Labour Rate Setting for Transport Company’s Managers Based on the Principles of Organisation Design

Analysis and labour rate setting regarding management activities is an important tool in the modern economy, used to improve the corporate efficiency by optimising existing management processes, reducing bureaucracy, and eliminating redundant processes, and, consequently, administrative elements that do not create value, and are an obstacle to normal functioning of the management system. The application of analytical methods to the work of managers is a relevant and powerful tool for increasing productivity and efficiency of corporate management.The article describes the results of a study of tools for analysis and regulation of management activities implemented in the Russian Railways holding company based on the principles of organisation design. The subject of the study is management activity as an object of application of modern methods of analysis and labour rates.The objective of the study is to show the possibility and feasibility of using modern methods of analysis and regulation of labour on the example of a large transport company. The purposes of the study, the results of which are presented in this article, comprise identification of prerequisites for adoption of methods of analysis and regulation of management activities; assessment of possibilities of using the tools of functional analysis of organisation’s entities and divisions to increase efficiency of management activities; description of technologies for labour rate setting for management activities using the example of the Russian Railways holding company.The study is based on the use of methods of process analytics, functional analysis, labour rate setting, and organisation design.The main result of the study is development of methodological approaches to analysis and standardisation of managerial work in a transport company. These approaches will make it possible to reasonably develop labour standards and rates for managers, staffing plan, and adopt modern management practices in the Russian Railways holding company.

Telework as the development direction of the ways of providing work by an employee in the crisis situation

Purpose: The purpose of this article is to present the peculiarity of telework as a form of providing work relation in the crisis situation in the organisation. Design/methodology/approach: The article demonstrates the term of telework, its legal regulations, advantages and disadvantages of telework as well as shows the results of empirical study concerning this issue in the period of Covid-19 pandemic. The article is based on the literature review in this scope and presents the results of secondary study relating to the telework in Polish companies during the pandemic. Findings: The considerations presented in the article indicate that the epidemiological situation connected with coronavirus enforced the necessity to take immediate and efficient actions to implement telework widely, which got a big group of supporters both among employers as well as employees. It is likely that home office may be the main form of providing work relation, e.g. the office one, in the nearest future. Originality/value: The value of this paper is theoretical. The possibilities of implementing remote work were presented in the paper concerning its advantages and limitations, with the particular consideration of Polish work market. The paper is original due to its multiaspect approach to the academic issue whereas the obtained results may be useful both for management practitioners as well as may be an inspiration for further research.

Methods for developing an indoor navigation system

The report offers methods for developing an indoor navigation system. For this purpose, popular navigation applications have been analysed. We have been strongly motivated by the fact that no universal methods have been established that are applicable with this kind of projects. Very often the case is that new methods are formed in view of a specific process and they are based on a particular technology and on the related organisation, design and other considerations. This is also confirmed by a conducted experiment with a commercial product for indoor navigation. The methods offered include map digitising, determining a user’s location, and selecting the shortest path. This is achieved by applying elements of graph theory, databases, XML and QR code. The methods offered are universal and could be applied to any type of building. The methods have been approbated in the building of a mobile application for the needs of the University of Mining and Geology, Sofia.

Information Evolution and Organisations

In a changing digital world, organisations need to be effective information processing entities, in which people, processes, and technology together gather, process, and deliver the information that the organisation needs. However, like other information processing entities, organisations are subject to the limitations of information evolution. These limitations are caused by the combinatorial challenges associated with information processing, and by the trade-offs and shortcuts driven by selection pressures. This paper applies the principles of information evolution to organisations and uses them to derive principles about organisation design and organisation change. This analysis shows that information evolution can illuminate some of the seemingly intractable difficulties of organisations, including the effects of organisational silos and the difficulty of organisational change. The derived principles align with and connect different strands of current organisational thinking. In addition, they provide a framework for creating analytical tools to create more detailed organisational insights.

Effects of retail organisation design on improving private label merchandising

Purpose This paper aims to examine empirically whether and under what organisational design conditions retailers can benefit from private label (PL) merchandising improvement. Design/methodology/approach The study tests hypotheses using a structural equation model and data obtained from general merchandise managers at 190 supermarket retailers in Japan. Findings The results reveal that both centralised merchandising authority and store cooperation between merchandising and store divisions motivate PL merchandising improvement, which strengthens PL competitiveness. In addition, outcome-based merchandiser control strengthens the positive relationship between store cooperation and PL merchandising improvement. However, regarding centralised merchandising authority, it is found that outcome-based control had no significant moderating effect. Research limitations/implications To generalise the findings, it may be desirable to reflect data from store divisions for at least two constructs of interdepartmental structure and coordination. Also, it will remain a challenge to produce objective financial outcomes, such as sales, profits or market share, of PL merchandise to empirically test PL contributions to a retail store or company. Practical implications It is important for retail managers to understand their merchandisers’ efforts and behaviours to continuously improve PL merchandising activities. It is strongly recommended that retail managers continue to find ways to motivate their merchandisers. Originality/value Drawing on the philosophy of continuous improvement, this study suggests a novel approach to retail merchandising management that investigates how organisational design can influence better PL merchandising. To highlight the growing role of retail merchandisers, often ignored in the PL literature, this study advances this knowledge about the organisational design–strategic behaviour linkage by empirically testing interactions between different aspects of retail organisation design.

Organisation Design Seen through Systematic Design

Organizations seeking to improve their performance, like Corporate Social Responsibility targets, face a key organisational design challenge. Designing the key components of the organization and their layout will have major impact on performances, and needs thus a robust design process. Organisation theory provides several models and methods to answer that need. Yet this design process has not been confronted to design methods literature, such as systematic design. The aim of this paper is to provide a synthesis of multiple theoretical elements coming from organization sciences, confronted with a classical engineering design model, to reveal similarities, differences and lacks of current literature on organization design. Our analysis of the available literature on organisation theory, organisation design and change management showed that this design process is close to systematic design, but we also highlighted several breaks in the design process, such as the lack of functional approach.