Using bandwidths to visualize and improve patient pathways

Global healthcare systems are struggling to manage the increasing demand for services. What is becoming apparent is the need for a greater understanding of the design of existing patient care pathways (journeys) and how these might be improved. Taking a Lean perspective, a popular approach employed for improving healthcare services, the authors consider how existing patient pathways can be visualized. Examples are used to illustrate varying degrees of complexity within the design and when Lean principles might help in providing a standardized and predictable service. The merits and challenges associated with using bandwidths are discussed and suggestions for future research are provided.     

Profiting from the weather

As pressure for greater parliamentary control over public spending grows, a number of MPs in particular have been looking with envy at the new Canadian audit system. But distance hides complexities. Closer inspection suggests that it may not be such a good model after all.     

Managing absenteeism in local government

Managing sickness absence effectively can produce significant cost savings as well as other, less tangible, benefits. This article shows why it is vital that local authorities provide tailor-made training on absence management for first line managers (FLMs) to develop ‘soft skills’, as well as acknowledging their specific organizational context. Development in this area should be an ongoing process which is reinforced with appropriate support from human resources (HR) professionals, and should be monitored as part of an overall absence management strategy.     

Impediments to sales force automation

Sales force automation (SFA) occurs when firms adopt technology to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of sales-related activities. Research has shown, however, that 55-75% of SFA projects fail. This paper first identifies and explains impediments that exist in three SFA areas: planning, communication, and evaluation. The high failure rate of SFA can also be explained by gaps that exist, between the sales force and management, in SFA perceptions and goals. Finally, after discussing each of these areas, study implications are provided to sales managers and suggestions are offered for future research.     

The making of twenty‐first‐century HR: An analysis of the convergence of HRM,HRD, and OD

Twenty‐first‐century HR is emerging to uniquely combine activities and processes of human resource management (HRM), human resource development (HRD), and organization development (OD)—three fields that “grew up” distinct from each other. Contributing strategically to organizations demands that HRM, HRD, and OD coordinate, partner, and think innovatively about how they relate and how what they do impacts people and organizations. An analysis of the evolutions of these fields helps to explain why the distinctions between them continue to blur and how the similarities among them provide the necessary synergy for HR to be a truly valued organizational partner. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.     

Entrepreneur political skill and new venture performance: Extending the social competence perspective

Research on the social competence perspective holds that since operating high performing new ventures is dependent on entrepreneurs’ ability to influence stakeholder actions, entrepreneur social competence is likely critically important to new venture performance. Using a sample of 163 entrepreneurs throughout the USA, we extend such research by examining the entrepreneur political skill new venture performance relationship. Our results suggest that political skill, which is the component of social competence which specifically assesses an individual's ability to influence other's actions within the business environment, is positively associated with new venture performance. Study results provide additional support for the social competence perspective.     

Capitalization of local fiscal differentials: Inferences from a disequilibrium market model

This study analyzes tax capitalization within the framework of a disequilibrium market model. In particular, this study examines whether local fiscal differentials influence the rate of change in neighborhood house prices over time. Local fiscal differentials existing in 1970 are found to have no influence on the rate of change in neighborhood house prices over the period 1970–1972; therefore, the study concludes that, other things being equal, these local fiscal differentials have been completely capitalized in price levels.     

Vision salience and strategic involvement: Implications for psychological attachment to organization and job

Managers' perceptions of their involvement in strategic planning were hypothesized to be positively related with their feelings of organizational commitment, job satisfaction, and job involvement. Further, it was also hypothesized that the relationship between strategic involvement and these work-related attitudes would be enhanced to the extent that the managers' felt that a salient strategic vision was guiding the company. We tested these two hypotheses using a sample of upper level managers in a large corporation undergoing a major strategic transformation. With the exception of finding no evidence that vision salience moderated the positive relationship between strategic involvement and job involvement, both hypotheses were supported. With regard to managers' psychological attachment to the organization, the results suggest that there are advantages afforded by involving them in the strategy making process, and that these advantages are magnified to the extent that the involvement occurs within the context of a salient strategic vision.     

Government size and macroeconomic stability: A comment

We show that in a standard, technology shock-driven one-sector real business cycle model, the stabilization effects of government fiscal policy depend crucially on how labor hours enter the household's period utility function and the associated labor-market behavior. In particular, as Galí [European Economic Review 38 (1994), 117-132] has shown, when the household utility is logarithmic in both consumption and leisure, income taxes are destabilizing and government purchases are stabilizing. However, the results are reversed when preferences are instead convex in hours worked. That is, income taxes are now stabilizing and public spending is destabilizing. Furthermore, under both preference specifications, the magnitude of cyclical fluctuations in output remains unchanged when the income tax rate and the share of government purchases in GDP are equal (including laissez-faire).     

The changing relevance of accounting information to debt holders over time

A number of studies have examined the change over time in the information content of accounting numbers to stockholders. However, the stockholders’ perspective is not necessarily identical to that of debt holders. The two groups face different risks and rewards, and thus their informational needs are not the same. We examine the change in the information content of accounting numbers over time from the debt holders’ perspective and hypothesize about the economic and reporting factors likely to affect this change. Using the association between accounting numbers and bond valuation and returns, we find that the information content to debt holders has increased over time. In contrast, but consistent with prior studies, we find that the information content to equity holders has declined. The results suggest that the increased information content to debt holders is related to changes in credit risk and to reporting factors such as the increase in reporting conservatism, the shift towards fair value accounting, and the increase in the frequency of losses. The findings contribute to the scant literature on the use of accounting information by debt holders and the extent to which financial reporting meets their unique needs.