Input Use and Productivity across Farm Sizes: A Comparison of the Two Punjabs

1988 ◽  
Vol 27 (4II) ◽  
pp. 595-604 ◽  
Author(s):  
Eshya Mujahid Mukhtar ◽  
Hanid Mukhtar
Keyword(s):  
Agricultural Practices ◽  
Distribution Networks ◽  
Climatic Conditions ◽  
Government Policies ◽  
Economic Costs ◽  
Land Distribution ◽  
Input Use ◽  
Policy Measures ◽  
Ideal Framework ◽  
Productivity Gains

Agricultural production depends upon certain crucial inputs e.g., water, fertilizer etc. In the less developed regions of South Asia in general, and the indo-Pakistan sub-continent in particular, the use of these inputs depends not only upon the financial affordability but also upon the institutional accessibility of farmers to these inputs. Besides high economic costs, bureaucratic controls and corruption regarding the distribution of inputs have created problems of limited accessibility, especially to the small farmers. In the absence of any credit, information and/or input distribution networks, the use of these inputs, and related productivity gains, become confined to that class of farmers which not only has better access to these inputs but is capable of using them in the best possible way e.g. use of water and fertilizer in the appropriate amount and at the appropriate time. This paper attempts to study how input use and input productivity vary across farm sizes, with some reference to the infrastructural and institutional factors, whose development play an important role in improving the distribution and productivity of inputs. For such an analysis, a comparison of the two Punjabs i.e. Pakistani and Indian Punjabs, presents an ideal framework, Separated by a national boundary since 1947, the two Punjabs enjoy a common history and culture, similar agricultural practices and agro-climatic conditions, Government policies in the two Punjabs, however, have not only differed between the two provinces at the same time, but also over time in the same province. It may be noted that due to certain policy measures, land distribution, tenancy conditions, promotion of agricultural co-operatives and provision of infrastructural features, such as roads and electricity, are relatively more improved in Indian than Pakistani Punjab.

scholarly journals Sparking Manufacturing Innovation: How Temporary Interplant Assignments Increase Employee Idea Values

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philipp B. Cornelius ◽  
Bilal Gokpinar ◽  
Fabian J. Sting
Keyword(s):  
Operations Management ◽  
Learning By Doing ◽  
Shop Floor ◽  
Manufacturing Plants ◽  
Level Data ◽  
Manufacturing Innovation ◽  
Econometric Tests ◽  
Production Knowledge ◽  
Productivity Gains

Shop-floor employees play a key role in manufacturing innovation. In some companies, up to 75% of all productivity gains are the result of bottom-up employee ideas. In this paper, we examine how employee interplant assignments—short problem-solving jobs at other manufacturing plants within the same firm—influence employee-driven manufacturing innovation. Using unique idea-level data from a large European car parts manufacturer, we show that interplant assignments significantly increase the value of employees’ improvement ideas due to the short-term transfer of production knowledge and long-term employee learning. Both effects are amplified by assignments to plants that have high functional overlap (i.e., plants producing similar products using similar processes and machinery). One implication is that, for the purpose of employee-driven manufacturing innovation, assignments between peripheral plants with high functional overlap can be more effective than assignments to and from central plants. These findings are robust to several econometric tests. Our study provides novel and detailed empirical evidence of manufacturing innovation, and goes beyond previous research on the learning curve (learning by doing) by investigating how interplant assignments affect the value of employees’ improvement ideas (learning by moving). This paper was accepted by Charles J. Corbett, operations management.

scholarly journals Sociology’s Role in the Teaching of Organizational Behavior in Higher Education. The Case of Hospitality Management

Societies ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 51 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jorge Ferraz
Keyword(s):  
Organizational Behavior ◽  
Work Conditions ◽  
Hospitality Management ◽  
Social Dimensions ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
The Social ◽  
Organizational Structuring ◽  
Hospitality Organizations ◽  
And Behavior ◽  
Productivity Gains

Teaching in universities, especially in management schools, is today orientated to solving-problems and operational skills’ development, short-term productivity gains and to a vocational perspective. This represents an impoverishment of a deeper learning, an obstacle to the development of competences in a broader and integrative sense and the absence of a critical thinking practice. These are important tools to enhance in students and future managers, as specific social actors, abilities to act in a conscious, autonomous and long-term efficacious manner in society. This essay’s objective is to problematize the role that sociology could assume in the overcoming of that impoverishment, namely within the curricular unit of organizational behavior in two ways. First, teaching the social and macro dimensions that contribute to explain organizational structuring and behavior. Secondly, enhancing reflexivity and contextualization on the practices and discourses of all social actors involved and disassembling the dominant ideological, naturalized and simplistic individualized view on the reality of labor, employment and organizations. This is especially relevant in hospitality management studies because the dominant discourse about hospitality organizations hide, under a hegemonic paradigm of naturalized and individualized explanations, the macro-social dimensions of its organizational culture, work conditions, employees’ behaviors, management styles and market labor.

