2,476 research outputs found
Towards Good Governance: Developing an e-Government
Information and Communication Technologies (ICT), today, are
seen as the miracle medicines for curing a nation from the ails of
corruption, mismanagement, poor governance, inflation, monopolies,
business stagnation, illiteracy and so on. One important aspect concerns
development and implementation of ICTs for the EGovernance. E-Governance
holds enormous potential in terms of improving service delivery and
efficiency, better response to business and citizen needs, and provision
of affordable government services. Defined as âGovernmentâs use of
technology, particularly web-based Internet applications, to enhance the
access to and delivery of government information and service to
citizens, business partners, employees, other agencies, and government
entities [McClure (2000)]â or âthe continuous optimisation of service
delivery, constituency participation, and governance by transforming
internal and external relationships through technology, the Internet,
and new media [Gartner Group (2000)]â. The e-government makes it
possible for a governmentâs different departments and organisations to
have direct access to grassroots and vice-versa. It cuts down the costs
and delivery times for the government and simultaneously becomes a tool
for check and balances against the government. The e-government in short
is a tool for good governanceâtransparency, participation, regulations
and accountability
Understanding the UK hospital supply chain in an era of patient choice
Author Posting © Westburn Publishers Ltd, 2011. This is a post-peer-review, pre-copy-edit version of an article which has been published in its definitive form in the Journal of Marketing Management, and has been posted by permission of Westburn Publishers Ltd for personal use, not for redistribution. The article was published in Journal of Marketing Management, 27(3-4), 401 - 423, doi:10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0267257X.2011.547084The purpose of this paper is to investigate the UK hospital supply chain in light of recent government policy reform where patients will have, inter alia, greater choice of hospital for elective surgery. Subsequently, the hospital system should become far more competitive with supply chains having to react to these changes as patient demand becomes less predictable. Using a qualitative case study methodology, hospital managers are interviewed on a range of issues. Views on the development of the hospital supply chain in different phases are derived, and are used to develop a map of the current hospital chain. The findings show hospital managers anticipating some significant changes to the hospital supply chain and its workings as Patient Choice expands. The research also maps the various aspects of the hospital supply chain as it moves through different operational phases and highlights underlying challenges and complexities. The hospital supply chain, as discussed and mapped in this research, is original work given there are no examples in the literature that provide holistic representations of hospital activity. At the end, specific recommendations are provided that will be of interest to service to managers, researchers, and policymakers
Transition UGent: a bottom-up initiative towards a more sustainable university
The vibrant think-tank âTransition UGentâ engaged over 250 academics, students and people from the university management in suggesting objectives and actions for the Sustainability Policy of Ghent University (Belgium). Founded in 2012, this bottom-up initiative succeeded to place sustainability high on the policy agenda of our university. Through discussions within 9 working groups and using the transition management method, Transition UGent developed system analyses, sustainability visions and transition paths on 9 fields of Ghent University: mobility, energy, food, waste, nature and green, water, art, education and research. At the moment, many visions and ideas find their way into concrete actions and policies.
In our presentation we focused on the broad participative process, on the most remarkable structural results (e.g. a formal and ambitious Sustainability Vision and a student-led Sustainability Office) and on recent actions and experiments (e.g. a sustainability assessment on food supply in student restaurants, artistic COP21 activities, ambitious mobility plans, food leftovers projects, an education network on sustainability controversies, a transdisciplinary platform on Sustainable Cities). We concluded with some recommendations and reflections on this transition approach, on the important role of âpolicy entrepreneursâ and student involvement, on lock-ins and bottlenecks, and on convincing skeptical leaders
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