Building a sustainable project management capacity in Cyprus

The performance‐driven project management program examined in this article was funded to support a variety of technical assistance efforts designed to strengthen the performance of small and medium enterprises in the Turkish Cypriot community in Cyprus. The customized program combined progressive workshops with hands‐on and distance coaching by local consultants, with participants expected to apply a performance‐driven project management approach and tool set. The Performance Driven Project Management: Journal of Performance (KNO Worldwide, 2010) documents that 12 of the 14 projects met the rigorous program requirements.     

Sewing machines and bank loans,farming and family planning

Half of a $10,000 grant was given by the International Planned Parenthood Federation (IPPF) to finance the rural development project activities of Danfa, a village of about 835 people in Ghana. In this community the women are hard working but doubly disadvantaged. Along with a high illiteracy rate, the women are limited by inadequate income due to underemployment, under productivity, unfavorable farming conditions, and a lack of resources. Large families, frequent pregnancies, poor mother and child health, and high infant mortality all make matters worse for both the rural farm wife and her family. The project began with a nucleus of women that soon grew to between 24-30. Members soon formed small groups according to their occupational interests. The women grasped the self-help idea immediately. Once or twice a month there were demonstrations and the group worked together in such activities as making soap and pomade, preparing meals, and sewing. Meetings generally ended with a general group brainstorming and then members gathered in smaller groups to review their activities and plan for the future. During the 1st year of the project the men in the group rarely attended meetings. The group gave priority attention to their community's urgent need for working capital. 15 women farmers who met the criteria determined by the group received loans in the 1st round; only 8 satisfied the criteria in the 2nd round. At the beginning of the small loans scheme, the group decided to seek bigger loans from the bank if members proved credit worthy. This requirement was satisfied, and the group began negotiations for a loan with the Agricultural Development Bank. The group received the total group loan. The Ghana Home Science Association considers the project to be successful in several respects. Team spirit has developed the group, and the women play important and respected roles. Family planning problems are regularly presented for discussion, but it is difficult to correlate these ideas with practice. The ability of members to discuss these problems comfortably is an indication of their acceptance of family planning as an important topic in their lives.     

高职院校承办全国妇联——李嘉诚基金会“启璞计划”试点项目的探索

全国妇联-李嘉诚基金会"启璞计划"——村"两委"女干部培训试点项目是典型的NGO大型培训项目,具有参与式培训、妇女赋权、发展持续性、项目周期管理以及制度化建设等特点。广西农业职业技术学院作为"启璞计划"试点项目承办高校中惟一的高职院校,依据项目理念与要求,积极探索与实践具有高职院校特点的项目管理理念、管理机构设置及运作、经费管理、师资配备、授课方式、课程安排、监测评估等管理措施,推动"启璞计划"顺利实施。     

East Meets West in Assessment Development: Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs. Part II: Project and Team Management in the AERo Project in Romania

This is Part II of a three-part series describing the consultancy and training demands that are encountered in technical assistance projects in Central and Eastern Europe. This part highlights project management and cooperation aspects in delivering support to the Romanian Assessment and Examination Service. Part I dealt with strategic issues for a successful delivery of "Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs." Part III will address training of Polish subject experts, preparing to take on responsibility for a decentralized and drastically changed final exam, the Matura.     

East Meets West in Assessment Development: Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs. Part III. Reform of an Examination System: Shoulder to Shoulder in the Polish SMART Project

This is Part III of a three part series describing the consultancy and training demands that are encountered in technical assistance projects in Central and Eastern Europe. Part I dealt with strategic issues for a successful delivery of "Western Technical Assistance to Eastern Needs." Part II highlighted project management and co-operation aspects in delivering support to the Romanian Assessment and Examination Service. In this part, we address training of Polish subject experts who were preparing to take on responsibility for a decentralized and strongly innovative final exam, the Matura.     

The Structure of Work,Patterns of Communication,and Organizational Learning: A Three‐Nation Comparison

National differences in patterns of new product development reflect differences in patterns of communication and delegation within the organization. In mature U.S. corporations, projects are generally controlled by superiors and implemented by subordinates who compete with each other. People making critical decisions may lack critical information while the people responsible for implementation may not have a stake in overall project success. The result is frequent failure. In U.S. startups, smaller Italian companies and in Japanese management groups, work is carried out by cooperative groups. Members have a shared stake in overall project success. Decisions are made to promote overall project success. Differences among small group performance in U.S., Italian, and Japanese companies reflect differences in the scope of group activity. U.S. startups can innovate technologies, business processes, and products. Innovations by small Italian companies are generally restricted to changes that compliment the activities of other firms in their network. Japanese business groups operate within a highly structured corporate environment. Innovations tend to be limited to elaborations in core technologies, processes, and products.     

