An Empirical Study of Large-Sized Companies With Knowledge Work Teams and Their Impacts on Project Team Performance

Abstract:

This article contributes to how teams comprised mainly of knowledge workers influence project team performance. This article highlights the need to examine knowledge work and knowledge worker teams' impact on performance. Three large-sized companies were investigated through their projects, knowledge work, team environment, and team success. Results showed that the percentage of knowledge workers on a project team and project objectives had positive associations on performance. Exploratory analyses revealed that project team responsibility influenced knowledge worker project team performance as defined by projects schedule, cost, and scope.     

Configuring retroreflective markings to enhance the night-time conspicuity of road workers

This study investigated whether the night-time conspicuity of road workers can be enhanced by positioning retroreflective strips on the moveable joints in patterns that convey varying degrees of biological motion. Participants were 24 visually normal adults (12 young M = 26.8 years; 12 older M = 72.9 years). Visual acuity, contrast sensitivity and glare sensitivity were recorded for each participant. Experimenters acting as road workers walked in place on a closed road circuit within simulated road work sites, facing either the oncoming driver or the roadway (presenting sideways to the driver) and wearing one of four clothing conditions: (i) standard road worker vest; (ii) standard vest plus thigh-mounted retroreflective strips; (iii) standard vest plus retroreflective strips on ankles and knees; (iv) standard vest plus retroreflective strips positioned on the extremities in a configuration that conveyed biological motion (“biomotion”). As they drove along the closed road participants were instructed to press a button to indicate when they first recognized that a road worker was present. The results demonstrated that regardless of the direction of walking, road workers wearing biomotion clothing were recognized at significantly (p < 0.05) longer distances (3×), relative to the standard vest alone. Response distances were significantly shorter for the older drivers. Contrast sensitivity was a better predictor of the ability to recognize road workers than was visual acuity or glare sensitivity. We conclude that adding retroreflective strips in the biomotion configuration can significantly improve road worker conspicuity regardless of the road worker's orientation and the age of the driver.     

Workware decision support systems: A comprehensive methodological approach to work-scheduling problems

Around-the-clock continuous operations are expanding as global business activity, government de-regulation, flexible manufacturing and lean operation become more common. These developments often require night work, long work hours and/or irregular work schedules. As a result of these requirements, decisions about work schedule assignments are frequently made with little knowledge, information and/or warning. Some of the resulting work-scheduling practices undoubtedly increase operation and worker exposure to health and safety risks. To counter these work-scheduling problems, a comprehensive work schedules knowledge information system is outlined. Within this model, a Workware Warehouse is proposed as an Internet gateway where decision support systems are readily and freely available. This model suggests a new paradigm for work-scheduling ergonomics, one where designing, filling and maintaining a Workware Warehouse is the primary focus of the human factors professional.     

Labour force building in a rapidly expanding sector

Between 1991 and 2010, jobs in the knowledge-intensive IT services sector in Sweden increased from 30,000 to 104,000. Departing from recent theoretical insights suggesting that the skill composition of worker inflows is an indicator of knowledge relevant to employers, we investigate labour inflows into the sector. Who were the people getting jobs in this expanding sector? And, how were their skills valued by employers as the sector evolved? Our findings suggest that sectoral evolution was not reflected in how the skills of incoming workers were valued, but rather in who was hired into the sector. The paper suggests that the analysis of worker inflows is a tool for investigating the evolution of both sectors and their knowledge bases. It provides some lessons for industrial and educational policies regarding technologically turbulent industries, and takes the first step towards developing an approach that integrates industry dynamics with labour force sourcing and evolution.     

Continuance in online participation following the compromise of older adults’ identity information: a literature review

ABSTRACT

This paper presents findings from a literature review on older adults continued use of the Internet following an identity theft incident. Globally, identity theft is increasing, statistics show that the number of older adults falling victim to identity theft is growing. Victims of identity theft suffer emotional, physical, psychological, and social problems; many change their behaviour as a result. The aim of the review was to examine literature to determine what is known regarding how older adults use the Internet and/or modify their online behaviour following an identity theft event. It was found that knowledge is lacking regarding the impact that identity theft events have on older adults’ continuation of Internet use. Little research has been undertaken to understand the factors and interrelationships that contribute to the situation. The review highlights that a systems ergonomics approach should be considered as an appropriate framework to drive future research in this area.     

