Resiliencia organizacional y capital psicológico

Desde la noción universal sobre la empresa como un sistema de interacción con un entorno determinado para alcanzar un objetivo, de manera planificada y en función de satisfacer las demandas de un mercado mediante la actividad económica, su viabilidad, sostenibilidad y crecimiento dependerán, por supuesto, de una serie de estrategias adecuadas no solo para tales fines, sino también para enfrentar diversidad de agentes endógenos y exógenos que puedan afectar el normal desempeño de su gestión. Estamos hablando de la importancia de la resiliencia organizacional y del Capital Psicológico. En un escenario tan impredecible como el de la economía mundial, donde la constante son los cambios en su comportamiento —unos propios de su dinámica e interdependencia, naturales de fenómenos como la globalización, y otros derivados de eventos disruptivos— hoy más que nunca es necesario implementar el modelo de la empresa resiliente, que es aquella entidad capaz de adaptarse y recuperarse frente a una perturbación. Al mismo tiempo, más allá de su tamaño, naturaleza u objeto social, es indispensable reconocer básicamente que toda organización está constituida por personas, lo cual implica la trascendencia que para su funcionamiento tiene el factor humano-dependiente, y por lo tanto se crea la necesidad de promover el Capital Psicológico y la resiliencia a nivel de las organizaciones a través de una cultura empresarial.

Narratives of grassroots innovations: a comparison of voluntary simplicity and the transition movement in Italy

Grassroots innovations (GI) are promising examples of deliberate transformation of socio-technical systems towards resilience and sustainability. However, evidence is needed on the factors that limit or enable their success. This paper set out to study how GI use narratives to empower innovation in the face of incumbent socio-technical regimes. Institutional documents were comparatively analyzed to assess how the narratives influence the structure, form of action and external interactions of two Italian grassroots networks, Bilanci di Giustizia and Transition Network Italy. The paper finds an internal consistency between narratives and strategies for each of the two networks. The paper also highlights core similarities, but also significant differences in the ethical basis of the two narratives, and in the organizations and strategies. Such differences determine different forms of innovation empowerment and expose the niche to different potentials to transform incumbent regimes, or to the risk of being co-opted by them.

Working and learning in vocational education and training in the knowledge era : final report of the professional development for the future project

This Report summarises the outcomes of the phases of the Professional
Development for the Future Project and presents the implications of this research for professional development of staff in Vocational Education and Training (VET), as they become knowledge workers.

These shifts are occurring within the knowledge era. Distinguishing features of this era are summarised into four broad areas:
- the importance and value placed on knowledge in organisations
- the time span of discretion
- the complexity of relationships, and
- the ubiquitous nature of information and communication technology.

It is within this context that work is currently performed, and understanding this context provides the foundation for considering new capabilities required in the knowledge era.
Key capabilities required of knowledge workers to work effectively in the
knowledge era were drawn together from an analysis of the theoretical literature and the results of interviews with knowledge workers. The core capabilities identified include:
- adaptive problem solving – becoming designers as well as problem -
solvers
- rapid knowledge gathering and sharing with others
- discriminating between relevant and irrelevant information, and
- understanding and working effectively with the organisation’s culture.

Knowledge era characteristics and knowledge worker capabilities have been mapped to each other illustrating conceptual linkages between these two areas.

Professional development themes drawn from interviews with knowledge
workers are presented. While global trends in knowledge work have been well documented, the impact of these trends on the capabilities of workers, and the ways in which knowledge workers develop these capabilities is less well understood. Their learning methods challenge our current thinking in relation to the ways in which workers acquire skills and knowledge. Some of the professional development methods include seeking exposure to new ideas from a wide variety of sources, embracing intense learning opportunities, and using relationships to increase knowledge.

‘Thought pieces’ (see p17 ff) commissioned for this Project, as well as
subsequent interviews with the authors, provided further insights into the
professional development of knowledge workers. The implications of these insights are an extension of earlier themes and emphasise:
- the emergent nature of knowledge work
- the importance of relationships that facilitate knowledge sharing
- coherent conversations and dialogue
- collaborative work and generosity.

