ALBERT

Notes: Purpose - In 1997, the University of British Columbia (UBC) adopted a sustainable development policy stating that the campus should adhere to sustainable practices in all of its actions and mandates and that all students who attend UBC will be educated about sustainability. The purpose of the paper is to consider how far UBC has moved in the last six years in the direction of sustainability education, what has been accomplished, what lessons have been learned and what challenges lie ahead. Design/methodology/approach - This paper is a collaborative inquiry created by a number of faculty, staff and one doctoral student working on sustainability education issues at UBC. Findings - The shift to sustainability involves: a fundamental thinking-through of basic issues about the role of the university in society, creating a strong relationship between sustainability principles and the core goals of the university. It also will require a reworking of the design and operation of institutional reward systems, creating an appropriate linkage between the operational and academic functions of the university, and finding an appropriate mix of disciplinarity and interdisciplinarity. The collaborative writing process helped to bring people together to reflect on the projects of the past and consider the plans for the future. Originality/value - The intention of the paper is to summarize the sustainability education initiatives at UBC, and address barriers and pathways to creating sustainability education programs at the university level. The collaborative stories aim to help other individuals and groups implement sustainability in higher education and contribute to a process of institutional learning for sustainability.

Notes: Purpose - To apply the concepts of lean and sustainability to higher education. Design/methodology/approach - A questionnaire was developed, administered to 18 public and private universities and analyzed. Findings - The focus in higher education is now on cost reduction or budget containment initiatives. Although these initiatives were not implemented with the knowledge that they were implementing "lean" practices, their application has often reduced waste, improved operational efficiency, and contributed to sustainability. Research limitations/implications - This is a preliminary study with a sample size of 18 universities in the northeastern United States. Future research should include more universities in the United States as well as in other countries. Practical implications - The participating universities in this study shared their beliefs about how "lean" thinking can contribute to the sustainability of higher education. Other universities can "learn from their lessons". Originality/value - Very little past research, except in the area of green marketing, has focused on lean sustainability concepts in higher education.

Notes: Purpose - To present the challenge of sustainable development, the way in which technology can address that challenge and the task of engineering education to train engineers for it. Design/methodology/approach - The paper describes briefly the history of the environmental and sustainability discourse in The Netherlands, as a densely populated country. It argues that technology should play a major role in SD, but that technological innovation is not enough. Technological systems renewal is a transdisciplinary activity involving relevant stakeholders and disciplines. "Needs" is the basic starting-point to innovate new systems of provision. The paper reviews relevant literature regarding future orientation of technology development. Based on it, goals for training of engineers are developed. Findings - The engineer has to meet a threefold challenge: providing new creative approaches on the one hand, and setting up and executing R&D programs that produce results, on the other; cooperating with other disciplines and lay stakeholders, on the one hand, and guarding disciplinary quality, on the other; bridging moralism and strategic pragmatism. Research limitations/implications - The paper is an introduction, i.e. it sketches the issues without dealing with them in detail. Practical implications - The paper draws in broad lines a road-map for the future of engineering education and sustainable development. The paper is a useful source for those engineering institutions that are formulating a strategy to introduce sustainable development. Originality/value - The paper goes beyond environmental engineering, not by just adding social and economic issues, but by developing an integrated framework for academic training of engineers.

