Purpose – The purpose of this article is to show the foundational place that communication theory and its practice occupies in functioning work systems. Design/methodology/approach – This paper defines the word communication in terms of the creation and interpretation of displays, describes...

Most performance evaluation models in the operations management literature implicitly assume that tasks possess standardized completion criteria. However, in many systems, particularly service and professional work, judgment is frequently required to determine how much time to allocate to a...

How can we understand similarities and differences between work practices in multinational companies’ (MNCs) subsidiaries in different host country conditions? The paper addresses this question by studying selected soft work practices, namely work systems and fringe benefits, in a Dutch MNC...

We develop a purchasing portfolio method by integrating a company view, a market-based view and a process view, aggregated in a 3-dimensional portfolio cube. Top management typically takes another view on purchasing issues than purchasing itself. Furthermore, it seems crucial to include the...

Shared Services (SS) involves the convergence and streamlining of an organisation’s functions to ensure timely service delivery as effectively and efficiently as possible. As a management structure designed to promote value generation, cost savings and improved service delivery by leveraging...