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1 – 10 of over 1000T.F. Burgess, D. McKee and C. Kidd
Addresses the research question “how is the discipline of configuration management (CM) practised in the European Aerospace industry?”
Abstract
Purpose
Addresses the research question “how is the discipline of configuration management (CM) practised in the European Aerospace industry?”
Design/methodology/approach
Uses a mixed method approach with a questionnaire survey followed by in‐depth interviews.
Findings
CM discipline relies on fragmented and diverse processes and its organisational role and contribution are undervalued. Remedying present piecemeal deployment of information technology holds out substantial opportunity for improvement.
Research limitations/implications
This exploratory research focusses on a specific industry and relies mainly on descriptive statistics. Future research could examine other industries or carry out explanatory research on CM systems in aerospace.
Practical implications
Substantial scope for business benefits exists if information technology and people are mobilised to improve CM. The need for effective CM systems in organisations will grow as social and environmental responsibilities increase.
Originality/value
This exploratory study illuminates current practices in aerospace and establishes a datum for future research studies. The below par performance within aerospace indicates that achieving highly performing CM systems is not as simple as existing literature makes out. The increasing importance placed by society on risk means that achieving highly effective CM systems will become more important; both in aerospace and other risk‐critical industries.
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Justin M. Jones, Dorothy R. Carter and Noshir S. Contractor
Research on organizational teamwork is increasingly highlighting the patterned nature of the relational processes (e.g., communication, backup behavior) and psychological states…
Abstract
Research on organizational teamwork is increasingly highlighting the patterned nature of the relational processes (e.g., communication, backup behavior) and psychological states (e.g., trust, shared cognition) that underlie team effectiveness. However, studies of teams often rely on methodologies that do not explicitly assess the underlying patterns of relational processes and states. Social network approaches offer an appealing alternative to the typical methodologies used in team research given that network approaches provide both the theory and methodology necessary to conceptualize and investigate patterns of interactions among group members. Despite the advantages of social network approaches, many team researchers are unfamiliar with the network paradigm and its associated methodologies. The purpose of this chapter is to clarify how networks can be leveraged to answer key research questions related to the study of team functioning and effectiveness. We begin by discussing the evolution and eventual convergence of team research and network approaches. Then, we examine the current state of the literature at the intersection of teams and networks in order to identify key takeaways and remaining questions. We conclude by highlighting opportunities for the future of team network science.
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Purpose – This paper explores how the interactive dynamics of peer education models within independent youth media outlets facilitate and impede youth engagement in media activism…
Abstract
Purpose – This paper explores how the interactive dynamics of peer education models within independent youth media outlets facilitate and impede youth engagement in media activism and social change work, more broadly defined.Design/methodological approach – Ethnographic and participatory action research methods are used with the youth media hub, Youth Media Action (YMA), to examine the possibilities and challenges that peer media educators confront in cultivating a noncommercial space for the collective production of oppositional media. YMA specifically seeks to involve youth from marginalized communities.Findings – The results suggest that peer-to-peer education models do act as vehicles for political engagement as youth experience shared ownership, cultivate solidarity, and acquire community organizing skills through the collective production of oppositional media. At the same time, challenges can surface when peer educators juggle multiple roles and participating community youth groups espouse differing organizational values and pedagogical sensibilities.Research limitations/implications – This study offers a potential pathway for further research on how peer education and collective media making models influence youth citizenship and social change work.Originality/value – The focus on the organizational and social dynamics of peer education models is useful in understanding youth citizenship and digital access as a collective experience for youth living in disenfranchised communities that seek out these spaces for not only media making but also community building.
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Lyndsay M.C. Hayhurst, Holly Thorpe and Megan Chawansky
Christopher K. Hsee and Bowen Ruan
This chapter reviews and integrates recent research on curiosity. We discuss potential costs and benefits of curiosity, both hedonic and motivational. In particular, we examine…
Abstract
This chapter reviews and integrates recent research on curiosity. We discuss potential costs and benefits of curiosity, both hedonic and motivational. In particular, we examine the Pandora effect, the teasing effect, and the motivating-uncertainty effect.
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Autumn Edwards, Chad Edwards, Bryan Abendschein, Juliana Espinosa, Jonathan Scherger and Patricia Vander Meer
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to interrogate the relationship between self-reported levels of acute stress, perceived social support and interactions with robot animals in an academic library. The authors hypothesized that (1) participants would report lower stress and higher positive affect after their interaction with a robot support animal and (2) perceived supportiveness of the robot support animal would positively predict the amount of stress reduction the participants reported.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors hosted a robot petting zoo in the main library at a mid-sized Midwestern university during finals week. Participants were asked to rate their stress level prior to interacting with the robot pets (T1) and then after their interaction they were asked about their current stress level and the perceived supportiveness of the robot animal (T2). Data were analyzed using paired samples t-tests for the pretest and post-test scores.
