Management Tool

It is often claimed that 50–90% of strategic initiatives fail. Although these claims have had a significant impact on management theory and practice, they are controversial. We aim to clarify  why this is the case. Towards this end, an extensive review of the literature is presented, assessed, compared and discussed. We conclude that while it is widely acknowledged that the implementation of a new strategy can be a difficult task, the true rate of implementation failure remains to be determined. Most of the estimates presented in the literature are based on evidence that is outdated, fragmentary, fragile or just absent. Careful consideration is advised before using current estimates to justify changes in the theory and practice. A set of guiding principles is presented for assisting researchers to produce better estimates of the rates of failure.

This paper describes the methodologies adopted and the results obtained in assessing the groundwater resources of Metro Manila and Metro Cebu. Also some early and recent studies on the aquifer systems in the two metropolis are presented to draw some comparisons on the assessment and data acquisition methods and identify some gaps involved and the improvements needed. Some of the indicators used in assessing groundwater potential and associated problems include storage coefficient, transmissivity, safe yield, and salt water intrusion. The complex and expensive nature of actual field monitoring and analysis has encouraged the use of mathematical models in this study. Specifically, models adopted by NHRC and JICA were used and their respective capabilities, data requirements and modeling results for water balance are described. Although the two models have specific inputs unique to each model and the NHRC model used secondary 9 year data (i.e. 1982-1990) while JICA used one-year actual...

This paper discusses the findings of a study undertaken by a team from the University of Birmingham's Institute for Local Government Studies (INLOGOV), funded by the Economic and Social Research Council. The research explores the implications for democratic practice of collaborative working through partnership arrangements in the public sector. Through a study of multi-organisational partnerships in two local authority areas, the research identifies a problem for policy makers to address: partnerships are flexible management tools, but exhibit a democratic deficit in terms of the rules and procedures of public governance when measured against a benchmark of elected local government. Partnerships are in, but not of, the community.

Evolution of advanced manufacturing technologies and the new manufacturing paradigm has enriched the computer integrated manufacturing (CIM) methodology. The new advances have put more demands for CIM integration technology and associated supporting tools. One of these demands is to provide CIM systems with better software architecture, more flexible integration mechanisms, and powerful support platforms. In this paper, we present an integrating infrastructure for CIM implementation in manufacturing enterprises to form an integrated automation system. A research prototype of an integrating infrastructure has been developed for the development, integration, and operation of integrated CIM system. It is based on the client/server structure and employs object-oriented and agent technology. System openness, scalability, and maintenance are ensured by conforming to international standards and by using effective system design software and management tools.

The management of compliance with rules, policies, guidelines, practices, and standards is largely done through a manual and labour-intensive process. This process can be facilitated through the use of a computer-based Compliance Management System (CMS). A CMS identifies compliance tasks, tracks the performance of these tasks with respect to a set of requirements and documents their compliance status. The output from a CMS can be used to satisfy a variety of reporting requirements and initiate alerting mechanisms. A CMS can be particularly useful in managing regulation change and overlap. This paper presents the first step in the development of a decision and compliance management tool, in particular, a prototype CMS for the pharmaceutical industry is described. The CMS has been tested with a simulated case study.

The potential of using WEB sites in hospitality industry is derived from its general use as an information exchange system in the digital age. Performing business over the Internet requires development of the Internet strategy, which can be observed in five basic activities (Tschanz, K., 1996): cooperation, competition, mission, product/services and organizational integration. In this way, the hospitality industry activities evolve in complete, competitive, and cooperative service. The only way of meeting the wide range of world wide demand is broad tourism service diversification. Effective diversification in the hospitality industry can be achieved by implementing many well diversified and professionally connected WEB sites as a management tool.

With increased liberalisation in major air transport markets, the intensity of competition has increased amongst air carriers. Airlines have responded to the competitive pressures in many ways, one of which has been the formation of alliances. These alliances are linkages between the firms at various operational levels. They go beyond the common interlining agreement to encompass certain marketing and cost-reducing features. However, the question is how the success of these alliances can be ensured? While companies' culture compatibility is important and much has been written in that area, this paper focuses on factors that affect operational success of airline alliances. The operational success is measured by the change in the level of partners' inter-hub traffic due to formation of the alliance. This research has developed a methodology which could be used as a management tool to measure alliances' operational success before embarking on such agreements. The analysis of recent major alliances covering 52 inter-hub routes suggests that the main factors ensuring the alliances' operational success are: the partners' network size and their compatibility, the frequency of service between the hubs of the partners, the flight connection time at the hub and the level of competition on their network.

Purpose – Building on previous studies of the managerial application and development of the 5S concept (5S), this research aims to identify and present key concepts of 5S from a Japanese management perspective. These findings link 5S to aspects of Japanese management approach, which are aligned to an integrated management system rather than a simple management tool or technique. Design/methodology/approach