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1 – 10 of 939Absence of Health and Safety (H&S) induction training can expose workers to construction hazards and risks. To protect workers, construction organisations provide site H&S…
Abstract
Purpose
Absence of Health and Safety (H&S) induction training can expose workers to construction hazards and risks. To protect workers, construction organisations provide site H&S induction training. This training is used in the construction industry to train workers on organisation, project and client H&S practices and rules. While researchers have recognised its role in creating worker awareness, developing H&S culture and influencing accident rate, but there has been little research. Furthermore, there lacks a review that identifies the research trends, research focus and future research directions on H&S induction training in the construction industry. This study aims to review literature on H&S induction training in the construction industry.
Design/methodology/approach
Scopus, Web of Science, Science Direct and Google Scholar databases were used to identify articles. Initial search produced a total of 278 papers and final analysis resulted in ten articles. Content analysis was applied.
Findings
The identified three contributions to knowledge: (a) identifies specific trajectory or development trends of H&S induction training in the construction industry (three research areas were identified, namely, impact of H&S induction training on H&S culture, impact of H&S induction training on accident rate and barriers affecting supervisor’s skills and ability to conducting H&S induction training), (b) suggestions have been given on the contribution of H&S induction training to H&S culture and (c) future research directions have been proposed. The review provides knowledge that the contribution of H&S induction training to H&S culture is influenced by skills, knowledge and experience of presenter, language used, content covered, mode of delivery, technological tools used, type of assessment and duration.
Research limitations/implications
The review is limited to studies related to H&S induction training in the construction industry. Other safety training studies and industries could have provided different findings. The review is limited to 2012 and 2022 and to ten articles.
Practical implications
Understanding the role of H&S induction training to worker behaviour, H&S culture and outcomes will improve H&S practices and standards within the construction industry. Construction organisations can consider the factors identified in this study to improve the effectiveness of H&S induction training.
Social implications
Understanding the contribution of H&S induction training to H&S culture may help to improve H&S culture.
Originality/value
The study has identified three main research areas and future research directions. It further revealed the factors that researchers, practitioners and policy makers can consider to improve the effectiveness of H&S induction training in the construction industry.
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Erica Gilbertson, Amy Murphy, Sonia Janis, Kathy Thompson and Michael Harris
The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this action research study was to design, implement and evaluate interventions that enhanced the induction program for new teachers in a P-12 school district. At the outset, we hoped the study would provide new teacher support resulting in improved teaching practices, increased job satisfaction and/or increased teacher retention among the target population. With this in mind, our research question was: What structures and supports from a school-university partnership facilitate capacity-building among university teacher education faculty, school and district leaders, mentor teachers, and new teachers in the context of an induction program?
Design/methodology/approach
This study used an intervention-centered mode of action research methodology that aims to make systems-level change. This type of action research intends to solve real organizational problems with a focus on conducting “research in action” rather than “research about action” (Coghlan and Brannick, 2014, pp. 5–6). This approach necessitates that data collection and analysis are iterative processes, occurring throughout the research process, instead of solely at the end stages of the research process. Our action research process used Coghlan and Brannick’s (2014) action research cycle model. The cyclical four-step process includes constructing (verifying the problem in the local context), planning action, taking action and evaluating action. Facilitated by the interim director of a Professional development schools (PDS) partnership in the Southeastern United States, a team of co-researchers which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators used action research methodology to create systemic change that enhanced the district’s induction program. We collected data through multiple qualitative methods, including surveys, focus groups, observations and interviews during the course of three action research cycles. These data and our theoretical framework (complex adaptive systems theory and social network theory) informed two major interventions that supported new teachers during the challenging first year of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
Findings
The interventions and the research process were mutually beneficial for both institutions and contributed to professional learning and growth at the individual, group and system levels. The three major findings described include: (1) engaging in collaborative action research is mutually beneficial for both schools and universities; (2) induction programs benefit from university resources; (3) learning communities build all educators’ professional capacity.
Research limitations/implications
Our research recommendations are: (1) more research is needed on the benefits of school-university partnerships to induction programs; (2) school-university partnerships should leverage action research to improve systems; (3) within school-university partnerships, the connection between collaborative leadership and sustainability requires further research. One limitation was that this study was conducted in a single school-university partnership context involving a large public university and a mid-sized public school district that had a well-established partnership. More induction-centered research is needed in different types of school-university partnership contexts that have varying levels of longevity and partnership structures.