Findings
The results showed a significant decrease in acute stress between T1 to T2, as well as a significant increase in happiness and relaxation. Participants reported feeling less bored and less tired after their interactions with the robot support animals. The findings also reveal that the degree to which individuals experienced a reduction in stress was influenced by their perceptions of the robot animal's supportiveness. Libraries could consider using robot pet therapy.
Originality/value
This study reveals the benefit of robot support animals to reduce stress and increase happiness of those experiencing acute stress in a library setting. The authors also introduce the concept of socially supportive contact as a type of unidirectional social support.
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Jenny L. Davis and Tony P. Love
Role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy have developed through parallel literatures in sociology and psychology. All three concepts address the ways that people attune the…
Abstract
Purpose
Role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy have developed through parallel literatures in sociology and psychology. All three concepts address the ways that people attune the self to others’ thoughts and feelings. Despite conceptual and operational overlap, researchers have yet to synthesize existing research across the three concepts. We undertake the task of theoretical synthesis, constructing a model in which role-taking emerges as a multidimensional process that includes perspective taking and empathy as component parts.
Approach
We review the literatures on role-taking, perspective taking, and empathy across disciplines. Focusing on definitions, measures, and interventions, we discern how the concepts overlap, how they are distinct, and how they work together in theoretically meaningful ways.
Findings
The review identifies two key axes on which each concept varies: the relative roles of affect and cognition, and the relative emphasis on self and structure. The review highlights the cognitive nature of perspective taking, the affective nature of empathy, and the structural nature of role-taking. In a move toward theoretical synthesis, we propose a definition that centers role-taking as a sociological construct, with perspective taking and empathy representing cognition and affect, respectively.
Social implications
Role-taking is an important part of selfhood and community social life. It is a skill that varies in patterned ways, including along lines of status and power. Theoretical synthesis clarifies the process of role-taking and fosters the construction of effective interventions aimed at equalizing role-taking in interpersonal interaction.
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This paper explores the potential application of public value management theory to the practice of UK healthcare procurement. By conducting a literature review, key elements of…
Abstract
This paper explores the potential application of public value management theory to the practice of UK healthcare procurement. By conducting a literature review, key elements of public value theory and practice that can be applied to healthcare procurement are identified together with mechanisms that can be used in procurement to protect public values and enhance the creation of public value. These are formed into a Public Value Healthcare Procurement Framework which represents a fresh normative approach to healthcare procurement by focussing on a broader, societal view of value; by providing a blue print for procurement leaders centred around Moore's vision of “exploring” and “moral” public managers; and by promoting a public service ethos amongst all providers including the private sector.
Ahmed Eslam Salman and Magdy Raouf Roman
The study proposed a human–robot interaction (HRI) framework to enable operators to communicate remotely with robots in a simple and intuitive way. The study focused on the…
Abstract
Purpose
The study proposed a human–robot interaction (HRI) framework to enable operators to communicate remotely with robots in a simple and intuitive way. The study focused on the situation when operators with no programming skills have to accomplish teleoperated tasks dealing with randomly localized different-sized objects in an unstructured environment. The purpose of this study is to reduce stress on operators, increase accuracy and reduce the time of task accomplishment. The special application of the proposed system is in the radioactive isotope production factories. The following approach combined the reactivity of the operator’s direct control with the powerful tools of vision-based object classification and localization.
Design/methodology/approach
Perceptive real-time gesture control predicated on a Kinect sensor is formulated by information fusion between human intuitiveness and an augmented reality-based vision algorithm. Objects are localized using a developed feature-based vision algorithm, where the homography is estimated and Perspective-n-Point problem is solved. The 3D object position and orientation are stored in the robot end-effector memory for the last mission adjusting and waiting for a gesture control signal to autonomously pick/place an object. Object classification process is done using a one-shot Siamese neural network (NN) to train a proposed deep NN; other well-known models are also used in a comparison. The system was contextualized in one of the nuclear industry applications: radioactive isotope production and its validation were performed through a user study where 10 participants of different backgrounds are involved.
Findings
The system was contextualized in one of the nuclear industry applications: radioactive isotope production and its validation were performed through a user study where 10 participants of different backgrounds are involved. The results revealed the effectiveness of the proposed teleoperation system and demonstrate its potential for use by robotics non-experienced users to effectively accomplish remote robot tasks.
Social implications
The proposed system reduces risk and increases level of safety when applied in hazardous environment such as the nuclear one.
Originality/value
The contribution and uniqueness of the presented study are represented in the development of a well-integrated HRI system that can tackle the four aforementioned circumstances in an effective and user-friendly way. High operator–robot reactivity is kept by using the direct control method, while a lot of cognitive stress is removed using elective/flapped autonomous mode to manipulate randomly localized different configuration objects. This necessitates building an effective deep learning algorithm (in comparison to well-known methods) to recognize objects in different conditions: illumination levels, shadows and different postures.
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