scholarly journals An investigation into the effectiveness of public entities’ procurement practices

Author(s):  
Moitswadi Mofokeng ◽  
Rose Luke

The delivery of services through the procurement of goods and services requires proper strategic leadership and management processes. Inappropriate planning, under-spending of budgets and ineffective procurement form part of the root causes of poor service delivery, as this restricts the movement of resources to the right places. This study identified the leading procurement practices as: procurement strategy and leadership, the procurement process, human resource management, procurement information systems, supplier management and procurement performance management. These practices were then tested in public entities, mainly in Gauteng Province, South Africa, to determine the extent to which they are applied. The study found that there is a major divide between the perception of the level of application of the leading practices and actual implementation. Processes, skills, performance management, information technology (IT) systems and supplier management are applied inadequately or inappropriately. Most entities thus show a poor understanding of customer needs and there seems to be a general lack of customer focus. The study highlighted the best practice areas in which public entities are able to focus their efforts to better achieve excellent customer service and thus service delivery.

Author(s):  
Paulo Mendes ◽  
José Eugenio Leal

Outsourcing can be a very effective strategy to increase operational performance and improve customer service; at the same time, that minimizes capital investment, freeing up capital to other important projects according to the company strategy that will increase revenue and profitability. However, when outsourcing is not performed in the right way, as there are several examples in the marketplace, it can also decrease performance and hurt customer service, reducing company competitiveness. Therefore, it is critical to establish a robust Outsourcing Execution Process to reduce risks of vendor failure due to lack of operational capability, performance management, and conflict of culture between 3PL and the company, just to enumerate a few possible real life problems. This chapter provides a broad and updated introduction of transportation and distribution operation, and based on literature review and practical experience from the authors, several best practices are reviewed to support outsourcing execution in transportation and distribution operation.


Author(s):  
Ayu Mulyana Rizki

Theoretically delivering the concept and design of marketing and management, serving our clients with the most innovative techniques and ideas essential in today’s competitive market for the success of any brand or product. At Abstract, we believe in superior customer service that is second to none, creating an unforgettable brand value with cutting-edge solutions and connecting your products to the right audience. Advertising as a marketing communication. The most basic concept underlying marketing is a human need. With the changing times, the need developed into a desire to consume a product with certain characteristics. Definition of marketing according to Kotler (2002, 10) marketing is a social process with the process of individuals and groups obtain what they need and want by creating, offering and freely exchanging goods and services of value with others.


Author(s):  
KKL Pilusa ◽  
ML Shipalana

It is a global concern that most local spheres of government are usually faced with a major challenge of meeting the basic needs of citizens, particularly in the developing countries such as South Africa, where majority of people depending entirely on public services. It is observed that the local spheres of government are unable to carry out their constitutional mandate to provide public goods and services such as education, housing health, water and sanitation. This situation, among others, is mainly exacerbated by ineffective innovative management practices. This article sought to navigate innovative management practices in the local spheres of government in South Africa and suggests strategies that can be applied for service delivery improvement. The article used conceptual framework to analyse innovative management practices in the context of the local spheres of government. In the process, literature has revealed that most of local spheres of government are mainly characterised with ineffective innovative management practices. These management practices include, strategic planning, operational plans and performance management systems. It is evident that the current state of affairs, drastically affects service delivery improvement. This article suggests collaborative approach as mechanism to enhance service delivery in the local spheres of government.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yuliia Peniak ◽  
◽  
Nataliia Horokhovatska ◽  

The main purpose of any enterprise in the market economy is to obtain high financial results. One of the main conditions for the effective functioning of the enterprise is ability to generate profit in the amount that will create the financial basis for further development and expansion of the enterprise, comply with social and material needs, ensure competitiveness in the market of goods and services. The need for accounting and analytical management of financial results stems from needs of owners, the state and employees in information that will enable them to identify patterns and trends in financial results, identify and assess the main factors influencing the process of their creation, distribution and usage, identify reserves and thus increase the level of profitability. Despite the significant scientific contribution in the field of research of financial results of the enterprises, the issue of improvement aims to the accounting and analytical maintenance of management of financial results of the enterprise remains actual. That is why the purpose of the study is to substantiate the theoretical and practical aspects and develop approaches to improving the mechanism of formation of accounting and analytical support for the management of financial results of the enterprise. Accounting and analytical management of financial results of the enterprise is a set of interconnected elements of production and management system, activities carried out by the subject of management, creation of a certain structure, as well as collection, accumulation, storage and analysis of information necessary for effective operation of the enterprise. The main components of the study of accounting and analytical support of financial performance management are the formation of methods of analysis, control and forecasting of financial results, which requires specification of the components of the analytical and controlled process within the organizational and information model. Namely, the formation of reliable information about the financial condition of the enterprise, the analysis of economic indicators of the enterprise is of great importance in the system of general evaluation of business entities. Their research makes it possible to assess the dynamics of the structure of income and expenses, to determine the impact of factors on the company's profit from various activities, as well as to find reserves to increase the net profit of enterprises. Thus, the improvement of accounting and analytical support of enterprise management is based on the use of modern forms, methods and principles that place new demands on the formation of unbiased, complete, timely, clear and useful accounting and analytical information about the enterprise and its financial results.


