Business Commons^™

Lean Six Sigma And The Australian Business Excellence Framework: An Exploratory Case Within Local Government, Oriana Price, Matthew P. Pepper, Matthew Stewart

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine a contextualized local government case study of the application of Lean Six Sigma (LSS) in conjunction with the Australian Business Excellence Framework (ABEF) to highlight the importance of a good strategic fit between LSS and organizational objectives before implementation.

Design/methodology/approach A local government council is used in a case study-based approach. Organizational artefacts and documents were used for data collection in conjunction with interviews from senior executives within the organization.

Findings Results indicate that when used in conjunction with the ABEF, LSS provides focus on organizational learning practices embedded within the …

Work-Integrated Learning Design For Undergraduate Business Degrees: Stakeholders' Perspectives, Laura L. Rook, Lisa Mcmanus

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Work-integrated Learning (WIL), where the theory and practice of work are integrated through various activities in the curricula, provides several benefits to stakeholders if designed and implemented correctly. This study explored the views of undergraduate students and academics in relation to the potential implementation of a Work-integrated Learning program in the undergraduate degrees of a business school at a regional university through the lens of stakeholder theory. A total of 50 students and 24 academics participated in the study. The findings suggest students and academics hold different views to the effectiveness of on-campus and off-campus WIL activities, structure of a …

The Introduction Of Well-Being Into The Curriculum Of An Executive Mba Program: The Sydney Business School As A Reflective Case Study, Lee Styger, Lauren P. Richardson

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is hardly an established university anywhere in the world that does not have, or aspire to have, an MBA program. Few universities, however, have dedicated Executive MBA (EMBA) programs and of those universities that do, there is much confusion regarding what constitutes an EMBA. For example, some university providers suggest that an EMBA is simply an extension of the full-time MBA program that is offered to part-time students. Other university providers claim that an EMBA is a stand-alone and differentiated program, consisting of a bespoke curriculum, designed for the mature executive.

Enacting Spiritual Leadership In Business Through Ego-Transcendence, Lauren Klaus, Mario Fernando

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Ethical dilemmas in organisations can arise due to situational circumstances, the decision making process and the conditions in which they are made. Academic literature offers some insights into analysing ethical decision making; these include guidelines on how to deal with ethical dilemmas (e.g. Abramson, 1985; Loewenberg and Dolgoff, 1996; Reamer, 1990). Recently, several prominent corporate scandals have been reported in the media. These include News International Limited, Barclays and BP. According to business ethics scholars, one of the causes for the escalating incidents of corporate scandals is triggered by the weaknesses in the leaders' decision making process. For example, Giacalone …

(Dis)Engaging With Sustainability: Evidence From An Australian Business Faculty, Maria Cadiz Dyball, Andy Wang, Sue Wright

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to explore how the lack of staff engagement with a university's strategy on sustainability could be an enabling lever for organisational change. It examines the attitudes and views of employees of a business faculty at an Australian metropolitan university as it attempts to adopt a holistic approach to sustainability. Design/methodology/approach - The paper opted for a case study using data from an on-line survey, semi-directed interviews with key management personnel and archival material. Responses were analysed using Piderit's (2000) notion of ambivalence. Findings - The paper provides empirical insights into why staff …

Dimensions Driving Business Student Satisfaction In Higher Education, Mazirah Yusoff, Fraser Mcleay, Helen Woodruffe-Burton

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Purpose - This study aims to identify the dimensions of business student satisfaction in the Malaysian private higher educational environment and evaluate the infuence that demographic factors have on satisfaction.

Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was developed and distributed to 1,200 undergraduate business students at four private higher educational (PHE) institutions in Malaysia. Exploratory factor analysis was used to identify the underlying dimensions that drive student satisfaction. ANOVA and t-tests were conducted to evaluate the influence that demographic factors have on the results.

Findings - Factor analysis resulted in the adoption of a 12-factor solution from an original set of …

Tracking The Environmental Footprint Of Business Activities, Corina Ionescu

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

In Australia, large organisations are required to report their direct, Scope 1, and indirect, Scope 2, Green-House Gas (GHG) emissions annually through the National Government Emissions Reporting Scheme (NGERS). These organisations must therefore find the resources and means to measure these aspects of their Environmental Footprint. SMEs are not yet required to report to NGERS and most do not have the knowledge and resources to do it. Many, however, would like to know more about their environmental impact and how they can reduce it in simple, cost-effective ways.

Macintyrean Virtue Ethics In Business: A Cross-Cultural Comparison, Mario Fernando, Geoff Moore

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper seeks to establish whether the categories of MacIntyrean virtue ethics as applied to business organizations are meaningful in a non-western business context. It does so by building on research reported in Moore (Organ Stud, 33(3): 363-387, 2012) in which the application of virtue ethics to business organizations was investigated empirically in the UK, based on a conceptual framework drawn from MacIntyre's work (After Virtue 2007). Comparing these results with an equivalent study in Sri Lanka, the paper finds that the categories are meaningful but that there are both similarities to and considerable differences in the content of these …

Building Academic Capability To Facilitate And Support The Transition Of First Year Social Inclusion Business Students, Michael Zanko, Jan Turbill, Bonnie Cord

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The first year in higher education has been of growing interest particularly in light of the Australian Federal Government's mandate to target students from socially disadvantaged backgrounds. This paper reports on one faculty's Social Inclusion Project designed to help teachers support first year student transition into tertiary studies. This paper outlines an action learning project directed at building knowledge and skills around transition pedagogy for subject coordinators of core first year business subjects. The project was deliberately designed to develop academics' ability to confidently monitor students' progress through the use of both formative and summative assessment practices and to modify …

