890 resultados para Machinery in the workplace.
Resumo:
Women are under-represented at senior levels within organisations. They also fareless well than their male counterparts in reward and career opportunities. Attitudestoward women in the workplace are thought to underpin these disparities and moreand more organisations are introducing attitude measures into diversity and inclusioninitiatives to: 1) raise awareness amongst employees of implicit attitudes, 2) educateemployees on how these attitudes can influence behaviour and 3) re-measure theattitude after an intervention to assess whether the attitude has changed. TheImplicit Association Test (IAT: Greenwald, et al., 1998) is the most popular tool usedto assess attitudes. However, questions over the predictive validity of the measurehave been raised and the evidence for the real world impact of the implicit attitudes islimited (Blanton et al., 2009; Landy, 2008; Tetlock & Mitchell, 2009; Wax, 2010).Whilst there is growing research in the area of race, little research has explored theability of the IAT to predict gender discrimination. This thesis addresses thisimportant gap in the literature. Three empirical studies were conducted. The firststudy explored whether gender IATs were predictive of personnel decisions thatfavour men and whether affect- and cognition-based gender IATs were equallypredictive of behaviour. The second two studies explored the predictive validity ofthe IAT in comparison to an explicit measure of one type of gender attitude,benevolent sexism. The results revealed implicit gender attitudes were stronglyheld. However, they did not consistently predict behaviour across the studies.Overall, the results suggest that the IAT may only predict workplace genderdiscrimination in a very select set of circumstances. The attitude component that anIAT assesses, the personnel decision and participant demographics all impact thepredictive validity of the tool. The interplay between the IAT and behaviour thereforeappears to be more complex than is assumed.
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Culture defines collective behavior and interactions among people in groups. In organizations, it shapes group identity, work pattern, communication schemes, and interpersonal relations. Any change in organizational culture will lead to changes in these elements of organizational factors, and vice versa. From a managerial standpoint, how to cultivate an organizational culture that would enhance these aforementioned elements in organizational workplace should thus be taken into serious consideration. Based on cases studies in two hospitals, this paper investigates how organizational culture is shaped by a particular type of information and communication technology, wireless networks, a topic that is generally overlooked by the mainstream research community, and in turn implicates how such cultural changes in organizations renovate their competitiveness in the marketplace. Lessons learned from these cases provide valuable insights to emerging IT management and culture studies in general and in wireless network management in the healthcare sector in particular.
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This research investigates technology transfer (TT) to developing countries, with specific reference to South Africa. Particular attention is paid to physical asset management, which includes the maintenance of plant, equipment and facilities. The research is case based, comprising a main case study (the South African electricity utility, Eskom) and four mini-cases. A five level framework adapted from Salami and Reavill (1997) is used as the methodological basis for the formulation of the research questions. This deals with technology selection, and management issues including implementation and maintenance and evaluation and modifications. The findings suggest the Salami and Reavill (1997) framework is a useful guide for TT. The case organisations did not introduce technology for strategic advantage, but to achieve operational efficiencies through cost reduction, higher quality and the ability to meet customer demand. Acquirers favour standardised technologies with which they are familiar. Cost-benefit evaluations have limited use in technology acquisition decisions. Users rely on supplier expertise to compensate for poor education and technical training in South Africa. The impact of political and economic factors is more evident in Eskom than in the mini-cases. Physical asset management follows traditional preventive maintenance practices, with limited use of new maintenance management thinking. Few modifications of the technology or R&D innovations take place. Little use is made of explicit knowledge from computerised maintenance management systems. Low operating and maintenance skills are not conducive to the transfer of high-technology equipment. South African organisations acquire technology as items of plant, equipment and systems, but limited transfer of technology takes place. This suggests that operators and maintainers frequently do not understand the underlying technology, and like workers elsewhere, are not always inclined towards adopting technology in the workplace.
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This thesis is concerned with the means by which the state in Britain has attempted to influence the technological development of private industry in the period 1945-1979. Particular emphasis is laid on assessing the abilities of technology policy measures to promote innovation. With that objective, the innovation literature is selectively reviewed to draw up an analytical framework to evaluate the innovation content of policy (Chapter 2). Technology policy is taken to consist of the specific measures utilised by government and its agents that affect the technological behaviour of firms. The broad sweep of policy during the period under consideration is described in Chapter 3 which concentrates on elucidating its institutional structure and the activities of the bodies involved. The empirical core of the thesis consists of three parallel case studies of policy toward the computer, machine tool and textile machinery industries (Chapters 4-6). The studies provide detailed historical accounts of the development and composition of policy, relating it to its specific institutional and industrial contexts. Each reveals a different pattern and level of state intervention. The thesis concludes with a comparative review of the findings of the case studies within a discussion centred on the arguments presented in Chapter 2. Topics arising include the state's differential support for the range of activities involved in innovation, the location of state-funded R&D, the encouragement of supplier-user contact, and the difficulties raised in adoption and diffusion.
