Measuring effectiveness of TQM training: an Indian study

Total Quality Management (TQM) is a never ending process of improving work processes. It operates according to the premise that organisations cannot rest comfortably without continuously improving whatever is being done. There has to be a culture of continuous improvement and everyone in the organisation must strive towards it. This could be accomplished only through continuous training. The present study seeks to examine the role of training as well as measuring its effectiveness for successful implementation of TQM. For this purpose, data have been retrieved from a public sector enterprise manufacturing crude steel in India. The findings of the study are based purely on primary survey. Pearson's Correlation Coefficient with their significance levels have been used to measure the effectiveness of TQM training and the correlation between TQM training and selected factors. The authors have found that training creates awareness, builds employees’ commitment to quality policy and strategy, facilitates teamwork, enhances performance standards, and bolsters the skills and abilities of employees. However, the organisation needs to focus more upon improving communication competencies, multiple skill development and customer value training. Successful TQM training in the organisation needs more budgetary allocation and commitment, support and enthusiasm of the top management.     

Networked business model development for emerging technology-based services

This study examines the development of a networked business model for emerging technology-based services. Few studies explore the development and use of business models, and research on networked business models is particularly scarce. With observation and interview data from a network pilot of technology-based services the study presents the concept of a networked business model as a dynamic device in planning an emerging business in a net of actors. The findings identify phases of business net evolution when business opportunities are identified, created, and potentially exploited and recognize the role of entrepreneurial actors in the development.     

Kitchen concerns at the boundary between markets and consumption: agencing practice change in times of scarcity (Husmodern,Sweden 1938–1958)

ABSTRACT

This paper investigates practice dynamics in kitchens situated at the boundary between markets and consumption. The kitchen is conceptualized as a market-consumption junction, a space where multiple concerned actors in markets and consumption come to shape, and get shaped by, the practices in the kitchen. Drawing upon archival research of the Swedish household magazine Husmodern (1938–1958), this study traces two matters of concern in and around the kitchen: the scarcity of resources in food markets and the scarcity of time to prepare food for consumption. Findings reveal how thrifty and convenient practices became enacted, and their transformative implications for consumption, demand, and market action. The mechanisms involved in disrupting and reconnecting the dynamic elements of practices (meaning, competence, and objects) are explained through the notions of concerning, agencing, and overflows, which recursively work to redraw the boundaries between markets and consumption to establish novel practices.