Company's Approach Research Articles

Ultrathin Glass Substrates for Thin, Lightweight, Flexible OLED Lighting

AbstractAlthough OLED enables uniform, efficient, and unique designs for lighting applications, it also presents several challenges, including the need to identify a transparent and flexible substrate that provides an adequate hermetic barrier. Here, three authors from Corning explain their company's approach to these issues.

Reducing our waste size

Reducing our waste size

The inevitability of adopting an ethical code for human resource management in the organization: a proposed model

In this paper, we discussed the necessity of adopting rules that govern themanagement of human resources within the company, as we aim to highlightthe importance of the company's approach to adopting a code of ethics andproposing a model of reference for moral code in human resourcesmanagement. In order to achieve the objectives of the research, we havechosen a descriptive approach, in which we’ve reviewed the conceptualframework of job’s ethics, and a case study, at a later stage of the research,presenting the function of managing human resources. We have reached theresult that there is a necessity to create a code of ethics in human resourcesmanagement as it helps to sensitize workers in their respective jobs anddirects them towards ethical practices in order to ensure reaching theexpected objectives for each job. We have provided a model to be consideredas a reference framework that would provide a set of values and controls to beadhered by the human resources managers. 
 
 
 

Integrated report as a source of information about the company's approach to risk management

The article presents the assessment of the integrated report as a tool for reporting on company risk mana- gement and answers the question whether and how this form of reporting has affected the scope of infor- mation on risk management. The article is an attempt at a comprehensive approach to assessing disclosu- res about risk management. The assessment was made by comparing the information content of annual reports, with particular emphasis on management commentaries and integrated reports. The text analysis method and the Delphi method were used. The research sample included annual reports and two integra- ted reports for 2016 of companies operating in the energy sector in Poland. The research indicates that more precise risk information is presented in integrated reports than in „traditional” ones. There are also differences in the level of disclosures between the examined integrated reports.

Making Patient-focused Information Provision a Reality: One Company's Approach

In recent years, as the market has seen the appearance of innovative medical products with novel mechanisms of action, adverse reactions that cannot be expected from the approved product label are being detected in the postmarketing phase. It is increasingly important to undertake timely product label updates and other drug safety measures through the monitoring, early detection, and reporting of adverse reactions. In 2013, the risk management plan (RMP) system was introduced in Japan. An RMP documents efforts to ensure the safety of a medical product, and sharing the RMP with stakeholders results in enhanced postmarketing safety measures. Healthcare providers have already started to utilize RMPs, but issues with perception and utilization remain. The industry, regulators, and academia are also working together to facilitate the use of RMPs. With the implementation of the RMP requirement, pharmaceutical companies are seeking to improve safety assurance by enhancing their drug safety functions, including the collection, assessment, and dissemination of drug safety information. Chugai Pharmaceutical is starting a completely new approach to patient-focused information provision, exemplified by the "PMS & SAFETY DB Tools," designed to give healthcare providers quick access to its extensive database of real-world drug safety information. This paper introduces Chugai Pharmaceutical's new efforts to manage adverse reactions and raises issues for future consideration.

Giving Women the LIFT to Succeed: One Company's Approach

Giving Women the LIFT to Succeed: One Company's Approach

A bi‐objective mathematical model for product allocation in block stacking warehouses

AbstractPut‐away and picking operations in warehouses play a critical role in determining operating costs and customer response time. While the place where products are put away has an important effect on picking efficiency due to accessibility, it also affects space usage, which is critical for space availability and space costs. Hence, this study focuses on put‐away operations in pallet‐in pallet‐out block stacking warehouses. We develop a unique bi‐objective mathematical model and a constructive heuristic algorithm to allocate products to storage lanes while considering two objectives simultaneously: minimizing total travel distance and maximizing average storage usage. We test our model and heuristic through a real company case study and randomly generated large‐sized problem instances. We show that the model and heuristic offer better storage usage with reduced travel distance than the company's approach when the two objectives have equal weight. We also present a set of nondominated solutions for each problem instance. We present that the heuristic seems beneficial for the warehouse industry due to its short run time and effective solutions.

