One senior manager share and discuss financial data with marketing directors, operations chiefs, and other direct reports in HBR Oct 2009. But how much do those managers really understand about finance? The research group recently investigated this question, and the news is not good. Asked to take a basic financial literacy exam – a test that any CEO or junior finance person should easily ace – a representative sample of U.S. managers from C-level executives to supervisors scored an average of only 38%. A majority were unable to distinguish profit from cash. Many didn’t know the difference between an income statement and a balance sheet. About 70% couldn’t pick the correct definition of “free cash flow,” now the measure of choice for many Wall Street investors. 

Does this lack of financial literacy matter? From individual managers’ point of view, it surely does. Those who can’t speak the language of business can’t contribute much to a discussion of performance and are unlikely to advance in the hierarchy. They may be caught off guard by financial shenanigans, as many employees at Enron were. They will be unable to gauge the health of a prospective employer. One of them, Joe Knight, serves as the chief financial officer of a small manufacturing company. He often asks candidates for engineering positions whether they would like to review the past two years of the company’s financials. None yet have taken him up on the offer knowing, perhaps, that they could make neither head nor tail of the statements.

Financial illiteracy in the managerial ranks can be a crippling weakness for the organization, as well. Imagine a business that is attempting to increase operating cash flow, as many firms are at the moment. Even experienced executives, accustomed to managing a P&L, may be unaware of the many balance sheet levers they can pull to affect cash – decreasing inventory, for example, or reducing days sales outstanding. They recently worked with a health care services company seeking to increase its gross margin, and the first thing they had to do was help the sales force understand the difference between making a sale and making a profi table sale. Unfortunately, that’s a widespread problem. Nearly two-thirds of our test takers thought that discounts offered by sales reps had no effect on gross margin. If you don’t understand what goes into a number, you can hardly know how to improve it. Why don’t people tell their bosses that they don’t speak finance? It’s the usual human reluctance to admit ignorance. In a survey of a different sample of managers, They asked what happens in meetings when people don’t understand financial data. The majority chose answers reflecting that reluctance, such as “Most people don’t ask because they don’t want to appear uninformed in front of their boss or peers.

Role of Education in Sustainable Development

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Vai trò giáo dục trong phát triển bền vững

