Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Threats and opportunities

Madagascar's unique biota is heavily affected by human activity and is under intense threat. Here, we review the current state of knowledge on the conservation status of Madagascar's terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by presenting data and analyses on documented and predicted species-level conservation statuses, the most prevalent and relevant threats, ex situ collections and programs, and the coverage and comprehensiveness of protected areas. The existing terrestrial protected area network in Madagascar covers 10.4% of its land area and includes at least part of the range of the majority of described native species of vertebrates with known distributions (97.1% of freshwater fishes, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals combined) and plants (67.7%). The overall figures are higher for threatened species (97.7% of threatened vertebrates and 79.6% of threatened plants occurring within at least one protected area). International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List assessments and Bayesian neural network analyses for plants identify overexploitation of biological resources and unsustainable agriculture as themost prominent threats to biodiversity. We highlight five opportunities for action at multiple levels to ensure that conservation and ecological restoration objectives, programs, and activities take account of complex underlying and interacting factors and produce tangible benefits for the biodiversity and people of Madagascar

Madagascar’s extraordinary biodiversity: Evolution, distribution, and use

Madagascar's biota is hyperdiverse and includes exceptional levels of endemicity. We review the current state of knowledge on Madagascar's past and current terrestrial and freshwater biodiversity by compiling and presenting comprehensive data on species diversity, endemism, and rates of species description and human uses, in addition to presenting an updated and simplified map of vegetation types. We report a substantial increase of records and species new to science in recent years; however, the diversity and evolution of many groups remain practically unknown (e.g., fungi and most invertebrates). Digitization efforts are increasing the resolution of species richness patterns and we highlight the crucial role of field- and collections-based research for advancing biodiversity knowledge and identifying gaps in our understanding, particularly as species richness corresponds closely to collection effort. Phylogenetic diversity patterns mirror that of species richness and endemism in most of the analyzed groups. We highlight humid forests as centers of diversity and endemism because of their role as refugia and centers of recent and rapid radiations. However, the distinct endemism of other areas, such as the grassland-woodland mosaic of the Central Highlands and the spiny forest of the southwest, is also biologically important despite lower species richness. The documented uses of Malagasy biodiversity are manifold, with much potential for the uncovering of new useful traits for food, medicine, and climate mitigation. The data presented here showcase Madagascar as a unique living laboratory for our understanding of evolution and the complex interactions between people and nature. The gathering and analysis of biodiversity data must continue and accelerate if we are to fully understand and safeguard this unique subset of Earth's biodiversity

Towards a model of strategic roster planning and control : an empirical study of nurse rostering practices in the UK National Health Service

Despite the criticality of nurse rostering practices, there is a surprising lack of attention paid to this managerial activity both in practice and in the health-service management literature. This paper reports the results of an inductive, empirical study of rostering practices in the UK National Health Service with a view to developing a shared understanding of roster planning processes and of what constitutes rostering effectiveness. A survey of rostering practices in 50 wards, followed by five in-depth, longitudinal case studies, revealed the complexity of rostering activities, and identified the main design parameters, which were used to specify rostering systems and to prepare periodic rosters. Rostering activities were perceived to directly impact upon service delivery, resource utilization and nurse retention. A number of poor rostering practices were identified, which could lead to dysfunctional behaviour. This analysis points to a clear managerial imperative to improve local competencies in roster planning and control, recognizing their strategic significance in contributing to hospital effectiveness. A ‘Strategic Roster Planning and Control (SRPC)’ model is proposed, which may provide a framework for evaluating rostering effectiveness, and a platform for the sharing of best practice, in order to stimulate organizational learning and achieve nationwide improvements in hospital performance

Do you know what really drives your business’s performance?

Surprisingly few executives use data from their own organizations to test their assumptions about what factors drive financial performance. By gaining new insights into performance relationships within their own companies, managers can develop smarter strategies

Performance topology mapping : understanding the drivers of performance

Understanding the drivers of performance is fundamental to the development of operations strategy and the effective management of operations. Emerging from the service management literature, the service profit chain is a framework which draws together many assumptions about the drivers of performance. From a different perspective, the performance management literature offers several approaches to understanding performance relationships, the most widely recognised being strategy mapping. Each of these approaches has been influential in both academic and practitioner domains, but they share a common limitation: each may lead researchers and managers to make assumptions about performance relationships that may not hold true. In this paper a different approach, called performance topology mapping, is proposed and evaluated. The evaluation is based on a comparative analysis of the service profit chains and performance topology maps generated on the basis of data collected in two large retail chains. The analysis suggests that performance topologies provide rich, context specific descriptions of the complexities of service performance, revealing performance relationships that were not apparent in the service profit chain and leading to a better understanding of performance relationships in the two organisations. Reconfiguring, or ‘morphing’ the topologies provides a fresh perspective which can facilitate organisational learning and provide a more robust basis for building strategy maps. It is contended that performance topology mapping may facilitate the generation of new narratives to explain performance, without the constraint of generic models or prior managerial assumptions, and thus enhance the context sensitive understanding of performance relationships

