Industrial Revolution to 1980: The History of Industrial Democracy in Denmark and Norway

Ralph Haug
Roosevelt University

This paper is a brief discussion of the early history of industrial democracy in two Scandinavian countries: Denmark and Norway. Specific attention is paid to the evolving labor laws and the impact they had in creating these truly unique nation-wide approaches to cooperative management-labor relations. It is interesting to note that these two nations and their neighbor, Sweden, developed along such similar lines, but still maintained their individual characteristics and philosophies towards the democratization of the work-place. It is also clear that industrial democracy in Scandinavia meant much more than employee representation on the board of directors. It encompassed all employees participating in the decision making process from the individual worker on the shop floor, through various cooperation committees or works councils, to the board of directors, and even outside of the organization.

In the first paper in this series, the author argued that the early Swedish experimentation with employee participation and workplace democracy provided significant lessons for the rest of the world (Haug, 2003). This paper attempts to provide an understanding of how the two other Scandinavian countries, Denmark and Norway, faced with the same pressures and issues as everyone else coming out of the industrial revolution, also evolved unique approaches to labor relations. On purpose this history lesson is incomplete. The reader is taken from the Industrial Revolution to 1980. Since, it was in the economic downswing of the late 1970’s and early 1980’s that some of the Scandinavian practices were found to be unrealistically excessive, this is a reasonable place to stop. The reader is encouraged to make comparisons between the Scandinavian experiences and other nations’ of which he/she is familiar with in order to develop a true appreciation for how these two nations evolved such unique approaches to management.

The Personal Strategic Plan: A Tool for Career Planning and Advancement

Lee R. Duffus
Florida Gulf Coast University

The Personal Strategic Plan (PSP) is a personalized version of a strategic marketing plan. It is a written document that outlines the time-related details for achieving the career expectations of an individual in the context of satisfying the dynamic and strategic human resource needs of the organization. This paper discusses the advantages and disadvantages of a PSP, and presents a 6-step outline for creating one.
HR departments have long been accused of being out of touch with the strategic directions of their organizations (Cascio, 1999). Supporting this view, Leonard (1998) quoted one chief executive officer as saying, “HR professionals have been getting by focused on the day-to-day. They need to develop a broader and farther reaching vision, understand where their organization is headed, and how they can help steer the company in that direction.” No place is this more manifest than in policies and practices involving selection and development of management employees.
This paper outlines a strategic process, involving development of a Personal Strategic Plan by each managerial personnel. The Personal Strategic Plan (PSP) is a personalized version of a strategic marketing plan. It is a written document that outlines the time-related details for achieving the career expectations of an individual in the context of satisfying the dynamic and strategic human resource needs of the organization.

Taxonomy in Logistics Management: A Resource-Based Perspective

Kuo-Chung Shang
China College of Maritime Technology and Commerce, Taiwan
Li-Fang Sun
China College of Maritime Technology and Commerce, Taiwan

A survey of 1,200 manufacturing firms in Taiwan was undertaken in order to examine taxonomy in logistics management, using the resource-based perspective and cluster analysis approach. Results showed that intensive logistics competency cluster, which had excellent logistic competencies in all four logistics competencies, had better logistics, market, and financial performance. The results demonstrated that logistics competencies should not exist in a vacuum, but should leverage each other to create sustained competitive advantage.

The Globalization Paradox: A Marketing Perspective

Allan C. Reddy
Valdosta State University
Niren Vyas
University of South Carolina at Aiken

In this paper, the authors discuss the globalization movement from a marketing perspective.  Although globalization has brought many benefits, it has also caused systemic problems such as increasing socio-cultural-economic unrest and friction between nations.  It is important for marketers to recognize the salient pros and cons of the globalization and move with caution in formulating  policies and strategies.

Factors Influencing Export Performance in International Marketing: A Study of Australian Firms

Gabriel Ogunmokun
University of Southern Queensland, Australia
Simone Ng
University of Western Australia, Australia

This paper presents the results of a study that explored why some Australian exporting firms had a better export performance than others.  It examined variations in export performance in terms of motivation to export; firm characteristics; marketing expertise, managers’ attitudes towards exporting; managers’ personal characteristics; marketing strategies; and exporting problems encountered.

Determining Multi-Criteria Priorities in the Planning of Electric Power Generation: The Development of an Analytic Hierarchy Process for Using the Opinions of Experts

Sung Chul Kim
Soongsil University, Korea
K. Jo Min
Iowa State University

The electric power industry in the United States is undergoing substantial changes in power generation business as well as in environmental regulation. Under these changes, it is highly desirable for the electric power industry to objectively and quantitatively examine generation planning, which often involves a multiple number of different experts with multi-criteria for decision making. In this paper, we consider these two key aspects in generation planning (multi-experts/multi-criteria), and integrate an analytic hierarchy process for multi-criteria decision making and a Bayesian approach for combining experts’ opinions. Our efforts lead to a comprehensive numerical example that illustrates multi-experts/multi-criteria generation planning for the electric power industry. Managerial insights and economic implications are provided throughout this paper.

Using Non-Financial Information to Predict Bankruptcy: A Study of Public Companies in Taiwan

Cheng-Ying Wu
Chung Kuo Institute of Technology, Taiwan

Numerous researchers have studied bankruptcy prediction over the past sixty years. As a result, various theories have evolved in an effort to explain or distinguish between firms that have failed. The study uses non-financial information to predict the characteristics of failed firms.  Comparing the results of this study and prior research shows that the results herein can provide a better prediction than those not including non-financial information.