Các phát triển quốc tế nhắm đến một thế giới bền vững đều nhấn mạnh đến sự quan trọng của sự tích hợp phát triển bền vững trong các chương trình giảng dạy của giáo dục.
Trong nỗ lực đó, Liên Hiệp Quốc đã triển khai Thập niên Giáo dục về Phát triển Bền Vững (DESD). DESD nhằm phổ biến các nguyên tắc và những hàm ý của phát triển bền vững trong giới trẻ để qua đó tạo dựng tính sẵn sàng trong họ niềm tin thúc đẩy sự thay đổi.DESD đã cung cấp cơ hội cho việc cải thiện cái nhìn về phát triển bền vững cũng như thúc đẩy sự tiếp cận đến nó thông qua các hình thức của giáo dục và huấn luyện, tạo ý thức công chúng. DESD đã cho thấy một hình thức truyền thông quan trọng trong vai trò giáo dục và học tập về phát triển bền vững.
Tuy là các trường và viện đã có những người đi tiên phong trong nghiên cứu về các vấn đề cho sự bền vững từ hơn hai mươi năm qua, nhưng đại đa số các cấp vẫn chưa chứng tỏ được sự tiến bộ về hiểu biết và đóng góp hiểu biết cũng như vận dụng. Đứng trước nguy cơ thấy rõ về biến đổi khí hậu toàn cầu, khủng hoảng năng lượng và an ninh lương thực, việc cần phải gia tăng các truyền thông cũng như nhu cầu thúc bách của việc sẵn sàng các gói giải pháp cho sự phát triển bền vững của các quốc gia trong khu vực cũng như trong hợp tác quốc tế đã tạo ra làn sóng quan tâm của nhiều người, các cấp xã hội về câu hỏi đâu là phát triển bền vững và khả năng của sự phát triển bền vững.
Và như vậy vẫn còn nhiều việc phải làm từ khi chương trình DESD được phát động trên toàn cầu. Trong khi các trường đại học và sinh viên của họ đã tỏ rõ mối quan tâm đến các vấn đề về sự bền vững trong những nắm gần đây, thì khả năng cung cấp các sự tiếp cận đến lĩnh vực này vẫn còn nhiều hạn chế, đặc biệt thấy rõ qua số lượng sinh viên tham dự các khóa học này.
Các trường đại học cần có phương tiện để giảng dạy cho những người ra quyết định tương lai về chuyện mối tương hỗ giữa xã hội, kinh tế, và môi trường xác định số phận chúng ta, sự thành công hay thất bại của chúng ta như thế nào để đạt đến sự thịnh vượng lâu dài cho nhân loại trên Trái đất. Điều này được nhiều người hiểu đến rằng ba trụ cột của sự bền vững không phải được giải quyết riêng rẽ mà phải chung với nhau. Nhưng ý niệm này không đủ sức thâm nhập lan tỏa sâu rộng trong tư duy của tất cả chúng ta. Do đó các quyết định ở cả cấp thấp và cấp cao trong xã hội được làm ra vẫn chưa chứa đựng rõ ràng hơn hàm ý phát triển bền vững.
Trong khi trường đại học phải chuẩn bị cho sinh viên của họ đối diện với các vấn đề nảy sinh trong hàng trăm lĩnh vực chuyên sâu và khác nhau, trường còn phải có hướng để giúp sinh viên sau này biết cách hợp tác, hiểu biết về các lợi ích và công cụ trong việc cùng giải guyết vấn đề.
Đến điểm này, các trường đại học lần nữa cần hoàn thành sứ mệnh là tạo điều kiện cho các thảo luận học thuật và các thành tựu hàn lâm trong nghiên cứu triển khai về phát triển bền vững. Trong lúc đó, các sinh viên dù không tham gia chuyên ngành về phát triển bền vững cũng cần được trang bị và có nhận thức cơ bản về phát triển bền vững và các phương pháp học để giúp họ có thể áp dụng cho công việc tương lai của họ. Do đó các tri thức về khả năng bền vững cần được tích hợp vào nền tảng của tất cả các môn ngành. Vai trò của giáo dục trong việc nuôi dưỡng tư tưởng phát triển bền vững được thào luận qua nhiều diễn đàn trên quốc tế, đặc biệt về sản xuất sạch, sản phẩm sạch. Thật vậy, các quá trình sản xuất và sản phẩm sạch hơn không chỉ là những vấn đề liên quan đến kỹ thuật mà còn là những nỗ lực ở mọi vùng trong điều hành công ty. Và mối quan hệ tương hỗ này cần được phản ảnh trong các chương trình giảng dạy của đại học.

Information flows barriers in quality management

Three types of barriers to information flows in quality management are:


Organizational barriers. These are barriers due to the organizational structure of the firms involved in a project; include multi-level structure barriers and horizontal communication barriers.


Behavioral barriers. These are barriers mainly due to behavioral characteristics of related persons and posts; include uncompulsory liability and lack of incentive mechanism.


Technical barriers. These are barriers mainly due to the technical characteristics of information in projects. Lack of information collaborative system and application in different projects are two main aspects.

Fig 1. Barier triangle of information flows in quality management

An department has four steps are needed for information flows from work centers finding that a supplier provided non-conforming materials to other work centers work centers obtaining the information. In general the work center unveiling the problem could not share the information directly with other work centers due to horizontal communication barriers, namely, no economic and administrative links. Thus the complicated information flows resulted in problems, such as that, other work centers could not obtain the information if information flows suspension occurred. In this case, it is possible for these work centers to continue purchasing materials from the unqualified supplier, which could result in severe effects on the final products constructed.
Therefore reengineering the existing information flow channels was a major consideration for the company. If a work center found an unqualified subcontractor or material supplier it should feedback the information to the senior manager immediately and transfer it to other work center at the same time.

Fig 2. Current information flows in a OEM furniture company.The shadown C1 represents the work center/ line manager unveiled that some supplier provided non-confirmed materials.

A new information flows shows that all of the work center share information and exclude the unqualified material suppliers. For intermediary processes of information flows, it decreases the risk of suspension of information flows. The unqualified subcontractor or supplier is then deleted from the firm’s qualified lists in time.

