No / This research seeks to measure citizen satisfaction with the electronic Prescription Prepayment Certificate (PPC) offered by National Health Service (NHS) in the United Kingdom (UK). The paper reports on the findings of a survey of over 500 users of the NHS PPC service. Satisfaction is measured using the four dimensions from the COBRA framework (Osman et al. (2011) [1]) which comprise the cost, opportunity, benefits and risk assessment constructs. This is the first study to measure citizen satisfaction with the electronic PPC in the UK across these constructs. The results show that most citizens using the PPC electronic service are satisfied with this service and that the service meets their essential needs. The paper also presents the results of qualitative feedback obtained from the participants that can be used to determine the areas that need further improvement in the current electronic PPC service and potential influence on user satisfaction.

Yes / The integration of products and services into a bundled product/service offering by manufacturing organisations is seen as a global trend in today’s competitive business environment. The shift of product-based manufacturers towards offering business solutions and value-added services to consumers is termed as ‘Servitization’. Contrary to the potential benefits expected by adding service activities to the offerings, advocates voice their concerns towards experiential problems and challenges in employing the servitization strategy – termed as ‘Servitization Paradox’. Nevertheless, the shift from product-based delivery to a service-based provision has the potential to significantly impact on developing sustainable and eco-friendly environment. To provide greater insights to the servitization phenomenon, this paper presents a comprehensive analysis of the servitization implementation in manufacturing organisations. In order to respond to the latter, we propose the following three research questions “Q1 – what are the different types of servitization strategies”, “Q2 – what are the different servitization definitions”, “Q3 – what are the potential benefits in selecting a servitization strategy?”, “Q4 – what are the challenges in transitioning towards servitization?”. A systematic literature review is carried out to understand the past trends and extant patterns/themes in the servitization strategy research area, evaluate contributions, summarise knowledge, thereby identifying limitations, implications and potential further research avenues. The key findings confirm servitization studies have contributed both conceptually and empirically to the development and accumulation of intellectual wealth to the manufacturing operations and supply chain discipline. Moreover, the findings clearly indicate the potential of servitization in transitioning manufacturing organisations (e.g. benefits) and utilising innovative technologies to generate business value. Nevertheless, some voices are backing further research/development in the area of servitization due to the several existing challenges.

Companies have been known to reduce their costs by reducing their spending on employee benefits, but in the last decade there has been an increasing interest on how these decisions affect not just employee productivity and turnover, but also overall shareholder wealth and company profitability. This thesis seeks to answer whether companies that have a greater focus on their employee welfare and satisfaction are more financially stable and profitable than their competitors. The research and analysis consists of 40 companies, 20 highly rated by their employees paired with 20 of the worst companies according to employee opinion and benefits. Each pair must consist of comparable companies based on their industry and size. All companies are also part of Fortune 1000 and must be publicly traded. After conducting multiple tests on the data collected for each company and industry, the results support the hypothesis of a positive correlation between employee spending and shareholder wealth.

This dissertation explores the role of science and technology in democracy and the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) through an illustrative case on a uranium mining controversy in the US state of Virginia. Arguably, traditional STS scholarship has primarily served what we might call an unmasking function by working to expose political, cultural, gender, corporate, and other factors that get masked by the cultural authority of scientific expertise. Following the lead of other STS scholars seeking to move beyond an unmasking-only mode of scholarship, this dissertation offers a novel take on the relationship between expertise and public controversy over technoscience by suggesting that cost-benefit analysis might serve a beneficial pro-democratic ritual role. To explore this question of the role played by expertise and what we might learn and recommend from approaching CBA as a democratic ritual, I consider the case of a uranium mining and milling controversy in Virginia. This controversy surfaced in two distinct historical moments and prominently featured technical studies utilizing expert predictive methods. I analyze these texts from the perspective of the sociopolitical ritual theory developed in the dissertation and then suggest a set of recommendations regarding how we might humanize and deploy CBA within the context of enhancing rituals that serve to maintain liberal democratic political imaginaries. / Ph. D. / This dissertation explores the role of science and technology in democracy and the use of cost-benefit analysis (CBA) through an illustrative case on a uranium mining controversy in the US state of Virginia. Ultimately, this research offers a novel take on the relationship between expertise and public controversy over technical and scientific projects by suggesting that cost-benefit analysis might serve a beneficial ritual role. After articulating a conceptual framework and analyzing a series of technical studies, a set of recommendations regarding the use of cost-benefit analysis within the context of democratic policy-making is articulated.

The purpose of the study was to investigate the perceptions of job satisfaction as defined by management and nonmanagement employees and to compare both parties' perceptions of organizational benefits to a list prepared by the organization's benefit personnel. Turnover is costly to the organization, both in money and in the impact it has on those individuals remaining with the organization. Every effort should be undertaken to reduce the amount of turnover within the organization. A contributing factor leading to turnover may be a gap between what the employees believe is important to them and what management believes is important to the employees. The boundaries of the gap need to be identified before any effort can be made to reduce or bridge the gap. Once the boundaries are identified, policies can be analyzed and the possibility of reducing the gap investigated. Management as a whole must be aware of the needs and wants of their employees before any attempt to develop a retention strategy is undertaken. This knowledge can be acquired only through two-way communication with the employee. The communication process includes the simple process of asking employees for this information and then listening to how they respond. This study suggests that little difference exists in perception of job satisfaction importance for gender, age group, length of time with the organization, topic training hours, and between management and nonmanagement employees. However, perception gaps exist between the job satisfaction items addressed by organizational policies and procedures and those perceived by employees. Additional studies that include a number of varied organizations are needed before extensive generalizations can be made.

