Competence Measurement and Competence-Related Risk Management in Health Care Organisation

Competence is a substantial organizational resource today. It has been perceived that traditional performance measures provide limited information of competence resources. However, in order to manage competence resources they need to be analyzed and measured. Furthermore, competence-related risks should be taken into account when managing competence. The objective of this study was to determine how to measure and manage competence. The study aimed to answer the following questions: 1) What does the term competence mean and how can competence be measured? 2) How can competence measurement be used in the process of competence management? 3) How can competence-related risks be managed and what is the role of competence measurement in competence-related risk management? 4) How can competence in a health care organization be measured and managed? The main theoretical framework of this study comprises literature related to competence management, intellectual capital management, knowledge management and performance measurement. This study mainly used the action-oriented research approach. In addition, some aspects of the constructive research approach were applied. A competence measurement tool was designed for the nursing staff of the Joint Municipal Authority for Health Care in the Jämsä Region. This measurement tool was tested in four units of the organization. A workgroup consisting of the case organization’s employees participated in the design process. The author acted as coordinator of the process. Two other researchers acted as outside consultants. The data and experience related to designing and testing of the measurement tool was analyzed and utilized to find answers to the research questions. The results of this study show that competence measurement can be used as a tool to aid several activities related to competence management. Competence measurement can be used to examine the present state of competence. It can also be used in defining competence needs. A questionnaire-based competence measurement tool is well suited for identifying various competence-related development targets and risks. The results of competence measurement were considered useful in structuring the human resources strategy of a public health care organization.Organisaatioiden osaamisresurssien merkitys on nykyisin suuri. On havaittu, että perinteisten suorituskykymittareiden antama kuva osaamisresursseista on rajoittunut. Osaamisresursseja on kuitenkin pystyttävä luotettavasti erittelemään ja mittaamaan, jotta niitä voidaan kehittää ja johtaa. Osaamisen johtamisessa on myös huomioitava erilaiset osaamiseen kohdistuvat riskitekijät. Tässä tutkimuksessa selvitettiin, kuinka osaamista voidaan mitata ja millä tavoin mittaamista voidaan hyödyntää johtamisen apuvälineenä. Vastauksia etsittiin seuraaviin kysymyksiin: 1) Mitä osaaminen on, ja minkälaisia keinoja sen mittaamiseksi on olemassa? 2) Mikä on mittaamisen rooli osaamisen johtamisen kokonaisuudessa? 3) Kuinka osaamisen mittaaminen auttaa osaamiseen liittyvässä riskienhallinnassa, ja mitä muita keinoja osaamisriskien hallintaan on olemassa? 4) Miten terveydenhuolto-organisaation hoitohenkilökunnan osaamisen mittaustyökalu suunnitellaan, ja millä tavoin sitä voidaan hyödyntää? Työn keskeisin teoreettinen viitekehys koostuu kirjallisuudesta, joka liittyy osaamisen johtamiseen, aineettoman pääoman johtamiseen, tietämyksen hallintaan ja suorituskyvyn mittaamiseen. Tutkimuksen toteutus noudattaa pääosin toiminta-analyyttista tutkimusotetta. Lisäksi tutkimuksessa on piirteitä konstruktiivisesta tutkimusotteesta. Tutkimuksessa suunniteltiin työkalu, jolla voidaan mitata Jämsän seudun terveydenhuollon kuntayhtymän hoitohenkilökunnan osaamista. Lisäksi mittaustyökalua testattiin neljässä kuntayhtymän yksikössä. Kuntayhtymää edustava työryhmä osallistui mittaustyökalun suunnitteluun. Työn kirjoittaja toimi suunnitteluprosessin koordinaattorina. Ulkopuolisina asiantuntijoina oli lisäksi kaksi muuta tutkijaa. Mittaustyökalua suunniteltaessa ja testatessa saatiin aineistoa ja kokemuksia, joita voitiin hyödyntää tutkimuskysymyksiin vastatessa. Osaamisen mittaamisen todettiin soveltuvan useiden osaamisen johtamisen toimintojen apuvälineeksi. Osaamisen mittaamisesta on apua sekä osaamisen nykytilan selvittämisessä että tarvittavan osaamisen määrittämisessä. Osaamista mitattiin kyselyyn pohjautuvalla työkalulla, minkä havaittiin soveltuvan hyvin osaamisen kehityskohteiden ja riskien etsimiseen. Osaamisen mittaustuloksia pidettiin hyödyllisinä laadittaessa kunnallisen terveydenhuollon organisaation henkilöstöstrategiaa. /Kir0

The role of social capital in achieving preferred customer status with manufacturing and service suppliers

