Manpower Strategies Research Articles

Effect of coronavirus disease 2019 pandemic on ophthalmology practice in Kasr Al Ainy Hospital, Cairo University

Purpose To discuss the effect of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on ophthalmology practice and share our experience to ensure a continual ophthalmology service to the patients at Cairo University Hospital. Patients and methods This is a retrospective study. Administrative measures taken to address challenges in different ophthalmology care settings during this pandemic are discussed. These include infection control measures, logistics, and manpower strategies. The effect of these measures on the number of ocular surgeries performed are analyzed in comparison with the same period of the last year. The records of all patients who underwent ocular surgeries between mid-March and mid-July 2020 at Kasr Al Ainy Hospital are compared with the records of patients who had ocular surgeries in the same time frame in 2019. Results The total number of elective surgical cases in the period of COVID-19 lockdown (2020) was 392 in comparison with 2470 during the same period last year. The decrease was statistically significant (P=0.0035). Intravitreal injection for macular edema was the most common indication of elective surgeries during the lockdown. The total number of emergency cases operated in the period of COVID-19 lockdown was 733 in comparison with 959 during the same period last year. The difference was not statistically significant (P=0.40). Repair of globe rupture was the most common indication of emergency surgeries. Conclusion Our protocol was able to provide sight-saving measures needed in many patients during this outbreak. With COVID-19 is expected to continue for a long time, we need to revise our protocols to improve the service presented to the patients especially those with nonurgent conditions, while maintaining the safety of both patients and health care workers.

The State of Precarious Work in China

Precarious work, which is characterized by the uncertainty and unpredictability of employment, can found in the labor market of most industrialized countries. Although precarious work was relatively rare in China until the 1980s, it has experienced rapid growth over the past two decades. The factors underlying the diffusion of precarious work are varied and interrelated, notably reflecting the impact of changes in the structure of industry, occupations, urbanization, state policies, and labor market institutions, as well as employers’ manpower strategies. Although the spread of precarious work is sometimes advocated as an effective means of generating employment and increasing labor market flexibility, substantial evidence shows that such work is plagued by a series of problems, including low pay, low skill, high work intensity, poor working conditions, and lack of employment protection. This article reviews research on the trends and quality of precarious work in China in the past two decades and offers insights for policy makers with respect to the ways to integrate precarious workers into the primary labor market.

Fuzzy system dynamics and optimization with application to manpower systems

The dynamics of human resource recruitment and training in an uncertain environment creates a challenge for many policy makers in various organisations. In the presence of fuzzy manpower demand and training capacity, many companies fear losing critical human resources when their employees leave. As such, the development of effective dynamic policies for recruitment and training in a fuzzy dynamic environment is imperative. In this frame of mind, a fuzzy systems dynamics modelling approach is proposed to enable the policy maker to develop reliable dynamic policies relating recruitment, training, and available skills, from a systems perspective. It is anticipated in this study that fuzzy system dynamics and optimization approach would help organizations to design effective manpower policies and strategies.

System dynamics of manpower planning strategies under various demand scenarios

Article history: Received August 10, 2012 Accepted 28 September 2012 Available online September 28 2012 The development of human resources recruitment and training strategies in a dynamic environment poses a challenge to many policy makers in various organisations. The goal of every human resource manager is to recruit, train and deploy the right personnel at the right place and at the right time in order to meet organizational requirements. We develop a system dynamics simulation model that captures the dynamic behaviour of a typical corporate manpower system. Three major strategies are indentified and simulated under different manpower demand scenarios. Based on a set of performance indices, the impact of the strategies is simulated under assumed demand scenarios including steady increasing, fluctuating, and s-shaped demand. Useful managerial insights are derived from the study. The model is a decision support tool for developing reliable dynamic manpower policies in terms of recruitment, training capacity, available skills, and attrition. This approach can assist organizations to design effective manpower strategies. © 2012 Growing Science Ltd. All rights reserved.

