Inefficient Management Practices Research Articles

THE QUALITATIVE AND QUANTITATIVE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATION IS A CRUCIAL FACTOR IN IMPROVING THE INNOVATION RANKING OF UZBEKISTAN

The qualitative and quantitative development of education is a crucial factor in improving the innovation ranking of Uzbekistan. Obstacles such as corruption, inefficient management, the lack of funds for research, and fund mismanagement hinder progress inthis regard. Corruption within the education sector undermines transparency and trust, necessitating stringent measures to combat this pervasive issue. Inefficient management practices impede the effective utilization of resources and hinder progress towards educational goals. The lack of adequate funding for research and development poses a significant obstacle to innovation, limiting the ability of educational institutions to conduct groundbreaking research and implement innovative projects. Additionally, mismanagement of available funds exacerbates the problem, necessitating a reevaluation of budget allocation mechanisms. To address these challenges, a comprehensive approach is required, including strengthening anti-corruption measures, implementing effective governance and management practices, and prioritizing investment in research and development by allocating sufficient funds and ensuring their judicious use. By overcoming these obstacles, Uzbekistan can foster a conducive environment for education and innovation, empowering the nation to thrive in an increasingly competitive global landscape.

Evaluating Imputation Methods for rainfall data under high variability in Johor River Basin, Malaysia

Missing values in rainfall records might result in erroneous predictions and inefficient management practices with significant economic, environmental, and social consequences. This is particularly important for rainfall datasets in Peninsular Malaysia (PM) due to the high level of missingness that can affect the inherent pattern in the highly variable time series. In this work, 21 target rainfall stations in the Johor River Basin (JRB) with daily data between 1970 and 2015 were used to examine 19 different multiple imputation methods that were carried out using the Multivariate Imputation by Chained Equations (MICE) package in R. For each station, artificial missing data were added at rates of up to 5%, 10%, 20%, and 30% for different types of missingness, namely, Missing Completely At Random (MCAR), Missing At Random (MAR), and Missing Not At Random (MNAR), leaving the original missing data intact. The imputation quality was evaluated based on several statistical performance metrics, namely mean absolute error (MAE), root mean square error (RMSE), normalized root mean square error (NRMSE), Nash-Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE), modified degree of agreement (MD), coefficient of determination (R2), Kling-Gupta efficiency (KGE), and volumetric efficiency (VE), which were later ranked and aggregated by using the compromise programming index (CPI) to select the best method. The results showed that linear regression predicted values (norm.predict) consistently ranked the highest under all types and levels of missingness. For example, under MAR, MNAR, and MCAR, this method showed the lowest MAE values, ranging between 0.78 and 2.25, 0.93–2.57, and 0.87–2.43, respectively. It also consistently shows higher NSE and R2 values of 0.71–0.92, 0.6–0.92, and 0.66–0.91, and 0.77–0.92, 0.71–0.93, and 0.75–0.92 under MAR, MCAR, and MNAR, respectively. The methods of mean, rf, and cart also appear to be efficient. The incorporation of the compromise programming index (CPI) as a decision-support tool has enabled an objective assessment of the output from the multiple performance metrics for the ranking and selection of the top-performing method. During validation, the Probability Density Function (PDF) demonstrated that even with up to 30% missingness, the shape of the distribution was retained after imputation compared to the actual data. The methodology proposed in this study can help in choosing suitable imputation methods for other tropical rainfall datasets, leading to improved accuracy in rainfall estimation and prediction.

Improving smallholder farmers’ gross margins and labor-use efficiency across a range of cropping systems in the Eastern Gangetic Plains

The Eastern Gangetic Plains of South Asia is a region of high rural poverty and low agronomic productivity, with crops grown using traditional management practices which are labor-intensive and uneconomical. Poor agronomic productivity is largely caused by unintentional, inefficient management practices which are exacerbated by labor shortages caused by increased migration away from rural areas as households require additional income from remittances. These labor shortages increase the cost of hiring labor, further contributing to low gross margins from cropping systems. The climates, soils and available water across the region indicate that, with improved management practices, this region has the potential to produce high yields for low production costs and labor requirements, ensuring high gross margins for smallholder farmers. We conducted on-farm participatory trials to compare the performance of traditional and improved conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification management practices to understand which used less labor, had lower production costs and returned higher gross margins to smallholder farmers. Our study showed that compared to traditional management practices, conservation agriculture-based sustainable intensification practices reduced both labor use and total cropping system production costs by around 40% and increased gross margins by up to 25%. Trials were conducted on over 400 farms and thus our results are both statistically rigorous and representative of a range of common crop production management across the Eastern Gangetic Plains. These results show there is potential to increase livelihoods and reduce the impact of labor shortages for smallholder farmers living in diverse climatic, edaphic and social circumstances across the region. They have broader applications in labor-constrained smallholder cropping systems throughout South Asia and worldwide.

