Efficiency improvement through socio-economic approach to supply chain : a case study on shipping lines companies (SLC)

Abstract

Traders worldwide both importers and exporters aim to optimize the process of planning, implementing, and controlling the efficient, effective flow and storage of goods, services, and related information from point of origin to point of consumption. This supply chain encompasses organizations and flows of goods and information between organizations from raw material to end-users (Handfield, 2002). A supply chain can also be characterized as a multi-organization/single site coordinated operations network (Rudberg, 2003). Management of such an arrangement refers to inter-organizational relationship management with the objective of improving the overall profitability of the activities and organizations involved. Although supply chain management (SCM) has existed for almost 25 years, it still lacks a socio-economic theoretical basis and framework that may be used to explain the form of inter-organizational arrangement. While, governance and management are factors of performance in any operation, and particularly in supply chain. It becomes more complex to achieve consistent performance without a tight link between governance and the latter. The topic itself will be investigated using the Socio-Economic Approach to Management research methodology (SEAM), whereby heavy emphasis on change management and organizational change and development work will be conducted. Through the study of the Socio-Economic Approach to Management Theory and application of the Socio-Economic Approach to Management research methodology (SEAM) to investigate the impact of approach to governance and management in a logistics business, it was established that a socio-economic approach to governance as well as management is a requirement for sustainability. The improvement of supply chain governance and management relies not only on equipment and hardware for sustainable performance but also on human development and improvement of personal and social performance. A transport group Shipping Lines Companies, an anonymous name, will be taken as a case study in influencing efficiencies in shipping and other forms of logistics. This dissertation constitutes as a work in progress study aimed for the doctoral degree in business administration and is still in its early phases of data analysis and organizational intervention. This study also showed that corporate governance, which encompasses Socio-Economic Theory, to a growing extent, is applied to a broad form of monitoring of corporate activities which are inclusive of the societal impact as well as the impact on the natural environment.