Management Logic Research Articles

The Wicked Problem of Design Management: Perspectives from the Field of Entrepreneurship

ABSTRACTInexplicable tensions and paradoxes exist between the underlying assumptions and logics of design and the related management perspectives. This paper aims to contribute to the design management literature by introducing entrepreneurship as an alternative management perspective. Entrepreneurship holds the capacity to add new valuable managerial meaning to the term design management that does not disrupt the uniqueness of design. A differentiation is made between two logics of management – administrative management and entrepreneurial management – and the article argues against a one-management-style-fits-all-design-processes approach. Design associated with complex and wicked problems may be more closely associated with entrepreneurial design management, whereas design based on simpler and tamer design problems may align better with administrative design management. A framework of entrepreneurial design management is introduced and the theoretical and practical implications of entrepreneurship as a platform for design management are brought into perspective.

O conhecimento local e a etnopedologia no estudo dos agroecossistemas da comunidade quilombola de Brejo dos Crioulos

O presente trabalho buscou identificar, resgatar e valorizar os saberes tradicionais sobre o solo e os agroambientes, estabelecendo uma articulação destes saberes com o conhecimento científico de cunho acadêmico. Para isso, realizou-se uma estratificação dos ambientes do território quilombola de Brejo dos Crioulos, com base em critérios locais e pelo método pedológico convencional, considerando o solo e sua interface com outros componentes ambientais. Associou-se a caracterização dos agroecossistemas, com a interpretação e reconhecimento da lógica dos sistemas e saberes tradicionais de uso e manejo dos recursos naturais, constatando-se que os quilombolas reconhecem o melhor momento (tempo), o ambiente (a terra, a umidade, o microclima), a espécie e variedade, combinando atividades e elencando o conjunto de práticas que permitem o sustento de suas famílias. A comunidade de Brejo dos Crioulos domina um sistema próprio de estratificação dos ambientes, cuja identidade possibilita ampla referência e articulação ao conhecimento científico acadêmico. A construção de chaves de identificação dos ambientes com base nos critérios dos quilombolas, associada às informações obtidas com base no saber local, ao aprofundamento da caracterização dos ambientes e ao mapeamento de solos contribuíram para a melhor compreensão das estratégias agroalimentares dos quilombolas, alcançando resultados que podem subsidiar processos de planejamento e definições de políticas públicas para o uso sustentável das terras do território quilombola.

‘Only a pawn in their game’: crime, risk and politics in the case of Robert Fardon

In 2003 Robert Fardon was the first prisoner to be detained under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld), the first of the new generation preventive detention laws enacted in Australia and directed at keeping sex offenders in prison or under supervision beyond the expiry of their sentences where a court decides, on the basis of psychiatric assessments, that unconditional release would create an unacceptable risk to the community. A careful examination of Fardon’s case shows the extent to which the administration of the regime was from the outset governed by politics and political calculation rather than the logic of risk management and community protection. In 2003 Robert Fardon was the first person detained under the Dangerous Prisoners (Sexual Offenders) Act 2003 (Qld) (hereafter DPSOA), a newly enacted Queensland law aimed at the preventive detention of sex offenders. It was the first of a new generation of such laws introduced in Australia, now also in force in NSW, Western Australia and Victoria. The laws have been widely criticized by lawyers, academics and others (Keyzer and McSherry 2009; Edgely 2007). In this article I want to focus on the details of how the Queensland law was administered in Fardon’s case, he being perhaps the most well-known prisoner detained under such laws and certainly the longest held. It will show, I hope, that seemingly abstract rule of law principles invoked by other critics are not simply abstract: they afford a crucial practical safeguard against the corruption of criminal justice in which the ends both of community protection and of justice give way to opportunistic exploitation of ‘the mythic resonance of crime and punishment for electoral purposes’ (Scheingold 1998: 888).

Formal Hardware/Software Co-Verification of Embedded Power Controllers

This paper reports for the first time, the use of a hardware-software combined bounded model checking approach for hardware-software mixed implementations of power management logic. We report significant performance gains as compared to our earlier attempt of extracting a finite quotient transition system from the control software.