Improving Rice Yields and Nitrogen Use Efficiency by Optimizing Nitrogen Management and Applications to Rapeseed in Rapeseed-Rice Rotation System

This investigation aims to provide theoretical and practical evidence for the efficient utilization of nitrogen (N) in paddy-upland rapeseed-rice rotation systems because a lack of previous research on such rotation systems leads to inefficient management practices. The effects of the N application rates and the N fertilizer management strategies for rapeseed and rice were examined, respectively, in relation to the photosynthetic productivity and yields of hybrid rice. The results indicated that the leaf area, Pn, with 40% as basal fertilizer, 40% as tillering fertilize, and 20% as panicle fertilizer and a reduced N rate (30 kg/ha) during the rape season, were higher than other nitrogen management strategies trialed, with conventional N rates in the rape season. The average rice grain yield (9545.15 kg/ha) over the two years with 40% as basal fertilizer, 40% as tillering fertilizer, and 20% as panicle fertilizer was higher than other N treatments with the reduced N rates during the rape season. The reduced N rate during the rapeseed season and 40% as basal fertilizer, 40% as tillering fertilizer, and 20% as panicle fertilizer management during the rice season for the rape-rice rotation system exhibited the highest rice yields. Our findings indicated that the N fertilizer management model was a high-yielding, N-saving, and environmentally friendly measure for rape–rice rotation systems in southern China.

Integrated proposal for management of root rot caused by Phytophthora cinnamomi in avocado cv. Hass crops

Phytophthora cinnamomi is the most important pathogen in avocado crops that causes the disease named avocado root rot (PRR). This disease affects the root system and induces multiple symptoms that end with plant death and causes large economic losses. PRR management is based almost exclusively on the use of fungicides (metalaxyl and phosphites). This situation led to inefficient management practices with apparently satisfactory results only in short periods. The objective of this work was to evaluate different PRR management practices under in vitro, net house and field conditions. The initial part of the study was carried out under in vitro and net house conditions evaluating different types of ions (boron, zinc and manganese chelate), the auxin α naphthaleneacetic, fungicides (potassium phosphite, fosetyl aluminium and metalaxyl) and microorganisms associated with biological control of diseases. For field conditions, the most promising strategies were selected, which included fungicide use (rotation of metalaxyl and phosphites), organic matter in the form of residues of vegetables and mushrooms, use of foliar (manganese) and soil (calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, and silicon) ions, additions of bovine manure, beneficial microorganisms (Rizoglomus fasciculatum, Trichoderma sp., and Bacillus sp.), edaphic application of auxin and an energy source (sucrose). Results indicated that individual control methods of PRR are not sustainable over time. However, the implementation of a disease integrated management program including several strategies of control proved to be effective for PRR. At the same time that PRR was satisfactorily managed, the economic sustainability was achieved and it was possible to reduce the reliance on phosphonate applications.

Simulation analysis of incentives on employees' acceptance of foreign joint venture management practices: a case study

PurposeCultural differences between employees of different nationalities are hindering the development of some transnational joint ventures. Describing and modelling the positive (or negative) factors that cause joint venture employees to accept (or reject) joint management business practices is of great value to all corporations operating abroad with locally sourced employees.Design/methodology/approachThis study uses a Sino-Japan construction joint venture project as a representative case study. First, structural equation modelling is used to identify the factors influencing Chinese employees' acceptance of joint venture management practices. Then, a system dynamics model is adopted to simulate the time-dependent effects of the incentives.FindingsThe study results (1) indicate which incentives strongly affect employee acceptance of joint venture management practices; (2) identify inefficient management practices in cross-cultural joint ventures; and (3) provide evidence that the employees' perceptions of clear purpose, good working relationships and helpful mechanisms positively and directly also support their acceptance of joint management practices.Originality/value–A dynamic simulation method is used to analyse the influence of various incentive factors on employee acceptance of joint management. This provides unprecedented information regarding how these factors interact with each other, hence how their effectiveness varies (both positively and negatively) over time. Further findings also provide new ideas for joint venture managers to adopt more effective management methods.

The IT Revolution and Southern Europe’s Two Lost Decades

AbstractSince the middle of the 1990s, productivity growth in Southern Europe has been substantially lower than in other developed countries. We argue that this divergence was partly caused by inefficient management practices, which limited Southern Europe’s gains from the IT Revolution. To quantify this effect, we build a multi-country general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms and workers. In our model, the IT Revolution generates divergence for three reasons. First, inefficient management limits Southern firms’ productivity gains from IT adoption. Second, IT increases the aggregate importance of management, making its inefficiencies more salient. Third, IT-driven wage increases in other countries stimulate Southern high-skill emigration. We calibrate our model using firm-level evidence, and show that it can account for 35% of Italy’s, 47% of Spain’s, and 81% of Portugal’s productivity divergence with respect to Germany between 1995 and 2008. Counterfactual policy experiments show that subsidies to IT adoption or education cannot reduce this gap: only policies that directly tackle inefficient management are effective.