Fig 3. Improvement of information flow in the OEM furniture company. The shadow C1 represents the work center/line manager unveiled that some supplier provided non-confirming materials. The dotted line represents the omitted information flows.

Second, administrators’ liability and incentive mechanism are missing in related information transfer processes, they might block information flows in quality improvement.
In a company, information asymmetry includes two aspects, interior and exterior of a company.
On one hand, information asymmetry is reflected from a contractor, subcontractors and suppliers. In general, subcontractors and suppliers could understand the contractor’s requirement on quality. The contractor gets a little information on the competence of quality management of subcontractors and suppliers, inter alia, the small sizes. Moreover, there is no formalized division of work and economic relationship, but administrative link, between top management, senior manager and work centers. The liability of the leader in a compnay for the performance of company is different from senior/ line managers’ liability. This is likely to tempt senior/line
managers to take high-risk decisions and actions. The potential success of the actions might lead the senior/line managers to high rewards. Nevertheless, the failure of these actions could cause huge financial loss to the firm. Therefore quality problems in furniture industry due to utilization of low quality materials are not strange in China. That is to a great extent dependent on reform of enterprise’s ownership.
On the other hand, information asymmetry in a construction firm reflects the imbalance of information transfer and information feedback. The information on quality management transferred from the top management to senior managers and work centers is much greater than information feedback from the work centers to top managements. Work centers concentrate their attentions on quality of the project undertaken by them. In general, they did not share information with their counterparts directly.
Third, information sharing among all parties and application in different projects can hardly be realized technically if firms do not have necessary IT infrastructure, information collaborative system and related business process. They are main technical barriers of information flows in quality improvement.


The OEM furniture industry has two particular characteristics:


1. There are many participants involved in a single project; and
2. There are various combinations of participants in different collection projects.
The former requires an effective information collaboration system to realize information sharing among multi-parties in a project. The later requires that the information collaboration systems can be applied in different projects even though the combination of participants is different.
Given these two characteristics, a web-based approach can be proposed to develop a system for information flows in quality management in collection projects. The use of the internet as the communication platform can help information transfer more effectively during the project process. Developing a communication system for the multi-parties in projects to collaborate on the web can also improve information flows in project management. On the other hand, new participants in different projects can also learn to use such a web-based information system in a short time and at low cost. It is clear that the technical problems can be overcome by utilizing the information and network technology that has prevailed in recent years.
Reengineering the existing information flow channels is necessary in the OEM furniture industry. For a work center, once it has found information on quality, such as unqualified subcontractor or a material supplier, it should feedback the information to the firm immediately and transfer it to other work center at the same time. Currently, information feedback in a step-by-step manner is not conducive to quality management.

Work-life balance and organizational performance

Relationships between the provision of work-life balance practices and organizational performance

