Editorial

Citation

Radnor, Z. and Heap, J. (2005), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 54 No. 1. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2005.07954aaa.001

Editorial

Welcome to a new year and new volume of The International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management! The interest in the areas covered by the journal appears to be as multi-disciplinary and rich as ever with an increasing number of high quality papers submitted for publication. We have enjoyed reading and considering the many different perspectives on the subject over the past year and we hope that you also have enjoyed the new format and style of the journal. In this issue we bring you four papers – two of which are academic and two practitioner or “think pieces” around the topic of performance management.

The first academic paper is by Sahay and considers a productivity model for service organisations. This paper represents an interesting viewpoint, as it takes a concept – productivity – perhaps primarily associated with the manufacturing sector and develops a model which can be used to apply and investigate the concept within the service sector. The paper presents a holistic, high order model which focuses on the objectives and overall results of the organisation rather than individual departments – a strategic view of productivity. The paper is timely as the boundaries between manufacturing and service are becoming more blurred in a number of ways. For example, a product is now often supported by an appropriate package of services, and services can be “assembled”, branded and packed much as a product is. The model presented here also differs from “traditional” productivity measures in that it aims to determine the gap between the actual and what is possible – setting a potential for improvement. The resulting model is multi-factor and the paper serves us well in addressing a gap in current literature.

The second academic paper is by Tripati and considers manufacturing industry in India. In particular the paper considers quality management practices in terms of TQM and TPM and their relationship in driving improvement within industry. The paper argues that. In the cases examined, a combined approach of TQM and TPM results in significantly better improvement than TQM used on its own.

This journal attempts to maintain a balance between academic and practitioner papers, our only criterion for inclusion being the quality of the ideas presented. The two other papers in this issue both come under that “practitioner” heading and are included because they each represent an interesting viewpoint. The first, by Tangen, guides us through the maze of terminology used to describe aspects of performance and productivity measurement and management, whilst the second, by Emblemsvåg, addresses the need to understand – rather than simply create – numerical measures. These papers demonstrate the need for practitioners to reflect on what they do and take an “intelligent” approach to practice.

We hope that you enjoy reading this first issue of the year and that this set of papers gives you some food for thought. We look forward to hearing any response.

Zoe Radnor, John Heap