scholarly journals The Relationship Between Workplace Practices and Firm Level Productivity in New Zealand

1970 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grant Andrews ◽  
Brett Lineham
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Comparable Rate ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Workplace Practices ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Raising New Zealand’s growth in productivity (ie output per person employed or hour worked) has become a topic of increasing political and academic debate. This has been driven by recognition that the relative decline in our incomes (compared to those of other developed nations) is a direct consequence of our inability to raise our productivity at a comparable rate. In this paper, we examine issues relating to achievement of productivity growth within organisations. We firstly contextualise this by providing a general overview of productivity trends, including the connection between firm­level and wider productivity. We then outline a framework for considering business practices and how these might affect workplace productivity; review New Zealand research findings about the relationship between workplace practices and firm­level productivity growth; and discuss the results of recent studies (done or funded by the Department of Labour) of change processes within organisations. From this, we conclude that there is a wide range of business improvement options, depending on the needs of the individual organisation; that significant improvements in workplace practices can be achieved; and that these contribute to a range of better operational outcomes. Ultimate benefits in productivity can be expected but are harder to attribute. However, the experience of the organisations studied highlights the challenges inherent in these processes, which require sustained commitment, and buy­in from people at all levels. There were significant differences in outcomes between those organisations that began with positive internal relationships and culture, and management leadership, and those where these conditions were absent.

scholarly journals Regional brands produced beyond the region: An analysis of beer brands from recently closed breweries in Europe

2021 ◽  
Vol 29 (3) ◽  
pp. 168-183
Author(s):  
Jiří Hasman ◽  
David Hána ◽  
Kryštof Materna
Keyword(s):  
Individual Characteristics ◽  
Economic Perspective ◽  
Complete Sample ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Factors Affecting ◽  
Global Industry ◽  
Production Location ◽  
Country Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

Abstract Global industry has been undergoing changes in the concentration of brand ownership and production, with acquisitions and closures being a major factor in this evolution. The impacts of such activities are commonly studied from an economic perspective and from the perspective of internal firm-level and deal-level factors, while the influence of external geographical factors is largely neglected. Our research focuses mainly on the importance of geographical cultural factors affecting beer brands whose production location was moved after the closure of the original breweries. The research includes a complete sample of 30 brands from recently closed breweries across Europe. Brands are divided into seven categories according to how their marketing strategy has (or has not) changed in terms of exploiting regional and national identity. The overall success of these brands is then measured in terms of the development of their share in the home countries’ markets. Differences in brands’ strategies and successes are explained through a wide range of country-level factors and the individual characteristics of the breweries. It is shown that the level of beer tradition or identity in the countries, as well as the country’s beer life-cycle position, plays a crucial role in the evolution of the studied brands.

The effect of engagement partner workload on audit quality

2021 ◽  
Vol 36 (8) ◽  
pp. 1068-1091
Author(s):  
Yun Cheng ◽  
Christine M. Haynes ◽  
Michael D. Yu
Keyword(s):  
Audit Quality ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Big 4 ◽  
The Us ◽  
Performance Benchmarks ◽  
Partner Characteristics ◽  
Partner Firm ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Purpose Auditing studies have shifted the research focus from the audit firm level to the individual audit partner level in recent years. Motivated by the call from Lennox and Wu (2018) to explore the effect of audit partners’ characteristics on audit quality in the US, this study aims to develop a new measure of engagement partner workload (EPW), which includes both the size and number of clients audited to test the effect of EPW on audit quality. This study also examines the moderating effect of the partner firm size on audit quality. Design/methodology/approach To test the effect of the EPW on audit quality, this study runs multivariate regressions of EPW on each specific client’s discretionary accruals and audit report delays. This study also runs a logistic regression of EPW on clients’ probability of having small profit increases to meet performance benchmarks. Findings Results of the hypotheses show that partner workload is positively related to audit quality. The results indicate that partners with larger, but fewer, clients conduct higher quality audits. Further analysis indicates that the relationship between partner workload and audit quality only holds for partners from the non-Big 4 firms. Originality/value This study contributes to the literatures of both audit quality and audit partner characteristics, and the results complement initial research aimed at identifying US partner-related characteristics that influence audit quality.

scholarly journals Survey of the bp/tee genes from clinical group A streptococcus isolates in New Zealand – implications for vaccine development

