As the growing relationship between individuals and technology continue to play a vital role in our society and work place, the progress and execution of information technology communication systems is important in maintaining our current way of life. Knowledge and Technological Development Effects on Organizational and Social Structures provides a wide ranging discussion on the exchanging of research ideas and practices in an effort to bring together the social and technical aspects within organizations and society. This collection focuses on new ideas and studies for research, students, and practitioners.

The world of corporate management benefits when organizations realize the profitability, reliability, and flexibility obtained through IT standardization. Toward Corporate IT Standardization Management: Frameworks and Solutions details the IT standards conceptual model through insightful case studies that illustrate the factors affecting the performance of business processes. By offering organizations the opportunity to enhance process performance through IT standardization, this reference work demonstrates the effectiveness of IT standards, and the applicable techniques for implementation and management of such practices. This book features information useful to educators and students in the fields of Information Systems, IT-Management, Business Studies, and Economics, as well as IT practitioners and IS Managers.

This book provides a valuable resource for anyone who wishes to understand how sustainable use of energy can lead to increased efficiency of industrial supply chains and improved financial profitability. The book is organized around real examples and case studies that can be applied to real-world problems. Furthermore, insight is provided by an international panel of contributors, and the book provides comprehensive coverage of current practice and future developments in the evolution of sustainable supply chains and energy consumption. The text underlines how organizations are now looking seriously at supply chain assets in order to help their suppliers retool and focus on renewable energy. Renewable energy technology is a fast growing market with promising financial returns and substantial environmental gains; this book shows how the right management of renewable investments can have significant advantages by: * providing critical opportunities in driving costs down and making renewable energy sources more competitive with conventional energy; * making infrastructure expansion easier; * increasing employment in manufacturing and services supply chains in order to support renewable energy generation; and * mitigating the impacts of climate change. This book is intended for business professionals, researchers and students working in supply chain management or energy management.

The crisis of distribution is one of the longest standing and complicated issues facing human society. Imbued with social, political, historic, and cultural elements, it varies significantly across different countries as a result of all these factors. As an emerging economy which transferred from a planned to a market economy, China has experienced large distribution gaps since it implemented the Reform and Opening-up Policy in the early 1980s, requiring stronger economic law to mitigate and regulate the crisis of distribution. The two volumes examine the crisis of distribution that China faces and proposes policy and economic law methods that can be used to overcome the distribution dilemma. The author discusses the four main concepts and focus points of the crisis of distribution - distribution itself, the crises it faces, the rule of law and development before proposing a theoretical framework of "system-distribution-development" to resolve distribution problems that China faces. The book should be of keen interest to researchers and students of law, economics, and political science.

The world-class National Palace Museum (NPM) in Taiwan possesses a repository of the largest collection of Chinese cultural treasures of outstanding quality. Through implementing a two-organizational restructuring, and shifting its operational focus from being object-oriented to public-centered, it aims to capture the attention of people and promote awareness of the culture and traditions of China. In this vein, the NPM combines its expertise in museum service with the possibilities afforded by Information Technology (IT). This book analyses the research results of a team sponsored by the National Science Council in Taiwan to observe the development processes and accomplishments, and to conduct scientific researches covering not only the technology and management disciplines, but also the humanities and social science disciplines. The development process of new digital content and IT-enabled services of NPM would be a useful benchmark for museums, cultural and creative organizations and traditional organizations in Taiwan and around the world.

Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) studies have evolved as one of the mainstreams in business strategy. This book presents a comprehensive perspective on the motivations behind the studies, the effects of FDI, and how it can be utilized and extended to other areas of studies. Written with a global perspective, this book not only touches upon business strategies but also covers government policies toward promoting and attracting FDI for industrial and economic development. The author, with his vast experience in consulting and research projects for multinational companies, international organizations and governments, examines real world business practices of Eastern firms and how they relate to their Western counterparts, thus making this book a valuable and practical reference not only for students, but for practitioners, too.