Purpose: This study uses social capital theory to analyze how social capital and supplier development support achieving supplier satisfaction and preferred customer status. The resulting model is compared between manufacturing and service suppliers. Design/methodology/approach: A survey receiving 482 supplier responses from manufacturing and service suppliers was utilized and analyzed using partial least squares (PLS) path modeling and multi-group comparison tests. Findings: The paper adds new explanations for preferred customer status through empirical evidence of relationships between supplier development, social capital, supplier satisfaction, and preferred customer status. Cognitive and relational capital directly support achieving preferred customer status. The role of supplier satisfaction in achieving preferred customer status is lower for manufacturing suppliers. Research limitations/implications: Both service and manufacturing suppliers could also be studied in their specific industry settings. A more in-depth investigation of other business relationship dynamics, such as power, is needed in a future study. Practical implications: Service and manufacturing suppliers need different strategies to obtain the benefits from supplier development and social capital building. For service suppliers, more intangible factors are relevant in comparison to manufacturing suppliers. Originality/value: This study advances the literature in two main ways. First, it elaborates the role of supplier development and social capital in the path toward supplier satisfaction and preferred customer status as perceived by suppliers. Second, this study answers the calls for a better understanding of the contextual characteristics underlying potential differences in how preferred customer status is formed.</p

Taloudellisten suoritusmittareiden soveltuvuus ja hyväksikäyttö kunnallisen liikelaitoksen toiminnassa : case-tutkimus

Siirretty Doriast

ProcuValue Value Creating Procurement: Project Report

This project addressed the shift in purchasing from a “classical purchasing philosophy” reflecting a transaction-oriented approach to a “modern purchasing philosophy” highlighting longer supplier relationships and a strategic approach in managing supplies and the purchasing function. The current understanding of modern purchasing is limited and it is notably difficult to put the new ideas highlighting long-term value creation into practice.The aim of the project was to create new and widely applicable knowledge for managing strategic purchasing and supply management. It examined the viewpoints of both buyer and supplier. More specifically, this project investigated 1) the benefits of long-term purchasing, 2) the strategic capabilities of the purchasing function, 3) models, practices, and performance measures for modern PSM, and 4) supplier capabilities and the supplier-buyer relationship characteristics. This project had four case companies: Metsä Group, Posti Group Corporation, Tieto Oyj, and Valmet Corporation. All these companies are large multi-national companies operating in the business-to-business markets. The case companies represent the viewpoint of a buyer. The project started with a purchasing maturity analysis, which was carried out by a survey addressed to the case companies. It continued with an interview study, which paid more attention to specific aspects in purchasing: value creation, long-term orientation, and performance management. A supplier survey was conducted in the latter part of the study and addressed to more than 600 suppliers of the case companies. In addition, each of the cases had their own development projects with their respective objectives, schedules and methods. Different characteristics of long-term purchasing were identified, such as purchasing strategies highlighting close supplier partnerships, strategic technology choices, and purchasing related to long-term investments. A long-term approach to purchasing was found to offer benefits such as the utilization of supplier expertise and increased attractiveness among suppliers. The identified strengths of the purchasing functions studied were the skills of purchasing professionals to ensure the availability of purchased goods and services, the existence of a long-term purchasing strategy, documentation of a purchasing process, a link between purchasing and company strategy, and an awareness of the importance of purchasing in contributing to cost competitiveness. The most common development areas of purchasing included cross-functional integration between purchasing function and other functions such as product development, involvement of suppliers in product development, bundling of the supplies, and using and communicating of supplier evaluations.New models, practices and performance measures for contemporary purchasing and supply management were developed in the course of this study. In the case company Valmet, a new design-to-cost framework was developed in order to improve cross-functional and inter-organizational collaboration in product development. At Posti, an approach for measuring supplier partnerships was designed. In the case of Metsä Group, a framework for measuring supplier quality was developed. At Tieto, the idea of combining data from different functions was successfully presented and tested. The analysis of supplier capabilities and supplier-buyer relationship characteristics revealed that a foundation for a good buyer-supplier relationship does indeed exist. Suppliers appear to be capable when offering and implementing their solutions. However, integration between supplier and buyer frequently remains rather superficial. For example, true collaboration in product development is rare.Several avenues for future research in the field of PSM can be identified. There remains a need to better understand the benefits of long-term purchasing in terms of financial numbers as well as the mechanisms for creating the benefits. Further, there is a need to better understand when to search for long and close supplier relationships. Supplier satisfaction is a rising topic requiring more attention since buyer companies are increasingly competing for the most capable suppliers. Digitalization in purchasing and supply management is a topic gaining increasing attention and requiring more research in the future. There has already been lot of work in automating and digitalizing purchases. This project revealed a topical need for digital supplier portals, which centralize all the supplier information (e.g. costs, contracts, supplier offerings and their use in different business)

