Improving the Sustainable Development of Firms: The Role of Employees

Stakeholders have been found to be an important driver of organizations' sustainable development. In particular, customers, governments and non‐governmental organizations push firms towards sustainability. But to what extent is sustainability really and deeply embedded within an organization's structures and processes? And what is the role of an important, but frequently neglected, stakeholder group for successful sustainability implementation: employees? The objective of this research is to better understand the impact that organizational change for sustainability has on firm performance. Also, this study seeks to understand how the consideration of employees into the process of organizational change for sustainability moderates the organizational change and performance relationship. Using data from 92 German companies from the manufacturing and services sector, the study finds that the structural implementation of sustainability is positively related to firm performance and that employee integration moderates this relationship to some extent. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd and ERP Environment.     

The impact of an aircraft's service environment on perceptions of in-flight food quality

Airlines are currently striving to improve the quality and quantity of in-flight food, because research has shown that catering is a key attribute for a customer's satisfaction with airline service quality. But the role of an airline's service environment in forming customer perceptions about food quality has not yet been properly investigated. Using electronic word-of-mouth data from N = 3996 airline passengers, this study deploys a linear regression model at multiple levels to relate perceived in-flight food quality with both the overall service environment and its formative components. The results clearly unveil the importance of an aircraft's service environment on perceived in-flight catering quality; perceptions of food quality are primarily influenced by the quality of cabin staff service, followed by entertainment and seat quality. Instead of continuing with the current practice of signing up top chefs to improve menus, airlines may instead consider putting their management focus on service improvements.     

Public Service Leaders as ‘Change Agents’ – for Whom?

Abstract

This article examines how far senior staff in English educational and health service organizations view themselves as leaders who are ‘change agents’ for government-driven reform and independent change agendas. The contribution of external leadership development provision to shaping these self-perceptions is explored. Special attention is paid to national leadership development bodies with different degrees of formal association with government. Whatever this relationship, such provision and other development support apparently reinforced a strong sense of personal agency (choice of action) associated with being a leader, empowering senior staff to adopt a modestly mediatory stance towards both reform and leadership development provision.     

Service Quality Measures in Vietnam and Australia

Abstract

Satisfied customers are vital to creating and maintaining a sustainable advantage in the highly competitive business environment that applies today. Other forms of competitive advantage are easily lost, or copied by competitors. Consequently, customer satisfaction and service quality have been of considerable interest to researchers and practitioners alike over the last two decades, and a substantial body of formal academic work has emerged to address these issues. However, comparatively little work has been done to date in studying what managers of businesses actually do in practice to measure, and consequently manage, their customer satisfaction and service quality, and there has been even less work done on international differences in perceptions of these attributes. This paper reports the results of a comparative study of managers' perceptions of their customers' opinions of service quality in Australia (as an example of a developed country, 318 responses) and Vietnam (as an example of a country in transition from central control, 49 responses).     

舞蹈教育对中小学学生德育品质培养的影响

本文主要从舞蹈教学培养中小学生的思想品德的角度进行探讨,提出一些看法及评价。     

从海尔看中国企业的服务营销

现代社会企业间竞争日趋激烈,在如此残酷的生存压力中,如何才能让自己的企业不在这激烈的竞争中成为别人的垫脚石。服务营销对企业来说有多大的意义,怎样用正确的服务营销让企业得以更好的发展?企业强大竞争力的根本取决于有没有高质量的服务,有没有忠诚的客户,竞争的胜利者将是那些理解顾客需要,做好营销服务的企业。本文对我国企业服务营销存在的一系列问题进行分析,并在理解服务营销的基本概念上,通过海尔服务营销的成功来探讨中国企业提升服务营销能力的手段和途径。     

电子政务一站式服务存在的问题及对策研究

电子政务一站式服务是电子政务的一个重要目标。而要实现该目标,必须解决影响系统实现的一系列问题。论文对影响我国电子政务一站式服务实现的瓶颈进行了分析研究,提出了相应对策。     

新形势下护士长在护理管理中的角色及作用

社会的发展和医疗模式的改变促使护士长自身的素质和管理能力的提升成为新形势下的必然要求。护士长应当充分发挥其角色作用,将现代的科学管理方式应用到护理管理工作中,同时树立职业的管理形象,以应对新的护理形势。     

基于安全储备量的社区卫生站疫苗配给优化研究

为了确保社区卫生服务站对于儿童疫苗的安全储备量以及配给成本最低,运用存储论的经济订货批量模型对疫苗的配给进行了优化,根据基层卫生服务的宗旨,实现了特定概率下的疫苗供给,对大多数社区卫生服务站的疫苗或类似的基药配给有参考价值。     

创新企业营销增强产品价值

日臻完善的市场经济,要求企业营销必须向纵深发展,而处于企业核心地位的营销工作涉及到方方面面,必须从营销理念、营销组织、营销渠道、产品营销、品牌营销、服务营销诸多方面加以推进,以实现企业的可持续发展。