With the development of the integrative supply chain management approach, traditional thinking about concepts such as purchasing, materials management, distribution and logistics management has become outdated. Speculation on the reasons for dynamic growth of supply chain management in South African businesses ranges from the opening up of the domestic economy to the pressure of global competitors. The astonishing success of progressive organisations such as SA Breweries, Sasol, Iscor, Steinhoff and Sappi in the international marketplace, however, is in no small part a result of their early adoption of the supply chain philosophy (customer value creation, total cost of ownership, integration of processes and the reduction of cycle time) and they have contributed significantly to the unprecedented growth of supply chain management in South Africa. Supply chain management identifies the strategic impact and evolutionary direction of the field in a global market environment and emphasises the changes in processes and management thinking required to introduce supply chain management in South African organisations. It covers topics such as supply chain strategies, organisations, optimisation, performance improvement, customer service, quality and inventory management, total cost of ownership, green supply chain management, investment recovery, e-commerce, negotiations, transport and distribution management, the retail supply chain and global supply chain management. Supply chain management is aimed at all supply chain, logistics and transport management students.

This volume provides a complete record of presentations made at Industrial Engineering, Management Science and Applications 2015 (ICIMSA 2015), and provides the reader with a snapshot of current knowledge and state-of-the-art results in industrial engineering, management science and applications. The goal of ICIMSA is to provide an excellent international forum for researchers and practitioners from both academia and industry to share cutting-edge developments in the field and to exchange and distribute the latest research and theories from the international community. The conference is held every year, making it an ideal platform for people to share their views and experiences in industrial engineering, management science and applications related fields.

Recent statistics indicate that almost 80 percent of employees are unhappy in their current job. These alarming facts, coupled with high profile scandals and corporate takeovers of the past decade, illustrate that today's CEOs struggle with an image problem that is far worse than any other time in history. Ray Faulkenberry says that it is time for enlightened CEOs and business owners to implement new management styles and rely on personal experiences and universal principles as he takes a comprehensive look at the intricacies of how businesses are run today and how they may be better managed in the future. Faulkenberry emphasizes that businesses need to tap into the unlimited potential of its employees, and by executing a model that encourages profit even while it focuses on the human spirit, employers will gain a higher purpose as former management methods become obsolete. Modern CEOs will be both challenged and intrigued by the Eastern philosophy and organizational theory included. The Corporate Samurai reminds business leaders that the wisdom of past generations has great value to CEOs who really can live a life with honor and integrity and the supreme desire to protect and empower those they have been privileged to lead.

A critical mass of events has been transforming the American work scene, bringing unprecedented and irreversible changes in how American corporations relate to world markets and how they interact with their workforce. These changes are bringing about New Paradigms in corporate structure, organization, and operation. For many corporations, these changes involve substantial alterations such as recasting worklife. Rebirth is often validly used as a descriptive term for corporations that successfully weathered the massive onslaught of global economic, demographic, and technological changes in the last decade and the imperatives confronting many others for years to come. Officials, executives, and students need to know how and why new policies, strategies, organization designs, and employment relationships are indicated as well as lessons learned and guidelines from which to launch new policies and employment relationships. This is necessary because: these parties must enact or guide developments; or, they are a part of the changes and need the understanding of the factors which have changed their work roles, their expectations for the future and in many cases their standard of living.

This book is written to provide understanding and sufficient examples and guidelines for planners, strategists, and senior managers so that they can start to address the specifics of their situations. It provides numerous exhibits encompassing New Paradigm features; point-by-point features of newer employment relationships (based on a new psychological contract); timely and useful reference information sorted out according to key topics. New Paradigm organizations are characterized by management credibility, mutual trust, and cooperative working relationships. Employee involvement and participative management are hallmarks of the New Paradigm companies.

