Bulletin Number Three 1985

adjectives. The female middle managers provided descriptions of successful middle managers that were far more similar to men than to women. His results suggested that female managers are as likely as males to accept stereotypical male characteristics as the basis for success in management. This list of ninety-two adjectives was shortened to thirty-one and the test was administered to fifty- one female middle managers and eighty-three male middle managers in Hong Kong. The data is currently being analysed and the study should be completed this summer. 2. Perceived Motivating Factors among Mid-level Managers in Hong Kong There have been numerous studies reporting on motivational factors perceived as having behavioural change implications for employees. There has been intensive research done in this area and a definite rank ordering has evolved. The U.S. Department of Labour has also reported research findings based on job motivational factors important to both blue- collar workers and white-collar workers. This study scrambled twenty factors reported in the findings of the University of Michigan and the U.S. Department of Labour. The ensuing list of job motivational factors was administered to a group of 126 Hong Kong mid-level managers for their rank- ordering. The data is currently being analysed and a report should be completed this summer. The report will compare the findings with the other mentioned studies. By Dr. C. Steilen 1. Travel Industry Research Having audited the marketing activities of a number of different organizations in the travel industry, it was my conclusion that the type of marketing systems being used within that industry could be described as ‘quite unprofessional'. Given this situation, a number of these organizations were then approached with regard to modification and upgrading of their systems. These organizations, located in the Philippines, Malaysia, and Hong Kong, agreed to implement some totally new concepts and systems. The research project will now focus on the monitoring of these new systems over time to determine what effect they have on the organization. In addition, the intention is to determine which factors prevent these systems from attaining maximum efficiency, be it environmental conditions, differences in management attitudes or staff capability. 2. Telemarketing Experiment In many other countries of the world telephone marketing is a very effective and inexpensive selling method. This approach has not been used in Hong Kong to any great extent. As such, one Hong Kong consumer finance company has agreed to conduct an experiment to test out the effectiveness of this technique. The study is currently in process. Initial results do indicate that the technique is effective in this particular case. By Dr. Danny S.N. Wong 1. A Comparison of Japanese and U.S. Systems for Manufacturing Control There has been a great deal of interest recently in the Japanese approach to manufacturing, growing out of a concern for finding ways to reduce inventories and increase productivity. At this project's inception, its objective was to assess whether the Just-in-Time (JIT) system could perform well in manufacturing environments found outside Japan. Based on observations of managers visiting Japan, the project was enlarged to also assess which factors in a production environment have the biggest impact on performance — regardless of the system in use. Guided by a panel of production and inventory managers from diverse plant environments, a comprehensive list of factors thought most important for manufacturing effectiveness was constructed. The panel established low and high values for each one. These settings were considered representative of the range experienced in the U.S. plant environments. The factor settings allowed a variety of representative plants to be tested with a large-scale simulator. Results show that JIT, when implemented in attractive environmental settings, does indeed perform exceptionally well. However, so do the more traditional systems used in the United States. Conversely, in more difficult plant environments, all systems perform much worse. This suggests that the factors themselves are the keys to major improvement. Simultaneously reducing setup times and lot sizes is found to be the single most effective way to cut inventory levels. Shop factors of particular importance are yield rates and worker flexibility. Degree of product standardization and the product structure are also high impact factors. Less crucial than earlier believed, at least over the factor settings simulated, are inventory record inaccuracy, equipment failures, and vendor reliability. Such results suggest that the selection of a production/inventory system can be of less importance than the improvement of the manufacturing environment itself. 18 RECENT DEVELOPMENTS