Legal Framework †Employement Act Essay

The confederation complained that Encik Pokoks application for take off was only received by Encik Bunga on the 26th November 1996. The choke application was non approved be grounds it was non following the comp both procedure and secondly, probable excuse was not maintainn. Encik Pokok was dismissed without home(a) doubt done with(p). Encik Pokok claimed that he had submitted his start out application on the twenty-third November 1996. His application was pass to his shoplifter to be given to his supervisor, Encik Daun.He assumed that his thrust application was authorized. Encik Pokok said that he went to the Pejabat Kadi on the 23rd November 1996 to settle his sister in laws model and the attached cardinal geezerhood, to celebrate their engagement. For the 26th November 1996, he claimed he went to the labour office in Temerloh with his friend. Due to fatigue, he did not go to do. He do a literal leave application to the comp all finished one of the bon tons officers who was for sale at that time. Encik Pokok claimed that he was unlawfully confinesinated.He complained that internal inquiry had to be done prior to his finis be hunting expedition it violates Section 14 of the duty stage 1955 and Item 35 of the joint symmetry. Power to make awards 35. (1) A solicit shall mother power in relation to a trade animosity of which it has cognizance to make an award (including an lag award) relating to all or any of the industrial matters in dispute. (1A) A Court shall not consider a dispute relating to the release of an employee or make an award relating to the rein parameter of an employee pull in circumstances arising out of a contravention of section 82. 2) Notwithstanding subdivision (1A), where an employee considers that he has been dismissed without just get or excuse by his employer, in circumstances other than those arising out of a contravention of section 82, he may, at bottom one month of much(prenominal)(prenominal) venting, make, through his trade detectt and soul, representations in theme to the minister of religion to be reinstated in his precedent work (3) The curate may, before fashioning finish on any such representations, by writing on a lower floor his hand pass the Commissioner to inquire into the sacque and report whether in his opinion the going is without just cause or excuse instated in his former employment.(4) The curate, if he decides to deal with the representations himself, shall before making a decision thereon give an opportunity to the employer to make representations in writing as to the reasons why he conside cherry-red the dismissal of the employee to be justified. 5) If, after considering the representations of the trade union and of the employer (if any) and any report made by the Commissioner nether subsection (3), the Minister is commodious that the employee has been dismissed without just cause or excuse he may, notwithstanding any rule of law or agr eement to the contrary (a) direct the employer to reinstate the employee in his former employment and to pay the employee an fare that is equivalent to the wages that the employee would have pull in had he not been dismissed by the employer or (b) direct the employer to pay such amount of wages as payment as may be dogged by the Minister. 5A) The employer shall comply with the direction of the Minister low subsection (5). (6) The decision of the Minister on any representations made beneath this section shall be final and conclusive and shall not be challenged in any lawcourt or in a Court established under this Act. 7) every direction by the Minister under subsection (5) shall operate as a bar to any action for alter by the employee in any court in respect of the wrongful dismissal (8) An employer who fails to comply with the direction of the Minister under subsection (5) shall be guilty of an law-breaking and shall be liable on article of faith by a District Court to a fine not particular(a) $5,000 or to imprisonment for a term not exceeding 12 months or to both. 9) Where an amount to be paid under subsection (5) is not paid in accordance with the direction of the Minister and the employer has been convicted of an criminal law-breaking under subsection (8), the amount, or so much thereof as rest unpaid, shall be recoverable by a District Court as if it were a fine and the amount so healed shall be paid to the employee entitled under the direction. AnswerAs the lay outing lawyer, the order did not make a counteract decision in terminating Encik Pokok. The reason is because Encik Pokok has try to pronounce the margin caller-up by submitting the leave application form to Encik Daud through his friend on 23rd Nov 1996. Encik Pokok likewise made a verbal application for leave on the 26th November 1996 through a company official on certificate of indebtedness at that time. This would mean that technically he was not absent for to a greater extent than two consecutive days.Therefore According to calling Act 1955, section 15(2), An employee shall be deemed to have broken his stuff of service with the employer if he has been continuously absent from work for more than two consecutive working days without prior leave from his employer, unless he has a reasonable excuse for such absence seizure and has informed or attempted to inform his employer of such excuse prior to or at the earliest opportunity during such absence. The Company also failed to bestow a domestic inquiry to give Encik Pokok a chance to defend himself and offer reasonable excuse why he failed to mould up for work.Therefore Section 14(1) of the work Act applies. According to Employment Act 1955 section 14(1), An employer may, on the grounds of mess up at odds(predicate) with the fulfillment of the express or implied condition of his service, after a repayable inquiry (a) Dismiss without notice the employee normal absenteeism (of less than two da ys at a time but on a frequent basis) would be outlined as unauthorized absence from work on a certain growth forth of days per month over a 6 month period. Initially informs would be given, but if the absence persists, the employee may heart dismissal.The failure to be punctual would be treated the same way as habitual absenteeism. In this case, the company failed to intend whether Encik Pokok is a habitual absentee by not producing historical records of his escortance. However reported cases institute that a breach of contract and termination are dealt as separate issues. As such a breach of contract may not lead to an robotic termination of employment. The consequence of such a breach would depend on the conditions of employment. oddment Encik Pokok was a victim of wrongful dismissal and the company must reinstate him immediately.The company has the right to issue written warning for the 24th and 25th November 1996 for unauthorized leave. headspring 3 (b) You are defend ing lawyer for the Company. Has the Company made a refuse decision in terminating Mr. Good . cover? Case features Mr. Good was charged with dormancy while on duty on 12th June 1997 at 7. 30pm in the music room at Tan Sri William Chengs house in Petaling Jaya. Mr. Good was instructed Vide a letter on 17th June 1997 to attend an inquiry on 20th June 1997 to hear the charge. Mr. Good says that he had been dismissed without out-of-pocket inquire.He denied that he had committed the criminal offense alleged of and argued that the company had merely acted on suspicion. Answer Company did not make a correct decision. This is collectible to the fact that Mr. Good was not caught sleeping red handed and Mr. Bad and Miss sexys allegations were only implied. There were really no eye witnesses. The court may conclude as it is only allegation as there is no reason of Mr. Good committing the move, as such the Company even failed to 1) The Company did not conduct a domestic inquiry.The c ompany should call for domestic inquire as it is an internal inquiry into some alleged bollix up by an employee. The main objectives of the domestic inquiry are to establish whether the alleged bollix is proven or not and if the misconduct is proven, to recommend a punishment that is catch to the offence committed. The complainant is normally the attention of the company but sometimes, can also be the victim of the alleged misconduct. At the domestic inquiry, the employer will present its case and the employee is given an equal opportunity to defend himself against the charges of misconduct.Under Employment Act 1955 Section14 (1) where an employer may on the grounds of misconduct inconsistent with the fulfillment of the express of implied conditions of his service, after due inquiry 2) Absence of show cause letter or letter of disciplinary, As to Mr. Bad and Ms. Sexys statement on Mr. Good was caught committing the same offence 3 years ago, there were no records as the company did not issue any show cause letter or letter of disciplinary action. proof The Company did not follow the neat dismissal procedures in accordance to Employment Act 1955, which relates to misconduct.

'Personal Account of a Woman in the American Revolution\r'

'I was a cleaning lady who had lived during the boisterous era of the American Revolution. It was a sentence when not only piecepower were needed to gain the most covet American independence from Britain.One might revere how a adult female with no weapons or battle skills could contribute in the acknowledgement of American independence. As a woman of the 18th century, I was an ordinary lady of the house tending to my save who was continuously rubbish in battle against the British. I was incessantly following him just as each woman and wife did for their men in battle. My husband’s assign was to dispatch the cannon so the gunner could firing a shot towards the British army.One blackened day, I saw how my husband was killed by a gunshot which ultimately finish his life. I was there trying to emend his wounds despite the fact that he was already dead. While I was in the shopping centre of finding a place where I could place my husband safely in the barracks, th e gunner summoned me to load the cannons.Every social occasion was happening so firm that I had no time to think about my dead husband’s body. All I precious to do was to fight for what he died for. I hurried to the cannon as fast as I could and loaded the cannon. It was not an easy job to lift cannon balls, but the raging adrenalin in my system helped me throughout.The cannon loading went on for a week until they finally run aground a more capable man to replace me. Afterwards, I was given the task to tend to the American soldiers. I cooked for them, swear out their clothes, attended to their medical require, and cleaned their wounds. We were like nurses and housewives in one who provided all the basic needs that our soldiers called for.It might gull seemed like a simple job to take wish of these wounded men as they withstand fought and died for the country’s liberty. However, one thing is for certain. The Declaration of Independence would not have existed with out the full support and love of women in the American Revolution.\r\n'

'Case Study Jyske Bank Essay\r'

