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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.

Government policy can alleviate inequities in living standards. Disabled people often qualify for government assistance which is one way that their living standard can improve, although arbitrary systems for distributing assistance are not likely to serve equity objectives. The purpose of this paper is to indicate the key variables to which government should direct attention, in order to alleviate both horizontal and vertical inequity in grants to disabled people.

There is no literature, either theoretical or empirical, that specifically addresses this problem. This paper invokes important economic concepts associated with the nineteenth century English philosopher/economist, John Stuart Mill, as well as the 1998 Nobel Laureate in Economics, Amartya Sen. Mill's general conception of how government should behave in treating citizens was elaborated subsequently in the public finance literature on principles of taxation. These notions are about “the equal treatment of equals” and “the unequal treatment of unequals”. Sen's recent discussion of the “conversion handicap” from his general framework of capabilities is highly relevant to the question addressed here.

These concepts, applied with some analytical tools of algebra and geometry, show that Mill's principles can combine with Sen's into a relevant conceptual framework. The central principles and concepts for policy formation on the standard of living for disabled people are not random; they can be specified with clarity.

This paper contributes the relevant conceptual “yardsticks” by which policy for distributing assistance to disabled people can be evaluated. Steps, towards devising better approaches to the distribution of assistance to disabled people can now be taken.

A chaotic system is a nonlinear deterministic system that displays complex, noisy‐like and unpredictable behavior. The interest in chaotic systems lies mostly upon their complex, unpredictable behavior, and extreme sensitivity to initial conditions as well as parameter variations. Based on wavelet neural network's (WNN) online approximation ability, the purpose of this paper is to propose an adaptive Gaussian wavelet neural control (AGWNC) system to control a chaotic system.

The proposed AGWNC system is composed of a wavelet neural controller and a compensation tangent controller. The wavelet neural controller utilizes a Gaussian WNN to mimic an ideal controller, and the compensation tangent controller is designed to compensate the approximation error between the ideal and the wavelet neural controllers. The controller parameters of the proposed AGWNC can online tune in the Lyapunov sense, thus the uniformly ultimately bounded stability of closed‐loop system can be guaranteed.

The proposed AGWNC system is applied to a chaotic system. Simulation results are used to demonstrate the effectiveness and performance of the proposed AGWNC scheme. Simulation results show that not only the favorable control performance can be achieved but also the control efforts without any chattering phenomena. Moreover, all controller parameters can be online tuning by the derived adaptive laws based on the Lyapunov function.

The proposed AGWNC approach is interesting for the design of an intelligent control scheme. The main contributions of this paper are: the overall closed‐loop control system is globally stable in uniform ultimate boundedness; the tracking error can be asymptotically attenuated to a desired small level around zero by appropriate chosen parameters and learning rates; and the AGWNC system can achieve favorable tracking performance.

The concept of organizational identity became a subject of interest within the academic milieu in the mid‐1980s. In this paper, we propose the construct of legacy identities, those persistent identities that, first, endure over time at different levels of expression and, second, are comprised of resilient ideals from the past that represent the perceived persistent character of what the organization used to be. This construct is derived from a case study that portrays the radical transformation of a former state‐owned Brazilian company that became a subsidiary of a North American firm and survived the crisis that originated from its parent company’s debacle. Building on data from the case study, we develop a framework that shows the salience of different identities through time in the company and seek to explain the dynamics underlying these changes.

The purpose of this paper is to propose a new hybrid algorithm, named improved plant growth simulation algorithm and particle swarm optimization hybrid algorithm (PGSA–PSO hybrid algorithm), for solving structural optimization problems.

To further enhance the optimization efficiency and precision of this algorithm, the optimization solution process of PGSA–PSO comprises two steps. First, an excellent initial growth point is selected by PSO. Then, the global optimal solution can be obtained quickly by PGSA and its improved strategy called growth space adjustment strategy. A typical mathematical example is provided to verify the capacity of the new hybrid algorithm to effectively improve the global search capability and search efficiency of PGSA. Moreover, PGSA–PSO is applied to the optimization design of a suspended dome structure.

Through typical mathematical example, the improved strategy can improve the optimization efficiency of PGSA considerably, and an initial growth point that falls near the global optimal solution can be obtained. Through the optimization of the pre-stress of a suspended dome structure, compared with other methods, the hybrid algorithm is effective and feasible in structural optimization.

Through the examples of suspended dome structure, it shows that the optimization efficiency and precision of PGSA–PSO are better than those of other algorithms and methods. PGSA–PSO is effective and feasible in structural optimization problems such as pre-stress optimization, size optimization, shape optimization and even topology optimization.

The purpose of this paper is to deal with the ill‐conditioned problem for the non‐equigap GM(1,1) control model by using the method of multiple transformations.

Owing to noises and interferences from both inside and outside of the system, many control systems contain unequal intervals and sharp variation which may result in undesirable systems instability. In order to ensure the stability and efficiency of grey forecasting control model, the data transformation for a raw series is an important and useful method for enhancing accuracy and improving ill‐condition of the non‐equigap GM(1,1) model.

This paper discusses the quantitative relations between the multiple transformation and the parameters of the non‐equigap GM(1,1) model in detail, and studies the effect of the multiple transformation on the condition number of the non‐equigap GM(1,1) model.

Accessibility and availability of data are the main limitations based on which model will be applied.

Choosing an appropriate multiple of transformation cannot only eliminate dimension, lessen computation and maintain high accuracy, but also largely reduce the condition number of the model and improve the ill‐condition of non‐equigap GM(1,1) model effectively.