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The thesis examines Kuhn's (1962, 1970) concept of paradigm, assesses how it is employed for mapping intellectual terrain in the social sciences, and evaluates it's use in research based on multiple theory positions. In so doing it rejects both the theses of total paradigm 'incommensurability' (Kuhn, 1962), and also of liberal 'translation' (Popper, 1970), in favour of a middle ground through the 'language-game of everyday life' (Wittgenstein, 1953). The thesis ultimately argues for the possibility of being 'trained-into' new paradigms, given the premise that 'unorganised experience cannot order perception' (Phillips, 1977). In conducting multiple paradigm research the analysis uses the Burrell and Morgan (1979) model for examining the work organisation of a large provincial fire Service. This analysis accounts for firstly, a 'functionalist' assessment of work design, demonstrating inter alia the decrease in reported motivation with length of service; secondly, an 'interpretive' portrayal of the daily accomplishment of task routines, highlighting the discretionary and negotiated nature of the day's events; thirdly, a 'radical humanist' analysis of workplace ideology, demonstrating the hegemonic role of officer training practices; and finally, a 'radical structuralist' description of the labour process, focusing on the establishment of a 'normal working day'. Although the argument is made for the possibility of conducting multiple paradigm research, the conclusion stresses the many institutional pressures serving to offset development.
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Recognition of the contribution of small firms to the UK economy has grown considerably since 1995 when this research first began. The poor record of small firms in managing health and safety effectively has caused concern, and efforts made to improve knowledge and awareness of the target group through various initiatives have had some success. This research thesis attempts to identify the range of intervention routes and methods available to reach the target group, and to consider ways of evaluating the outcome of such efforts. Various interventions were tested with small firms, including a Workshop; use of Questionnaires; short postal Reply Slip survey; leading to a closer evaluation of a specific industry- the Licensed Trade. Attitudes and beliefs of the sample were identified, and observations carried out to consider actions taken by workers and others in the workplace. These empirical research findings were used to develop the theme of Primary and Secondary interventions intended to change behaviours, and to confirm assumptions about what small firms currently do to manage health and safety risks. Guidance for small firms was developed as a Secondary intervention tool to support Primary interventions, such as inspection or insurance provision.
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The thesis examines and explains the development of occupational exposure limits (OELs) as a means of preventing work related disease and ill health. The research focuses on the USA and UK and sets the work within a certain historical and social context. A subsidiary aim of the thesis is to identify any short comings in OELs and the methods by which they are set and suggest alternatives. The research framework uses Thomas Kuhn's idea of science progressing by means of paradigms which he describes at one point, `lq ... universally recognised scientific achievements that for a time provide model problems and solutions to a community of practitioners. KUHN (1970). Once learned individuals in the community, `lq ... are committed to the same rules and standards for scientific practice. Ibid. Kuhn's ideas are adapted by combining them with a view of industrial hygiene as an applied science-based profession having many of the qualities of non-scientific professions. The great advantage of this approach to OELs is that it keeps the analysis grounded in the behaviour and priorities of the groups which have forged, propounded, used, benefited from, and defended, them. The development and use of OELs on a larger scale is shown to be connected to the growth of a new profession in the USA; industrial hygiene, with the assistance of another new profession; industrial toxicology. The origins of these professions, particularly industrial hygiene, are traced. By examining the growth of the professions and the writings of key individuals it is possible to show how technical, economic and social factors became embedded in the OEL paradigm which industrial hygienists and toxicologists forged. The origin, mission and needs of these professions and their clients made such influences almost inevitable. The use of the OEL paradigm in practice is examined by an analysis of the process of the American Conference of Governmental Industrial Hygienists, Threshold Limit Value (ACGIH, TLV) Committee via the Minutes from 1962-1984. A similar approach is taken with the development of OELs in the UK. Although the form and definition of TLVs has encouraged the belief that they are health-based OELs the conclusion is that they, and most other OELs, are, and always have been, reasonably practicable limits: the degree of risk posed by a substance is weighed against the feasibility and cost of controlling exposure to that substance. The confusion over the status of TLVs and other OELs is seen to be a confusion at the heart of the OEL paradigm and the historical perspective explains why this should be. The paradigm has prevented the creation of truly health-based and, conversely, truly reasonably practicable OELs. In the final part of the thesis the analysis of the development of OELs is set in a contemporary context and a proposal for a two-stage, two-committee procedure for producing sets of OELs is put forward. This approach is set within an alternative OEL paradigm. The advantages, benefits and likely obstacles to these proposals are discussed.