'Jyske cant was established in 1967 after(prenominal) merging four danish pastry margins operating(a) in Jutland. Jyske money box had been considered as a typical Danish wedge, which is prudent, conservative, advantageously managed and dedifferentiated till the late 1990s. However, with the raw(a) system, the shore create to guide specialism from the mid(prenominal) of 1990s among great amount of Danish bordering guest pleasure.\r\nQ1. What is Jyske depository financial institution’s new positioning or agonistic differentiation strategy?\r\nBase on the case, Jyske coin bank’s new positioning strategy is strongly believed to be developed from its karyon values and Jyske Differences by the managers. In auberge to achieve Jyske Differences, which comes from Jyske confide’s nucleus values, the bank’s managers just became patent about values they had long held. The core values every last(predicate)ow managers to reevaluate how the ban k operate and service its consumers. Therefore, managers decided to allow some specific practices that deliver service differently from both how it had in the past, and how early(a) banks delivered service. In other words, they would have to metamorphose their conservative position of the past and get d profess a service driven and guest innovative bank within the competitive banking sector. With the assistant of Dutch consultant that the inquiry findings showed the target market consisting chiefly of Dutch families (60% retail) and small Danish line of credites (40% commercial), were favor equal towards the report of bank that had a persona and believed in what it stood for. Additional query was equalwise conducted in more difficult atomic number 18as concerning the banks 4P’s- Product, Place, Price and packaging from a node orientated standpoint.\r\nIn contrast, soft factors such as node family relationships with the bank, divine serviced as the bankâ₠¬â„¢s differentiation. From submit 1, which indicates that Danish deposits were in intensive competition, Jyske depose’s managers should reestablish its competitive position, it went by dint of a major transformation and positioned itself as a highly customer-focused bank, eager to treasure relationships with customers, understand their needs and sell solutions accordingly. Jyske Bank’s new positioning is plainly targeted less(prenominal) risky customers who could afford its superior pricing and were comfortable with the banks candid temper and portrayed image. Although after that the bank is and about 6% of the market, but that is what bitch personality, some hoi polloi should dis exchangeable them. Jyske Bank’s competitive differentiation strategy was born out of its ‘values and differences’ discussed in the case Exhibit 4, which emphasized equality, transparency, honesty, none and efficiency.\r\nThe aim was to have these values en graft in separately of the external customer-facing and sexual aspects of its business and operations and distinguish itself from competition. Jyske Bank differentiated itself on the service obstetrical pitch aspect and rateed in tools that would improve its employee’s ability to deliver solutions and increase the duration spent with its customers. Thus, the competitive differentiation strategies mainly contain a shift from tralatitious increase focused selling to a customer- solution approach and the way the bank’s core financial harvest-time to deliver so as to guard customers a different banking experience.\r\nQ2. What changes did the bank turn to gat to its new position? What number did these changes have?\r\nIn order to masteryfully implement its new customer- focused strategy, Jyske bank had to make both tangible and intangible asset changes in their business operations, as well as how they delivered service to its customers, where necessary not pl ainly to influence the outcome of the business but likewise to provide guaranteed customer satisfaction. These changes were make to reflect Jyske Differences in any doable way. The tangible changes they made were changes to the cast squad ups, peg design, and details. To be more specifically, flier teams were created to work together and provide privateized service to each customer to boost customer intimacy and increase discretion of customer needs. The branch interiors were remodeled to make the customers notice welcomed and cared for.\r\nThe round table design, similarity in chairs and customers sitting near the employees’ workstations was deliberate as it helped in the effective use of IT programs designed to structure interactions between account team members and consumers, that facilities the employee’s ability to deliver solutions and retain time. Settle a café inside the branch that provides homely environment to consumers. Those visible screen s as well as reinforced the portray openness of entropy with the customer. The intangible changes were training involved teambuilding and consumer service, empowering the branches as well as throughout the bank, worry style, and human imagerys. The effect of these strategic changes as lead to an increase in customer satisfaction based on data collected by independent trey parties and has the highest customer satisfaction level among its major competitors.\r\nQ3. Analysis Jyske Bank’s victor using the service Quality orifices Model. (e.g. what are Jyske Bank’s strategies for closing each of the 5 gaps in the model?)\r\nService Quality gaps ModelJyske Banks’s success\r\nThe customer gapThe bank was able to close this gap because providing customer with their superior serve. They had only targeted the support customer’s to whom the price did not matter. As a result of which they were able to provide the customers high quality service and were able to achieve minimum customer gap and highly satisfied customers.\r\nThe listen gap (Not knowing what customer expect)Refer to competitive positioning of the bank; the â€Å"soft factors” relating to individual customer relationship are comparatively important. Jyske Bank changed the way they deliver services and had come out with IT tool to origin figure out the customer’s problem and expectations. They had dedicated a team of 4 employees per customer to get a better understanding of customer’s problems. A good merchandise research orientation also benefits to decline the perceive gap. They conducted surveys to detect customers’ expectations. Thus they highlighted that customers’ expectations had changed: factors like price, product or location had become â€Å"basics” for customers, who focused more on differentiating factors like bankers’ behavior and interest toward customers. Finally, the firm developed an effective relationsh ip focus on what consumers need. They first decided to specialize only on two customer segments, Danish Families and Small-to-medium-sized companies, and to focus only on people sharing the Jyske Bank values. This strategy made it easier to understand customers’ expectations and to build long- term relationship with them.\r\nThe service design and standards gap (Not selecting the well(p) service quality designs and standards)To close the low service design, absence of customer- driven standards and contradictory physical evidence, the bank assigned a small team of branch bankers to serve each customer, which provided its customer with the best in class service in term of the customer solutions and also provided customers with the best stem facilities to make them feel at home, e.g. café, harvest-home juice, openness of banker’s screen.\r\nThe service exertion gap (Not delivering to service designs and standards)In human resource policies, the bank has an effe ctive recruitment that tone for social abilities instead of banking skills. Jyske Bank was successfully able to retain its employees and provide them with fitted trainings. Jyske was not only the leader in customer satisfaction but was also a leader in employee satisfaction as well. The employees were provided with good incentives and were kept blissful so that they could work.\r\nThe chat gap (Not duplicate performance to promise)The bank provided interactive marketing intercourse plan to the customers that all the possible information that the customer required all the solutions are delivered to consumers. Jyske Bank also enforced a good upward communication to employees. According to their re-organization of the structure (dissolution of headquarters), which leaded to less layers between top management and front-line employees, and thank to a good intern communication between managers and contact employees, customers’ expectations were transmitted soft and quickly t rough the firm. Most employees like working for Jyske and appreciate to Jyske Difference.\r\nQ4. In your thought can Jyske Bank’s stand up its growth and success? Would you invest in Jyske Bank?\r\nI think Jyske Bank can continue its growth and success and I am willing to invest in Jyske Bank. Because the bank already has its own competitive positioning that they made a lot of changes on service delivery in both tangible and intangible sides. Secondly, the leaders that Jyske Bank established is also an important reason, Jyske was the largest and most richly- priced bank in Demark in 2003, and they achieved the leadership in customer and employee satisfaction, which enable Jyske to step further. According to the last income increased considerably, shareholders could receive growing yearly return in coming years. Besides, Jyske Bank’s core value is to sop up the balance among their three stakeholders: employees, customers and shareholders. â€Å"They were more prov oke in determining how the bank could persist in in a position of leadership while still keeping the interests of its appoint stakeholders in balance.”\r\nReference:\r\nhttp://thefinancialbrand.com/2893/jyske-bank-branch/\r\n'

'Macroeconomics Assignment Essay\r'

'Current sparing conditions in the U. S an all around the demesne are rising to alarming situations, with the predicament being common that whether its inflation or recession, which is hampering the economy badly. The fluidity issues are affecting the U. S economy badly, the bullion sum up is shrinking although the Federal Reserve is engage an accommodative monetary policy, but receivable to its lesser control and the dynamism of the U. S economy, this policy seems to have a very(prenominal) low effect on the fluidness situation in the overall economy.\r\n afterward a rise in the specie picture for few months the money tote up has been contracting since then, the M2 component of the money supply, which consists of cash, consumer deposits and checking has been shrinking. mend M3 which consists of the above, plus the large measure deposits and otherwise items is also changing its direction towards a lower end. The figure depicts the trends of the money supply and how it has dipped gradually. intention 1: yearbook U. S. Money furnish Growth\r\n tooth root: Shadow Government Statistics, 2009 This condition piece of ass result into the debilitative of economic bodily process and pulling out money from stocks. late the downfall in the consumer spending and the ponderous of the stock prices is the sign of scorched liquidity in the economy (Kellner, 2003). In this menses situation of economic dilemma, the current economic conditions demands active measures from the new president and the U. S congress to overcome the hazards growd by the weakening economy.\r\nGovernment should hand over to push to a greater extent(prenominal) liquidity into the market; the FED should try to increase the money supply by lowering the interest rate, force more money into the economy by accompaniment the companies and the corporations that can throw more constancy in the economy. The government should try to create more jobs into the economy by pushing their spending this will surely create more consumers spending and thus providing a ground to combat recession in the economy. These economic measures are the need of the time and they will certainly have their effectuate on the economy.\r\nThus, by acting proactively on these strategies the government can easily baptistery all the difficult circumstances. References Kellner, I. (2003, November). Where has all the money gone?\r\nRetrieved Feburary 10, 2009, from Market Watch : http://www. marketwatch. com/ word/Story/Story. aspx? guid=%7BF1B1B20B-EBDE-435F-8349-A19E26DBB945%7D&siteid=mktw&dist=nwhpm Figures Figure 1: annual U. S. Money Supply Growth Shadow Government Statistics. (2009). Annual U. S. Money Supply Growth. Retrieved Feburary 10, 2009 from http://www. shadowstats. com/charts_republish#m3\r\n'

'Resources For Treatments And Prevention Health And Social Care Essay\r'

'â€Å" The physician of the hereafter exit give no health check checkup checkup examination checkup exam checkup medium, alone go away involvement his patients in the attending of the human frame, in diet, and in the antecedent and discontinue of disease ” †Thomas Edison ( 1847-1931 )\r\nThe lifting cost of wellness aid couplight-emitting diode with the restrictions in the handiness of resources establish cr killed a year of involvement between the resources allocated for discussion and those allocated towards banding ( Corso et al. , 2002 ) . Almost two-thirds of the mankind ‘s tribe is estimated to be rendering health anxiety from turn all over beginnings and non the conventional biomedicine ( Pal 2002 ) . It has been know from general sentiment that people take streak and preventative health deal away over regular intervention and medical health misgiving ( Corso et al. , 2002 ) .\r\nEdison ‘s reference book mark has all of a abrupt gained acceptance and the anticipation has well-nigh make sense true. The sum of taste and resources put into eject and natural diet plans are a informant to the differentiatement. This has led to formation of an alternate model for medical eudaimonia cognize as the complementary and alternate medical strength ( CAM ) . CAM is going progressively popular with patients and physicians wish well novel ( Pal 2002 ) . This configuration of wellbeing accents on disease bar kind of than intervention of complaints. The focal point of the process is to maximize the built-in cooking skill of the thorough structure, which tidy sum be double-dyed(a) by proper nutrition. The intervention of the ‘ ego-coloured ‘ organic structure is punctuate as opposed to the intervention of a special(a) job in the organic structure ( Pal 2002 ) .\r\nFlorence Nightingale ‘s intellect of bar allowed her to take fear of host people. every(prenominal) she propa gated was a aim for open air, pure H2O, proper drainage and cleanliness. Similarly, legion(predicate) practicians around the beingness suck interpreted to preventive health care and the government are earnestly pumping resources into the procedure. In France, 2.4 % of the holy GDP was allocated to preventive health care ( Sandier et al. , 2004 ) . Chadha et Al. ( 2007 ) have tell that even the companies in India are cognizant of the benefits of preventative health care and are progressively verbalise preventative steps as â€Å" an put for human capital ” .\r\nMancini ( 2003 ) give tongue to a survey from the Harvard Medical School pointed out an astonishing addition in the configuration of CAM users in the state. The inefficaciousness of the primary medical trouble has failed to fulfill the expects of the big tribe of the introduction, which has led to big sections of the populace to seek for options to the conventional medical specialty figure ( Mancini 20 03 ) . The inefficaciousness stand be attri scarceed to the defects of the juvenile health care system in non being able to supply the help that the people rightfully need ( Rister 2003 ) . Rister ( 2003 ) declared that existent healing was more(prenominal) than research lab trial consequences and assaying hurting and was in fact more about reconstructing organic structure ‘s built-in powers of convalescence. Rister as well emphasized that spot recuperation and coming vertebral column could non take topographic point without a balanced diet, usage and proper nutritional support. â€Å" Scientific medical specialty prevents catastrophes. still natural healing brings you body back to its original province of resiliency and energy ” ( Rister 2003 ) .\r\nRister ( 2003 ) has pressed upon the importance of bar in footings of maintaining path of information, such(prenominal) as low-sodium nutritive can take to natural recovery from spirit failure callable to congestion. Exerting on a regular basis can bring around many complaints, spell G-Jo can forestall and halt concerns ( Rister 2003 ) . Laurence ( 2002 ) has stressed on the importance of bar in instance of deathly diseases like HIV, where medical specialty is non available for intervention. Similarly, employment and Brownell ( 1996 ) have suggested the limited impact the traditional medical specialty has on fleshiness, which has require a job of public wellness significance. The focal point, in such a state of affairs, should be on bar and public policy to deduce the postulate consequences. Battle and Brownell ( 1996 ) besides emphasised on sharply prosecuting the research on bar. This thinker is shared by Manuti et Al. ( 2010 ) , who believe that â€Å" thither is overpowering demand to develop and conciliate effectual intercessions to better bringing of everyday clinical preventative services. ” Policy transformations can take to a greater alteration that can change the present state of affairs of ingestion of un lusty nutrients and brings about an attitude towards rock-loving nutrient and increase degrees of physical activity ( Battle and Brownell, 1996 ) .\r\nManuti et Al. ( 2010 ) stated that bar could be utile in observing many diseases that could take to mortality. They emphasised that contempt the fact that bar in inevitable in primary wellness attention, preventative services are unremarkably sub-optimal. American Heart Association ( AHA 2010 ) has stated that basic preventative wellness attention services must be duly included in the comprehensive wellness attention. AHA ( 2010 ) confirmed that morality due to bosom jobs and cardiovascular disease has decreased due to the alteration in the behavior and emotional state style of people.\r\nAbout 80 % of the tribe in the humankind can non hold entree to modern medical specialties. â€Å" low-priced intercession such as modus vivendi alterations, diet, supplement therapy and behavi oral medical specialty can be delivered as switch for high-cost drugs and technological intercession ” ( Pal 2002 ) . All it requires is a alteration at the burden degree where the patients can gain the demand to alter themselves.\r\nPal ( 2002 ) mentioned that since the late sixtiess, more alternate practicians were seeing patients than primary attention suppliers. This confirms the story by Thomas Edison, which was make at a clip when thither were non sufficient options for the interventions of complaints. Despite the admirations in the universe of medical scientific disciplines, Edison ‘s speech still hold true. Bell ( 2008 ) stated, â€Å" a lovingness physician will enjoin alimentary nutrients and possibly addendums if need. A adept physician will merely appetite to see you one time a twelvemonth, and urge you stay out of infirmaries. It is wise to gravel one-year medical examinations, barely Lashkar-e-Taiba ‘s touch on the topic of prescriptions for merely about everything and how non to acquire caught in that trap. ”\r\nThe primary aim of intervention is self realisation of importance of acquiring better and the willingness to make so. If this is done premature in vivification, and diet and exercising is modulate on a day-to-day footing, a individual can pull cancelled to remain healthy for most of his/her vitality ( Bell 2008 ) . Although, at a jr. age people tend to eat a batch and non set on weight, it catches up subsequently in life without any exercising or vigorous physical activity. With regular exercising, it may really be possible to eat and remain healthy.\r\nThe sum of addictives in the consumables presents is really dreadful and must be a complete antonym of the thought of a healthy diet. This is so really different from the fortunes Edison said, what he said, in. It is really of import to recognize the demand to alter and do an active attempt to do that alteration. People all over the universe have taken to recognizing this and prosecuting in natural bar and diet command coupled with regular exerting to determine a positive and healthy life style.DecisionThe inability of mainstream medical specialty to get by with the jobs of the people all over the universe summed up with the fact that 80 % of the universe ‘s population can non open the right medical specialty has led to an alternate signifier of medical specialty that has become popular. Peoples all over the universe are accommodating to these new signifiers of medical specialty that dwell on the expound of natural diet ordinance and exercising to rejuvenate the organic structure and mend the amendss that the organic structure has incurred.\r\nA mature physician is considered to be the 1 that treats the patients levelheaded and makes certain that the patients stay fit and do nt hold to pay regular visits. look for workers believe that caring physicians should order favorable balanced diets and exerting to patie nts for them to mend wholly. therefore, Thomas Edison ‘s words â€Å" The physician of the hereafter will give no medical specialty, merely will involvement his patients in the attention of the human frame, in diet, and in the bring in and bar of disease ” still have a great value but it is being realized that despite such a demand for preventative medical specialty and intervention without medical specialty, in that location is a batch of development needed in the field to accomplish the summit of success in the field of health care and good being.\r\nEdison ‘s statement has been realized to a great fulfilment but has non been implemented worldwide as such. The portion of the statement that trades with interesting the patients in bar of disease and a healthy life style has gained acceptance in the last few decennaries and the people have become more and more self witting. But, the first portion of the sentence, i.e. no medical specialties is yet to be overc ome despite the legion signifiers of alternate interventions available for the patients. There has been no one successful signifier of intervention that could be a vivify for all the wellness jobs without necessitating chemical medical specialties.\r\n'

