Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to study the often overlapping use of the related terms flexibility, agility and responsiveness in the operations management literature to clarify differences between the terms.Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the notion of the ladder of abstraction, a conceptual differentiation between the three terms is proposed.Findings – Based on the most common associations of the terms in the literature, the paper proposes a hierarchical interrelationship between the terms in that: flexibility is most commonly associated with the inherent property of systems which allows them to change within pre‐established parameters; agility is predominantly used to describe an approach to organizing that provides for rapid system reconfiguration in the face of unforeseeable changes; and responsiveness commonly refers to a system behavior involving timely purposeful change in the presence of modulating stimuli.Practical implications – As managers of manufacturing firms strive to impr...

A theoretical review of flexibility, agility and responsiveness in the operations management literature: Toward a conceptual definition of customer responsiveness

http://repositori.uji.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10234/19073/32738.pdf;sequence=1

Human Resource Flexibility as a Mediating Variable Between High Performance Work Systems and Performance

The author discusses the results of a study about the effect of students' and instructional variables on satisfaction and achievement in a Web-based course. Results indicated that gender, age, learning styles, time spent on the course, and perceptions of student–student interactions, course activities, and asynchronous Web-based conferences were not related to satisfaction and learning outcomes. Those students who entered the course with better Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) scores achieved higher final grades in the course, but did not express more satisfaction with the learning environment. Computer experience did not influence achievement but experienced computer users were more satisfied with the course. Students who perceived the student–instructor interactions positively felt that their discussion group had performed well during the conferences, and viewed the learning materials used in the conferences positively improved grades and were more satisfied with the course. Students expected instructor-led learning. There is a need to explicitly design an organising strategy to assist students in completing the problem-based learning processes during the Web-based conferences.

Relationships between students' and instructional variables with satisfaction and learning from a Web-based course

A combined goal programming—AHP approach to maintenance selection problem

A combined AHP–GP model for quality control systems

Technological advances have spurred the development of Web‐based teaching. Today, a substantial body of research addresses the effectiveness of this new teaching medium. Results have been mixed, showing mostly no significant improvement over traditional methods. Examines a fundamental, yet often forgotten, element in designing Web‐based teaching materials: the user. Aims to draw a profile of the heaviest users of a course Web site and uncover the reasons why non‐users decide not to access supplemental materials on the Web. The results indicate that male students access the Web site more often than females. Higher GPA was also related to heavier use. The most important result seems to be the relationship between learning style and use, with assimilators paying more frequent visits to the Web site.

Web‐based teaching materials: a user’s profile

At a time when the number of internationally mobile students worldwide has been growing steadily, the US share of this market has been declining. Since, as it is often claimed, international students are the best ambassadors for their host countries, an effective recruitment strategy is to enhance their learning experience, with the expectation that others will hear about it. In a post 9/11 environment, we focus on the importance of non-discriminatory environments to bring about successful learning outcomes, which we construe as academic performance and perceived quality of educational experience. We hypothesise that student engagement acts as a mediator in this relationship. We also investigate the moderating effect of perceived English proficiency in the relationship between discrimination and engagement. We find that (1) perceived discrimination has a strong, negative impact on educational experience, (2) the mediation primarily occurs through active and collaborative learning and (3) perceived English...

Perceived discrimination and international students' learning: an empirical investigation

This empirical study identifies individual, organizational, and job factors of the range‐number element of labor flexibility. Tenure and emotional stability are found to increase a worker's flexibility. Emphases on quality, speed, and flexibility (time) also have positive influences on labor flexibility. Finally, task complexity, joint responsibility for decision making, and automation require workers to expand their skill repertoire and therefore enhance their flexibility. This study focuses on a sound measurement of labor flexibility and proposes strategies to cultivate this capability.

Strategies to foster labor flexibility

Research on information system training has focused primarily on methods, while neglecting the effects of interruption intervals between training and system implementation. This empirical study examines the resilience of accurate mental models of an enterprise-wide system in a large health care facility. Accurate mental models were shown to withstand the passage of time and resulted in superior field performance following a crash conversion. Consistent with prior experimental research, certain types of learners were more likely to acquire these sounder mental models. In large organisations where the simultaneous training of users on a complex system is virtually impossible, scheduling is an important facet of the training paradigm. The main practical implications of this study involve the development of: (1) training programmes emphasising performance on far-transfer tasks, (2) training schedules designed to minimise knowledge erosion, and (3) criteria for selecting highly capable super users.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1057%2Fpalgrave.ejis.3000728.pdf

Resilience of super users’ mental models of enterprise-wide systems

A recent study showed that Web-based materials enhanced teaching and learning in an introductory operations management course. Evidence gained from the study provides the basis for several guidelines concerning the early stages of implementing such a course. Faculty should understand why students visit the Website, time the availability of materials to match usage patterns, and provide information in appropriate detail and in an appropriate format. The Website facilitated students' note taking and studying, enhanced class discussion, and aided retention; it did not encourage students to miss class, as some faculty feared. Students tended to print out materials from the site, so that printing costs for courses were not reduced, just transferred from an academic department to the computer lab or the students. While traditional "chalk and talk" approaches will continue in the short term, students will increasingly see such an approach as outdated and find the Web their instructional medium of choice.

Corinne M. Karuppan

Papers

Web‐based teaching materials: a user’s profile

Perceived discrimination and international students' learning: an empirical investigation

Strategies to foster labor flexibility

Resilience of super users’ mental models of enterprise-wide systems

Empirically Based Guidelines for Developing Teaching Materials on the Web