Current Managers Research Articles

Wanted: the next generation of nurse and midwifery managers

PurposeTo explore whether ward management is an aspiration for junior nurses and midwives in the National Health Service in Scotland (NHSS) in the context of service redesign that is expanding career options in clinical practice.Design/methodology/approachThe findings are drawn from research conducted in a large acute NHSS Trust. The fieldwork involved face‐to‐face interviews with 64 nurses and midwives and 1,084 survey returns (29 per cent response rate). Logistic regression was used to predict the characteristics of those who wanted to move into their line manager's role.FindingsMoving into their line manager's job was a career aspiration for only 10 per cent of nurses and midwives and current managers reported there were already difficulties recruiting to senior posts. Those who wanted vertical progression preferred the clinical specialist/advanced practitioner route. By comparison, the ward manager (charge nurse) role was perceived to be very unattractive because of: too little patient contact; the stress involved in meeting the workload demands of multiple roles; and poor pay and rewards.Research limitations/implicationsThe research and policy review covers the devolved NHSS though similar trends have been noted elsewhere in the UK and internationally. The paper is of broader interest to those interested in the impact of managerial responsibility on healthcare professionals.Practical implicationsThe paper highlights the need for reform in the ward leadership role since it is pivotal in the operation of hospital services.Originality/valuePrevious research has examined the role of nurses in managing healthcare services. The paper extends this retrospective work by exploring the perceptions and career intentions of the nurses and midwives serving under the current generation of nurse managers.

Peaceful and Sustainable Development? Middle-Management Entrepreneurship and Transnational Competence in China

With deeper integration into the global economy and expanded penetration by multinational firms and other nonChinese actors following accession to the WTO, skills in bureaucratic entrepreneurship are not likely to be sufficient by themselves to bring about China’s sustainable development. In today’s interdependent and highly competitive trade, economic-cooperation, and resource-limited environment, sustainable development requires that subnational managers also possess transnational competence in collaborating with, negotiating with, and transforming foreign counterparts. However, survey research among Chinese executives based in Shanghai revealed that only a small proportion of the reporting current and future managers recognized the growing importance for China of an interculturally competent workforce. Without increased attention to enhancing the transnational competence of government and state-enterprise managers, peaceful and ecologically sound development will be difficult to sustain given the demands of multinational production chains, global resource constraints, and the challenges involved in managing transnational relations in the interest of China’s long-term economic progress.

Fault Tree Analysis of Schoharie Creek Bridge Collapse

The United States has witnessed several bridge collapses that have resulted in human fatalities. One such failure was the Schoharie Creek Bridge (1987), which motivated the improvement of bridge management policies and procedures. This paper offers a detailed review of the events that resulted in this bridge failure through the use of fault tree analysis. A fault tree is a graphical depiction of the various failure paths that lead to an undesirable outcome. The tree presented considers a host of catastrophic events ranging from vessel collision to fire. Fault trees also provide quantitative assessment and comparison of different failure mechanisms. The results of this analysis present scour as the source of the collapse of this bridge, which was in reality the root cause. Knowledge of the vulnerabilities particular to a bridge aids in the management of similar bridge types, allowing focus upon critical aspects. Recognition of historical bridge failures offers awareness to current bridge engineers and managers that aids in the decision making that promotes public safety and structure preservation. Lessons learned will help avoid similar catastrophic failures in the future.

Wal-Mao: The Discipline of Corporate Culture and Studying Success at Wal-Mart China

Wal-Mart, the world's largest company, is famous for being nimble and flexible despite its size, constantly evolving through innovation and reliance on cutting-edge technology in transportation logistics and sales across a global network. This paper explores the similarities between Wal-Mart's corporate culture and understandings of Mao's socialist China. Based on data collected from interviews, store tours, informal conversations and observations with current and former Wal-Mart managers at two stores in China from 2004 to 2006, it examines the ways in which the company's corporate culture is translated, expressed, formally presented and enforced as a means of disciplining behaviour among management in China.

A Composition Environment for MPI Programs

While MPI is the most common mechanism for expressing parallelism, MPI programs are not composable by using current MPI process managers or parallel shells. We introduce MPISH2, an MPI process manager analogous to serial Unix shells. It allows the composition of MPI and serial Unix utilities with one another to perform scalable tasks across large numbers of Unix clients. This paper discusses in detail issues of process management and parallel tool composition.