Justice Dealers: The Ecosystem of American Litigation Finance

People litigate for various reasons. Some want to right wrongs, others – make precedents. But most, at least in the civil realm, sue to protect economic interests; and they are motivated by pragmatic considerations rather than abstract notions of justice. One fruit of the mercantile approach to civil litigation is the nascent market where third parties provide financing for litigants (or their lawyers) and profit from a successful resolution of the funded claims. Through the lens of a third-party funder, justice is a mass-market commodity, and its value depends on laws of men and laws of probability alike.The ways of litigation funders create multiple points of tension for the legal process and its participants, and laws on the book offer little guidance on how third-party interests should be treated. Resulting procedural and ethical dilemmas have stirred a debate among scholars who rushed to offer conflicting opinions and advice. Critics demand that litigation investing be banned, calling it a travesty of justice that turns courts into casinos. Enthusiasts want the practice formally recognized, asserting that it levels the playing field for weaker parties.The discussion on litigation financing does not lack vigor; but it does lack hard facts. Drawing from first-hand empirical data on the practice of litigation funding in the United States, this paper explains how the market for legal claims actually works. First, I describe the entire ecosystem of actors who apply the logic of asset management to uncertainties of individual lawsuits – litigants; litigators; funding companies and their investors; and their “entourage” providing additional, specialized services. Then I segment the market and explore different strategies of third-party investing. Finally, I list American litigation funders and group them based on what they do.Based on the descriptive findings, I claim that modern civil litigation engages multiple, often undisclosed stakeholders with complex financial motivations. I argue that such interests should be recognized by the legal system as legitimate and ultimately regulated. The first step in that direction should be making sure that third-party involvement in a dispute is disclosed.

An Analysis Regarding the Possibility of Using Fuzzy Logic in Inventory Management

Abstract The paper presents a brief state-of-the-art survey regarding the use of fuzzy logic in inventory management. Its goal is to motivate enthusiastic entrepreneurs to take into account the benefits of using fuzzy logic inventory control systems. It offers a guide to model an inventory system having a free fuzzy tool as starting point

Mapping Communication along the Supply Chain in a Reputation-Sensitive Environment

This exploratory qualitative study is aimed at depicting communication support to Supply Chain (SC) management, emphasizing how relationships and processes are affected by communication flows. It provides a preliminary comprehensive communication mapping, highlighting key stakeholders involved in SC management, communication roles enhancing logistics performances, and channels supporting information and physical flows among partners. It is based on a literature review, multidisciplinary academic meetings, interviews with SC directors of two global companies operating in a reputation-sensitive environment, and desk analysis of companies' documental flows. Findings reveal that communication accomplishes four basic functions: 1) it helps embedding and spreading cultural values along internal SC units; 2) it supports conflict resolution and compensation among different managerial logics; 3) it encourages development and maintenance of relationships with SC partners; 4) it enhances the fine-tuning among SC phases and activities, supporting alignment and integration of procedures and routines. Finally, the study points out that communication is typically face-to-face when it has to support the strategic SC phases, whereas it is typically computer-mediated when supporting SC operational phases.

Water diversions, environmental impacts and social conflicts: the contribution of quantitative archives to the history of hydraulics. French cases (nineteenth century)

Archives contain numerous documents that allow for a better understanding of hydraulic systems and waterworks of centuries past, as well as for measuring their effects on the environment. The objective of this paper will be to show what can be gleaned from the analysis of writings, statistics and maps emanating from engineering corps and stakeholders between the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. Based on examples of unregulated hydraulic systems from several regions of France (Vivarais, Morvan, Alps foothills and Roussillon), a quantification of the agricultural and industrial use of river water reveals considerable water withdrawals and weakening of natural flow volumes. This pressure on the natural flows is of diverse origins and can be analysed spatially with precision. Combined with analysis of situations of competition and conflict, the quantitative approach makes it possible to understand the logics of water management in unregulated hydraulic systems and to explain certain impasses that arose in these systems. These contemporary examples could provide an interpretive framework for the study of more ancient systems or techniques, concerning which texts and measurements are often lacking and which are rarely approached in an environmental history perspective. We finally discuss the interest of these historical data for further environmental research.

