Measuring quality performance of cadastral survey and deeds registration work processes

When land parcel boundaries are surveyed for purposes of registration in most southern African countries, the cadastral survey records and diagrams prepared have to be examined and approved by the Surveyor General first before they can be registered in the Deeds Registries. For such records to be approved, their quality must conform to requirements stipulated in relevant acts and regulations. Where regulatory requirements are not met, the records are rejected and returned for corrections and resubmission. From a cross-organizational context, poor quality documents lodged upstream have the effect of congesting examination processes downstream as records are rejected and returned backwards due to quality failure. The paper proposes a quality performance measurement model to analyze quality performance in land administration work processes. The developed model is tested on 2 survey examination and approval sites and 3 deeds registration sites in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa. Based on below expected quality results obtained at one of the sites, a root cause analysis was conducted to establish recurring and underlying causal factors upon which quality improvement strategies can be built on.     

我国经济发展指标体系的构建与应用研究——基于经济发展的数量与质量角度

经济增长与经济发展是经济学中的两个重要概念,本文把单纯的经济增长划归为经济发展的数量方面,将经济发展分为数量与质量两个方面,并基于这个划分角度构建了经济发展指标体系,提供了构建经济指标体系的一个新视角。同时,本文利用该经济发展指标体系对我国1978～2009年的宏观经济数据进行实证研究,刻画了我国经济发展全貌的变动趋势,为经济发展方面的研究提供了一个全局地图。     

质检机构B/S架构检验信息管理系统的开发应用

对原有的C/S结构下产品质量监督检验综合服务平台进行改进与提升，通过B/S架构平台完整实现内部流程和业务的信息化管理。同时，对外拓宽检验信息状态，及时通知、查询企业质量状况等内容，以适应我国电子政务和现代管理发展趋势，更好的建设服务型质检技术支撑机构。     

电力建设项目的质量成本管理研究——以A电厂建设项目为例

以项目质量成本管理理论为依据，结合A电厂工程项目施工的质量成本管理现状，分析了A电厂工程项目在现场安装质量成本管理过程存在的问题，提出了电力建设质量成本管理的理念，总结提出了具体且可操作的质量成本管理对策以及相关问题的运作思路，以此为基础提出电力建设质量成本管理的途径和方法。同时，为其他电力企业加强质量成本管理提供借鉴。     

‘The times they are a changin’? transformative organizational innovations in financial services in the UK

Much of the management guru-based literature emphasizes the transformational capacity of organizational innovations (OIs). The excellence, quality and reengineering literature purports to abandon hierarchy, bureaucracy and management control; to eradicate conflict and instil an new team and quality-based ethos. Yet much remains unknown about how these OIs are operationalized. Here we question both theoretically and empirically the validity of such transformational claims by reference to our research within financial services. We argue that despite considerable changes, OIs remain both a condition of, and location for, the exercise of organizational power relations. Bureaucratic and hierarchical structures continue to pervade organizations. Work-related pressures and tensions abound concerning issues such as control over the quality versus the quantity of work output, work intensification and job insecurity. All of which impinge upon the performance of OIs, and belie notions of a ‘transformation’ of organizational cultures, structures or strategies.     

Consumer ethnocentrism,product necessity and quality perceptions of Russian consumers

Retail buyers in Russia have indicated that some customers have expressed a desire to purchase domestically produced products over imports. Consumer ethnocentrism has been proposed as a measure to provide retail buyers with the information necessary to market to these consumers. The purpose of this research is to determine if perceived product quality of products differs based on country of origin, product necessity and consumer ethnocentric tendency. A repeated measures ANOVA test indicates that perceived quality differs by necessity, by product, by country. A consumer ethnocentrism effect on the overall model, however, was not significant. We conclude that Russian consumers do perceive differences in product quality based on country of origin and product necessity, but that consumer ethnocentrism does not have an effect on perceived product quality.     

Quality management practices and their relationship to buyer’s supplier ratings: a study in the Korean automotive industry

This research explores if quality management practices are different among suppliers whose performance is rated high, medium, or low by a common buying company and identifies which specific practices contribute to the differences. The entire population of first-tier suppliers to a Korean auto assembler was surveyed to measure use of quality management practices. Useable returns were received from 25% of the suppliers surveyed. To measure conformance quality and overall rating, suppliers were categorized into high, medium, and low performing groups based on the buying company’s data. Multivariate analysis of variance was done using general linear model (GLM-MANOVA) to explore differences in the high-, medium-, and low-performing supplier groups based on their use of quality management practices. No statistically significant differences were found when suppliers were categorized based on conformance quality. However, when categorized based on overall rating, the highest rated suppliers were found to emphasize process management and employee satisfaction to a greater degree than the lowest rated suppliers.     

Development and Psychometric validation of the Diabetes Therapy-Related QOL (DTR-QOL) Questionnaire

Abstract

Objective:

We developed and evaluated the psychometric properties of the Diabetes Therapy-Related QOL (DTR-QOL) as a disease-specific, self-administered questionnaire to assess the influence of diabetes treatment on patient QOL, regardless of treatment method.

Methods:

This new questionnaire was developed and validated in a standardized manner: Item development, pilot-testing and psychometric validation. A survey was conducted using the provisional version of the questionnaire, and reliability and validity were evaluated with psychometric testing.

Results:

The provisional version of the questionnaire was generated with 29 items through literature review and pilot testing. For psychometric assessment, analyses were performed on the responses of 284 adult Japanese patients with diabetes. Factor analysis by the principal factor method with promax rotation revealed 4 factors; “burden on social activities and daily activities” (13 items), “anxiety and dissatisfaction with treatment” (8 items), “hypoglycemia” (4 items), and “satisfaction with treatment” (4 items). For reliability, the intraclass correlation was 0.92, and Cronbach’s alpha coefficient was 0.94, indicating adequate test-retest reliability and internal consistency. For known-group validity, there were significant differences in scores for following variables: age, diabetes type, HbA1c, treatment method, glycemic control, hypoglycemia, nocturnal hypoglycemia, concern about weight gain, health status (patient assessment), and degree of communication with physician.

Conclusions:

The DTR-QOL, with good reliability and validity, can assess the influence of diabetes treatment on patient QOL. The DTR-QOL can be used regardless of treatment method that patients receive, and this characteristic enables to detect a difference on patients QOL between treatment methods before and after a switch of treatment. Limitations of this study include representativeness of the patient sample. The relatively small number of patients with type 1 diabetes should be noted. Also, responsiveness of the DTR-QOL has not yet been examined.     

An incentive pricing with two types of qualities and users

This paper analyses quality discrimination when the monopolist provides two types of qualities for two-types of users, for example, in the software market. The users using software are confronted with two types of quality in using the software: one is related to learning, while the other is operation. In addition, the users are discriminated by the frequency of utilization for software, for example, low-demand and high-demand users. In this paper, the characteristics for bi-directional quality distortion in both learning quality and operation quality are analysed. It is shown that the distortion can occur both for low demanders and for high demanders. Finally, from public policy, a subsidy mechanism is introduced.     

简析高职高专学生的特点及对策

高职高专学生是一个特殊的高等教育群体,其有着不同于其他高等教育群体的独特特点。本文以职业技术学院学生为对象,简单分析了高职高专学生的学习生活特点,以期发现他们在学习和生活中的优缺点,并且提出了相应的对策,从而达到提高学生社会适应性的目的。