Cooperative and competitive structures of trust relations in teams

This article argues that it is not just trust-generating but also trust-inhibiting mechanisms that operate in teams, and that these cooperative and competitive structures of interpersonal relations of trust within teams may affect team performance. Specifically, we propose that the presence of trust-generating structures (e.g., reciprocity, trusting in the referrals of others we trust, trusting in high performers and more experienced people) and the absence of trust-inhibiting structures (e.g., not trusting in the referrals of others we trust) are more likely to be associated with successful teams. Using exponential random graph models, a particular class of statistical model for social networks, we examine three professional sporting teams from the Australian Football League for the presence and absence of these mechanisms of interpersonal relations of trust. Quantitative network results indicate a differential presence of these postulated structures of trust relations in line with our hypotheses. Qualitative comparisons of these quantitative findings with team performance measures suggest a link between trust-generating and trust-inhibiting mechanisms of trust and team performance. Further theorization on other trust-inhibiting structures of trust relations and related empirical work is likely to shed further light on these connections.

Nonlinear identification of backlash in robot transmissions

ABSTRACT This paper addresses the issue of automatic identification of backlash in robot transmissions. Traditionally, the backlash is measured manually either by the transmission manufacturer or the robot manufacturer. Before the robot can be delivered to the end-customer, the backlash must be within specified tolerances. For robots with motor measurements only, backlash is an example of an uncontrollable behaviour which directly affects the absolute accuracy of the robot’s tool-centrepoint. Even if we do not attempt to bring backlash under real-time control in this paper, we will describe a method to automatically identify/estimate the backlash in the robot transmissions from torque and position measurements. Hence, only the transmissions that do not meet the backlash requirements in the automatic tests need to be checked and adjusted manually.

Scalable hierarchical rings based routing to a mobile robot in wireless sensor networks

Location service provides location information of robots to sensors, to enable event reporting. Existing protocols apply partial flooding to trace robots, leading to poor scalability. We propose a novel scalable location service, which applies hierarchical rings to update robot location and guide routing toward it. Each mobile robot creates a set of hierarchical update rings of doubling radii. Whenever the robot leaves its k-th ring, it updates its new location to sensors along its newly defined k-th ring, and re-defines all smaller rings for future decisions. When a sensor needs to route to the mobile robot, it starts searching from its smallest ring and sends location query to the sensors along the ring. If the query fails, the search then extends to the next larger ring, until it intersects an existing update ring, from which the search can be directed towards reported center. The location of destination is updated whenever another more recent ring is intersected. Our scheme guarantees message delivery if robot remains connected to sensors during its move. The theoretical analysis and simulation results demonstrate better scalability than previous protocols for the similar goal. © 2014 IEEE.

Findings of the first ANZICS conference on the role of intensive care in Rapid Response Teams.

Rapid Response Teams (RRTs) are specialised teams introduced into hospitals to improve the outcomes of deteriorating ward patients. Although Rapid Response Systems (RRSs) were developed by the intensive care unit (ICU) community, there is variability in their delivery, and consultant involvement, supervision and leadership appears to be relatively infrequent. In July 2014, the Australian and New Zealand Intensive Care Society (ANZICS) convened the first conference on the role of intensive care medicine in RRTs in Australia and New Zealand. The conference explored RRSs in the broader role of patient safety, resourcing and staffing of RRTs, effect on ICU workload, different RRT models, the outcomes of RRT patients and original research projects in the area of RRSs. Issues around education and training of both ICU registrars and nurses were examined, and the role of team training explored. Measures to assess the effectiveness of the RRS and RRT at the level of health system and hospital, team performance and team effectiveness were discussed, and the need to develop a bi-national ANZICS RRT patient database was presented. Strategies to prevent patient deterioration in the 'pre-RRT' period were discussed, including education of ward nurses and doctors, as well as an overarching governance structure. The role of the ICU in deteriorating ward patients was debated and an integrated model of acute care presented. This article summarises the findings of the conference and presents recommendations on the role of intensive care medicine in RRTs in Australia and New Zealand.

Adopting global virtual engineering teams in AEC Projects: a qualitative meta-analysis of innovation diffusion studies

Purpose - This study aims to present an integrated conceptual model in order to highlight the major aspects of diffusion of innovations in the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) context. To this end, a critical review of literature is conducted, accompaniedbysynthesising the findings of previous studies. The driving force behind this study is stemmed from the fragmentation of literature on innovation diffusion, and paucity of research on diffusion of Global Virtual Engineering Teams (GVETs) as the platform formany technological innovations in relevant literature. Thus, the present study is intended to facilitate filling the gap in GVETs literature. That is, the proposed model will offer a foundation for academia for grounding studies on any innovation including GVETs in the literature on innovation diffusion in the AEC context. Design/methodology/approach - This paper draws upon the qualitative meta-analysis approach encompassing a critical review of the relevant literature. To this end, the review builds upon studies found within 15 prestigious journals in AEC. The domain of this review was confined to areas described as "innovation", "innovation diffusion" and "innovation adoption", along with keywords used within a broad review of recently published GVETs literature. The rigour of review is augmented by incorporating 35 authoritative works from other disciplines published in 21 well-known journals in the manufacturing, business and management fields. Moreover, the study deploys the peer-debriefing approach through conducting unstructured interviews with five Australian scholars to verify a model presenting an aggregated summary of previous studies. Findings - The key findings of the study include the following items: Synthesising the fragmented studies on innovation diffusion in the AEC context. In doing so, a model capturing the major aspects affecting diffusion of an innovation in AEC projects is presented; providing a foundation to address the drawbacks of previous studies within the sphere of GVETs, based on the developed model. Research limitations/implications - The developed model was only enhanced using a small sample size of academics, as such not empirically validated. Originality/value - As possibly, the first literature review of innovation in the AEC context, this paper contributes to the sphere by sensitising the AEC body of knowledge on innovation diffusion as a concise conceptual model, albeit verified through the peer-debriefing approach. This study will also further establish the research field in AEC on GVETs along with other methods reliant on virtual working such as building information modelling (BIM) through providing an expanded foundation for future inquiries and creation of knowledge.