An analytical approach for making management decisions concerning corporate restructuring

Internal corporate restructuring activities, such as downsizing, sale or termination of a business line, facility closure, consolidation, or relocation, often occur as part of managerial strategies intended to improve efficiency, control costs, and adapt to an ever‐changing business environment. Such actions frequently result in fundamental changes in a business's organization, its strategies, its systems, and its operations. They can unsettle a business and often significantly affect current and future earnings and cash flows. In this paper we propose a novel decision‐making model through the use of the dynamic programming technique to illustrate how management can determine the optimal timing and appropriate restructuring actions that maximize the benefits of a restructuring program. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

A quality approach to airport management

This paper discusses aspects of airport service quality evaluation using fuzzy multicriteria analysis and the alpha-cut concept. It presents a fuzzy multicriteria methodology for analysing a complex set of quality variables. This methodology develops a step by step set of indicators that allow managers have a holistic view of the quality dimension. It also helps the understanding of cause and effect relation, it helps tracking service quality problems and benchmarking them. From the alpha-cut concept, by defining upper and lower limits, this approach seeks to assist managers in evaluating a complex number of quality criteria and decision-makers’ behaviour. This approach gives managers a broader view of comparative perceptions of quality among the airports in a given sample, by presenting the results of the analysis in fuzzy form and allowing managers to consider different styles of evaluation. The methodology discussed is applied to six Brazilian international airports.     

A strategic contingency approach to expatriate assignment management

This exploratory study examines how expatriate management practices differ with respect to three international management strategies (local, centralised or global) in 27 mature multinational corporations. In particular, this study examines the categories of expatriate assignments, the strategic integration of expatriate assignments into leadership development and the types of human resource practices that firms utilise to manage expatriates. Results indicate that organisations differentially assign expatriates based on the firm's respective international management strategy. Firms with a global management strategy made greater use of developmental expatriates, had a greater number of senior managers with expatriate experience and had a stronger focus on leadership development through expatriation. Firms did not differ with respect to their use of expatriate management practices based on their international management strategy.     

A systems approach to regional energy/environment management

Energy and environmental systems have become a well-established component of national and regional planning and management. The University of Wisconsin, in collaboration with the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis and other institutions, has over the past several years conducted a number of case studies in which a family of energy/environment models was developed and applied to the assessment of alternative policies. This linked set of models, which treats energy demand, energy supply, and environmental impacts, has provided long-term planning information to a spectrum of public and private institutions in the regions studied.     

A revenue management approach to demand management and order booking in assemble-to-order manufacturing

Revenue management is an order acceptance and refusal process that employs differential pricing strategies and stop sales tactics to reallocate capacity, enhance delivery reliability and speed, and realize revenue from change order responsiveness in order to maximize the revenue from pre-existing capacity. While previously considered primarily as a tool of service operations, revenue management has considerable potential for assemble to order (ATO) manufacturing environments. Increasing demand for customer responsiveness has created service-oriented manufacturing environments suitable for the application of revenue management methods. This paper applies revenue management concepts and techniques to ATO manufacturing environments and presents models for optimal pricing and capacity decisions.     

Corporate restructuring,ownership-disciplined alignment,and the reorganization of management

Intensified focus on shareholder value during the 1980s led to a stress on consistent, integrated linkages among major elements of company organization. Drawing on senior management interviews and documents from six large publicly-traded corporations and six small firms, we argue that this ownership-disciplined alignment devolved decision-making authority into operating business units; contracted headquarters' managers and staff functions; heightened stress on management selection; expanded use of performance-based compensation; and created mechanisms for internal ownership. Changes in each area of managerial organization have appeared before, but they are now explicitly and systematically focused around enhancing shareholder value.     

Building influence as an outsider: A theoretical approach to cross-cultural impression management

This paper explores the process by which an international newcomer may increase her influence in workgroup decisions. We present a theoretical approach to cross-cultural impression management to describe how the link between cultural differences and workplace influence may be effectively enhanced, specifically by focusing on proactive behaviors shaping self, target, and contextual perceptions. This perspective makes conceptual additions to the human resources, impression management, and cross-cultural management literatures and provides a foundation for increasing the benefits of diversity in organizations.     

A systems approach to the management of a hospital for short-term patients.

The endemic problems of health system management are reviewed, as is the difficulty of taking a systems viewpoint. It is argued, and demonstrated, that, by using some very simple ideas of system structure it is remarkably easy to draw up a diagram of system influences. Such a diagram is drawn for the case of psychiatric patients who recycle in the system. The diagram is analyzed from the point of view of its properties as a feedback control system, and it is shown that there are alternative, and probably more satisfactory, management practices. Suggestions are made for the practical implementation of such policies. Finally it is argued that influence diagrams may be useful as agenda for discussions, and that they offer advantages over conventional agenda.     

A better approach by management in drug testing

Discussed here are a number of drug abuse and drug testing issues. This article presents an overview of current developments in the area of drug testing in the workplace. There is an analysis of legislation, federal and state court decisions, and key legal arguments. These decisions and arguments are discussed in the context of employee rights and responsibilities. Also presented are the legal and ethical aspects of drug testing in the workplace. The authors make a case for a rehabilitative rather than a punitive approach to employee drug abuse.     

Applying a systems approach to human resource management

One reason why organizational improvement efforts often fall short of expectations is that they are rarely systematic. This article describes both the theory and practice of improving human resource management (HRM) using an example from McDonnell Douglas Corporation, in which an integrated systems approach was applied. A model of various, specific HRM initiatives is presented. The plan for undertaking these initiatives is also described. A key factor in the success of this approach is in changing the mental models that executives hold regarding how organizations really function. A major part of this shift is appreciating that organizational improvement initiatives are not additive but interactive. © 1999 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Strategic restructuring

Never before has there been so much organizational restructuring, in spite of consistently mixed results. This article argues that the reason organizational restructuring so often fails to increase productivity and profit is that it is not guided by business strategy. While most managers agree that structure should follow strategy, few have a process for moving from strategy to restructuring at the business level where most restructuring occurs. A number of businesses, however, have based restructuring decisions on a clear and well-understood strategy. This article describes what is common to the processes these businesses have followed. Human resource managers, whose role and competence should include the alignment of change processes with business needs, have often abdicated responsibility for ensuring that restructuring efforts are strategic and are competently implemented. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Symposium. An innovative approach to course restructuring in leadership education. Course restructuring in leadership education. Using differentiated literature to promote professional thinking. Pedagogical and andragogical challenges in leadership studies

In his germinal writing, The Child and the Curriculum, John Dewey (1902) made the forceful case for the development of a curriculum that could integrate and valuate students' desires and needs as crucial elements of education. Similarly, Ralph Tyler's (1949) famous and widely influential curriculum rationale called for the participation of the entire community as an element of curriculum decisions, but this element of his work has been largely absent from educational discourse, especially in a time of national accountability in elementary, secondary, and even postsecondary institutions. In this symposium, we offer a position paper by Dr. Cathy Kaufman that seeks to return students' needs to the forefront of curriculum planning for an interdisciplinary audience. Our respondents, Robert Millward, Ted Pappas, and Winnie Younkin, themselves representing interdisciplinary backgrounds and interests, add their own perspectives to this intersection of leadership education, and the all‐too‐often muted voice of the student in the curriculum development process.     

An integrated systems approach to environmental management: A case study of IBM UK

IBM UK's environmental performance, to date, has been impressive, and much has been achieved. This case study explores how that has been achieved with an emphasis on environmental management systems. It goes on to identify what more needs to be done and highlights possible impediments to further progress.