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1 – 10 of 32This paper aims to argue that traditional ethical theories used in disaster response may be inadequate and particularly strained by the emergence of new technologies and social…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to argue that traditional ethical theories used in disaster response may be inadequate and particularly strained by the emergence of new technologies and social media, particularly with regard to privacy. The paper suggests incorporation of care ethics into the disaster ethics nexus to better include the perspectives of disaster affected communities.
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents a theoretical examination of privacy and care ethics in the context of social media/digitally enhanced disaster response.
Findings
The paper proposes an ethics of care can fruitfully by used by public and private agents in disaster management. Its relational ontology restores the priority of fostering good relationships between stakeholders, thus giving central importance to values such as transparency and trust and the situated knowledge of disaster-affected communities.
Research limitations/implications
This paper presents theoretical research and is limited by the availability of empirical data. There is opportunity for future research to evaluate the impact of a conscious adoption of an ethics of care by disaster management agents.
Practical implications
An ethos of care ethics needs to be mainstreamed into disaster management organisations and digital initiatives.
Social implications
This paper argues that power asymmetry in disaster response renders the public vulnerable to abuse, and that the adoption of care ethics can support disaster management agents in recognising this power imbalance and wielding power responsibly.
Originality/value
This paper examines the applicability of an alternative ethical framework to novel circumstances.
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Slawomir Jan Stepien, Paulina Superczynska, Damian Dobrowolski and Jerzy Dobrowolski
The purpose of the paper is to present modeling and control of a nonlinear mechatronic system. To solve the control problem, the modified state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of the paper is to present modeling and control of a nonlinear mechatronic system. To solve the control problem, the modified state-dependent Riccati equation (SDRE) method is applied. The control problem is designed and analyzed using the nonlinear feedback gain strategy for the infinite time horizon problem.
Design/methodology/approach
As a new contribution, this paper deals with state-dependent parametrization as an effective modeling of the mechatronic system and shows how to modify the classical form of the SDRE method to reduce computational effort during feedback gain computation. The numerical example compares described methods and confirms usefulness of the proposed technique.
Findings
The proposed control technique can ensure optimal dynamic response, reducing computational effort during control law computation. The effectiveness of the proposed control strategy is verified via numerical simulation.
Originality/value
The authors introduced an innovative approach to the well-known SDRE control methodology and settled their research in the newest literature coverage for this issue.
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Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and…
Abstract
Looks at the 2000 Employment Research Unit Annual Conference held at the University of Cardiff in Wales on 6/7 September 2000. Spotlights the 76 or so presentations within and shows that these are in many, differing, areas across management research from: retail finance; precarious jobs and decisions; methodological lessons from feminism; call centre experience and disability discrimination. These and all points east and west are covered and laid out in a simple, abstract style, including, where applicable, references, endnotes and bibliography in an easy‐to‐follow manner. Summarizes each paper and also gives conclusions where needed, in a comfortable modern format.
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Irene Bernhard and Anna Karin Olsson
The purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and barriers for learning in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students. A work-integrated…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the benefits and barriers for learning in industrial PhD education through the perspectives of industrial PhD students. A work-integrated learning (WIL) approach is applied to highlight key issues that university and industry need to consider promoting mutual learning.
Design/methodology/approach
The empirical context is a Swedish university profiling WIL offering PhD programs in three disciplines for industrial PhD students from both the private and public sectors. Data was gathered using qualitative methods; 19 semistructured interviews with industrial PhD students.
Findings
Findings show that industrial PhD students are developing practical and transferable skills, hence, contributing to research of interest for academia and work–life. Identified benefits for learning include proximity and access to data, project and networks and contextual understanding and tacit knowledge. Barriers for learning are the perceived limited understanding of employers, the dilemma of balancing and switching between different roles, lack of belonging and identity, deficient collaboration agreements and ethical dilemmas.
Research limitations/implications
Contributes insights into an industrial PhD education transforming along with societal needs promoting a future workforce of researchers with skills, new work practices and learning capabilities applicable in the work–life of contemporary society.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the emerging field of studies of alternative doctoral educations by identifying benefits and barriers for learning and providing recommendations for how university and industry may promote learning in a resilient industrial PhD education collaboration.
