Organizational change and survival skills for materiel managers

In an effort to be cost effective and meet changing customer needs, organizations are evolving in their structure. In this environment, leading edge organizations change their culture and create knowledge to continuously improve. Hospital materiel managers need to understand and support their organization's culture changes and respond by adapting or acquiring new skill sets.     

Managing transformational change: the role of human resource professionals

In the past decade human resource management issues featured prominently in debates over the competitiveness and human resource professionals were expected to ascend to positions of greater influence in corporate strategy making and implementation. Despite numerous calls for a paradigm shift towards a more ‘strategic’ focus for human resource management research, developments in both practice and research fell far short of expectations. Thus, the process of transforming human resource policy into a strategic asset for employees, individual firms or the American economy is not yet complete. The paper suggests that the ‘strategic’ human resource management models of the 1980s were too limited and reactive in character because they depended so heavily on the values, strategies and support of top executives and line managers. A model capable of achieving sustained and transformational change needs to incorporate more active roles of other stakeholders in the employment relationship, including government, employes and union representatives as well as line managers and top executives. The paper starts by reviewing the evidence on innovations in human resource management in the past decade and then outlines the implications of the change model for human resource management and industrial relations theory, policy and practice. Special emphasis is given to the role of human resource professionals as potential change agents or facilitators of the transformational process.     

Change from below: the role of middle managers in mediating paradoxical change

This article examines the role of middle managers in creating change in the Irish health service from interviews conducted with middle and senior level managers. The research examines the interface between top‐down and bottom‐up approaches to change and contributes to showing how ambivalence towards change by middle managers can at the same time contribute to the dismantling of structures and systems that are a necessary precondition for successful change to take place. However, the additional workload and tensions created by dealing with the interface between top‐down and bottom‐up changes may result in considerable additional workload and stress for the managers themselves.     

Selecting the portfolio investment strategy under political structure change in United States

This paper investigated whether stock market returns and volatilities were induced by change of long-term political structure. The empirical study finds that the political change is a crucial variable to DJIA and S&P 500 stock returns, but is insignificant to volatilities. But after the 1987 Crash, the political change has a positive effect on DJIA stock returns, and reduced the risk of DJIA and S&P 500. When political structure change, significant economic policies must submit to political realities and those proposed by previous governments often do not get implemented, resulting in market confusion. But following the increasing the consummation of market structure during post-1987 crash, hence, the political change effect increased DJIA stock returns, and reduced the risk of DJIA and S&P 500, and therefore the investors might be able to make a profit when they took active portfolio positions of DJIA.     

Career survival strategies for materiel managers

The skill sets and attitudes required for materiel management professional survival continue to change. Just as the industry has evolved for calculators and three-part forms, so too must today's managers evolve into facilitators and information-oriented management. While these new skills are being perfected, three focused strategies initiated right now can enhance your chance for survival. First, get to know your customers intimately. Go to their meetings. Tour their departments. Second, assume responsibility and report materiel cost data that has meaning to senior management and customers. Fill rates and inventory turns offer little value to other managers, but supply cost per discharge can be of value. Third, be proactive in competing with outsourcing competitors. Do not wait until they are on your doorstep before developing a strategy to compete.     

Structured problem solving for materiel managers

A structured approach to problem solving and solution documentation is one of the keys to continuous improvement. Without it, it is quite possible to solve the wrong problem, to solve the right problem in the wrong way, or (maybe worst of all) to solve the same problem over and over again. Companies that have figured out how to solve the right problems in the right way, once and for all, will ultimately move forward much faster than their competitors.     

品牌形象代言人的选择标准

通过代言人传播信息是现代传播的重要特点.现在,形象代言人在许多传播领域被广泛使用,如国家旅游业的形象代言人、企业形象代言人、事业单位形象代言人、行业形象代言人、某项活动形象代言人、产品形象代言人等等.但是,怎样寻找到适合自己企业的品牌形象代言人,却不是一个简单地找"名人"的问题.     

An investment perspective for hospital materiel managers

Materiel managers are making investments every time they authorize capital, supply, or personnel requisitions on behalf of their departments or organizations. While not as formal as external investments in securities or the like, internal investments are even more critical to the organization's success and carry the same fiduciary obligations. Generating an acceptable return is a necessity rather than an option as concerns internal investments; the same formal analysis that is applied to external investments should be extended to internal ones as well. Adopting an investment perspective is a critical first step in seeing internal initiatives as investments and obtaining an appropriate return.     

All managers are HR (human resources) managers

Employee frustration and turnover may be partly due to management's reliance on the HR staff. HR professionals should share their expertise with other managers, so they can effectively deal with some of their own staff problems. Find out how to help your organization's managers improve communications with their staff and, ultimately, improve the bottom line.     

Selecting Training Methodology for International Managers

A model of crosscultural training is presented based on the level of cultural diversification between home and host country. difEerences in level of interaction required with the host country, and the level of competency of UK trainee. A review of the research regarding methods that can and have been utilized in training managers for overseas assignments is presented, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses of each approach.     

供应链合作伙伴选择问题的遗传算法研究

针对供应链合作伙伴选择问题进行了研究,建立了此类问题的数学模型,使其在遗传过程中根据适应度自动选择,从而使群体中每个个体对环境的变化具有自适应调节能力。     

Performance change of managers in two different uses of upward feedback: a longitudinal study in Korea

Using longitudinal data collected over a seven-year period, we explored the effectiveness of upward feedback programs in changing managerial behaviors over time. We also examined the different impact of upward feedback programs used for two different purposes (developmental vs. administrative) on the performance (i.e. upward ratings) of R&D managers. We found that managers who initially performed poorly showed more performance improvement than those whose initial performance was good. We also found that managers' performance improved more when the upward feedback program was used for administrative purposes than when used for developmental purposes. We noted a significant performance improvement at the time when the purpose of upward feedback program changed from developmental to administrative. Herein, we discuss the practical and theoretical implications of integrating upward feedback programs into standard corporate practice.     

An optimal-incentive contract for managers with exponential utility

This paper examines the manager–investor relationship in the case of exponential utility when the manager of investments in real or financial assets has an endowment which can be invested in the risky assets for which he has private information. We obtain a relationship showing trade-offs or hedging behavior among the investments the manager can choose for himself and the principal. Even with the hedging ability of the manager, the well-known first-best solution with ‘no moral hazard’ risk-sharing is obtained among these possible solutions to the manager's problem by specifying a ‘no conflict of interest’, zero investment by the manager of his own endowment in those risky assets for which he has private information. Thus, the agent imputes no disutility to the assignment of the principal's investments and the investor is assured of an investment strategy that he would make if he had access to the manager's private information.