Workplace multilingualism in shifting contexts: A historical case

AbstractThis article investigates linguistic diversity, migration, and labour in the case of a nineteenth-century copper mine in the multilingual northern periphery of Norway. Taking a historical perspective on workplace multilingualism, it reveals the dynamic relationships between the economic interests and policy-making of an industrial enterprise and the political and sociolinguistic development in a multilingual region, at a time when national authorities introduced assimilation policies. Owned and managed by British industrialists, the mine recruited almost exclusively migrant workers to a remote fjord in the Norwegian periphery, many of them Kven from northern Finland and Sweden. In a multi-layered approach, the study sketches multilingual work practices, policy-making, and the discursive positioning of diversity, and explores the company's management of the relationships between capital, community, and nation-state. It reveals the company's flexible approach towards diversity governed by economic interest. (Workplace multilingualism, mining, Kven, Norway, historical)*

Gênero vídeo de viagem (video tour) em contexto digital: análise sociodiscursiva

The study examined six video tours about the city of New York, produced and published by the homepage of the real estate agency New York Habitat, to understand their sociodiscursive functioning. Our assumption is that our analysis on the functioning of the video tours can provide the teacher with an informed and systematic didactic transposition of the genre. Our theoretical framework was based on the model for text analysis ((MACHADO; BRONCKART, 2009) and on the model for image analysis (AUMONT, 1995; VERGUEIRO, 2007). The results showed that: 1) the production context of the video tours indicates that the company's approach is innovative and unique, with commercial interests focused on international tourism; 2) the internal text architecture consists of interactive and theoretical discourse, descriptive and argumentative sequences. 3) the textualization mechanisms used are temporal and spatial organizers, anaphora and cataphora; 4) the enunciative mechanisms used are: voice of the character-narrator who takes the voice of the company; voice of the character-narrator addressed to web-tourists; social voices; 5) the camera shots used in video are American and long shots; and the angle views are high and eye-level.

Intra-Sectoral Differences in Climate Change Strategies: Evidence from the Global Automotive Industry.

Companies are increasingly challenged for action on climate change. Most studies on business responses to climate change focus on cross‐sector comparisons and neglect intra‐sectoral dynamics. This paper investigates the influence of supply chain position and regional affiliation on climate change strategies within a particular industry. We present a generic framework integrating both market and non‐market responses to climate change. We argue that climate change strategies comprise several corporate activities that have different foci of interaction and four main objectives: governance, innovation, compensation and legitimation. Using a global sample of 116 automotive companies, we conduct a cluster analysis and identify four types of strategy. We find that the sophistication of automobile manufacturers' strategies significantly differs from that of suppliers. Regional affiliation and firm size prove to be determinants of the strategy type pursued. We cannot find evidence for a relationship between financial performance and a company's strategic approach to climate change. © 2017 The Authors. Business Strategy and the Environment published by ERP Environment and John Wiley & Sons Ltd

Postmerger Integration at Northrop Grumman Information Technology

This case presents the practices of a highly successful post-merger integrator that grew from $400 million in 1997, to $1.5 billion in 2000, to $4 billion in 2002.The case focus is on the $4.0 billion IT sector of Northrop Grumman, a company confronting immense change in the rapidly consolidating defense business. This integration is unique in that the product is a complete melding of various companies, systems, leaderships, and cultures of 11 legacy organizations. Not only is the result an organization with a new identity, but also one with new strategic capabilities unavailable to any of the stand-alone legacy companies. A teaching note is available to registered faculty, along with video clips that include footage of weapons systems (e.g., B-2 bomber) and information about the company's PMI process. Excerpt UVA-BP-0472 Rev. Feb. 1, 2011 POST-MERGER INTEGRATION AT NORTHROP GRUMMAN INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY It was March 2003, and Herb Anderson was watching the latest CNN report on the Iraqi warfront. He observed the potent effectiveness of a remarkable new confluence of existing weapons technologies connected by state-of-the-art computing. Northrop Grumman's C4ISR system connected pilots, ground teams, and sensors in the real-time Computer Command, Control and Communication of Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance of battlefield operations. Each of these independent elements had already been the best in the world a few years ago, but they were much more so when integrated into the C4ISR system, as it was called. Advances in IT enabled the interconnection of several different systems, improving the performance of each individual system and reducing what the military referred to as “the fog of war.” At the same time that Northrop Grumman Information Technology (NGIT) made integration possible on the battlefield, it also worked to integrate a series of acquisitions at its sector offices in Herndon, Virginia. Anderson, president of NGIT, sought to acquire other companies that would enable it to extend the strengths of its own corporate systems to the future needs of the defense and private sectors. Northrop used an iterative process to develop a merger integration methodology that helped the company avoid the fog. Over the years, the company's approach to integration earned it several accolades. . . .

