Analytical Comparison of German Owner’s Budget Estimate and Chinese Contractor’s Bid: A Case Study for a Warehouse Building Project in China

Nowadays, the need for scientific and modernized engineering cost management has been increasingly prominent. Hence, this study compared the differences of the quantities’ terms, the management philosophy, the related institutions (or specifications), and other factors in engineering cost management between China and Germany accompanied by a case study for a warehouse building project in China. There are two main parts. Firstly, according to the literature research, the comparative analysis was conducted on the engineering cost-control mode, the list of bills of quantities, and other parameters between China and Germany. On the basis of this, the “differences” between China and Germany especially in the bidding process were further studied with the empirical analysis of engineering cases, which is a supplementary argument to the theoretical analysis. Finally, several related suggestions were put forward, including proposing a set of “universal” bills of quantities (which can be understood by Chinese enterprises and also accepted by foreign-funded enterprises), the establishment of the whole process, a dynamic and information-based project cost-management system, cultivation of talents with the advanced management concept, and the development of international engineering companies and project-management companies with core competitiveness. The conclusions are expected to provide some references for China’s construction industry to further expand the international market and to increase the influences in global markets.

Re-Conceptualizing Diversity Management

This chapter highlights how diversity management, a widely practiced management philosophy, has emerged from an original focus of equal opportunity and representation to a focus on a strategic and competitive business opportunity for organizations. However, the adverse, lived experiences that socially marginalized people experience are concealed within business goals despite having their “difference” marketed as a competitive advantage. The aim of this chapter is to conceptualize diversity management as having mutually inclusive, intersecting goals rather than mutually exclusive, competing goals.

Theory of Constraints and Human Resource Management Applications

This purpose of this article is to assess constraints and suggest a theory that can improve Human Resource Management Systems (HRMS's). It investigates the relationship between Theory of Constraints (TOC) and operation management, which is based on the Critical Chain PMs book entitled The Goal. In 1984, the author, Goldratt, introduced an entire management philosophy about the TOC. The mental process and improvement theory tools discussed in his book mainly focus on manufacturing environments. However, the practice and examples in the book helped many organizations succeed, even in the private sectors. This study offers definitions of throughput, operating expense, and inventory measurements, and uses the principle of TOC to identify bottlenecks and constraints in every business process. By using these analyses, the study remodels the system to increase performance measurements of HRMS.

Corporate Governance Regulations and Practices under COVID-19 Crisis: Time to Rethink

The COVID-19 has brought the challenge of survival for all the companies around the globe. This pandemic totally changed the procedures of managing and governing the firms with the help of regulations of the state. The said disaster has also hit the existence of the major companies in different sectors of the economy. Consequently, it has drawn the attention of all the practitioners of the Corporate Governance along with the policy makers of the economy. The focus of this article is to see the utility and practicability of different regulations and practices of the corporate governance to cope with the current emerging challenges of COVID-19 in corporate sector. Furthermore, the current study takes some valuable insights from the leading business journal articles and find the key mechanisms of the corporate governance, which help the companies to deal with the recent crisis. These mechanisms could be effective for the different business units during this dilemma of COVID-19. This review intends to change the management philosophy of the different companies. Furthermore, this study aims to provide them with the latest mechanisms of corporate governance, which are helping the companies for their successful progression of business affairs in this tough time of Corona Virus. These mechanisms include presence of risk management committee, more attention to the stakeholders, family ownership, and block holders. This paper concludes that all the above said mechanisms of corporate governance are very helpful during the crisis of COVID-19. The study highlights that this pandemic has affected the governance mechanisms of al the establishments, therefore firms should be prepared for such crisis in future by paying attention to the different corporate governance mechanisms. The study recommends that certain practices of the corporate governance are very helpful in coping the challenges posed by the pandemic of COVID-19.

