existing capabilities of their firm, and addressing the market forces, engineering managers can better face the increasingly competitive environment in which they operate