Revolution In Services Research Articles

A quiet revolution in lead optimisation services?

A quiet revolution in lead optimisation services?

Poland: Continuity and Change

During the years of the Polish People's Republic, the secret political police occupied a prominent role. Their mandate was extensive and their influence pervasive. As a result, the transformation of the secret services became a fundamental political and constitutional task following the anti-Communist opposition's assumption of power in 1989. The fate of the secret service's archives and the problems of lustration--the identification of secret collaborators--became part and parcel of this transformation. But in Poland, as elsewhere in the former Soviet bloc, this process was not carried out consistently. Political Conditions The nature of Poland's peaceful social change was undoubtedly the major determinant of the country's future course. The activists of Solidarity had gained power with the June 1989 political victory of the Citizens' Committee bloc. However, even those partially free elections were the result of a settlement arrived at during the Roundtable talks the same year. Offering the presidency to General Wojciech Jaruzelski was also an informal part of this settlement. General Czeslaw Kiszczak, the Minister of Internal Affairs and Jaruzelski's most trusted colleague, was the initiator of the talks as well as the guarantor of the negotiated terms. Since 1956, a civilian entity known as Security Service (SB) had existed within the framework of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MSW). The SB functioned as a secret political police, simultaneously conducting intelligence and counterintelligence operations. For decades, the SB operated with broad powers, largely free of oversight or restraint. In the 1980s, however, the MSW began to scrutinize the power and reach of the civilian civil services. The result was the enactment of certain legal provisions in an attempt to regulate the SB's activities. (1) Legal rules, however, would end up playing only a minor role in deciding the future of an agency that, by the 1980s, was operating under its own supervision, beholden only to the formal oversight by the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR). (2) By 1989, the SB had become one of the most important power structures in the Polish state. Most of the SB's 24,000 functionaries were well-trained professionals with logistical support from the governmental administration. The SB's huge archival resources, accumulated throughout the decades, and its network of thousands of secret collaborators (some of them strategically placed within the ranks of the opposition), also constituted major factors in the agency's position of power. The SB's political dominance remained largely unchanged despite the tumultuous events of June 1989. This was ensured by the elevation of General Kiszczak, Jaruzelski's confidante, to a preeminent position in the new, post-Communist political order. During Kiszczak's tenure as Minister of Internal Affairs in the administration of Tadeusz Mazowiecki (July 1989-May 1990), no structural or personnel changes took place in the MSW. Indeed, of all the officials in this branch of government, only Krzysztof Kozlowski, the former deputy editor of the influential Tygodnik Powszechny Catholic weekly, had not held a Communist Party identity card earlier. (Kozlowski would be promoted to Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs in February 1990.) Nor were there any changes in the area of the military special services, which functioned as Administration II of the General Staff of the Polish People's Army (intelligence) and Military Internal Service (WSW, or counterintelligence and military police). Not many people were aware of how often the military special services were used to combat the opposition and to penetrate Polish political circles. But these elements enjoyed a special trust from General Jaruzelski, and General Kiszczak had come from their ranks. A revolution in the special services was certainly hard to accomplish. For many months, even under the new political conditions that prevailed after the summer of 1989, the special services were supervised by the same people that had led them earlier in the struggle against the anti-Communist opposition. …

Consultancy and innovation: the business service revolution in Europe

Consultancy and innovation: the business service revolution in Europe

Systematic review of open access echocardiography for primary care.

Over the last few years there has been a revolution in open access echocardiography services due to an increased demand from within secondary care and primary care. There have been some concerns expressed by specialists and open access echocardiography has not been universally welcomed as a means of offering healthcare. Suspected heart failure comprises the majority of primary care referrals for open access echocardiography. There is lack of rigorously controlled studies to support widespread establishment of open access echocardiography services.

Brand strategy in the retail banking sector: Adapting to the financial services revolution

Segmentation has long been regarded as the cornerstone of a successful marketing strategy and acts as a substantive source of differentiation and competitive advantage. The alternative is an unfocused generic strategy not based on the specific needs and wants of a defined target group. For instance, in the car market, companies such as Mercedes and Volvo clearly design, price and brand their offerings to compete in very specific sectors of the market and to appeal to defined psychographic groups.

