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Blockchains, also known as “distributed ledger technologies” (DLT) are perhaps the emerging innovation that, in the years leading up to and including 2019, is raising the highest expectations for HRM in the 4.0 business environment. In essence, a blockchain is a very specific type of database, with characteristics that made it the ideal application for cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin. Within the context of digital- or e-HRM, there is potential to improve human resource management (HRM) processes using blockchains for employment screening, credential and educational verification, worker contracts and payments, among others, notwithstanding questions about its efficiency vis-à-vis conventional alternatives (Maurer, 2018; Zielinski, 2018). The research questions examined in this chapter include the following: What are the main characteristics of blockchains? Will they be adopted in a widespread form, specifically by HRM departments? Constructs from Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory (Rogers, 2003) are used to inform the Human Resources scholarly and practitioner communities; this robust theory may help companies allocate resources (e.g., budgets, personnel, managerial time, etc.) in an evidence-informed manner. As of this writing, very few blockchain applications, such as credential verification and incident reporting, seem to hold a strong potential for adoption.

Imperfections in manufacturing processes may cause unwanted connections (faults) that are added to the nominal, “golden”, design of an electronic circuit. By fault simulation one simulates all situations. Normally this leads to a large list of simulations in which for each defect a steady-state (direct current (DC)) solution is determined followed by a transient simulation. The purpose of this paper is to improve the robustness and the efficiency of these simulations.

Determining the DC solution can be very hard. For this the authors present an adaptive time-domain source stepping procedure that can deal with controlled sources. The method can easily be combined with existing pseudo-transient procedures. The method is robust and efficient. In the subsequent transient simulation the solution of a fault is compared to a golden, fault-free, solution. A strategy is developed to efficiently simulate the faulty solutions until their moment of detection.

The paper fully exploits the hierarchical structure of the circuit in the simulation process to bypass parts of the circuit that appear to be unaffected by the fault. Accurate prediction and efficient solution procedures lead to fast fault simulation.

The fast fault simulation helps to store a database with detectable deviations for each fault. If such a detectable output “matches” a result of a product that has been returned because of malfunctioning it helps to identify the subcircuit that may contain the real fault. One aims to detect as much as possible candidate faults. Because of the many options the simulations must be very efficient.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the hidden carbon footprint of corporate big data infrastructures and provide guidance for communicators responsible for corporate ESG and reputation.

It is based on a subjective view of the literature on this topic, selecting relevant examples.

The authors found that consciousness within corporations of the carbon footprint of their own information technology infrastructures is low and only a few companies have a strategy for identifying it.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first treatment of this subject from the perspective of the corporate owner of ESG and reputation.

The study provides practice-based vignettes describing career shocks as experienced by executives. It also offers a brief description of the approaches taken by the coach in helping executives to cope with their initial reactions. This work informs the readers about examples of career shocks in the executive population and provides access to normally rarely available information about sensitive aspects of psychological life of executives.

This paper is a qualitative exploration of managers' career shock experiences reflected in executive coaching interventions. It takes an anecdotal look at how executives react to shocks of various valences, and how coaching attempts to assist them by processing their first reactions and choosing a response. The paper particularly looks at managers' responses almost immediately following a shocking event triggering their request for coaching help.

Coaching conversation serves as opportunities for handling immediate emotional reactions to career disruptions. Even shocks with positive valence can cause ambivalent reactions. Processing of career shocks through coaching conversations can activate agency in dealing with abrupt career events. Coaches can offer further support in career deliberations. In one of the cases, an instance of anticipation of a negative career event was associated with positive hopes, and the non-occurrence of the event led to further elaboration about one's career options.

This work is based on a small sample of executives experiencing career shocks.

This work informs executives about opportunities provided by executive coaching in handling difficult reactions to external career events. Coaches or coaches-in-training receive an overview of coaching requests associated with career shocks.

With the increasing instability in careers the paper draws the attention to the helping potential of coaching to those experiencing career shocks. It also contributes to normalization of turning for support in psychologically burdening situations.

This work is a trigger for further consideration of the experiences of career shocks by business executives. It provides a first look into immediate reactions of this career population to unexpected external disruptions. It also offers opportunities for further exploration of the role executive coaching can play in career deliberations.

The present research examined the interactive effect of subordinates' and their supervisors' social value orientations (SVO) on abusive supervision and its consequence for in-role performance.

In study 1, we provided a survey to 420 subordinates and 115 supervisors from 42 organizations. HLM was used to test the hypothesized cross-level moderated mediation model. In study 2, 78 participants were asked to imagine they were a supervisor and responded to a potential scenario where supervisor and subordinate prosocial and proself orientations toward the organization were manipulated (2 × 2 design).

Study 1 showed that when supervisors have a higher prosocial motivation, subordinates who are more self-interested (proself) report more abuse than those with a higher prosocial motivation, with negative consequences for in-role performance. Study 2 replicated the pattern: participants (in the role as supervisor) with induced prosocial goals rated abusive supervision behaviors as more justified and acceptable toward a proself employee than they did toward a prosocial employee.

This research is innovative by bridging SVO and organizational literatures and demonstrating that a dyadic interaction between a proself subordinate and a prosocial supervisor may produce a reactive perpetrator – provocative victim relationship characterized by higher abusive supervision.