As the size and complexity of a company change in the course of its evolution it experiences predictable stages of growth. During these stages, a company discovers that what worked in the past no longer works. At such times, managers have to juggle the three variables of organizational evolution--the firM's purpose, its business and management processes, and its human resource issues--and keep them in balance as they reinvent new ways of structuring the firm. Typically, tension develops as one variable is stressed at the expense of the others. Managers need to know how to delegate decision making without abdicating overall control of the organization. The model developed here derives from the authors' understanding of how successful firms have managed these tensions.

Fletcher and Taplin deal with teamwork, leadership, and the nature of dynamic change while successfully avoiding the cliches to which many experts in those areas are prone. They discuss teamwork in the context of wider performance and process issues. They address leadership not by talking about personality traits but by examining the tensions within authority structures as senior managers attempt to reconcile organizational logics (history and past practices that have sustained the firm) and their own definition of the challenges that face the firm. The authors argue that such contradictions follow a predictable pattern. Managers can either ignore the underlying instability or confront it in ways that will ease the transition and sustain the organization's dynamic growth.

This book is the seventh volume in a series entitled "Contemporary Logistics in China," authored by researchers from the Logistics Center at Nankai University. In the spirit of the six preceding annual volumes, this book carries on the ideal of providing a systematic exposition on the logistics development in China for the English-speaking community at large. Specially, this volume captures China's logistics development at a crucial turning point. On the one hand, it reflects the new horizon advocated by the Government's One-Belt-One-Road Initiative global cooperation strategy; on the other, it explores the Internet revolution, which has had major impacts on e-commerce and urban logistics in China. Subjects covered in this volume encompass the macro-factors pertaining to logistics development, region-specific plans, industry-wide transformation, globally-oriented moves, and current hot topics. The expositions on and analyses of these subjects are based on the latest available sources and statistical data. As with the previous volumes, the ultimate aim of this book is to present a timely portrait of the rapid growth of China's logistics market and the status quo of its logistics industry. In so doing, the book offers an in-depth analysis of critical issues involved in the ongoing dynamic and multi-faceted development, and provides a valuable reference resource for interested readers in the academic and professional fields.

The purpose of this volume is to describe the impact of the increased demand for flexibility on employees and its impact on their individual work life trajectories and health. The volume offers concrete examples of interventions aimed to find innovative ways of sustainable work careers for today's workers. We focus on the school to work transition, job insecurity, job loss and re-employment and retirement. The interventions described offer strategies for implementing support in employment contracts, increasing preparedness of individual employees with public education programs or developing work arrangements and support systems in work organizations.

The Media Convergence Handbook sheds new light on the complexity of media convergence and the related business challenges. Approaching the topic from a managerial, technological as well as end-consumer perspective, it acts as a reference book and educational resource in the field. Media convergence at business level may imply transforming business models and using multiplatform content production and distribution tools. However, it is shown that the implementation of convergence strategies can only succeed when expectations and aspirations of every actor involved are taken into account. Media consumers, content producers and managers face different challenges in the process of media convergence. Volume II of the Media Convergence Handbook tackles these challenges by discussing media business models, production, and users' experience and perspectives from a technological convergence viewpoint.

The practical approached championed in this book have led to increasing the quality on many successful products through providing a better understanding of consumer needs, current product and process performance and a desired future state. In 2009, Frank Rossi and Viktor Mirtchev brought their practical statistical thinking forward and created the course "Statistics for Food Scientists". The intent of the course was to help product and process developers increase the probability of their project's success through the incorporation of practical statistical thinking in their challenges. The course has since grown and has become the basis of this book.

This book examines the new ways of working and their impact on employees' well-being and performance. It concentrates on job demands and flexible work emanating from current economic and organizational change, and assesses impact on workers' health and performance. The development of issues such as globalization, rapid technological advances, new management practices, organizational changes and new job skills are addressed. This book gives an overview and discusses the potential negative and positive effects of such new job demands and new forms of work.