Application of fuzzy logic in performance management: a literature review

Performance management has become in a key success factor for any organization. Traditionally, performance management has focused uniquely in financial measures, mainly using quantitative measures, but two decades ago they were extended towards an integral view of the organization, appearing qualitative measures. This type of extended view and associated measures have a degree of uncertainty that needs to be bounded. One of the essential tools for uncertainty bounding is the fuzzy logic and, therefore,the main objective of this paper is the analysis of the literature about the application of fuzzy logic in performance measurement systems operating within uncertainty environments with the aim of categorizing, conceptualizing and classifying the works written so far. Finally, three categories are defined according to the different uses of fuzzy logic within performance management concluding that the most important application of fuzzy logic that counts with a higher number of studies is uncertainty bounding.

大农场和小农户：鲁西北地区的粮食生产

The pattern of grain production in northwestern Shandong today is a combination of machinery and labor. The mechanization of plowing, sowing, and harvesting has freed “principal labor units” (i.e., males in their prime) from agriculture, while the relatively labor-intensive operations of applying fertilizer and agricultural chemicals (pesticides and herbicides) and watering still mainly rely on “auxiliary labor” (i.e., women and the elderly), which remains abundant in the countryside. The principal family laborers of households with small farms can thus pursue off-farm work, while auxiliary family labor, which has a lower opportunity cost, can still do the farming and ensure the output of grain. Large farms on the other hand have no incentive to introduce labor-saving machinery to take over what have been labor-intensive operations as long as cheap auxiliary labor is still plentiful. Thus large farms do not have a higher level of mechanization; however, they do have a totally different managerial logic. Their production is driven by capital, which is invested in acquiring land (through land transfers), hiring wage labor, and pursuing profit. In contrast, production in small farms is driven by the family’s labor, pursuing the best division of work between principal and auxiliary family labor and the maximum output per unit of land. The land scarce–labor abundant reality of China requires that agriculture pursue higher output, larger product value, and higher net returns on each unit of land. It is small farms that best meet these requirements. This article is in English. 鲁西北地区的粮食生产呈现出机械和劳动相互结合的模式。耕地、播种和收割环节的高度机械化代替了农业生产中的主劳动力，而相对劳动密集的施肥、打农药和浇水环节，则仍高度依赖农村中依然大量存在的辅助劳动力。对小农户而言，这种模式可以在保证家庭主劳动力外出务工的同时，使用机会成本较低的家庭辅助劳动力实现自家承包地上最大的粮食收入。而对于大农场而言，农村廉价辅助劳动力的存在，使它们并无动力为劳动密集的生产环节引入机械，而是选择使用雇工生产。大农场和小农户的区别，并不在于它们具有更高的机械化程度，而在于它们组织生产的逻辑不同。大农场体现的是资本的逻辑，由资本流转入土地、雇佣劳动力进行生产，追求资本的最大利润。小农户则是围绕家庭劳动的生产，追求主、辅劳动力之间的最佳分工和小块土地的最大产出。中国地少人多的国情要求单位面积土地创造出更大的农产品产出、产值和更高的净收益，是小农户而不是大农场更体现了这种要求。

Three conceptualizations of hybrid management in hospitals

Purpose– The purpose of this paper is to bring the discussion on the relationship between management and medicine a step forward by focussing on: first, how the notion of hybrid and hybridity has been used in the literature on healthcare management. Second, the authors have mapped the alternative ways that the concept have been used in order to conceptualize a more specific set of possible combinations of managerial and professional roles in healthcare management. Hybrid management is a topic that ought to be important for training, communication among researchers and for identifying areas of future research: in management, in healthcare reforms, in sociology of professions and in theory of organizations.Design/methodology/approach– The authors provide a systematic literature review in order to map the various conceptualizations of hybrid management. The authors have searched for “hybrid leadership,” “hybrid management” combined with hospitals and health care in a whole range of journals, identified in Google scholar, Academic Search Premier, Academic Research Library and Sage Publication. The authors have also used already existing literature reviews. The search has resulted in more than 60 articles and book titles that have been classified according to whether they make a fit with three alternative ways of conceptualizing hybrid management. The authors are aware that they might have missed some relevant literature but the literature included is quite comprehensive.Findings– In the literature the authors have found three conceptualizations of management. The clinical manager who combines professional self-governance with a general management logic. The commercialized manager who combines professional self-governance with an enterprise logic. The neo-bureaucratic manager who combines self-governance with a neo-bureaucratic logic.Originality/value– In most analyses of hybridity in management and organization the notion of hybrid has been used in a rather superficial way. By mapping the various uses of hybrid in the literature and suggest how a professional logic may be combined with a set of alternative logics of management the authors provide a platform for developing the concept of hybrid management into a more useful tool for analyses of changes in healthcare management.

