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FATA has an arrangement with Bisiach & Carru to market its robots in a number of industries. John Mortimer reports on developments in the two firms.

Around 400,000 working days per year are lost in the construction industry due to stress, depression or anxiety, but a large proportion of the industry – those primarily not based “on-site” – is not included in these statistics. Little research has been conducted in this group about their experiences of occupational stress. The authors explored how stress was experienced and managed by construction professionals and its perceived impact on health.

The authors interviewed 32 construction professionals in a British construction company, with varying levels of seniority and years in the industry. Interviews were transcribed, coded and analysed thematically.

Stress was viewed an inevitable and increasing part of the construction industry, exacerbated by recent economic challenges. Participants talked about a culture of stress and overwork but often felt unable to challenge it due to job insecurity. Senior management acknowledged stress was a problem within the industry and something that potentially threatened company productivity. Company-wide initiatives had been implemented to address stress levels (e.g. Mental Health First Aiders), but were criticised for ignoring underlying issues. Informal means of managing stress were identified, such as careful consideration of team dynamics, which allowed employees to form close bonds and using “banter” and camaraderie to relieve stress. However, the persistence of a macho male image meant some participants were reluctant to talk about their feelings at work. Participants described individual coping strategies, such as exercise, but these were hard to prioritise in challenging times.

There is growing recognition that health and well-being must be given greater priority in the construction industry. Industry pressures and competitive practices undermine efforts to improve staff well-being. Action must be taken at senior levels to address this conflict, while building on existing informal mechanisms of support and stress relief.

During the crisis, the Greek labor market went through major changes in terms of employment, unemployment and wages. The economic activity registered a cumulative decline of around 25%, weighting heavily on the labor market. The unemployment rate showed a substantial increase, with signs of persistence and the employment rate fell substantially. Utilizing a unique dataset, the European Union Structure of Earnings Survey (SES) the paper examines the evolution of wages over the period 2010–2014. During that period, the economic adjustment programs to deal with the chronic deficiencies of the Greek economy and restore sustainable public finances, to gain competitiveness and set the foundation for long-term growth, were implemented. Data refer to 2010, when the first elements of the program were beginning to be executed, and to 2014 when the crisis had already unfolded. Results point to a reduction of average wages across industries, even after controlling for personal and workplace characteristics. Amid a wage decrease at the mean, there is evidence of a divergent wage evolution between sectors of economic activity during the crisis. Furthermore, we find that wage premia that have persisted in the Greek economy during the same period are not disproportionately captured by employees at the upper end of the conditional wage distribution.

Previous research shows a positive effect of job satisfaction and retention on both workers’ and organizations’ welfare, it is important to understand whether the characteristics of a job and workers’ perceptions of certain job traits can predict job satisfaction and retention in an organization. This paper explores the effect of 18 job characteristics on the likelihood that a worker is satisfied with his or her job, the chance that he or she looks for an alternative employer in the following year and the number of years employed by the same organization.

The author adds to the current state of the literature on the importance of job characteristics in several ways. First, the author utilizes a list of 18 job characteristics or perceptions, which to the best of our knowledge is one of the most extensive sets of characteristics that has been considered. This allows us to examine lots of aspects of the job, and their connection to the outcomes of interest. Second, the author uses not only basic regression methods but also ordered Logit specifications to obtain more precise estimates of the effect of job characteristics on job satisfaction and workers’ propensity to look for a new job. Third, the author considers the possibility that a combination of job characteristics, rather than a single factor, influences the level of satisfaction with the job and retention, measured by the likelihood that a worker plans to look for an alternative job in the following year and the years at the current job. The author explores the latter through principal component analysis. Fourth, the author explores gender differences in the effect of job characteristics on job satisfaction and retention. Finally, the author discusses the implications of this research to policy decision-making and managerial decisions.

The author finds that personal development opportunities and job security are positively related to job satisfaction, and negatively related to the likelihood of looking for a new job. Opportunities for personal development have a stronger effect on job satisfaction of men than women. Male workers’ job satisfaction also depends on whether they are given enough time to complete assigned tasks. The perception of security in the current job, having reliable coworkers and receiving sufficient help in a job make it less likely for women to perform a job search. Fringe benefits encourage workers of both genders to stay in an organization longer. Job security also has a positive relationship with the years in a given job for women, but not for men.

The findings have implications for managers and policy decision-makers. For managers, it is important to be aware of the value male and female workers place on different job characteristics, because a number of studies show the importance of job satisfaction on the success of companies (Porter et al. 1977; Mobley et al., 1979; Tett et al. 1993; Posner et al. 1993), and the author shows that job satisfaction depends on different characteristics for men and women. In addition, managers’ awareness of the findings related to the factors that are likely to retain workers in a company is important because of the costs of recruiting new workers, including hiring, training and opportunity costs. For policy considerations, programs that help in matching employers with potential workers are likely to find good fits for both sides of the labor market if they direct women to jobs that provide more security, opportunities for personal development, and help at work. Jobs that offer more time to complete tasks would retain and increase the chance of keeping male workers satisfied with their job.

