Toshiba’s electronic‐imaging division (EID) is a business in transition. Yesterday, it seemed, all photocopiers and fax machines were simply standalone pieces of kit. Today they are just as likely to be sitting on a network and will be seen as part of the IT infrastructure rather than simply...

A strike triggered by religious holidays and summer breaks nearly brought ABC Consumer Electronics’ flagship maquiladora plant at Juarez to its knees. But it ultimately forced revisions in labor laws which improved the workers’ lot across the consumer electronics industry in Mexico. The...

Heard the one about the company which took its staff thousands of miles for a picnic? It is not a joke; it really happened in New Zealand when Dick Hubbard, owner and managing director of breakfast cereal manufacturer Hubbard Foods Ltd flew his entire 102‐man workforce to Western Samoa for a...

Many companies which consider teleworking do not immediately think of the human resource management side first. They are enticed by reports that teleworking can lead to productivity increases of up to 30 percent, a halving of sickness levels and a widening of the pool of skilled people who might...

Over a third of all executives and nearly half of junior managers say that the quality of leadership in their organization is poor, according to new research entitled Leadership: The Challenge for All?, launched by the Institute of Management (IM). The project, carried out by independent...

Two thirds of executives believe that creativity is the key to gaining and sustaining competitive advantage in today’s global business environment, according to recent research. However, the report, Harnessing Creativity to Improve the Bottom Line – by Professor Amin Rajan and Barbara...

Can company councils ever replace trade unions in the collective‐bargaining process? Do such forms of non‐union representation make trade unions unnecessary, or do they simply play a different but complementary role? These questions are explored in the context of Eurotunnel.

Siemens, once noted for its bureaucratic and hierarchical approach to business, has adopted a grass‐roots and “bottom up” approach to knowledge management, which has transformed the company over the last three years. Without any suggestion or provocation from above, middle‐level...

Throughout the turbulent recent history of UK carmaker Rover, culminating in parent BMW’s sale of the company for £10 to the Phoenix consortium in May 2000, internal communications with the workforce were never far from the top of the agenda.

Companies introducing cellular manufacturing have concentrated on such technical issues as classification methods, the design of the workflow sequence and the physical arrangement of machinery for reducing set‐up times. The experience of one Australian manufacturer indicates, however, that the...