A dramaturgical analysis of shift report patterns with cost implications: a case study

This secondary analysis uses Goffman's stage drama to explore the roles of registered nurses in videotaped reports in a hospital. Each report was a performance by the charge nurse which affected the climate, interactions, and duration of the report.     

How Should the Graduate Economics Core be Changed?

The authors present suggestions by graduate students from a range of economics departments for improving the first-year core sequence in economics. The students identified a number of elements that should be added to the core: more training in building microeconomic models, a discussion of the methodological foundations of model-building, more emphasis on institutions to motivate and contextualize macroeconomic models, and greater focus on econometric practice rather than theory. The authors hope that these suggestions will encourage departments to take a fresh look at the content of the first-year core.     

Using DEA to Identify and Manage Congestion

This paper deals with identifying and managing congestion. For this purpose, DEA (Data Envelopment Analysis) is used to identify congestion when the data show it to be present, estimate its amounts, and separate it from other forms of inefficiency. DEA is also used to identify where improvements may be made in the management of congestion and to estimate input decreases and output increases that may be made after managerial inefficiencies in managing congestion are eliminated. The treatment here differs from the usual approaches that are restricted to identifying sources and amounts of technical inefficiency and congestion to be eliminated. The focus is directed rather to efficiency of performances in the presence of inefficiencies imposed by, say, labor contracts or government regulations and policies. Other developments include a use of rates of substitution formulated in terms of slack variables that help to avoid instabilities associated with the very small values that are often encountered in the use of dual variables to determine the rates of substitution. These rates of substitution are intended for use in guiding allocations (or reallocations) of inputs between different plants (or other entities) in ways that can further improve performance without reducing the congesting inputs that are to be employed. Hence modifications are needed to extend the usual restrictions to movements on the efficiency frontier so that frontiers associated with congestion and other inefficiencies can be dealt with.     

Efficiency in fundraising and distributions to cause-related social profit enterprises

Managerial efficiency is as important in social profit enterprises (SPEs) as it is for more traditional financial-profit organizations. In this regard, both donors and SPE executives use efficiency information in making decisions. Here, we suggest a linked, two-stage Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology for assessing efficiency in both charitable fundraising and cause delivery, while empirically investigating results for international aid organizations. The model allows efficiency assessment for both the fundraising and utilization of generated funds when directed for cause-related purposes. This, in particular, allows for measurement of the organization’s managerial efficiency relative to both multiple phased goals and peer organizations. Additionally, the approach provides benchmarks for identifying sources of improved performance in fundraising and program/cause service delivery. It can also project the results of changes in inputs on the amount of resources available for the charitable organization’s cause.The proposed model(s) allow the examiner to assess performance while, at the same time, identifying those instances wherein the simple ratio measures commonly used in non-profit assessment are (1) deficient, and/or (2) misleading because of the use of ‘incorrect’ variables, or the ‘hiding’ of inefficiency if/when tax form categories are filed by an SPE. Importantly, the suggested two-stage DEA methodology can be useful for any organization with multiple-linked goals.     

PROPOSAL FOR A NEW MEASURE OF CORRUPTION, ILLUSTRATED WITH ITALIAN DATA

Standard cross-national measures of corruption are assembled through surveys. We propose a novel alternative objective measure that consists of the difference between a measure of the physical quantities of public infrastructure and the cumulative price government pays for public capital stocks. Where the difference is larger between the monies spent and the existing physical infrastructure, more money is being siphoned off to mismanagement, fraud, bribes, kickbacks, and embezzlement; that is, corruption is greater. We create this measure for Italy's 95 provinces and 20 regions as of the mid-1990s, controlling at the regional level for possible differences in the costs of public construction.     

Sustainability and Earth Resources: Life Cycle Assessment Modeling

Corporations are facing increasing risks associated with ecosystems from both natural drivers, such as climate change, as well as institutional drivers resulting from retailers and brands, increasingly making supplier decisions based on life cycle reporting and indexing. These efforts reflect a transition from traditional firm sustainability to a more quantitative product focus, within which the importance and weight of earth resources and ecosystems is dramatically increasing. This paper provides an overview of the limitations traditional life cycle assessment (LCA) methods and presents emerging developments to improve on LCA for resources and ecosystems. This includes LCA efforts to account for spatial relevance, indices of stress, stocks and flows and integrated valuation of services and trade‐offs. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The split delivery vehicle routing problem with minimum delivery amounts

In the vehicle routing problem, a fleet of vehicles must service the demands of customers in a least-cost way. By allowing multiple vehicles to service the same customer (i.e., splitting deliveries), substantial savings in travel costs are possible. However, split deliveries are often an inconvenience to the customer who would prefer to have demand serviced in a single visit. We consider the vehicle routing problem in which split deliveries are allowed only if a minimum fraction of a customer’s demand is serviced by a vehicle. We develop a heuristic method for solving this problem and report computational results on a wide range of problem sets.     

Impact of telework on exhaustion and job engagement: a job demands and job resources model

Teleworking, the increasingly common practice, which involves working away from the office using technology, entails changes in the experience of work. Such changes may influence the demands and resources associated with a job. While research on burnout has addressed the role of exhaustion and job engagement using the Job Demands‐Resources model, existing literature has focused on traditional work modes. This paper explores the effects on job demands and resources to understand the processes through which telework impacts the exhaustion and engagement of the teleworker. We find that the positive effect of telework revolves around reduced work pressure and role conflict and increased autonomy. The negative effect of telework is expressed through increased role ambiguity and reduced support and feedback. Overall, we find that telework is negatively related to both exhaustion and job engagement and that job demands and resources mediate these relationships.