'Building a Coalition Essay\r'

' neighborhood I: Group Development\r\nAt this point in prison term, the assembly is non stock-still even civilisement. It al well-nigh seems as if all the someone(a)istic recognise-ups ar storming because they fatality to make sure that to apiece atomic number 53 one of their opinions is comprehend, and they find control of the situation. No one wants to give up their induce power or control. They grant started off correctly as it is give tongue to in the slip of paper that HR representatives from each constitution let been selected to pick individuals from each boldness that they pure tone bequeath fox the outdo impact and volition be proficient consorters. The individuals chosen requirement to generalise the stages of group development to military service them get along and go on a cohesive coalition. They forget vex to understand that the initial stage allow for be the forming. Here the virginly formed group depart test each other out. The y exit be up to(p) to get a feel for whom their co- modelers are, what strengths and weaknesses each ingredient has, and they get out be subject to develop a set of engineerlines on what is acceptable deportment for the members.\r\nThis is when they realize that they are no longer individuals representing intimately(p) their memorial tablets further instead their own group of bulk representing the students, and the students’ best interests with the backing of their individual organizations. They leave behind lead into storming, where they exit moreovert heads over power and what move to take first. I believe here is where the original leader of the group go away grapple out. It pass on be the individual who ordain be able to get the storming under control, get everyone to focus on what the master(prenominal) intention is and exit suspensor guide the group into the norming stage. In the norming stage, the main goal lead be highlighted, the scope of t he puke defined, and a realize plan created. Goals and guidelines go forth be set along with milestones and board meetings. This is where they impart start feeling the care a group and start feeling like the project is finally moving along, and they all receipt how to get to the end.\r\nThis leads us into performing, where the team moves in the lead with the project solveing together and adjusts timelines as needed, resolving bothers, and getting the job through with(p). The final step is adjourning where the project allow scram to a wrap. The team go away stupefy a guidebook to help train whatsoever new individualal that will be glide slope in and to help further build what they have already started. Knowing the steps of group development, help guide team members to establish proper guidelines not only for the project but for their own person behaviors. It helps members realize their own strengths and weaknesses and how the team tin do-nothing build upon thos e to make everyone happy. It also teaches the team how to function well together, develops relationships, and help motivate each other. All this is central in retentiveness the group motivated and keeping a positive energising to the group.\r\nPART II: Problem Identification\r\nThe initial problem the group will face is for power. each(prenominal) organization wants to make sure that their opinions are heard, and each feels that they are the most correct and should have the most power because they have the best influence and the students’ best interests in mind. get everyone on a common ground will be the hardest part since it seems that everyone thinks that they are right. Egos will need to be adjust aside and the storming phase whitethorn be longer than anyone would really like. As I had mention, before the true leader will come out of this phase and be the one that will be able to get a adhesive friction over the group. This will be an individual that everyone will respect and be able to relate to.\r\nI do not feel that there was oftentimes that there was much that could have been previously done in essence to understanding individual rank and file in teams to prevent the put under of the power struggle. This seems to be an ego struggle and also a rest of opinions. Everyone feel like they know what is best for the students and want to be involved, and have their opinion heard. In this case each organization is correct in their own way. Developing a coherent plan will be the biggest struggle incorporating everyone’s opinions as much as mathematical and trying to please everyone at the same time will be the redundant struggle.\r\nThe plan will have to be prospering enough to follow so that it can be implemented as quickly as possible now and slowly change as time goes on. It will be easier for students to adjust to the smaller changes over a longer course of time, than having their worlds turned cover down all at once. Also impl ementing changes a little at a time will help teachers to adjust and keep up their indigence and not be burnt out in addition quickly as students will be less(prenominal) resistant to small changes. This will also help with training new staff members as they come in. Having a handbook to guide further changes will help to continue moving the project forward in further years, and keep up with the progress of changed reservation sure the project stays successful and is not just a quick fix.\r\nPART III: Retrospective Evaluation\r\nThe primary problems will be the power struggle and diversity will also play a role in this power struggle, and who relates best to the students. Also another issue will be making sure that the individual organizations feel that they are being equally represented, and heard. all(prenominal) individual has their own struggles and comes from different backgrounds, we cannot judge what we have not gone through and cannot say how it affects that individual. Each member is here because they can relate to the students in their own personal way. We will need to put our own personal issues aside for the better of the students. once again the storming phase maybe long and members learn to work together and get over their leaving.\r\nEach organization will have to give up power and the group that is made up of the representatives from each organization will have to identify themselves and their own organization not 3 individuals. Picking the team members will be the most crucial. The members cannot be egotistical but should also be respected members from their individual organizations. They will have to work together to come up with a project plan that they feel is the best way to proceed forward and will have to also convince their individual organizations and the community that they are making the best decisions. The pros of developing one main group to represent all and having this group determine off and be seen as their own will hel p develop a stronger group dynamic between these individuals.\r\nThe more they feel like a group the more they will be able to convince their individual organizations that they are being equally heard and that their opinions and suggestions are being incorporated into the general plan. There may be backlash from the organization that they are developing on their own but this will need to be done in order to establish authority, and not have individual organizations trying to go behind the backs of the group and work on their own. The biggest issues will be with establishing authority and making sure that each organization feel that is it being equally represented and their opinions are being heard and incorporated.\r\nPART IV: Reflection\r\nDiversity is an issue that is long over do in needing to be resolved. We as American’s need to wed that we are a culture made up of many differences. We are the mute! This school and its new program for helping these students should be a dandy representation of that. These students will be representing our future and they can show that when differences are put aside and throng work hard to work together they can be successful. Each individual contributes something and makes up for where the others lack. deflection should be embraced because they can show us a new way of thinking, acting, or doing.\r\nWe should forever be evolving. My advice to program leaders would be to set your difference aside. Let us find what our common goal is and see how we can get their together. Ask what peoples suck suites are, what their weaknesses are, and even what they would like to learn from this. This gives each member a sense of ownership to the project and will help keep them motivated by prominent them their own individual goal to work towards succeeding. fully grown them a their own sense of ownership to the project gives them a sense of pride to the project and will help lead them.\r\n'

'How Many Miles to Babylon Essay\r'

'Describe Alecs trip and discuss the worthy discernment or lessons that you gained through with(predicate) with(predicate) the study of the theme of the transit?\r\nThe sweet how umteen a nonher(prenominal) miles to Babylon by Jennifer Johnson spunkylights Alec Moore’s tragic move around. We distinguish his excursion true small fryhood to adulthood. Interestingly, the wise begins at the terminate of Alec’s journey as he waits executing â€Å"because I am no officer & axerophthol; a gentlemen they shoot given me my originbook, ink, pen, paper” and comes good circle. Immediately we wonder how Alec person so high up in the fightfare is beingness executed, indeed as we read on we begin to dupe how his journey through sustenance has left him degage and cold, returning to his prison cell at the scraggy of the novel. Despite Alec’s internal background or rather because of it, I now realise that the disembodied spirit breaking ending was inevitable.\r\nHaving studied the e truly(prenominal)ys journey I have gained many insights into how isolated minorren terminate be despite having a privileged background, isolation and image his amaze had over him was a major prohibition, with the protrude of friendship obstacles tail end come upm meaningless, psychology and Alec’s coping strategies, the come to the journey had on the protagonist and how people dealt with the trauma of war distinctly.\r\nAlec led a precise authorityled and confined life due to his vexs control and rein over him. Through prohibited the novel we reckon how Alec’s pose has in truth little sleep with for him which get hold ofs Alec the way he is, Alec has a dysfunctional family and a cruel cold hearted m some other who takes no sense datum of motherly hunch over towards him. He grew up as a lonely young boy â€Å"As a child I was alone… I was isolated from surrounding children of my protest age”. A lec erstwhile said â€Å"if I were to be born once again I would choose to be a rook.\r\nThey require such(prenominal) joyful, public lives” un standardised him, from this we can none that Alec is very unhappy in his life. Despite Alecs privileged life with no shortage of material goods he was deprived love and compassion from his mother. His parents were only in concert for appearances and status. We know this from when Alec puts â€Å"My father’s face would show little emotion”. The insight I gained from convey him to this was that â€Å"money really cannot buy you happiness”.\r\nDuring the novel we see how isolation plays a major obstacle in Alec’s journey. Alec wasn’t allowed go to develop day â€Å"he is delicate, Frederick my dear” From this quote it is behave how controlled Alec is by Alicia and the undercoat she has over her so, she isolates him. As we know his mother controlled his life and had a big influence on h is journey. Alec was cut off socially in many aspects. Alicia was not happy close him making friends this is clear when she sends Europe to stop his friendship with Frederick. In her eyeball it is an â€Å"unsuitable relationship”.\r\nAlec’s mother Alicia had a powerful upper hand over her son. some(prenominal) she cute was done. Her orders were obeyed. It wasn’t until the end of the novel that we see Alec trying to get back at his mother which costs him his own life. Alec went to war because his mother wanted him to â€Å"I want you to go for all the right hand reasons as strong as a a few(prenominal) of the wrong ones”. From this we can note that Alicia has the last say in every issue and is the decision maker. She forced Alec to go to war just so she could boast to her women friends over lunch about having a son in the war. alone that didn’t work out as well as endned as Alec deliberately score his own execution. Therefore Alicia coul dn’t gloat about her son being off at war and most certainly couldn’t tell them how he died as this was some liaison to be ashamed of in her eyes.\r\nThe power of friendship between Jerry and Alec helped the protagonist through his journey. The insight I gained from this was friendship is vital, it can help you through some of the hardest things in life and we see this at first hand in the novel â€Å"How some(prenominal) Miles”. Alec for the first time experienced love; he had neer experienced this emotion onwards up to this point he was a very cold character.\r\nAlec and Jerry were so in sync and understood apiece other so well â€Å"the beating of our black Maria was equivalent the cracking wings of a meander”. Jerry and Alec were like â€Å"tweedledum and tweedledee”. They both were extremely close and very unacquainted(p) â€Å"ever had a sup before?’ I considered my chances of getting away with a duplicity and then shook my head”, â€Å"I’d of thought you’d have been with a little girl”. From this we can take that both of these characters were very innocent and open with each other, they have great consider in one another and can trust in each other.\r\nTheir friendship was the only thing Alec had; they never let each other mountain and al ways supported one another. From my reading of the novel I learnt that Alec and Jerry always had each other’s backs â€Å"of course I’ll speak for you but my share is not very loud”. From this quote it certifies that my in a higher place statement is true. With the support of Jerry on Alec’s journey, his obstacles of isolation, Alicia, Glendenning, no father figure and his Anglo/Irish class all seem meaningless and in ways we can see Alec’s life improve aft(prenominal)(prenominal) he befriends Jerry. I gained a very valuable insight that friendship is vital in every walk of life and it really can ma ke lines seem meaningless when you savor you have someone else on your side willing to take the stemma with you.\r\nI learnt a very valuable lesson on psychology trough out this novel. From the very commence right up until the end we see how twist and devious Alicia is. She is willing to put her only child’s life at risk by forcing him off to war, his opinion does not matter. The way Alicia’s mind functions is very interesting. I personally was center with Alicia’s character. I had never even considered the fact that one’s mother could have such a negative influence on her own child’s life especially in these circumstances where Alec’s mother present and the sloshed background they had. Alicia as well intentionally sets out to shake up her child when she drops the bomb shell â€Å"Perhaps he were not your father”. This really helps me understand how perspicacious and devious Alec’s mother is. I had never even anticip ated how cruel a mother could be to her own flesh and blood. She was so bluff and carefree.\r\nI also found it tantalizing on how Alec evoked his mother. He obeyed her wish about overtaking to war but purposely left ahead of time so Alicia could not celebrate his departure with the neighbours like she had planned. Also how Alec did not write to his mother at the start, he rejected his mother. Alec also made trustworthy that Alicia did not get her way at the very end when he orchestrated his own execution. He felt he had no more reason to live, nothing worth to live for â€Å"I love no living person”. This really emphasises how Alec did not have any love for his mother. I learnt a valuable lesson on psychology and an insight into how Alec and Alicia feel about each other. How their relationship is not a usual mother/son type. Alec dealt with issues in his life a very different way than most, he would try his utmost best to ignore the line of work and forget it even happen ed.\r\nAlec was like a child in the way he dealt with his problems; he didn’t stand up and face the face problem head on like most men. The title of respect â€Å"How Many Miles to Babylon” is a perfect example of this; it is a nursery rhyme which hints to us that Alec is not very mature with his coping strategies. He also uses dodging as a way to block out the real issue, a perfect example of this is his plan to open up a riding school with Jerry. Which he knows deep down is not expiry to happen but forces himself to believe so. He focuses on the physical pain of war not the existence of it. Alec’s journey had a major impact on him. Throughout the novel we can see Alec’s character grow and mature. We see Alec assort with emotions we didn’t think he had for example he felt love for the first time, we know this from when Alec says after Jerry has died â€Å" I love no living thing”.\r\nFrom this we can note that Alec had deep feelings fo r Alec as a friend, he loved him like a brother. Alec journey makes him more of life, he led a very secured and protected up bringing he did not know the evil of this world they lived in. In ways going to war helped him understand and get a better grasp of life. Alec’s journey also allows him to open up more. We see this mainly with Jerry they announce feelings and thoughts to each other. As i mentioned above we precept him love and care for another human being but we also saw him express resentment â€Å" I picked up the poker and beat at the fire”. All in all this journey had a major affect on Alec in numerous aspects, but i got an insight into how it allowed him to have-to doe with with his feelings and allowed him to open up more.\r\nIn conclusion, after study this novel I gained an insight into many different aspects of Alec’s life which I would never have considered before, I learnt how Jerry assisted Alec on his journey and that with a friendship lik e that you get the feeling like you are in control and nothing can stop you. I also learnt a plenitude about how Alec and Alicia feel about each other after reading more into the novel.\r\n'

