务必采取有效措施坚决遏制煤矿重特大事故频发势头

为贯彻落实中央领导同志重要指示和批示精神，认真吸取山西省大同市杏儿沟煤矿“8．11”特别重大瓦斯爆炸事故和阳煤集团三矿“8．14”特大瓦斯爆炸事故教训，加大煤矿安全工作力度，坚决扭转部分地区和单位煤矿安全生产被动状况，遏制重特大事故。8月15日国家安全生产监督管理局(国家煤矿安全监察局)在京召开全国煤矿安全生产电话会议。国家局局长王显政主持会议，并对加强煤矿安全工作提出了五项要求。     

河南新野:创造33年连续盈利的神话

在河南南阳,有一家国有大中型纺织企业--新野纺织股份有限公司,多年来致力于企业的经营机制、管理体制和技术进步及生产经营管理等方面的探索和创新,努力培育自身优势,使企业在市场过度竞争的严峻形势下,不仅成功地度过了困境,而且保持了高效发展的良好势头,取得了良好的经营业绩.     

Synopsys:演绎一个CEO的技术经济学故事

第一次听说Aart的名字是在一次研讨会上,邻座的《财富》杂志高级编辑David Kirkpatrick说,Aart de Geus是他所认识的高科技领域最具真知灼见者之一。4个月后我有机会在清华企业家协会(TEEC)年会上见到了     

Redefining the Toyota Production System: the European side of the story

Trapped into the sterile opposition between the empowerment and the management by stress approaches, the debate on the Toyota Production System has failed to provide a clear understanding of the social and organisational conditions that make this system viable. By focusing on the work organisation, the market configuration and the industrial infrastructure of the European transplants of Toyota, this paper proposes an alternative approach centred on the notions of 'contextualisation' and 'human agency.'     

Anatomy of a social partnership: A stakeholder perspective

We offer an anatomic analysis of a social partnership among a complex network of stakeholder organizations. Contributions of this research are twofold. First, we use explanatory case data to develop a framework of stakeholder collaboration in a complex setting involving a mix of for-profit and non-profit organizations. Our study is motivated by a need for understanding about how organizations can work within social partnerships to achieve their goals (be they profit related or otherwise). Second, we offer insight about lateral relationship exchange from the view of the entire project—a perspective not typically employed in the domain of relationship marketing. The focal issue in the case, use of technology to improve highway safety, is a social initiative which further sets our study apart in the relationship marketing literature. Using fieldnotes from 33 in-depth interviews, we employ a mix of inductive and deductive reasoning to formulate a conceptual framework and research propositions for the social partnership. The conceptual framework offers in-depth understanding of social partnership development and relationship dynamics. This, in turn, may help stakeholders achieve organizational goals more effectively in this unique environment.     

Value Judgements: Evaluating Design: A Scottish Perspective on a Global Issue

This paper reviews the status of value judgements within Design and Technology education in Scotland in relation to National Guidelines. It highlights consequences for teacher education. These include developing critical awareness, acquiring and assessing information and developing the skills of decision-making and appraisal necessary for discrimination and judgement in the context of an increasingly international arena. The literature suggests that there is little support for the teaching of product appraisal and the evaluative strategies required. Initial teacher education and in-service programmes are being developed to enable teachers to respond to the challenge of this often controversial aspect of Design and Technology. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

A suicide survivor: the life of a Chinese worker

In 2010, 18 employees working for Foxconn in China attempted suicide. These shocking events focused the world's attention on the manufacturing supply chains of China's export industry and the experience of working within them. What had driven these young, migrant, assembly line workers to commit such a desperate act? This article provides a first‐hand account of the experiences of one of those who survived a suicide attempt, 17‐year‐old Tian Yu. Her personal narrative is embedded within the broader context of labour process, work organisation and managerial practice at Foxconn, the Taiwanese‐owned multinational that provides products and components for Apple and others. The factory conditions are further shaped by the company trade union and Chinese government policies. The paper concludes with additional contextualisation indicating the emergence of an alliance of workers, students, scholars and transnational labour movement activists who are campaigning for Chinese workers' rights.     

