ISO 9000 certification benefits reality or myth?

Given the rapid recent growth in ISO 9000 applications and the business performance benefits being claimed for it by National Accreditation Registrars, it is timely to review the research in this area to see if any substantial proof exists for these claims. The paper explores the literature and finds that there is no proven link between quality certification (ISO 9000) and improved business performance. However, it is clear from the research reviewed on business performance factors, that better quality does have a consistent, positive relationship with business performance. Combining these findings leads to the inference that quality certification to ISO 9000 standards is not consistently associated with having a quality assurance system that delivers improved process control, or better quality. We conclude that the National Accreditation Registrars need to reflect on the standards of proof that they currently use to support claims for business performance improvement from the application of the ISO 9000 standards

Exploring performance attribution: the case of quality managment systems adoptions and business performance

Purpose. Accreditation to the ISO 9001 Quality Management Systems Standard has proven to be a persistent and growing phenomenon in services and manufacturing, yet to date little attempt has been made to explore how performance results in cross-sectional research may be attributed to different causation mechanisms and how their influences may alter over time. Methodology. The paper defines four possible causation mechanisms before searching and analysing the empirical literature on quality management system certification to ISO 9001 and business performance for evidence of their causal influence. Findings. From the analyses it is found that the benefit that can safely be attributed to the treatment-effect of ISO 9001 accreditation is lower waste; while the benefits of lower costs and better quality are less likely unless motives for adoption are developmental rather than externally driven. From an analysis of longitudinal studies a strong selection-mechanism is found where more profitable firms have a greater propensity to adopt than less profitable firms. From the finding propositions are developed to show how the influence of these mechanisms change over time. Implications for research. The existence of the selection-mechanism has profound implications for interpreting business performance achievements because the benefits that are attributed to the treatment-effect from adopting quality management system standards are likely to be greatly inflated by the influence of the selection-mechanism. The author suggests that richer theory is needed that can incorporate bi-directional influences and new research is needed to explore the underlying causes of the selection effect. Value of paper. The paper is believed to be the first to systematically explore attribution of performance in the ISO 9001 literature. Its findings provide new insights into the complexities of attribution of performance in studies of new practices and systems. Keywords: Performance, Causation, Quality, ISO 9001 Certification

The progress of female police officers?An empirical analysis of organisational commitment and tenure explanations in two UK police forces

Purpose of paper. Although the number of women in UK police forces has grown rapidly, it appears that they continue to be under-represented in senior ranks. This research paper aims to establish empirically whether there is any foundation in the premise that female officers' lesser tenure and or lower levels of commitment than men explain their lack of career progress. Methodology. Using whole population surveys of two county police in the UK we compare the promotion of men and women police officers controlling for tenure. We then compare the organisational commitment of male and female officers and analyse whether female officers experience managerial and organisational influences that undermine their organisational commitment compared to men. Findings. The findings refute some of the widespread beliefs about reasons for female officers’ lack of progress in their policing careers since the analysis indicates that gender differences in length of tenure and organisational commitment can be discounted as possible explanations for lack of advancement in these two police forces. Overall, our results clearly show that female officers are just as committed as male officers and thus cannot be justified as a reason for lack of career progression. Managerial variables were found to be the strongest influence on organisational commitment and it appeared that there was no evidence that management support or organisational support were different for female officers compared to their male colleagues. Research Implications/Limitations. We accept that survey methods such as ours do not capture the entirety of employee feelings and responses since they tend to homogenise male and female working experiences. However, survey methods do have the advantage that it is possible to generalise from the results and thus these two studies allow us to suggest that our findings can be viewed as providing insights to other UK police forces in particular and to the broader field of the antecedents of organisational commitment in general. Practical implications. The relatively low levels of organisational commitment found should be a cause for concern for senior managers in the Police. The key importance that management has in influencing organisational commitment has been shown by our findings and this indicates the importance of the current Police Leadership Development Board’s agenda to improve workforce management skills to encourage transformational leadership styles. Moreover, there clearly remains much to be done to make police HRM policies more effective in achieving equality in promotion opportunities since the data presented shows that women’s careers are lagging behind even when tenure is taken into account. Value and originality of the paper. The paper make an original contribution by refuting widely held assumptions about the reasons for under-representation of female officers in senior ranks. It also contributes to the sparse literature that examines organisational commitment in the police and its antecedents

Managerial Factors and Organisational Commitment: A Comparative Study of Police Officers and Civilian Staff