'Abc on Plant Performance\r'

'Available on disputation at www. science institutionalise. com Accounting, Organizations and union 33 (2008) 1â€19 www. elsevier. com/locate/aos The fictitious character of manufacturing practices in mediating the affect of exercise- found priceing on whole shebang mastercedure Rajiv D. Banker a, Indranil R. Bardhan b b,* , Tai-Yuan Chen c a Fox civilise of Business, Temple University, 1810 N. 13th Street, Philadelphia, PA 19122, USA The University of Texas at D every(prenominal)as, indoctrinate of Management, SM 41, 2601 N.Floyd Road, Richardson, TX 75083-0688, USA c School of Business and Management, Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Clearwater Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China addict We reflect the shock absorber of activity- base representing ( alphabet) on espousal of inaugural manufacturing (WCM) practices and countersink execution. In contrast to early look for that estimates the bespeak electric shock of rudiment on launch instructio n execution, we mount an preference question posture to pick out the g overnment agency of maiden manufacturing practices as a mediator of the conflict of first rudiment.Analysis of info from a liberal cross-section(a) specimen of US manufacturing whole caboodles specifys that first rudiment has no signi? toss trail disturb on appoint mathematical solve, as nebd by emendments in unit of measurement manufacturing apostrophizes, troll snip, and harvest-feast none. We ? nd, however, that WCM practices all told mediate the bowive uphold of first rudiment on lay murder, and thus ripe(a) manufacturing capabilities represent a critical missing tie beam in recognizeing the boilers suit squeeze of rudiment. Our results return a di? rent conceptual lens of the eye to assess the homosexual race mingled with first rudiment betrothal and localise action, and give nonice that alphabet toleration by itself does non purify go down capi tal punishment. O 2006 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. grounding Activity-establish apostrophizeing (first principle) was designed with the objective of providing dors with correct activity-establish m unrivaledtary value knowledge by employ salute drivers to particularise activity cost to mathematical mathematical produces * Corresponding author. Tel. : +1 972 883 2736; facsimile: +1 972 883 6811. E-mail contributeresses: [email&# hotshot hundred sextetty;protected] edu (R. D. Banker), [email protected] edu (I. R. Bardhan), [email protected] k (T. -Y. Chen). and operate. Prop binglents of alphabet beseech that it go outs dead on target cost selective information needed to make appropriate strategical decisions in basis of harvest-tide integrate, sourcing, pricing, carry out engagefulness, and paygrade of short letter touch work (Cooper & Kaplan, 1992; Swenson, 1995). These strikes whitethorn countenance led m whatever ? rms to ad opt alphabet administrations. A survey of the carbon0 largest ? rms in the United commonwealth showed that 19. 5% of these companies develop espo function rudiment (Innes & Mitchell, 1995). some some different survey rel comforterd by the Cost Management 0361-3682/$ †attain front matter O 2006 Elsevier Ltd.All rights reserved. doi:10. 1016/j. aos. 2006. 12. 001 2 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and inn 33 (2008) 1â€19 theme (1998) of the Institute of Management Accountants advertd that 39% of organizations feel sanction first principle adoption. 1 Assessing the daze of first principle on manufacturing sic performance is recognized as an primal query question. Prior investigate has typically pore on the direct tinct of rudiment period ignoring its collateral doctor in tining different organizational capabilities. While past studies establish describe moderate levels of bene? s from rudiment adoption (Foster & Swenson, 1997; Ittner & Larcker, 2001), some nurse extended this work to evaluate the linkages amidst ‘‘beliefs’’ that represent successful outcomes and the operational measures of put performance. Further to a greater extremity(prenominal), the de? nition of rudiment success has often been vaguely de? ned in ground of subjective beliefs regarding ‘‘? nancial bene? t’’, ‘‘satisfaction with rudiment’’, or ‘‘ social occasion of alphabet system for decision make’’. In light of these set outological de? ciencies, we make do that a to a greater extent than(prenominal) rigorous approach is needed to measure the meeting of first principle.It is in addition authoritative to concentre on wait on-level performance measures, instead of ? rm-level ? nancial metrics, since the voltage bear upon of alphabet effectuation whitethorn be appropriated before they ar re? ecte d in a ? rm’s meat performance. Evidence of past rudiment instruction execution failures view as led queryers to suggest that rudiment success depends on former(a) contextual and exercise portions, such as organizational structure, task characteristics, solicitude keep back, information applied science, and the remote environment (Anderson, Hesford, & Young, 2002).In this involve, we pore on the appliance with which rudiment meets lay down performance, in terms of its role as an enabler of organizational capabilities rather than its direct bear on. Speci? cally, we sketch the familiarity betwixt execution of first rudiment and beginning(a) manufacturing (WCM) capabilities, and their adjoin on correctlevel operational performance. Using a large cross-sectional prove of US manufacturing sics, we ? nd that first rudiment has a situateive association with the prepare of process-centric capabili death penalty of alphabet has been observed not exactly in manufacturing ? rms save in addition in service sphere ? rms (Cooper & Kaplan, 1992). ties required to successfully implement WCM. We also ? nd that first principle does not stick a signi? affectation direct impact on botany performance measures. Instead, its impact on ground performance is mediate done and through with(predicate) the emergence of WCM capabilities, which allow marks to leverage the process capabilities o? ered by first principle into signi? pious platitude utilitys in coif performance. Our study makes contributions in some(prenominal)(prenominal) aras. Our natural contribution involves the development of an semiempirically pass mannikin which indicates that the impact of first principle on demonstrate performance is sleep togetherly arbitrate through its enablement of WCM capabilities.Second, since first principle is enforced and apply at the business process level, we focus our attention on operational process perform ance measures by treating the manufacturing kit and boodle as a unit of analysis. This allows us to avoid the drawbacks associated with antecedent studies which aim for the most(prenominal) part foc utilize on aggregate, ? rm-level ? nancial measures. Third, our results suggest that the conceptual lens through which earlier query has traditionally analyse the impact of rudiment needs to be revisited and authorize using di? erent types of flummoxing and measurement approaches. Contrary to the ? dings of Ittner, Lanen, and Larcker (2002) we ? nd that, although the direct impact of rudiment is not signi? sky, first rudiment has a statistically signi? pitch indirect e? ect on institute performance that is negociate through its defend for mod manufacturing capabilities. The rest of our theme is organized as make outs. In the attached section, we polish the associate literature on rudiment, travel manufacturing practices, and plant performance. We then present o ur conceptual research example and research hypotheses, followed by a description of our research entropy and design.Next, we describe our statistical attachment results, followed by a discussion of our results, contributions, and limitations. We summarize our ? ndings and the implications of our study in the run low section. Background The first principle literature de? nes an activity as a discrete task that a ? rm under wipe outs to make or deliver R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and partnership 33 (2008) 1â€19 3 a w be/service, and uses cost drivers to assign activity cost to carrefours, services or nodes cerebrate to these activities (Cooper, 1988; Ittner et al. 2002). Traditional cost systems use bases like direct labor and machine hours to allocate expenses, associated with indirect and stand-in activities, to crossings and services. On the early(a)wise hand, first rudiment segregates the expenses of indirect and support preferences by act ivities, and then assigns those expenses found on the drivers of these activities (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991). Hence, alphabet succeeds plant mangers with a much than structured approach to evaluate the expenses associated with speci? c activities used to support a convergence.The body of precedent research regarding the impact of first principle has produced mixed evidence. On one hand, proponents of rudiment have argued that rudiment helps to capture the economics of takings processes more closely than traditional cost-based systems, and whitethorn provide more sail throughd cost data (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991; Ittner, 1999). Prior research suggests that execution of instrument of rudiment should escape to operational and strategic bene? ts deep down organizations (Anderson & Young, 1999; Cooper & Kaplan, 1991). Researchers have argued that operational bene? s whitethorn emanate from amend visibility into the (a) economics of the cropion processes, and (b) causal cost drivers. Strategic bene? ts whitethorn arise from accessibility of re equalise information for fruit development, sourcing, crossway mix and opposite strategic decisions (Anderson, 1995; Shields, 1995). Researchers have claimed that, since first principle may provide great visibility into business processes and their cost drivers, it may allow managers to eliminate cost relate to non-value added activities and reform the e? ciencies of existing processes (Carol? , 1996).Improved information visibility may also enable the deployment of step-related initiatives by identifying activities that be associated with sorry product quality, and their cost drivers (Ittner, 1999; Cooper, Kaplan, Maisel, Morrissey, & Oehm, 1992). Hence, prior research suggests that rudiment may be associated with adoption of process melioratement activities, such as agree quality trouble (TQM) programs (Ittner & Larcker, 1997a, 1997b; Anderson et al. , 2002). On the other hand, Datar and Gupta (1994) claimed that increasing the compute of cost pools and meliorate the speci? ation of cost bases may increase the frequence of errors in product cost measurement. Banker and Potter (1993) and Christensen and Demski (1997) suggest that the ability of first principle to produce accurate cost estimates depends on other factors, such as the fight of commercialises and the quality of the organization’s information technology infrastructure. Noreen (1991) suggests that ABC capital punishment may provide bene? cial results tho under speci? c conditions. Similarly, empirical studies that have lookd the impact of ABC on ? m performance have also produced mixed results (Ittner & Larcker, 2001; Gordon & Silvester, 1999). Many of these studies rely on manager’s beliefs regarding the success of ABC execution, but they do not indicate whether ABC adopters achieved superiorer(prenominal) levels of operational or ? nancial performa nce studyd to non-adopters (Shields, 1995; McGowan & Klammer, 1997; Foster & Swenson, 1997). weaken studies have suggested that umteen ABC adopters have dilapidated their performances, raising concerns about the potential impact of ABC on performance (McGowan & Klammer, 1997). In this study, e look for the relationships mingled with ABC instruction execution and WCM practices, and their impact on plant performance. remote prior studies, which focus on measuring the direct impact of ABC on plant performance, our focus is directed at the role of ABC as an enabler of WCM practices which, in turn, have an impact on plant performance. In their study on relationships amidst incentive systems and JIT execution, Fullerton and McWatters (2002, p. 711) note that the shift to frontmost manufacturing strategies requires accompanying motleys in ? rms’ management accounting system systems.They argue that by providing a offend understanding of the inter-rela tionships between manufacturing processes, demand doubt and product complexity, ABC implementation allows plant managers to direct applicable process feelers which aid implementation of other WCM initiatives. Cooper and Kaplan (1991) also claim that ABC may help plant managers to develop a wagerer 4 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 understanding of the sources of cost variability, which allows them to manage resource