Human Resource and Employment Practices in Telecommunications Services, 1980-1998

[Excerpt] In the academic literature on manufacturing, much research and debate have focused on whether firms are adopting some form of “high-performance” or “high-involvement” work organization based on such practices as employee participation, teams, and increased discretion, skills, and training for frontline workers (Ichniowski et al., 1996; Kochan and Osterman, 1994; MacDuffie, 1995). Whereas many firms in the telecommunications industry flirted with these ideas in the 1980s, they did not prove to be a lasting source of inspiration for the redesign of work and employment practices. Rather, work restructuring in telecommunications services has been driven by the ability of firms to leverage network and information technologies to reduce labor costs and create customer segmentation strategies. “Good jobs” versus “bad jobs,” or higher versus lower wage jobs, do not vary according to whether firms adopt a high- involvement model. They vary along two other dimensions: (1) within firms and occupations, by the value-added of the customer segment that an employee group serves; and (2) across firms, by union and nonunion status. We believe that this customer segmentation strategy is becoming a more general model for employment practices in large-scale service | operations; telecommunications services firms may be somewhat more | advanced than other service firms in adopting this strategy because of certain unique industry characteristics. The scale economies of network technology are such that once a company builds the network infrastructure to a customer’s specifications, the cost of additional services is essentially zero. As a result, and notwithstanding technological uncertainty, all of the industry’s major players are attempting to take advantage of system economies inherent in the nature of the product market and technology to provide customized packages of multimedia products to identified market segments. They have organized into market-driven business units providing differentiated services to large businesses and institutions, small businesses, and residential customers. They have used information technologies and process reengineering to customize specific services to different segments according to customer needs and ability to pay. Variation in work and employment practices, or labor market segmentation, follows product market segmentation. As a result, much of the variation in employment practices in this industry is within firms and within occupations according to market segment rather than across firms. In addition, despite market deregulation beginning in 1984 and opportunities for new entrants, a tightly led oligopoly structure is replacing the regulated Bell System monopoly. Former Bell System companies, the giants of the regulated period, continue to dominate market share in the post-1984 period. Older players and new entrants alike are merging and consolidating in order to have access to multimedia markets. What is striking in this industry, therefore, is the relative lack of variation in management and employment practices across firms after more than a decade of experience with deregulation. We attribute this lack of variation to three major sources. (1) Technological advances and network economics provide incentives for mergers, organizational consolidation, and, as indicated above, similar business strategies. (2) The former Bell System companies have deep institutional ties, and they continue to benchmark against and imitate each other so that ideas about restructuring have diffused quickly among them. (3) Despite overall deunionization in the industry, they continue to have high unionization rates; de facto pattern bargaining within the Bell system has remained quite strong. Therefore, similar employment practices based on inherited collective bargaining agreements continue to exist across former Bell System firms

Achieving a New Standard in Primary Care for Low-Income Populations -- Case Studies of Redesign and Change Through a Learning Collaborative

Describes four case studies that focus on improving patient care delivery systems through learning collaboratives that were undertaken by New York City's nonprofit Primary Care Development Corporation

Collaborative knowledge management - A construction case study

Due to the new threats and challenges faced by the construction industry today, construction companies must seek new solutions in order to remain ahead of the competition. Knowledge has been identified to be a significant organisational resource, which if used effectively can provide competitive advantage. A lot of emphasis is being put on how to identify, capture and share knowledge in today's organisations. It has been argued over the years that due to the fragmented nature of the construction industry and ad-hoc nature of the construction projects, capture and reuse of valuable knowledge gathered during a construction project pose a challenge. As a result critical mistakes are repeated on projects and construction professionals have to kee

