Estrategia organizacional y su relación con la adopción de prácticas saludables

Las organizaciones asumen en el mundo en el que vivimos el reto de transformarse permanentemente para evolucionar y prolongarse en el tiempo, y una alternativa es a través de actividades dirigidas hacia los distintos grupos de interés y hacia la propia organización. Es así, como surge el interés de realizar este estudio analizando la estrategia, desde los conceptos de algunos pensadores representativos, las tipologías y modelos existentes, así como el concepto de organizaciones saludables, las cuales a través de prácticas saludables logran llevar a cabo acciones dirigidas hacia el bienestar de los empleados, el medio ambiente, proveedores, compradores, y la comunidad. Con el propósito de establecer la relación existente entre las prácticas saludables y la estrategia empresarial, se tienen en cuenta algunos estudios académicos y empíricos relacionados con la aplicación de las prácticas saludables para contribuir a la estrategia de la organización. Para estudiar dicha relación, se llevó a cabo un trabajo de campo en una empresa de salud tomando como muestra a 134 empleados de la organización. Los resultados arrojados señalan que tres de las cuatro prácticas saludables, a saber: plan de desarrollo, empleados, medio ambiente, no poseen una relación significativa con la estrategia, siendo la práctica referente a la comunidad, proveedores y compradores la más relacionada con ésta. Resulta importante continuar con otras investigaciones acerca del tema, con el fin de seguir analizando cómo las prácticas saludables están o no relacionadas con la estrategia de la organización.

La sinergia institucional en la gerencia de la explotación minera en Colombia

El interés de este trabajo de grado es analizar el concepto de coordinación inter-agencial y trasladarlo a la práctica, para entender el funcionamiento de dos grandes agencias que gerencian el tema minero en el país: la Agencia Nacional de Minería y la Agencia Nacional de Licencias Ambientales. A partir de lo anterior, se demostrará que la falta de sinergia entre estas agencias es producto de la improvisación en la creación institucional; de la inestabilidad de las normas que las regulan y su falta de cumplimiento; de problemas estructurales al interior de cada una y de la ausencia de una mirada integral, en la que todos los elementos se relacionan y tienen efectos sobre sí. El diseño metodológico es cualitativo-descriptivo y el enfoque es el jurídico-institucional, ya que el propósito fue describir el funcionamiento de estas dos agencias, teniendo como fundamento el rol del Estado, el papel de las instituciones y el derecho que las regula.

Perdurabilidad de las empresas extranjeras en Colombia caso: Cencosud

La llegada al país del grupo chileno CENCOUSUD -uno de los retailers más prestigiosos de América Latina- se dio en el año 2007 con la inauguración de la primera tienda EASY, enfocada en el mejoramiento del hogar y construcción. Cinco años después, el grupo vuelve al país por medio de la adquisición de la cadena de supermercados Carrefour y el establecimiento de sus marcas JUMBO y METRO, continuando así con un exitoso proceso de internacionalización, que inició en Argentina y siguió en Brasil y Perú, y revelando una estrategia que resulta interesante analizar, pues CENCOSUD se perfila como una compañía “saludable” y perdurable en el incipiente mercado colombiano.

Perdurabilidad empresarial y su relación con la turbulencia del entorno un acercamiento al concepto

El presente trabajo busca relacionar el concepto de perdurabilidad con criterios como turbulencia y globalización. En el mundo actual, las empresas enfrentan un dilema: perdurar o morir. Toda empresa que nace está destinada a generar ganancias y perdurar en el tiempo, pero el panorama actual de globalización y competencia obliga a dinamizar la actividad económica de manera que la empresa pueda subsistir mediante la aplicación de estrategias y la capacidad de adaptabilidad. Dentro del concepto de perdurabilidad, podemos observar dos tendencias. La primera relacionada con las diferentes definiciones e investigaciones realizadas en torno a perdurabilidad empresarial, de donde se deduce que perdurabilidad se podría definir en un ambiente global. Es un término global como la suma de los diferentes ángulos o puntos de vista de las culturas del mundo. Es una confluencia de saberes. Finalmente, luego de un repaso de las teorías y estudios sobre el tema, se plantean una conclusiones y recomendaciones, con el fin de dejar abierto el tema e invitar a las nuevas generaciones a que profundicen en el tema.

