THE DRIVERS OF PRODUCTIVITY

This paper will try to demonstrate that productivity is the basis of all productive systems, which are viewed as transformers of utility and value, since the search for maximum productive efficiency is necessary to reduce production costs and thus produce value. After presenting a coherent frame of reference, we shall examine the drivers of productivity and then move on to discuss the consequences of the continual growth in productivity and the non-economic aspects linked to the gradual improvement in productivit

the pillars of learning understanding studying and explaining

This paper is based on the hypothesis that intelligent persons have a high capacity to understand and learn effectively, because processes involving study and explanation allow them to develop the capacity to construct a system of coherent models that can be quickly updated. The first part of the paper will highlight the logic and power of systemic understanding and learning that is founded in Systems Thinking. It is clear that understanding and learning represent different mental activities: We understand when we form a coherent model of a concept, but we learn only when that model becomes stable and permanent; when it is memorized so that we can repeat and apply it. There is no learning without studying. For this reason, the second part of the paper proposes ten steps for studying effectively (which permits understanding) and efficiently (using minimum effort). But how do we attain understanding? Often we reach understanding through personal experience; in most cases, however, we are helped by a professor, a teacher or a textbook that provides us with an explanation. The explanation process represents the topic of the third part of the paper, where the author considers the five most important structures of the explanation process—the common, classical, procedural, systemic and teleological structures. In this sense, Understanding, Studying and Explaining can be considered the three pillars on which are based learning and knowledge

Capitalistic Firms as Cognitive Intelligent and Explorative Agents. The Beer’s VSM and Mella’s Most Views

In this paper we propose a general model to understand (not merely describe) the operating logic of Business Value-Creating Organizations and, in particular of the capitalistic firm - that is, the business for-profit organization. When viewed as autopoietic and teleological organizations, firms can be interpreted both as viable systems (following Beer’s Viable System Model, or VSM) and as operating systems for efficient transformation (following Mella’s MOEST, or Model of the Organization as an Efficient System of Transformation). Beer believes that organizations must be viewed as viable systems, which, through their structure, which is capable of learning and cognition, can achieve an enduring structural coupling with the environment, continuing in this way to exist for a long time through continually adapting to the environment. Mella asserts that organizations must be conceived of as transformation systems that carry out five parallel transformations: (1) a productive transformation of factors into production; this is a transformation of utility, governed by productivity and by quality; (2) an economic transformation of costs and revenues into operating income; this is a transformation of value, governed by prices and therefore by the market; (3) a financial transformation of risks, which transforms capital into returns and guarantees the maintenance of its financial integrity; (4) an entrepreneurial transformation of information into strategies, which leads to a continual readjustment of the firm's strategic position; (5) a managerial (organizational) transformation of strategies into actions of management control. The MOEST proposes a system of performance indices and measures and highlights the mutual relationships among these indexes. Based on VSM and MOEST, we will try to demonstrate that, just as individuals in a Social System are responsible for their own actions and behavior with respect to the other individuals in the system, Organizations, as vital entities that make up the Social System, must also necessarily be held accountable for the economic and non-economic consequences of their actions. The complex “thinking-action” interaction leads the organization to behave as a cognitive entity, as a vital unitary system, that must be held “socially responsible” for its own actions, as these are produced, in turn, by its own decisions. This results in the necessity and inevitability of CSR.Specifically, the MOEST shows that the action of every BVCO assumes a Corporate Governance that specifies stakeholder objectives and environmental constraints, in this way defining the various levels of CSR. The CSR thus represents a fundamental variable in the strategy of BVCOs, as corporate ethics and reputation is based on this. For this reason we have enlarged the original structure of the Kaplan & Norton’s Balanced Scorecard (BSC) by including in the model of four scorecards a fifth scorecard that measures the firm’s capacity to create well-being for the collectivity and demonstrate the firm’s social utility by indicating its capacity to achieve social and environmental objectives

synthetic performance indicators for residential housing agencies

Many public administrations produce and distribute public services through a number of similar local autonomous organizations, or institutions, operating in different parts of the territory assigned to them under a centralized authority. Examples of this are the public residential housing institutions, the institutions for waste disposal, health care institutions, and education institutions. The problem arises regarding the evaluation of the performance of these local organizations and institutions not in absolute but in relative terms, in order to determine what incentives or sanctions should be meted out to them. This study presents the methodological problems, the data analysis, and the initial results of the method adopted by the Lombardy Region to create a system of performance indicators that will permit an automatic ranking of the Residential Housing Agencies in Lombardy (ALER) according to their performance, based on information from their balance sheets. A performance index was devised by rationally combining the results of three different analyses: position analysis, ranking analysis, and scoring analysis. The results allowed the central administration to: (1) motivate the managers of the local units through a system of performance-based incentives; (2) aggregate poorly performing local units or outsource inefficient functions; and (3) create competition among local units and raise overall performance levels

Reducing the environmental impact of surgery on a global scale: systematic review and co-prioritization with healthcare workers in 132 countries

Abstract Background Healthcare cannot achieve net-zero carbon without addressing operating theatres. The aim of this study was to prioritize feasible interventions to reduce the environmental impact of operating theatres. Methods This study adopted a four-phase Delphi consensus co-prioritization methodology. In phase 1, a systematic review of published interventions and global consultation of perioperative healthcare professionals were used to longlist interventions. In phase 2, iterative thematic analysis consolidated comparable interventions into a shortlist. In phase 3, the shortlist was co-prioritized based on patient and clinician views on acceptability, feasibility, and safety. In phase 4, ranked lists of interventions were presented by their relevance to high-income countries and low–middle-income countries. Results In phase 1, 43 interventions were identified, which had low uptake in practice according to 3042 professionals globally. In phase 2, a shortlist of 15 intervention domains was generated. In phase 3, interventions were deemed acceptable for more than 90 per cent of patients except for reducing general anaesthesia (84 per cent) and re-sterilization of ‘single-use’ consumables (86 per cent). In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for high-income countries were: introducing recycling; reducing use of anaesthetic gases; and appropriate clinical waste processing. In phase 4, the top three shortlisted interventions for low–middle-income countries were: introducing reusable surgical devices; reducing use of consumables; and reducing the use of general anaesthesia. Conclusion This is a step toward environmentally sustainable operating environments with actionable interventions applicable to both high– and low–middle–income countries

CONTABILIDAD

Il dizionario di contabilità presenta in modo critico i termini che caratterizzano l'area dell contabilità, del bilancio, delle valutazioni e dei costi di produzione nelle imprese

Il controllo degli investimenti. Alcune semplici regole per la scelta degli investimenti finanziari

Dopo avere dimostrato come l'impresa possa essere descritta come un trasformatore finanziario e come l'investimento sia l'unità del calcolo finanziario svolto dall'imprenditore, il lavoro presenta i diversi criteri di scelta elaborati dalla matematica finanziaria. Applica tali criteri alla scelta degli investimenti per il continuo ridimensionamento del portafoglio prodotti