SUMMARY A detailed account is given of the aerodynamic and inertia forces acting on a rotor blade when the helicopter is undergoing arbitrary disturbance in velocity and angular velocity. A fairly generalized form is used for the downwash velocity. A principle is enunciated enabling the several second order terms of significance in the angle variables to be recognized and retained.

Knowledge management (KM) is widely adopted by organisations to improve their performance and make informed decisions. Prior research has confirmed that Information Systems (IS) play a critical role in effective KM. The purpose of this study is to examine the existing literature on the role of cloud-based KM systems (C-KMS) in small- and medium-sized enterprise (SMEs) by understanding its impact on the five KM processes: knowledge acquisition, creation, storage, sharing and usage.

This study conducted a systematic literature review by examining 133 journal articles and 24 conference papers from 2010 to 2021 on the role of cloud computing in KM for SMEs.

This study revealed that there are numerous empirical analyses on KM processes and tools in SMEs; however, only few studies demonstrate how the whole gamut of KM processes can adopt cloud computing in SMEs. Therefore, SMEs are ineffective at KM with limited IS intervention. This paper offers a proposition on how C-KMS can impact all five KM process, thereby increasing its effectiveness of KM in SMEs. This study analysed the benefits of C-KMS that brings to SMEs in terms of availability, scalability, reliability, security and cost.

This systematic review is restricted to certain databases (ScienceDirect, Sage journals, Scopus and Emerald Insight) and specific IS conference proceedings to source articles. The selection of search criteria and time frame is based on this study’s assessment and choice. This study adds value to our understanding of the role of KM in SMEs, and it reinforces the role of cloud computing in effectively managing knowledge in SMEs. The proposal of C-KMS for the enhancement of KM has significant implications for SMEs to effectively use knowledge for their survival and superior performance.

This study suggests three practical implications. First, adopting and using C-KMS provide a strong foundation to manage knowledge for SMEs in a cost-effective way. Second, C-KMS improves the effectiveness of KM by increasing availability of knowledge artifacts, which in turn aids SMEs’ growth. Third, C-KMS is useful to codify SME’s knowledge, and accordingly supports employees to acquire and use knowledge based on their requirements.

This study discussed C-KMS with contemporary social issues, such as the COVID-19 pandemic challenges for SMEs and demonstrated how C-KMS can support SMEs to handle such crises by managing knowledge effectively.

This research highlights the importance of the implementation of a C-KMS for the enhancement of KM in SMEs. The review provides empirical evidence on the challenges faced by SMEs regarding KM, as they often only have enough resources to focus on a single KM process, predominantly knowledge sharing. Consequently, a holistic approach to KM cannot be realised by SMEs. In this context, the findings of this study offer theoretical and practical insights into the role of cloud computing by addressing the challenges of KM in SMEs.

The IFS Advanced Manufacturing Summit, together with AUTOMAN ‘85 will focus on improved manufacturing methods and the changing strategies for success. Anna Kochan previews some of the papers to be presented.

The Essen Welding Fair reflected many new developments over a wide range of advanced manufacturing technology. John Mortimer reports.

The purpose of the present work is to develop a unified mathematical theory of the steady and disturbed motion of a helicopter with particular emphasis on the dynamical aspects of the problem. The helicopter is assumed to undergo arbitrary small disturbances in velocity and angular velocity from a steady rectilinear flight condition, and the rotor forces are calculated as generalized functions of the initial and disturbed velocities. A high degree of accuracy is maintained both in the retention, where necessary, of products of small quantities and in the retention of high powers of µ in the solution of the trim equations. The steady motion of the helicopter is discussed at length as a preliminary to a study of its dynamic stability. Part I deals with the general features underlying helicopter motion. The importance is emphasized of a three‐dimensional approach to the problem, and it is shown that a complete description of steady rectilinear motion demands the use of fifteen equations in eighteen parameters, the solution of which presents no real difficulty. A start is made on the analysis of rotor blade motion, and the geometrical aspects are discussed by means of a system of rotating vectors.

High and Low Drag Helicopters. A parameter which has not hitherto received any attention is the value of the fuselage drag. For any particular helicopter the drag will depend on the extent to which it is carrying bulky external loads, and the top speed under the high drag condition will clearly be substantially reduced. It might therefore be thought that any investigation of the high drag helicopter at a value of? of, say, 0·3, would be unrealistic since, for one thing, the engine power requirements would be inordinately high, and for another, the rotor blades would be very severely stalled. However, such an investigation is not, in fact, valueless, and we shall find a posteriori, that although the high speed case is effectively an idealised one, it will nevertheless serve the purpose of throwing up in a much emphasised form certain (apparent) discrepancies, which, in the low drag case, would hardly have merited attention. In the high drag case, however, the discrepancies cannot be dismissed so lightly, and we shall be obliged to investigate their cause. In so doing we shall obtain a much greater understanding of the underlying physical phenomena.