Practical implications
Our recommendations for practice include (1) school-university partnerships should leverage collaborative learning communities to catalyze individual, group and systems-level learning and change, and (2) school-university partnerships must prioritize induction support to strengthen the teaching profession.
Originality/value
Since Hunt’s (2014) literature review on induction support in PDS partnerships, very few empirical studies have been conducted in this research area. This study, which examined induction support in a PDS partnership over a two-year period, makes a significant contribution to the scholarly literature on induction teacher support in school-university partnership contexts. Facilitated by the interim director of a PDS partnership, a team of co-researchers, which included three university teacher education faculty and four school district administrators, used action research methodology to create systems-level supports that enhanced the district’s induction program.
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The purpose of this paper is to explore how the graduate assistants (GAs) are inducted into the system and ethos of the institutions of higher education (IHE) in Eritrea. The…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore how the graduate assistants (GAs) are inducted into the system and ethos of the institutions of higher education (IHE) in Eritrea. The paper serves in the purpose of creating more conducive and supportive work environment in IHE facilitating the socialization of junior faculty members to the culture, standards and system of the institutions.
Design/methodology/approach
The research adhered a combined approach of quantitative and qualitative research methods. Data were gathered through a Likert scale questionnaire and in-depth interviews. The study was conducted in seven IHE involving 165 participants.
Findings
The GAs’ knowledge of job description, access to institutional information, sharing of resources, the quality of guidance and support provided, supervised teaching and feedback are discussed in detail. Results revealed that the GAs shoulder vital responsibilities but they receive poor induction at individual and institutional levels. GAs complain for lack of job description clarity and lack of transparent institutional communication at work. Holding first degree, GAs teach senior courses without any prior induction, pedagogic trainings and unsupervised. The GAs are recruited on the basis of the colleges’ long-term staff development plan, but little is done.
Practical implications
Despite their academic rank, the GAs represent 64 percent of the national academic staff (ADF, 2010). Creating conducive work atmosphere for the junior faculty members in the institutions is a long-term investment on institutional capacity building and quality assurance of the institutions’ performance.
Social implications
Induction of the newly recruited junior faculty members to the social, professional and the institutional ethos is a socialization process that would minimize the professional isolation and inefficiency of new recruits.
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The purpose of this paper is to describe a thriving partnership between Frostburg State University and the Garrett County Public Schools that aims to improve teacher effectiveness…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to describe a thriving partnership between Frostburg State University and the Garrett County Public Schools that aims to improve teacher effectiveness and retention through the implementation of a robust induction program. The initiative includes sustained, strategic mentoring; extensive professional development; and validated, competency-based microcredentials aligned to high-leverage practices.
Design/methodology/approach
The study included surveys and structured interviews with teaching fellows and their instructional coaches.
Findings
Having ample support and mentoring can make a significant difference for novice teachers. Partnerships between universities and local school districts can provide this critical support.
Research limitations/implications
A limitation that cannot be ignored is the small number of participants in this program, all of whom are teaching in a rural school system. However, researchers working with larger school districts would add valuable knowledge to the field of study.
Practical implications
This paper includes implications for designing new induction programs or improving existing ones.
Social implications
Mentoring, a major component of high-quality induction programs, has the potential of providing important benefits to beginning teachers including increased motivation, self-confidence, growth in professional identity, and reduced stress and anxiety.
Originality/value
As school systems are struggling to retain qualified teachers, high-quality induction programs are necessary.
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Roland Ryndzionek, Michal Michna, Filip Kutt, Grzegorz Kostro and Krzysztof Blecharz
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the performance of a new five-phase doubly fed induction generator (DFIG).
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to provide an analysis of the performance of a new five-phase doubly fed induction generator (DFIG).
Design/methodology/approach
This paper presents the results of a research work related to five-phase DFIG framing, including the development of an analytical model, FEM analysis as well as the results of laboratory tests of the prototype. The proposed behavioral level analytical model is based on the winding function approach. The developed DFIG model was used at the design stage to simulate the generator’s no-load and load state. Then, the results of the FEM analysis were shown and compared with the results of laboratory tests of selected DFIG operating states.