Consumer-Centric Reengineering at the Colorado Department of Revenue

In the summer of 1993, the Colorado Department of Revenue, in response to a directive by then Colorado Governor Roy Romer was faced with the following questions: How to transform a bureaucratic state agency into a customer- friendly\u27 organization at a time when public confidence in the government is deteriorating? How to instill a work culture within the organization that encourages proactive change and improves transparency and accountability in our operations? How to reengineer work processes and antiquated systems in the department in a way that adds value to our constituents and improves employee retention? How to accomplish these changes within the budgetary, staff, and resource constraints set by the State Legislature? This article describes three projects that addressed these issue

Improvement of outpatient service processes based on BRP theory and information technology: a case study of the University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital

JEL Classification: M15 – IT Management, I12 – Health ProductionCurrently, due to some irrational allocation of medical and healthcare resources, a considerable proportion of state-of-the-art medical equipment and talented medical personnel are concentrated in large urban hospitals. This situation is particularly common in 3A hospitals (3A hospitals are hospitals which are equipped with more than 501 beds, can provide medical and healthcare services with high-level specialty to various regions and with scores higher than 900 according to the grading standard), which are often crowded with patients. According to the normal outpatient process, patients need to undergo a prolonged procedure from registration, treatment, laboratory test, diagnosis to drug dispensing. Often patients have to spend a long time waiting for treatment, receiving tests and paying for medical care. The congestion of patients at certain time-consuming processes allows doctors little time to check and treat patients thoroughly. As a result, doctors are often unable to make accurate and comprehensive diagnosis. Considered the window of a hospital, outpatient service is extremely important. Whether the design of its process is reasonable and whether its management is able to maximize interests for patients will directly affect the hospital’s medical level, and even its social benefits and reputation. Therefore, it has become a major issue for a hospital achieves to optimize the business process of its outpatient service. Outpatient process, as a core business process of a hospital, is critical to improving the quality of its medical service, upgrading its performance and minimizing its operating costs. Therefore, re-designing the outpatient process of a hospital can help enhance its comprehensive strength by endowing it with a core competence. In addition, the hospital will be impelled to provide patients with more convenient medical services with higher quality and lower price. This work conducts a case study on The University of Hong Kong-Shenzhen Hospital (HKU-SZH), which was the first to implement an outpatient appointment registration system. This thesis gives an anatomy of the outpatient process of the hospital through various methods and theories, such as literature review, field research, expert consultation, Business Process Reengineering Theory and Information technology, aiming to identify objectives and strategies of the case hospital in improving its outpatient process. The study consists of: - An investigation into the current situation of HKU-SZH’s outpatient registration process: through questionnaires and structured interviews, the defects and weak links in the hospital’s appointment registration model were analyzed. A structural equation model for existing outpatient processes was established and the influence of different variables on patients’ satisfaction level as well as the correlation between these variables was analyzed by means of a simulation model. - Research on outpatient process reengineering: with the needs and satisfaction of patients as a goal, this thesis reexamines the strategic goals and internal and external environment of HKU-SZH on the basis of Business Process Reengineering Theory, Queuing Theory, Six Sigma Theory and Information technology. This thesis improves HKU-SZH’s registration process, using methods of order modification, integration, simplification and automation and materializes the process by network technology and outpatient information system. - An empirical study on outpatient process: this thesis conducts a systemic and empirical analysis in a functional integration of registration and payment, process reengineering research through information technology (development of new functions of appointment system) and an empirical study on queuing theory. - Research on local adaptation of outpatient process: this thesis explores solutions and suggestions for HKU-SZH with the objective of optimize its outpatient process through the perspectives of hospital organizational structure, information technology, human resources, building of outpatient culture and