Designing a map for measuring and managing safety performance

Objectives. The purpose of this study is to present a model-the safety performance map-that specifies the key factors influencing organizations' safety performance and suggests the relationships between the identified factors. There is a need for an exhaustive illustration of the path leading to occupational health and safety (OHS) supporting in measuring, managing, and developing OHS proactively. Methods. A qualitative multiple-case study consisted of three stages: design, iteration and testing of the created model. An interview study was conducted in four companies from different industries, and later the model was tested in three complementary companies. The companies involved represented the metal, food, forest, and chemical industries; industrial services; and infrastructure and house construction. Results. The study identified a total of 42 individual factors that fall under the following seven main perspectives on OHS: OHS management, OHS leadership, structure, processes, culture, individual behavior, and performance. Conclusions. The study suggested the safety performance map to illustrate the path leading to OHS and indicative causal relationships between the factors affecting it. The same factors affecting OHS recur in all the included industrial contexts. The study answers the call for proactive performance measurement and more balanced measurement systems for safety.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

The path toward successful safety performance measurement

Introduction: Safety management is widely seen as a key contributor to occupational health and safety (OHS) performance. Performance measurement is an important tool for management in reaching its goals. Safety performance measurement has gained increasing attention in the literature. However, little is known so far of the path towards successful safety performance measurement resulting in better OHS performance. Methods: This study analyzes the maturity of safety performance measurement in relation to OHS performance and the role of employee commitment and practices of using performance information in facilitating the performance benefits. The empirical data were gathered with a survey that received 270 responses from five industrial organizations. Partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to analyze the data obtained. Results: It is found that commitment to performance measurement is the strongest explaining factor of both supervisor and employee OHS performance, while the maturity of performance measurement has a direct effect on supervisor safety performance only. Practical Applications: The results show how safety performance measurement can be implemented to derive the potential benefits. While managers may benefit directly from advanced performance measures, the wider performance benefits among employees materialize only by using performance measurement properly and committing employees to it.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Analysis of Safety Culture Maturity in Two Finnish Companies

Objective: The aim of this study was to analyze perceptions of safety culture in two Finnish industrial companies. Background: The link between safety culture and safety performance has been investigated in many studies. However, understanding of the status of safety culture and the specific needs for development is still limited. Method: A recently developed safety culture maturity model was used to analyze the level of safety culture through a survey of two Finnish companies. A questionnaire was sent to 1109 respondents, 289 of whom completed it (26% response rate). Results: The state of safety culture was rather advanced in both case companies, and the personnel in both companies were overall satisfied with it. However, the analysis indicated considerable differences in safety culture perceptions within the companies. Particularly, top management and safety experts perceived the state of safety culture as more advanced than employees did. Conclusion: There are differences in perceptions of safety culture, especially between top management and employees, which might hinder the development of safety culture in organizations. By understanding such differences within an organization, it is possible to identify appropriate managerial actions for different levels.Peer reviewe

Anchor practices that guide horizontal performance measurement: an interventionist case study of the financial aspect of new technology implementation in healthcare

With the demand for elderly care increasing in many countries, digital technologies offer the potential for organising such care while also increasing value for money. However, public administrators need tools to make sense of their own complex environment and the possible impacts of new technologies. The current paper examines this issue by applying horizontal performance measurement, where practitioners can give financial value to issues that span across many functions and thus avoid sub-optimisation. We use an interventionist case study to illustrate a situation in which a Nordic city attempted to calculate the financial impact of introducing new digital technologies into elderly care. As our contribution to the literature on horizontal performance measurement, we show how economic (financial) and wellbeing anchors influence horizontal performance measurement in a healthcare digitalisation project. We also contribute to the development of our method theory, i.e., anchor practices, by providing evidence of the usage of multiple simultaneous anchors and make a methodological contribution by showing that interventionist researchers can support operationalising anchor practices.publishedVersionPeer reviewe

Social capital as a facilitator of successful buyer-supplier performance management

Performance management in supply chains is an increasingly important, rapidly developing but challenging area. It may benefit from sufficient levels of social capital, such as frequent interactions between buyers and suppliers. However, social capital has not yet been studied as a facilitator of performance management. To bridge this knowledge gap, we examine buyer-supplier performance management and social relationship characteristics as perceived by suppliers. We analyze empirical data gathered through a survey of 482 suppliers by employing PLS-SEM and PLS-MGA. The findings elaborate on the role of cognitive, relational, and structural capital in performance management activities within a buyer-supplier relationship. Moreover, the results demonstrate how a supplier's positive perception, in the form of preferred customer status, can be facilitated through performance management activities. The findings reveal that there is a difference in the role of cognitive and relational capital between key and non-key supplier groups in performance management activities. We conclude that successful performance management in buyer-supplier relationships requires more than simply a system for sharing information. The mature use of performance measurement is also essential, with cognitive capital being especially beneficial in this endeavor.publishedVersionPeer reviewe