615 Evening Emergency Theatre Usage Analysis Pre And Post COVID-19: Are We Making the Cut?

Introduction Emergency theatre is a 24/7 service. We aim to assess a large UK hospital’s utilisation of theatre time in the evening. Method Electronic records of all evening (6pm-9pm) operations between January-February 2020 (pre COVID-19) and July-August 2020 (post COVID-19) assessed for start and finish times, send for times and booking times. Existence of pending cases during downtime noted as well as any delay reasons. Results Time between out of room and send for times (when cases pending) average 59 minutes pre COVID-19 vs. 78 minutes post COVID-19 (median 35 minutes vs. 59 minutes, respectively). Time between surgical end and send for times (when cases pending) average 83 minutes pre COVID-19 vs. 96 minutes post COVID-19 (median 64 minutes vs. 81 minutes, respectively). Time between out of room and anaesthetic start average 84 minutes pre COVID-19 vs. 101 minutes post COVID-19 (median 58 minutes vs. 80 minutes, respectively). Send for times post booking for new evening bookings average 80mins pre COVID-19 vs. 57 minutes post COVID-19 (63 minutes vs. 38 minutes, respectively). 20.45% of cases did not have a computer booking for surgery pre COVID-19 vs. 25.92% post COVID-19. Pre COVID-19, theatre overrunning contributed to delays, whereas post COVID-19, delays also due to repeat COVID-19 swabs, repeat group & saves and delays in bed availability. Conclusions Lingering effects of COVID-19 have caused further delays to a service already in need of implementation of changes to improve utilisation. Surgical, anaesthetic, nursing and executive teams must work together to improve efficiency.

Top Management Teams

Scholarly interest in the firm’s top management is an important research topic given their influence on strategic decision-making and firm outcomes, as well as increased media attention and activist investor scrutiny of the firm’s executives. The past experiences, knowledge, and skills of the firm’s top management team (TMT) represent the stock of the firm’s strategic human capital, which, along with their social capital and cognitive perspectives, influences strategic decision-making. This chapter provides a brief overview of the current state of research on TMTs and addresses limitations of this research before proposing an agenda for future research. The intent is to suggest avenues of scholarly inquiry to better understand how the firm’s TMT, through its interactions, attributes, and behavior, influences strategic decision-making. In doing so, the chapter could serve to encourage future research that will provide practical insight on how companies and boards can have more effective executive teams.

HR at the top table

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the aspiration of Human Resources (HR) professionals to “be at the top table”; what that means; and how such professionals can become highly valued members of business teams. Design/methodology/approach The paper discusses what is meant by “top table” and the ambitions of HR professionals to be there. It looks at the prevalence of HR in top teams; how professionals are prepared for senior roles; and it provides a model for effective top team membership. Findings The paper discusses the statistics of HR directors in top teams and concludes it should be no surprise that HR is not frequently represented on main boards. It makes the case nevertheless for HR to be on executive teams and finds about two-thirds of major companies recognise this. This paper describes a model of three key functional roles for the top team member and analyses the contributions that can be made. Practical implications The practical applications relate to the development of HR professionals and to the expectations that team leaders – such as Chief Executive Officers – should have from the HR team member. Originality/value This paper is based mostly on the writing, models and experience of the author but draws on relevant research papers.

Conflict Management in the Non-profit Sphere. Mapping the Conflict Management Practices of an Organization Providing Social Services

The present study, which focuses on conflict analysis and management, examines the causes and types of major conflicts in social service organizations through semi-structured interviews. Through in-depth interviews with ten employees at a Romanian nonprofit organization’s headquarters and by consulting on studies of key challenges of Romanian NGOs, I sought to find answers to how workplace conflicts affect nonprofits, how employees handle disagreements, and what types of conflicts are most common among employees of civil society organizations. In-depth interviews were conducted with four executives, two coordinators, and four members of the executive teams within the organization. Based on these interviews, it was revealed that the roots of the conflicts lie in the overload of bureaucratic tasks in the human resource department, the lack of motivation in the workplace and the lack of transparency of institutional decisions. These problems are most likely caused by the lack of resources in non-profit organizations in Romania. At the same time, despite the uncertainty, financial burden and bureaucracy related to the implementation of funding projects, the activities affecting the target groups are successful and based on the feedback of the employees, the reactions of the target groups are a great motivating force. Keywords: conflict, human resources, decision-making, performance, consequences, employee perspective

Gender-diverse boards get better performance on mergers and acquisitions

In recent years, the composition of boards, particularly the appointment of female directors to the boardroom has attracted significant political and social debate. Despite several studies that have examined links between the representation of women on boards and the corporate performance, research on the board gender diversity in merger contexts is limited. We assess whether the presence of women on corporate boards affects merger and acquisition (M&A) performance. Using acquisition bids by public Canadian companies during 2012-2017, we find that an increasing number of female directors in acquiring companies is associated with an enhanced merger performance and a reduced bid premium. After controlling for gender diversity on executive teams, the value added by having women on boards is particularly noticeable when acquiring firms have few women in the executive teams, and where overconfidence is prevalent. Thus, there is a substitutive relation between gender diversity on the board and gender diversity on the executive team.

An Ethics Briefing to an Executive Team

Business ethics education is most effective when students take an active approach and must respond to various demands and feedback. In this paper we describe a classroom exercise in which students are tasked with delivering an ethics briefing to “executive teams” (role played by other students or even by real executives). Through a combination of individual analysis and group work, students become immersed in real-world ethics problem-solving, in which there are no easy solutions. Students must defend their ethical recommendations as well as challenge those from other groups. The exercise concerns an existing controversial business called Seeking Arrangement. Survey results from graduate students who have participated in the exercise reveal that it is effective in producing better ethics problem solving, as well as greater confidence in addressing ethical issues.

AUTOMATED SYSTEM OF MANAGEMENT OF THE TECHNOLOGICAL PROCESS OF MILKING

Automated control systems for dairy farming are usually tied to milking equipment, as it is a key link in milk production technology - this is where information on productivity, quality indicators of milk, reproduction and the physiological state of the animal is collected, updated and recorded. Computer processing of this data array provides specialists with the necessary information on the basis of which decisions are made, both for one animal and for the whole herd as a whole. The technological process of individual animal service, its control and management, can be implemented by executive teams of the management system on the basis of estimated indicators of the functioning of biological objects. The article substantiates promising directions for the development of an automated control system for dairy farming and suggests ways to implement them. The most promising way to develop a technical direction in dairy farming is to improve automated systems for controlling technological processes of machine milking based on precision (high-precision) technologies and technical means. It was also established in the work that the efficiency of machine milking of cows is determined by an adaptive information-analytical system for controlling the milking process based on the analysis of the physiological state of animals using permanent mobile monitoring.