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The contemporary workplace appears rife with psychological strain, which can have considerable deleterious outcomes to the firm and the individual. However, research on strain in the sales force is underdeveloped. This paper reports the results of a study of the antecedents and consequences of psychological strain in the sales force, with particular attention to the roles of role ambiguity, emotional exhaustion, and intrinsic and extrinsic motivation. Emotional exhaustion is found to increase strain. Intrinsic motivation reduces strain under conditions of relatively high role ambiguity, but leads to more strain under conditions of low role ambiguity. Strain is found to have a J-shaped relationship with turnover intentions, and is linearly related to lower job satisfaction and lower job performance.
Resumo:
The existing body of knowledge has generally supported that organizational culture plays a significant role in shaping group identity, work pattern, communication schemes, and interpersonal relations; all of these cultural elements are important organizational factors that shape workplaces and operational routines. In the context of emerging information technology, it has also been suggested that organizational culture could affect IT implementation and management. However, little is known about how emerging information technology shapes organizational culture, which in turn helps reshape the organization as a whole. The purpose of this paper is thus to build empirical understanding of how IT in general and emerging wireless networks in particular reshapes organizational culture. Case studies conducted in two hospitals situated in southwest U.S.A. illustrated that the implementation of wireless networks indeed helped shape and/or reshape organizational culture in the healthcare sector and in turn enhance healthcare organizations’ competitiveness in the marketplace. For IT managers and practitioners in healthcare institutions, effective strategy to plan and manage emerging ITs such as wireless networks will thus have long-term implications on cultivating organizational culture that could eventually reshape workplace and competitiveness.
Resumo:
A powerful approach to gain understanding of molecular machinery responsible for membrane trafficking is through inactivation of gene function by RNA interference (RNAi). RNAi-mediated gene silencing occurs when a double-stranded RNA is introduced into cells and targets a complementary mRNA for degradation. The subsequent lack of mRNA prevents the synthesis of the corresponding protein and ultimately causes depletion of a particular gene product from the cell. The effects of such depletion can then by analyzed by functional, morphological, and biochemical assays. RNAi-mediated knockdowns of numerous gene products in cultured cells of mammalian and other species origins have provided significant new insight into traffic regulation and represent standard approaches in current cell biology. However, RNAi in the multicellular nematode Caenorhabditis elegans model allows RNAi studies within the context of a whole organism, and thus provides an unprecedented opportunity to explore effects of specific trafficking regulators within the context of distinct developmental stages and diverse cell types. In addition, various transgenic C. elegans strains have been developed that express marker proteins tagged with fluorescent proteins to facilitate the analysis of trafficking within the secretory and endocytic pathways. This chapter provides a detailed description of a basic RNAi approach that can be used to analyze the function of any gene of interest in secretory and endosomal trafficking in C. elegans. © 2013 Elsevier Inc.
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This article assesses the impact of education reform and the new public management (NPM) on the discretion of school teachers. The focal point of the study is Michael Lipsky's theory of discretion which casts public service professionals and others involved in service delivery as 'street-level bureaucrats' because their high degree of discretionary rule-making power enabled them to effectively make policy as well as implement it. The article considers the relationship between education reform and the NPM and focuses on the increased emphasis on skills-based teaching and changes in management and leadership in schools. The literature and survey of teachers demonstrate that discretion in the workplace has been eroded to such an extent due to a high degree of central regulation and local accountability as to question the applicability of Lipsky's model. The findings are based on the literature and a small survey undertaken by the author. © 2007 BELMAS.
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This doctoral study aims to understand how experiences of critical illness or bereavement affect the way managers view and approach their work and their relationships at work. This is an interpretative phenomenological study examining the subjective meanings of personal experience and is underpinned by biographic narratives from four participants and interviews with their nominated workplace witnesses (i.e. colleagues who worked alongside the individual at the time of their trauma). As a consequence of the findings that have emerged across this study, three contributions to theory are presented. All four participants described their traumas as a professional growth experience for themselves as managers, which resulted in self-reported and observed behaviour change at work. Consequently, the first area of theoretical contribution is a suggested extension to the post-traumatic growth (PTG) framework (Calhoun & Tedeschi, 2006) with the addition of a new behavioural dimension called ‘managerial growth’, when applied to the context of ‘ordinary’ organizations. The second area of theoretical contribution arose through the reflexive process that was created during data collection where participants and their witnesses remembered episodes of compassion interaction at work. The second area of contribution thus seeks to extend the existing model of compassion at work (Dutton, Worline, Frost and Lilius, 2006), by conceptualising compassion as a dyadic process between a compassion ‘giver’ and a compassion ‘receiver’ in which the compassion receiver ‘trusts or ‘mistrusts’; ‘discloses’ or ‘withholds’; ‘connects’ or ‘disconnects’ with the compassion giver. The third area of contribution is a new conceptualisation of reflexivity, ‘three-dimensional reflexivity’ (3DR) (Armstrong, Butler and Shaw, 2013). 3DR brings together three of the elements that have been missing from critically reflexive management research; by working with multiple variants of reflexivity in the same study; surfacing different reflexive voices to guard against the researcher’s (potentially) solipsistic own; and remaining sensitive to the concept of reflexive time. In doing so, 3DR not only provides a deeper understanding of individual lived experience; it is also a vehicle in which self-insight is gained. Furthermore, by engaging in its practice, those involved in this study have developed both personally and professionally as a result.