Southpointe Corporation—Key Experiences

During the five years Southpointe Corporation had used its custom Leadership Development Program (LDP), a significant number of existing and high-potential managers from all the company's functional areas and geographic regions had been through the LDP. Now in response to some ongoing leadership development concerns, Southpointe's CEO, wants to develop a “key experiences” program for a handful of managers viewed as viable executive team candidates. Excerpt UVA-G-0634 Jul. 29, 2013 SOUTHPOINTE CORPORATION—KEY EXPERIENCES Carol Kahn, Southpointe Corporation's executive vice president of human resources, was very pleased with the custom Leadership Development Program (LDP) that Evergreen Executive Education, LLC, had designed for Southpointe and been delivering for the previous five years. A significant number of existing and high-potential managers from all the company's functional areas and geographic regions had been through the LDP. Designing, administering, reviewing, funding, and populating the LDP offerings had been no small task. That program was now running smoothly, on a once per year basis, and no longer required as much attention from her as it had. But in response to some ongoing leadership development concerns expressed by Southpointe's CEO, she now thought it was imperative to develop an in-house sequel to the LDP. More specifically, she decided it was important to develop a “key experiences” program for a handful of managers viewed as viable executive team canidates in the next four to eight years. Such a program would play a vital role in the company's overall approach to executive succession planning. She looked forward to finally spending some concentrated time over the next few days crafting a general set of guidelines and foci for it. Southpointe Corporation Southpointe, based near North Carolina's Research Triangle, was a large, publicly held company with revenues topping the $ 13 billion mark. The company had 14,000 employees, most of whom were based in the United States. About 1,500 were located in Europe and the Middle East. The company was engaged in the design and manufacture of high-end security systems and navigation equipment. Many of Southpointe's products were favored by numerous agencies of both federal and local governments. Recently, the company had signed some long-term contracts with several overseas governments to develop state-of-the-art scanning technology for various types of cargo containers and for personal identification purposes. . . .

Rio Tinto and the Resolution Copper Mining Joint Venture (a): The Land Exchange

From its inception, the Resolution Copper Mining (RCM) joint venture faced a number of significant technical, political, and environmental challenges as it attempted to develop a strategy for mining a copper ore body located under the Tonto National Forest in Superior, Arizona. As president and CEO of RCM, David Salisbury faced a number of key decisions in 2008–10 to keep the project on track. The success of the mine hinged on a politically complicated land exchange—and an act of Congress—in which the federal government would give RCM land containing the copper ore in exchange for parcels of ecological significance. Accomplishing this goal required Salisbury to engage with multiple stakeholders and navigate a complicated congressional landscape. Excerpt UVA-E-0374 Aug. 13, 2012 Rio Tinto and the Resolution Copper Mining Joint Venture (A): The Land Exchange On the evening of February 16, 2009, David Salisbury, president and CEO of Resolution Copper Mining (RCM), leaned back in his chair and mulled over a pending e-mail notice to 200 employees and contractors involved in the development of RCM's Superior, Arizona, project. The e-mail was about the status and future of the project. The mining project required an act of Congress to progress and, considering the varying priorities on Capitol Hill, it appeared unlikely that legislative action would be taken in the short term. Faced with this information, Salisbury needed to make a decision about the mine's costly near-term development activities: specifically, whether the activities should be suspended, scaled back, or continued unabated. Salisbury's involvement in the RCM project dated back to March 2008, when the senior leadership team at Rio Tinto Group, one of the world's largest multinational mining companies, had summoned him to take over management of RCM. As a seasoned managing director with almost 16 years at Rio Tinto, Salisbury was well versed in the company's unique approach to the sustainable development of mining operations. His past successes in operations and mine closure and his extensive work with communities across the world meant Salisbury had the right combination of skills needed to advance RCM into the next stage of development. . . .