Moving Beyond the Punitive Legacy: Taking Stock of Persistent Problems in Juvenile Justice

As the US reins in the punitive excesses in juvenile justice with encouraging changes, it may be tempting to herald a new era of progressive reform. This article contends that such optimism may be premature, and identifies three persistent problems within the US juvenile justice system, which left unexamined, promise to perpetuate a ‘punitive legacy’ that will impede progressive change. The ideology of ‘callous self-sufficiency’, ongoing neglect of youth welfare and human rights, and the logic of risk management and cost-effectiveness each encourage harmful practices, and they work individually and collectively to create a climate inhospitable to lasting progressive transformation.

Layering, Administrative Change and National Paths to Europeanization: The Case of the Water Framework Directive

The EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) can be seen as a reform effort that intervenes in the member states' domestic administrative system by obliging “whole of government” measures across sectoral lines of authority and levels of government. This puts pressure on the sectoral authorities to coordinate their activities. In this article we ask the following questions: How do the state executives respond to the WFD? How can we understand their behaviour and action choices in the implementation of EU law? And third: What can our findings tell us about changes to the European administrative system? This article reveals that despite resistance and strong cognitive priors among the state executives, the WFD logic of ecosystem-based management is gaining a foothold as an administrative principle. Thus, in order to explain changes in the administrative system, we need to take the regional level into account. Our findings suggest that attention needs to be paid to the role of complex, multi-level structures, which includes the regional, river basin district level in the development of a European administrative order.

Strategic capability architecture: The role of network capability

A firm's network capability refers to its ability to build, handle and exploit relationships. These capabilities are interwoven in a complex configuration with the other capabilities and competencies of the firm and in practice, are very difficult to separate from them. Rather than assuming that firms inherently possess network capability, our aim is to discover if the shared managerial logic of top management teams confirms its presence. In order to understand how managers perceive, process and interpret network capability, we guided the management teams of five industrial suppliers through a novel five-step process of introducing, identifying, critically screening, challenging and verifying the capabilities of the firm. The paper introduces a framework for strategic capability architecture and investigates how network capability emerges from among the configuration of other capabilities in industrial firms. We found that network capabilities are central to the formation of customer capabilities. Network capabilities also play an important role as assets contributing to the formation of other capability sets. Furthermore, we found that the networking capabilities act in unison with other capabilities through three different strategic logics termed partnering, value streaming, and horizontal allying.

E- government and innovation in Italian Public Administration: A business approach

E-Government consists of a strategic instrument for re-formulating the organization and the operation of Public Administrations, acting as a catalyst of trends and changes. It not only represents a resource that allows economic and operational advantages to be obtained, but is also an instrument that is capable of modifying the pre-existing operational mechanisms of the organization, guaranteeing a fast adaptation to continuous changes in the external environment. The use of e-Government not only facilitates the internal activities of the Public Administration, but also has the advantage of facilitating the relationship between different administrations, as well as the interaction with citizens and with businesses. The impact that e-Government can have is that of a better Public Administration, in that it allows public policies to be optimized, the quality of services to be raised, the involvement of the citizens to be widened, and other specific fundamental activities to be improved.The present work intends to illustrate the comprehensive framework of the public administration system in Italy and of the main tendencies in progress, paying particular attention to the development of new management logic, considering e-Government not only as a merely technological phenomenon, but also analyzing it in its full meaning with regards to the process of change and modernization of the public administration.

Improvement of powertrain efficiency through energy breakdown analysis

A vehicular powertrain can be thought as an energy conversion chain, each component being characterized by its efficiency. Significant global efficiency improvements can be achieved once is identified the system energy breakdown, individuating the losses connected to each powertrain component; it is then possible to carry out the most appropriate interventions.This paper presents a simulation study of a diesel-fuelled commercial vehicle powertrain based on the above summarized point of view. The work aims at individuating the energy flows involved in the system during different missions, proposing an intelligent combination of technical solutions which minimize fuel consumption. Through a validated Matlab–Simulink model, able to indicate the powertrain energy breakdown, simulations are carried out to evaluate the fuel saving associated to a series of powertrain management logics which lead to the minimization of engine losses, the recovery of reverse power in deceleration and braking, the elimination of useless engine cycles.Tests were performed for different real missions (urban, extra-urban and highway).The results obtained point out a –23% fuel consumption (average value for urban, extra-urban and highway missions) compared to the traditional powertrain. Clearly, such result affects positively the CO2 emission.