2014 ◽  
Vol 63 (12) ◽  
pp. 1670-1678 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. Steemson ◽  
Nicole J. Moreland ◽  
Deborah Williamson ◽  
Julie Morgan ◽  
Philip E. Carter ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Vaccine Development ◽  
Group A Streptococcus ◽  
Invasive Disease ◽  
T Antigen ◽  
Clinical Group ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Life Threatening ◽  
Group A ◽  
The Individual

Group A streptococcus (GAS) is responsible for a wide range of diseases ranging from superficial infections, such as pharyngitis and impetigo, to life-threatening diseases, such as toxic shock syndrome and acute rheumatic fever (ARF). GAS pili are hair-like extensions protruding from the cell surface and consist of highly immunogenic structural proteins: the backbone pilin (BP) and one or two accessory pilins (AP1 and AP2). The protease-resistant BP builds the pilus shaft and has been recognized as the T-antigen, which forms the basis of a major serological typing scheme that is often used as a supplement to M typing. A previous sequence analysis of the bp gene (tee gene) in 39 GAS isolates revealed 15 different bp/tee types. In this study, we sequenced the bp/tee gene from 100 GAS isolates obtained from patients with pharyngitis, ARF or invasive disease in New Zealand. We found 20 new bp/tee alleles and four new bp/tee types/subtypes. No association between bp/tee type and clinical outcome was observed. We confirmed earlier reports that the emm type and tee type are associated strongly, but we also found exceptions, where multiple tee types could be found in certain M/emm type strains, such as M/emm89. We also reported, for the first time, the existence of a chimeric bp/tee allele, which was assigned into a new subclade (bp/tee3.1). A strong sequence conservation of the bp/tee gene was observed within the individual bp/tee types/subtypes (>97 % sequence identity), as well as between historical and contemporary New Zealand and international GAS strains. This temporal and geographical sequence stability provided further evidence for the potential use of the BP/T-antigen as a vaccine target.

Relationship between Rated Degree of Familiarity with Individual Sentences and the Extent of Recall of Connected Discourse

1966 ◽  
Vol 19 (3_suppl) ◽  
pp. 1195-1202 ◽  
Author(s):  
John A. Mills ◽  
Alan Nicolas-Fanourakis
Keyword(s):  
Rating Scale ◽  
Interference Theory ◽  
Connected Discourse ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Mean ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

An assessment was made of the strength and direction of the relationship between rated degree of familiarity for connected discourse and the extent of recall of such material. The experimental material consisted of two short passages of prose (a narrative and an argument) and of a rating scale containing all the sentences from these passages inserted randomly among other individual sentences selected from a wide range of sources. 20 Ss provided both recall scores for the passages (which were presented whole) and familiarity ratings for the sentences in the rating scale. When recall scores for the individual sentences were correlated with the mean ratings, a positive and significant value was found. The bearing of this finding on (he expectations of interference theory is discussed.

Seed size, shape and persistence in soil: a test on Italian flora from Alps to Mediterranean coasts

2003 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 75-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruno Cerabolini ◽  
Roberta M. Ceriani ◽  
Marco Caccianiga ◽  
Rossella De Andreis ◽  
Barbara Raimondi
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Seed Size ◽  
Seed Fate ◽  
Key Factors ◽  
Seed Shape ◽  
Seed Persistence ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Mediterranean Maquis ◽  
Italian Flora ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractSeed size is a good predictor of seed persistence in soil for British, Argentinean, Iranian and – to some extent – New Zealand species. It has been suggested that seed shape should also be linked to the ease of burial and, thus, to seed persistence, even if some studies failed to show this. The relationship between seed size and shape and persistence in soil was analysed for 259 species of the Italian flora, belonging to a wide range of habitats, from alpine pasture to limestone prairies and meadows of the Prealps, and from woodlands to Mediterranean maquis and garigues. Seed size was related to persistence in soil in the same way as in most other floras examined. Furthermore, seed shape was highly related to persistence in soil among the species analysed, when considered both altogether and divided among the different habitats. Our results suggest that not only seed size, but also seed shape, are key factors in determining seed fate and seed persistence in soil.

scholarly journals Standing Tall: the evolution of habitable room height limits in New Zealand building controls

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 ◽  
pp. 66-73
Author(s):  
Nigel Isaacs
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Model Building ◽  
Structural Safety ◽  
Height Range ◽  
City Councils ◽  
House Improvement ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Building Controls

