Kansas Business Review Abstracts |
Vol. 21, No.3, Spring 1998 |
We recommend that the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks
develop a long-term plan of what they want the park system to be like in a
couple of decades. Although the word "vision" has been overused
to the point of being meaningless or trite, in the case of state parks
this is exactly what is needed. If the Department does have such a plan
then it needs to tell Kansans what it is and begin building support for
it. The state parks have an enormous reservoir of support among the people
of Kansas and should use it. The inspiration, along with the details for a
state park vision, needs to come from the Department working with
interested constituents. We do have two suggestions: 1) advertise, and 2)
differentiate the state parks in the minds of Kansans.
Managing Across the Language Barrier
by Carol C. Rose,
Institute for Public Policy and Business Research, University of Kansas.
This research aims to explore how the use of foreign language in
the workplace affected business organizations and to characterize the
problems and successful strategies for managing language differences. The
study was conducted among business firms in the Kansas City and Wichita
areas. The research was conducted in three phases: (a) interviews with
managers of Limited English Speaking employees (LES); (b) interviews with
Hispanic workers who spoke limited English; and (c) a mail survey of area
firms.
Overall, the three phases of the research converged towards the
conclusion that multiple languages did not ultimately decrease the
organization’s effectiveness. It is important to note, however, that
satisfaction with present effectiveness did not rule out the possibility
that opportunities may have been lost, or future changed hampered, by the
language barrier. Most of the organizations in this study were under
extreme pressure to produce large volumes of products or services with
low-cost labor. Possible impacts of the LES workforce, such as decreased
ability to implement team-based improvements, or the tendency for the
workforce to be dominated by a single ethnic group, were of less concern
than the need to fill the immediate labor shortage.
The ability of managers and supervisors to communicate well with
LES workers appeared in this study to be the most important factor in
creating a successful workplace. Contrary to what was anticipated, good
communication did not appear to depend on the managers’ ability to speak
the foreign language or languages of the workers, or on their specific
knowledge of other cultures, but rather on their ability to relate to LES
employees in spite of language differences.
An Analysis of the 1996 Kansas State Fair
by Norman Clifford and
Patricia Oslund, Institute for Public
Policy and Business Research, University of Kansas.
In 1996 the Institute for Public Policy and Business Research,
University of Kansas, was asked to conduct an extensive analysis of the
Kansas State Fair activities, including the State Fair itself and various
non-fair events held throughout the year. The purpose of the study was to
identify the characteristics of the Fair’s attendance base, to gauge
visitors’ reactions to various Fair activities, to examine visitor and
participant spending, to examine the employment and income generated by
vendors at the Fair, and to create measures of the economic impact of the
Fair on the community and state.
This article, taken from the full report, focuses on the marketing
aspects of the Fair, including attendance, demographics, place of
residence of event-goers, reasons for attending events, perceptions of the
quality of the Fair and facilities, and also, from a later telephone
survey, the reasons why people did not attend the Fair.
Staff from the Institute for Public Policy and Business Research
and a survey research team interviewed people as they exited the Fair and
administered a three-page survey that covered demographics, expenditures,
and interest in various types of Fair events. The results of the survey
showed that 1996 Fair-goers fairly represented the Kansas population as a
whole, were almost evenly split between males and females, and that most
of them were in the $30,000-$50,000 income category. Most of the
Fair-goers were from Kansas, and almost half of them drove 25-60 miles to
visit the Fair. Over half of them visited the Fair for a single day.
Forty-six percent were attracted to the Fair by the livestock and
agricultural exhibits, while almost as many people cited the commercial
and fine arts/domestic arts as being very important. On average visitors
reported spending close to $18.00 per person each day on concessions,
rides, food, and other Fair attractions.
The telephone survey revealed that people living in the
metropolitan counties of Northeast Kansas are less likely than other
Kansans to know about the location, dates, and price of the Fair. In fact,
24 percent of these respondents said they did not know about the Fair at
all. They are also less likely than other Kansans to have been exposed to
media information about the Fair. This suggests that news information and
advertising could broaden Fair attendance.
The Outlook for Kansas and the Nation: 1998 Update
by Norman Clifford, Institute for
Public Policy and Business Research, University of Kansas.
The national economy in 1998 will ride the momentum generated
in 1997 and the first quarter of 1998. Employment growth will decrease,
although the unemployment rate should remain low. Nominal personal income
growth will be in line with the last several years, but low inflation
means that real personal income growth will actually increase. Consumer
spending will be the bulwark of the U.S. economy in 1998.
The number of jobs in Kansas non-farm firms is expected to increase
2.8 percent in 1998; in addition, real personal income is expected to grow
3.4 percent. The unemployment rate will continue to decline slowly,
averaging 3.6 percent.The state will see increases in jobs in the
construction, durable goods manufacturing, nondurable goods manufacturing,
transportation and utilities, the wholesale trade, and services sectors.
The mining, finance, insurance, and real estate sectors, however, will
show decreases in the number of jobs. Federal government jobs will remain
about level, but state and local government jobs will increase.