No other talent process has been the subject of such great debate and emotion as performance management (PM). For decades, different strategies have been tried to improve PM processes, yielding an endless cycle of reform to capture the next “flavor-of-the-day” PM trend. The past 5 years, however, have brought novel thinking that is different from past trends. Companies are reducing their formal processes, driving performance-based cultures, and embedding effective PM behavior into daily work rather than relying on annual reviews to drive these. Through case studies provided from leading organizations, this book illustrates the range of PM processes that companies are using today. These show a shift away from adopting someone else’s best practice; instead, companies are designing bespoke PM processes that fit their specific strategy, climate, and needs. Leading PM thought leaders offer their views about the state of PM today, what we have learned and where we need to focus future efforts, including provocative new research that shows what matters most in driving high performance. This book is a call to action for talent management professionals to go beyond traditional best practice and provide thought leadership in designing PM processes and systems that will enhance both individual and organizational performance.


Author(s):  
Cody A Drolc ◽  
Lael R Keiser

Abstract Government agencies often encounter problems in service delivery when implementing public programs. This undermines effectiveness and raise questions about accountability. A central component of responsiveness and performance management is that agencies correct course when problems are identified. However, public agencies have an uneven record in responding to problems. In this paper we investigate whether, and to what extent, capacity both within the agency and within institutions performing oversight, improves agency responsiveness to poor performance indicators. Using panel data on eligibility determinations in the Social Security Disability program from U.S. state agencies from 1991-2015 and fixed effects regression, we find that indicators of agency and oversight capacity moderate the relationship between poor performance and improvement. Our results suggest that investments in building capacity not only within agencies, but also within elected institutions, are important for successful policy implementation. However, we find evidence that while agency capacity alone can improve responsiveness to poor performance, the effect of oversight capacity on improving performance requires high agency capacity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 43-73
Author(s):  
Lars Osterbrink ◽  
Paul Alpar ◽  
Alexander Seher

AbstractReviewing and rating are important features of many social media websites, but they are found on many e-commerce sites too. The combination of social interaction and e-commerce is sometimes referred to as social commerce to indicate that people are supporting each other in the process of buying goods and services. Rgeviews of other consumers have a significant effect on consumer choice because they are usually considered authentic and more trustworthy than information presented by a vendor. The collaborative effort of consumers helps to make the right purchase decision (or prevent from a wrong one). The effect of reviews has often been researched in terms of helpfulness as indicated by their readers. Images are an important factor of helpfulness in reviews of experience goods where personal tastes and use play an important role. We extend this research to search goods where objective characteristics seem to prevail. In addition, we analyze potential interaction with other variables. The empirical study is performed with regression analyses on 3,483 search good reviews from Amazon.com followed by a matched pair analysis of 186 review pairs. We find that images have a significant positive effect on helpfulness of reviews of search goods too. This is especially true in case of short and ambiguous reviews.


Ultrasound ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 53-57 ◽  
Author(s):  
Susan C Westerway ◽  
Jocelyne M Basseal

Best practice guidelines for the disinfection of ultrasound transducers and infection prevention in ultrasound departments are generally recommended by either government health groups or the ultrasound societies of individual countries. The literature shows a wide variance in not only transducer cleaning methods but basic hygiene practices in the ultrasound workplace. This paper describes results from a UK survey of disinfection of ultrasound transducers and hygiene practice in the workplace. The survey revealed that some ultrasound practitioners did not follow current guidelines with regard to the correct disinfection method of transducers, cords or ultrasound machine keyboards. Furthermore, the survey exposed the lack of training from the product manufacturers on how to use the disinfection product appropriately. These inconsistencies may be responsible for compliance issues and highlight the need for an awareness campaign and a unified approach to infection control by ultrasound practitioners.


2017 ◽  
Vol 29 (2) ◽  
pp. 239-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zohaib Razzaq ◽  
Salman Yousaf ◽  
Zhao Hong

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the significant contribution of emotions along with other conventional loyalty drivers on the loyalty intentions. Design/methodology/approach The influence of three conventional loyalty drivers, i.e., value equity, brand equity, relationship equity on loyalty intentions was investigated by further exploring the moderating effects of negative and positive emotions. A sample of 834 Pakistani consumers in the supermarkets and banking industries was studied employing store-intercept survey design. Findings Consumer behavior is driven by emotions in both the supermarkets and banking context. Thus, in order to better predict customer loyalty intentions, the emotional component is crucial and should be included along with other cognitive components. Practical implications Since customers’ emotional responses throughout service delivery are strongly linked to loyalty, therefore supermarkets and bank service managers need to make sure that the customers experience with their services as pleasurable as possible and for this purpose, customer service employees need to be trained in order to better understand the customers’ emotional responses during the course of service delivery process. Originality/value The present study complements the existing literature regarding the role of emotions in service settings and offers a new point of view for the linkage among emotions, customer equity drivers and customer loyalty intentions.


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