Factors influencing employee perceptions in lean transformations

The purpose of the study was to investigate employee perceptions during a lean transformation1. The combination of case study and survey methodologies was used to define elements influencing the perceived lean success of shop floor employees. According to our findings, belief, commitment, work method and communication all have a considerable direct impact on workers’ perceptions of lean success. However, their effects are very different based on the scope and focus of changes that is influenced by process characteristics. Perceptions regarding successful lean transformation during a moderate reorganisation of the company’s welding plant, where mainly males work, are affected only by commitment and work method, whereas the deep reorganisation of the sewing plant (populated by female employees) is only influenced by belief and communication

Railway Privatisation and Regulation in Great Britain

Schienenfahrzeugbau, Privatisierung, Regulierung, Reorganisation, Großbritannien, Railway vehicles industry, Privatization, Regulation, Corporate restructuring, United Kingdom

Brain plasticity in aphasic patients: Intra- and inter-hemispheric reorganisation of the whole linguistic network probed by N150 and N350 components

The present study examined linguistic plastic reorganization of language through Evoked Potentials in a group of 17 non-fluent aphasic patients who had suffered left perisylvian focal lesions, and showed a good linguistic recovery. Language reorganisation was probed with three linguistic tasks (Phonological, Semantic, Orthographic), the early word recognition potential (N150) and the later phonological-related component (N350). Results showed the typical left-lateralised posterior N150 in healthy controls (source: left Fusiform Gyrus), that was bilateral (Semantic) or right sided (Phonological task) in patients (sources: right Inferior/Middle Temporal and Fusiform Gyri). As regards N350, controls revealed different intra- and inter-hemispheric linguistic activation across linguistic tasks, whereas patients exhibited greater activity in left intact sites, anterior and posterior to the damaged area, in all tasks (sources: Superior Frontal Gyri). A comprehensive neurofunctional model is presented, describing how complete intra- and inter-hemispheric reorganisation of the linguistic networks occurs after aphasic damage in the strategically dominant left perisylvian linguistic centres

Centrality of hospitality and tourism education : the case of Strathclyde business school

Hospitality and tourism management education thrives at the University of Strathclyde. As Susan Hart, Kevin O’Gorman and Matthew Alexander explain, following the recent reorganisation, integrating the degree into the Strathclyde Business School has strengthened the university’s presentation of the subject’s distinctiveness. This is how future leaders of the industry will be developed

Valuation of Put Options on Leveraged Equity

This paper presents new closed form solutions for the valuation of European put options and of "down-an-in" barrier options written on leveraged equity. Unlike in past literature (Toft and Prucyk, 1997) and in keeping with empirical evidence, the model allows equity to retain value even after the firm's default and reorganisation. This stylised fact can significantly alter the valuation of equity put and "down-and-in" options as bankruptcy costs, bargaining power of equity holders, debt maturity and other firm parameters change. The value of "in-the-money" puts often decreases in the firm's assets volatility. The model can produce a variety of realistic implied equity volatility "skews".Equity put options; Leveraged equity; Default and reorganisation; Barrier options; "down-and-in" options

A Dynamically Diluted Alignment Model Reveals the Impact of Cell Turnover on the Plasticity of Tissue Polarity Patterns

The polarisation of cells and tissues is fundamental for tissue morphogenesis during biological development and regeneration. A deeper understanding of biological polarity pattern formation can be gained from the consideration of pattern reorganisation in response to an opposing instructive cue, which we here consider by example of experimentally inducible body axis inversions in planarian flatworms. Our dynamically diluted alignment model represents three processes: entrainment of cell polarity by a global signal, local cell-cell coupling aligning polarity among neighbours and cell turnover inserting initially unpolarised cells. We show that a persistent global orienting signal determines the final mean polarity orientation in this stochastic model. Combining numerical and analytical approaches, we find that neighbour coupling retards polarity pattern reorganisation, whereas cell turnover accelerates it. We derive a formula for an effective neighbour coupling strength integrating both effects and find that the time of polarity reorganisation depends linearly on this effective parameter and no abrupt transitions are observed. This allows to determine neighbour coupling strengths from experimental observations. Our model is related to a dynamic $8$-Potts model with annealed site-dilution and makes testable predictions regarding the polarisation of dynamic systems, such as the planarian epithelium.Comment: Preprint as prior to first submission to Journal of the Royal Society Interface. 25 pages, 6 figures, plus supplement (18 pages, contains 1 table and 7 figures). A supplementary movie is available from https://dx.doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c388781