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Femi Adisa, Petra Schubert, Frantisek Sudzina and Björn Johansson
This paper aims to discuss a new tool for requirements gathering in the Web 2.0 era. It seeks to investigate the features that this kind of tool should have in order to be as…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to discuss a new tool for requirements gathering in the Web 2.0 era. It seeks to investigate the features that this kind of tool should have in order to be as widely applicable and useful as possible. Further, it aims to explore the extent to which business requirements for enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems can be collected and discussed collaboratively in a worldwide community of business process experts.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper is a combination of empirical research, hermeneutics and design research.
Findings
The proposed Living Requirements Space (LRS) platform has the potential of becoming an international forum for collecting and discussing business requirements for ERP systems.
Practical implications
The LRS platform will allow ERP developers, ERP systems implementers, and academics to better understand the evolution of business requirements for ERP systems. It will create a knowledge base of ERP business requirements, that is, a repository that guarantees open and unrestricted access to content. It will thus allow for more international ERP systems and far more comprehensive education on and understanding of business processes and ERP systems.
Originality/value
LRS is an open access tool that allows for the gathering of ERP systems requirements in a vendor‐ and project‐independent approach that is unbiased towards any geographic region.
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Nicholas J. Goetzfridt and Mark C. Goniwiecha
Micronesia, a term that means “small islands,” refers to a region of Western Pacific islands scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean larger than the continental United…
Abstract
Micronesia, a term that means “small islands,” refers to a region of Western Pacific islands scattered across an area of the Pacific Ocean larger than the continental United States (see figure 1). This vast area, located in the tropics almost entirely north of the Equator, covers more than 4,500,000 square miles of ocean and includes more than 2,100 palm tree‐studded islands, islets, and coral atolls. Yet its total land area is fewer than 1,200 square miles—only slightly larger than Rhode Island (see figure 2). Only about 125 of the islands are inhabited on a permanent basis, by some 350,000 people.
In the past 20 years, doctoral programmes have become the focus of policy initiatives. This has led to considerable changes in their structures and consequently student…
Abstract
Purpose
In the past 20 years, doctoral programmes have become the focus of policy initiatives. This has led to considerable changes in their structures and consequently student experience. In this essay, the author explores some of the changes by situating an examination of doctoral education-past, present, future-within the broader context of academic life, and the nature and role of research in developed economies. This analysis provides the context in which to draw out some implications for the future study of doctoral education.
Design/methodology/approach
The essay draws on a synthesis of the research on doctoral education, early career researcher trajectories, research structures and academic work environment.
Findings
The analysis suggests the following: doctoral education reform is being driven largely by policy concerns, rather than by evidence or disciplinary intention; and academic work environment is becoming less and less attractive due to increasing demands for productivity and accountability.
Originality/value
The author concludes with a call to action: unless we, as academics, take action on several fronts, we may find that the PhD becomes purely a policy instrument, and that in the long-term, life of an academic will no longer be attractive to PhD graduates.
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Olusegun Emmanuel Akinwale and Olaolu Joseph Oluwafemi
Personality profiling in today’s business world has become an essential organisational development practice targeted at identifying a set of employees' traits, which differentiate…
Abstract
Purpose
Personality profiling in today’s business world has become an essential organisational development practice targeted at identifying a set of employees' traits, which differentiate an employee from one another. Given the assumption that personality traits form an essential indicator of developing the potential of an individual workforce, possible to establish how employees function in a certain job role and their suitability for the particular tasks in an organisation. This study aims to explore the relationship between personality traits, assessment centres (ACs) quality and management development in Nigeria telecommunication organisation among its managers.
Design/methodology/approach
The study employed multi-stage sampling techniques and further stratified the hierarchy of the management and finally used a simple random sampling strategy on each stratum. A combination of 482 managers in Nigerian telecommunication organisations participated in this study. The study investigated 12 hypotheses and 1 mediating postulation. Multiple scales were adapted to measure dimensions of endogenous and exogenous variables along the path of mediating variables of the study. The study employed a cross-sectional survey approach to administering the research instrument across all the departments among the managers of the organisations. A structural equation model of assessment was used to analyse the data collected from managers of the telecoms organisations.