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Most studies on diversity and discrimination in the workplace have focused on 'visible' minorities such as gender or race, often neglecting the experiences of invisible minorities such as lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) workers. In this paper we explore the practices of inclusion/exclusion of LGBTs in the workplace in Italian social cooperatives, which are specifically founded to create employment for people who are disadvantaged in the labour market. The study examines how organizations, which have an ethos focused on inclusion and mainly employ workers from specific social minority groups, manage the inclusion of LGBT workers. We also explore the experience of LGBT workers within these organizations. The paper reports that the culture of silence existing in the five organizations studied prevents LGBT employees from constructing a work identity which encompasses their sexual identity and prevents the organizations from achieving their aim of being fully inclusive workplaces. © 2013 British Academy of Management.
Resumo:
A számítógépes munkavégzés elterjedése számos szempontból és módszerrel vizsgálható. A szerző kutatásai során az ember-gép-környezet összhang megteremtésének igényéből kiindulva arra keresi a választ, hogy milyen tényezők befolyásolják a számítógéppel végzett tevékenységek megszervezésének és végrehajtásának hatékonyságát. Tanulmányában a kutatás indítófázisának főbb eredményeiről, a számítógép-használati szokásokról ad áttekintést, ami elengedhetetlen az irodai-adminisztratív jellegű tevékenységekhez kötődő kritikus tényezők feltárásához, továbbá a mérési és fejlesztési feladatok megalapozásához. A szűkebb értelemben vett ergonómiai szempontok mellett a digitális kompetenciák kérdéskörét vonta be a munkába, amit releváns kérdésnek tart a hatékonyság mérése szempontjából, mivel a számítógép megválasztása és a munkahely kialakítása nem értékelhető az emberi tényező alkalmassága és az elvégzendő feladat tartalma nélkül. __________ Office and administrative work, business corres-pondence, private contacts and learning are increasingly supported by computers. Moreover the technical possibilities of correspondence are wider than using a PC. It is accessible on the go by a cell phone. The author analysed the characteristics of the used devices, the working environment, satisfaction factors in connection with computer work and the digital competence by a survey. In his opinion development in an ergonomic approach is important not only to establish the technological novelties but to utilize the present possibilities of hardware and environment. The reason for this is that many people can not (or do not want) to follow the dynamic technological development of computers with buying the newest devices. The study compares the results of home and work characteristic of computer work. This research was carried out as part of the “TAMOP-4.2.1.B-10/2/ KONV-2010-0001” project with support by the European Union, co-financed by the European Social Fund.
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Empirikus vizsgálatok szerint a vállalatok fejlesztési törekvéseit Magyarországon is elsősorban a piaci kilátások határozzák meg, a finanszírozási körülmények szerepe jóval gyengébb. A beruházások és innovációk végrehajtása elsősorban a műszaki végzettségűek iránti keresletet növelheti, a szakképzetlen dolgozók körében viszont gyakran leépítésekre vezet. A vállalatok igénye és az állást keresők kompetenciái azonban nemcsak a szakmastruktúrában térnek el. A korábban megvalósított fejlesztéseknek a válság idején munkahelymegtartó szerepe volt. A jövőbeni fejlesztések munkaerőigényének kielégítésében mind az üzleti szektor szereplőinek, mind a szakpolitikáknak fontos tennivalói vannak. _______ According to recent empirical research development efforts of companies in Hungary are primarily determined by the market outlook, the role of financing conditions is much weaker. Implementation of investments and innovation can increase in first row the demand for technical professionals and often causes dismissals in unskilled labour. The demand of companies and competences of job seekers diverge not only in the professional structure. Earlier fulfilled development had workplace keeping role during the recession. Both actors of business sector and policies have important tasks to do in satisfying labour demand of future developments.