This new book explains the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement system (ProMES) and how it meets the criteria for an optimal measurement and feedback system. It summarizes all the research that has been done on productivity, mentioning other measurement systems, and gives detailed information on how to implement this one in organizations. This book will be of interest to behavioral science researchers and professionals who wish to learn more about the practical methods of measuring and improving organizational productivity.
Presents the proceedings of two workshops on productivity measurement and analysis, which brought together representatives of statistical offices, central banks and other officials involved with the analysis and measurement of productivity at aggregate and industry levels.
This new edition of this bestselling guide offers an integrated approach to process improvement that delivers quick and substantial results in quality and productivity in diverse settings. The authors explore their Model for Improvement that worked with international improvement efforts at multinational companies as well as in different industries such as healthcare and public agencies. This edition includes new information that shows how to accelerate improvement by spreading changes across multiple sites. The book presents a practical tool kit of ideas, examples, and applications.
How do the benefits of higher education compare with its costs, and how does this comparison vary across individuals and institutions? These questions are fundamental to quantifying the productivity of the education sector. The studies in Productivity in Higher Education use rich and novel administrative data, modern econometric methods, and careful institutional analysis to explore productivity issues. The authors examine the returns to undergraduate education, differences in costs by major, the productivity of for-profit schools, the productivity of various types of faculty and of outcomes, the effects of online education on the higher education market, and the ways in which the productivity of different institutions responds to market forces. The analyses recognize five key challenges to assessing productivity in higher education: the potential for multiple student outcomes in terms of skills, earnings, invention, and employment; the fact that colleges and universities are “multiproduct” firms that conduct varied activities across many domains; the fact that students select which school to attend based in part on their aptitude; the difficulty of attributing outcomes to individual institutions when students attend more than one; and the possibility that some of the benefits of higher education may arise from the system as a whole rather than from a single institution. The findings and the approaches illustrated can facilitate decision-making processes in higher education.
This book presents a mathematical programming approach to the analysis of production frontiers and efficiency measurement. The authors construct a variety of production frontiers, and by measuring distances to them are able to develop a model of efficient producer behaviour and a taxonomy of possible types of departure from efficiency in various environments. Linear programming is used as an analytical and computational technique in order to accomplish this. The approach developed is then applied to modelling producer behaviour. By focusing on the empirical relevance of production frontiers and distances to them, and applying linear programming techniques to artificial data to illustrate the type of information they can generate, this book provides a unique study in applied production analysis. It will be of interest to scholars and students of economics and operations research, and analysts in business and government.
Performance improvement is important for any organization in Europe. In the early 1990's the Productivity Measurement and Enhancement System (ProMES) was introduced in Europe. ProMES can help to define performance indicators for work groups. Feedback and goal setting are the crucial elements that operate in the use of this system in practice. In this issue we have brought together the experiences of European researchers in implementing the ProMES system. The first three articles cover these experiences and try to give an answer to three fundamental questions: -- In what way can people contribute to the effectiveness of the organization?-- What kind of motives do people have to contribute to organizational effectiveness?-- How can people actually improve performance?The last two articles focus on the subject of improving quality in particular. The fourth article illustrates that a gap exists between quality management practices and a more scientific approach. The model that is used by the European Foundation for Quality Management requires a better methodological and conceptual underpinning. The fifth article presents the results from a European Study about the social impact of the implementation of a quality policy in organizations. It shows that a quality policy can have impact on commitment, job security and upward communication.