Towards a contingency theory of TQM in services ‐ how implementation varies on the basis of volume and variety

This paper explores differences in the implementation of total quality management (TQM) in different types of service process, using a typology which distinguishes between services positioned along the continua of volume and variety. A case‐study‐based analysis of the implementation of six core TQM precepts was conducted to explore differences in implementation between professional (low volume, customised) services, mass (high volume, standardised) services and service shops (positioned midway on the continua). The study revealed some significant differences in the maturity of TQM implementation in the different types of service. The results suggest that mass services are conducive to the implementation of quality measurement, SPC and preventative approaches to quality improvement. However, professional services are more conducive to the cultural managerial changes associated with TQM. Interestingly, whilst it was hypothesised that TQM practices would be most readily transferable to mass services, the results suggested that the service shop was the most conducive environment for TQM implementation

New service design in the NHS : an evaluation of the strategic alignment of NHS Direct

Awareness of inconsistencies and variability in the delivery of health services across the UK has heightened in recent years, leading to general acknowledgement that a move away from "health care by post code" is a strategic priority for the National Health Service (NHS). NHS Direct, a cad centre service for patients and their carers, is unique in the NHS in that it represents an entirely new service concept, with a rare opportunity to design a single nation-wide service from scratch, and to manage and co-ordinate a delivery system-consistently throughout the country. Evaluates the strategic alignment of NHS Direct during the first three years of implementation through an analysis of its service concept, its operational objectives, the design of its delivery systems and its volume and variety characteristics. The evaluation repeals an absence of a central design specification which has resulted in wide variation in the call centres' service portfolios, resource bases; competences, telephony and clinical expert system-Contends that variation and variability in the design of the call centres has severely compromised NHS Direct's ability to meet its strategic and operational objectives, resulting in strategic misalignment Also identifies missed opportunities to learn from the growing call centre literature and from service shops in other industries

An evaluation of nurse rostering practices in the National Health Service

The scheduling of nursing time on hospital wards is critical to the delivery of patient care, resource utilization and employee satisfaction. Over the past decade many hospital wards in the United Kingdom (UK) have moved away from the traditional planning of rosters by a single manager, towards more participative processes known as self-rostering and team rostering. This paper tests the hypothesis, developed from the literature, that the three types of rostering approach may be positioned along a continuum. Self-rostering at one extreme, is conducive to staff empowerment, motivation and roster effectiveness, whilst departmental rostering, at the other, leads to perceived autocracy, reduced empowerment, lower levels of staff motivation and roster effectiveness. Team rostering is positioned mid-way on this continuum. This paper reports the findings of an empirical study of nurse rostering practices in the UK National Health Service (NHS), with a view to developing an understanding of the implications of implementing these three rostering approaches and testing the above hypothesis. The survey of rostering practices in 50 NHS wards, and in-depth case studies of seven wards, revealed that each of the three rostering approaches has benefits and limitations and a picture emerges quite different from that implied by the research hypothesis. Whilst the literature suggests that the choice of rostering approach determines the level of perceived autocracy, staff motivation and roster effectiveness, it is proposed in this paper that selection of rostering approach should be contingent upon operational context. The paper concludes with a framework which stipulates that the choice of rostering approach for a ward should be determined on the basis of four contingent variables, namely, ward size, demand variability, demand predictability, and complexity of skill mix. It is recommended that departmental rostering be applied in large wards with complex rostering problems, whilst team rostering is more appropriate for medium sized wards, and self-rostering appropriate for small wards

Applying gap analysis in the health service to inform the service improvement agenda

Purpose – The need to better understand patient priorities in order to provide higher levels of patient care is an ongoing challenge for managers across the UK NHS. Indeed, the failure of service providers to understand patient priorities can lead to action plans, investment and management decisions which are internally rather than externally focused. This paper seeks to report on the development and evaluation of a tool for measuring the gap between patients’ priorities and their perceptions of an NHS service, and the match between the patient and management perspective. Design/methodology/approach – The tool, an adaptation of the renowned SERVQUAL measurement methodology, is tested in UK NHS breast‐screening unit. The tool is used to measure the perceptions of two different types of patients, as well as those of three different types of staff. Findings – The study suggests that the tool can be used to quantify the gap between patient priorities and their perceptions of health service performance. The tool may also be used to measure staff's perceptions of patient priorities and perceptions, with a view to identifying those functional staff who best understand the patient perspective. Originality/value – The methodology facilitates the identification of key differences in the expectations and perceptions of different health service market segments, which could have direct implications for service design and delivery at an operational level. Furthermore, it can be applied to identify differences in functional perspectives and thus expose valuable opportunities for intra‐organisational learning