Dr Arif Sikander

Faced with intensified global education competition, universities and other Higher Education institutions are implementing Total Quality Management (TQM) to keep rivals at bay. Meanwhile, research interest in TQM in Higher Education is growing. This paper reviews the achievements and limitations of extant research on TQM in Higher Education, and discusses directions for future research. The paper finds that extant research focuses on (1) teaching and learning but neglects research and industry engagement; (2) an isolated factor (e.g., teacher) but neglects other factors (e.g., facilities); (3) the Higher Education sector in advanced countries but neglects the Higher Education sector in developing countries; and (4) TQM as a phenomenon but neglects theory development and integration. Future research needs to address these limitations, adopt a more holistic perspective, and take a more inclusive and comprehensive approach to TQM in the Higher Education sector.

Aviation has grown leaps and bounds within the last decade. Aviation courses and training at all levels have shown an exponential increase around the globe. There has been a restricted focus on writing books in this sector of the economy, mainly due to the shortage of expertise in this specialist and complex area. This book was written with the purpose of meeting this need of the aviation sector. Due to the diversified nature of aviation knowledge, which includes flying, engineering, airports, allied trades for aircraft and airports, airline and airport management and operations, education, etc., one text alone will not suffice and do justice to address all these areas. It is envisaged to develop subsequent parts of this book to cover all these knowledge areas. This book is the first installment of any subsequent books and explores issues including airline management and operations, airline business models, airport systems, flight operational procedures, aircraft maintenance, runway safety management systems, and air traffic management. In particular, attention will be given to aspects such as analysis of air traffic in a domestic market, runway safety management systems, critical success factors for multiple MRO service providers, key pain points of the industry to be addressed to move into the future, new research on hub airports for international flights, new business models for airlines, and runway safety management systems. This book is useful to aviation managers, educators, students, and professionals interested in any of the above issues.

Academics and researchers have developed and put together various learning models that describe the teaching-learning process. To this effect blended learning, flipped learning and reverse learning are models under discussion and development at various universities. The model proposed in this presentation is named as an “integrated model”, not aligning with any of these models, but integrating the core aspects of each to suit a diverse population of students. Especially in the context of Australian higher education, predominantly multinational with students from many cultures and countries, no one approach will suffice. Each student brings along an experience of learning with a unique model relevant to his/her country. A blended or flipped model is not a “one fit” solution for all. I had designed and developed a new blended version of an existing course last year and had the opportunity to teach as well. Having taught across various countries and being aware of the cultural sensitivities, I felt that the blended approach alone would not work for my style of teaching. I needed to infuse innovation and develop an alternate teaching strategy. I realised the online portion of the course, though suitable for local students, would not be appreciated by most international students, who have chosen to study in Australia - not to do an online course. They prefer and are comfortable with more face to face contact and a lesser use of online. My adopted model represents an integrated approach, relying on online material presented on Murdoch's LMS, but most of the learning is done by the students themselves in workshop settings. The workshop component included a short review of theories and concepts. Each theme was followed by activities and in groups with students doing their own “search and rescue”. I tried to avoid “feeding” videos and journal articles, asking students to explore for themselves, assisted by material available on the LMS. The students took control of their own learning and constant feedback was sought. The concept worked for the unit's offshore delivery as well.

As technology advances, organisations are moving towards adapting the best options so as to enjoy a competitive edge. The performance of firms, besides other factors, relies on effective management of these technologies. Strategic management of these technologies is of interest to firms, but studies on this have been restricted to studies in the West. A study carried out by the author helped to analyse which of the technology strategy (TS) and technology management (TM) factors are related to performance of firms. Additionally, it was explored if any of these factors are related to nature and size of the firm. The research focused on high-technology manufacturing industries; some of which employed advanced manufacturing. This chapter will introduce the concepts of strategic technology management and smart manufacturing, provide a critical analysis of literature on the work done in these areas, discuss results of a study done on the application of STM in a high-technology manufacturing sector and extend the results of research to smart manufacturing. It is concluded that a good STM can guide smart manufacturing in enhancing firm productivity and achieving a competitive advantage.

New developments in technologies and global changes in business environment have placed demands on the HR professionals to acquire new competencies and skills. The role of Human Resources Management (HRM) and the Human Resources practitioner has long been discussed within the walls of academia and in the practical work environment. “Over time, the HR practitioner has taken on new roles and responsibilities in order to meet increasing expectations around the value-add of the Human Resource (HR) function and its legitimacy within the workplace. In order to take on new and adaptable roles, those looking at working in HR need specific skills and competencies” (Girardi, 2014A). This study set to identify the technical and generic skills and competencies needed to be a contemporary HR practitioner from three different perspectives – the academic literature, the practitioner (industry-based) literature and the potential employer. A comprehensive literature review was undertaken to analyse the perspectives of the academics. To peep into the professional perspective, a critical review of the HR generalist, HR specific associations and HR consulting firms was carried out. Finally a desktop research of various HR related advertisements, helped to identify the employers’ perspectives. The key skills identified include: ability to build effective relationships, influence, negotiate and lead effectively. The findings revealed that scholarly journals do not identify the “project management” skills required by HR practitioner. The professional literature synthesis also did not capture the theme of “change steward”. The employers’ perspective also excluded the “change steward” and “global acumen” themes. The breadth and depth of the identified themed skills will result in the HR practitioner requiring further education in other business fields or training and experience in fields such as financial, marketing and information technology. Employers will place significant value on its HR practitioner as a strategic business partner (the identified theme) for its business. The perspective identified from three different viewpoints should help HR professional to take initiative in excelling in many areas especially knowledge beyond the traditional HR practices.

