The Japanese Civil Service

This essay, based on a public lecture, deals with the last Civil Service (CS) Reform in Japan, which had been attempted since the 1990s and was completed in 2014. Bureaucrats enjoyed a “summer” where they actively were engaged in policy-making. But a series of policy failures and scandals revealed in the 1990s were attributed to their excessive autonomy, and centralized personnel control by the prime minister was introduced. However, discourse analysis of the Diet (Parliament) during the period of Reform indicates that there was neither a shared understanding of the meaning of CS impartiality, nor of the values to be borne by the CS. The driving force of the Reform was mainly people’s fury. It therefore resulted in relegating bureaucrats to being “lackeys” of the prime minister, ignoring their self-respect. This has given rise to various undesirable consequences. Will the CS see another “spring” in Japan?

System Dynamics Modelling for Dynamic Emergency Response to Accidents Involving Transport of Dangerous Goods by Road

For improving the emergency capacities during road transportation accidents of dangerous goods, this paper divides the accident emergency procedure into four subsystems: accident information processing, personnel rescue and evacuation, vehicle evacuation, and rescue materials delivery. On this basis, the causal mechanism and the loop diagrams of the emergency process are established by using the System Dynamics Method and Vensim software. First, six factors including transportation distance, the degree of mechanical modernization, delay time of personnel control, delay time of traffic information release, command level coefficient, and delay time of department arrival are selected as parameters to test the model’s sensitivity analysis. Then, the influences of the abovementioned factors on the observed value, such as the demand gap of on-site materials, number of people in safe area, number of vehicles in safe area, amount of disposal information, and the dynamic evolution behavior of the system, are analyzed. The results show that the transportation distance is shortened by half, and the time to fill the demand gap is reduced by 39%. The level of mechanical modernization is doubled, the peak inventory of materials in transit will increase by 9.2%, and the time to reach the peak will be shortened by 6.8%. If the delay time of personnel control is shortened by 480 s, the number of people to be evacuated in accident area will be reduced by 56. The delay time of traffic information release is shortened by 480 s, the number of vehicles to be evacuated is reduced by 74, and the time when the vehicle stops entering accident area is 1646 s in advance. The command level coefficient increases by 9.5%, and the speed of action execution increases by 9.6%.

Human Resources in Russian Industry: why Do Employees Increasingly Quit Companies?

Voluntary dismissals are a problem that has long existed and is rapidly gaining momentum in the modern world. Almost any company has encountered it. The paper considers the case of one of the largest industrial companies in Russia which was also affected by increased staff turnover. Unlike many published studies on this topic, this paper is an organizational case-stage and is based on a mixed methodology that combines qualitative and quantitative analysis methods. Moreover, its uniqueness lies in the binding of the results to the theory of generations X and Y. The empirical basis is: a factor analysis which is based on the survey results of 51 employees from three departments; a series of 10 interviews of employees; a three-month included observation. The authors concluded there was a serious problem in the HR policy at the company, namely, voluntary dismissals and they gave recommendations for taking emergency measures for retaining employees. This research partially confirms conclusions of other Russian studies devoted to this topic. They consider the level of material remuneration is one of the main reasons that influence the desire to quit the company. Other important factors are satisfaction with the degree of independence in decision-making within their own competencies, as well as the career advancement possibility. The special feature of this work is the management recommendations which are focused on a comprehensive solution to the problem of the stuff turnover at the particular industrial company. They include a special approach to personnel control eliminating the reasons caused people to quit their current jobs. All above can be used by other industrial enterprises having the similar problem with the staff.

Effect of Risk Perception on the Prevention of Beauty Salon by COVID-19 Related Customers on the Avoidance of Hair Salon and the Form of Preferred Hair Salon

The purpose of this study is to find out the impact of COVID-19 customer-oriented hair salon quarantine measures on the risk perception and preferred hair salon types, and to establish quarantine measures for each hair salon type. As a research method, self-administered questionnaire and the collected 427 were analyzed by using SPSS24.0. and structural equation modeling was performed on the result by using frequency analysis exploratory factor analysis, reliability analysis, and multiple regression analysis. As a result, the effect of preventive measures on the risk perception of visiting hair salons is that, first, spatial risk perception factors affect the definition of air quarantine, personal quarantine, and personnel control factors affect the higher the risk factor. As a result of examining the impact of hair salon quarantine measures on preferred hair salon types, first, small preference factors affect the definition of air quarantine, personnel control factors, and second, large and brand preference factors increase with higher preference for personnel control and air quarantine factors. In conclusion, through the results of this study, it is necessary to prepare improvements to various hair salon quarantine measures to reduce the risk of customers entering Hair Salon and to ensure smooth inflow of each salon.