There is mixed evidence regarding the efficacy of low-intensity integrated care interventions in reducing the use of emergency services and costs of care. The purpose of this paper is to examine the effects of a low-intensity intervention formulated for older adults and delivered in an urban medical center serving low-income individuals.

The intervention included an initial evaluation of stress, psychiatric symptomatology and health habits; potential referrals for lifestyle management and psychiatric treatment; and training for physicians about the impact of lifestyle change in older adults. Participants included older adults (at or above 50 years of age) seen as outpatients in an urban medical center serving a low-income community (n=945). Participants were entered into the intervention at any point during this two-year period. Mixed models analyses examined all visits for all enrolled individuals over a two-year period, comparing visits before the individual received the initial intervention evaluation to those received after this evaluation. Outcomes included total health care costs incurred, average cost per visit, and emergency department (ED) usage within the facility.

The intervention was associated with reduced likelihood of emergency department use and reduced costs per visit following the intervention. These effects were seen across all participants.

Limitations of the study include the lack of control group.

This program is easy to disseminate and could improve the quality of care and costs.

This study is among the few available to document a decrease in medical costs, as well as decreased ED utilization following a low-intensity integrated care intervention.

Presents over sixty abstracts summarising the 1999 Employment Research Unit annual conference held at the University of Cardiff. Explores the multiple impacts of globalization on work and employment in contemporary organizations. Covers the human resource management implications of organizational responses to globalization. Examines the theoretical, methodological, empirical and comparative issues pertaining to competitiveness and the management of human resources, the impact of organisational strategies and international production on the workplace, the organization of labour markets, human resource development, cultural change in organisations, trade union responses, and trans‐national corporations. Cites many case studies showing how globalization has brought a lot of opportunities together with much change both to the employee and the employer. Considers the threats to existing cultures, structures and systems.

Some of the major concerns since the implementation of smart meters (prepaid meters) in some parts of Ghana is how electricity consumers have benefited from data obtained from these meters by providing important statistics on electricity-saving advice; this is one of the key demand-side management methods for achieving load reduction in residential homes. Appliance shifting techniques have proved to be an effective demand response strategy in load reduction. The purpose of this paper is therefore to help consumers of electricity understand when and how they can shift some appliances from peak to off-peak and vice versa.

The research uses an analysis technique of Richardson et al. (2010). In their survey on time-of-use surveys to determine the usage of electricity in households as far as appliance shifting was concerned, this study allowed for the assessment of how the occupants’ daily activities in households affect residential electricity consumption. Fell et al. (2014) modeled an aggregate of electricity demand using different appliances (n) in the household. The data for the peak time used in this study were identified from 05:00 to 08:00 and 17:00 to 21:00 for testing the load shifting algorithms, and the off-peak times were pecked from 10:00 to 16:00 and 23:00. This study technique used load management considering real-time scheduling for peak levels in the selected homes. The household devices are modeled in terms of controlled parameters. Using this study’s time-triggered loads on refrigerators and air conditioning systems, the findings suggested that peak loads can be reduced to 45% as a means of maintaining the simultaneous quality of service. To minimize peak loads to around 35% or more, Chaiwongsa and Wongwises (2020) have indicated that room air conditioning and refrigerator loads are simpler to move compared to other household appliances such as cooking appliances. Yet in conclusion, this study made a strong case that a decrease in household peak demand for electricity is primarily contingent on improvements in human behavior.

This study has shown that appliance load shifting is a very good way of reducing electrical consumption in residential homes. The comparative performance shows a moderate reduction of 1% in load as was found in the work done by Laicaine (2014). The results, however, indicate that load shifting to a large extent can be achieved by consumer behavioral change. The main response to this study is to advise policymakers in Ghana to develop the appropriate demand response and consumer education towards the general reduction in electrical load in domestic households. The difficulty, however, is how to get the attention of consumer’s on how to start using appliances with less load at peak and also shift some appliances from off-peak times. By increasing consumer knowledge and participation in demand response, it is possible to achieve more efficiency and flexibility in load reduction. The findings were benchmarked with existing comparison studies but may benefit from the potential production of structured references. However, the findings show that load shifting can only be done by modifying consumer actions.

It should be remembered that this study showed that the use of appliances shifting in residential homes results in load reduction benefits for customers, expressed as savings in electricity prices. The next step will be to build on this cost/benefit study to explain and measure how these reductions transform into net consumer gains for all Ghanaian households.

Load shifting will include load controllers in the future, which would automatically handle electricity consumption from various appliances in the home. Based on the device and user needs, the controllers can prioritize loads and appliance usage. The algorithms that underpin automatic load controllers will include knowledge about the behaviors of groups of end users. The results on the time dependency of activities may theoretically inform the algorithms of automatic demand controllers.

This paper addresses an important need for the country in the midst of finding solutions to an unending energy crisis. This paper presents demand response to the Ghanaian electricity consumer as a means to help in the reduction of load in residential homes. This is a novel research as no one has at yet carried out any research in this direction in Ghana. This paper has some new information to offer in the field of demand in household electricity consumption.