Mind the gap: The creative conundrum

Senior politicians, including the Prime Minister, argue that it is vital to promote creativity and innovation throughout education. This was a theme of Tony Blair's electioneering speeches in the run up to the 1997 landslide. He made it one of the central messages of his Romanes lecture on education in 1999. Yet if the government were to design an education system to inhibit creativity, it could hardly do better. This was true of the last government though they had less to say about creativity in the first place. Governments throughout the world emphasise the importance of creativity, but often what they do in education suppresses it. Why is it that politicians argue for creativity but seem to act against it? This question goes to the heart of the debate about what it is to be educated in the twenty-first century. There is a good deal of creative teaching and learning going on in the UK and elsewhere. But this is mostly despite the dominant policies rather than because of them. There are two widely acknowledged reasons for promoting creativity and innovation, both of them economic. First, technological developments are transforming the global economies. Keeping pace with international competition requires a constant flow of new ideas and the capacity to implement them. Second, business needs people who can adapt quickly to new challenges and changing circumstances. This much is standard political rhetoric. But these issues are more than rhetorical. They must be taken to the heart of government. In my view, they are taken seriously, but the implications are not being faced, at least not on the evidence of current policies. Education has to do more than prepare people for the world of work. The British education system has always been tempered with broader social purposes, and rightly so. There have been times when philosophers of education and others have argued that education should never be seen in instrumental terms at all: that the aims of education are entirely intrinsic to it and should not be related to economic interests. However plausible these arguments may be within philosophy seminars, they run against the grain of parental expectations, the aspirations of young people and common sense. In my experience, most people assume that being educated will have some bearing on being employable and economically independent. The issue is not whether education should relate to economic development, but how, and how its economic roles should be balanced with other priorities. In the new economies, the nature of work and the balance of the workforce are changing beyond recognition. The technological changes that are now taking place bear serious comparison with the Industrial Revolution. In the last twenty years, and with increasing speed, there have been radical changes in the nature and the distribution of work. There have been fundamental changes in how business is done and who does it. The revolution in banking and financial services is just one example of many. The indications are that we have seen nothing yet. The accelerating rate of technological change suggests that we are still at the ham radio stage of global information systems. Revolutionary research in nanotechnology is leading to the extreme miniaturisation of computer components. But this is not all. Rapid developments in the cognitive sciences are generating new insights about the workings of the brain. Genetics is opening up new horizons in the nature of life itself. These three scientific frontiers are beginning to merge. It is now feasible to anticipate the convergence of information systems and human intelligence; the development of computer-enhanced intelligence and of conscious machines. These are not ideas from science fiction but realistic projections based on current knowledge and rates of research and innovation. If this is not creating a social, economic and cultural revolution, it's hard to know what would. Education is meant to be the process by which we enable people to engage with social and economic change. …

The Darwinian shakeout in financial services—an interim report

This article describes the dramatic changes which have taken place in leading banks, insurance companies and building societies during the financial services revolution which has completely restructured the industry, transformed levels of productivity, multiplied the returns to shareholders, senior executives, fund managers and city traders and left hundreds of thousands of people unemployed or prematurely retired.

Book Reviews: The Healthcare Customer Service Revolution: The Growing Impact of Managed Care on Patient Satisfaction

Book Reviews: The Healthcare Customer Service Revolution: The Growing Impact of Managed Care on Patient Satisfaction

Service: Manufacturing's new frontier

AbstractThere is a revolution taking place in the U.S. economy, a service revolution. Today, the service sector accounts for more than 70 percent of the gross national product and 75 percent of all jobs. This monumental change affects service firms as well as manufacturers. As manufacturing becomes more automated, streamlining operations and outsourcing basic operations, the service component of a typical manufacturer is growing rapidly. An estimated 30 to 70 percent of value added in a typical manufacturer can be attributed to services.Many manufacturers are beginning to address this change by formulating their operating strategies to put service and service operations into the forefront of their strategic plans. Trade associations and professional organizations like the National Association of Purchasing Management and APICS—The Educational Society for Resource Management also are shifting their orientation beyond their traditional manufacturing focus and expanding their educational offerings to meet new service components within—and beyond—the manufacturing field.