A key insight is the shift from thinking about knowledge work in terms of
borrowed knowledge to an emphasis on generated knowledge within a context.

Data from focus groups of the Project provide further insights for knowledge worker professional development. These augment the perspectives of the earlier data analysis but also add greater emphasis to:
- the clear and direct relationship between professional development and
work and career aspirations of knowledge workers,
- the relationship of professional development to the organisational
mission, and
- the issues of managing and leading knowledge workers and their
development.

As part of this analysis the defining features of organisational life in VET were reviewed in relation to effective professional development of knowledge workers.

The final section of the Report revisits the core dimensions of the Project.
Concise commentaries on working and learning in the knowledge era,
professional development in the knowledge era, and leadership and
management in the knowledge era are presented.

The Report concludes with a discussion of the enablers of professional
development for knowledge workers in VET. This discussion is introduced by a re-statement of the VET sector’s positioning in the knowledge era and the consequences of this for VET managers an d staff in terms of complexity, uncertainty and diminished prospects for accurate predictiveness. The enablers comprised:
- integration of information technology into socio -technical systems
- greater understanding of the organisation from within
- connecting staff to the organisation’s fundamental identity
- connecting to the work and career trajectories of workers
- establishing work structures which integrate the use of professional
development resources with knowledge work
- providing workers with the autonomy to design their own professional
development activities
- building professional development into the iterative nature of knowledge
work, and
- creating organisational contexts that value intuitive thinking and working.

Professional development needs to be thou ght of in a much broader context in the knowledge era. What each VET staff member knows and shares will become increasingly central to their work, and in that sense all VET workers require capabilities for knowledge work. This report accurately describes t he VET context, the capabilities required, and the organisational enablers that will promote ‘knowing’ and thus embed a new style of professional development within VET.

Functional system maps as boundary objects in complex system development

A trend towards the provision of product-service packaging and the proliferation of service businesses introduces both tangible and intangible elements into system design. In this paper, we consider the utility of hierarchical system models as a way of flexibly combining such elements by focusing on requisite functionality. Four cases illustrate how the same approach may be used to clarify the requirements of business or socio-technical systems during system development, operation or reengineering stages. It is suggested that a suitable loosely coupled model has significant utility as a 'boundary object' - a term first coined in the study of museum artefacts. Discussion of such objects requires the use of imagination, which may support innovative system design and development. It is suggested that a well-crafted model has multiple uses - as a foundation for system development, in combining traditional and agile project management strategies and in providing a framework to facilitate the capture and organisation of project knowledge.

Filiera corta: percorsi di innovazione tecnici, organizzativi e sociali nella gestione strategica delle nicchie. Esperienze in Toscana e in Provenza

There is a widening consensus around the fact that, in many developed countries, food production-consumption patterns are in recent years interested by a process of deep change towards diversification and re-localisation practices, as a counter-tendency to the trend to the increasing disconnection between farming and food, producers and consumers. The relevance of these initiatives doesn't certainly lie on their economic dimension, but rather in their intense diffusion and growth rate, their spontaneous and autonomous nature and, especially, their intrinsic innovative potential. These dynamics involve a wide range of actors around local food patterns, embedding short food supply chains initiatives within a more complex and wider process of rural development, based on principles of sustainability, multifunctionality and valorisation of endogenous resources. In this work we have been analysing these features through a multi-level perspective, with reference to the dynamics between niche and regime and the inherent characteristics of the innovation paths. We apply this approach, through a qualitative methodology, to the analysis of the experience of farmers’ markets and Solidarity-Based Consumers Groups (Gruppi di Acquisto Solidale) ongoing in Tuscany, seeking to highlight the dynamics that are affecting the establishment of this alternative food production-consumption model (and its related innovative potential) from within and from without. To verify if and in which conditions they can constitute a niche, a protected space where radical innovations can develop, we make reference to the three interrelated analytic dimensions of socio-technical systems: the actors (i.e. individuals. social groups, organisations), the rules and institutions system, and the artefacts (i.e. the material and immaterial contexts in which the actors move). Through it, we analyse the innovative potential of niches and the level of their structuration and , then, the mechanisms of system transition, focusing on the new dynamics within the niche and between the niche and the policy regime emerging after the growth of interest by mass-media and public institutions and their direct involvement in the initiatives. Following the development of these significant experiences, we explore more deeply social, economic, cultural, political and organisational factors affecting innovations in face-to-face interactions, underpinning the critical aspects (sharing of alternative values, coherence at individual choices level, frictions on organisational aspects, inclusion/exclusion, attitudes towards integration at territorial level), towards uncovering until to the emergence of tensions and the risks of opportunistic behaviours that might arise from their growth. Finally, a comparison with similar experiences abroad is drawn (specifically with Provence), in order to detect food for thought, potentially useful for leading regional initiativestowards transition path.