典型小贷公司的比较研究——以合肥市小贷公司为例

通过对合肥地区有代表性的两家小贷公司在人员机构、公司业务、公司经营、风险控制等四个方面的比较研究,发现其中存在的共性与个性。并通过分析当前小贷公司发展所处的外部环境与内部环境,得到合肥地区小贷公司发展所经历的一些规律与启示。     

Learning in and beyond small business advisory programmes

The purpose of this paper is to analyse how participants learn in small business advisory programmes and to explore the impact of these learning programmes on the development of reflective learning dispositions in participants. The research involves two case studies of small business advisory programmes in Queensland, a state of Australia. One involves training in the use of GPS/GIS technology amongst rural SMEs and the other seeks to develop improved management and operational capabilities in regional and metropolitan manufacturing SMEs. Face to face semi-structured interviews were conducted throughout rural, regional and metropolitan Queensland with participants, trainers and senior executives in the administering organisations that ran the programmes. Learning in these programmes occurs through a combination of interaction with others and the adoption of practice-based and learner-centred processes. The impact of the programmes on participants includes the development of reflective learning dispositions, improved confidence in learning and appreciation of the value of new knowledge to their business. The research suggests that small business training programmes have the potential to affect the development of critical reflective learning dispositions in participants which is of fundamental importance to the development of a learning or knowledge economy.     

Preventing Stalled Quality Improvement Teams: A Written Test of Project Selection ability

Organizations which use quality improvement teams (QITs) in total quality management (TQM) can benefit from training the team personnel in how to select projects with a low risk of stalling. Projects with a high risk of stalling have typical shortcomings, including: failure to focus on a finite or observable process, failure to select a project within the team's authority and resources, and failure to establish importance related to key customers' needs. Training sessions on how to select viable projects may be warranted because stalled teams set a negative example and discourage potential TQM participants. If the organization institutes training on project selection, however, the cost should be justified through systematic evaluation of the training's impact. Designed for those who conduct evaluations of training sessions, this paper demonstrates an efficient written assessment test of project selection ability. The test requires judgments on the suitability of various projects derived from field interviews about projects which were selected by teams which stalled. Testing with a sample of novice and expert quality team leaders shows that the test is sensitive to differences in skills and could thus be used to document the effect of training on students' ability to select projects.     

Quality and Links with Industry: the agribusiness education experience

The University of Queensland Gatton College, in developing its Agribusiness degree in the late 1980s, responded to the findings of extensive surveys of agribusiness employers, and to the Australian government's policy of increased international competitiveness, based on value‐added exports. This response took the form of a curriculum which integrated core business disciplines with a suite of linked case study‐based subjects so as to strengthen students’ views of management as a holistic process. The centrepiece of the curriculum is an overseas market evaluation project undertaken by final‐year students in small groups contracted to commercial firms. The firms pay most of the research costs, with assistance from the Australian government, the students and the university. This unique capstone experience requires students to apply their agribusiness training under strictly commercial circumstances in a foreign cultural environment. Each firm's significant financial involvement is the catalyst for ensuring quality outcomes, because students must meet the expectations of their commercial clients as well as those of their university.     

我国小额贷款公司的评价与发展策略研究

小额贷款公司的信贷业务具有手续简便、机制灵活、放款速度快等特点,在解决中小企业融资难、规范民间信贷、促进中小企业发展中起到了重要的作用,然而,小额贷款公司在机构定位、监管体制、法律依据与核心规则等方面存在的问题却影响其进一步的可持续性发展,因此,政府应该制定相应的法律法规,采取健全制度、改善发展环境以及创新经营模式等一系列措施,促进小额贷款公司更加规范化发展。     

Applying Performance Measures and Process Improvements in the Classroom: The Loch Dots Company Simulation

The article describes a multi‐phase, in‐class simulation that employs problem‐based learning to teach operations and process‐improvement concepts as part of an undergraduate or graduate business course. The simulation is derived from a corporate Lean Six Sigma training activity and has been modified to introduce, demonstrate, and apply a wide range of business concepts relevant to operations and supply chain management, including the use of operational and financial performance measures in decision making. The activity is scalable for small‐ to medium‐size classes with multiple student groups and may be deployed as a stand‐alone, in‐class exercise spread over several class meetings or incorporated into a larger, semester‐long process‐improvement project for multiple student groups. The simulation emphasizes problem‐solving, teamwork, and intra‐firm cooperation in addition to 20–30 other business concepts, tools, and measures that may be incorporated.     

Small business development: who pays?

This article traces the trends in the aid community towards income generation and small business projects in developing countries since the 1950s. 1 of the great weakness of the development assistance community in the area of income generation remains the lack of analysis of population differentiation in the communities in which they work. A very different approach to the problem of the informal sector and income generation is one that responds directly to the needs of poor communities. Institutions working within poor communities and supporting multi-sectoral development while strengthening local organizations are much better situated to respond to the diverse needs of the community than are single-sector organizations with only 1 skill or service to offer. To assist significant numbers of poor people, particularly women, grouping of some sort is essential. This is not to say that group enterprise development is an easy process. The intensive and costly organizational and management assistance required to prepare a poor group for credit must be weighed along with the potential for creating a basis of long-range change within the community. To work with individual family enterprizes in a community can also have important social and economic effects, although the long-range impact may be more limited. Today, more than ever, the poor face the challenge of creating new survival mechanisms within their communities. Development agencies and assistance programs have the responsibility to help rather than hinder this process.     