optimization of waiting cost. By means of outpatient process reengineering, this thesis aim to increase the case hospital’s efficiency and raise its patients’ satisfaction so that the hospital may enhance its comprehensive competence. In addition, an effective and operable methodology will be generated, which is expected to serve as a reference for other hospitals to improve their operation and their management.Atualmente, devido a alguma atribuição irracional dos recursos médicos e de saúde, uma proporção considerável de modernos equipamentos médicos e pessoal médico talentoso estão concentrados em grandes hospitais urbanos. Esta situação é particularmente comum em hospitais 3A (hospitais 3A são os hospitais que estão equipados com mais de 501 camas, e que podem fornecer serviços médicos e de saúde com alto nível de especialidade para diversas regiões e com pontuações superiores a 900 de acordo com o padrão de classificação), que são frequentemente sobrelotados com pacientes. De acordo com o processo ambulatório normal, os pacientes precisam passar por um procedimento prolongado desde o registo, tratamento, análise laboratorial, diagnóstico, até à distribuição de medicamentos. Muitas vezes os pacientes têm de passar um longo tempo de espera para tratamento, para receber testes e para pagar por cuidados médicos. O congestionamento de pacientes em determinados processos demorados, leva a que os médicos tenham pouco tempo para verificar e tratar os pacientes completamente. Como resultado, os médicos são muitas vezes incapazes de fazer um diagnóstico preciso e abrangente. Considerado a montra de um hospital, o serviço ambulatório é extremamente importante. Se o desenho do seu processo é razoável e se a sua gestão é capaz de maximizar os interesses dos pacientes, irá afetar diretamente o nível médico do hospital, e até mesmo os seus benefícios sociais e reputação. Portanto, tornou-se um importante problema para um hospital conseguir otimizar o processo do seu serviço ambulatório. O processo ambulatório, como um processo de negócio nuclear de um hospital, é fundamental para melhorar a qualidade do seu serviço médico, aumentar o seu desempenho e minimizar seus custos operacionais. Portanto, reprojetar o processo ambulatório de um hospital pode ajudar a aumentar a sua força global dotando-o de uma competência essencial. Além disso, o hospital será impelido a oferecer aos pacientes serviços médicos mais convenientes com maior qualidade e menor preço. Este trabalho apresenta um estudo de caso sobre o Hospital da Universidade de Hong Kong-Shenzhen (HKU-SZH), que foi o primeiro a implementar um sistema de registo de consulta externa. Esta tese apresenta uma análise do processo ambulatório do hospital através de vários métodos e teorias, como a revisão de literatura, pesquisa de campo, consultas a especialistas, teoria da reengenharia de processos e tecnologias da informação, com o objetivo de identificar os objetivos e estratégias do hospital na melhoria do seu serviço ambulatório. O estudo consiste em: - Investigação sobre a situação atual do processo de registo ambulatório de HKU-SZH. Através de questionários e entrevistas estruturadas, foram analisados os defeitos e pontos fracos no modelo de registro de consultas do hospital. Um modelo de equações estruturais para os processos ambulatórios existentes foi estabelecido, e a influência de diferentes variáveis sobre o nível de satisfação dos pacientes, bem como a correlação entre essas variáveis foi analisada por meio de um modelo de simulação. - Investigação sobre a reengenharia do processo ambulatório. Tendo as necessidades e satisfação dos pacientes como objetivo, esta tese reexamina as metas estratégicas e o ambiente interno e externo de HKU-SZH com base na Teoria da Reengenharia de Processos, Teoria das Filas, Teoria Six Sigmae Tecnologias da Informação. Esta tese melhora o processo de registro de HKU-SZH, usando métodos de modificação, integração, simplificação e automação e materializa o processo através de tecnologias de rede e um sistema de informação para o processo ambulatório. - Estudo empírico sobre o processo ambulatório. Esta tese conduz uma análise sistémica e empírica sobre a integração funcional de inscrições e pagamentos, a pesquisa de reengenharia de processos através de tecnologias da informação (desenvolvimento de novas funções do sistema de consultas) e um estudo empírico sobre a teoria das filas. - Investigação sobre a adaptação local do processo ambulatório. Esta tese explora soluções e sugestões para o HKU-SZH para otimizar seu processo ambulatório através das perspetivas de estrutura hospitalar organizacional, tecnologias da informação, recursos humanos, construção da cultura do ambulatório e otimização do custo de espera. Por meio do processo de reengenharia do serviço de ambulatório, esta tese visa aumentar a eficiência do processo de internamento e aumentar a satisfação dos seus pacientes para que o hospital possa aumentar a sua capacidade global. Além disso, foi gerada uma metodologia eficiente e operacionalizavel, a qual se espera possa servir como referência para outros hospitais, para melhorar o seu funcionamento e a sua gestão