Fatores humanos na engenharia de software.

Este trabalho identifica o Código de Ética e Prática Profissional da engenharia de software como o conjunto de práticas para consideração de fatores humanos na engenharia de software. A seguir, estende o Kernel da especificação Essence, e o utiliza para conduzir a aplicação desse conjunto de práticas. A prova de conceito indica que o conjunto de práticas identificadas não garante a consideração de fatores humanos na engenharia de software. Considerar a ética nas interações existentes na empreitada de engenharia de software não é um simples caso de utilização de checklists como forma de verificar o que deve ser feito para certificar que algo foi realizado. Considerar a ética é mais do que isso. É necessário que todas as pessoas tenham consciência da importância da ética, do respeito de um ao outro e à sociedade.

Interference between propagating changes and its effect on system failure

Computer-based, socio-technical systems projects are frequently failures. In particular, computer-based information systems often fail to live up to their promise. Part of the problem lies in the uncertainty of the effect of combining the subsystems that comprise the complete system; i.e. the system's emergent behaviour cannot be predicted from a knowledge of the subsystems. This paper suggests uncertainty management is a fundamental unifying concept in analysis and design of complex systems and goes on to indicate that this is due to the co-evolutionary nature of the requirements and implementation of socio-technical systems. The paper shows a model of the propagation of a system change that indicates that the introduction of two or more changes over time can cause chaotic emergent behaviour.