Transportation risk management: One company's approach

Air Products has a long history in process safety risk management. The company evaluates the risk of transporting hazardous substances in addition to its risk assessments for fixed sites and pipelines. The Center for Chemical Process Safety (CCPS) book, Guidelines for Chemical Transportation Risk Analysis, has been used as the starting point for the Air Products approach to this subject. Over the past few years, the company has refined its transportation assessment methodology and calculation tools and has established a work process where the businesses and supply chains are integrated into the transportation risk analysis (TRA) process. The purpose of this article is to summarize Air Products’ TRA process, including criteria for deciding if TRA is required, selection of release scenarios considered in a TRA, assumptions made regarding populations and weather conditions and the overall risk review process. An example risk analysis will be presented. Comments on the comparison of TRA with pipeline TRA will also be provided. © 2016 American Institute of Chemical Engineers Process Saf Prog 36: 252–256, 2017

2015 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival Coordinated by Anna-Lisa Halling

2015 International Siglo de Oro Drama Festival Coordinated by Anna-Lisa HallingIn 2015, Chamizal National Memorial in El Paso, Texas, celebrated forty years of Golden productions as it hosted both professional and student troupes from Spain, Colombia, Mexico, and United States. The festival ran from Wednesday, March 18, through Sunday, March 22, and featured five unique performances by four very different companies. Performances by these groups ranged from recreation of baroque celebration (iFiesta!) to theatrical adaptations of both novel and novella (El buscon and El coloquio de los perros), as well as pastoral play (El amor enamorado) and tonadilla ( Villa y Corte-The Music of Goya). Far from usual comedia fare, these productions not only include wide variety of genres, but also artistic vision, thus creating rich and diverse experience for spectators.iFiesta!It is not without reason that Morfeo Teatro has recently become perennial presence at Chamizal National Memorial's Siglo de Oro festival. In this production, company's minimalist approach to sets and scenery, attention to visual detail, incorporation of variety of genres of early modern theater, and clear respect for texts that they bring to life all demonstrate production approach that aligns well with stated objective of festival. In his opening statement in event program, Fernando Gus Sanchez, park superintendent, indicated that purpose of event was to increase public's awareness and appreciation of the rich tradition of drama from Spain's Golden Age through a significant encounter with performing arts.Each member of this small company shoulders variety of roles, and quality of production demonstrates success of their cooperation. The artistic decisions of company's director, Francisco Negro (who also played role of lead actor in majority of pieces presented), paralleled rather than duplicated those of comedia production in corral theater. Scenery and props consisted of such basic items as chair, few pieces of rope, fan, and semitransparent scrim. The use of lighting changes and fog added modern touch to production and effectively augmented audience's response to emotionally charged scenes. Each of these staging techniques drew audience focus to actors and dramatic texts themselves. The actors took advantage of and heightened this attention through very deliberate, considered physicality of their interpretations. The combination of these elements was particularly apparent in selected scene from Lope de Vega's El caballero de Olmedo. Dim lights, enough fog to initially obscure dancer portraying physical representation of death omen that Alonso sees, and musical adaptation accompanying lines all combined to make Alonso's death particularly frenetic and emotionally draining scene.The attention to detail paid to various visual representational elements speak to talent and precision of Mayte Bona (who also portrayed variety of female characters) as costume designer. The masks worn by actors at various moments throughout production were beautifully detailed nod to influence of commedia dell'arte tradition. At outset, they contributed to element of mystery created by cast as actors stepped onto stage in front of main curtain, speaking while audience wondered what lay behind curtain and ahead in play. Rather than relying on costume changes to mark scene transitions, each actor maintained single costume throughout production. To adjust for dramatic differences in character types, costumes incorporated added elements like manto, hat, an eyepatch, tucked-up skirt hem to make respectable lady's dress short and revealing, and particularly memorable tied-on apron that transformed galan into nagging wife. …

Avoiding the greenwashing trap: between CSR communication and stakeholder engagement

The paper analyses key elements of communication that may lead to accusations that a company is engaging in practices of greenwashing failing to create stakeholder engagement. According to sensemaking and sensegiving approaches, the theoretical foundations that underpin the concepts of corporate social responsibility (CSR) communication and greenwashing practices are explored and a comparison between two energy companies in the Italian and Dutch context is set up for exploratory purpose. The integration of a company's strategic CSR approach and its communication practices may help to enhance effective stakeholder engagement, prevent accusations of greenwashing and avert the negative associated consequences (e.g., scepticism among stakeholders). The research provides a theoretical contribution to CSR communication by identifying several pitfalls that can lead to the appearance of greenwashing and provides caveats for the further development of both theory and managerial practices.