1-Individual-level explanations


a-Reduction of work-life conflict


Interference between work and non-work responsibilities has a number of negative outcomes that have been well established. In terms of job attitudes, employees reporting high levels of both work-to-life and life-to-work conflict tend to exhibit lower levels of job satisfaction and organizational commitment. Behavioural outcomes of both directions of conflict include reduced work effort, reduced performance, and increased absenteeism and turnover. Both work-to-life and life-to-work conflict have also been associated with increased stress and burnout, cognitive difficulties such as staying awake, lack of concentration, and low alertness, and reduced levels of general health and energy. While the majority of work-life balance research focuses on employees' family responsibilities, there are also a number of studies that recognize commitments to friends and community groups, expanding the affected population to virtually all employees. The implications for organizations are clear: work-life conflict can have negative repercussions for employee performance.
According to the business case as espoused by many firms and government bodies, these costs to organizations can be avoided by implementing programs to help employees manage their work-life conflict. This view proposes that work-life balance practices will assist employees in balancing their work and family demands, which can in turn lead to enhanced employee productivity and significant business improvements. By enabling employees to schedule their time in order to better balance competing demands from work and from home, and by helping employees to procure third-party assistance with caregiving responsibilities, such practices are intended to reduce or eliminate levels of work-life conflict, and thereby augment employee performance and organizational effectiveness.
There is mixed support in the literature for this proposition.When rating the work-family policies available to male executives, it is found that more comprehensive benefits were associated with lower work-to-life conflict, but not life-to-work conflict. Researchers also found a significant, negative association between the availability of work-life practices and work-to-life conflict, while another identified a negative relationship between perceptions of the usefulness of organizational work-life practices and work-to-life conflict. Use of flexible working hours is associated with lower levels of work-to-life conflict and non-directional work-life conflict. Perceived control served as a mediating mechanism by which family-supportive policies influenced a non-directional measure of work-life conflict, and family supportive organizational perceptions mediated the link between use of work-life practices and work-to-life conflict.
On the other hand, no effects of work-life practices on employees' work-life conflict levels. Similarly, no any association between provision of an onsite childcare centre and levels of work-life conflict. Providing work-life practices does not necessarily entail a reduction in levels of staff work-life conflict, then, and even where this is the case, there is a dearth of research investigating the mediating role of work-life conflict in the link between work life practice provision and organizational effectiveness. Furthermore, much of the research literature groups a number of work-life practices together when relating provision or use to attitudinal or behavioural outcomes. This only clouds the issue of whether such a variety of work-life practices can be expected to produce similar effects. Research on boundary theory and role transition suggests that because workers have different preferences for integration versus segmentation of work and family roles, certain work-life practices may be ineffective in reducing inter-role conflict if they do not cater to a worker's particular values, needs, or preferences for managing multiple roles. For example, participating in telework arrangements has been shown to benefit some workers, whereas for others—particularly those with greater family responsibilities—it appears to blur the boundaries between work and home.
Another issue is that availability of work-life practices is often measured, as opposed to actual use of such practices. This, however, brings us to another potential explanation for the link between work-life practices and organizational performance. Even when the practices are not used and therefore no reduction in work-life conflict is achieved, the mere presence of such practices can effect a number of beneficial outcomes to the organization in the form of positive job-related attitudes. We shall begin to explore these in the following section.
While work-life conflict is generally held to be a mediator in the link between provision of practices and performance outcomes, this proposition remains untested. Existing research designs often neglect to distinguish between practice availability and practice use, and largely fail to differentiate among work-life practices, rendering it difficult to reach conclusions regarding their common or distinct effects.