Developing statistical thinking for performance improvement in the food industry

PurposeThe paper aims to describe a recently completed research project on the use of statistical quality control (SQC) methods in the context of food and drinks manufacturing. It discusses issues surrounding the successful uptake of such methods, including organisational motivation, possible application, costs and benefits, critical success factors and the central importance of prerequisite statistical thinking (ST).Design/methodology/approachA three stage, mixed methods approach was adopted, incorporating surveys augmented by case studies and key informant interviews with industry managers and providers of relevant industry training. All data were combined to produce the final model.FindingsThe paper finds that SQC methods are of relevance in the industry, providing the process is appropriate and management have a basic awareness of the fundamentals of ST. Certain organisational and external factors were found to progressively reduce the effectiveness with which such methods are introduced and sustained. The paper ends with discussion of an original model, developed from the research, which illustrates the “filters” that tend to reduce the effectiveness with which methods are used in the industry, with a discussion of how each can be overcome.Research limitations/implicationsThe research in this paper is focused on the European food manufacturing and legislative context, and predominantly UK. Low survey response rates numbers necessitated a nonparametric approach to survey analysis.Practical implicationsThe paper shows that the filters model is of generic applicability and interest to current and future managers, and to other researchers in this area.Originality/valueThe paper addresses the “how to” of SQC, and examines an industry where there is not yet widespread literature on the benefits of SQC methods. It presents an original model of the barriers to effective use of statistical methods within a process knowledge and improvement cycle.

Internet-Based Reference Case Managers for Clinical Practice and Research Collaboration

Historically in medicine, the internet has been used for unidirectional information extraction via search engines that provide database and literature output. Current Web-based case managers allow submission and reception of digital media and have been used to link specialists and provide forums for rapid, bidirectional information sharing.

A Technophile's Doubt

A Technophile's Doubt Jared Gardner It is so obvious, but I will say it anyway: periodical scholars must remain vigilant regarding the history of the archive from which we work. The American Periodical Series, which is the foundation of much archival work in the field, did the bulk of its own collecting in the early 1940s, as part of a larger drive in American Studies to collect and highlight an "exceptional" American heritage that might serve as an antidote to the threats of foreign Fascism and Communism. Americanists have worked hard in recent years to question and challenge the assumptions inherited from the foundational work of the Cold War period, and to recognize the ways in which it systematically excludes voices and texts in its desire to present to the world a "unique" face for American culture. We need to be equally vigilant in periodical studies. Although the current managers of the APS have worked to bring new periodicals and recover missing issues, the backbone of the collection remains committed to certain definitions of both periodical and cultural values—definitions about which we should always remain skeptical. As we all know, many periodicals were determined not [End Page 123] suitable for APS—including some popular illustrated nineteenth-century periodicals. But of equal concern is the limited definition of "periodical" the series enforces and, in its new digital form, disseminates more broadly than ever at precisely the time when the field is most in need of expanding its boundaries. Indeed, my larger concern is not the obvious one that we need to greet the brave new world of electronic archives with a critical eye as to what is excluded, but that these new resources might stand in the way of opening up the field at a vital moment in its development. I have been working almost full-time for the past two years in studying the history of American serial comics from the early nineteenth through the twentieth centuries. This is an area of inquiry singularly neglected by not only American Periodical Series, but by most research libraries. Fortunately, I am blessed by the coincidences of academic hiring with daily access to what is almost certainly the richest special collection devoted entirely to this form: the Cartoon Research Library at Ohio State University. It was here, not so very long ago, that I had an experience that reminded even an old technophile like me of the manifold reasons to be cautious of becoming too dependent on electronic archives. After a year of reading everything I could about the rise of newspaper comics at the turn of the last century and feeling very confident in my ability to describe these strange and exciting texts, I checked myself in for a period of working through the tear sheets from the earliest Sunday comics supplements. I was in search of illustrations for an essay I was publishing on the subject, and surely, or so I thought, I would be able to find what I was looking for in a few days—a week at most. Instead, I spent the next year relearning everything I thought I knew. In the "flesh," these early comics supplements were different than anything I could imagine: they were huge, to start with, and the colors, even a century later, were vibrant and complex in ways that did not reproduce in even the most lushly illustrated volumes. And they were intertextual, speaking to each other both serially and across the individual supplements in ways that could not be recovered by studying them individually. To make things more complex and exciting, there was the dynamic play between the supplement and the rest of the paper—play that the comics themselves often called specific attention to. In short, when I least expected it, comics—perhaps the most culturally and intellectually neglected of periodical forms—reeducated me into the demands and rewards of the traditional special collections archive. But even as working with this strange and exciting periodical form has brought me back to the traditional archive after what had been a period of increasing drift into the world of electronic research, it has also reminded me of the inevitable gaps and...