生源地助学贷款高校贷后管理工作的思考

生源地助学贷款在高校学生资助工作中发挥了很大作用,笔者从开展生源地信用助学贷款中存在的一些问题出发,对高校如何做好生源地助学贷款贷后管理工作提出了有效的对策和建议,以期加强贷后管理,降低贷款违约率,促进生源地助学贷款持续健康发展。     

藩篱与跨越:社会公平视域下的东盟职业教育发展

东盟经济的繁荣发展与社会不公平现象相伴而生。正规、非正规和非正式职业教育具有促进弱势群体发展与维护社会公平的功能。东盟职业教育系统存在职业教育参与程度不高,女性群体接受职业教育机会偏少;职业教育经费投入不足,正规职业教育入学率相对较低;职业教育管理体制欠妥,职业教育质量有待进一步提升等问题,这些限制了其促进社会公平功能的发挥。越南、菲律宾、新加坡分别在弱势青年群体技术技能培训项目、女性群体创新创业教育项目、劳动力继续教育与培训在线项目上进行了有益探索,并取得了令人瞩目的成效。     

The Impact of Implementing an Educational Project, the Solar Village, on Pupils, Teachers, and Parents

In this project, we suggest building a real model of solar village inside schools, which use only solar energy. Such projects emphasize the importance of energy for a technological society and the advantage of alternative energy sources. In this study, we report on pupils in the 6th grade in three elementary schools in Israel who were active participants in building systems that use solar energy. The study objective was to examine the educational, social, and scientific impact of this project on students, parents, and teachers. The study results showed that the three groups (students, parents, and teachers) highly appreciate the project, educationally and socially. Parents supported the project because they observed the positive impact on their children's learning. Teachers rated the project highly because of students' interaction and involvement, as well as their increases in learning skills such as developing reading plans and executing research and writing reports.     

A GROUP FAMILY HOLIDAY : AN INNOVATION IN THE THERAPEUTIC MANAGEMENT OF THE AUTISTIC CHILD

Three “family holiday workshop” projects which are thought to be unique, have been described. In each instance the participants were eleven families, each having an autistic child, a professional consultant, and voluntary helpers. It would seem from follow‐up investigations that the family holiday workshop served the purpose for which it was originally designed, namely, to bring together families of autistic children in an effort to dispel the feeling of isolation and futility in coping with the problem of their bewildering handicapped child; to meet those needs which cannot appropriately be handled in a clinic‐‐such as providing a holiday for all members of the family; and to make available advice and assistance about their child's needs and practical ways of management. The project is evaluation in the light of its relevance in the overall management of any handicapped child.     

Training for Empowerment? A comparative study of nonformal education for women in small island countries

This article compares nonformal education (NFE) and training options for women among the small island countries of Fiji, Kiribati, Niue, Tonga, Barbados, Grenada, St. Lucia, and St. Vincent. Data were obtained from 4 groups (the government agency for women, the national women's organization, a nongovernmental organization, and the university extension center) that operated an NFE course during 1992-94. Interviews were conducted among the tutor and 5 women from the selected NFE programs who had attended research workshops. Over 200 women were interviewed. Caribbean country NFE programs included a varied program of instruction that included, for example, self-defense, assertiveness training, and women-in-trade programs. South Pacific training programs included, for example, training of trainers, leadership training, women and traditional medicine, and women in development. Regional papers in preparation for the 1995 Beijing Conference included research findings on NFE, including workshop findings. Facilitators from Niue and Tonga were more satisfied with women's status in their countries than those in Fiji and Kiribati, but women in all 4 countries said things were changing. Women reported benefits from NFE programs such as new information, acquiring new skills, visiting new places, and sharing experiences with other women. In Kiribati and Tonga, women were disappointed in lack of follow-up. Caribbean women were self-aware, but gained insight into their lack of rights and justice. Not all programs empowered women. NFE providers and participants were unable to identify significant outcomes.     

建设工程项目全周期工程造价管理探究

工程造价管理旨在全面分析工程总造价,精细化控制各个阶段的造价。对于建设工程而言,工程质量是根本,造价是企业赖以生存的核心,所以必须详细核实各种经济指标来规划成本,对工程造价的有效评估是建设工程利益最大化的重要保障。     

Considerations for the Occasional Project Manager

Performance improvement professionals who occasionally manage projects can benefit from applying the discipline of project management. This article offers a checklist of proven techniques that lend themselves to most projects. Many techniques are applicable even in organizations lacking a project management culture. These techniques do not assume formal project management training. The checklist draws on common elements identified through a review and analysis of key sources that outline the ingredients for project success, such as communication, stakeholder engagement, executive support, and risk management.