CASE AND ITS CHALLENGE FOR CHANGE

1991 ◽  
Vol 01 (02) ◽  
pp. 151-163 ◽  
Author(s):  
GREG BOONE
Keyword(s):  
Systems Engineering ◽  
Software Industry ◽  
Software Systems ◽  
Work Practices ◽  
Software Developers ◽  
Productivity Improvement ◽  
Computer Aided ◽  
Difficult Challenge ◽  
Ideological Change ◽  
Productivity Gains

Although the majority of professional trade press and academic attention regarding CASE (Computer Aided Software/Systems Engineering) has focused on technology, software developers have not been deluded by overinflated productivity gains attributed to those technologies. Truly profound technologies require a concomitant change in methods, practices, and techniques. Unfortunately, the majority of the software industry has had the expectation that CASE will automate their current work without rethinking work practices. Changing work practices, particularly among highly independent-minded software developers, who prize independent creativity more than team engineering, is the most difficult challenge facing the advance of the software development profession. Equally difficult is the ideological change from a productivity improvement expectation to a quality improvement expectation. This paper examines the current rate of CASE adoption and the changes necessary to accelerate its successful adoption.

Creating Productive Jobs in East European Transition Economies: a Synthesis of Firm-Level Studies

2008 ◽  
Vol 204 ◽  
pp. 108-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. David Brown ◽  
John S. Earle
Keyword(s):  
Labour Market ◽  
Transition Economies ◽  
Market Reform ◽  
Aggregate Productivity ◽  
Firm Level ◽  
East European ◽  
Job Reallocation ◽  
Firm Turnover ◽  
Market Liberalisation ◽  
Productivity Gains

The challenge for labour market policy in the new member states and other transition economies of Eastern Europe has been to redress the sharp drops in employment and rises in unemployment in a way that fosters the creation of productive jobs. This paper first documents the magnitude and productivity of job and worker reallocation. It then investigates the effects of privatisation, product and labour market liberalisation, and obstacles to growth in the new private sector on reallocation and its productivity in Hungary, Romania, Russia, and Ukraine. We find that market reform has resulted in a large increase in the pace of job reallocation, particularly that occurring between sectors and via firm turnover. Unlike under central planning, the job reallocation during the transition has contributed significantly to aggregate productivity growth. Privatisation has not only stimulated intrasectoral job reallocation, but the reallocation is more productive than that among remaining state firms. The estimated effect of privatisation on firm productivity is usually positive, but it varies considerably across countries. The productivity gains from privatisation have generally not come at the expense of workers, but are associated rather with increased wages and employment.

A modified production function analysis of changing southern forest productivity

1991 ◽  
Vol 21 (8) ◽  
pp. 1278-1287 ◽  
Author(s):  
David H. Newman
Keyword(s):  
Production Function ◽  
Function Analysis ◽  
Public Lands ◽  
Forest Productivity ◽  
Southern States ◽  
The Past ◽  
Lower Productivity ◽  
Aggregate Production Function ◽  
The Impact ◽  
Productivity Gains

The analysis in this paper measures changes in forest productivity for 12 southern states using a modified, aggregate production function. The function combines cross section – time series, biological, and acreage data to estimate the shift in productivity, measured as either standing inventory plus removals or changes in inventory plus removals, over the past 4 decades. The annual shift in productivity is estimated to be approximately 0.5% for the standing volume measures used. However, productivity gains in the region have virtually stopped during the past decade. The largest contributions to productivity gains were from industrially owned lands and land managed as planted pine. Mixed pine–hardwood stands and public lands (except for plantations) showed lower productivity impacts. These results present an essential component for understanding the impact of technical change on aggregate forest productivity in the southern United States.

scholarly journals Freight rates and productivity gains in British tramp shipping 1869–1950

2004 ◽  
Vol 41 (2) ◽  
pp. 172-203 ◽  
Author(s):  
Saif I.Shah Mohammed ◽  
Jeffrey G Williamson
Keyword(s):  
Freight Rates ◽  
Tramp Shipping ◽  
Productivity Gains
Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document