New public management and the professions within cultural organizations: one hybridization may hide another

With the introduction into public organizations of management methods borrowed from the private sector, ‘new public management’ often comes across as a factor that weakens professional autonomy. Cultural industry is no exception to this phenomenon, as demonstrated by the case of the facilitators or interpreters in France ( médiateurs culturels). However, a careful study of the development of this occupation does reveal that, rather than a strict opposition between a professional logic and managerial logic, hybridization is possible. Indeed, professional groups can benefit from the establishment of methods that structure their activity and that take on board the dynamics of knowledge and career pathways. Points for practitioners The research presented here raises the question of how to reconcile the streamlining of public activities (new public management approaches) with the challenges of preserving or developing professions. Practitioners can thus see, through a case study and the presentation of a generic grid analysis, the different ways of structuring and managing the professions, with the emphasis on adopting an approach that ensures coherence between the skills necessary for each activity and the skills defined and career paths offered to the players. Far from being at odds, this kind of articulation makes it possible to hybridize the organizational logic of the new public management with the professional logic of the professions .

Implementing health planning in beef suckler and sheep enterprises

In recent years herd and flock health plans have become an integral part of the farm quality assurance systems in the UK. This has helped to shift the focus from a reactive approach to animal health problems to a proactive approach that at its best utilises production data and risk management logic while making best use of the expertise of the veterinary practitioner. One common drawback is that the production of a health plan is seen as a one-off exercise. Another is that the plan does not adopt the basic management concept of plan/do/study/adjust, but is simply a tick box exercise in the quality assurance process. To overcome these drawbacks a more dynamic system is required to provide the framework for analysis of health and productivity as well as the delivery of advice and preventive medicine. Web-based software such as the Animal Health Planning System (AHPS) is specifically designed for beef suckler and sheep enterprises and is a practical aid in the documentation and administration of the health planning process.

The hierarchization of competing logics in psychiatric care in Sweden

Summary In many healthcare organizations, the managerial institutional logic co-exists and competes with the professional institutional logic in the day-to-day work of managers and professionals. In its examination of the relationship between these two institutional logics at three psychiatric care units for children and adolescents, this study contributes to our understanding of the theoretical concepts and their practical implications for the actor-to-actor approaches to competing institutional healthcare logics. Many earlier studies use theoretical concepts to describe this co-existence as a relatively equal relationship between the competing logics. This study, using data from interviews, observations and shadowing, reveals the existence of a process we label “hierarchization”. In this process, the managerial logic dominates the professional logic although the latter logic still co-exists and competes, albeit in a subordinate role. The study also reveals that quantification of primarily patient throughput is used to legitimize the dominant managerial logic. Such use of quantification supports the meta-trend of placing trust in numbers.

Analysis of Customer Orientation in Iran's Automotive Industry : Case Study Saipa Company , Tehran

Nowadays, with the advance of information technology, modern systems have been generated which can help organizations in the reduction of internal costs, creating a better interaction with the environment and finally in gaining profits. One of these tools is “customer relationship management”. Customer relationship management is a term which has been defined for the description of the manner of interaction with customers and the management of activities done for the establishment of a stable and effective relationship with the customer. The logic of customer relationship management is monitoring and managing the entire process of customer services. It’s very important to consider customer relationship management as a system which outlines the ways of working with our customers, solving their problems, encouraging them to buy the products and services of our company and having financial transactions with them. In other words, CRM which is an acronym for customer relationship management includes all aspects of relations and interactions with customers and users. However, it should be noted that customer relationship is not limited to commercial organizations, so its equivalent terms can be stated as clientele (customer), service (marketing), tribute plan of clientele (customer relationship management) and legitimacy & survival (profitability) in public organizations and also as service receiver (customer) and providing services (commodity) in service institutions.