Direct Financial Payments within an Organization: A Competitive Advantage Perspective

Hai-Ming Chen
Tamkang University, Taiwan
Chia-Hui Chen
Tamkang University, Taiwan

An integrated framework of direct financial payments within an organization is proposed in this paper from viewpoint of competitive advantage. This paper uses “competitive advantage of human resources  and ”explicitness of job worth” as two dimensions of job characteristics to define four kinds of payments: specific skill, performance, seniority and job-based pay. This integrated framework highlights the importance of different payments on different positions. Meanwhile, those potential core employees that create competitive advantage can be identified; and corresponding human resources should be developed.

The Development and Testing of a New Process Capability Index for Entire Product Families

S. C. Chen
National Chin-Yi Institute of Technology, Taiwan
K .S. Chen
National Chin-Yi Institute of Technology, Taiwan
S. L. Liao
National Chin-Yi Institute of Technology, Taiwan

Process capability indices are generally regarded as a flexible tool in evaluating the quality and performance of a process. However, existing process capability indices cannot be applied to a product family and do not have suitable methodology to evaluate one product family with different models. Accreditation by the Quality System Requirement QS9000 requires an agent to conduct a global evaluation on the process capability over the product family from a plant. The newly proposed process capability index for a product family considers whole entire product models. The upper specification limits of the products of various specifications should first be established and then the process capability index Cpu used to calculate the process capability indices for individually specified products. The relationship between the process capability indices and the yield should also be investigated. Therefore, a process capability index is presented to reflect the global yield of the entire product family and to serve as a reference for evaluating process capability for new processes or new products. An example is illustrated and a hypothesis testing procedure is also provided.

 

Individual Demographic Differences and Job Satisfaction among Information Technology Personnel: An Empirical Study in Taiwan

Ying-Feng Kuo
Shu-Te University, Taiwan
Ling-Show Chen
National Yunlin University of Science and Technology, Taiwan

A survey was conducted on IT personnel working in Taiwan’s Top 500 Enterprises to explore effects of individual characteristics on job satisfaction. Results show that there were significant differences found in general, intrinsic and overall job satisfaction with regard to marital status, age, position title, and annual salary. Suggestions for increasing job satisfaction of IT personnel are proposed.

The Restructuring of the Korean Economy Following the Financial Crisis in 1997

Soon Suk Yoon
Chonnam National University, Korea
Gary Miller
Texas A&M International University

Our study investigates the major causes of the Korean financial crisis in 1997 and identifies the major reforms implemented to recover from the crisis. The Korean government believes that the main cause of the financial crisis in 1997 was a lack of market discipline and the malfunctioning of the market system rather than macroeconomic imbalance. Changes must be made in many areas including 1) fiscal and monetary policies, 2) public sector and 3) corporate sector.  This paper has only introduced some details about these areas because of space constraints. Future research will be needed to provide and analyze the details.
Korea’s bank failures and the ensuing foreign exchange crisis are unique in that the failures were neither attributable to depression in any particular industry, nor to weakness in the real economy. Many indicators of macroeconomic performance (e.g. production, consumption and savings) had been normal until the financial crisis.

Does the Overall Efficiency Model Really have Two Efficiency Ratios? A Comment on Measuring Managerial Efficiency in International Non-Profit Organizations

Sanjay Rajagopal
Montreat College

The present article addresses the model of managerial efficiency proposed by Clark and Anderson (2001) in this journal.  That framework attempted to augment the “program ratio” approach recommended by Philanthropic Research, Inc., by considering both the revenue generating and the revenue allocation efficiency of an international non-profit organization.  The present work submits that their model does not separate the two efficiency measures.  It is shown that, within the framework suggested by Clark and Anderson (2001), it is in fact not possible to uncouple the two areas of administrative activity and evaluate each separately.  Potential modifications to the approach are suggested.

Vertical Integration and Performance in the United States Computer Hardware Industry

Joseph Peyrefitte
University of Southern Mississippi
Peggy A. Golden
Florida Atlantic University

This study examines the relationship between firm performance and the vertical integration strategies of 50 U.S. computer hardware manufacturers.  We propose that between-stage and within-stage vertical integration have differential effects on performance.  Our findings indicate that in the computer hardware industry within-stage vertical integration is negatively related to performance.  Between-stage integration is not associated with performance.  These results suggest that the core extension benefits of within-stage integration may be outweighed by the costs to manage a wide breadth of activities in more than one value-added chain.  The implications for future research are discussed.

Loan Management and Conflict of Interest between Equity and Debt-Holders under Capital Regulations: An Analysis within the Banking Sector

Yin-Chieh Hsu
National Kaohsiung First University of Science and Technology, Taiwan
Rosemary Jou
Tamkang University, Taiwan
Chuen-Ping Chang
Tamkang University, Taiwan

This paper analyzes a bank’s lending and interest conflicts between equity-holders and debt-holders under a risk-based system of capital standards.  We find that there is no interest conflict if the bank alternates its management objectives in accord with its loan default realization.  The bank’s lending is a decreasing function of the capital-to-deposits ratio under its equity value maximization with the realization of a good state of the world becoming worse, or under its debt value maximization with the realization of a bad state becoming better.