Investors’ Dilemma: How Can We Achieve Our Return Objectives in This Environment?

The current low-volatility environment challenges fixed-income managers to maximize excess return. One approach for doing so is to hedge exposure to the macro factors that explain the vast majority of a sector’s return in order to isolate the unique sources of return and risk for that sector. Unique return and risk are then used to raise the low-return, low-risk efficient frontier and markedly improve the information ratio of the optimal portfolio.

Making leadership programs effective

Organizations across the globe are acknowledging that their current managers and leaders‐in‐waiting will one day leave their posts, be it to retire or because a more appealing job offer has arisen. With this in mind, many companies are development increasingly effective strategic methods for training their high‐potential employees.

Effects of Different Burn Regimes on Tallgrass Prairie Herpetofaunal Species Diversity and Community Composition in the Flint Hills, Kansas

The Flint Hills region of Kansas is the largest contiguous area of tallgrass prairie remaining today. Historically, the tallgrass prairie burned every 2–3 yr on average, but current land managers have altered burn regimes, resulting in a range of habitats from annually burned to long-term unburned. We used drift fence/funnel trap arrays and coverboards to estimate species richness, evenness, and diversity of herpetofauna within three different burn regimes: annual, 4-yr, and long-term unburned at Konza Prairie Biological Station, Riley County, Kansas. During the spring and fall of 2003–2004, 315 individuals from 20 species were captured across all burn regimes. Herpetofaunal species richness, evenness, and diversity estimates were not different between the three burn treatments. However, because of species-specific responses to individual burn regimes, community composition was significantly different between the habitats (χ2 = 158.19, df = 20, P < 0.001). Four species exhibited preferences among burn regimes, which differed significantly from independent assortment, with Eumeces obsoletus and Phrynosoma cornutum preferring annual burn treatments, Scincella lateralis preferring 4-yr burn treatments, and Diadophis punctatus preferring long-term unburned treatments. Species-specific responses were likely because of changes in vegetation structure and microhabitat (temperature and moisture content) created through different frequencies of fire disturbances. Maximizing large-scale herpetofaunal diversity across the Flint Hills' rangelands could be accomplished by creating a large number of small scale habitat types through a mosaic style burning plan.

Competências para a gestão de Unidades Básicas de Saúde: percepção do gestor

O artigo descreve uma investigação realizada para conhecer o perfil de competências dos gestores de Unidades Básicas de Saúde (UBS) e verificar se favorecem a implementação dos novos modelos assistenciais e gerenciais propostos. A modalidade pesquisa-ação foi utilizada por se tratar de estudo social com base empírica, na qual os investigadores e sujeitos do estudo interagiam no cenário onde foi realizado. Participaram dezenove gestores de uma Supervisão Técnica de Área da Secretaria Municipal de Saúde de São Paulo. Foram realizadas entrevistas e grupo focal. Os temas disparadores do grupo foram gerados pela análise das entrevistas visando à problematização. As evidências mostraram que a percepção dos gestores em relação às competências para gerir uma UBS baseia-se em uma visão simplista que influencia diretamente o modo de operacionalização das estratégias e na dinâmica das equipes, dificultando a implementação de propostas mais eficazes.