El actual modelo de descentralización en el Ecuador: un desafío para los gobiernos autónomos descentralizados (Tema Central)

El gran objetivo que planteó la Asamblea de Montecristi de impulsar un avanzado proceso de autonomía y descentralización dentro de un marco de equidad social, económico y territorial, debe generar en los gobiernos autónomos descentralizados una visión de oportunidad y desarrollo, entendiendo principalmente que ambos conceptos buscan ampliar la democracia y viabilizar a un país productivo, igualitario y territorialmente justo. Ideales que se alejan de cualquier improvisación y clientelismo, y que, por el contrario, requieren de políticas públicas serias, de un marco jurídico claro y unificado, y de readecuaciones e innovaciones institucionales.

One’s own soundtrack: affective music synthesis

Computer music usually sounds mechanical; hence, if musicality and music expression of virtual actors could be enhanced according to the user’s mood, the quality of experience would be amplified. We present a solution that is based on improvisation using cognitive models, case based reasoning (CBR) and fuzzy values acting on close-to-affect-target musical notes as retrieved from CBR per context. It modifies music pieces according to the interpretation of the user’s emotive state as computed by the emotive input acquisition componential of the CALLAS framework. The CALLAS framework incorporates the Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) model that reflects emotive state of the user and represents the criteria for the music affectivisation process. Using combinations of positive and negative states for affective dynamics, the octants of temperament space as specified by this model are stored as base reference emotive states in the case repository, each case including a configurable mapping of affectivisation parameters. Suitable previous cases are selected and retrieved by the CBR subsystem to compute solutions for new cases, affect values from which control the music synthesis process allowing for a level of interactivity that makes way for an interesting environment to experiment and learn about expression in music.

Photochromic switches incorporated in bridging ligands: a new tool to modulate energy-transfer processes

The thoughtful construction of molecular switches has led to a gamut of supramolecular systems that can be used in molecular electronics. These include molecules based on thienylethenes, spiropyrans, fulgides, dithienylphenanthrolines, and diazafluorenes. This article reviews the recent developments made in the synthesis and characterization of all these systems, thereby allowing a comparative study to validate the viability of these switchable molecules on a nanoscale. Also, the drawbacks of each class are demonstrated and, at the same time, the remedies for further improvisation are prescribed. We have made an honest attempt to present at? exhaustive account of all the different photochromic switches developed by us hitherto.

Start where you are: Graphic ordering influences improvisational dance

This article is an analysis and reflection on the role of lists and diagrams in Start where you are, a multimedia improvisational piece performed as part of square zero independent dance festival: the second edition/la deuxième édition. This interdisciplinary festival was organised by collective (gulp) dance projects and took place in Ottawa, Canada, in August 2005. Start where you are was the result of a collaboration between the authors: two dance artists (Andrew and MacKinnon, the principals of (gulp)) and a visual communication designer (Gillieson). A sound artist and a lighting technician also participated in the work. This is a post-performance retrospective meant to analyze more closely the experience that meshed the evidentiary weight of words and graphics with the ephemerality and subjectivity of movement-based live performance. It contextualizes some of the work of collective (gulp) within a larger tradition of improvisation in modern dance. It also looks at how choice-making processes are central to improvisation, how they relate to Start, and how linguistic material can intersect with and support improvisational performance. Lastly, it examines some characteristics of lists and diagrams, unique forms of visual language that are potentially rich sources of material for improvisation.

