Examines the applicability of determinants identified in a physical services environment to assess the services relating to e‐commerce. It is argued that the lack of human interaction during the Web site experience means that determinants such as competence, courtesy, cleanliness, comfort and friendliness, helpfulness, care, commitment, flexibility are not particularly relevant in e‐commerce. On the other hand, determinants such as accessibility, communication, credibility, understanding, appearance, and availability are equally applicable to e‐commerce as they are in physical services. The paper argues the need for further research to identify suitable determinants for the e‐commerce operating environment.

The area of business process management (BPM) is a relatively new field and there is little academic literature on the subject. This paper critically examines the literature to pinpoint BPM definitions, approaches and principles. A study is reported of a business unit of a “world class” organisation to examine its application of BPM. It was found that the principles of BPM espoused by the corporate organisation and its approach to BPM application is along the lines of best practice as outlined in the literature. However, in the business unit examined, there is an inadequate understanding of BPM and the application of BPM principles is haphazard. For example, it was discovered that employees have too little time to spend on process simplification and improvement and there are too many in‐process measures for process owners to make effective use of the information. It is also pointed out that if BPM is to be truly effective it requires cross‐functional and process orientated management, which is not easy to attain.

This paper relates the main findings of a literature review of integrated management systems (IMS). In general, integration has been discussed in the literature dealing with quality, environmental, and health and safety management. The need for an IMS has arisen as a result of the decisions of organisations to implement an environmental management system and/or an occupational health and safety management system in addition to a quality management system. A number of differences have been identified in the interpretation of what integration means and how it should be accomplished. This leads the authors to conclude that the need for definitions is of some urgency. It is also pointed out that the current emphasis is on achieving compatibility between the standards to facilitate alignment.

No abstract

No abstract