Technology strategies have assumed an important role in providing technological leadership to firms. A study conducted by the author in the East, revealed that the performance of firms is influenced by the type of technology strategies adopted. This result provided the motivation to explore if such strategies are relevant to the management of the 'services' sector and if their performance too is influenced by these adoptions. There is dearth of similar studies in the literature. More importantly, in this age of technology, there is a dire need for management to understand and implement appropriate technology strategies. The results could contribute to the literature/management in developing a set of strategies which could be termed as 'global' and applied to any sector and those termed as 'unique' which are specific to firm/service sector. In terms of the services sector, the nearest similarity to the technology intensive firms appear to be the vocational and technical institutions (VTI). The other justification to focus on technical institutions was that their performance is more affected by technology strategies/policies than the traditional primary and secondary schools/colleges. The big study sought to identify and analyse the level of awareness of participants on technology strategy issues and the perception of departments (including those in the Ministries) about technology management, gender, local/expatriate, qualification, teaching experience, years since last professional course completed, industry experience, understanding of quality, and department employed. This paper attempts to present the results on that part of the study which deals with the relationship between the type of the managers/management (gender, qualification, age etc) and the application of technology strategies. The participants included the staff and heads of departments at a technical college from an oil rich ASEAN country, the senior management at the college and the policy makers at the Department of Technical Education (DTE). The technology strategy (TS) and technology management (TM) data was desired from all the three groups. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using statistical techniques. A pilot-study helped to refine the questionnaire before it was administered. The study sets the tone to open up discussions and research interest towards applying strategic technology management tools in the education sector in a rapidly growing digital world. The type of managers/management revealed as part of this study has implications to the senior planners in the education sector in keeping pace with the technology age by providing valuable inputs to develop technology strategies/policies.

A large body of the literature confirms that scenario-planning and foresight activities have become a widely used strategic management approach for understanding future uncertainty in an ever-changing environment. There is little analysis on why some scenario methods succeed and others fail (Bowman, Mac Kay, Masrani, and Mc Kiernan 2013). Although research, as determined though this study, confirms the benefits of applying foresight activities and scenario-planning, it is the opinion of the author that the case studies presented, even the ones involving large firms, are only limited to a particular organizational framework. It would be worthwhile to explore the degree of success or failure of such methods depending on context. This paper in particular critically analyzes the role of scenarios in strategic foresight. The results of this article indicate that scenario-planning is not perfect, its strengths and weaknesses are all quite evident, and therefore, to be successful in the turbulent future, organizations may take advantages from scenarios, while some other tools also can be necessary complements. The results have implications for academics as well as executives. To carry out scenarios in supporting strategy planning is always not easy, it requires leadership teams to be fully aware of the theory, as well as the practice techniques so that to overlook the entire situation as a whole.

The concept of Strategic technology management (STM) places technology in a strategic context. STM did not emerge as a distinct area of managerial and academic interests until late 1980s. The key managers may initiate efforts to gain access to newer technologies, but the question is whether the approach they adopt is strategic or a series of ad hoc decisions [Quinn, 1988]. Value Management (VM) has assumed an important role in providing leadership and strategic growth to technology firms. Historically VM emphasized use of alternatives to reduce cost, promote innovation and enhance the performance of products. VM has moved beyond manufacturing and can be applied for strategic decision making in the services sector. It is envisaged the VM can be an effective tool for STM. It should help in generating creative ideas on the most appropriate technologies, examination of alternatives, evaluating the alternatives and developing a strategy. A study conducted by the author in the East, revealed that the performance of firms is influenced by the type of strategies developed during the VM process. This result provided the motivation to explore if such strategies are relevant to the managers of the "services" sector and if their performance too is influenced by these adoptions. There is dearth of similar studies in the literature. More importantly, in this age of technology, there is a dire need for management to understand and implement ideas not perceived before. The results could contribute to the literature/management in developing a set of VM strategies which could be termed as "global" and applied to any sector and those termed as "unique" which are specific to firm/service sector. In terms of the services sector, the nearest similarity to the technology intensive firms appear to be the vocational and technical institutions (VTI). The big study sought to identify and analyse the level of awareness of participants on strategy issues and the perception of departments (including those in the Ministries) about STM (and the inherent VM). This paper attempts to present the results on that part of the study which deals with the relationship between the type of the managers/management (gender, qualification, age etc) and the application of developed strategies. The participants included the staff and heads of departments at a technical college from an oil rich ASEAN country, the senior management at the college and the policy makers at the Department of Technical Education (DTE). The strategy and management data was desired from all the three groups. Data was collected through a questionnaire and analyzed using statistical techniques. A pilot-study helped to refine the questionnaire before it was administered. The study sets the tone to open up discussions and research interest towards applying VM tools in the strategic management of technology in the education sector in a rapidly growing digital world. The type of managers/management revealed as part of this study has implications to the senior planners in the education sector in keeping pace with the technology age by providing valuable inputs to innovate, discover, evaluate and develop strategies to provide value to the stakeholders, decision makers and technology lecturers.

Many previous studies have analysed the level of task and relationship orientation of different cultures and their affect on stress (Sikander, Mujtaba and Akhtar 2012). Although Stress is quite normal at workplace and influences the level of performance of individuals, however, it becomes much more important when sensitive professions like Flying have to be analysed. Cultural differences of students perhaps could influence the stress perception. There is dearth of studies in this area. The sample for the study included students undergoing aviation courses as sponsored and self-paid and to analyse the various relationships. It was expected that the difference in results will be a contribution to the literature and will also provide useful input to design the courses for aviation students belonging to different cultures. This study focused on the differences of 40 Emiratis and 20 non-Emiratis (expat) aviation students. It appears that the expat students focused more on task orientation then relationships. They also had higher level of stress scores from work overload. In this paper, literature on the country of survey, stress influence on flying and workload of pilots and recommendations for subsequent research is included.