b-Improved job-related attitudes and perceptions of organizational support


With regard to job attitudes, use of and satisfaction with work schedule flexibility has been associated with increased organizational commitment and reduced turnover intentions, and voluntary reduced hours have been linked to greater job satisfaction, loyalty, and organizational commitment. Employees who benefit from childcare centres, referral services and other family-supportive practices report higher levels of commitment to the organization. A meta-analysis reveals that flexible work schedules had positive effects on both job satisfaction and satisfaction with work schedule. In a study of the ‘virtual office’, participants attributed an increase in job satisfaction to increased flexibility in the location and timing of their work. Teleworkers also reported higher levels of job satisfaction. Telework was associated with increased job satisfaction and reduced intentions to turnover, with these relationships partially mediated by lower levels of work-life conflict.
Availability of work-life balance practices, independent of actual use, appears to produce similarly positive results in terms of work-related attitudes. For instance, the availability of organizational resources, including flexible work hours, has been linked to job satisfaction and organizational commitment for women and for all employees with family responsibilities, regardless of whether or not these resources are being used. Similarly, the presence of flexible time policies and childcare assistance was associated with employee loyalty for those with family responsibilities.
Availability of work-life balance practices has also been related to increased affective commitment and decreased turnover intentions. Parental leave, childcare information and referral, flexible work hours, and financial assistance with childcare predicted both increased affective commitment to the organization and decreased turnover intentions among all employees, not just users of the practices.
Moderators of the practice availability—job attitude link are identified by some research. The provision of flexible work hours will be positively related to organizational commitment only if employees perceive the flexibility as increasing their control over their time. Similarly, the availability of flexible work arrangements was associated with increased organizational commitment only when employees perceived their supervisors to exhibit transformational leadership behaviours, including individual consideration.The impact of work-life practice availability on organizational commitment was moderated by gender and by practice use. For women, the availability of work-life practices had a positive relationship with commitment, mediated by perceived organizational support. For men, however, the availability of flexible schedules was positively related to commitment only when men's use of this practicewas high. When use of flexible schedules was low, the availability of this practice was negatively related to commitment. Similarly, for men, the availability of work-life practices was associated with higher organizational commitment only when perceived organizational support was high. For women, there was a positive link between practices and commitment regardless of levels of perceived organizational support.
These results can be interpreted using social exchange theory. When treated favourably by the organization, employees will feel obliged to respond in kind, through positive attitudes or behaviours toward the source of the treatment. Using the provision of work-life balance practices as an indicator of favourable treatment, employees will reciprocate in ways beneficial to the organization—increased commitment, satisfaction with one's job, and citizenship behaviours. The availability of work practices designed to assist employees with managing their responsibilities at home may also increase employee perceptions of organizational support, particularly if these work-life balance practices are seen as being useful. Perceived organizational support can also be used as an indicator of favourable treatment, prompting reciprocal positive actions from employees. Perceptions of the organization as being family-supportive mediated the link between work-life practice availability and both affective commitment and job satisfaction.
This interpretation is, however, not without criticism. In the context of the psychological contract—the individual employee's subjective belief in the reciprocal obligations between the employee and the organization —it is possible that employees may not feel obliged to ‘repay’ their organization's provision of work-life practices with an increase in positive, work related behaviours or attitudes. Instead, they may perceive that access to such practices is an entitlement, rather than an example of favourable treatment. It is difficult to estimate the extent to which employees construe such practices as favours versus rights. Perceived entitlement to such practices is not widespread among employees, particularly those in nations with low levels of statutory regulations concerning the balance of work with family or personal commitments. For instance, study participants in Ireland and the UK did not feel entitled to employer support for child care, and perceived entitlement to flexible hours or parental leavewas contingent upon the participants' view of whether such practices were practical for the organization, in terms of time, operation and costs. Given the current absence of compelling data to demonstrate perceived entitlement to work-life practices, therefore, the social exchange explanation for the positive effects of work-life practices among non-users cannot be discounted.
The provision of work-life practices has the potential to generate improved attitudinal and behavioural outcomes among employees independent of practice use. While this process is widely held to occur via social exchange, research has not yet explicitly tested this proposition, nor the possibility that national context (in the form of varying statutory regulations) may moderate the link between provision of practices and employee perceptions of organizational support.