<p>U doktorskoj disertaciji je vršeno ispitivanje uticaja kontekstualnih faktora na sprovođenje &bdquo;co-benefits&ldquo; politika u urbanim sredinama zemalja u razvoju. Posmatrajući razvoj biciklističkog saobraćaja kao vrstu jedne takve politike, vršena je analiza uticaja političkih, društveno-ekonomskih, institucionalnih i organizacionih faktora na procese planiranja i implementacije &bdquo;co-benefits&ldquo; politika. Takođe, u sklopu istraživačkih aktivnosti sproveden je konkretan infrastrukturni &bdquo;co-benefits&ldquo; projekat i razvijen je okvir za evaluaciju ekoloških i drugih benefita.</p> / <p>Doctoral dissertation investigates influence of contextual factors on<br />implementation of &bdquo;co-benefits&ldquo; policies within urban areas of developing<br />countries. Taking bicycle traffic as one of such policies, the influences of<br />political, socio-economic, institutional and organisational factors on planning<br />and implementation of &ldquo;co-benefits&rdquo; policies had been analysed. Also, an<br />infrastructure &ldquo;co-benefits&rdquo; project and framework for evaluation of ecological<br />and other benefits have been developed.</p>

This study investigated how employees perceived corporate fitness programs as benefits, how fitness programs were ranked with other selected employee benefits and if they would be considered in future career opportunities. A questionnaire was given to employees from five companies with and five companies without fitness programs. The 452 Ss were subdivided into the two sub-groups of employees with and without company fitness programs, and high and low adherers to physical activity. Data were analyzed by Chi- Square and proportional differences. Fitness programs were considered to be significantly important benefits; high/low adherers responses were significant. In N rank ordering of eight selected benefits, fitness programs ranked seventh; high/low adherers had significant rankings of fitness programs; employees with and without fitness programs had significant rankings of sick leave time/pay. The N did not consider fitness programs as significant future recruitment tools; there were significant differences from responses of high/low adherers. Some companies did not emphasize fitness programs as important benefits to employees.

Changes in workforce demographics, employee sentiments, and working conditions have increased attention on employees' needs to balance the demands of work life and family life. Despite apparent growing interest among companies to be responsive to these needs, the number of companies demonstrating high levels of work-family responsiveness is relatively small. The frameworks of resource dependence theory and institutional theory were used to develop a model to explain differences in work-family responsiveness among for-profit companies. The theoretical models were tested on survey data collected through a stratified random sample of 692 for-profit companies. The data were further enhanced with secondary data sources. While the institutional model explained more variance in work-family responsiveness than the resource dependence model, a model combining both theories best explains work-family responsiveness among for-profit companies. High industry-region diffusion of family-friendly benefits was one of several strong predictors of work-family responsiveness. Also, the greater the proportion of professionals in a company's industry, the greater was the level of work-family responsiveness. Companies that measured effectiveness outcomes were more likely to offer family-friendly benefits. The same was true for companies with more positive assessments regarding the impact of their family-friendly benefits. Organizations that were large, publicly traded, or had human resource departments also demonstrated greater levels of work-family responsiveness. Future research should include variables introduced in this study and should expand the range of variables as to include other theoretical perspectives. Policy makers for companies, advocacy groups and government leaders will find the results of this study beneficial. Companies operating in environments characterized by strong diffusion of family-friendly benefits among similar companies will be well served by developing policies and programs that conform to these norms. Advocates and government leaders should understand that recent interest in work-family responsiveness is unlikely equally benefit all sectors of employment.

張家偉. / 論文(哲學碩士) -- 香港中文大學硏究院政治與行政學部, 1997. / 參考文獻: leaves 107-116. / Zhang Jiawei. / Chapter 1. --- 緖論 --- p.1-15 / Chapter 2. --- 中國國有企業的福利制度 --- p.16-32 / Chapter 3. --- 國有企業的福利擴張趨勢 --- p.33-60 / Chapter 4. --- 中國政府對福利擴張的控制 --- p.61-74 / Chapter 5. --- 福利擴張揭示的現象-- 工人與企業經營者的關係 --- p.75-90 / Chapter 6. --- 總結 --- p.91-97 / Chapter 7. --- 附錄一：山東省某國有企業的個案硏究 --- p.98-106 / 附錄二：中國國有企業職工福利發展相關大事記 / Chapter 8. --- 參考文獻 --- p.107-116

This thesis deals with the issue of employee benefits and their role in motivating workers. The aim is to assess which factors encourage people to achieve better outcomes in their job and whether benefits belong to them. The first part of the thesis is dedicated to theoretical knowledge of motivation. The basic principles of motivational theories are explained there more in detail. The second chapter deals with employee benefits, their types and significance for the company and employees. The practical part includes an analysis of employee benefits in the company GlaxoSmithKline. The conclusion of the thesis is based on results of a questionnaire survey regarding motivation and of interviews, in which some possible links between the benefits and motivation were examined.