Paola Cocca

The development of SME managerial practice for effective performance management

Purpose – This paper aims to investigate the gap between theory and practice in performance management in small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) and analyse it in the light of specific SME characteristics and needs, to identify how SMEs can develop their managerial practice for effective performance management.Design/methodology/approach – The design of the study is based on literature review and multiple case studies. Combining both approaches and investigating a spectrum of 37 European SMEs through 232 semi‐structured and face‐to‐face interviews with managers helped the authors to provide theoretical and empirical evidence to offer a more effective performance management process for SMEs.Findings – The paper found that SMEs engage with a four‐stage performance management process, although there are some gaps between their practice and the complete process as recommended in literature. SMEs seem to be more focussed on internal and short‐term planning, whereas they pay less attention to long‐term plann...

Impact of visual performance management systems on the performance management practices of organisations

The purpose of this paper was to explore how visual strategy and performance management techniques impact performance measurement and management practices of organisations. A novel visual performance management approach is developed and implemented in qualitative case studies with seven manufacturing SMEs across Europe. The implementation cases demonstrate that visual management systems serve to support ongoing strategy development and implementation, facilitate performance measurement and review, enable people engagement, improve internal and external communication, enhance collaboration and integration, support the development of a continuous improvement culture and foster innovation. Additional explorative and longitudinal research is required to understand the long-term impact of such approaches in both small and larger organisations.

Hand Arm Vibration, Grip Strength Assessment and the Prevalence of Health Disorders Among Stone Crushing Workers

This research was conducted to analyze the hand-arm vibration exposure levels in the workplace and the effects of vibrations on the health of stone crushing workers. The results suggested that the levels of vibration for rock drilling operators, measured through two different types of systems, were exceeding the Threshold Limit Values. Therefore, a higher percentage of workers may be affected with hand-arm vibration syndrome. In addition, the Hand Activity Level score was calculated with the support of a physician in order to analyze the occurrence of musculoskeletal disorders. Prolonged exposures to hand-arm vibration may also lead to loss of grip strength and proper functioning of hand. A digital hand dynamometer was used to calculate the grip strength of the workers using powered drill machine. A significant decrease of 5.86 kg of force in average grip strength of the workers was found before and after 1 h of drilling.

Leanness measurement methods in manufacturing organisations: a systematic review

The interest of lean companies in tools to monitor and control their lean implementation process, i.e. their leanness level, is continuously increasing. A multitude of diverse approaches have been proposed in the literature for that purpose. In order to provide some guidance both to practitioners interested in selecting a tool and academics aiming at developing a new approach, a systematic review of the methods to measure leanness in manufacturing organisations is carried out. Thirty-one methods are identified and critically analysed based on a set of comparative dimensions. The main strengths and weaknesses of each approach are highlighted. In particular, this paper’s results show that only less than a third of the methods are able to assess leanness in a complete way, taking into consideration both the degree of lean practices adoption and the performance outcomes resulting from implementation. In order to contribute to the reinforcement of a unifying view of the leanness concept, a new leanness definition is developed. Some further gaps in the literature are pointed out, providing directions for future research.