This paper seems to be the first to discuss the stability problems for the non‐equigap GM(1,1) model.

The purpose of this paper is to describe a finite element formulation to approximate thermally coupled flows using both the Boussinesq and the low Mach number models with particular emphasis on the numerical implementation of the algorithm developed.

The formulation, that allows us to consider convection dominated problems using equal order interpolation for all the valuables of the problem, is based on the subgrid scale concept. The full Newton linearization strategy gives rise to monolithic treatment of the coupling of variables whereas some fixed point schemes permit the segregated treatment of velocity‐pressure and temperature. A relaxation scheme based on the Armijo rule has also been developed.

A full Newtown linearization turns out to be very efficient for steady‐state problems and very robust when it is combined with a line search strategy. A segregated treatment of velocity‐pressure and temperature happens to be more appropriate for transient problems.

A fractional step scheme, splitting also momentum and continuity equations, could be further analysed.

The results presented in the paper are useful to decide the solution strategy for a given problem.

The numerical implementation of a stabilized finite element approximation of thermally coupled flows is described. The implementation algorithm is developed considering several possibilities for the solution of the discrete nonlinear problem.

The DC‐DC converters which convert one level of electrical voltage to the desired level are widely used in many electrical peripherals. During the past two decade, many different control laws have been developed. The proportional‐integral (PI) control and sliding‐mode control have been carried out for the DC‐DC converters since they are simple to implement and easy to design. However, its performance using PI control and sliding‐mode control is obviously quite limited. The purpose of this paper is to a self‐tuning nonlinear function control (STNFC) propose for the DC‐DC converters. The adaptation laws of the proposed STNFC system are derived in the sense of Lyapunov function, thus not only the controller parameters can be online tuned itself, but also the system's stability can be guaranteed.

In general, the accurate mathematical models of the DC‐DC converters are difficult to derive. This paper proposes a model‐free STNFC design method. Since the proposed STNFC uses a simple fuzzy system with three fuzzy rules base to implement the control law, the computational loading of the fuzzy inference mechanism is slight. So the proposed STNFC system is suitable for the real‐time practical applications. The controller parameters of the proposed STNFC system can online tune in the Lyapunov sense, thus the stability of closed‐loop system can be guaranteed.

The proposed STNFC system is applied to a DC‐DC converter based on a field‐programmable gate array chip. The experimental results are provided to demonstrate the proposed STNFC system can cope with the input voltage and load resistance variations to ensure the stability while providing fast transient response.

The proposed STNFC approach is interesting for the design of an intelligent control scheme. The main contributions of this paper are: the successful development of STNFC system without heavy computational loading. The parameter‐learning algorithm is design based on the Lyapunov stability theorem to guarantee the system stability; the successful applications of the STNFC system to control the forward DC‐DC converter. And, the proposed STNFC methodology can be easily extended to other DC‐DC converters.

Knowledge sharing (KS) has been consistently acknowledged as a critical factor in the organizational development and the betterment of employees. The purpose of this paper is to extend previous empirical research on KS by testing psychological ownership as an underlying mechanism between the relationship of organizational justice (OJ) and KS behavior in developing country context. The authors also examine the moderating role of perceived organizational support (POS) between psychological ownership and KS behavior.

Using a survey questionnaire, data from 348 employees of multinational corporations in Pakistan were used to test the research hypotheses.

The results of this research reveal that dimensions of OJ (procedural, distributive and interactional justice) positively influence psychological ownership. In addition, psychological ownership is found as an underlying psychological mechanism between the relationship of OJ and KS behavior. The results also indicate that a higher level of POS strengthens the relationship between psychological ownership and KS behavior.

Organizations can enhance employees’ sense of psychological ownership by providing them fairness in procedures and resources. Moreover, management can create a perception of equality among the employees which subsequently helps employees engage in sharing their valuable knowledge with their team members and other workers in the organization.

This research suggests that psychological ownership and POS are important factors which influence the relationship between OJ and KS behavior and it empirically tests this model in a developing country context.

The purpose of the study is to explore how financial leverage influences profitability of 1,503 listed manufacturing firms in China.

The sample of the study is composed of the listed manufacturing firms in China. For the manufacturing firms, the annual financial information from 2008 to 2016 is obtained from the ORBIS database. In this study, initially a simultaneous equation approach is used to control for potential endogeneity. Then, additional regression analyses are conducted with panel data over the period of 2008-2016 using OLS, Fixed-effects, First-difference, Random-effects and Arellano and Bond’s (1991) two-step Generalized Method of Moments (GMM) methods.

The results reveal that the impact of leverage on profitability is inverted U-shaped. In this inverted U-shaped relationship, the positive impact of financial leverage on profitability could be attributed to tax shield, whereas the negative impact might be because of bankruptcy cost, financial distress, severe agency problems and information asymmetry that the listed Chinese firms suffer from because of some institutional characteristics of China.

First, this study focuses on only listed manufacturing firms in China. Second, ownership types are not taken into account in this study.

First, the Chinese government should direct its efforts toward developing the bond markets and promoting alternative privately owned loan creditors to state-owned banks. Parallel to this, the transformation process toward market economy should be accelerated to facilitate the privatization of state-owned enterprises (SOEs). In addition to this, development of the bond market and privatization of SOEs will also mitigate the agency conflict between creditors and managers and between shareholders and managers.

To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first study which investigates the impact of capital structure on profitability of the listed firms in China.