Janis L. Miller

Service recovery: a framework and empirical investigation

Abstract Although recovery activities are primarily managed by the operations function, service recovery has received little attention in the operations management literature. This paper outlines a framework for examining the service recovery process and then reports on an empirical study to test this framework. The results not only validate much of what is anecdotally claimed by researchers and casual observers of service industries, but also highlight the role of operational activities in service recovery. The paper then points to the need for an array of operations-based research efforts that will lead to better understanding of the recovery process and to more empirically based descriptive and prescriptive models.

Scheduling medical residents to rotations: solving the large-scale multiperiod staff assignment problem

The resident scheduling problem is a specific case of the multiperiod staff assignment problem where individuals are assigned to a variety of tasks over multiple time periods. As in many staffing and training situations, numerous limitations and requirements may be placed on those assignments. This paper presents a procedure for addressing two major problems inherent in the determination of a solution to this type of problem: infeasibilities that naturally occur in the scheduling environment but are obscured by complexity; and the intractable nature of large-scale models with this structure. The procedure developed describes a systematic approach that allows decision makers to resolve system-inherent infeasibilities, and a heuristic based on rounding to develop good feasible solutions to the model. The procedure is illustrated via a case example of resident assignments for teaching and training modules in a university affiliated teaching hospital.

Short Research Note: Using the group-value model to explain the role of noninstrumental justice in distinguishing the effects of distributive and procedural justice

The purpose of this study was to distinguish the effects of distributive, instrumental procedural, and noninstrumental (i.e. group-value effects) procedural justice in a field study. As predicted by the group-value model (Lind & Tyler, 1988), noninstrumental procedural justice captured unique variance in organizational commitment, turnover intentions, as well as both individual and group performance. Furthermore, noninstrumental justice explained more unique variance in commitment and performance than did distributive justice or instrumental procedural justice. These findings provide a greater understanding of why procedural justice, as a whole, has been found to be more predictive of these outcomes in prior research.

Intra- and inter-justice relationships: Assessing the direction

This field study used structural equation modeling to investigate the relationships among: (1) distributive and procedural justice; (2) justice components and organizational commitment; and (3) justice components and behaviors/behavioral intentions. The results suggest that, over time, procedural justice judgments are likely to influence perceptions of distributive justice, but not vice versa. In addition, the results suggest that both distributive justice and procedural justice have reciprocal relationships with commitment and turnover intentions, although in some cases they are contingent on lagged effects. Relationships between procedural justice and behaviors (i.e. compliance, performance) were unidirectional, significant only in the justice-to-behavior direction.

Fair Pay for Fair Play: Estimating Pay Equity in Professional Baseball with Data Envelopment Analysis

Data envelopment analysis shows promise for generating objective estimates of pay equity. Applied to performance and salary data for 433 professional baseball players, data envelopment analysis ide...

Slack and performance in health care delivery

Improving quality and productivity simultaneously is vital to organizational competitiveness. Although continuous improvement is accepted as the objective for world class competition, it is not clear as to which interventions achieve the best performance, which variables intervene by enhancing or restricting the achievement of high quality and productivity, or which measures are appropriate for evaluating differences. Develops a quality evaluation tool and total factor productivity measures for health care clinics. Uses data envelopment analysis (DEA) to discriminate between high and low slack groups. Finds that hypothesized relationships and interactions between quality, productivity, and slack generally have statistically insignificant differences, exceptions being that health care consumers were able to identify characteristics of high and low quality care as well as health care professionals and that health care quality can increase with no decline in productivity when there is high‐slack. In general, high‐slack clinics could increase quality or productivity, but not both.

Coordinating manufacturing and marketing in international firms

In this article, the authors argue that manufacturing experiences much of the turbulence and conflict imposed by the dynamic global marketplace through its relationship with marketing, because marketing is usually responsible for introducing changing competitive priorities and demand patterns to the organization. Through a survey of manufacturing and marketing managers within international firms, the authors develop a profile of manufacturing-marketing conflicts experienced in each of four international strategy environments: export, multidomestic, global, and transnational. As international strategies became more complex, firms made use of more techniques for coordinating between marketing and manufacturing, with more use of decentralized and informal approaches. Coordinating techniques included individual MBO-reward systems, joint task forces for problem-solving, and direct involvement of manufacturing and marketing in establishing the competitive priorities of the firm.

A binary-rounding heuristic for multi-period variable-task-duration assignment problems

Multi-period assignment problems seek to allocate employees to tasks as required across multiple time periods. This type of problem is a subset of three-dimensional assignment problems and is NP-complete. A binary-rounding heuristic, which allows the determination of a feasible zero-one solution from a feasible continuous solution was developed and applied to 72 test problems. The heuristic found the optimal solution to 68 of the 72 problems and was within 95% of the continuous optimum in the other four cases. The CPU time and iterations required were significantly reduced over those required by a pure integer solution process.

How internal integration, information sharing, and training affect supply chain risk management capabilities

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to determine if internal integration, information sharing, and training constitute direct antecedents to organizations’ warning and recovery capabilities. Assuming that organizations periodically face various supply chain risks, the authors intend to show that managers can develop these antecedent competencies in ways that bolster their supply chain risk management (SCRM) capabilities. Design/methodology/approach To understand the relationships between the antecedents and SCRM capabilities, the authors used Q-sorts and confirmatory factor analysis to develop new warning and recovery measures. The authors then collected survey data from 231 hospital supply managers and analyzed these records using structural equation modeling. Findings The results indicate that internal integration and training positively affect organizations’ warning and recovery capabilities, in both a direct and indirect manner. The authors also illustrate how managers can leverage their SCRM capabilities to affect operational performance. Research limitations/implications These results suggest that by developing antecedent competencies like internal integration and training, firms may bolster their warning and recovery capabilities, and ultimately operational performance of the organization. Originality/value The findings provide hospital supply organizations and other inventory management teams with a novel approach to managing an evolving array of supply chain risks. Rather than investing in costly risk management techniques, like inventory stocks, organizations can use internal integration and training to improve their SCRM capabilities.

Innovations in Knowledge Management: Applying Modular Design

This article presents an advanced method for managing knowledge using a modular design approach and applied the approach through an example with computer manufacturing. The benefits of modularity are discussed both within and between companies. We find that through modular design, knowledge management systems are simplified and communication between modules is greatly improved. In addition, modularity makes parallel innovation possible, as well as, sharing innovative resources through collaboration. Modularity leads to effective knowledge sharing and thus stimulates knowledge-based innovation. A case study of the computer industry further demonstrates the effects of modularity in an industry. Finally, we suggest that enterprises should take advantage of modularity when they carry out knowledge-based innovation and the measures are developed to implement successful modularity.