The Impact of Dharma on Management PhilosophyA Comparative Study of Vishnu Smriti and Contemporary Corporate Thinking

Purpose: Management philosophy acts as a foundation for business by defining its vision, mission, and purpose and by providing guidelines for its operations. For centuries, Indian ethos has encouraged socially beneficial corporate behavior by invoking the concept of dharma. Using a historical analysis research design, this paper attempts to measure the impact of dharma on management philosophy of modern companies. Methodology: The paper uses a historical analysis research design. The paper specifies the ideal from Vishnu Smriti, a Dharmasastra text of ancient India. The contemporary management thinking is studied by analyzing the management philosophy statements of the fifty corporations comprising the NIFTY index in India. Several data analytics techniques like correlation analysis, association analysis and path analysis, have been used to measure that the impact of dharma on management philosophy. Findings: The study reveals that the impact of dharma on the management philosophy modern corporations is not so strong. The results of correlation analysis, association analysis and path analysis all showed that impact of dharma on the management philosophy of the NIFTY indexed companies is not upto the expected ideal. Practical implications: As the impact of dharma on the management philosophy of modern corporations is not strong, it is necessary for managers to understand the values guidelines provided in dharmashastra texts to develop their vision and mission statements. Such guidelines from Vishnu Smriti include treating employees and customers with respect and cultivate environmentally sustainable management practices. Originality: The originality of the paper arises from its ability to integrate the philosophy of Indian ethos in contemporary management thinking and measuring the same using well known statistical techniques.

Underutilization of workers: an analysis according to the lean management philosophy in basic education

One of the eight wastes that Lean production, inspired by the Toyota Production System, proposes to study is the underutilization of workers, that is, the inadequate use of their intelligence. The sense is to provide listening and participation in improvement projects, of professionals who have experience in daily life and, in many cases, consistent academic qualifications. The objective of this work is to study the importance of the participation of teachers and employees of a basic education school in the construction of new routines and work methods, in the context of the Lean management philosophy, justified by the scarcity of scientific literature on the subject. Brazil has about 184,000 basic education schools with one million four hundred thousand teachers working from kindergarten to the ninth grade of elementary school, and of these, 83.2% have a college degree, a percentage that grows every year. About the schools, 21.7% are private, 61.3% municipal, 16.6% state, and 0.4% are federal schools. As a research methodology, a systematic review of the literature was adopted, based on the PRISMA protocol, allowing the identification of 53 records, 14 of which were included in the literature review, due to their adherence to the researched subject. The main contribution of this paper is the identification of a research gap involving the underutilization of workers and adoption of the Lean management philosophy in the education sector, as well as a conceptual proposal of the positive impact on the educational organization results by not underutilizing workers, without wasting their intelligence.

Intellectual capital disclosure on Twitter – empirical evidence from the world’s largest companies

Purpose This study aims to examine intellectual capital disclosure (ICD) on Twitter by 60 of the world’s largest companies and explains the main themes communicated to stakeholders. The second objective is to determine which topics provoke most stakeholders’ reactions. Design/methodology/approach The authors perform content analysis on more than 42,000 tweets to examine ICD practices along with the reactions of stakeholders in the form of retweets and “favorites” toward the information disclosed. Findings Intellectual capital (IC) is an important theme in corporate disclosure practices, as more than one-third of the published tweets refer to IC. The world’s largest companies focus on relational capital information, followed by human and structural capital. The main IC themes disclosed were management philosophy, corporate reputation and business partnering. Tweets related to IC are of greater interest to stakeholders than other tweets and provoke more reactions. There is no complete consistency between the topics most intensively disclosed by companies and those that elicit the most vivid responses from the addressees. Practical implications This study offers an understanding of the world’s largest companies’ practices that refer to ICD via social media and has implications for organizations in the creation and use of communication channels when developing a dialogue with stakeholders on topics regarding IC that may lead to better management of IC performance. Originality/value This paper is a response to the call for studies on ICD via social media, which is strongly highlighted in the recent literature concerning future research on IC and until now was almost absent in the field of business units. This research provides in-depth insights into the use of Twitter to disclose IC elements and indicates which fields and topics of this disclosure provoke stakeholders’ reactions, which is a novelty in ICD studies.