Towards a sustainable infrastructure company

Engineers have an important role to play in creating a sustainable future. They occupy a pivotal position between known limits to growth, the imperative for change expressed quantitatively and practical action. It is a lack of understanding of the quantitative dimensions of sustainability that has led to campaigns such as 350.org's ‘Do the Math’ tour. This paper describes the sustainability journey of Balfour Beatty plc, and the tools and techniques that it has developed en route. It is intended as a frame of reference for engineers within infrastructure businesses, to help stimulate debate, establish priorities and shape their own sustainable future. The paper describes Balfour Beatty's progress from a position of naivety to where it scores highly on sustainability in prequalification evaluations and is able to act as a surrogate advisor to its clients when executing projects. It describes the critical dimensions of the company's approach, including how it maps onto the strategic framework for the business, governance, assurance, reporting and stakeholder engagement. The construct of sustainability continues to evolve both within and without the company, and the paper concludes with a summary of lessons learnt to date, a maturity model and a list of focus areas for future work.

Challenges of space and place for corporate ‘citizens’ and healthy mining communities: The case of Logan Lake, BC and Highland Valley Copper

Considerable resources have been invested by global mining companies in corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities without a clear understanding of whether they are meeting their goals of sustaining affected communities long after a mine closes. It is argued here that effective ‘corporate citizenship’ (which is one way of viewing CSR) requires a deeper and extended understanding of what is implied by ‘citizenship’ in the context of issues of transparency, accountability, responsibility and community engagement. This reframing of CSR is explored through the case study of Logan Lake, British Columbia, Canada. The town is situated adjacent to the Highland Valley Copper (HVC) Mine. Case study research and analysis of this town suggests that the company's approach to CSR has generated a measure of good will within the community. Findings also reveal, however, that the town faces notable challenges with respect to the provision of health and social services despite a strong sense of community and attractive physical attributes. This paper suggests that effective ‘corporate citizenship’ practices might be better realized through participation in a regional ‘place-based governance’ strategy along with rural and remote communities that have often been marginalized by dominant political and economic interests.

Corporate sustainability in action

Recent developments in management have highlighted the need for research on corporate sustainability strategies at the value chain level and in particular in the context of franchising. Although franchising is a widespread phenomenon, there is little empirical evidence of how companies approach the issue. By employing a multi-method research approach, this study explores the importance that franchisors assign to sustainability and the way they deal with it. Our findings show that franchisors adopt three main different sustainability strategies, with an increasing relevance of social sustainability as an enabler of environmental sustainability. The study sheds some light also on the interplay between the franchisor–franchisee relationship features and the company's approach toward sustainability. Preliminary propositions are presented as a starting point for further research in this area.

Three tiers ofCSR: an instructive means of understanding and guiding contemporary company approaches toCSR?

Heightened concern with global issues has led to shifts in corporate social responsibility (CSR) programs. To capture the distinct nature of this global focus, researchers have developed a three‐generationCSRtypology. In this paper, we first evaluate the usefulness of this typology for understanding corporate approaches toCSRby examining how several companies position themselves thematically inCEOintroductions to sustainability reports. On the basis of this, we then evaluate the practical value of this typology for assisting those who work withCSRstrategy. The analysis revealed expressions of all threeCSRgenerations, with third‐generation thinking being apparent, but not dominant. It also verified that the three‐generationCSRtypology can be an instructive means of both evaluating as well as framing a company's approach to sustainability, though with modifications. On the basis of the identified strengths and weaknesses of the typology, we develop a practitioner‐focused, three‐tiered model that can strategically guide the development ofCSRprograms.