Disruptive Innovation In Health Care: Business Models, Moral Orders And Electronic Records, Karin Garrety, Ian Mcloughlin, Gregor Zelle

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

There is widespread consensus that current healthcare costs are unsustainable, and that efficiencies could be achieved by reorganising care and making greater use of information technology, in particular nationally available electronic health records. Such approaches have, however, been difficult to implement, partly because incentives for uptake are weak. In this article we argue that the difficulties go deeper than calculations of costs and benefits, and include disruptions to the complex moral orders that surround the production and exchange of health information. Using the introduction of national electronic health records in England and Australia as examples, we show how attempts to …

The 4-L Framework Of Family Business Leadership, Mary Barrett

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

The 4-L framework for learning family business leadership is a practical model based on empirical research into the learning experiences of second or later generation family business owners who attained the CEO role in the family firm. The strength of this framework is that it takes account of:

• The special characteristics of firms run primarily by blood-related members of a single family;
• The paradoxes family firm leaders have to manage in combining two conventionally unrelated systems: business and family.

Reorienting The Information Systems Function To Support Increasing Levels Of Business Service, Magno J. Queiroz, Tim Coltman

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Business scholars and practitioners are becoming increasingly aware of the opportunities that exist when service is added to traditional product offerings. However, the literature has not previously explored the question of how the IS function is responding to greater emphasis on service. In this paper, we employ a multi-case research design to investigate the role of the IS function in supporting increasing levels of service. Our study contributes to the literature by showing that differences in IS service orientation and collaborative capabilities affect the ability of firms to support service. The implications for IS and managerial practice are discussed by …

Creating Business Value Through Agile Project Management And Information Systems Development: The Perceived Impact Of Scrum, Karlheinz Kautz, Thomas H. Johansen, Andreas Uldahl

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Value creation through information systems (IS) and information technology (IT) is a major IS research topic. However there still exists an ambiguity and fuzziness of the 'IS business value' concept and a lack of clarity surrounding the value creation process. This also true for organizations that develop IS/IT and for development technologies like information systems development and project management methods that are applied in the production of IS/IT. The agile method Scrum is one such technology. In the research presented here we studied productivity, quality and employee satisfaction as supported by Scrum as value creating measures. Our positive assessment is …

Systemic Power, Disciplinary Agency, And Developer-Business Client Relations, Bruce Rowlands, Karlheinz Kautz

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper presents Hardy's multi-dimensional model of power and illustrates its application to the field of IS. Findings from a case study of developer-business client power relations within a large financial institution are presented. Our findings indicate that from the developers' perspective, the client exercised near complete control, with developers unwittingly playing a cooperative but submissive role. Our study makes two principal contributions. First, we combine Hardy's (1996) multi-dimensional power framework and the principles of Pickering's (1995) version of disciplinary agency to propose why the developer was compliant in this scenario of power inequality. Second, we examine how a development …

The Influence Of National Culture On Business Students' Career Attitudes - An Analysis Of Eight Countries | Der Einfluss Nationaler Kulturen Auf Die Karriere-Einstellungen Von Wirtschaftsstudenten - Eine Analyse Aus Acht Landern, Marjaana Gunkel, Christopher Schlagel, Ian M. Langella, Joy V. Peluchette, Elena Reshetnyak

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Despite the fact that career attitudes and their influence on career outcomes is widely researched in the field of occupations and careers, little is known about the influence of cultural norms and values on career attitudes. We propose that national cultural dimensions influence students' career planning, career adaptability, career optimism, and career-related knowledge. We test these relations using an eight country sample with more than 1,800 students. The results show that national culture has significant effect on all four career attitudes and in particular on career planning and career optimism. We discuss theoretical and practical implications and provide future research …

Engaging Industry: Embedding Professional Learning In The Business Curriculum: Final Report 2011, Theo Theo Papadopoulos, Tracy Taylor, Eveline Fallshaw, Michael Zanko

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

Professional learning has become a feature of business curricula in universities throughout Australia and around the world. 'Professional learning' is often used to denote educational programs that are explicitly linked to industry and professional bodies through industry placements, industry projects and teaching approaches that highlight contemporary industry issues. Professional learning encompasses the skills, qualities and attributes that are required by a profession and the processes through which those skills are learnt: that is, the methods of teaching - case studies, role plays, field trips, work placement and the like. Professional learning encourages deep learning in relation to the student's future …

Affects Of Strategic Leadership On Business Success - A Cross-Cultural Analysis From A Resource Based View, Georg Hirschi, Michael Jones

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

This paper concerns strategic leadership as it functions in businesses today. The research will outline which skills and characteristics are the most important for being a strategic leader. The influence of culture on leadership is also investigated, leading to the examination of the question of whether business strategy affects leadership. The paper links leadership with strategic management and discusses how a successful practice of leadership can help an organization create a unique and valuable market position, assisting the attainment of sustainable competitive advantage. The research demonstrates that strategic leadership is above the operational level of management and that strategic leaders …

The Tax Offset For Entrepreneurs: A Critical Review Of The 25% Tax Offset Concession For Small Business, John Mclaren

Faculty of Business - Papers (Archive)

From 1 July 2005, small business taxpayers using the Simplified Tax System and with a turnover of $50,000 or less are allowed a tax offset of 25 per cent on their tax payable. If turnover exceeds $50,000, the tax offset phases out at 1 per cent until the turnover reaches $75,000. This tax concession was part of the government's election statement made on 26 September 2004 in which the government stated that it wanted to assist and encourage small business entrepreneurs, particularly those set up from home. The steps involved in calculating the amount of tax offset that can be …