Decision support for the safe design and operation of unmanned aircraft systems

Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) describe a diverse range of aircraft that are operated without a human pilot on-board. Unmanned aircraft range from small rotorcraft, which can fit in the palm of your hand, through to fixed wing aircraft comparable in size to that of a commercial passenger jet. The absence of a pilot on-board allows these aircraft to be developed with unique performance capabilities facilitating a wide range of applications in surveillance, environmental management, agriculture, defence, and search and rescue. However, regulations relating to the safe design and operation of UAS first need to be developed before the many potential benefits from these applications can be realised. According to the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), a Risk Management Process (RMP) should support all civil aviation policy and rulemaking activities (ICAO 2009). The RMP is described in International standard, ISO 31000:2009 (ISO, 2009a). This standard is intentionally generic and high-level, providing limited guidance on how it can be effectively applied to complex socio-technical decision problems such as the development of regulations for UAS. Through the application of principles and tools drawn from systems philosophy and systems engineering, this thesis explores how the RMP can be effectively applied to support the development of safety regulations for UAS. A sound systems-theoretic foundation for the RMP is presented in this thesis. Using the case-study scenario of a UAS operation over an inhabited area and through the novel application of principles drawn from general systems modelling philosophy, a consolidated framework of the definitions of the concepts of: safe, risk and hazard is made. The framework is novel in that it facilitates the representation of broader subjective factors in an assessment of the safety of a system; describes the issues associated with the specification of a system-boundary; makes explicit the hierarchical nature of the relationship between the concepts and the subsequent constraints that exist between them; and can be evaluated using a range of analytic or deliberative modelling techniques. Following the general sequence of the RMP, the thesis explores the issues associated with the quantified specification of safety criteria for UAS. A novel risk analysis tool is presented. In contrast to existing risk tools, the analysis tool presented in this thesis quantifiably characterises both the societal and individual risk of UAS operations as a function of the flight path of the aircraft. A novel structuring of the risk evaluation and risk treatment decision processes is then proposed. The structuring is achieved through the application of the Decision Support Problem Technique; a modelling approach that has been previously used to effectively model complex engineering design processes and to support decision-making in relation to airspace design. The final contribution made by this thesis is in the development of an airworthiness regulatory framework for civil UAS. A novel "airworthiness certification matrix" is proposed as a basis for the definition of UAS "Part 21" regulations. The outcome airworthiness certification matrix provides a flexible, systematic and justifiable method for promulgating airworthiness regulations for UAS. In addition, an approach for deriving "Part 1309" regulations for UAS is presented. In contrast to existing approaches, the approach presented in this thesis facilitates a traceable and objective tailoring of system-level reliability requirements across the diverse range of UAS operations. The significance of the research contained in this thesis is clearly demonstrated by its practical real world outcomes. Industry regulatory development groups and the Civil Aviation Safety Authority have endorsed the proposed airworthiness certification matrix. The risk models have also been used to support research undertaken by the Australian Department of Defence. Ultimately, it is hoped that the outcomes from this research will play a significant part in the shaping of regulations for civil UAS, here in Australia and around the world.

Exchanging data between Digital Human Modelling systems : a review of data formats

Digital human modeling (DHM) systems underwent significant development within the last years. They achieved constantly growing importance in the field of ergonomic workplace design, product development, product usability, ergonomic research, ergonomic education, audiovisual marketing and the entertainment industry. They help to design ergonomic products as well as healthy and safe socio-technical work systems. In the domain of scientific DHM systems, no industry specific standard interfaces are defined which could facilitate the exchange of 3D solid body data, anthropometric data or motion data. The focus of this article is to provide an overview of requirements for a reliable data exchange between different DHM systems in order to identify suitable file formats. Examples from the literature are discussed in detail. Methods: As a first step a literature review is conducted on existing studies and file formats for exchanging data between different DHM systems. The found file formats can be structured into different categories: static 3D solid body data exchange, anthropometric data exchange, motion data exchange and comprehensive data exchange. Each file format is discussed and advantages as well as disadvantages for the DHM context are pointed out. Case studies are furthermore presented, which show first approaches to exchange data between DHM systems. Lessons learnt are shortly summarized. Results: A selection of suitable file formats for data exchange between DHM systems is determined from the literature review.

Improving the railway’s understanding of accident causation through an integrated approach to human factors analysis and technical safety data recording

This paper describes a safety data recording and analysis system that has been developed to capture safety occurrences including precursors using high-definition forward-facing video from train cabs and data from other train-borne systems. The paper describes the data processing model and how events detected through data analysis are related to an underlying socio-technical model of accident causation. The integrated approach to safety data recording and analysis insures systemic factors that condition, influence or potentially contribute to an occurrence are captured both for safety occurrences and precursor events, providing a rich tapestry of antecedent causal factors that can significantly improve learning around accident causation. This can ultimately provide benefit to railways through the development of targeted and more effective countermeasures, better risk models and more effective use and prioritization of safety funds. Level crossing occurrences are a key focus in this paper with data analysis scenarios describing causal factors around near-miss occurrences. The paper concludes with a discussion on how the system can also be applied to other types of railway safety occurrences.