Role of information technology in the Malaysian judicial system: Issues and current trends

This article will focus of the development of IT use within the Malaysian judicial system involving both the judiciary and court administrators. In essence, they both play a pivotal role in the future direction of the legal system of Malaysia as we face challenging times today. Information technology (IT) is here to stay and it is of utmost importance that the judiciary and the administrators of justice realize the role and use of IT as a multidimensional tool in the effective and efficient administration of justice. In many parts of the world, IT is fast becoming useful in implementing time, case, manpower and cost management strategies within the judicial services. The legal office environment has embraced IT not just to save costs and time but also to give firms a competitive edge and ensuring security as well. The need for IT will thus involve a discussion of the current problems plaguing the judicial system in Malaysia and a consideration of current judicial practices and trends elsewhere in the world. As Malaysia has inherited the common law system of the British, it will come as no surprise to find that we are facing similar issues and problems in the context of our own judicial system. The uses of IT and the reasons for its effectiveness will be considered along with the issues faced in implementing IT.

Comparative Manpower Strategies

The author presents a comparison of how different member countries of the OECD have developed their man-power strategies over the past decade in light of the unique institutional and cultural circumstances.

Manpower Strategies for Regionalization of Business Operations in the Asia Pacific

Abstract With increased globalization and regionalization of business operations, the issues of overseas manpower strategies are gaining increasing importance. The importance is especially felt by companies in the Asia Pacific region, as the region is currently experiencing an unprecedented rate of economic growth. A maturing domestic economy along with a number of push and pull factors have spurred the efforts towards the regionalization of the Singapore economy, and the government's policy initiatives in 1993 added significant impetus to the process. This paper presents the findings of an extensive study conducted on the overseas manpower strategies of MNCs and local companies in Singapore. More than 200 companies participated in the study. The results provided information about several international human resource management (HRM) issues facing the companies. Selection, training and development, and compensation strategies of the responding companies are analyzed. The Findings provide significant insig...

Replacing the Work of Pediatric Residents: Strategies and Issues

In this issue, Honigfeld et al1 discuss manpower strategies adopted by nine hospitals that either discontinued or significantly reduced their pediatric residency programs. Several of the hospitals surveyed had a significant pediatric inpatient population and two thirds had a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. The loss of resident positions represented a major manpower crisis for these institutions. The 16 hospitals that originally met the study guidelines in 1986 to 1987 represent only a small fraction of the existing 234 accredited training programs.

FLEXIBLE MANPOWER RESOURCING: A LOCAL LABOUR MARKET SURVEY

ABSTRACTThis article presents the results of an establishment level investigation carried out late in 1986 and early in 1987 of the extent of flexible manpower resourcing in the Aberdeen local labour market. It is necessary to place these results in the context of the general background of an increasing interest in flexible manning and of certain theoretical developments in labour and industrial economics. The results suggest that whilst a variety of means are used to attain flexibility in manning, few establishments can be regarded as truly ‘flexible firms’ and manpower strategies tend to be largely reactive and ad hoc.

Rhetoric and reality in Nigerian science education: Observations of science teaching in Kano State Science Secondary Schools

This paper examines the interface between rhetoric and reality in the science curriculum reform in Nigeria. The focus of the analysis is the Science Schools Project established by the Kano State Government in 1977 as a scientific and technological manpower development strategy. The analysis of the teaching processes in both the specialist Science and Non-Science schools has revealed considerable similarities and often marginal differences. The differences between the Science and Non-Science schools may or may not be attributed to differences in the institutional context of teaching and learning science. But there is not enough evidence for this. By the virtue of their limited nature, these findings did not yield significant confirmation of the rationale that creating the Science Schools will solicit a more effective sequence of science teaching from the teachers. At the same time, the findings did not seriously challenge the rationale of setting up the Science Schools Project. However, they do question the implementation procedures of the project, and provide insights into the procedures to make such manpower strategies more effective.