Although it is often thought that the 3 February 1931 Napier earthquake led to the first New Zealand building codes, they have a far longer history. Often developed by the local town, city or borough engineer, these codes or by-laws covered a wide range of topics, not just structural safety. Two surveys of local government building bylaws undertaken to support the development of national building controls, have created digests of details from a number of these codes. The 1924 survey of 37 municipalities supported the development of the first national code for timber buildings, while the 1938 survey of 84 municipalities was used to develop NZSS 95 Model Building By-law during the 1930s and early 1940s. The digests provide an opportunity to explore the 1930s development of building by-laws by geographical and topic coverage, as well as the impact on building controls since that time.These local building bylaws often included requirements that affected the interior architecture of buildings, such as the requirement for minimum dwelling or bedroom room heights. In 1924 these minima ranged from 8 ft to 10 ft (2.4 m to 3.0 m) for either a dwelling or an attic room. However, by 1938 while the height range for dwelling rooms was unchanged for attic rooms the range was reduced by 1 foot (0.3 m) to 7 ft to 9 ft (2.1 to 2.9 m). Although the 1992 New Zealand Building Code does not specify minimum habitable room heights, the House Improvement Regulations 1947 are still in force. These initially set the habitable room height requirement to 2.1 m, increasing in 1975 to 2.4 m.The paper explores the development of minimum dwelling height requirements in New Zealand using these two surveys with analysis of Wellington and Dunedin City Councils from the 1870s to the 1930s. These requirements will be compared to UK codes, exploring both the international evolution of room height requirements and the relationship to New Zealand.

scholarly journals Flexible and consistent quantile estimation for intensity–duration–frequency curves

2021 ◽  
Vol 25 (12) ◽  
pp. 6479-6494
Author(s):  
Felix S. Fauer ◽  
Jana Ulrich ◽  
Oscar E. Jurado ◽  
Henning W. Rust
Keyword(s):  
Power Law ◽  
Skill Score ◽  
Observation Time ◽  
Performance Model ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Intensity Duration Frequency ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Flexible Model

Abstract. Assessing the relationship between the intensity, duration, and frequency (IDF) of extreme precipitation is required for the design of water management systems. However, when modeling sub-daily precipitation extremes, there are commonly only short observation time series available. This problem can be overcome by applying the duration-dependent formulation of the generalized extreme value (GEV) distribution which fits an IDF model with a range of durations simultaneously. The originally proposed duration-dependent GEV model exhibits a power-law-like behavior of the quantiles and takes care of a deviation from this scaling relation (curvature) for sub-hourly durations (Koutsoyiannis et al., 1998). We suggest that a more flexible model might be required to model a wide range of durations (1 min to 5 d). Therefore, we extend the model with the following two features: (i) different slopes for different quantiles (multiscaling) and (ii) the deviation from the power law for large durations (flattening), which is newly introduced in this study. Based on the quantile skill score, we investigate the performance of the resulting flexible model with respect to the benefit of the individual features (curvature, multiscaling, and flattening) with simulated and empirical data. We provide detailed information on the duration and probability ranges for which specific features or a systematic combination of features leads to improvements for stations in a case study area in the Wupper catchment (Germany). Our results show that allowing curvature or multiscaling improves the model only for very short or long durations, respectively, but leads to disadvantages in modeling the other duration ranges. In contrast, allowing flattening on average leads to an improvement for medium durations between 1 h and 1 d, without affecting other duration regimes. Overall, the new parametric form offers a flexible and enhanced performance model for consistently describing IDF relations over a wide range of durations, which has not been done before as most existing studies focus on durations longer than 1 h or day and do not address the deviation from the power law for very long durations (2–5 d).

scholarly journals NARROW VS WIDE RANGE OF EQUIVALENCE AND REGULATION OF ACTIVITY IN DIFFICULT LIFE SITUATIONS

2020 ◽  
pp. 141-146
Author(s):  
Marina A. Krylova
Keyword(s):  
Mental Representation ◽  
Empirical Studies ◽  
Problem Situation ◽  
Life Situation ◽  
Protective Mechanisms ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Regulation Of Activity ◽  
The Individual ◽  
And Coping ◽  
The Relationship