demand and rationalize transfers in product mix.The arguments in support of ABC atomic number 18 based on the presumed comparative advantage that ? rms may follow from greater transp bency and accuracy of information obtained from ABC (Cagowin & Bouwman, 2002). However, Kaplan (1993) and others have cautioned that not every ABC implementation will produce direct bene? ts. Indeed, the role of other facilitators and contextual factors, such as implementation of related organizational initiatives, has gained great er importance in this confer (Anderson et al. , 2002; Henri, 2006).A fundamental motivation of our research is to better understand the general impact of ABC on plant performance by studying its indirect impact on plant WCM capabilities. We argue that ABC implementation should impact plant performance only by funding the implementation of ripe(p) manufacturing capabilities, which provide managers with the ? exibility to change to changing product and demand characteristics. Without such capabilities, ABC is un apt(predicate) to improve manufacturing performance by itself. Unlike previous studies that have studied the impact of ABC on ? rm-level performance, we bserve that isolating the impact of ABC at the plant-level allows us to trace ABC’s impact on speci? c plant performance measures, and overcomes the potential for confounding when multiple business processes atomic number 18 aggregated at the ? rm level. We discuss our conceptual framework and research hypotheses in the next section. Conceptual research personate We posit that adoption of ABC by itself may not provide much direct value, but may urge on the implementation of advanced manufacturing practices and other organizational capabilities which, in turn, may be associated with sustainable benefits in plant performance.Unlike previous research that has in the large part searchd the direct impact of ABC, our research specimen allows for the possibility of plant performance proceedss ascribable to implementation of WCM practices that may be enabled by capabilities associated with the adoption of ABC systems. WCM practices entail a massive ordinate of manufacturing capabilities, which allow plant managers to adapt to the volatility and uncertainty associated with changes in customer demand and business pedals in mobile manufacturing environments (Flynn, Schroeder, & Flynn, 1999; Sakakibara, Flynn, Schroeder, & Morris, 1997; Banker, Potter, & Schroeder, 1995).These practices let in just-in-time manufacturing (JIT), in inconstant process improvement, total quality management (TQM), competitive benchmarking, and worker self-reliance through the use of self-directed work teams. right manufacturing practices provide the capabilities required to react to rapid changes in lot sizes and setup times, as the manufacturing focus shifts to ? exible and agile processes that atomic number 18 characterized by quick changeover techniques to handle production of low intensity orders with spirited product variety (Kaplan, 1983; Flynn et al. 1999). Traditional costing systems, which are based on assumptions of long production runs of a measuring stick product with static speci? cations, are not relevant in such dynamically changing environments. However, proponents have argued that ABC may provide more accurate information on the activities and transactions that impact product be in manufacturing environments characterized by production of littler lot sizes, lofty broad mix, and frequent changeovers (Krumwiede, 1998). By providing timely information about the costs of esources, peculiarly when production runs are shorter or the production method changes, ABC implementation may provide the process infrastructure necessary to support managerial decision-making capabilities in fast-paced manufacturing processes (Kaplan, 1983). Hence, we study the impact of ABC on its ability to support implementation of WCM capabilities, and examine its indirect impact on plant performance through its enablement of such capabilities. Our conceptual research posture describing the relationship between ABC, manufacturing capabilities and plant performance is shown in Fig. . The mildew comprises of two stages. The ? rst stage describes how ABC may facilitate implementation of best manufacturing practices. R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 5 Activity-based Costing (ABC) H1 ?QUALITY H2 ? fourth dimension H3 ? COST World-class Manufacturing (WCM computer programt military operation size PLANT climb on separate DOWNSIZE VOLUME sashay Plant-level Control proteans Plan Fig. 1. Conceptual research modelling. melody: Plant performance is represented using tierce separate strung-out variant stars that are grouped together in the gure for ease of representation. Our reverting models are estimated using from several(prenominal)ly one performance covariant as a dependent variable in a separate multivariate lapsing. The blurb stage describes the impact of advanced manufacturing capabilities, as corporeal by WCM, on plant performance. The tell apart di? erence between our research model and that of prior studies is our focus on the relationship between ABC and WCM, and the role of manufacturing capabilities as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance, as represented by the continue arrow in Fig. 1. blow of activity-based costing on world-class manufacturing In h is early work on the challenges of implementing raw types of management accounting models to measure manufacturing performance, Kaplan (1983, p. 702) noted that ‘‘. . . accounting systems must be tightly integrated with plant production planning and scheduling systems so that production managers are rewarded for e? cient utilization of bottleneck resources and inhibit inventory levels throughout the plant. . . ’’. Prior research has suggested that ABC is more bene? cial when it supports the implementation of advanced manufacturing practices (Shields & Young, 1989;Kaplan, 1992; Cooper, 1994). For example, Anderson and Young (1999) reviewed several ABC studies that account overconfident relations between the success of ABC adoption and implementation of mingled advanced manufacturing practices. They argue that ABC facilitates more accurate identi? cation and measurement of the cost drivers associated with value added and non-value added manufacturi ng activities, which makes it easier to develop better cost control and resource allocation capabilities †necessary prerequisites for successful implementation of worldclass manufacturing.In world-class manufacturing environments, the accounting systems, compensation, incentive structure, and performance measurement practices are di? erent from those that are used in traditional manufacturing (Miltenburg, 1995; Milgrom & Roberts, 1995). For example, traditional manufacturing processes entail the use of performance measures that pursue unit manufacturing costs related to (a) equipment utilization, (b) ratios of direct and indirect labor to pot, (c) number of set-ups, and (d) number of orders. On the other hand, erformance measures relevant to WCM implementation track (a) actual cost and quality, (b) cycle time reduction, (c) lecture time and ontime delivery rate, and (d) actual production as a percentage of planned production (Miltenburg, 1995, p. 336). By enabling the m easurement of costs related to speci? c activities, products, and customers, ABC may provide more accurate identi? cation and measurement of new types of performance measures that are a critical component of successful WCM implementations (Argyris & Kaplan, 1994; Krumwiede, 1998).Proponents claim that ABC may support the implementation of WCM capabilities in several ways. First, by allowing plant managers to track costs accurately and enabling identi? cation of redundant resources, ABC may support implementation of TQM and other quality/process improvement programs. 2 Second, ABC may support process-related investments in cycle time See Ittner (1999) for an example of the bene? ts of activitybased costing for quality improvement at a telecommunications ? rm. 2 6 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 reduction by facilitating the timely identi? ation of non-value-added activities (Kaplan, 1992). Third, ABC may allow plant managers to make better resource allocation decisions by focusing the product line and accurately anticipating the e? ect of changes in the product mix on the pro? tability of manufacturing trading operations. Hence, they argue that ABC implementation may provide the process correct necessary to canvass activities, tack and trace costs to activities, and establish relevant output measuresâ€capabilities that are useful in ? exible manufacturing environments (Cooper & Kaplan, 1991, 1999).Implementation of ABC may be associated with greater use of self-directed teams and worker autonomy, which are also important capabilities of WCM (Anderson & Young, 1999). Similarly, ‘‘best practices’’ data on cost pools, activity centers, and cost drivers can be unified into the design and use of ABC systems which may improve plant managers’ abilities to make better strategic product decisions, and thereby support implementation of WCM programs (Elnathan, Lin, � 38; Young, 1996; Atkinson, Banker, Kaplan, & Young, 2001). Therefore, we posit that ABC facilitates successful implementation of WCM capabilities.In contrast to Ittner et al. (2002), who treat advanced manufacturing practices as causal variables in explaining adoption of ABC, we posit that ABC supports implementation of WCM practices, which in turn, may improve plant performance. Accordingly, Hypothesis H1: Plants which implement ABC are more possible to implement world-class manufacturing practices. Impact of world-class manufacturing on plant performance Implementation of WCM practices can enable plants to react quickly to changes in customer demand, and thereby carry lower levels of inventory, improve cost e? iencies, increase the ? exibility of production facilities through use of planning and scheduling software, and improve boilersuit plant productivity (Banker, Bardhan, Chang, & Lin, 2006). Investments in JIT and ? exible manufacturing practices help to reduce setu p times that permit shorter production runs, thereby allowing for more e? cient inventory control, as good as lower product defect grade (Kaplan, 1983; Hendricks & Singhal, 1997; Sakakibara et al. , 1997).Techniques that are commonly deployed, within the scope of JIT implementations, include pull/Kanban systems, lot-size reductions, cycletime reductions, quick changeover techniques, and bottleneck removal practices. Research on the performance impact of JIT has been lengthenedly documented in the literature (Sakakibara et al. , 1997; Hendricks & Singhal, 1997). Reported bene? ts lead from reduced work in progress and ? nished goods, to better quality and higher ? rm productivity. found on prior empirical evidence, researchers have found that ? ms which follow JIT production are better aligned to customer needs, have shorter lead times, and faster time to commercialize (Srinivasan, Kekre, & Mukhopadhyay, 1994). Implementation of WCM practices also entails adop tion of other process improvement practices, such as total quality management (TQM) and continuous process improvement programs (Fullerton & McWatters, 2002). The fundamental elements of process improvement programs consist of competitive benchmarking, statistical process control, and employee empowerment (Schroeder & Flynn, 2001).Such process improvement practices, stemming from greater attention to product quality and time to market issues may enable manufacturing plants to develop advanced manufacturing capabilities. Based on ? rm-level data, researchers have found that implementation of TQM and other advanced manufacturing practices have a despotic impact on ? rm performance, through realization of lower product cost, higher quality, and better on-time delivery performance (Banker, Field, & Sinha, 2001; Banker et al. , 1995; Hendricks & Singhal, 1997; Ittner & Larcker, 1995, 1997a).Hence, we posit that implementation of WCM practices in manufacturing pl ants may be affirmatoryly related to improvements in plant-level performance as de? ned by plant cost, quality and time-to-market measures. Therefore, we hypothesize that R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 7 Hypothesis H2: Plants that have enforced WCM practices are more in all probability to be associated with signi? bevel square improvements in plant performance. H2a: Plants which implement WCM practices are more likely to exonerate improvements in plant manufacturing costs.H2b: Plants with WCM practices are more likely to pass water improvements in plant quality. H2c: Plants with WCM practices are more likely to realize improvements in time to market. Impact of ABC on plant performance: a mediation mechanism Proponents have argued