Life cycle assessment for solid waste management in Lebanon: Economic implications of carbon credit.

Solid waste management has witnessed much progress in recent years with considerable efforts targeting the reduction of associated impacts and carbon emissions. Such efforts remain relatively limited in developing economies due to inefficient management practices. In this study, a life cycle assessment (LCA) approach is adopted to identify integrated systems with minimal impacts and reduced emissions in a developing context coupled with an economic valuation and sensitivity analysis to assess the effect of varying influencing parameters individually. The results showed that the highest impact arises from landfilling with minimal material recovery for recycling and composting, while incineration coupled with energy recovery contributed to the least equivalent emissions (-111% with respect to baseline scenario) at a varying cost of -70% to +93% depending on the selected technology and the value of carbon credit. Optimizing material recycling, composting and landfilling with energy recovery contributed to 98% savings in emissions (with respect to baseline scenario) and remained economically attractive irrespective of the carbon credit exchange rate of 0.5-50 US$/MTCO2E. The sensitivity analysis showed that an improvement in landfill gas collection efficiency (up to 60%) can contribute to major savings in emissions (58%). The application of the LCA-based approach supports the development of integrated viable plans while quantifying advantages and disadvantages towards decision-making and policy-planning.

The IT Revolution and Southern Europe's Two Lost Decades

Since the middle of the 1990s, productivity growth in Southern Europe has been substantially lower than in other developed countries. In this paper, we argue that this divergence was partly caused by inefficient management practices, which limited Southern Europe's gains from the IT Revolution. To quantify this effect, we build a multi-country general equilibrium model with heterogeneous firms and workers. In our model, the IT Revolution generates divergence for three reasons. First, inefficient management limits Southern firms' productivity gains from IT adoption. Second, IT increases the aggregate importance of management, making its inefficiencies more salient. Third, IT-driven wage increases in other countries stimulate Southern high-skill emigration. We calibrate our model using firm-level evidence, and show that it can account for ~28% of Italy's, 39% of Spain's and 67% of Portugal's productivity divergence with respect to Germany between 1995 to 2008.

English

Inefficient management practices lead to soil organic matter depletion, structure breakdown and increased erosion. This has resulted into low crop yields of sub-Saharan Africa. Conservation agriculture (CA) is being considered as a potential system having the capability of improving soil quality and providing stable yields. A study was therefore conducted, at Chitedze Research Station-Malawi, to evaluate medium term effects of 5 years CA experiment potential in improving soil quality. The results indicated that chemical nutrient build up in CA is gradual and significant differences between treatments were realized from the 4th year of practicing CA. In the 5th year, CA treatments, on average registered 14 and 21% higher in pH and soil organic matter (SOM) respectively than in the common practice. A positive correlation (74%) between soil SOM and pH in the 5th year was observed. CA treatments had a range of 61.2 - 69.4% of the soil particles composed of soil aggregates greater than 2 mm in diameter compared to 30.1% under common practice by the 5th year. In the top 30 cm of the soil, 67 and 17 earthworm’s’ m-2 were recorded in CA and control, respectively. Maize yields were higher in the 5th year as compared to the 1st year. In all the parameters assessed, CA using maize - cowpea rotation treatment gave highest values. Conclusively, CA improves soil quality, especially when legumes are integrated. Key words: Common practice, soil aggregate stability.

Factors influencing the work efficiency of district health managers in low-resource settings: a qualitative study in Ghana.

BackgroundThere is increasing evidence that good district management practices can improve health system performance and conversely, that poor and inefficient management practices have detrimental effects. The aim of the present study was to identify factors contributing to inefficient management practices of district health managers and ways to improve their overall efficiency.MethodsNineteen semi-structured interviews were conducted with district health managers in three districts of the Eastern Region in Ghana. The 19 interviews conducted comprised 90 % of the managerial workforce in these districts in 2013. A thematic analysis was carried out using the WHO’s leadership and management strengthening framework to structure the results.ResultsKey factors for inefficient district health management practices were identified to be: human resource shortages, inadequate planning and communication skills, financial constraints, and a narrow decision space that constrains the authority of district health managers and their ability to influence decision-making. Strategies that may improve managerial efficiency at both an individual and organizational level included improvements to planning, communication, and time management skills, and ensuring the timely release of district funds.ConclusionsFilling District Health Management Team vacancies, developing leadership and management skills of district health managers, ensuring a better flow of district funds, and delegating more authority to the districts seems to be a promising intervention package, which may result in better and more efficient management practices and stronger health system performance.Electronic supplementary materialThe online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12913-016-1271-3) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.

