Search results

The purpose of this paper is to propose an approach for aircraft taking off control in wind shear, which is a challenging issue for an aircraft.

Aircraft control in wind shear needs an anti-jamming controller. Symbolic control is an effective and adaptive method for complex dynamic system. In this paper, wind shear flight control laws are developed for the dynamics of a B-747 aircraft by using symbolic control. The problem of efficiently steering dynamical systems with disturbance by using symbolic control is considered, and theoretical analysis on the proposed approach is also conducted. The implementation of an altitude scheduling strategy with symbolic controller makes it possible for aircraft to escape serious wind shear.

This work improved symbolic control algorithm so that it can be applied to aircraft control problem. A series of comparative experimental results with proportional-integral-derivative controller demonstrate the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed approach.

The symbolic control method developed in this paper can be easily applied to another aircraft control problems.

An improved symbolic control method is proposed for solving aircraft taking off problem in wind shear.

Examines sources of control over information system development decisions. Although past research has examined sources of internal organizational control that were solely determined by technical/rational goals, this article analyzes the symbolic role of social institutions in exerting control over system development decisions. Three regulatory mechanisms, developed by institutional theorists, are used to explain how specific social institutions exert their control. The mechanisms of coercive isomorphism, mimetic isomorphism and normative isomorphism help illustrate the types of social forces that enhance similarity of systems across organizations. Three conditions also are identified which moderate these effects: dependence on external institutions having control over an organization’s resources; unclear performance standards for system development; and interaction patterns during development. These conditions imply that social control would differ greatly according to whether the major influences on the process of system development arise from within the organization or are imposed from external institutions. The examination of symbolic/institutional forces in system development is useful in both the evaluation of system effectiveness and the assessment of the “appropriateness” of managerial interventions in the process. Future research should empirically examine these manifestations of social control and their influence on system development decisions.

This paper aims to explore controls within an inter-organisational relationship involving outsourced management accounting services from the contractor’s perspective.

Qualitative data from within the relationship are analysed in a legitimacy-theory framework, illustrating how controls within the relationship are intended to build the contractor’s legitimacy and what kinds of implications the controls have in relation to conflicts between interests inherent in the relationship.

The legitimacy perspective clarifies that while controls are aimed at ensuring efficiency for the client, they may also provide symbolic displays of the appropriateness of the contractor’s actions both at an inter-organisational level for the client and at an individual level for the contractor’s employees. While the contractor intends to build legitimacy with the client by demonstrating utility in the form of efficiency, the process also gives the client influence and allows the disposition in terms of shared values to be demonstrated. However, this process has some negative consequences for the contractor’s employees as it is insufficient for serving the boundary-spanning employees’ interests connected with the nature of their work. Hence, the same controls need to yield benefits and fair outcomes for employees. The controls simultaneously foster interconnections that contribute to permanence and formalise the outsourcing of complex services, thereby rendering such processes comprehensible and transferable to other settings, which can be seen to serve the contractor’s continuity interests.

The paper contributes to academic research by illustrating how controls within inter-organisational relationships not only steer boundary-spanners’ work to conform to a client’s needs but may also help to build legitimacy via symbolic properties in the presence of conflicting interests at both an inter-organisational and individual level. It specifically highlights the important role of boundary-spanners lower in the organisational structure, who both affect and are influenced by the intentions to build legitimacy with the client.

In this chapter, the focus is placed on the interplay between the broader policy context and the content of postgraduate studies in educational administration and leadership in an effort to understand how it influences the conscience of future school administrators about their role and mission. The socio-cultural theory of Basil Bernstein is used for analysing the process of symbolic control regulated by the notions of classification, framing and meaning orientation which operate simultaneously for establishing dominant practices and forming individual consciences through postgraduate studies. Specifically, the analysis is based on information derived from the official websites of all the existing postgraduate programmes in school administration and leadership in two countries, Greece and UK, which represent two polar cases as regards the degree that new forms of educational management have permeated into their educational systems.

The study aims to highlight and understand, and bring the human agency into the debate on the theory of normative control. While, the previous literature has highlighted the problem of the missing subject. However, the actual human agency in terms of agential properties has not been seriously addressed. This study is an attempt to overcome this problem of the missing subject.

