Investing in water supply resilience considering uncertainty and management flexibility

This paper demonstrates how to make investment decisions that optimally improve water supply resilience, taking into consideration both future uncertainty and management flexibility. The demonstration is done by evaluating investment strategies for a 38 Ml/d water treatment plant serving an urban area with approximately 75 000 inhabitants, where there is uncertainty with respect to future population growth, industrial production, external demand and the amount of rainfall due to climate change. It is shown that the quantification and comparison of the possible reductions in service and intervention costs over comparably long periods enables the optimal investment decisions – that is, the ones with the optimal trade-offs between stakeholders. Additionally, it can be seen that the used methodology enables the consistent and transparent consideration of (a) the concerns of multiple stakeholders, (b) the future deep uncertainty associated with key concerns and (c) the flexibility of infrastructure managers to make decisions in the future using new information. The methodology also ensures that managers have clear plans of action and considerable insight into the extent of required future financing.

Makna Keuntungan Penjual Salome (Studi Fenomenologi Hermeneutik)

Salome seller profession is an alternative entrepreneurship for the community because the business is quite easy to do. This study aims to find the meaning of profit perceived by Salome sellers. Salome sellers who are able to survive long enough in pursuing their profession certainly have their own awareness in interpreting the benefits they get during selling Salome. This research was conducted on salome sellers who have pursued their profession for more than 10 years using a hermeneutic phenomenology approach. The results showed that salome sellers interpreted its advantages in terms of broad market segments, light business capital, and business management flexibility. The findings of the research's significance can also be taken into consideration in terms of measuring the risk of salome business performance from strategic, financial, and operational aspects. Keywords: The Meaning of Profit, Hermeneutic Phenomenology, Risk of Business Performance

Four stages of making project management flexible: insight, importance, implementation and improvement

Increased project complexity, project dynamics and changes in clients’ requirements are a few examples that suggest the necessity for flexibility in project management in order to deliver successful projects. Despite the fact that literature suggests adding flexibility to project management, there is no existing framework that provides a practical method for adding flexibility into the practice of project management in the construction industry. Therefore, this research is aimed at proposing a practical framework that helps practitioners in embedding project management flexibility into their project management practice. The research question is as follows: how to embed flexibility in the practice of project management in the early project phases? To answer the research question, four sub-questions have been formulated, which have been separately researched. The main question is answered by proposing a flexibility framework. This framework comprises four stages: understanding the current situation, practitioners’ perspectives on flexible project management, choosing enablers to become flexible and applying selected enablers to improve project performance. The framework is validated using the examples given by practitioners from 24 cases. Considering the movements towards flexibility and adaptability concepts, this research fills the gap in literature by providing a practical framework for project management flexibility. Moreover, it provides a step-by-step guideline for practitioners to embed flexibility in practice.

Does flexibility in project management in early project phases contribute positively to end-project performance?

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to study the effect of project management flexibility in early project phases on end-project performance including its mediating role on the effect of complexity over project performance. Design/methodology/approach Out of 13 hypotheses, 6 hypotheses regarding the relationships between areas of flexibility and project performance, 1 regarding the effect of complexity on performance and 6 other hypotheses regarding the mediating effect of six areas of flexibility were formulated. Statistical analysis was performed using partial least squares–structural equation modeling on data gathered from 111 surveys. Findings Research results revealed that flexibility of “how-attitude” and “how-organization” has positive significant effects on project performance. “How-attitude” contributes to the flexibility of project management processes by having an “open attitude,” “wide approach” and “proactive attitude” while “how-organization” put the emphasis of flexibility on “facilitate planning,” “outer organization” and “inner organization.” Moreover, this research confirmed that complexity has a negative effect on project performance. Among the six areas of flexibility, flexibility of “how-organization” mediates the effect of complexity on project performance. Originality/value The increased project complexity requires some degree of flexibility in project management to deal with project dynamics. However, whether such flexibility in early project phases has an effect on end-project performance has not been empirically investigated. This research contributes to filling the gap in literature about the relationship between project management flexibility and project performance. Such effect was investigated by studying the direct effect of flexibility on project performance and the mediating role of flexibility on the negative effect of project complexity on project performance.

Knowledge management, flexibility and firm performance: The effects of family involvement

After the last global crisis, firms needed to change and adapt better to the environment. In this scenario, knowledge management is the most important strategic resource, and therefore, it is considered critical for improving firm performance.However, knowledge management processes and the dynamic environment demand new ways of personnel management, especially a break from traditional and rigid forms of working. As a result of these experiments several innovations in work systems, managerial practices, and personnel policies have appeared. This study examines the holistic relationship between knowledge management, flexibility and firm performance in family firms.The results show that knowledge management has a positive influence on firm performance. Also, flexibility is not significantly related to firm performance. However, flexibility is positive and significantly related to knowledge management. Furthermore, there is no linear relationship between family involvement in ownership and management, and flexibility and knowledge management in the firm.