Discrete simulation modelling for corporate manpower planning

Manpower planners within South African companies have very few, if any, decision support tools at their disposal to assist them in the formulation of their manpower strategies. Such quantitative tools as do exist are mathematically too sophisticated to be easily understood and implemented by manpower managers who are, on the whole, non numerate. The approach proposed in this paper, namely simulation modelling, discusses and demonstrates a powerful quantitative method which is conceptually easy to understand and whose results are easily interpreted. This particular simulation model examines the impact on organisational staffing levels over time as a result of specific present/proposed manpower policies in the areas of procurement and promotion. Through manipulating the inputs, the manpower planner can, with relative ease, examine the consequences of a range of alternative policies within a very short period of time.

Employment of residents in community hospitals: A multivariate analysis

Regression analysis of a cross section of 1113 nonfederal short-term U.S. hospitals is used to identify contributions of various exogenous factors to hospital employment of residents. Teaching hospitals are excluded from the analysis. Residents are assumed to be inputs into production of both hospital services and private physicians' services. Case-mix and other hospital characteristics, hospital product demand influences, factor supply variables, and physician market and medical staff characteristics are all shown to influence resident employment. The empirical findings are discussed in the light of hospital reimbursement and regulatory issues, health manpower strategies, and the role of physicians in hospital decision making.

Health manpower strategies for rural health services in India and China: 1949–1975

The paper compares and contrasts health manpower strategies for rural health services in India and China. Three major issues areas are analysed in detail: (1) the duration and the nature of medical education, and the need to decentralize curative and public health tasks to para-professionals; (2)concentration of medical manpower in urban areas; (3) utilization of indegenous medicine practitioners in the regular public health network. The author has described the evolution of policies in each of these three issue areas, compared health manpower strategies, and brought out the implications of these strategies for birth control programmes. The study concludes that until 1965, both countries faced similar problems in reorienting health services to rural needs. Since 1966, however, China has made a determined effort to bring rural-orientation in her health manpower policies. While the Indian policy makers are still following the “professional” model of rural health care, the Chinese have gone a long way in implementing a “populist” model in their countryside.

Priorities in training

The present economic situation and the Government emphasis on training pose the question: is the effort on training being directed for maximum return? Since training really started getting off the ground ten years ago, considerable strides have been made. The experienced human resource manager now has a variety of techniques available backed by proven research findings. Nevertheless, it appears that Government direction does not always take account of this expertise when planning manpower strategies. This article suggests an approach which takes into account not only the current state of training, but also Britain's position in the world and economic situation.

A JOB VACANCY MODEL FOR ORGANIZATIONAL MANPOWER MANAGEMENT.

This paper summarizes a research project employing computer simulation to model job opportunities and internal mobility within organizations. Organizations have been described as internal labor markets composed of institutional rules thru influence the allocation and mobility of human resources. These rules take the form of collective bargaining contracts, civil service regulations, employer personnel policies, and unwritten customs or tradition. Rules pertain to such matters as entry jobs, hiring standards, rates and channels of promotion, compensation levels, and even organizational design issues. When organizations change these industrial relations rules, they often alter the pattern of manpower flows between jobs. As the manpower flows are changed, the quantity and quality of the manpower inventory is altered in a predictable manner. This paper examines the relationship between job opportunities and internal mobility within organizations. After considering single flow Markovian models in which only manpower flows, we advance to a dual flows model. In the dual flows model, job vacancies flow down through the organizational hierarchy. Manpower moves only to job vacancies, regardless of their readiness for promotion. Personnel rules are incorporated as decision parameters in the model. The case of rapid growth in a managerial-type internal labor market is discussed to illustrate the applicability of the job vacancy model. Finally, the paper briefly summarizes a computer simulation program developed as a technique enabling manpower managers to explore the multiple outcomes of alternative manpower strategies.