Dissonant Voices : Philosophy, Children's Literature, and Perfectionist Education

Dissonant Voices has a twofold aspiration. First, it is a philosophical treatment of everyday pedagogical interactions between children and their elders, between teachers and pupils. More specifically it is an exploration of the possibilities to go on with dissonant voices that interrupt established practices – our attunement – in behaviour, practice and thinking. Voices that are incomprehensible or expressions that are unacceptable, morally or otherwise. The text works on a tension between two inclinations: an inclination to wave off, discourage, or change an expression that is unacceptable or unintelligible; and an inclination to be tolerant and accept the dissonant expression as doing something worthwhile, but different. The second aspiration is a philosophical engagement with children’s literature. Reading children’s literature becomes a form of philosophising, a way to explore the complexity of a range of philosophical issues. This turn to literature marks a dissatisfaction with what philosophy can accomplish through argumentation and what philosophy can do with a particular and limited set of concepts for a subject, such as ethics. It is a way to go beyond philosophising as the founding of theories that justify particular responses. The philosophy of dissonance and children’s literature becomes a way to destabilise justifications of our established practices and ways of interacting. The philosophical investigations of dissonance are meant to make manifest the possibilities and risks of engaging in interactions beyond established agreement or attunements. Thinking of the dissonant voice as an expression beyond established practices calls for improvisation. Such improvisations become a perfectionist education where both the child and the elder, the teacher and the student, search for as yet unattained forms of interaction and take responsibility for every word and action of the interaction. The investigation goes through a number of picture books and novels for children such as Harry Potter, Garmann’s Summer, and books by Shaun Tan, Astrid Lindgren and Dr. Seuss as well narratives by J.R.R. Tolkien, Henrik Ibsen, Jane Austen and Henry David Thoreau. These works of fiction are read in conversation with philosophical works of, and inspired by, Ludwig Wittgenstein and Stanley Cavell, their moral perfectionism and ordinary language philosophy.

Manager's task to support integrated autonomy at the workplace : Results from an intervention

A new managerial task arises in today’s working life: to provide conditions for and influence interaction between actors and thus to enable the emergence of organizing structure in tune with a changing environment. We call this the enabling managerial task. The goal of this paper is to study whether training first line managers in the enabling managerial task could lead to changes in the work for the subordinates. This paper presents results from questionnaires answered by the subordinates of the managers before and after the training. The training was organized as a learning network and consisted of eight workshops carried out over a period of one year (September 2009–June 2010), where the managers met with each other and the researchers once a month. Each workshop consisted of three parts, during three and a half hours. The first hour was devoted to joint reflection on a task that had been undertaken since the last workshop; some results were presented from the employee pre-assessments, followed by relevant theory and illuminating practices, finally the managers created new tasks for themselves to undertake during the following month. The subordinates’ answers show positive change in all of the seventeen scales used to assess it. The improvements are significant in scales measuring the relationship between the manager and the employees, as well as in those measuring interaction between employees. It is concluded that the result was a success for all managers that had the possibility of using the training in their management work.

Cross cultural engagement: teaching African music to Australian students

This paper reports on research that examined the effectiveness of introducing rhythmic concepts through an unfamiliar musical genre to Australian generalist prim my teacher education students. The genre selected was African music, in particular action songs, dance and instrumental improvisation. The methodologies of Orff, Kodaly and Dalcroze were taught through the repertoire of African music in order to foster a closer relationship between pedagogical theory and practice and to teach rhythm through cross-cultural engagement. Through analyses of questionnaire and interview data, it was demonstrated that African music had a positive effect on students' conjidence as non-specialists music teachers and enhanced their skills in staff, sol-fa, hand notation and performance. Also students were not only highly motivated to engage with this new musical genre, but also gained an increased understanding of African culture. It is argued that African music was perceived by students not so much as a "novelty", but as a source of genuine motivation, interest and enjoyment. Its potential for extending student understanding of rhythm as well as taking a significant step towards internationalizing the curriculum for a cohort of predominantly Anglo-Celtic, pre-service teachers is also explored.

This story wants to be danced : creative writing, dance, convergence and confluence

I suggest ways the discipline of dance can enrich and challenge the discipline of creative writing. I focus particularly on improvisation in dance, relating this to creative writing pedagogy, classroom structure and activities. Much possibility exists in utilising moments when creative arts disciplines touch. How might creative writers and creative writing courses use such fusions? I draw on material theory and briefly upon transformative and collaborative education theories in my exploration of these ideas.

Chamber

Performed 25 – 28 April 2002 - Dancehouse, Melbourne