Carbon reduction in buildings (CaRB) - Understanding the social and technical factors that influence energy use in UK buildings

Attempts to reduce the energy consumed in UK homes have met with limited success. One reason for this is a lack of understanding of how people interact with domestic technology – heating systems, lights, electrical equipment and so forth. Attaining such an understanding is hampered by a chronic shortage of detailed energy use data matched to descriptions of the house, the occupants, the internal conditions and the installed services and appliances. Without such information it is impossible to produce transparent and valid models for understanding and predicting energy use. The Carbon Reduction in Buildings (CaRB) consortium of five UK universities plans to develop socio-technical models of energy use, underpinned by a flow of data from a longitudinal monitoring campaign involving several hundred UK homes. This paper outlines the models proposed, the preliminary monitoring work and the structure of the proposed longitudinal study.

Travel Report from the first field trip within the SIDA supported project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility : Including visits to Ihushi Development Center, Tweyambe Secondary School and Mavuno Project in Tanzania. Conducted in April 2011

This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.This report describes the outcome of the first visit to Tanzania, within the project "Mini-grids supplied by renewable energy - improving technical and social feasibility". The trip included visits to three different organizations; Ihushi Development Center (IDC) near Mwanza, TIDESO near Bukoba, and Mavuno Project in Karagwe. At IDC, a brief evaluation of the current power system was done and measuring equipment for long term measurements were installed. At all three locations investigations regarding the current and future electricity demand were conducted and connections to people relevant to the study were established. The report is including as well some technical specifications as some observations regarding organization and management of the technical systems. The trip was including only short visits and therefore only brief introductions to the different organizations, based on observations done by the author. The report is hence describing the author’s understanding of the technical system and social structures after only short visits to each of the organizations, and may differ from observations done at another point in time, over a different time period, or by some other person.

Knowledge transfer in enterprise information technology support using web-based self-service systems

This paper explores Critical Success Factors (CSFs) in the transfer
of after-sales support-oriented knowledge from Information Technology (IT)
support organisations to enterprise customers, using Web-based self-service Systems (WSS). As it appears that best-in-class companies are ahead of the academic work in this area, we approached the topic through an exploratory CSF study of a best-in-class multinational IT services firm and identified 26 CSFs. Key findings from the study indicate that best-in-class IT service organisations may be cognisant of a range of factors relating to supporting customers, but are less aware of what is needed to support their own frontline support agents. Such organisations also lack an understanding of what is needed to provide enterprise support in the later stages of knowledge transfer, where enterprise customers can experience problems attempting to integrate resolutions. The study further showed that many aspects that might be characterised as encompassing socio-technical issues relating to the provision of web-based self-service are still poorly understood.

Mobile healthcare information systems : thru' the ant lens

Deployment of mobile technologies and applications in health care are becoming prevalent worldwide. As mobile innovation and standards in wireless continue to evolve, so does the mobile health care information systems framework. In this paper, we explore this evolving framework by synthesising current technologies, applications, issues and examining this through the actor-network theory (ANT) which seeks to understand socio-technical change by adopting a symmetric treatment of people and technologies.

Integrated manufacturing systems design in a multi-product company

Using a hydraulic equipment manufacturing plant as the case study, this work explores the problems of systems integration in manufacturing systems design, stressing the behavioural aspects of motivation and participation, and the constraints involved in the proper consideration of the human sub-system. The need for a simple manageable modular organisation structure is illustrated, where it is shown, by reference to systems theory, how a business can be split into semi-autonomous operating units. The theme is the development of a manufacturing system based on an analysis of the business, its market, product, technology and constraints, coupled with a critical survey of modern management literature to develop an integrated systems design to suit a specific company in the current social environment. Society currently moves through a socio-technical revolution with man seeking higher levels of motivation. The transitory environment from an autocratic/paternalistic to a participative operating mode demands systems parameters only found to a limited extent in manufacturing systems today. It is claimed, that modern manufacturing systems design needs to be based on group working, job enrichment, delegation of decision making and reduced job monotony. The analysis shows how negative aspects of cellular manufacture such as lack of flexibility and poor fixed asset utilisation are relatively irrelevant and misleading in the broader context of the need to come to terms with the social stresses imposed on a company operating in the industrial environment of the present and the immediate future.