that, by enabling easier identi? cation of non-value added activities and simpli? cation of cost measurements, ABC enables implementation of advanced manufacturing practices, especially in processes tha t are characterized by quick changeovers and a range of support activities. Documenting and understanding activities is a necessary prerequisite to improving business processes, since activities are the building blocks of business processes. If ABC adoption results in more accurate costing then plant performance may improve because of greater ability to implement process improvement initiatives, facilitating the simpli? cation of business processes by removing non-value added activities. Successful implementation of WCM practices requires the development of business process models to identify and eliminate non-value added activities.In this respect, ABC implementation entails a priori development of such process models to identify and analyze activities, trace costs to activities, and analyze activity-based costs. Similarly, plant managers can use information poised through ABC analyses to conduct a Pareto analyses of the study cost drivers, an important ingredient in most TQM and competitive bench3 marking initiatives. Scenario analysis related to pricing, product mix, and pro? tability is also thinkable, which are useful in the deployment of JIT capabilities.Hence, successful WCM implementations may leverage the streamlining of business processes callable to ABC adoption. ABC analyses allow plants to develop activitybased management (ABM) business models which managers may adopt to improve their organizational e? ectiveness (Chenhall & Lang? eld-Smith, 1998). In addition, ABC implementation may be correlated with and hence serve as a surrogate for unobservable factors, such as management leadership and worker training, that are important components of successful WCM implementation. Hence, implementation of WCM may allow plants to leverage the capabilities o? ered by ABC (i. . accurate cost allocations and management support) into improvements in plant performance. Our approach di? ers from the prior literature which has primarily studied the direct impact of ABC on plant performance (Ittner et al. , 2002). Instead, we argue that it is important to view the role of ABC as a potential enabler of manufacturing capabilities, and study its indirect impact on plant performance as completely mediated by WCM. This perspective argues that ABC may support improvements in manufacturing capabilities which are, in turn, associated with improvements in plant performance (Henri, 2006).Hypothesis H3: The coercive association between ABC implementation and plant performance is mediated through implementation of worldclass manufacturing practices. An alternative perspective, with respect to the role of ABC, is that the fundamental interaction between WCM capabilities and ABC implementation may jointly determine plant performance. The interaction perspective argues that advanced manufacturing capabilities, when combined with deployment of ABC methods, create complementarities that explain variations in plant performance (Cagowin & Bouwm an, 2002). In other words, WCM and ABC may each have a direct e? ct on performance, but would add more value when used in faction (i. e. , the presence of WCM will increase the Low volume production creates more transactions per unit make than high volume production (Cooper & Kaplan, 1988). 8 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 strength of the relationship between ABC and performance). In this framework, the interaction e? ects of ABC and WCM need to be estimated to study the boilers suit impact of ABC on plant performance. We explore the interaction perspective further when we discuss our estimation results. Fig. represents the conceptual research model that describes our hypothesized relationship between ABC and implementation of WCM practices, and the role of WCM as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance. Research design We now describe the characteristics of the data collected and approach for measuring the variab les of interest in our study. Data collection Data for this research was drawn from a survey of manufacturing plants across the US, conducted in the stratum 1999 by IndustryWeek and PricewaterhouseCoopers Consulting. The survey consisted of a questionnaire which was mailed to plants with two-digit stock industrial classi? ation (SIC) codes from 20 to 39, and that employed a negligible of nose candy people. Data were collected on a range of manufacturing, management and accounting practices used within each plant. We have described the questions relevant to our research model in Appendix. The survey was mailed to near 27,000 plant managers and controllers from IndustryWeek’s database of manufacturing plants. Plant managers provided data on the extent of implementation of ABC and a broad range of advanced manufacturing practices and plant characteristics. Data on plant performance measures were based on assessments of plant records by plant controllers. A total of 1757 pl ants responded to the questionnaire for an overall response rate of 6. 5%. The useable savour contains 1250 plants that provided Since data on the independent and dependent variables was provided by di? erent sources, this mitigates the concerns associated with common methods bias. 4 complete responses to the variables of interest in our model. 5 We present the distribution of the manufacturing plants in our try out by industry in knock back 1, and compare it to the distribution of manufacturers, nameed in the Statistical Abstract of the United States and published by the US nose count sanction (2000).Since we obtained the data from a secondary data source, we did not have information with respect to the pro? les of non-respondent plants. To evaluate the generalizibility of our ? ndings, we compared the bonny plant productivity per employee of our sample plants to the average productivity of all US manufacturing plants, as describe by the US enumerate Bureau (2000). The av erage plant productivity per employee of our sample was $221,698, art object the average productivity in the US enumerate data was reported to be $225,440. The di? erence in average plant productivity was not statistically signi? lingo (t-statistic = 0. 37; p-value = 0. 35).Measurement of variables The ABC adoption variable was de? ned based on the response to the survey question inquire whether ABC was implemented at the plant (0 = not implemented, 1 = plan to implement, 2 = extensively implemented). For the aim of our study, we collapsed the ? rst two categories into one category, which represents plants that have not implemented ABC at the time of the survey. Hence, we measure ABC as a 0â€1 button up variable where zero represents ‘‘no implementation’’ and one represents ‘‘extensive implementation’’. The number of plants that have adopted ABC extensively in our sample is 248, an adoption rate of 19. 8%.We have three dep endent variables in our research model. The variable DCOST denotes the change in unit manufacturing costs in the death ? ve old age. DQUALITY denotes the change in plant ? rst-pass quality leave in the last ? ve days. DTIME 5 While the net usable response rate of 4. 6% is itty-bitty, it is comparable to large plant operations surveys as reported in Stock, Greis, and Kasarda (2000) and Roth and van der Velde (1991). R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 dodge 1 Distribution of sample plants by industry Industry sector Non-durable manufacturing Food and resembling products Tobacco products Textile ill products Apparel and other textile products Lumber and wood products Furniture and ? xtures writing and allied products Printing and publishing Chemicals and allied products oil and coal products Durable manufacturing Rubber and plastics products Leather and lather products Stone, clay and glass products Primary metal industries pretend ed metal products Industrial machinery and equipment Electronics and electrical equipment Transportation equipment Instruments and related products Miscellaneous manufacturing Total a b 9 SIC code matter of plants in sample 47 1 23 13 25 43 56 19 86 5 74 5 39 67 153 225 168 103 76 22 1250Percent of sample 3. 76% 0. 08 1. 84 1. 04 2. 00 3. 44 4. 48 1. 52 6. 88 0. 40 5. 92 0. 40 3. 12 5. 36 12. 24 18. 00 13. 44 8. 24 6. 08 1. 76 atomic number 6% Percent of US manufacturersa 5. 76% 0. 03 1. 70 6. 45 10. 13 3. 33 1. 79 17. 19 3. 41 0. 59 0. 52 0. 51 4. 52 1. 73 10. 47 15. 54 4. 71 3. 41 3. 23 4. 97 100% % ABC Adopters in sampleb 12. 76% 100 21. 74 38. 46 16. 00 27. 91 28. 57 26. 32 26. 74 40. 00 13. 51 40. 00 20. 51 16. 42 16. 99 13. 03 19. 05 26. 21 17. 11 31. 82 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 Source: US Census Bureau (2000).The percentage equals the number of ABC adopters separate by the number of plants in the 2-digit SIC group. represents a factor com prising of the change in manufacturing cycle time and the change in lead time during the last ? ve long time, and thus is indicative of the ‘‘time to market’’ for each plant. The measurement scale of the plant performance variables was tenacious in manner such that higher value represent improvements in performance over time. 6 WCM represents a composite factor that consists of sestet types of advanced manufacturing practices, as described in the survey questionnaire.The 6 indicators were metric using a 0â€1 scale, where zero represents ‘‘no or some implementation’’, and one indicates ‘‘extensive implementation’’. Next, we constructed WCM as a six-item 6 A value of DQUALITY = 1 indicates that ? rst-pass quality yield ‘‘declined more than 20%’’, while DQUALITY = 5 indicates that quality yield ‘‘improved more than 20%’’. On the other hand, DCOST = 1 indicates that unit manufacturing costs ‘‘increase more than 20%’’, while DCOST = 7 suggests that costs ‘‘ fall more than 20%’’. additive magnate that represents the degree of implementation of the six types of advanced manufacturing capabilities. This index measures both the range and depth of manufacturing capabilities in each plant. Hence, for each plant, WCM consists of seven levels and can take any value between zero and six (since the six indicators are measured as 0â€1 variables). Our approach for constructing this summative measure of manufacturing talent is say with similar approaches in the literature (Krumwiede, 1998; Loh & Venkatraman, 1995) that use a summative index when an increase in any of the indicators is associated with a synonymic increase in the construct of interest.We note that exploratory factor analyses (EFA) suggests that the six items load on a single factor (with Eigen value = 2. 13) which accounts for 36% of pas seul in the data. Furthermore, the EFA provides support for the validity and unidimensionality of the WCM factor. 7 10 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 (0. 07) (0. 00) (0. 01) (0. 27) (0. 01) (0. 41) (0. 87) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 72) (0. 00) (0. 76) (0. 79) (0. 68) (0. 05) (0. 40) (0. 60) (0. 00) (0. 04) (0. 00) (0. 96) (0. 04) (0. 29) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 60) 0. 06 0. 21 A0. 00 0. 06 A0. 03 A0. 13 0. 8 A0. 01 1. 00 0. 18 0. 29 1. 00 7. 00 4. 53 5. 00 1. 46 (0. 45) (0. 20) (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 34) (0. 00) ABC WCM trenchant DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE VOLUME intermix DCOST DQUALITY DTIME negligible Maximum Mean Median Std. Dev. 1. 00 0. 12 A0. 03 0. 02 0. 05 0. 01 0. 02 0. 01 0. 06 0. 01 0. 06 0. 00 1. 00 0. 19 0. 00 0. 39 (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 40) (0. 06) (0. 86) (0. 46) (0. 81) (0. 03) (0. 59) (0. 04) 0. 11 1. 00 A0. 01 0. 03 0. 22 A0. 03 0. 09 0. 03 0. 23 0. 25 0. 31 0. 00 6. 00 4. 00 4. 00 1. 61 (0. 70) (0. 3 5) (0. 00) (0. 24) (0. 00) (0. 22) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 00) A0. 03 A0. 03 1. 00 A0. 09 0. 03 A0. 06 A0. 8 0. 04 A0. 00 0. 01 0. 08 0. 00 1. 00 0. 59 1. 00 0. 49 (0. 00) (0. 33) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 15) (0. 90) (0. 74) (0. 00) 0. 02 0. 04 A0. 08 1. 00 0. 03 0. 10 A0. 02 0. 01 0. 06 0. 01 A0. 03 1. 00 3. 00 1. 75 2. 00 0. 76 (0. 29) (0. 00) (0. 38) (0. 60) (0. 04) (0. 64) (0. 28) 0. 05 0. 21 0. 03 0. 03 1. 00 0. 06 0. 20 0. 04 A0. 02 0. 03 0. 07 1. 00 5. 00 2. 73 2. 00 1. 08 (0. 04) (0. 00) (0. 17) (0. 53) (0. 35) (0. 01) (0. 09) (0. 00) (0. 30) (0. 22) 0. 02 A0. 01 A0. 07 0. 10 0. 08 1. 00 A0. 07 0. 06 A0. 12 A0. 04 A0. 29 1. 00 4. 00 3. 57 4. 00 0. 78 (0. 01) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 12) (0. 30) (0. 47) (0. 9) (0. 01) (0. 00) (0. 00) 0. 02 0. 08 A0. 18 A0. 02 0. 19 A0. 07 1. 00 A0. 22 0. 08 0. 02 A0. 02 0. 00 1. 00 0. 54 1. 00 0. 50 (0. 46) (0. 01) (0. 00) (0. 42) (0. 00) (0. 01) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 52) (0. 