Civilian workers have become a progressively larger proportion of UK Police Forces employment yet there is very little research on this group of workers and none other than this article that compares and contrasts civilian and police officers experience of managerial factors that contribute to organisational commitment. The studies unusual whole force survey’s large response allows the first extended comparative analysis of antecedents of commitment in uniform and civilian staff by job seniority, tenure and gender. The paper findings have been influential in supporting the Home Office policy of continued extension of civilian employment into jobs previously done by police officers. The paper has been rated as ‘excellent for originality of research contribution’ and ‘excellent for research implications’ by Anbar/Emerald Reviews. Contribution 60%. Partly responsible for literature review and conclusions. Fully responsible for: research questions, data analysis, writing up of methodology, presentation of results and discussion of findings

A chain of adverse consequences: The impact of medicine use reviews on pharmacists

The finding are based on a survey of 9000 Community Pharmacist Members of the Pharmacists’ Defence Association that represents the interests of the vast majority of practicing dispensing pharmacists in the UK. The finding show a set of adverse outcomes from the introduction of incentivised medicine use reviews in Pharmacies. The findings show a chain of adverse consequences including reduced commitment, increased bullying, work strain, emotional stress and a substantial level of intentions to quit. The work strain and emotional stress of pharmacists can only erode their achievement of high levels of safe dispensing of drugs for patients. The findings provide a starting point for a cross profession debate to re-establish the original intention of the MUR of providing consultation with patients to identify and correct poor adherence to the correct use of medicines by using the pharmacists’ professional knowledge to the full. For employers the findings show clearly that the way pharmacists are managed is in many cases unproductive as the financial gains from extra MUR income are being consumed through the extra organisational costs that arise from unsupportive management and bullying tactics that lower pharmacists’ commitment, increase their stress and intentions to quit

Trends in quality management research in higher education institutions

The purpose of this study is to determine the state of research in quality management in higher education institutions based on a review of the academic literature. The aim is to provide universities with the best evidence for informing their focus and models for quality improvement. Despite quality’s role growing in importance as universities strive to compete in an increasingly underfunded market for students and research funds the review shows that current research is limited in volume and scope. To ensure the widest coverage in our systematic literature review we use three databases: ScienceDirect, ABI/Inform, and Emerald. The findings show that the three most common topics are quality management implementation issues, quality management models, techniques and tools, and quality management dimensions. The key quality management enabling dimensions found are: people management, process management and information and analysis, while the results dimension is predominantly focused on an understanding of stakeholders’ requirements and feedback on their perceptions of performance. We find in this literature that students are discussed as both end customers as graduates and participants in the learning process who have views on their experience. Also provided is an analysis that shows popular journal outlets, research methodologies used and country focus. The paper concludes with recommendations for the development of quality management for universities, and a future research agenda. This article is the first literature of research in quality management in Higher Education Institutions following the model used in previous literature reviews on quality management and operations management

A comparative analysis of two different analysers used for determination of the Total Organic Carbon in pharmaceutical grade water

Total Organic Carbon (TOC) is a routine test for pharmaceutical grade water. Several manufacturers supply equipment of different designs but there is a dearth of published, peer-reviewed, information evaluating the various analysers. In this study, we compared two TOC analysers, both validated to the same pharmacopoeial criteria, but with different oxidation and detection methods. The results in this paper show that there were no unexplained out-of-specification results and that both analysers operated equivalently in terms of the pharmacopoeial 500ppb pass/fail limits. However, significant differences between the TOC levels reported from paired samples were observed, two paired samples recorded a pass/fail conflict (albeit flagged with an overestimation warning), as well as differences in analyser responses between spiked samples that contained low levels of nitro- and chloro-carbon compounds

Comparative analysis of TOC and conductivity analysers as applied to pharmaceutical water analysis

Pharmaceutical grade water requires the measurement of bioburden, Total Organic Carbon and conductivity. Here we report a comparative analysis from two TOC analysers and two conductivity systems. The TOC analysers showed significantly different results

Two-photon spectroscopy of the biphenyl chromophore. The electronic excited states of biphenyl and fluorene below 50000 cm-1

The two-photon excitation spectra of biphenyl and fluorene in dil. soln. were measured up to 50,000 cm-1. Both spectra exhibit a medium intense band system in the range 32,000-42,000 cm-1, and a strong band above 45,000 cm-1. The lowest frequency feature is assigned to a B3 symmetry transition in biphenyl and the corresponding B2 transition in fluorene. The polarization of the higher bands leads to the assignment of 2 A states at 38,000 and 47,000 cm-1. The origin of the electronically excited states of the biphenyl chromophore is discussed by simple composite mol. considerations as well as CNDO CI calcns. The latter give a semiquant. picture of transition energies and transition probabilities for 1- and 2-photon allowed excitations. A compilation of 1-photon spectra and calcns. from the literature is included in the anal. to provide a consistent picture of the electronically excited states of the biphenyl chromophore up to 50,000 cm-1