A two-phase design inspired by retroductive inference was adopted for this study. In the first phase, abduction was used to explore the literature on normative control to highlight the forces of attraction, which may pull the employees to participate willingly within normative control systems. In the second phase, following retroductive inference, agential explanations of the forces of attraction identified in the first phase were explored by venturing into other related fields, e.g. psychology and sociology.

The study highlights four strategies used by organizations using normative control, i.e. comfort zoning, relational bonding, moral trapping and elitist appeal. These strategies rely on attractive forces. These forces of attraction pull employees to participate in the normative control system. The attractive element in the identified strategies is due to the fact that these strategies target specific agential properties, i.e. the need for comfort, sense of belonging, moral agency and pride. Overall, the findings suggest that individuals drive their concerns from culture but in relation to their capacity as needy beings for being enculturated.

Theoretically, this study adds conceptual strength to the explanations of normative control. It is suggested that neglect of human agency renders explanations conceptually weak. The study fills this gap in the research. Practically, this study would be beneficial for better design and implementation of normative control. Several studies have pointed out that normative control does not yield the intended results. Out of many reasons, a lack of understanding of human agency is a major cause of unsuccessful attempts to normatively control employees. This study provides some basis to understand the human subject for better design of soft systems of control.

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, this is the first research study that explores agential properties with reference to normative control systems. This study is important for researchers and practitioners.

This study aims to explore consumption practices of new middle-class Indian women to explicate how they are challenging traditional social norms and redefining their identity through their consumption practices.

A total of 32 semi-structured and photo-elicitation interviews were conducted with new middle-class women between the age group of 23 and 40 years in India.

This study illustrates how the doing of consumption practices that involve creating, controlling, knowing and transforming is enabling new middle-class Indian women to undo gender disparities embedded in hegemonic patriarchal social order. Also, the study provides new insights into how class and symbolic capital intersect gender to redefine middle-class women’s feminine self.

This study specifically illustrates how new middle-class women are using consumption practices to uplift their position in household; bring about new modes of social interface; and identity expression and a reversal in gender roles.

The conflation of women’s independence with consumerism underlines the need for marketers to position consumer goods in a manner that strengthens women’s self and alleviates cultural perceptions of women as subordinate to men in the household. Indian market has considerable growth potential for publicly visible brands that affirm the elevated social status of women and allow them to effectively demonstrate their capital resources.

An under-researched consumer segment is explored by focusing particularly on the intersection of discourses of women’s individuality with that of their consumption practices. Additionally, pioneering use of photo-elicitation technique coupled with hermeneutic approach enabled to elicit effectively women’s reflections on their behaviours, values and motivations underlying their consumption practices.

The purpose of this paper is to reconceptualize space as a field of struggles between multiple agents.

The author draws from field theory and uses visual methods to explain how graffiti shapes how neighborhoods are branded and aligned with creative city redevelopment plans.

By exploring space/place as field, the author moves beyond the structure/culture dichotomy to explain both place making and displacement.

The findings suggest gentrification is not an abstract force, but rather the outcome of struggles to define place and attract new, consuming populations to the neighborhood.

Sociologists share a long and rich tradition of associating opportunity with space that traces back to W.E.B. DuBois’ research on the seventh ward in The Philadelphia Negro (1899). More recently, sociologists have reified space and have attempted to distinguish place as an outcome of human experience. How space and place is reproduced remains unclear. This paper contributes toward the understanding of space, place-making and displacement.

The aims of this paper are to clarify empowerment as a construct, assess whether environmental and psychological empowerment differentially predicts job outcomes, and investigate the effects of transformation and transactional leadership on empowerment.

University students (n=197) rated leadership and empowerment in their workplaces and a number of job outcomes using an on‐line questionnaire.

Results supported the proposition that empowerment should be separated into its behavioral and psychological components. The dimensions of empowerment also differentially predicted job outcomes. In particular, environmental empowerment was better at predicting outcomes than was psychological empowerment. It was also found that transformational and transactional leadership predicted environmental empowerment more strongly than psychological empowerment.

Limitations include that the study was cross‐sectional, used a student sample, and a single common method for collecting the data. The primary implication for research is that empowerment should be separated into two constructs, environmental and psychological.

Practical implications include that environmental empowerment has more predictive power than does psychological empowerment on workplace outcomes and that leadership has a stronger impact on environmental than psychological empowerment.

This study is the first to call into question the way empowerment has been measured in prior studies and provides useful directions with which to pursue future research in this area.