Este artigo pode ser copiado, distribuído, exibido, transmitido ou adaptado desde que citados, de forma clara e explícita, o nome da revista, a edição, o ano e as páginas nas quais o artigo foi publicado originalmente, mas sem sugerir que a RAM endosse a reutilização do artigo. Esse termo de licenciamento deve ser explicitado para os casos de reutilização ou distribuição para terceiros. Não é permitido o uso para fins comerciais. ADILSON ADERITO SILVAUniversidade Presbiteriana Mackenzie (UPM), São Paulo -SP, Brazil. FERNANDO COELHO MARTINS FERREIRA ABSTRACTPurpose: The purpose of this study is to propose a model to estimate how uncertainty, flexibility, and operational performance are related. The assumption is that competition in the current business environment has been broadening consumers' options. These options have brought uncertainty to companies regarding the adoption of operational strategies, particularly to adjustment of flexibility to their competitive priorities. Originality/value: The research designed a theoretical model that presents convergent, discriminant validity, and good reliability. Therefore, it is possible to estimate the perceived uncertainty, flexibility, and operational performance from a set of evaluated companies. Design/methodology/approach: Data was collected out of managers and analysts from the financial, energy, and manufacturing sectors. The uncertainty was estimated by taking into account the state, the effect, and the choice of responses from changes in business environment. In addition, it was considered the flexibility and the performance within the operational indicators. Findings: The results reveal moderate managers' ability to predict the state of the environment and its effects on their organization's activities. Also they show that uncertainty does not influence the operational performance when mediated by flexibility. Thus, in a moderate environmental stability, flexibility can be adopted to mitigate the effects of uncertainty on operational performance. KEYWORDSUncertainty. Operational performance. Flexibility. Business environment. Proactive strategy.Uncertainty, flexibility and operational performance of companies: modelling from the perspective of managers Revista de

If you would like to write for this, or any other Emerald publication, then please use our Emerald for Authors service information about how to choose which publication to write for and submission guidelines are available for all. Please visit www.emeraldinsight.com/authors for more information. About Emerald www.emeraldinsight.comEmerald is a global publisher linking research and practice to the benefit of society. The company manages a portfolio of more than 290 journals and over 2,350 books and book series volumes, as well as providing an extensive range of online products and additional customer resources and services.Emerald is both COUNTER 4 and TRANSFER compliant. The organization is a partner of the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE) and also works with Portico and the LOCKSS initiative for digital archive preservation. AbstractPurpose -Using the industry as an approximation of the external environment of companies, Dess and Beard proposed the construct organizational task environment (OTE). If the precision of the definition of industry is desirable, it involves a multiplicity of elements that restrict the ability of generalization. This paper aims to contribute by identifying clusters of industries with similar environmental profiles. As the discriminant validity of the OTE construct was tested only by Harris in US manufacturing industry, not supporting it, this study also seeks to contribute by assessing the OTE construct validity for the Brazilian manufacturing industry. Design/methodology/approach -Authors collected data from all manufacturing sectors in Brazil, between 1996 and 2003; they used confirmatory factor analysis with the multi-trait multi-method matrix approach to assess the construct validity and ran environmental dimensions' factorial scores through the cluster analysis to find out natural groupings of industries. Findings -The results support the convergent and discriminant validity of the construct OTE, suggesting that further replication should be conducted in the US economy and in different economic contexts.Research limitations/implications -The study identified four groups of industries with similar environmental conditions, increasing possibilities of generalization of researches. The limitations stem from measurement in an extended period of time and not measuring changes in the environment. Practical implications -To expand the analytical capabilities of managers for decision making on the sharing of skills between businesses in different industries. Originality/value -The main contributions of this work are to further discussions on the validity of the OTE construct and to identify industrial clusters of homogeneous environments.

Este trabalho é o relato do desenvolvimento da solução de um problema referente ao custo excessivo de gestão de colaboradores afastados, demitidos e aposentados, geradores de um impacto negativo de mais de R$ 17,7 milhões anuais para a empresa J. Macêdo, da indústria de panificação, biscoitos e massas, atuante no mercado nacional. A metodologia utilizada foi a da solução de problemas e do aproveitamento de oportunidades, que trata de questões concretas das organizações, com fundamentação científica. Com base nela, foi proposta a implementação de controle e monitoramento do processo de gestão dessas situações, a qual foi aprovada pelos diretores das unidades de negócio da empresa, facilitando o desenvolvimento de cada etapa. A proposta de solução compreendeu a capacitação técnica das áreas envolvidas, com programas de treinamentos internos, contratação de consultorias especializadas, revisão de acordos coletivos de trabalho e plano de ação para mitigação de riscos até dezembro de 2021. Para isso, entrevistaram-se gestores dos departamentos de recursos humanos, jurídico e financeiro e analisaram-se documentos, o que permitiu a elaboração de alternativas de solução, gerando uma expectativa de redução de 10% do montante reconhecido no cálculo atuarial de 2020 em relação ao valor patrimonial a ser reconhecido de 2021. PALAVRAS-CHAVECustos de mão de obra. Custos trabalhistas. Gestão de recursos humanos.