Consumption of management publications, The

This paper focuses on the consumption phase of the process of Production-Diffusion-Consumption of management knowledge. We argue that consumers play an important role in that process, one we feel has been overlooked in most of the existing literature. The first part of the paper is mostly theoretical. In it we first situate our contribution within the existing literature on management knowledge, and then approach the issue of the selection of knowledge sources by knowledge consumers. We sustain that manager-consumers have a strong impact on the success or failure of management ideas (selection), and also shape their content. The second part of the paper is mostly empirical. It consists of an analysis of a questionnaire that is intended to help us gain a better understanding of knowledge consumers' behaviour. Finally, we offer our conclusions.Management knowledge; knowledge consumers

Professor/practitioner case development program - 1998 case studies

https://egrove.olemiss.edu/aicpa_guides/1344/thumbnail.jp

Risk Management for Enterprise Resource Planning System Implementations in Project-Based Firms

Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems have been regarded as one of the most important information technology developments in the past decades. While ERP systems provide the potential to bring substantial benefits, their implementations are characterized with large capital outlay, long duration, and high risks of failure including implementation process failure and system usage failure. As a result, the adoption of ERP systems in project-based firms has been lagged behind lots of companies in many other industries. In order to ensure the success of ERP system implementations in project-based firms, sound risk management is the key. The overall objective of this research is to identify the risks in ERP system implementations within project-based firms and develop a new approach to analyze these risks and quantitatively assess their impacts on ERP system implementation failure. At first, the research describes ERP systems in conjunction with the nature and working practices of project-based firms and current status and issues related to ERP adoption in such firms, and thus analyzes the causes for their relatively low ERP adoption and states the research problems and objectives. Accordingly, a conceptual research framework is presented, and the procedures and research methods are outlined. Secondly, based on the risk factors regarding generic ERP projects in extant literature, the research comprehensively identifies the risk factors of ERP system implementation within project-based firms. These risk factors are classified into different categories, qualitatively described and analyzed, and used to establish a risk taxonomy. Thirdly, an approach is developed based on fault tree analysis to decompose ERP systems failure and assess the relationships between ERP component failures and system usage failure, both qualitatively and quantitatively. The principles and processes of this approach and related fault tree analysis methods and techniques are presented in the context of ERP projects. Fourthly, certain practical strategies are proposed to manage the risks of ERP system implementations. The proposed risk assessment approach and management strategies together with the comprehensive list of identified risk factors not only contribute to the body of knowledge of information system risk management, but also can be used as an effective tool by practitioners to actively analyze, assess, and manage the risks of ERP system implementations within project-based firms

Implementation of enterprise resource planning (ERP) and especially SAP in the construction industry: The case of Elliniki Technodomiki SA

The last few years many companies have adopted and implemented an ERP system in order to manage their business needs and challenges. Firstly, this report attempts to gain insight into ERP systems by briefly describing the systems and their possible advantages and disadvantages of having an integrated ERP system, focusing more on SAP. More specifically, the basic purpose of this study is to investigate the impacts of ERP systems in organizations in the Construction Industry. It also tries to understand the motives for the adoption of an ERP system by a construction company and the possible consequences for taking this decision. For these reasons, it is presented an analysis on the implementation of SAP in Elliniki Technodomiki S.A., which is the first company in terms of turnover in the Greek construction market. Recommendations, derived from the analysis of the case study, are given. An analysis of the operational and strategic implications of the implementation of an ERP system is presented. Study findings confirm the importance of ERP implementation in the field of Constructions. The study findings could be of interest to managers of these companies, who seek to better understand the issues surrounding ERP systems implementation. Finally, in the conclusion, further research on the topic is suggested, having the context in which construction companies are doing business in mind