Findings
The outcome of the study was significant, 10 of the postulated hypotheses were found to be significant while 3 were not significant. The study revealed that a combination of openness to experience, conscientiousness, neuroticism, agreeableness and extraversion personality have no significant relationship with the AC. Also, employees who are high in neuroticism like being emotionally unstable did not find a significant relationship with the AC. In a similar situation, the combined effect of all the big-five personalities was not significant in management development among the managers of the telecommunication industry. The AC is discovered to mediate between personality traits and management development. Individually, the big-five model finds a significant relationship with AC and management development, respectively.
Research limitations/implications
The study is restricted to managers of the Nigerian telecoms industry alone and not all the entire workforce. It adopted cross-sectional analysis to make an inference on all the managers of the organisations. The implication is that the period of the view of a particular point in a sequence of the event may not be representative. Another implication is that the results from the cross-sectional design are for the relationship, and they do not indicate causation.
Originality/value
In practice, this study has shown that personality profiling is important to managing organisational behaviour to highlight a set of traits of employees suitable for peculiar roles. This study implies that personality elements constitute a vital signal of the potential development of the workforce. It helps to illuminate an individual functioning style in a certain task situation, therefore determining both professional and managerial suitability in performing a given role.
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The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) and organic foods with a broader list of control variables that includes green…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine consumer attitudes toward genetically modified (GM) and organic foods with a broader list of control variables that includes green attitudes, impulsive purchasing, concerns about privacy, religiosity, birth order, and political preferences.
Design/methodology/approach
US internet panelists were asked about their preferences for purchasing non-GM produce, non-GM cereal, and organic products even if they cost a little more. They were also asked if genetically engineered foods are safe to consume. Responses to these four questions were dependent variables in binary logistic regressions. The sample size was 725 adults.
Findings
Attitudes toward non-GM produce and non-GM cereal were linked with different variables. Green attitudes were positively linked with non-GM and organic food attitudes. Impulsive purchases, a religiosity factor, and a privacy concern factor were linked with non-GM but not organic food attitudes. Social desirability bias was also significant. The genetically engineered food model identified some unique linkages with the control variables, suggesting that these terms may not improve consumer confidence with food.
Originality/value
New measures and several variables that researchers independently found to be significant were tested together in models and found to be linked with organic and non-GM food attitudes. Some expected relationships were not found. The results provide better profiles of consumers who have strong attitudes toward GM and organic foods.
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Cesar Martin Venier, Andrés Reyes Urrutia, Juan Pablo Capossio, Jan Baeyens and Germán Mazza
The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM®, at their current state of development, to study the relevant bubbling fluidized bed (BFB…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to assess the performance of ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM®, at their current state of development, to study the relevant bubbling fluidized bed (BFB) characteristics with Geldart A, B and D particles.
Design/methodology/approach
For typical Geldart B and D particles, both a three-dimensional cylindrical and a pseudo-two-dimensional arrangement were used to measure the bed pressure drop and solids volume fraction, the latter by digital image analysis techniques. For a typical Geldart A particle, specifically to examine bubbling and slugging phenomena, a 2 m high three-dimensional cylindrical arrangement of small internal diameter was used. The hydrodynamics of the experimentally investigated BFB cases were also simulated for identical geometries and operating conditions using OpenFOAM® v6.0 and ANSYS Fluent® v19.2 at identical mesh and numerical setups.
Findings
The comparison between experimental and simulated results showed that both ANSYS Fluent® and OpenFOAM® provide a fair qualitative prediction of the bubble sizes and solids fraction for freely-bubbling Geldart B and D particles. For Geldart A particles, operated in a slugging mode, the qualitative predictions are again quite fair, but numerical values of relevant slug characteristics (length, velocity and frequency) slightly favor the use of OpenFOAM®, despite some deviations of predicted slug velocities.
Originality/value
A useful comparison of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software performance for different fluidized regimes is presented. The results are discussed and recommendations are formulated for the selection of the CFD software and models involved.
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