The study examines the nature and impact of Japanese idea of continuous improvement (CI) at 14 automobile components companies in Australia. It assesses the extent to which CI practices inform management systems and work organization. The study is focused on the degree to which decentralized...

This paper starts from the premise advanced by Jurgens (2003) that there are discernible national models of production rather than a convergence of production systems. This paper examines the nature and impact of Japanese idea of continuous improvement on 14 automobile components companies in...

This paper examines the experience of two similar but contrasting firms in the Australian automotive parts industry in their attempts to adopt continuous improvement during the 1990's. The firms are similar in having devolved responsibility for quality checking to employees, having adopted...

Governments in Australia increasingly rely on private sector service providers to improve efficiency in public service delivery and have entered into a range of business partnerships with those providers. This article considers the effectiveness of public-private partnership models used in...