Notes: Purpose - Owing to its complexity, sustainable development cannot be simply integrated as a supplementary course within the engineers' curricula. The first point of this paper aims to focalise on how to reflect pedagogically. After dealing with these questions, a tool that can evaluate the student's understanding of sustainable development concepts will be presented. Design/methodology/approach - The analysis of a student's sustainability comprehension, based on cognitive maps, has been developed. The students are asked to write and connect by arrows all the terms that they associate with the concept of sustainable development. The assessment of the aforementioned cognitive maps is based on an approach via semantic category. Findings - This study shows that the students' perception of sustainable development before the training seems mainly focalised on environmental and economical aspects. After the SD course, an increase in the number of words quoted is noted for each category (social and cultural aspects; the stakeholders, the principles of sustainable development and the allusions to complexity, temporal and spatial dimensions). Their vision seems richer and wider. The training seemed useful to help the students who did not associate sustainable development with diverse dimension to improve this perception. Research limitations/implications - To reduce the length of the elaboration of the maps, there is no preliminary training for the construction of maps. To simplify this elaboration, only one type of arrows is used to connect words. To minimise the time of analysis of the maps, the relevance of the relations made between the words is not verified. Besides, the classification of words within the semantic categories implies a certain level of subjectivity. Practical implications - This cognitive map method can be a useful tool to improve learning in quantitative terms but also in qualitative terms. Identifying knowledge gaps and misunderstood ideas allows the improvement in the training. Originality/value - This study presents a new method that can be used to evaluate the impact of training sessions on students. Another advantage is to analyse how the students' knowledge is interconnected. This seems particularly interesting because the study of this transdisciplinary concept also necessitates an integrated vision.

Notes: Purpose - To show the key points of a development education program for engineering studies fitted within the framework of the human development paradigm. Design/methodology/approach - The bases of the concept of technology for human development are presented, and the relationship with development education analysed. Special attention is dedicated to the role of case studies in engineering courses. After that, the development education program pushed by the Civil Engineering School of Barcelona and Engineering without Borders is explained, focusing on two major contributions: two optional courses about international aid and development and nine classroom case studies about different technologies used in real co-operation projects. Findings - This work provides a conceptual basis for incorporating development education into engineering studies, a general overview of different activities promoted in Spanish technical universities and practical information about optional courses and classroom case studies. Research limitations/implications - The proposal is based on the experience in Spanish engineering curricula (mostly in five-year degrees). Some of the topics covered by the courses and the case studies can be better adapted at postgraduate level in three- or four-year degrees. Practical implications - It is shown that development education can be incorporated into engineering studies through different specific non-expensive activities. Originality/value - This work presents and puts in context the development education activities pushed coordinately between a non-governmental organization and an engineering school. Thus, it can be of major interest for both teachers and workers of the international development field.

Notes: Purpose - This paper examines the actual and desired use of performance measures for management and external reporting purposes, as well as perceived impediments to their effective use. Design/methodology/approach - A total of 334 senior administrators in Canadian municipalities participated in this survey study. Findings - Somewhat more efficiency measures than effectiveness measures have been used for various purposes. However, greater use was perceived desirable than actually occurred, particularly for effectiveness measures. A significant increase in the use was expected in the near future especially for effectiveness measures. Internal and external verification of measures was considered important by both internal and external auditors. Although the study also identified impediments to the development and meaningful use of performance measures, performance measurement appears to have been accepted as a useful managerial tool and have significant future potential. Research limitations/implications - The results are limited by the survey method. Practical implications - The results can provide guidance to public-sector administrators and professionals for planning and decision making purposes and to professional bodies and regulatory agencies for developing comparative performance reporting standards. Originality/value - Using the descriptive and normative perspectives, this study provides new evidence in the Canadian context. It concludes that, although the mandatory performance measurement and reporting requirements for municipalities in Canada lag those in the UK, the USA, and Australia, a significant degree of usage occurred voluntary in Canadian municipalities.

Notes: Purpose - Local authorities use events and festivals within their region to help achieve a diverse range of economic and social objectives. However, the success of these events, which can take up a substantial amount of the tourism, leisure or arts and cultural budget is rarely assessed in a systematic and objective manner. This article describes the importance of measuring the impacts of such events Design/methodology/approach - The methods for assessing the success of local authority events are trialled through the use of a case study involving two events organised by Blackburn with Darwen Borough Council. Findings - An evaluation of the methods, after conducting the case study, indicates that the techniques produced robust data that was valuable in planning future events and in securing funding. The relative simplicity of the methods used will help to ensure that similar evaluations can be carried out in-house for little cost for future public events. Originality/value - This article sets out practical guidelines for undertaking the measurement and evaluation of some of the major impacts of local authority events. Similar methods can be used by other public sector organisations involved in hosting public events.

