Strategic human resource effectiveness, internal marketing and performance in the public sector

Internal marketing (IM) focuses on acquiring and retaining customer-oriented employees and is seen as particularly relevant to service organisations. Critics of internal marketing claim that the term is simply a synonym for good human resources management. The concepts of Internal Marketing and Strategic Human Resource Effectiveness (SHRE) are considered and suitable measures are identified Data is collected from the Australian public sector and a regression analysis is used to investigate the hypothesised relationships. The study provides empirical evidence of a demarcation between IM and SHRE; that SHRE is an important antecedent to IM and that SHRE has both a direct and indirect effect on performance, Management implications are considered and directions for future research offered.peer-reviewe

The link between market orientation and performance in the Australian public sector

Marketing academics and practitioners assume a direct link between market orientation and performance and argue that this applies to both business and non-business organisations. While this aspect has been studied in the business sector, this paper discusses the concepts of market orientation and performance and investigates this relationship in the Australian public sector. The conceptualization of market orientation used is that by Jaworski and Kohli (1993) on which basis MARKOR was developed. This instrument together with an instrument to measure the perceptions of performance of senior managers in the Australian public sector are used to investigate the hypothesized link. The findings confirm a positive relationship between market orientation and performance. The size and type of public sector organisation involved are also found to affect the levels of market orientation together with its components and performance. From the findings, implication are drawn and directions for future research discussed.peer-reviewe

Market orientation and performance in the public sector : the role of organizational commitment

Increased calls for transparency and accountability in government organizations underscores the need for a market orientation even in the public sector. The degree of market orientation and its effect on performance and on organizational commitment in government departments in three Australian states is considered. Results provide empirical support for a direct relationship between market orientation and performance and evidence of the mediating role of organizational commitment. Implications are drawn and directions for future research are discussed.peer-reviewe

Effects of some environmental challenges and centralization on the entrepreneurial orientation and performance of public sector entities

The relevance of entrepreneurship in the public sector is considered. In investigating relationships a review of the literature is undertaken and a model is proposed to examine the effects of certain environmental variables and centralisation on entrepreneurship and ultimately, performance. The proposed model is based on work conducted by Covin and Slevin [1991], reconsidered within a public sector context. Research is conducted among Australian public sector entities. A structural equation model is used to examine the hypothesised linkages. Implications of the findings are discussed, limitations are noted and directions for future research are outlined.peer-reviewe

Expectations about management consultancy services : testing the assumption of equivalence across Australian and Singaporean firms

Consultancy firms have adopted a higher international profile as they follow the increased global presence of many businesses. The provision of a quality offering by providers of consultancy services necessitates a clear understanding of customer expectations across countries. The expectations items in SERVQUAL have been applied to samples of firms in Australia and Singapore to test for the equivalence of the expectations construct. Multiple sample LISREL analysis is carried out on data from the two countries. The results indicate an absence of construct equivalence. Implications and suggestions for future research are provided.peer-reviewe

Formation of sinuous ridges by inversion of river-channel belts in Utah, USA, with implications for Mars

Sinuous ridges are important landforms on the surface of Mars that show promise for quantifying ancient martian surface hydrology. Morphological similarity of these ridges to river channels in planform led to a hypothesis that ridges are topographically inverted river channels, or “inverted channels”, formed due to an erosion-resistant channel-filling material that preserved a snapshot of the channel geometry in inverted relief due to differential erosion. An alternative deposit-inversion hypothesis proposes that ridges represent exhumed river-channel belts, with geometries that reflect the lateral migration and vertical aggradation of rivers over significant geologic time, rather than the original channel geometry. To investigate these hypotheses we studied sinuous ridges within the Cretaceous Cedar Mountain Formation near Green River, Utah, USA. Ridges in Utah extend for hundreds of meters, are up to 120 m wide, and stand up to 39 m above the surrounding plain. Ridges are capped by sandstone bodies 3–10 m thick that contain dune- and bar-scale inclined stratification, which we interpret as eroded remnants of channel belts that record the migration and aggradation of single-thread, sand-bedded rivers, rather than channel fills that can preserve the original channel geometry. Caprocks overlie mudstones and thinner sandstone beds that are interpreted as floodplain deposits, and in cases additional channel-belt sandstones are present lower in the ridge stratigraphy. Apparent networks from branching ridges typically represent discrete sandstone bodies that cross at different stratigraphic levels rather than a coeval river network. Ridge-forming sandstone bodies also have been narrowed during exhumation by cliff retreat and bisected by fluvial erosion. Using a large compilation of channel-belt geometries on Earth and our measurements of ridges in Utah, we propose that caprock thickness is the most reliable indicator of paleo-channel geometry, and can be used to reconstruct river depth and discharge. In contrast, channel lateral migration and caprock erosion during exhumation make ridge breadth an uncertain proxy for channel width. An example in Aeolis Dorsa, Mars, illustrates that river discharge estimates based solely on caprock width may differ significantly from estimates based on caprock thickness. Overall, our study suggests that sinuous ridges are not inverted channel fills, but rather reflect exhumation of a thick stratigraphic package of stacked channel belts and overbank deposits formed from depositional rivers over significant geologic time

When nutritional guidelines and life collide: family fruit and vegetable socialisation practices in low socioeconomic communities

Parents play a critical role in promoting fruit and vegetable consumption, for eating patterns established early in life tend to persist into adulthood. Despite this, the factors that facilitate or inhibit parents’ capacity to socialise fruit and vegetable consumption into their children’s daily diets remain poorly defined. Thirty-eight semi-structured interviews with residents, allied healthcare professionals, community leaders, community programme leaders and a local government leader living or working in two low socioeconomic suburbs were consequently conducted to ascertain factors exogenous and endogenous to the family unit that shaped parental food socialisation practices. Budgetary and time constraints emerged as exogenous factors that constrained fruit and vegetable socialisation. Constraining effects were also found for a range of endogenous factors, including commensal experiences, children’s food fussiness and the feeding styles employed by parents. As such, while many caregivers may wish to socialise fruit and vegetable consumption into their children’s daily diets, their capacity to do so is often inhibited by factors beyond their volitional control. Failure to take heed of these factors could therefore result in the development of social marketing campaigns that are ineffective at best or give rise to unintentionally harmful outcomes at worst

The measurement of retail store market share : a preliminary model

Determining individual brand and total market share is a relatively simple task that is regularly undertaken by management. However, the calculation ofretail store market share is a far more arduous task. This complexity combined with the dearth of research in the area, underlines the need for a practical but robust way of measuring store market share. The existing literature on determining market share and more specifically store market share is reviewed and a relatively simple mathematical model is proposed. The benefits of such a model in retailing management are also discussed.peer-reviewe

Heavy-light Mesons and Baryons with b quarks

We present lattice results for the spectrum of mesons containing one heavy quark and of baryons containing one or two heavy quarks. The calculation is done in the quenched approximation using the NRQCD formalism for the heavy quark. We analyze the dependence of the mass splittings on both the heavy and the light quark masses. Meson P-state fine structure and baryon hyperfine splittings are resolved for the first time. We fix the b quark mass using both M_B and M_{\Lambda_b}, and our best estimate is m_b^\MSbar(m_b^\MSbar) = 4.35(10)({}^{-3}_{+2})(10) GeV. The spectrum, obtained by interpolation to m_b, is compared with the experimental data.Comment: 34 pages, LaTeX, 13 postscript figures, version as publish in Phys. Rev.