Bridging the gap between life cycle inventory and impact assessment for toxicological assessments of pesticides used in crop production

In Life Cycle Assessment (LCA), the Life Cycle Inventory (LCI) provides emission data to the various environmental compartments and Life Cycle Impact Assessment (LCIA) determines the final distribution, fate and effects. Due to the overlap between the Technosphere (anthropogenic system) and Ecosphere (environment) in agricultural case studies, it is, however, complicated to establish what LCI needs to capture and where LCIA takes over. This paper aims to provide guidance and improvements of LCI/LCIA boundary definitions, in the dimensions of space and time. For this, a literature review was conducted to provide a clear overview of available methods and models for both LCI and LCIA regarding toxicological assessments of pesticides used in crop production. Guidelines are provided to overcome the gaps between LCI and LCIA modeling, and prevent the overlaps in their respective operational spheres.The proposed framework provides a starting point for LCA practitioners to gather the right data and use the proper models to include all relevant emission and exposure routes where possible. It is also able to predict a clear distinction between efficient and inefficient management practices (e.g. using different application rates, washing and rinsing management, etc.). By applying this framework for toxicological assessments of pesticides, LCI and LCIA can be directly linked, removing any overlaps or gaps in between the two distinct LCA steps.

The sustainability of management practices in the Old City of Salamanca

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to survey the sustainability of management practices followed by local authorities, and their impact on the preservation of World Heritage cities, taking the Old City of Salamanca as a case study.Design/methodology/approachAfter a brief introduction to the difficult role of World Heritage properties in the sustainable development of cities, the main concerns of their management practices are presented. The paper then surveys the Old City of Salamanca: before, during and after nomination, using the Auditorium project as an illustration of the threat of new development to the outstanding universal value and the difficulty in regulating it. Finally, the paper discusses the risks of inefficient management practices of such properties.FindingsThis survey revealed the inexistence of any management practices uniformly followed by local authorities for the preservation of the Old City of Salamanca. As a result, new urban developments risk destroying the property's outstanding universal value.Practical limitations/implicationsThis paper discusses the evidence that can help local authorities of the Old City of Salamanca to understand the impact of poor management practices on their World Heritage property. This should also be informative and helpful to local authorities from other World Heritage sites which are dealing with similar situations.Originality/valueThis survey contributes to the expert area of sustainable development and urban heritage preservation that is demanding attention from both academia and practice.

Technical and scale efficiency of crop and livestock farms in Poland: does specialization matter?

AbstractThe technical and scale efficiency of Polish farms is analyzed using data envelopment analysis. Efficiency differences are measured according to farm specialization, in crop or livestock, at two points in time during transition, 1996 and 2000. The efficiency results are reviewed in light of confidence intervals provided by bootstrapping. Livestock farms are found to be, on average, more technically and scale efficient than crop farms. Scale efficiency is high for both specializations. Technical inefficiency appears mostly to be due to “pure technical” rather than “scale” inefficiency, and thus attributable to inefficient management practices. The evidence suggests that the low‐educational attainment of people engaged in agriculture is one important reason for these inefficient practices. In 2000, 64% of livestock farms and 86% of crop farms were operating under increasing returns to scale. Improvements in the land lease legislation and changes to the policy support to farmers' pensions could stimulate the land market and remove the incentives to keep a fragmented operational structure.

Looking Out for the Best Interests of the Company?

Many large companies have recognised the need to change their organisations in order to provide challenging opportunities for workers. The use of job enrichment schemes, autonomous work groups and participative management is now widespread. There are, however, still too many instances of repressive management practice. In this article, the personal experience of a worker in the US car industry forms the basis of a plea for a new approach to development and training. In it, I try to show that inefficient management practices are employed in the plant where I work, and give some suggestions for improvement. The company's name is not given in order to protect the guilty as well as the innocent.

Administrative Decentralisation and Economic Development: the Sudan's Experiment with Devolution

In his classic study of decentralisation and development, Henry Maddick argued that economic growth and social modernisation depend in part on the ability of Third-World govenments to diffuse responsibility for development planning and administration, to expand participation in economic activities, and to promote new centres of creativity within society. Over-concentration of administrative authority stifles development, Maddick insisted; it leads to waste and corruption, delays action, and creates irrational and inefficient management practices, the costs of which developing countries cannot afford.1 To illustrate his point, Maddick cited the effects of the centralised supply system in the Sudan in the late 1950s, through which ‘shoes made in Fasher were sent 400 miles by rail to Khartoum where the whole shoe supply was concentrated. When Fasher wanted shoes for school children and government personnel it had to send to Khartoum for them.’ He also noted that school desks and equipment for the provincial city of Juba had to be ordered from Khartoum, which was 900 miles away and connected only by inefficient river transport, even though the wood from which the furniture was made originally came from Juba.2