The effect of structural empowerment and perceived organizational support on middle level nurse managers' role satisfaction

The restructuring of Canadian health care organizations during the past decade has reduced the visibility of nursing leadership. This has resulted in job conditions that have disempowered nurse managers and influenced their ability to create positive work environments, mentor potential nurse leaders, and gain satisfaction in the leadership role. These conditions threaten the retention of a cadre of high quality nurse leaders in today's chaotic health care setting. The purpose of this study was to examine the relationship between structural empowerment and perceived organizational support and the effect of these factors on the role satisfaction of middle level nurse managers. A secondary analysis was conducted as part of a larger study of 126 middle level nurse managers working in Canadian acute care hospitals, randomly selected from the Ontario provincial registry. Eighty-four nurse managers responded to a questionnaire mailed to their home addresses. Structural empowerment was positively associated with middle level nurse managers' perceived organizational support. The combination of empowerment and perceptions of organizational support were significant predictors of middle level nurse managers' role satisfaction. The findings support R.M. Kanter's (1977, 1993; Men and Women of the Corporation. Basic Books, New York) contention that empowering work conditions have an impact on employees' feelings of support and sense of accomplishment at work. Positive perceptions of organizational support may play an important role in retaining current middle managers, and possibly attracting future leaders to management positions.

Managerial actions and stock transactions during financial distress: Some empirical evidence

Should the current managers remain in control of the firm during financial distress? We address this issue by examining whether managers who take value-maximizing actions also refrain from abnormal selling of their own shares in the firm. Our empirical results show that managers in the action firms do not engage in abnormal selling even during periods of frequent earnings losses. These managers exhibit higher net purchases than the nonaction managers. Thus, trading behavior of the managers and the actions taken during poor performance both appear to be consistent with stockholder interests.

Dynamics of Industry Structure when Bankrupt Competitors Re-Emerge with Lower Costs

The Boston Consulting Group's Rule of Three and Four is an empirical observation, based on examples from wide body jet aircraft to baby food, that in stable oligopolies there are usually two rivals - three can exist only if the third rival's market share is larger that a quarter of #1. The first contribution of the paper is to prove BCG's empirical observation, based on three assumptions: First, if the marginal producer enters when the price umbrella is raised, the pre-existing rivals can expect to lose market share in proportion to their market shares. Second, for each rival, the larger its market share, the lower its inflation adjusted unit cost. Third, competition is on the basis of price. If the industry demand curve is of constant elasticity, the lead rival will maximize profit by making a one-time decision about pricing policy that will determine the number of competitors in the industry. The second contribution of the paper is to discuss appropriate strategies for marginal rivals. Marketing professors teach the 4 Ps of competition: price, product design, promotion, and place (customer service). A marginal rival's first strategy is to search for under-serviced niches in the market, mindful to avoid niches that demand product innovation because the marginal rival has neither the volume nor the margin to afford being in an RD sometimes niches wither. The consequent need for adaptation may be impeded by contractual provisions and fixed costs such as interest payments on debt. The third contribution of the paper is to look at when bankruptcy might be a sensible business strategy. Bankruptcy is expensive (in the U.S.A., 10-20% of the value of the corporate assets (Andrade and Kaplan, 1998)). The current managers are placing themselves in risk's way by seeking bankruptcy, because the bankruptcy judge might decide to liquidate all assets (instead of keeping the business as a going concern, but shedding the fixed costs of interest payments and restrictive union contracts). However, a bankruptcy judge who perceives valuable brand names, tailored software, and other non-marketable intellectual property, will be more likely to keep the business as a going concern, which may well emerge from bankruptcy as a leaner and meaner rival, whose re-emergence may take market share from #2, causing it harm. So it might be in the self interest of #2 to keep the marginal rival away from bankruptcy, by not invading the marginal rival's market niche, by permitting its suppliers to also supply the marginal rival, and by permitting the marginal rival to poach its experienced managers.

How do Managers Value Stock Options and Restricted Stock?

We gather data from 77 current mid-level managers and 111 future entry-level managers, to investigate how they value stock options and restricted stock. We refer to our current and future manager groups collectively as managers. We supplement our manager data with a dozen field interviews with senior executives. We find that managers, on average, systematically overvalue stock options relative to both the Black-Scholes (B-S) value and fair-value equivalent restricted stock grants. Thus, contrary to conventional economic thinking, many risk-averse agents do not appear to discount B-S values of options. Further, in valuing options, managers value quick vesting and extended expiration. Managers also extrapolate recently rising stock price trends to arrive at their subjective valuations of both options and restricted stock. In general, our results suggest that a combination of economic, behavioral and demographic factors explain managers' subjective valuations of options and restricted stock.

