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The purpose of this paper is to examine emergency medical service (EMS) personnel’s perceptions and experiences of managing underground mining injury incidents.

In total, 13 EMS personnel were interviewed according to a semi-structured interview guide. The interviews were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis.

An underground mining environment was described as unfamiliar and unsafe and, with no guidelines for operational actions in an extreme environment, such as underground mines, the EMS personnel were uncertain of their role. They therefore became passive and relied on the rescue service and mining company during a major incident. However, the medical care was not considered to be different from any other prehospital care, although a mining environment would make the situation more difficult and it would take longer for the mine workers to be placed under definitive care.

This study complements earlier studies by examining the EMS personnel’s perceptions and experiences of major incidents.

Literature on cultural districts has repeatedly pointed out the role of place branding as a tool to upgrade the image of urban environment as an indicator of meaning and significance. Throughout the case of UNESCO’s mining heritage district in Sardinia (Italy), the purpose of this paper is to investigate on the role that Place Branding Organizations (PBOs) has and/or may have in the construction of coherent images for landscape and cultural heritage in the design of “sustainable” cultural districts in connection with local authorities’ agenda. At this purpose, the authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” and a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity within place branding theory.

Considering what recently expressed by UNESCO about the integration between spatial and cultural planning, the authors focus the research on cultural heritage districts protected by this organization. Starting from the definition of strategy proposed by Anholt (2011) and the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010), the authors propose a new analytic framework to evaluate PBO’s activity and the authors try to apply it to the experience of mining heritage in Sardinia (Italy), comparing the activity of local PBOs (the Consortium for the UNESCO’s Sardinian Geo-mining Park and the Local Tourism System) with the Development Plan of the Carbonia-Iglesias Province. In the final part of the work, the authors discuss the outcomes of the comparative analysis in terms of partnership building strategy and its influence on cultural heritage district design.

The experience of the Sardinia district proves that partnership building strategy has a relevant role both in place branding and cultural heritage district design but it is not sufficient to make this letter really functioning. It confirms also that a place brand can survive to political regime changes on a periodic basis only if the PBO establishes an appropriate institutional framework for the creation of a cooperative network that can take the branding process forward. The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.”

The analytical framework which the authors provide on the basis of a new operative definition of partnership strategy building, has proved to be a useful tool to assess PBO’s activity but, despite this, it represents only a partial result because the theoretical model of the relationships between PBOs, local and supra-local actors requires further developments to describe the effective type and nature of this links.

The research finding about place branding of UNESCO’s mining heritage sites, outline the demand for a new and more integrated approach in the district design, inspired to the geographic studies on “cultural basin.” To achieve a real sustainable development and a shared enhancement of identity and landscape, the authors propose as a possible solution the abandonment of administrative boundaries in cultural planning through a correspondence between cultural district and historic region, this latter defined according to the methods and tools developed by the geographical sciences for the “cultural basin.” At this scope the authors propose a new methodological framework which takes the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” for the district design, setting a future research agenda.

The authors propose an operative definition of “partnership building strategy” for the participation-based approach outlined by Hankinson (2010) and, on this base, the authors test a new analytic framework to evaluate PBOs’ activity which combines the traditional activities of promotion and marketing with PBOs’ partnership strategies. Finally, the authors propose a methodological frame which brings the participation-based place branding into the “cultural heritage chain” setting a future research agenda in cultural heritage district’s design.

The dilemma falls within the Change Management, Leadership, Organizational Development subject areas. In addition, the case highlights typical issues in “green” or sustainable supply chain, corporate social responsibility and sustainability courses.

The target audience is includes post-graduate diploma-level or master’s level students, such as in Masters in Business Administration.

The case focuses on the dilemma that Phiwokuhle Mhlangu in Mpumalanga, South Africa, faced when his company’s board had not signed off on capital expenditure to improve his colliery’s clean coal technology initiatives. He had to influence his colleagues’ mindsets to adapt to changes in the environment. The case highlights the global coal landscape and South African mining industry’s challenges in terms of infrastructure and strained labour relations, as well as the focus of the South African Government to enhance alternative energy resources. Although a clear business case for investment in clean coal technologies was evident, Mhlangu could still not persuade his colleagues to support these initiatives. A different approach was required […]

The learning objectives in this case are: gaining insight into the dilemmas of sustainability in coal mining by exploring various interest groups in difficult sustainability situations and enhancing understanding of getting a buy-in from various stakeholders when leading change in the coal-mining sector.

A teaching plan and particular teaching methodologies is included. The two learning outcomes are posed as questions for groups to discuss and model answers are provided and to relevant literature.

CSS 7: Management Science

Using a theory of translation of ideas, the purpose of this paper is to investigate how the mining industry has implemented and practices lean production as well as the form of this practice.

The study reviewed the scientific literature on lean production in the mining industry, as well as in the reported practice of the concept in a mining company. The results were then analyzed using content analysis.

