1 Nabil R. Adam and Ali Dogramaci Measuring, analyzing, and improving
productivity in a given organization is a complex process that involves
the contributions of economists, industrial engineers, operations
researchers, management scientists, and lawyers. The objective of this
book is to provide the reader with a sample of original papers that
relate to these productivity topics at the organizational level. In the
book, the word organization refers to business firms and municipal
organizations. The hook is divided into three parts: perspectives on
productivity mea- surement, a range of studies at the micro level, and
some productivity issues in public organizations. Part I, which consists
of three chapters, deals with productivity measurement. The first two
chapters of this part cover a broad framework of measurement concepts
and techniques; the last chapter, on the other hand, provides the reader
with an example of productivity measurement for a specific industry (in
this case, food retail- ing). Thus, a spectrum of productivity
measurement issues is covered in this part of the book.