The Dynamics of Service: Reflections on the Changing Nature of Customer/Provider Interactions.

1. The Service Revolution: From Relationships to Encounters 2. Service Through Relationships: Creating Bonds of Trust 3. Service Through Encounters: Ensuring Speed, Efficiency, and Uniformity 4. Key Distinctions Between Relationships and Encounters 5. The Provider's Perspective 6. The Customer's Perspective 7. The Organization's Role: Creating the Context for Customer/Provider Interaction 8. The Pseudorelationship: Making Encounters Feel More Personal 9. Information Technology as Partner and Provider: Buying Services with the Help of Machines 10. Relationships, Encounters, and the Quality of Life 11. Implications for the Future

The Financial Services Revolution

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The Financial services revolution: understanding the changing role of banks, mutual funds, and insurance companies

Reviews the major issues challenging the current regulatory environment. The text analyzes banks and insurance companies moving away from their traditional business operations to enter into investment management. It considers the increasing role of mutual funds in the financial services industry.

The Indonesian economy since 1966: Southeast Asia's emerging giant

1. Introduction 2. An overview of economic development since 1966 3. Money and finance 4. Fiscal policy 5. International dimensions 6. The state and public policy: ideology and intervention 7. Agricultural modernisation 8. Industrial transformation 9. The services revolution 10. Poverty, inequality and social progress 11. The regional dimension 12. Conclusion: looking to the future.

Full Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families. Joy G. Dryfoos

Previous articleNext article No AccessBook ReviewsFull Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families. Joy G. Dryfoos John O'LooneyJohn O'Looney Search for more articles by this author PDFPDF PLUS Add to favoritesDownload CitationTrack CitationsPermissionsReprints Share onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail SectionsMoreDetailsFiguresReferencesCited by Social Service Review Volume 70, Number 1Mar., 1996 Article DOIhttps://doi.org/10.1086/604174 Views: 4Total views on this site Copyright 1996 The University of ChicagoPDF download Crossref reports no articles citing this article.

Full-service schools: a revolution in health and social services for children, youth, and families

Full-Service Schools describes the movement to create an array of integrated support services in schools. It examines the declining welfare of many American families and prescribes solutions for the problems of increased sex, drugs, violence, and stress among youth.

Nursing managers are left to go it alone, to make up their own rules as they go along, to cope with the new rules

Such is the speed of the health service revolution that the phrase managingchaos has already moved from buzz-word to cliche. But how do you live with chaos? Ifs a question that has yet to be addressed, let alone answered satisfactorily. Too many of us still seem to be clinging in blind hope to the belief that we will muddle through somehow, until everything settles down again and we can all go home.

Dryfoos, J. G. (1994). Full service schools: A revolution in health and social services for children, youth, and families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 310 pp., $25.00

Dryfoos, J. G. (1994). Full service schools: A revolution in health and social services for children, youth, and families. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 310 pp., $25.00

Review of Full-Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families.

Review of Full-Service Schools: A Revolution in Health and Social Services for Children, Youth, and Families.

Services Education: Cross-Functional Integration for Quality

This article examines how the "services revolution" has challenged existing assumptions underpinning marketing, operations, and human resource education. A framework is developed, using the "House of Quality" technique, to plan and implement a marketing course that is responsive to the challenges of services and illustrates the integrative educational approach required.

The state and the financial services revolution: A comparative analysis

The creation of a single European market in financial services is a small part of a bigger story: the financial services revolution in the leading financial centres of the advanced capitalist world. A revolution usually pictured in the language of deregulation is in reality something very different: a series of seismic changes in regulatory structures caused by the combined ambitions of corporate actors and national governments. Regulation is driven both by struggles for competitive advantage and by the pressures of democratic politics. The result is a regulatory system which is highly unstable.