Lean production has not seen a full implementation in the mining industry. Rather, select practices are focused, though the literature covers several more. The findings suggest that the form and extension of lean production in mining differ from other industries owing to characteristics of the industry itself.

The scientific literature on the subject is limited. Additional material was used to attempt to offset this. However, there are still blind spots relating to practice that is not reported in the type of material investigated.

This paper contributes to understanding the evolution of lean production in a unique industry. It suggests why lean implementation may be unsuccessful in this type of industry while also identifying the focal point of its lean production practice.

Draws extensively on the unpublished papers of Henri Fayol to show how his experiences as an engineer, director and CEO for Commentry Fourchambault provided the basis for the ideas presented in his classic Administration Industrielle et Générale (1916). Emphasizes Fayol′s experiences managing coal miners; his direction of a firm facing crisis owing to depletion of its primary assets (coal and ore deposits); and his struggle to assert the primacy of the CEO in dealings with the company board of directors.

By juxtaposing fatal colliery explosions in early twentieth-century Britain and in 2010 at Pike River, New Zealand, this paper aims to investigate the generalizability of the mock bureaucracy concept to underground coal mining disasters.

The main source is published official accident inquiries; a methodological reflection justifies the use of these materials.

Mock bureaucracies existed in the British underground coal mining milieu from the time when safety rules were first formulated in that industry context. As for Pike River, it is an exemplary case. The development in 1970s Britain of a new approach to safety management (the Robens system), and its subsequent export to New Zealand, means that a contemporary coal mine under financial duress, such as Pike River, is a prime site for mock bureaucracy to flourish.

Although the concept of mock bureaucracy has been applied to an explosion in an underground coal mine before, this is the first paper to explore the concept’s historical usage and generalizability in explaining the environing context of such explosions.

This paper aims to examine how students can learn how to work in multi-cultural global virtual teams in a classroom-based setting using experiential learning. The students from two graduate programs in France and Japan were given relevant reading materials, individual and joint team assignments on virtual team work and were asked to evaluate their work using previously identified global virtual team key success factors.

Text-mining and co-word analyses of students’ assignments, and correlations of keyword frequencies with student culture scores provide insights on how students first experience this novel setting, raising their awareness and providing them skills for future application in an organizational setting.

The process experienced by virtual student teams has many similarities with the team formation stage in virtual teams in organizational settings. Such experiential learning is useful for global virtual team education, as students will have already experienced and solved typical challenges in a safer non-work-related setting.

This study is based on a small sample of respondents and therefore presents inherent limitations in terms of significance and generalizability.

The rise of information and communication technologies has facilitated the creation of new approaches for coordinating work and, subsequently, for new collaborative organizational forms. Little research has been conducted to address education or training for these new and essential forms of collaboration.

In Louisiana's coastal communities with traditions of heavy dependence on the oil industry, cycles of industrial uncertainty have become routine, eliciting a set of coping responses from local government and community institutions. However, recent industrial restructuring within the context of globalization, accompanied by shifts in the climate of federal and state policy, have significantly disrupted traditional support mechanisms and threatened their survival. This article explores the realities that two South Louisiana communities impacted by the offshore oil industry face at the close of the 20th century, with a focus on health service institutions. It also explores community efforts in managing local housing and workforce preparation issues.

Good social relationships and connections to place are key aspects of work‐life balance that are rarely considered by employers because of a focus on the work part of the dichotomy. In response to this omission, this paper aims to investigate women's experiences of frequent relocations due to their partner's employment in the mining industry.

Interviews were conducted with 20 women, who had partners employed in the mining industry. Thematic analysis focussed on participants' individual stories of relocation to identify common and divergent experiences.

Themes identified included the role of industry practices and expectations in supporting relocation; personal strengths and strategies developed over time; individual and family needs during relocation; the impact of life stage on decisions about relocation and the important aspects of place.

Mining has a relocation culture common to those involved in the industry. While this culture presents challenges, most of the participants in this study also found benefits in moving often and had developed strategies to cope with relocation upheaval. Participants expanded their social relationships, adding to community resources of the places they lived in by participating in social and cultural events.

Relocation disrupts workforce stability and cohesion desired by industry. Understanding relocation culture is one way family members survive in the industry. It is critical for the mining industry to acknowledge the life part of work‐life balance.

The paper conceptualises relocation as a significant part of the mining industry's culture creating mining families as itinerant. This is the first paper that examines family experiences and social relationships, external to the industry they are connected to. The finding that family members of mining industry employees are very likely to live in remote locations at some point is new. The way these individuals can be used as resource in deprived locations requires further exploration.

MODERN work study technique demands that the methods engineer and the time study engineer work hand in hand for the benefit of productivity as a whole. And to state the obvious it is becoming clearer that time and motion are indivisible.