Investigation of the Behavioural Response of a Colony of Group-Housed Hamadryas Baboons (Papio Cynocephalus Hamadryas) to Relocation to a More Naturalistic Enclosure

<p>As part of Wellington Zoo’s current management philosophy to reduce the number of species and increase enclosure size, quality and appropriateness for those remaining animals, the zoo’s colony of hamadryas baboons (Papio cynocephalus hamadryas) was relocated within the zoo to a purpose-designed and more naturalistic exhibit. The primary objective of this investigation was to determine group and individual responses of five of these baboons to their new enclosure. In so doing, this investigation was intended to address the shortage of quantitative, species-specific information on environmental enrichment for Papio baboons (Kessel and Brent 1996). The data collection method used in this investigation consisted of fifteen-minute focal sampling of each of the five focal animals in the two months before and the month following the colony’s relocation. For the purposes of this investigation, these focal samples were initially analysed together, prior to each focal animal being considered independently. Analysis of data extracted from these focal samples included consideration of: • The overall occurrence of individual behaviours between the former and new enclosures; • Additions to the animals’ behavioural repertoires upon relocation; and, • Time the animals spent alone and interacting socially. Upon the colony’s relocation, changes in the combined focal animals’ behaviour were anticipated as a result of greater space, areas of privacy, and increased environmental variation. Focal sampling revealed increasingly naturalistic behaviours, including a reduction in vacuum and vestigial behaviours, and an increase in speciestypical behaviour. Results also indicated that the combined focal animals experienced unexpectedly low levels of “agonistic” (i.e. aggressive) behaviour in both enclosures. However, there was a reduction in some associated behaviours upon the colony’s relocation. This included a decline in male rivalry over females. Differences in the responses of individual focal animals to relocation were also anticipated. Of particular interest were results indicating an increasing similarity of individual roles within one-male units to those of free-ranging hamadryas baboons. These roles were associated with both age and sex. This study raises implications for improving the current management of the Wellington Zoo colony and other captive hamadryas baboon colonies. These include emphasising the importance of appropriate husbandry and feeding schedules. It also raises implications for the future management of other captive Papio baboon colonies in terms of enclosure redesign. These include the benefit of incorporating naturally occurring environmental factors, such as natural leaf litter. This study is also of value from a management perspective as a baseline for future investigations. Such investigations could include long-term monitoring of this colony’s use of environmental enrichment in the new enclosure and consideration of the animals’ behaviour as the colony is encouraged to expand.</p>

Investigation of the Behavioural Response of a Colony of Group-Housed Hamadryas Baboons (Papio Cynocephalus Hamadryas) to Relocation to a More Naturalistic Enclosure

<p>As part of Wellington Zoo’s current management philosophy to reduce the number of species and increase enclosure size, quality and appropriateness for those remaining animals, the zoo’s colony of hamadryas baboons (Papio cynocephalus hamadryas) was relocated within the zoo to a purpose-designed and more naturalistic exhibit. The primary objective of this investigation was to determine group and individual responses of five of these baboons to their new enclosure. In so doing, this investigation was intended to address the shortage of quantitative, species-specific information on environmental enrichment for Papio baboons (Kessel and Brent 1996). The data collection method used in this investigation consisted of fifteen-minute focal sampling of each of the five focal animals in the two months before and the month following the colony’s relocation. For the purposes of this investigation, these focal samples were initially analysed together, prior to each focal animal being considered independently. Analysis of data extracted from these focal samples included consideration of: • The overall occurrence of individual behaviours between the former and new enclosures; • Additions to the animals’ behavioural repertoires upon relocation; and, • Time the animals spent alone and interacting socially. Upon the colony’s relocation, changes in the combined focal animals’ behaviour were anticipated as a result of greater space, areas of privacy, and increased environmental variation. Focal sampling revealed increasingly naturalistic behaviours, including a reduction in vacuum and vestigial behaviours, and an increase in speciestypical behaviour. Results also indicated that the combined focal animals experienced unexpectedly low levels of “agonistic” (i.e. aggressive) behaviour in both enclosures. However, there was a reduction in some associated behaviours upon the colony’s relocation. This included a decline in male rivalry over females. Differences in the responses of individual focal animals to relocation were also anticipated. Of particular interest were results indicating an increasing similarity of individual roles within one-male units to those of free-ranging hamadryas baboons. These roles were associated with both age and sex. This study raises implications for improving the current management of the Wellington Zoo colony and other captive hamadryas baboon colonies. These include emphasising the importance of appropriate husbandry and feeding schedules. It also raises implications for the future management of other captive Papio baboon colonies in terms of enclosure redesign. These include the benefit of incorporating naturally occurring environmental factors, such as natural leaf litter. This study is also of value from a management perspective as a baseline for future investigations. Such investigations could include long-term monitoring of this colony’s use of environmental enrichment in the new enclosure and consideration of the animals’ behaviour as the colony is encouraged to expand.</p>