The article presents theoretical and empirical studies of cognitive and stylistic characteristics of a person and their connection with the regulation of activity (coping behaviour, mechanisms of psychological protection). The problem of mental representation of a difficult life situation is raised. It is said that the link between the cognitive and stylistic characteristics of the individual and coping, protective mechanisms, is the assessment of the situation, its mental representation. The paper describes the results of a study of a narrow vs wide range of equivalence, assessment by representatives of different cognitive poles of difficult life situations, the relationship with coping and psychological defences. Significant differences in the regulation of personal activity in a problem situation are revealed. Thus, respondents with a wide range of equivalence (n=32) are more likely to resort to coping strategies such as Escape-Avoidance, Distancing and Confrontational coping. In defence mechanisms, they prefer Substitution, Reactive formations, and Displacement. In assessments of the situation, they are less likely to give such characteristics: Good, Full, Bright. It is also statistically proven that there are a small number of relationships in this group between the assessment of the situation and the regulation of activity. It is concluded that respondents with a narrow range of equivalence (n=38) give a more diverse assessment of a difficult life situation, which does not always contribute to a quick solution of the problem.

scholarly journals The Oxford Handbook of Productivity Analysis

2018 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Productivity Growth ◽  
Management Practices ◽  
New Technologies ◽  
Global Financial Crisis ◽  
Organizational Factors ◽  
Well Being ◽  
The United States ◽  
Productivity Analysis ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

According to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in the two decades preceding 2014 two member countries, Italy and Spain, experienced productivity decline, while just four member countries, Korea, Ireland, Finland, and the United States, managed to achieve rates of productivity growth in excess of one percent per annum. Rates of productivity growth slowed following the global financial crisis in nearly all member countries. These diverse national productivity performances are aggregates of the productivity performances of individual producers, which are influenced by organizational factors such as the quality of management practices and the adoption of new technologies, and also by institutional features such as the stringency of product and labor market and environmental regulations. At the level of the individual producer, productivity has an important impact on financial performance and survival, while at the aggregate level, productivity is a critical determinant of national well-being. The essays collected in the Handbook provide significant contributions to our understanding of the causes and consequences of productivity growth. Part I contains the editors’ introduction. The chapters in Part II address a variety of measurement issues, from both analytical and practical perspectives. The chapters in Part III address a wide range of productivity issues at the level of the individual producer or industry. The chapters in Part IV address a range of aggregate productivity issues, both domestic and international.

La structure et la composition de groupes de régénération de hêtre dans la forêt de Soignes. Comm. N° 1 : Nombre de pieds, le diamètre et la hauteur.

1976 ◽  
Vol 41 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Van Miegroet ◽  
J. Réh
Keyword(s):  
Stand Density ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Positive Influence ◽  
Social Differentiation ◽  
Functional Link ◽  
Microclimatic Conditions ◽  
Number Of Stems ◽  
Growing Conditions ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The Relationship

Structure and composition of beech regeneration groups. Comm.  N° 1 : Number of stems, diameter and height. - For  the analysis and subsequent comparison of natural (RN) and artificial (AR)  regeneration of beech, 2 x 7 plots of 1 are each and 16 tot 25 years old,  were established in the Forêt de Soignes near Brussels.     With an average of 5.000/ha the actual number of stems was much lower in  the AR as in the NR with an average of 19.900/ ha. However AR can be  considered as growing more rapidly if mean diameter and mean height of all  trees are judged acceptable as parameters. Eventual differences of this kind  between AR and NR tend to disappear pretty soon as culmination of growth  takes place in AR-groups before the age of 16 years and is not yet evident in  the older NR-groups of 26 years old.    The differences in rate of growth are rather unsignificant if comparison is  limited to dominant and predominant elements, present in greater numbers in  NR ( 40 - 70 dominant trees, 20-35 of which are predominant ) as in AR ( 109  - 30 dominant trees, B - 12 of which are predominant ). The NR have a bigger  material reserve, their structuration is better, the variation in growth is  greater and, as a consequence, social differentiation takes place very early.  The relationship by number of stems between dominant, codominant and  dominated trees can be represented by 1/1/2 for NR and by 3/2/1 for AR.      The presence of a well-developed under-story, with a positive influence on  the stabilisation of microclimatic conditions in the forest, permits more  freedom of intervention in NR, where early concentration of elite-material in  the upperstory takes place. In AR-groups the possibilities of selection and  intervention are limited as each element has to be maintained as long as  possible.     Stand formation and social differentiation are the result of collective  dynamics of development in NR. These phenomena are stimulated by greater  stand density and early competition is the result of early restrictions of  the individual growing space. As a direct consequence a evolutive, structural  and functional link exists between predominant, codominant and dominated  elements.     In the AR, social differentiation follows a different pattern. It is an  individualisation phenomenon directly produced by individual genetic  differences and by accidental variations in growing conditions within a very  restricted area.

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