c- Use of practices


The influence of work-life practices on organizational effectiveness may be compromised by practices that fail to achieve their intended aims. An issue frequently cited in accounts of work-life practice implementation is lack of use. Research conducted amongst organizations in the UK suggests that employees often remain unaware of their work-life entitlements following the implementation of work-life balance practices. For example, in a survey of 945 employees in six different organizations across three sectors of employment (local government, supermarkets, and retail banking), it is found that 50% of employees were unaware of the family friendly practices offered by their organizations.
Even when employees are fully informed of the practices available to them, many display a reluctance to use them. Relative to female employees, few men make use of family leave, choosing instead to take vacation or other discretionary days off upon the birth of a child or other family-related event.A study refers to this as the ‘invisible daddy track’; if colleagues and superiors are not aware that an employee is taking time off work for family reasons, he is less likely to be accused of having competing priorities and less likely to be perceived as uncommitted to his job. Gender role theory may help to explain this phenomenon. In examining perceptions of citizenship behaviours among male and female employees who either took family leave or did not, female employees were not rated differently regardless of their use of family leave. Men who took family leave, however, were rated as being less likely to help their co-workers, to work overtime, and to be punctual than men who did not take family leave, even in the presence of identical job performance ratings.Gender role theory proposes that men are expected to place work before family, and are thus not viewed as being good organizational citizens when they take leave.
Use of work-life leave provisions is low among staff with career aspirations due to the belief that taking such leave will be interpreted as a lack of commitment to the organization.As men progress up the managerial career ladder, they exhibit a reduced tendency to use the paternity leave towhich they are entitled. The provision of work-life practices improved employees' organizational commitment, but only to the extent that employees felt free to use the practices without negative consequences to their work lives— such as damaged career prospects. Similarly, although 95% of American law firms have a part-time employment policy, only 3% of lawyers have used it due to fear of career derailment.
The perception that using work-life balance practices will have a negative impact on their career prospects appears to be a powerful demotivator for employees' use of these practices. This perception is reinforced by organizational cultures unsupportive of work-life balance issues.Implementation attributes including supervisor support for use and universality of practice availability will affect the degree to which work-life practices are seen by employees as fulfilling their work-life needs and signalling support from the organization. Organizations featuring an entrenched long-hours culture and unaccommodating attitudes among managers and co-workers tend to discourage employees from making use of the work-life practices ostensibly available to them. As puts it, “putting in time—being visibly at work, often for long hours—is seen as a sign of commitment, of loyalty, of competence and high potential, and in many cases as an indicator, in and of itself, of productive output”. Employees who do not give the maximum amount of time possible to the organization are often defined as less productive and less committed, and are therefore less valued than employees working longer hours; this view is reflected in the attitudes of many managers to the promotion of employees working reduced hours or nonstandard schedules.
Employees are often demonstrably concerned that using flexible working arrangements will damage their promotion prospects and perhaps their relationships with co-workers and managers. These concerns are not always unfounded. Frequent telework has been associated with professional isolation, impeding professional development activities such as interpersonal networking, informal learning, and participating in mentoring relationships. Some work-life practices, such as voluntary reduced hours, are frequently unavailable in upper-level professional and managerial work. However, when they are available to professionals and managers, their use is often associated with career derailment.As time spent at theworkplace is often used as an indicator of employees' contributions and commitment to the organization, participation inworklife practices that make employees less visible (such as telework, flexible hours, or family leave) has been associated with lower performance evaluations, smaller salary increases, and fewer promotions.
There is an increasing amount of research supporting the notion that workers who make use of work-life practices suffer negative perceptions from colleagues and superiors. Employees who used work-life balance practices were perceived by co-workers as having lower levels of organizational commitment, which was thought to affect the subsequent allocation of organizational rewards such as advancement opportunities and salary increases. A study among 107working MBA students, in which participants were given a packet of materials designed to simulate the personnel file of a female employee in an accounting firm who was seeking a promotion to senior manager. It is found that participants perceived the job candidate who was using flexible work hours as being less committed to her job, less suitable for advancement, less ambitious, and less desirous of advancement, despite no differences in her perceived capability compared to a candidate not using a flexible schedule. This finding was consistent with that accountants working flexible schedules were perceived to be less likely to be promoted and more likely to leave the firm.
Moving from perceptions to reality, a survey of 11,815 managers in an American financial services organization showed that managers who took leaves of absence, both family and illness-related, received fewer subsequent promotions and salary increases than those who did not take leave, even after controlling for performance ratings. Regardless of type of leave, length of absence, or when leave was taken, managers who took multiple leaves of absence received fewer rewards than managers who took only one leave of absence. It is therefore not surprising that work-life practices tend to be under-utilized by male employees, single employees, and career-oriented mothers , and that apprehension of negative career consequences for using practices has been associated with increased levels of work-life conflict.
For those employees who are aware of the practices available to them and who wish to make use of them, other obstacles may exist. Despite managerial discretion being built into a number of work-life practices and codified in staff handbooks, awareness of statutory family leave provisions is variable and often quite poor among line managers, who frequently have limited training in work-life related human resource policies. Similarly, supervisors generally had poor awareness of work-life practices in their organization, and this influenced their ability to refer employees to these practices. Factors completely unrelated to employees' requests to use work-life practices can have a profound influence on the likelihood of those requests being granted. For example, female managers are more likely than male managers to grant requests for alternative work. Supervisors with greater parental responsibility have been found to exhibit more flexibility in helping employees balance their work and home commitments, while supervisors with a greater need for control have been found to display less flexibility in this regard.
Managerial support and the work-life climate of an organization may moderate the link between work-life balance practice provision and both employee use of practices and perceptions of organizational support. If management is unsupportive of employees' efforts to balance work and personal responsibilities, and workers anticipate career penalties should they make use of the available practices, organizations may find that perceptions of organizational support are not enhanced and outcomes such as improved citizenship behaviour and organizational performance are thus unrealized. Fear of harming their career prospects may discourage employees from using the work-life practices on offer, which in turn may nullify some of the intended beneficial effects of those practices.