Notes: Purpose - The paper discusses the reasons and approaches used at three health organisations in introducing outsourcing. It specifically answers the question: why have managers of health organisations outsourced some functions in preference to others? Design/methodology/approach - This research employs a case study method making use of qualitative analysis. The health organisations were chosen first as representatives of their type, and secondly due to the nature of the outsourcing decisions made. The first health organisation operates in the rural sector; the second is a metropolitan network; and the third is a large metropolitan hospital, which, in contrast to the other two case study organisations, had made only one decision to outsource, producing the largest outsourcing contract in health in Australia. Furthermore, this situation was distinctive as the contract was terminated and re-issued to another private sector organisation. Findings - The reasons for outsourcing varied within and between health organisations. Although generally they were made on the bases of the characteristics of the labour market, employee skill levels and the nature of industrial relations, the perception of what was core, the level of internal management skills, the ability of internal teams to implement change and the relationship between management and staff. Even though cost savings and a downsized labour force resulted, generally these occurred even when services were not outsourced, through the use of other change processes, such as introducing new technology, changing structures and promoting workforce flexibility. The interplay of political reasons and economic effects was evident along with the political nature of the decision-making and processes used. The paper concludes that the power of managers was a moderating factor between the desire for outsourcing and whether outsourcing actually occurred. Research limitations/implications - Although this research was conducted solely within the health sector it has implications for other public sector bodies and the private sector. Practical implications - Managerial decision making can be enhanced with the exploration of the full complement of reasons for the outsourcing decision. Originality/value - The paper has value to both academics researching in the public sector and public sector managers.

Notes: Purpose - This paper reports on the research conducted into the adaptations Canadian public sector auditors have made to the emergence of e-commerce and e-business in the delivery of public services. Design/methodology/approach - A comprehensive review of the literature was completed as a foundation for creating a semi-structure interview questionnaire used in a series of interviews with audit executives from 20 audit organizations in Canada's public sectors. Findings - The study found a distinct disconnect between what is reported in the literature and what has actually happened in practice. Practicing auditors do have a significant interest in the impact of e-business on the audit profession specifically and on their client organizations generally. But there is significant disagreement about whether e-business constitutes just another set of technologically mediated changes, not much different from the many others of the past 30 years, or whether e-business is truly disruptive in nature. The consequence of this disagreement is difference in audit practice among constituencies and highly variable dependency on external expertise in favour of developing internal capacity. Research limitations/implications - The research is limited to internal auditors of public sector organizations in Canada. Practical implications - A key area for future research is the impact on e-business on horizontality of management practice in the public sector and the need for more holistic audit interventions. Originality/value - The paper identifies key differences between what is said in the literature and what is done on the ground. It identifies key lessons from audit experience related to evolving e-government, including the management of new risks. The research is valuable to both researchers and practicing public sector audit executives alike.

Notes: Purpose - In Europe, the alignment of national public administration policies and practices to EU directions is regarded as a key factor in the process of integration. Administrative convergence within European public administration systems places new demands on human resource managers in every member state. Seeks to show that Greek public administration is aiming to investigate the organizational competencies needed for the successful alignment of the Greek civil service with EU directions. Design/methodology/approach - The approach is survey research conducted within Greek public administration. The STAIR (strategy, targets, assignment, implementation, results) model has been used as the appropriate performance management framework. Findings - Suggests that the HRM role in the contemporary public sector environment is to develop a strategic performance management framework for changing performance at organizational level and make human resources active drivers of this process.The results reveal that convergence with EU policies draws heavily on how human resource executives can manage the following three soft organizational capabilities: competence, commitment and continuity - the STAIR model's 3"Cs". Originality/value - Contributes to the literature on directions for public sector management in Greece.