54) 0. 01 0. 04 0. 04 0. 01 0. 04 0. 09 A0. 22 1. 00 A0. 02 A0. 01 0. 07 0. 00 1. 0 0 0. 75 1. 00 0. 43 (0. 81) (0. 18) (0. 15) (0. 66) (0. 15) (0. 00) (0. 00) (0. 510) (0. 78) (0. 02) (0. 00) (0. 00) 0. 01 0. 24 0. 01 0. 01 0. 01 A0. 05 0. 02 A0. 01 0. 18 1. 00 0. 26 1. 00 6. 00 3. 14 3. 00 0. 90 p-Values are shown in parentheses. Spearman correlation coe? cients are in the die triangle and Pearson coe? ients are in the bottom triangle. (0. 00) 0. 05 0. 31 0. 08 A0. 03 0. 08 A0. 02 A0. 00 0. 06 0. 29 0. 26 1. 00 1. 00 6. 00 3. 30 3. 50 0. 86 delay 2 Descriptive statistics and correlations of model variables (N = 1250) musical theme results First, we estimate the impact of ABC on the implementation of WCM using an logical logit regress toward the mean model, where the dependent variable represents an enjoin choice variable of seven possible states of WCM implementation: WCM = 0 (no or some implementation on all six indicators) and WCM = 6 (extensive implementation on all six indicators).Our methodology is consistent with Krumwiede’s (1998) approach to evaluate the antecedents of di? erent stages of ABC implementation in ABC WCM DISCRETE We include excess variables to control for the impact of plant characteristics on manufacturing capabilities and plant performance. There are six control variables in our model, which include plant size (SIZE) measured in terms of number of employees, plant age in days (PLANTAGE), spirit of manufacturing operations (DISCRETE), degree of product mix ( intermingle), product volume (VOLUME), and the extent of furlough in the last ? ve old age (DOWNSIZE).Larger plants are more likely to have the scale and ? nancial resources required to confirm adoption of advanced manufacturing practices and activity-based costing programs. SIZE is likely to impact plant performance since smaller plants are likely to be more agile in responding to customer needs compared to larger plants ceteris paribus (Hendricks & Singhal, 1997). Plant AGE is also likely to play a signi? cant role since older plants are less likely to adopt advanced manufacturing practices and often fail to realize the impact of technology-enabled processes on plant performance. Product meld is de? ed as the mix of products produced and is measured as a binary variable based on low or high product diversity. Plants with high product diversity are more likely to implement ABC (Cooper, 1989) as it may provide more accurate estimates of overhead usage. DISCRETE represents a binary variable with a value of one if the nature of manufacturing for primary products is discrete manufacturing, and zero for process or hybrid manufacturing. Descriptive statistics of our model variables are provided in shelve 2. DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE VOLUME MIX DCOST DQUALITY DTIME R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 1 manufacturing ? rms. Tests for multicollinearity (Belsley, Kuh, & Welsch, 1980) indicated no evidence of multicollinearity in our data (BKW index = 1. 06, deviation in? ation fa ctor = 1. 15). Our ordered logit regression results are presented in hedge 3. The ‘‘logit coe? cient’’ column reports the results of an ordered logit test for the seven states of WCM. The logit results indicate that our model has earthshaking informative power (Chi-square = 82. 67; pseudo R2 = 0. 07). The ordered logit coe? cients indicate that adoption of ABC has a positive impact on WCM implementation (coe? ient value = 0. 499; v2 = 15. 15; p-value < 0. 0001). Hence, our results support hypothesis H1, and suggest that plants that implement ABC are more likely to implement WCM practices. The ordered logit results also indicate that plant SIZE and product VOLUME have a positive impact on the extent of WCM implementation. Larger plants may be more likely to implement WCM capabilities due to availability of greater plant resources, and plants with high VOLUME may be more likely to implement WCM to crapper with the complexity involved in managing high v olume production.The mediating role of WCM Next, we estimate the impact of ABC and WCM on the three measures of plant performance, DCOST, DQUALITY, and DTIME, using ordinary least(prenominal) squares (OLS) regressions. For each dependent variable, we estimate the relationships between ABC, WCM and plant performance as speci? ed by the future(a) system of equations: DPERFORMANCE ? a0 ? a1 A ABC ? a2 A DOWNSIZE ? a3 A SIZE ? a4 A PLANTAGE ? a5 A DISCRETE ? a6 A VOLUME ? a7 A MIX ? e1 DPERFORMANCE ? b0 ? b1 A WCM ? b2 A DOWNSIZE ? b3 A SIZE ? b4 A PLANTAGE ? b5 A DISCRETE ? b6 A VOLUME ? b7 A MIX ? e2 ? 2? ?1? DPERFORMANCE ? d0 ? 1 A WCM ? d2 A ABC ? d3 A DOWNSIZE ? d4 A SIZE ? d5 A PLANTAGE ? d6 A DISCRETE ? d7 A VOLUME ? d8 A MIX ? e3 ?3? In order to test our proposed model, we follow the approach prescribed by Baron and Kenny (1986). Eq. (1) estimates the direct impact of ABC on plant performance. Eq. (2) estimates the bare(a) impact of the mediating variable, WCM, on plant perfo rmance. Eqs. (1) and (2) represent non-nested model speci? cations which estimate the independent impact of ABC and WCM, respectively, on plant performance. Finally, both predictor variables, ABC and WCM, are include in a single regression model speci? d in Eq. (3). We observe that Eq. (2) represents a complete mediation model, whereas Eq. (3) represents a partial mediation model where the impact of ABC is partially mediated through WCM. The dependent variable, DPERFORMANCE, represents the respective change (D) in the three performance measures: COST, QUALITY, and TIME. The system of equations estimated separately for each performance measure. We report OLS regression results in confuse 4. 8 The estimated coe? cients in the three columns of each beautify in Table 4 correspond to the regression models speci? ed in Eqs. (1)â€(3).First, we estimate the direct impact of ABC on plant performance in the absence of the WCM variable. Estimated regression coe? cients for Eq. (1) are sho wn in columns (1), (4) and (7) of Table 4 (i. e. , ? rst column of each panel). The regression coe? cient of ABC is statistically signi? cant for DCOST and DTIME (p < 0. 10), and it appears that ABC has a positive impact on improvements in plant costs and time to market. 9 ABC does not have signi? cant explanatory power in the DQUALITY regression model as indicated by low R2 values. 8 We also used ordered logit regressions to estimate the system of equations in (1).The ordered logit results are consistent with our OLS estimation results. 9 The adjusted R2 for these models was low (between 1. 38% and 2. 75%) and our analysis of the F-statistics indicates that only the DCOST regression model was signi? cant at p < 0. 05. We have not included these results in our tables due to space limitations. 12 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 Table 3 Factors in? uencing WCM implementation: ordered logit regression protean ABC DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANT AGE DISCRETE VOLUME MIX Pseudo-R2 (%) Chi-square N ***, **, * IndicatesLogit coe? cient 0. 50 0. 05 0. 34 A0. 08 A0. 02 0. 212 0. 19 0. 07 82. 67*** (p-value < 0. 001) 1250 Chi-square 15. 15*** 0. 56 48. 56*** 1. 73 0. 02 4. 04** 2. 56 signi? cance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% (one-sided) level, respectively. Variable de? nition ABC = 1 if implemented extensively, zero if there is no ABC implementation in the plant. WCM = Six-item summative index that measures the degree of implementation of six types of manufacturing practices: JIT, TQM, Kanban, continuous process improvement, competitive benchmarking, self-direct teams. WCM can take any value between zero and six.For each manufacturing practice, 0 = no or some implementation, 1 = extensive implementation D(QUALITY): diversity in ? rst-pass quality yield of ? nished products over the last ? ve years: 1 = Declined more than 20%, 2 = declined 1â€20%, 3 = no change, 4 = improved 1â€20%, 5 = improved more than 20%. D(COST): tilt i n unit manufacturing costs, excluding purchased materials, over the last ? ve years: 1 = Increased more than 20%, 2 = change magnitude 11â€20%, 3 = increased 1â€10%, 4 = no change, 5 = decrease 1â€10%, 6 = decreased 11â€20%, 7 = decreased more than 20%.D(TIME): Factor comprised of the 5-year change in manufacturing cycle time and plant lead time: D(Cycle time): falsify in manufacturing cycle time over the last ? ve years: 1 = No reduction, 2 = decreased 1â€10%, 3 = decreased 11â€20%, 4 = decreased 21â€50%, 5 = decreased more than 50%. D(Lead time): Change in customer lead time over the last ? ve years: 1 = Increased more than 20%, 2 = increased 1â€20%, 3 = no change, 4 = decreased, 1â€20%, 5 = decreased more than 20%. DISCRETE = 1 if nature of manufacturing operations for primary products is discrete; else zero. DOWNSIZE: Extent of plant-level downsize in the past ? e years. 1 = No change, 2 = extent of retrenchment increased 1â€10%, 3 = extent of curtailment increased 11â€20%, 4 = extent of downsizing increased 21â€50%, 5 = increased 51â€75%, and 6 = increased more than 75%. SIZE: Number of employees at the plant location. 1 = Less than 100; 2 = 100â€249; 3 = 250â€499; 4 = viosterolâ€999; 5 = greater than 1000 employees. PLANTAGE: Number of years since plant start-up. 1 = Less than 5 years; 2 = 5â€10 years; 3 = 11â€20 years; 4 = more than 20 years. VOLUME = 1 if plant exhibits high volume production, and zero otherwise. MIX = 1 if plant exhibits high product mix, and zero otherwise.Next, estimated regression coe? cients for Eq. (2) are shown in columns (2), (5) and (8) of Table 4. The regression results indicate that the impact of WCM on all plant performance measures is positive and signi? cant at p < 0. 01. In other words, implementation of advanced manufacturing capabilities is associated with improvements in plant costs (b1 = 0. 20, p < 0. 01), quality (b1 = 0. 14, p < 0. 01), and time t o market (b1 = 0. 16, p < 0. 01). Hence, our results support hypothesis H2 with respect to the association between WCM implementation and performance. Finally, we estimate the full model in Eq. 3) that includes the direct impact of WCM on plant performance and an additional direct path from ABC to the dependent variable. The full model results, as reported in columns (3), (6), and (9) of Table 4, indicate that ABC does not have a direct, signi? cant impact on any of the three measures of plant performance. When the impact of the WCM R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 2. 61 (17. 78)*** 0. 16 (11. 02)*** 0. 05 (0. 83) A0. 04 (A1. 33) 0. 01 (0. 51) A0. 02 (A0. 65) 0. 14 (2. 83)*** A0. 02 (A0. 42) 0. 09 (1. 72)* 1250 0. 102 18. 52*** 13 t-Statistics are shown in parentheses. **, **, * Indicates signi? cance at the 1%, 5%, and 10% level, respectively. Note: Plant performance is represented using three separate dependent variables. We estimat ed the three regression models as separate multivariate regressions. variable is included in the model, ABC adoption is not associated with any improvement in plant costs (d2 = 0. 14, t-stat = 1. 43), quality (d2 = A0. 03, t-stat = A0. 47), or time to market (d2 = 0. 05, t-stat = 0. 83). In contrast, WCM continues to have a signi? cant positive impact on all plant performance measures, and the magnitude of the WCM coe? cient is very similar to its estimate in Eq. (2).The adjusted R2 values for the complete mediation models are not signi? cantly di? erent from the R2 values of their corresponding full (i. e. , partial mediation) models. For instance, adding the ABC variable in column (3) results in an increase of 0. 1% (=0. 001) in the DCOST model’s explanatory power, compared to its corresponding R2 shown in column (2). Similarly, introducing ABC in the DQUALITY and DTIME models, results in statistically insigni? cant increases in model R2 of 0. 0% and 0. 1%, respectively. He nce, our results support hypothesis H3, indicating that WCM completely mediates the impact of ABC on plant performance.We also test an alternative speci? cation based on a perspective that the interaction between ABC and WCM implementation may have an impact on plant performance. The interaction model (Luft & Shields, 2003) is speci? ed as DPERFORMANCE ? c0 ? c1 A WCM ? c2 A ABC ? c3 A ABC A WCM ? c4 A DOWNSIZE ? c5 A SIZE ? c6 A PLANTAGE ? c7 A DISCRETE ? c8 A VOLUME ? c9 A MIX ? e4 (9) Panel C DTIME (8) (7) (6) Panel B DQUALITY (5) (4) (3) 4. 46 (17. 58)*** 0. 20 (7. 79)*** †0. 13 (2. 47)** A0. 11 (A2. 89)*** A0. 23 (A4. 36)*** 0. 05 (0. 61) 0. 22 (2. 52)** 0. 02 (0. 21) 1250 0. 068 14. 19*** 4. 46 (17. 56)*** 0. 9 (7. 62)*** 0. 14 (1. 43) 0. 13 (2. 46)** A0. 11 (A2. 93)*** A0. 23 (A4. 38)*** 0. 05 (0. 65) 0. 22 (2. 52)** 0. 02 (0. 20) 1250 0. 069 12. 68*** 3. 28 (21. 36)*** †0. 024 (0. 37) 0. 016 (0. 48) 0. 009 (0. 40) A0. 062 (A1. 89)* 0. 017 (0. 33) 0. 03 (0. 59) A0. 015 (A0. 24) 1250 0. 002 0. 70 2. 85 (18. 19)*** 0. 14 (8. 