The power of quality models: The example of the SIQ model for performance excellence

Most contemporary total quality management (TQM) practice is influenced, directly or indirectly, by structured, acontextual and standardized quality models. The present paper focuses on the strategic introduction of one such model, namely the Swedish Institute for Quality (SIQ) model for performance excellence, in a Swedish public-sector organization, which we refer to as ‘the Authority.’ We take our theoretical stance from Foucault's concept of ‘power/knowledge.’ In describing the case, we focus on the management team of one of the Authority's ten regions. Our analysis shows the members of the management team using the SIQ model to objectify both the organization and themselves as managers. However, contrary to many critical or managerial accounts, the SIQ model was not totalizing: management subjectivities changed but were not entirely reconstituted, and some resistance to them was generated by the members of the management team, in their role as professionals.     

Government-Assisted Oligopoly Coordination? A Concrete Case

In 1993 the Danish antitrust authority decided to gather and publish firm-specific transactions prices for two grades of ready-mixed concrete in three regions of Denmark. Following initial publication, average prices of reported grades increased by 15–20 percent within one year. We investigate whether this was due to a business upturn and/or capacity constraints, but argue that these seem to have little explanatory power. We conclude that a better explanation is that publication of prices allowed firms to reduce the intensity of oligopoly price competition and, hence, led to increased prices contrary to the aim of the authority.     

Economic analysis of injury prevention--applying results and methodologies from cost-of-injury studies

Injuries pose an economic problem of immense proportion to communities in every society. The economic burden from injuries can be quantified through cost-of-injury studies, using techniques adopted from cost-of-illness research. This study explores the feasibility of applying results and methodologies from existing cost-of-injury studies in economic analyses of injury prevention interventions and programmes. The literature on cost-of-injury studies and economic appraisals of injury prevention efforts was examined to elicit studies that calculated injury costs. Studies were accepted for inclusion if they included an analysis of the costs of all injuries occurring in a geographical area (community, region or country) during a specific time period, employed a societal perspective and an incidence-based costing approach and were conducted in industrialized countries. There were 12 studies that met the inclusion criteria. The average total cost per injury case was USD $3536, while the average share of indirect to total cost per injury case was 71%. However, the cost figures showed wide variation across the studies. Based on the limited similarity of findings from the studies, it was concluded that it is not feasible to apply results and methodologies from existing cost-of-injury studies. The cost estimators described in this study could possibly be adapted for use as reference points in economic analyses of existing programmes, but any other uses should be approached with caution. Locally obtained data are needed for reliable economic analyses of injury prevention interventions and programmes.     

Continuous strategic sourcing

This article is based on a specific situation and competence analysis research project. The objective of the project is to point out possible action areas for improvements and potential competence areas; areas that should be integrated in the company's future strategic work. In the long term, the objective is to develop specific tools that can support a company's decision processes when in and/or outsourcing. The specific tools form the basis for the development of a conceptual framework that may facilitate the work with and the understanding of strategic in and outsourcing.During recent years new theories on SCM, outsourcing, supplier cooperation, etc. have emerged. Each theory has its own specific basis seeking to give solutions to problems concerning how to use and cooperate with suppliers. All theories, however, seek to solve a well-known problem within economic theory. Thus, the issue on division of labour and specialization is well known (Foretag i netwark, Stockholm, Studieforbundet for Naringsliv och Sammhallet, 1982; Joint Venture: theoretische und empirische analyse unter besonderer berücksichtigung der chemischen industrie der schweiz. Verlag Rugger, Germany, 1989). From an economic point of view it is a question of reaching the situation with the lowest production and transaction costs (Handbook of Industrial Organization. Amsterdam, 1989, pp. 135).     

Experienced technology teachers’ teaching practices

International Journal of Technology and Design Education - Teachers’ teaching practice plays a key role in the learning process of pupils, and for teaching to be successful, teachers must...     

Danish flexicurity: preconditions and future prospects

This article argues that Danish flexicurity is preconditioned by craft unionism that has historically been predominant in the Danish trade union movement. It is furthermore argued that flexicurity was on the verge to disappear when it became famous in the early 2000s, although yet not completely dead.     

On the optimal timing of capital taxes

For many kinds of capital, depreciation rates change systematically with the age of the capital. Consider an example that captures essential aspects of human capital, both regarding its accumulation and its depreciation: a worker obtains knowledge in period 0, then uses this knowledge in production in periods 1 and 2, and thereafter retires. Here, depreciation accelerates: it occurs at a 100% rate after period 2, and at a lower (perhaps zero) rate before that. The present paper analyzes the implications of non-constant depreciation rates for the optimal timing of taxes on capital income. The main finding is that under natural assumptions, the path of tax rates over time must be oscillatory. Oscillatory tax rates are optimal when depreciation rates accelerate with the age of the capital (as in the above example), and provided that the government can commit to the path of future tax rates but cannot apply different tax rates in a given year to different vintages of capital.