Editorial

Citation

(2010), "Editorial", International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Vol. 59 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ijppm.2010.07959eaa.001

Editorial

Article Type: Editorial From: International Journal of Productivity and Performance Management, Volume 59, Issue 5

Welcome to our fifth issue in this series. Once again we have a reflective practice and four academic papers. In this issue’s first academic paper the authors (Halkos and Bousinakis) investigate the effects of stress and satisfaction on individual employee’s productivity. They apply factor analysis and logistic regression to data from a large sample of Greek employees to explore these soft, qualitative areas. They confirm what one might expect, that increased stress leads to reduced productivity while increased satisfaction leads to increased productivity. However, they extend beyond this confirmation to examine the impact of a number of factors. For example, they explore such as how stress and satisfaction are affected by employee age, prior experience, longevity of employment with the organisation, and travel to work issues. One interesting snippet that caught the editors’ eyes in this youth-obsessed culture of today is the positive impact that experienced employees within the workforce can have on the stress levels of less-experienced workers.

Our second paper also looks to Greece as the context for the research; however, this paper’s topic relates to organisational rather than individual performance. Professor Tsolas explores a subject well-mined for other countries namely using data envelopment analysis to examine the performance of bank branches. In addition to engaging in this different geographical context the author applies a novel approach by applying a two-stage model that looks at both efficiency and effectiveness. The findings include that the main area for improvement is efficiency rather than effectiveness.

Dr Beheshti provides the third contribution to this issue. Whereas the first paper looked at individual performance and the second paper organisational performance, this third submission widens the focus to examine performance in a supply network. He provides a model for supporting inventory management within a supply chain and hence improving the decisions made by chain participants. The key approach he uses is to apply the economic order quantity approach to a three-tier supply network comprising manufacturer, distributors and retailers. The author demonstrates how optimising the whole of this supply chain is superior to individual tiers attempting to optimise their own positions, i.e. the phenomena of sub-optimisation. He also extends his approach to consider improvements due to just-in-time and e-business.

The fourth paper (by professor Kihn) contains a review and synthesis of the performance literature within management accounting with a focus on publications over the last decade. Three research traditions are recognised: behavioural accounting, organizational accounting research (including contingency-based approaches) and strategic management accounting research. The author assesses the literature with a self-developed framework comprised of six themes. A clear preference is discerned within past research for regression-based, cross-sectional studies focused on a wide range of single, absolute performance effects using data from directors and senior managers. Some interesting, recent developments are identified and the author concludes that that the field still has much potential for future research into performance outcomes. Good news for all those researching performance within management accounting!

Finally, our Reflective Practice piece (Schneider and Vieira) examines both a topic and a context that have currency. The balanced scorecard has been one of the “successes” in the performance management field over recent years (though, as readers of this journal will know not without its problems and limitations). A number of researchers – and consultants – have varied the parameters of the BSC from its original set of perspectives and this implementation does the same, “majoring” on meeting the needs of stakeholders. Almost as a “fringe benefit” the paper also addresses the issue if identifying/creating performance indicators for a wind-farm organisation, highly topical as alternative energy is increasingly seen as a major contributor to lowering the effects of CO2 emissions on climate change.

So, in summary this issue brings you a set of topics and contexts that have enough difference to broaden our understanding and enough similarity to clarify some of our thinking.