Gender and career choice

PurposeThis paper extends the debate on gender and career choice using the case study of managers in charity shops in the UK, a group that have previously not been researched. The charity retail sector has undergone considerable change over the last few years, particularly in its effort to professionalize. As a result shop managers' positions have changed from being voluntary to paid. With the changes taking place in the sector, the purpose of this research was to explore the views of current charity shop managers with regard to their career choice and career development issues.Design/methodology/approachThe methodological approach taken to the research was qualitative and used a series of in‐depth interviews with 22 shop managers.FindingsThe research found that charity retail management serves an important purpose for many women in the transition from the home to working environment. It provides the balance necessary to effectively combine the multiple role demands between personal and professional lives. Career success for these managers was less to do with occupational status or income, but encompassed the satisfaction, autonomy, challenge and self‐fulfillment the job presented them. As such, the majority had little interest in progressing their careers linearly but were contented with other forms of career development.Research limitations/implicationsBeing an exploratory study, the results are not generalisable to the population. A quantitative research methodology could be utilized to test the findings of this paper and enable researchers to draw firmer conclusions.Originality/valueThe findings of this research may aid recruitment and selection practices for the future recruitment and development of charity shop managers.

Review of Introduction to Emergency Management by George D. Haddow and Jane Bullock

George Haddow and Jane Bullock were among the closest people to James Lee Witt during the period 1993–2001 when he revolutionized emergency management in the United States. The two could have written the definitive history of that revolution. They could have provided an insider’s insights into the political strategies used to make it a reality. I hope that someday they will write that insider’s story. Clearly that was not their intent in writing Introduction to Emergency Management. They call the book a “primer” on the emergency management discipline and note that its focus is on Federal Emergency Management Agency ~FEMA!. The book lives up to that billing. It is a very good text. If I had known nothing about emergency management prior to reading this book, I would have emerged from my reading with a basic understanding of emergency management in the United States from the federal government’s perspective. The book was easy to follow but not an exciting read. Does anyone know of a gripping book on governmental programs? The book has chapters on the history of emergency management; hazards; the four phases of emergency management: mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery; and on emergency communications, international emergency management; the new terrorist threat; and the future of emergency management. The chapter on hazards is minimal, covering 24 hazards in 20 pages. Because this is not a text on hazards but on emergency management, the light hazards treatment is permissible; but the authors could have dropped it entirely without much loss. The chapter on the history of emergency management from 1950 to 2003 picks up most of the twists and turns in the federal program. However, Haddow and Bullock did not cover in-depth the history of Public Law 93-288, the Disaster Relief Act of 1974, which was the statutory basis for the major leaps in disaster benefits during the following 30 years and was, in fact, the first disaster statute using the words “hazard mitigation.” The best of the chapters is on emergency communications, a topic where the Witt administration excelled. Emergency management directors and agency directors should copy this chapter and carry it everywhere. James Lee Witt and his communications director, Morrie Goodman, worked hard to teach the communication fundamentals to the FEMA staff. I had been in emergency management for 25 years and it was new to me. Now, it is hard to think otherwise. I learned that emergency information is a form of disaster relief. Sometimes it is more important to keep people informed than getting disaster relief funds into their hands more quickly. I also learned that it is important to let people know about what their government is doing each step of the way, to bring the media into the process so that it becomes part of the solution, to keep in mind that false information going out to the public must be nipped in the bud, and much more. The chapters on mitigation, preparedness, response, and recovery spend too much of the space describing past and present FEMA programs. I would rather have seen a discussion on the effectiveness of techniques in the preparedness and mitigation chapters and on the interplay of local, state, and federal activities in the response and recovery chapters. A comparative analysis of the use of buyouts and elevation to mitigate flood damage would have been useful. It would have been particularly instructive to contrast the federal role as a source of funds and the federal role as a direct provider of assistance. My previous comments raise the question of the intended audience. I am not sure who that is. If I were a new local emergency manager, I would want more about techniques and strategies. If I were a new FEMA employee, the description of federal programs would be great. It was appropriate given current circumstances to devote a chapter to terrorism. Unfortunately, the chapter is too centered on on-going federal organizational shifts. It would have been perhaps even more worthwhile to examine how terrorism might affect the four phases of emergency management. One can argue that preparedness, response and recovery would not be much different. Yet, the approach to mitigating terrorism would present radically new challenges. Such a discussion is missing. Haddow and Bullock conclude Introduction to Emergency Management with three lessons from the past for current and future emergency managers: maintain an all-hazards approach; the Federal Response Plan works, be careful about replacing it; and “continue to practice the concepts that facilitated the U.S. emergency management system becoming the best system in the world.” It might not be wise to scuttle the advances brought about by the Witt revolution.