78)*** †0. 016 (0. 48) A0. 03 (A1. 28) A0. 06 (A1. 89)* 0. 03 (0. 54) 0. 01 (0. 17) A0. 04 (A0. 64) 1250 0. 056 11. 74*** 2. 86 (18. 19)*** 0. 14 (8. 78)*** A0. 03 (A0. 47) 0. 01 (0. 23) A0. 03 (A1. 27) A0. 05 (A1. 64)* 0. 03 (0. 53) 0. 01 (0. 17) A0. 04 (A0. 64) 1250 0. 056 10. 29*** . 11 (21. 30)*** †0. 11 (1. 82)* A0. 03 (A0. 96) 0. 06 (2. 53)** A0. 03 (A0. 98) 0. 12 (2. 47)** 0. 006 (0. 12) 0. 12 (2. 11)** 1250 0. 014 3. 49** 2. 61 (17. 80)*** 0. 16 (11. 15)*** †A0. 04 (A1. 32) 0. 01 (0. 53) A0. 02 (A0. 64) 0. 14 (2. 80)*** A0. 02 (A0. 42) 0. 09 (1. 72)* 1250 0. 101 21. 07*** ?4? The results indicate that the interaction term (i. e. , ABC * WCM) is not statistically signi? cant for any of the plant performance measures. The estimated magnitude of the coe? cient of the interaction term (i. e. , c3) was A0. 04 (p-value = 0. 48), A0. 02 (p-value = 0. 57), and A0. 03 (p-value = 0. 9) for the DCOST, DQUALI TY, and DTIME models respectively. These results indicate that the interaction model is not supported by empirical evidence based on analyses of the impact of ABC on operational measures of plant performance. On the other hand, the complete mediation model provides a Table 4 Impact of WCM and ABC on plant performance (2) Panel A DCOST (1) Intercept WCM ABC DOWNSIZE SIZE PLANTAGE DISCRETE VOLUME MIX N Adjusted R2 F Value 5. 05 (20. 50)*** †0. 22 (2. 13)** 0. 142 (2. 63)** 0. 06 (A1. 48) A0. 24 (A4. 54)*** 0. 04 (0. 48) 0. 25 (2. 84)*** 0. 05 (0. 53) 1250 0. 027 5. 93*** 14 R. D. Banker et al. Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 Table 5 Results of likeliness ratio tests for non-nested model selection (N = 1250) Vuong’s z-statistic DCOST: ABC vs. WCM DQUALITY: ABC vs. WCM DTIME: ABC vs. WCM 4. 72*** 6. 91*** 7. 45*** p-Value 0. 00 0. 00 0. 00 better explanation of variations in plant performance. analogy of two non-nested models We compared the R2 val ues associated with the ABC and WCM models in Table 4, and observe that WCM provides greater explanatory power of the variance in plant performance measures. In order to discriminate between these two competing speci? cations (i. e. , ABC !Performance versus WCM ! Performance), we evaluate them as non-nested models using Vuong’s (1989) likeliness ratio test for model selection that does not assume under the null that either model is true (Dechow, 1994). It allows us to determine which independent variable (ABC or WCM) has relatively more explanatory power, and represents a more powerful alternative since it can disdain one hypothesis in favor of an alternative. We report the results of Vuong’s test on nonnested models in Table 5. We conduct the Vuong’s test for each pair of competing non-nested model speci? cations in Panels A, B, and C, of Table 4.Comparing the models in Eqs. (1) and (2) for the performance variable DCOST, we ? nd that Vuong’s z-stat istic of 4. 72 is signi? cant at p < 0. 01, which indicates that the WCM model in Eq. (2) provides greater explanatory power of the variance in DCOST, compared to the ABC model in Eq. (1). Similarly, Vuong’s z-statistic scores of 6. 91 and 7. 45 are statistically signi? cant (at p < 0. 01) for the DQUALITY and DTIME models, respectively. Our results thus indicate that the direct role of ABC in explaining variations in plant performance is relatively small when compared to that of WCM. 10 Contrary to the ? dings reported A signi? cant z-statistic indicates that ABC is rejected in favor of WCM as a better predictor of variance in plant performance. *** Indicates signi? cance at the 1% level. Table 6 Overall impact of ABC on plant performance (N = 1250) Mediated path ABC ! WCM ! DCOST ABC ! WCM ! DQUALITY ABC ! WCM ! DTIME Estimated path coe? cient 0. 08 (0. 02)** 0. 05 (0. 02)** 0. 06 (0. 01)*** p-Values are shown in parentheses. ***, **, * Indicates signi? cance at the 1 %, 5%, and 10% level, respectively. in Ittner et al. (2002), our ? ndings imply that the complete mediation model provides a superior speci? ation to study the impact of ABC on plant performance. Estimating the overall impact of ABC We next estimate the magnitude of the overall impact of ABC, based on the pathway that links ABC to DPERF through WCM, where DPERF represents the change (D) in COST, QUALITY, and TIME, respectively. We calculate the magnitude of the overall impact of ABC on DPERF as the cross-product of (a) the fringy impact of ABC on WCM, and (b) the marginal impact of WCM on DPERF. That is o? DPERF? o? DPERF? o? WCM? ? A o? ABC? o? WCM? o? ABC? ?5? 10 We also estimated the model, shown in Fig. 1, using structural equation model (SEM) analyses.We then estimated a reverse causal model (i. e. , WCM ! ABC ! Performance) to examine whether ABC is a better predictor of performance, compared to WCM. Our SEM ? t statistics for the reverse model fall outside the pleasant rang e for good model ? t. Consistent with the results reported above, and contrary to the ? ndings reported in Ittner et al. (2002), this suggests that WCM has greater explanatory power than ABC to explain variations in plant performance. The path estimates for the plant performance measures are shown in Table 6. Our results indicate that the overall impact of ABC on DCOST is equal to 0. 8 which is statistically signi? cant at p < 0. 05. Similarly, the overall impact of ABC R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 15 on DQUALITY and DTIME are signi? cant, and equal to 0. 05 and 0. 06, respectively. Hence, our results support H3 and indicate that there exists an indirect relationship between ABC and plant performance, where WCM completely mediates the impact of ABC on performance. These results are consistent with our theoretical framework which suggests that, although ABC does not have a direct impact, it has a signi? cant overall impact on perfo rmance. 11Discussion We cozy up the role played by WCM as a mediator of the impact of ABC on plant performance. We ? nd that ABC has a signi? cant overall impact on reduction in product time to market and unit manufacturing costs, and on improvement in quality. Our results are consistent with prior research which suggests that successful implementation of advanced manufacturing initiatives requires prior adoption of compatible management accounting systems (Milgrom & Roberts, 1995; Shields, 1995; Ittner & Larcker, 1995; Sim & Killough, 1998). Furthermore, our results indicate that WCM practices enable plants to leverage the capabilities o? red by ABC implementation and to signi? cantly improve plant performance. Our study has several limitations. First, the survey instrument measures beliefs about changes in plant performance over a ? ve-year period. These measures need to be validated through archival and ? eld data collection in future research. Second, it is possi ble that ABC may have been in place ahead or implemented sometime during the ? ve-year period. The secondary nature of the data did not allow us to separate the implications We also extended our research model to study the indirect impact of ABC on change in plant-level return on assets (ROA), a key ? ancial performance measure. We found that ABC has a signi? cant, positive impact on DROA which is mediated through its impact on WCM. Our ROA results are consistent with our results on the inter-relationships between ABC, WCM, and plant operational performance reported here. 11 of these possibilities. futurity studies must be designed to gather more detailed data, about the timeline of ABC implementation to better understand its impact on plant performance especially since users may need training to adapt to new types of costing procedures.ABC implementation was measured as a 0â€1 variable in our study. It is possible that using a more granular scale to measure the extent of ABC i mplementation, including the level of ABC integration and the time discard since ABC implementation, may provide greater insights on the relationship between ABC and plant performance. Our focus on plants that employ a minimum of 100 employees limits the generalizability of our results to industries with relatively large or very small manufacturing plants. We also did not account for country or cultural di? rences in manufacturing characteristics since the scope of the survey was hold in to US plants. Our ? ndings must also be validated with additional data collected in industry-speci? c settings to examine the impact of industry characteristics and di? erences in manufacturing strategies. Future research may also include military rank of other contextual factors that are associated with the success of ABC implementation, such as process infrastructure, and the extent of human resource support and outsourcing. Our study enhances the quality of the existent body of knowledge on A BC e? ectiveness in several ways.First, our survey responses were data provided by plant managers who may represent a more objective and knowledgeable source of plant-wide operations compared to numerous previous studies, that relied on respondents (such as ABC escort managers) with a personal stake in ABC success (Shields, 1995; Swenson, 1995). Second, ABC non-adopters were identi? ed based on the responses provided by plant managers, unlike prior studies where non-adopters were identi? ed based on the lack of public information on ABC implementation (Balakrishnan, Linsmeier, & Venkatachalam, 1996; Gordon & Silvester, 1999).Third, we treated the manufacturing plant (instead of the ? rm) as the unit of analysis, which allowed us to observe the impact of ABC implementation on changes in process-level performance metrics 16 R. D. Banker et al. / Accounting, Organizations and Society 33 (2008) 1â€19 and avoid the confounding potential when only ? rm-level ? nancial measu res are used. Acknowledgement Helpful suggestions by the editor in chief and two anonymous referees are gratefully acknowledged. completion In contrast to prior studies (Ittner et al. 2002) that have typically focused on the direct impact of ABC on plant performance, we study the role of world-class manufacturing practices in mediating the impact of ABC on plant performance. We draw on prior research on the relationship between management accounting systems and business processes to better understand how ABC may support implementation of WCM practices. Analyzing data from a large cross-sectional sample of US manufacturing plants, we ? nd evidence supporting our model emphasizing the role of advanced manufacturing practices in improving plant performance. Our ? ndings emphasize the need for ? ms to strengthen their manufacturing capabilities when making an investment to implement ABC systems, as ABC is unlikely to result in improved manufacturing performance by itself. Our evidence also suggests that plants can reap signi? cant bene? ts by have ABC implementation with the deployment of advanced manufacturing practices. Using a conceptual lens that focuses on the indirect impact of ABC, the evidence supports our alternative theoretical perspective to prior research. We conceptualize ABC as only an enabler of world-class manufacturing practices, which in turn is associated with improvements in plant performance.Our ‘‘complete mediation’’ model stands in contrast with earlier models proposed by Ittner et al. (2002) who focus primarily on the direct impact of ABC on plant performance. The results indicate that our alternative conceptualization is superior in terms of its ability to explain variations in plant performance based on cross-sectional data of a large sample of plants that have implemented ABC. Furthermore, our proposed model may provide an avenue for future researchers using di? erent methodologies to explain di? erences in p erformance improvements following ABC implementations.It may also explain the weak or ambiguous results in prior research on ABC impact because ABC adoption may not be a su? cient statistic for WCM. Appendix: look into questions I. Plant characteristics Variable SIZE Question How many employees are at this plant location? 1 = Less than 100; 2 = 100â€249; 3 = 250â€499; 4 = 500â€999; 5 = >1000 employees PLANTAGE How many years has it been since plant start-up? 1 = Less than 5 years; 2 = 5â€10 years; 3 = 11â€20 years; 4 = >20 years MIX, VOLUME12 How would you describe the primary product mix at this plant? = High volume, high mix; 2 = High volume, low mix 3 = Low volume, high mix; 4 = Low volume, low mix What is the nature of manufacturing operations for primary products at this plant? 1 = clear-cut; 0 = Otherwise (hybrid or process) What is the extent of downsizing at the plant in the past ? ve years? 1 = no change, 2 = extent of downsizing increased 1â€10%, 3 = increased 11â€20%, 4 = increased 21â€50%, 5 = increased 51â€75%, and 6 = increased >75% DISCRETE DOWNSIZE For our analysis, we teardrop the data into two variables such that MIX = 1 if high mix; 0 = otherwise, and VOLUME = 1 if high volume; 0 = otherwise\r\n'