Aspects Of Business Practices Research Articles

Persisting values in the Japanese workplace: managerial attitudes towards work skills

There is an ongoing debate over whether traditional Japanese business practices are converging towards those of Anglo-American societies. One aspect of business practice is the attitude toward the skills demanded of newly graduated recruits. Traditionally, Japanese managers were said to value communitarian attributes, such as cooperativeness and flexibility, to encourage socialisation into the firm’s culture; however, in the last two decades business groups have been emphasising a new set of qualities, including creativity and problem solving, expressing these in a discourse of personal independence and autonomy. This study reports interviews conducted with Japanese managers concerning the attributes and skills they seek in new employees. It finds that, within the firms canvassed, managers still stressed the importance of communitarian values, often articulating attributes and skills in terms of their contribution to the overall harmony of the firm. The findings have potential implications for how we understand cultural change and continuity within Japan.

The ubiquitous jazz metaphor: thoughts from a jazz musician and management educator

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to provide a viewpoint about how the jazz metaphor can be applied to marketing/management education, in light of the article by Holbrook (2015). Design/methodology/approach – This commentary examines the jazz metaphor from the author’s perspective as a jazz musician and management educator and hopefully provides the reader with a brief snapshot into the intricate workings of a jazz group. This commentary also investigates the lessons to be learned from Miles Davis’s approach to leadership and innovation. Findings – The jazz group can provide a valuable model for modern organisations. The core competencies of a successful jazz group, e.g. collaboration, trust, dialogue and innovation can be employed to bring about a culture of creativity within an organisation. Research limitations/implications – It may be possible to extend the jazz metaphor and investigate how different aspects of business practice could be aligned with particular genres of jazz. Originality/value – This commentary expands on Holbrook’s discussion of the marketing manager as Jazz musician and provides examples of how these metaphors can be used in order to augment the marketing/management learning material to offer alternative perspectives to the learning communities and enhance the pedagogical practice

Perceived core competency achievements of fellowship and non-fellowship-trained early career pediatric hospitalists.

The pediatric hospital medicine (PHM) core competencies were established in 2010 to identify the specific knowledge base and skill set needed to provide the highest quality of care for hospitalized children. The objectives of this study were to examine the perceived core competency achievements of fellowship-trained and non-fellowship-trained early career pediatric hospitalists and identify perceived gaps in our current training models. An anonymous Web-based survey was distributed in November 2013. Hospitalists within 5 years of their residency graduation reported their perceived competency in select PHM core competencies. χ(2) and multiprobit regression analyses were utilized. One hundred ninety-seven hospitalists completed the survey and were included; 147 were non-fellowship-trained and 50 were PHM fellowship graduates or current PHM fellows. Both groups reported feeling less than competent in sedation and aspects of business practice. Non-fellowship-trained hospitalists also reported mean scores in the less than competent range in intravenous access/phlebotomy, technology-dependent emergencies, performing Plan-Do-Study-Act process and root cause analysis, defining basic statistical terms, and identifying research resources. Non-fellowship-trained hospitalists reported mean competency scores greater than fellowship-trained hospitalists in pain management, newborn care, and transitions in care. Early career pediatric hospitalists report deficits in several of the PHM core competencies, which should be considered when designing PHM-specific training in the future. Fellowship-trained hospitalists report higher levels of perceived competency in many core areas.

MBA Attitudes Toward Business: What We Don't Know Can Hurt Us or Help Us

MBA students are often treated as a blank sheet of paper on which the MBA program and its faculty etch and imprint the knowledge and philosophy of business success. Implicit in this thinking is that students are willing neophytes in this ritualistic process without a perceptual screen shaping and molding the content being espoused by legions of business philosophers—both academic and professional. The author sheds light on the attitudinal states of the MBA students who occupy those many seats, engage in class discussions, analyze cases, and finally are knighted as Masters of the Universe. Quite surprisingly, MBA students have diverse attitudes toward the business community. In a sample of 866 MBA students representing 27 MBA programs around the United States, the research suggests that these students do not embrace all aspects of business practices. Students are biased, skeptical and, on certain issues, downright critical of the community they are about to join.

A Legal Primer on Business Entities

A Legal Primer on Business Entities

Putting the Future into Industrial Relations

This article argues that the conduct of industrial relations is out of step with the way in which other aspect of business practice are conducted. Production, marketing and selling rely heavily on forecasting, planning and creativity. Industrial relations is largely a process of fighting to solve yesterday's problems in to‐day's crisis.