Senior Executive Assessment is a concise and practical guide that demystifies assessment that is conducted at the senior-executive level. Defines Senior Executive Assessment, describes its benefits, and explains how it differs from assessment at lower levels Discusses how significant shifts in markets and business models can require a change in the characteristics needed in senior executives Provides a practical model with suggestions for assessing senior executives Offers guidelines for determining what assessment methods to use in an organization Examines practical considerations in how to choose professionals to conduct senior executive assessment

This volume focuses on what many see as an iminent crisis in the public sector, and particularly in the federal government-the possibility that, due to the realities of workforce demographics, poor leadership, lack of competitiveness in the labor market, and demotivating worker conditions, the public service will not maintain its capacity to manage programs, execute laws, and effectively deliver services for the American people. Larry Lane and James Wolf examine the significant human resource problems now confronting federal agencies, addressing these issues from a demographic, organizational, political, and cultural perspective. Arguing that the revitalization of the public service demands an effective, responsible, energetic, and committed workforce, they recommend concrete solutions and strategies aimed at stabilizing the current situation and contributing to a stronger and more effective public service over the long term. Following an introductory statement of major issues, Lane and Wolf explore the crucial roles of the public service in a democratic system of governance and assess the factors that now put the system at risk. They then introduce four conceptual lenses that can be used as an analytical tool to understand the problems of the public service and to develop solutions for assuring the supply, preparedness, productivity, and dedication of government employees. The authors first look at employment flow-the problem of maintaining workforce cadres over time. They examine problems of attraction and retention, inadequacies in system personnel policies, and the necessity for workforce planning. Turning to a discussion of competence in the workforce, the authors examine systemicblocks to the development of competence and offer strategies for addressing the competence issue. The next two chapters treat the concepts of energy and commitment, exploring ways to foster an organizational culture that encourages productivity, continuous improvement, and a long-term commitment to public service. The final chapter presents a detailed set of proposals, options, and initiatives for rebuilding the public service. Administrators, policy-makers, personnel officers, and students of public administration will find this work a significant contribution toward understanding and resolving the public sector's intensifying human resource problems.

Understanding the adoption, diffusion, and transfer of technology in the marketplace is vital for the success of any organization. Knowledge and Technology Adoption, Diffusion, and Transfer: International Perspectives is filled with original scientific and quality research articles on management information systems, technology diffusion, and business systems application aspects of e-commerce, e-government, and mobile application. As a forum of multi-disciplinary and interdisciplinary dialogue, it addresses research on all aspects of innovation diffusion in the field of business computing technologies and their past, present, and future use. This title serves as a vital source of information for researchers and practitioners alike.

Leadership is not a role reserved for presidents, prime ministers, and CEOs. All of us have the opportunity to be leaders, inspiring others while encouraging them to improve themselves in so many ways. Parents, managers, coaches, union leaders, church volunteers, and many others can be incredibly uplifting and inspiring. It's really not that complicated. What will you do to be a better leader for your workplace, your family, or your community?

This second volume on detox fashion covers five key aspects relevant to the topic sustainable chemistry and wet processes: Sustainable Chemicals: A Model for Practical Substitution; Sustainable Wet Processing; Coloration and Functional Finishing of Cotton with Plant Extracts; Call for an Environmental Impact Assessment of Bio-based Dyeing-an Overview; and Enzymes: Biocatalysts for Cleaning Up the Textile and Apparel Sector. The book also presents interesting solutions at the level of the supply chain with regard to sustainable chemistry and wet processes.

This third volume on detox fashion highlights sustainable wastewater treatment methods, as well as techniques used by and the adoption of detox strategies by different brands in the textile sector. These aspects are addressed in three central chapters: Sustainable Wastewater Treatment Technologies; Review of the Utilization of Plant-based Natural Coagulants as Alternatives to Textile Wastewater Treatment; and New Waste Management through Collaborative Business Models for Sustainable Innovation.