Findings
The paper provides the results of analytical and FEM simulation and measurement tests of the new five-phase dual-feed induction generator. The use of the MATLAB Simscape modeling language allows for easy and quick implementation of the model. Design assumptions and analytical model-based analysis have been verified using FEM analysis and measurements performed on the prototype. The results of the presented research validate the design process as well as show the five-phase winding design advantage over the three-phase solution regarding the control winding power quality.
Research limitations/implications
The main disadvantage of the winding function approach-based model development is the simplification regarding omitting the tangential airgap flux density component. However, this fault only applies to large airgap machines and is insignificant in induction machines. The results of the DFIG analyses were limited to the basic operating states of the generator, i.e. the no-load state, the inductive and resistive load.
Practical implications
The novel DFIG with five phase rotor control winding can operate as a regular three-phase machine in an electric power generation system and allows for improved control winding power quality of the proposed electrical energy generation system. This increase in power quality is due to the rotor control windings inverter-based PWM supply voltage, which operates with a wider per-phase supply voltage range than a three-phase system. This phenomenon was quantified using control winding current harmonic analysis.
Originality/value
The paper provides the results of analytical and FEM simulation and measurement tests of the new five-phase dual-feed induction generator.
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Mark E. Mendenhall, Frank C. Butler, Philip T. Roundy and Andrew F. Ehat
This paper aims to study the formation and preservation of behavioral integration (BI) in the top management team (TMT) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from…
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to study the formation and preservation of behavioral integration (BI) in the top management team (TMT) of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1844 to the present.
Design/methodology/approach
An analytically structured history approach within a case exemplar framework is adopted. Theoretical insights are extrapolated from the case study to form a process model of BI formation and preservation in TMTs.
Findings
The findings reveal that three factors primarily influence BI creation (induction, education and cementation) and that BI is preserved via an iterative process that is driven by CEO conservatorship, intentional mentoring and social modeling.
Originality/value
This study investigates an unexplored area in upper echelons theory: the process by which BI is formed and preserved in TMTs and presents a process model of BI formation and preservation that shifts attention in the literature from analyses of the effect of BI on various organizational outcomes to how it can be formed in the first place and then preserved.
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Jenny Ahlberg, Sven-Olof Yrjö Collin, Elin Smith and Timur Uman
The purpose of this paper is to explore board functions and their location in family firms.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to explore board functions and their location in family firms.
Design/methodology/approach
Through structured induction in a four-case study of medium-sized Swedish family firms, the authors demonstrate that board functions can be located in other arenas than in the common board and suggest propositions that explain their distribution.
Findings
(1) The board is but one of several arenas where board functions are performed. (2) The functions performed by the board vary in type and emphasis. (3) The non-family directors in a family firm serve the owners, even sometimes governing them, in what the authors term “bidirectional governance”. (4) The kin strategy of the family influences their governance. (5) The utilization of a board for governance stems from the family (together with its constitution, kin strategy and governance strategy), the board composition and the business conditions of the firm.
Research limitations/implications
Being a case study the findings are restricted to concepts and theoretical propositions. Using structured induction, the study is not solely inductive but still contains the subjectivity of induction.
Practical implications
Governance agents should have an instrumental view on the board, considering it one possible governance arena among others, thereby economizing on governance.
Social implications
The institutional pressure toward active boards could paradoxically reduce the importance of the board in family firms.
Originality/value
The board of a family company differs in its emphasis of board functions and these functions are performed with varying emphases in different governance arenas. The authors propose the concept of kin strategy, which refers to the governance importance of the structure of the owner and observations on bi-directional governance, indicating that the board can govern the owners.
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Ghoulemallah Boukhalfa, Sebti Belkacem, Abdesselem Chikhi and Said Benaggoune
This paper presents the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in conjuction with the fuzzy logic method in order to achieve an optimized tuning of a proportional integral…
Abstract
This paper presents the particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithm in conjuction with the fuzzy logic method in order to achieve an optimized tuning of a proportional integral derivative controller (PID) in the DTC control loops of dual star induction motor (DSIM). The fuzzy controller is insensitive to parametric variations, however, with the PSO-based optimization approach we obtain a judicious choice of the gains to make the system more robust. According to Matlab simulation, the results demonstrate that the hybrid DTC of DSIM improves the speed loop response, ensures the system stability, reduces the steady state error and enhances the rising time. Moreover, with this controller, the disturbances do not affect the motor performances.
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