Developing Academic Library Staff for Future Success (review)

Reviewed by: Developing Academic Library Staff for Future Success Robert P. Holley Developing Academic Library Staff for Future Success, ed. Margaret Oldroyd. London: Facet Publishing, 2004. 184 p. $95(ISBN 1-85604-478-5) Developing Academic Library Staff for Future Success looks at staff development from a decidedly British perspective. According to the editor, Margaret Oldroyd, "Its aim is to consider the place of staff development in the current and future strategic management of academic libraries . . . and so its primary intended audience is current and future library managers." (p. xiv) As an American library science professor, I did not recognize many of the authors; however, the section on "contributors" (pp. vii-xi) lists impressive credentials. While this is an edited volume, Oldroyd obviously commissioned the papers to fit together as a unified work since the 10 offerings follow an orderly, logical sequence and complement each other. After a survey of the current situation in the United Kingdom, chapters focus on distinctive skills (information technology; management; the convergence of libraries, computing centers, and media services; the librarian as teacher), special groups (support staff, non-traditional staff), and delivery methods (virtual learning, collaborative training). Building upon these nine chapters, Oldroyd concludes with a summary chapter, "Taking the Strategic Approach to Staff Development." Authors provide a list of references of varying length at the end of each chapter. There is no general bibliography. A four-page glossary provides a list of acronyms. The index is adequate but not exceptional. Since a work on staff development must identify which skills are needed, the most interesting part of many chapters for the general reader is the review of the current situation in higher education and libraries in the United Kingdom. In this way, the authors analyze the changes in the academic and library climate that require new directions in staff development. The concluding portions of most chapters then identify practical strategies to develop these skills. An exception is the more theoretical chapter by Jo Webb, "Development Routes for Academic Library Support Staff," in which she goes beyond the general assumption of the volume that staff development is "good." She states, for example, "there is little published evaluation of the impact of training and development activities on the work and motivation of library support staff, nor on the organization [End Page 537] as a whole." (p. 108) The chapter by Patrick Noon, "Developing the Academic Library Managers of the Future," also stands out for its treatment of the identification and evaluation of management competencies and for its focus on the need for succession planning to develop the next generation of library leaders. The volume is resolutely British with extensive references to various British government bodies and reports and with British terminology that occasionally takes some effort to translate into American library practice. Overall, the work gives the sense that higher education is much more centrally controlled than in the United States and that staff development suffers from the absence of state library associations and from a less well-developed network of local, state, and regional consortia. Oldroyd explicitly states and other authors imply that the United Kingdom lags behind Australia and the United States in implementing systematic staff development. North American librarians interested in comparative librarianship may find this work of interest for its discussion of the current state of staff development in the United Kingdom. Those seeking practical pointers on implementing effective staff development in the United States should look elsewhere. Robert P. Holley Wayne State University aa3805@wayne.edu Copyright © 2004 The Johns Hopkins University Press

Mandatory Management Training for Newly Hired Child Welfare Supervisors

Little scholarly attention has been directed at verifying whether the skills and competencies stressed in social welfare management training programs are consistent with the management literature. In this study, 31 state-sponsored management training programs for newly hired child welfare supervisors were assessed using Menefee and Thompson's (1994) 12 social work managerial dimensions. Research has suggested strategic, interpersonal, and technical skills and competencies are important for successful social welfare management. Most states, however, tended to ignore the strategic component in their management training programs. By discounting this aspect, states not only overlook the very factors that make social welfare management challenging, they potentially inhibit the practice effectiveness of their current supervisors and future managers.