Search results

During low altitude airdrop operations, the heavy cargo moving inside and the sudden dropping out exert serious threats on the aircraft safety and mission performance. This paper aims to propose an efficient flight control method for the airdrop operations.

A novel controller which combines feedback linearization with nonlinear integral sliding mode control is proposed. The aircraft airdrop model is decoupled and linearized by using the feedback linearization technique. On this basis, an integral sliding mode controller is designed to stabilize the speed and pitch attitude of the aircraft. In the sliding manifold, one class of nonlinear functions with the property of “smaller errors correspond to bigger gains and bigger errors correspond to saturated gains” is introduced to form the integral term; thus, the overcompensation of the integral term to big errors is omitted, and the dynamic response performance is improved. Lyapunov-based stability analysis shows that the controller could completely reject model uncertainties by choosing proper controller parameters.

The flight control system with strong robustness could meet the low altitude airdrop indexes in the maximum weight cargo airdrop task.

This paper fulfils an urgent need to study how to control the aircraft to guarantee mission performance and flight safety during the low altitude airdrop operations.

Silencing behavior among project team members (PTM) poses a potential threat to project results. Hence, breaking silence in projects is critical to motivate team members and beneficial for project outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between transformational leadership (TL) of project manager (PM) and silence behavior of PTMs. It proposes a mediating role of feeling trusted (FT) to fill this gap by conducting an empirical research.

A theoretical model was developed and a series of hypotheses were proposed based on existing literature. Then, regression analysis was conducted on a sample of 219 team members of a diverse set of projects in China.

The paper empirically shows that TL of PM is significantly negatively related to team members’ defensive and prosocial silence (PS), but not with their acquiescence silence. In addition, the study also discovered that team members’ FT mediates the effects of TL on team members’ defensive and PS.

This study contributed to the project management literature by showing that feeling trusted link the relationship between TL of PM and PTMs’ silence. The studies’ findings also contribute to the silence theory in project context through discussions of the rationale behind the main effects. Practical implication is provided for PMs that making the most of TL can reduce the silence of PTM, through building trusted feelings. The limitation to this study is the research setting regarding culture-related issues that focused only on projects in China.

This research is one of the early studies that address the issue of silence behavior in project context, which is a contribution to the coordination and communication in project management.

The present study investigated how different factors interact and work in concert to influence construction professionals’ burnout (hereafter CPs’ burnout) in China.

A sequential mixed-method approach was chosen for this research. Twenty-two interviews were conducted and analysed, and we identified ten influencing factors associated with CPs’ burnout. Subsequently, a sample of 232 questionnaires was analysed using fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis (fsQCA) to ascertain the eight configurations of CPs’ high and low burnout.

The key findings include the following: first, perceived workload, role ambiguity, role conflict, emotional demand, work-home interference, relationships with supervisors, autonomy, fairness of rewards, support from project team and self-efficacy are the ten factors influencing CPs’ burnout; second, experienced and less experienced construction professionals take different paths towards high or low burnout; and third, among construction professionals, perceived workload and burnout are not necessarily correlated. We found that autonomy plays a crucial role in this process.

This is one of the first studies to adopt a configurational approach for understanding influencing factors of CPs’ burnout. The strength of the present study is its sequential mixed-method approach, which forms a loop between the qualitative and quantitative studies.

The complexity caused by conflicting values of stakeholders is a critical issue influencing the performance and sustainability of stock public–private partnership (SPPP) projects, which is a special type of public–private partnership (PPP) project in China. The purpose of this paper is to focus on value conflicts between local government and private sector, which are two major stakeholders in SPPP projects, and investigate exchange rules to resolve value conflicts.

Using a mixed method approach, 55 semi-structured interviews were conducted for 15 stakeholders involved in a representative SPPP project. Social network analysis was then adopted to outline the value conflict network based on data drawn from focus group discussions. Finally, 24 value conflicts between local government and private sector were analyzed through another 13 semi-structured interviews in an abductive approach.

Results show that value conflicts between local government and private sector are dynamic and intertwined within and across three project phases, based on which six exchange rules, rationality, Altruism, power consistency, competition, group gain and reciprocity, are identified. Two sets of situational factors which potentially influence exchange rules adopted by the two parties are revealed, namely, urgency and professionality for local government and short-term interests and long-term interests for private sector. A summary of paired exchange rules is provided to predict if value conflicts between the two major stakeholders will be resolved or not.

Theoretical implications are twofold. First, the results provide a contribution to PPP project management by investigating value conflicts between local government and private sector, which deepen the understanding on the unique characteristics of SPPP projects. Second, the findings contribute to a comprehensive understanding of social exchange theory by suggesting a summary of condition-based and pair-based exchange rules.

One strength of the study is in the concentrated analysis of a single case which allows for a deep understanding of value complexity between local government and private sector in SPPP projects from a dynamic and networked perspective. A guideline is provided for both parties when a value conflict is found hard to resolve. Besides, this study is also among the first that addresses value issues in SPPP projects.

This paper aims to explore the ways to solve the dilemma of balancing between efficiency and flexibility in project-oriented organizations (POOs). It investigates the characteristic of the relationship between efficiency and flexibility in the context of POOs. Based on the framework of organizational design, this study tries to open the “black box” of how POOs make a balance between efficiency and flexibility, and examines the influence of organizational design in this process.

This study is a comparative multiple case study based on four project-oriented enterprises, whose relationships between efficiency and flexibility are diverse from one another. It follows the process of building theory from case study, applying within-case and cross-case analysis and replication logic in shaping hypotheses.

The results show that the relationship between efficiency and flexibility in POOs can be divided into four different situations. The contradictory factors are identified as functional structure and project structure, standardized process and temporary plan, as well as strategic-level centralization and project-level decentralization. It is found that the key to achieve a balance between efficiency and flexibility is to coordinate the relationship of contradictory factors through the effective integration of organizational level and project level.

This study introduces the framework of organizational design in solving the dilemma of balancing between efficiency and flexibility, responding to the call for developing the project management theory from a strategic perspective. It provides theoretical support for POOs to achieve balancing between efficiency and flexibility, and suggests an effective synergy of organizational design in both organizational and project level.