Picking Places and People: Centralizing Provincial Governance in China

China's political system has been characterized by two institutions since the 1980s: an explicit “layer-by-layer administrative hierarchy” and the “appointment of cadres one level down.” There have, however, been two departures from these administrative practices. First, some provinces have “empowered prosperous counties” by placing them in a dual-reporting relationship with both prefecture-level cities and provinces. Second, some provinces have restored personnel control going “two levels down” by appointing key officials at the county and urban district levels of government. These deviations evolved as responses to China's GDP-centric policy environment during the early reform era. Based on field interviews and nationwide analysis of city-level personnel data, this article argues that such adaptations have generated unintended conflicts between provinces and prefecture-level cities. While prior studies of evolutionary change in China highlight the relationship between state and non-state actors, this study demonstrates how interactions among state actors themselves may fundamentally transform the dynamics of administrative governance.

Divergent approach in process-oriented HR controlling

Currently, new and updated tools for controlling personnel as specific methods of personnel management are being used with varying degrees of success. The subject of the research is the essential aspects and content features of management relations that develop during the formation and development of controlling personnel of processing organizations. The purpose of the research is to provide theoretical justification and instrumental support for the processes of personnel controlling based on the use of the advantages of the divergent approach for the full use of the creative component of management decisions. The methodological basis of the research is the methods that reveal the logic of the presentation: General scientific – dialectics (deductive, inductive), system; private scientific – historical, matrix, comparison. The scientific novelty of the research consists in the development of provisions aimed at substantiating the conditions that contribute to the formation of divergent thinking in solving managerial control tasks of the organization with the tools of personnel controlling. In contrast to the existing functional approaches, it is recommended to apply a process-oriented approach to personnel control, which contributes to the implementation of synergy and emergence in the course of displaying the creativity of human capital to ensure the competitiveness of a developing processing organization.

104 The influence of self-reported distractions on the Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) in laboratory and field environments

Introduction The Psychomotor Vigilance Task (PVT) is a measure of vigilant attention that is commonly used in laboratory environments to assess the neurobehavioral impact of sleep loss and circadian misalignment. The PVT has been increasing in popularity for use in field environments; however, the potential for distraction is higher in the field compared to the lab. It is unclear how distractions experienced by individuals taking the PVT in the real world may influence reaction time metrics. We investigated the influence of self-reported distraction on PVT outcomes across laboratory and field environments. Methods We examined PVT data from five studies including short (n=36 participants, 3799 PVTs) and long-haul (n=75 participants, 3282 PVTs) airline personnel, control center personnel (n=5 participants, 96 PVTs), and healthy individuals who participated in a study involving at-home and laboratory assessments (n=12 participants, 486 and 310 PVTs). Individuals in all of the studies were asked to complete the five-minute NASA PVT at least three times daily. Participants were asked to indicate the number of distractions they experienced immediately after each PVT. Mean PVT reaction time (RT) and number of distractions were computed for each study and overall. Results Participants reported more distractions in field environments compared to the lab (short-haul=1.29 +/- 1.48, long-haul=0.66 +/- 1.07, control-center=1.20 +/- 1.37, at-home=0.86 +/- 1.36, laboratory=0.46 +/- 1.07) Across all studies, we found that PVT RT slowed as self-reported distractions increased (all studies combined: 0 distractions=PVT RT 275.7ms; 1=285.0ms; 2=304.0ms; 3=322.9ms; >4=408.6ms). These findings were similar for healthy participants completing PVTs at home (0 distractions=286.4ms; 1=309.9ms; 2=328.3ms; 3=369.8ms; >4=385.1ms) but were less consistent during in-lab assessments (0 distractions=278.7ms; 1=316.2ms; 2=396.2ms; 3=370.4ms; >4=354.4ms). These findings were similar for other PVT outcomes. Conclusion Participants reported more distractions in field environments compared to the laboratory. Our findings suggest that the number of distractions that individuals report experiencing while taking a PVT increases the reaction time registered by the device. Researchers should collect information about distractions during the PVT and should be aware that distractions may influence the recorded PVT reaction time. Support (if any) NASA Airspace Operations and Safety Program, System-Wide Safety Project

EFFECT OF INTERNAL CONTROL ON EXECUTION OF CAPITAL PROJECT IN NIGERIA: EVIDENCE FROM ANAMBRA STATE PUBLIC SECTOR

This study ascertained the effect of internal control on the execution of capital projects in Anambra States, Nigeria. The study adopted survey research design. A sample of 118 Auditors and Accountants and staff of various Ministries and Departments in Anambra State. The formulated hypotheses were tested using regression analysis. The regression result shows that personnel control (PSC) has a positive and significant effect on the capital project execution in the state. The regression result also shows that management control (MGC) has a positive but insignificant effect on the capital project execution in Anambra state, Nigeria. It therefore recommends that, management control execution should be strengthened up in such regions as these were found to be positively and significantly affecting the rate of capital project execution in the state. Also Public sectors in the state, as well, the use internal control system to minimize the level of the neglected project in the state should be considered.