A process-based assessment framework for technology education: a case study

Over the past few years, educators in South Africa have been subjected to many changes in the educational sphere. Not only was a new approach to education, namely outcomes-based education (OBE) implemented, but the curriculum was also changed and now consists of eight learning areas, some of which are groupings of traditional school subjects (e.g. languages). Technology, however, is a new and for most educators unfamiliar learning area. The implementation in 1998 of the technology learning area in South African schools had educators reeling as they were unprepared and untrained to facilitate this new learning area. There was also limited information available for the assessment of learners in technology. Learners’ competence in technology education should be assessed in a meaningful and responsible manner, which requires more than just the evaluation of the end product. The purpose of this research was to develop a process-based assessment framework to support the technology teacher with assessment activities, which incorporate the technological process and provide opportunities for the assessment of aspects of the thinking sub-processes as part of the technological process. Qualitative action research was undertaken. Three Grade 7 learners and a teacher at a parallel medium primary school (school where two official languages are used congruently as medium of instruction) were involved in the case study. Resource, case study and a capability task were done by the three learners. For the purpose of the research project, information obtained from the capability task was used. This research focused on the initial idea generation stage (stage five) of the technological process, as well as creative and critical thinking (as thinking sub-processes) processes. Observation and semi-structured interviews were used as data-collection methods. The validity and reliability of the research were ensured by means of triangulation. Three main categories (findings) were named as aspects which could be employed when compiling a process-based assessment framework, namely outcomes, content and assessment methodology. Further subcategories were identified within each of these main categories. The framework will serve as a roadmap to technology teachers, especially those with little or no pedagogical knowledge in technology to assist them to base their assessment on sound methodology.     

NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals' Costs: A Comment

The purpose of this comment is toclarify and extend a recent paper entitled NAFTA as a Means of Raising Rivals Costs. The paper indicates that the complexity of complying with the rules of NAFTA may lead to a decrease in competition in the domestic market. The comment shows that thecomplexity of NAFTA is related to the rules of origin which are a part of virtually any free-tradeagreement. Since rules of origin are a necessary part of virtually any trade agreement, the conclusions of the paper are not restricted to NAFTA but can be generalized to a large part of international trade.     

A critique of knowledge management: using a social constructionist model

There is a increasing interest in the area of knowledge management. Few studies exist which are holistic and seek to cover knowledge management as an emerging paradigm which embraces both theory and practice.
This article describes such a study, throughout the article a critical perspective is adopted and applied to Knowledge Management.     

A customer-driven model of job design: towards a general theory

The considerable debate about the level of discretion that should be accorded workers in performing production tasks has often lacked effective conceptual support. The authors develop a job discretion model based on customer preferences. The model is empirically tested and used to resolve the discretion question and clarify relevant job design and human resource issues.     

Modelling a Research Portfolio Using AHP: A Group Decision Process

The problem of choosing a research portfolio has been in the literature for many years. Suggested solutions have ranged from simple scoring models to complex mathematical resource allocation models, but the acceptance rate has been low. In this paper we present an application of a model based on the Analytical Hierarchy Process to a group decision situation. The results are encouraging, showing the positive nature of a model as a focal point in the process. They show that the interactive nature of the methodology encourages the development of subjective estimates and their subsequent discussion. An attempt to counter the problems of biasing has also been made. The methodology presented is seen to be easy to use and adaptable, and becomes an integrating mechanism for the group.     

Marketing research by a small industrial firm: A case study

There is a growing need today for industrial marketers to conduct marketing research and use the results in making profitable business decisions. This paper describes a marketing research study conducted by a small industrial firm and discusses the nature and extent of its impact on the firm's operations. Several implications and practical guidelines are derived for industrial marketers in general, based on the firm's marketing research experience.     

The framework of a global company: A conceptualization and preliminary validation

Clearly, a substantial challenge for multinational corporations (MNCs), in the current environment of intensified competition and rapid industry consolidation, is one of much greater worldwide integration. Necessitated by intense competitive pressures, MNCs are integrating their disparate country operations in order to achieve economies across markets and operating units. This article integrates the motives and facilitators of the progression towards commonality in practices and metrics across subsidiaries and affiliates into a comprehensive framework of a global company. Preliminary results from a pilot study of the characteristics of common global practices among a sample of MNCs are presented as an initial validation of the conceptualization. The article also explores the benefits MNCs derive from the implementation of common practices across their worldwide operations, in pursuit of a global strategy.     

Commuting and Congestion: A Simulation Model of a Decentralized Metropolitan Area

In this paper, a simulation model of commuting behavior in a metropolitan area with decentralized employment and congestion is developed. The model is used to explore the linkage between the dispersed land use patterns in U.S. cities and long commuting journeys which cause congestion and air pollution. The results show that increasing the number of suburban subcenters in a metropolitan area could reduce commuting by 15% to 50%. However, only about one quarter of total urban travel is for commuting. Therefore the reduction in total urban travel that could be expected to result from even drastic policy measures to decentralize employment would probably be low—perhaps as small as 5%. Data are also presented giving private versus social costs of commuting per mile in central cities and suburbs.     

郝建秀:一种精神一个传奇

在纺织人的心中,有一个震耳的名字--郝建秀. 在半个世纪以来,有一个蜚声四海的品牌--郝建秀小组. 在纺织业乃至全国,有一个难以超越的操作典范--郝建秀工作法. 近几年,凡是纺织行业的重大活动,都能看到全国政协副主席郝建秀的身影,她关注纺织,热爱纺织,一如50年前那样.在不久前举行的全国纺织科技大会上,她又在百忙之中应邀出席大会并为获奖者颁奖."浓情纺织"不言而喻.