Factors which influenced the reorganisation of a sub-district administration programme (an evaluation study of planning in Mataram City, Lombok, Indonesia) : a thesis completed and submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Resource and Environmental Planning (M.R.P.), Massey University, Palmerston North, New Zealand

Inequality between sub-district institutions as centres of public services within Mataram City area and the growth of Mataram city's population is projected to be an alarming problem to maintaining a continuous, good quality of public service. At the same time, all government regions, including Mataram City, have to comply with new physical regulations, required to be in existence by the central government of Indonesia, in order to govern each regional territory. These two mandates legitimise the government of Mataram City in the implementation of a programme called the reorganisation of the sub-district by means of a division of sub-district territories and their administrations'. This research attempts to evaluate the implementation of this programme, by focussing on factors such as stakeholders' influence, boundary determination and demography. In addition, it also addresses the assistance to be offered to policymakers in Mataram City, to determine suitable locations for the newly reorganised sub-districts, in terms of public services accessibility for the local community. Many types of research methods were involved, in order to investigate and then evaluate the process of the sub-district reorganisation programme, including the use of interviews and questionnaire instruments for selected city stakeholders. Similar information relating to sub-national reorganisation programme implementation, undertaken by advanced countries, was gained from online sources, to make comparisons with regional government experiences in Indonesia, in order that the criteria of a sub-national reorganisation could be attained. It can be evaluated that the government of Mataram City is the most influential stakeholder in setting up the direction of a sub-district reorganisation programme, although, to some extent, parts of their collaborative planning lay an emphasis on involving other city stakeholders and thus they demonstrate local democracy. However, most of the sub-district reorganisation programme, in the case of Indonesia, is conducted by means of territorial division, to the extent that development financial assistance is available from central government. It can be noted that sub-national reorganisation programmes, in the case of advanced countries, are generally implemented by the use of an amalgamation system, in order to avoid unnecessary expenses during public services provision. The Government of Mataram City believe that, through the reorganisation programme, which divides the existing sub-districts territory, there will be a reduction in the inequality between resources at sub-district level, thus providing direct public services to the growing population. In addition, the demographic situation was considered by the sub-district reorganisation programme team, at a communal meeting, in order to anticipate any escalation of conflict that may occur, due to the multicultural situation in Mataram City. It suggested that the policy to redistribute available resources, at the sub-district level, should be accompanied by a determination to find appropriate locations for the new sub-districts offices in order to provide better public service quality, particularly in relation to accessibility to service centres

The Economics of Bankrupcy, Reorganisation and Liquidation: Lessons for East European Transitional Economies

The purpose of this paper is to analyse the economic implications of the bankruptcy procedures in Western market economies with a view to draw appropriate lessons for the transitional economies of Central and Eastern Europe. In Section II, we shall discuss the bankruptcy procedures in four major market eocnomies, emphasising the conditions under which the financially distressed firms are reorganised or liquidated. Section III focuses on the relative efficacy of the 'reorganisation' option in comparison with the 'liquidation' option of the bankruptcy procedures. Section IV highlights the lessons that East European transitional economies may learn from the experience of market economies, drawing attention to a number of important areas of concern in any discussion of the design and implementation of bankruptcy procedures.Eastern Europe, transition, bankrupcy, reorganisation, liquidation