Editorial

Citation

Shaw, N.E. and Huaccho Huatuco, L. (2018), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 67 No. 2, pp. 222-223. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJPPM-12-2017-0332

This issue contains another broad spectrum of research contexts, from public and private organisations to the establishment of performance indices and frameworks, with a truly international feel from Europe, America, Africa, Australia and Asia. Some contributors feature the public sector (healthcare and universities) whereas one contribution studies a public-private partnership. Others discuss broader studies across manufacturing, whilst two relate to supply chains specifically. Two of the publications provide more theoretical contributions, one around the development of a supplier collaborative performance index based on the balanced scorecard and the other on value creation measures. Moreover, a paper focusses on employees’ going the extra mile which in turn the authors assert improves the contextual performance.

First, on the topic of public sector, Bittencourt, Verter and Yalovsky study hospital capacity management and by using the queueing theory, they identified that better managing patient’s admissions could help optimize nurse time and bed utilization. Furthermore, Parker, Dressel, Chevers and Zeppetella present the use of agency theory in public-private partnerships in an international development project, observing that the uniqueness of individual partnership contexts is an important consideration. Core differences, such as a relatively lower focus on financial outcomes (e.g. of humanitarian projects compared to commercial projects), in-kind support, timing and planning difficulties were noted. Then, the reflective practice piece is provided by O’Reilly, Healy and O’Dubhghaill, who present insights into a continuous improvement (CI) initiative within an Irish university. Their core findings highlight the importance of alignment with strategy, the role of specialists and use of a structured method.

Second, on the topic of manufacturing sector, Vlahos and Siachou investigate how three different workplace factors (culture, knowledge and training) could influence lean performance outcomes (CI, waste management, ergonomy and product quality), their findings suggest that only organisational culture is associated with all four lean performance outcomes. Furthermore, Dellana and Kros explore ISO 9001 certification in relation to size, SC position, quality maturity and practice and supplier selection. Using a survey questionnaire to supply chain professionals in the USA, they found that although there is a low certification rate in the USA, some of the characterization of the adoption of certification can be extracted from a supply chain perspective. Next, Birhanu, Krishnanand and Rao’s survey of 134 manufacturers in Ethiopia investigates the links between supply chain strategies and different supply chains, adopting the classification by Lee (2002). They found that industries and supply chain measures are matched distinctively to their respective supply chain. Furthermore, Weeks, Guiffrida and Safa investigate the efficacy of routing and flexibility on financial performance, adopting quantitative methods. They identified that simply committing resources was insufficient to sustain financial performance in the longer term, with manufacturing flexibility and product route efficiency being significantly more effective. Then, Thanki and Thakkar use a survey conducted within the Indian textile industry, to develop a performance framework for establishing lean and green assessment of supply chains. They adopt a fuzzy decision making and evaluation methodology combined with analytical network processing, to identify that the “internal processing” perspective within the balanced scorecard (BSC) is the most effective.

Third, on the theoretical contributions, on the one hand, Hudnurkar, Rathod, Vaidya and Jakhar develop a supplier collaborative performance index based on the BSC. This index can help organisations assess the suitability of suppliers moving up to the next level of collaboration. On the other hand, Hall presents a study of 192 companies, to identify which of five shareholder value creation measures are best suited to express the shareholder value creation. The research found that stock return is not the best value creation measure and that the best measure, varied by industry.

Finally, Pradhan, Jena and Bhattacharyya focus on the influence of transformational leadership on employees’ contextual performance. Using survey questionnaires applied to IT employees in India, their study suggests that employees should be encouraged to engage more in contextual performance and that their individual performance should be clearly related to this.

We hope you enjoy the wide variety of papers in this issue!

Nicky E. Shaw and Luisa Huaccho Huatuco