Line-seru conversion towards reducing worker(s) without increasing makespan: models,exact and meta-heuristic solutions

Compared with the traditional assembly line, seru production can reduce worker(s) and decrease makespan. However, when the two objectives are considered simultaneously, Pareto-optimal solutions may save manpower but increase makespan. Therefore, we formulate line-seru conversion towards reducing worker(s) without increasing makespan and develop exact and meta-heuristic algorithms for the different scale instances. Firstly, we analyse the distinct features of the model. Furthermore, according to the feature of the solution space, we propose two exact algorithms to solve the small to medium-scale instances. The first exact algorithm searches the solution space from more workers to fewer workers. The second exact algorithm searches the solution space from fewer workers to more workers. The two exact algorithms search a part of solution space to obtain the optimal solution of reducing worker(s) without increasing makespan. According to the variable length of the feasible solutions, we propose a variable-length encoding heuristic algorithm for the large-scale instances. Finally, we use the extensive experiments to evaluate the performance of the proposed algorithms and to investigate some managerial insights on when and how to reduce worker(s) without increasing makespan by line-seru conversion.     

A multidimensional classification method for finding the design rules of work groups

This paper suggests a new multidimensional classification method (CMDC-II), which is a method for finding the design rules of effective work groups by determining rational combinations of workers, tasks and supervisors. The CMDC-II is a new method for providing design rules from the viewpoint of design goal attainment. The features of our methodology are summarized as follows.

Technical, social and organizational factors are introduced as attributes of task, worker and supervisor.

Goals, criteria, standards and goal sets are integrated into a multidimensional space.

The design rules are found by the use of the CMDC-II.

The design is performed by determining an effective combination of task, worker and supervisor.     

The measurements of autonomy and technology for task svstems design

Numerous experiments in job enlargement, direct worker participation and autonomous workgroups have been reported. However, little cumulative knowledge has been gained through a lack of conceptual and theoretical bases. Moreover, worker autonomy and technology, the major variables in those experiments either were measured by questioning workers and supervisors and are consequently modified by their perception, or were measured in a very broad fashion.

In the present work more objective and specific measures for technology and autonomy, which can link job design research and experiments with job design practice, were developed and validated. Automony and technology are of course multidimensional concepts. Relevant aspects for job design are derived from a model for task related decision making which shows that the degree of worker autonomy is contingent on task technology and worker characteristics.

Technology is measured by cycle time, task repetitiveness, task skill level, disturbance level of a task and the disruption potential of a task system, through observation. A distinction is made between autonomy in regulation, which keeps the process on target by counteracting disturbances and autonomy in control which specifies targets. Measures for both types of autonomy are developed. The measures of technology and autonomy were tested in a sample consisting of 411 work stations in industry and proved to be effective and efficient for job design purposes.     

Scheduling to maximise worker satisfaction and on-time orders

Two important managerial objectives incorporated in production planning are the maximisation of the on-time delivery of orders and worker satisfaction. While the maximisation of on-time deliveries has frequently been considered in past production planning research, the component of maximising worker satisfaction has typically been ignored. The assignment of workers to their preferred jobs is an important factor since it results in a productive working environment with high worker performance and a low turnover rate. This study presents a job scheduling model that considers both criteria simultaneously and derives solution approaches to generate non-dominated solutions. The solution approaches are examined under various experimental conditions to evaluate their performance. Finally, a prototype tool developed as a proof of concept is presented.     

Differential impact of personality traits on distracted driving behaviors in teens and older adults

ObjectiveTo determine the impact of personality on distracted driving behaviors.MethodParticipants included 120 drivers (48 teens, 72 older adults) who completed the 45-item Big Five Personality questionnaire assessing self-reported personality factors and the Questionnaire Assessing Distracted Driving (QUADD) assessing the frequency of distracted driving behaviors. Associations for all five personality traits with each outcome (e.g., number of times texting on the phone, talking on the phone, and interacting with the phone while driving) were analyzed separately for teens and older adults using negative binomial or Poisson regressions that controlled for age, gender and education.ResultsIn teens, higher levels of openness and conscientiousness were predictive of greater reported texting frequency and interacting with a phone while driving, while lower levels of agreeableness was predictive of fewer reported instances of texting and interacting with a phone while driving. In older adults, greater extraversion was predictive of greater reported talking on and interacting with a phone while driving. Other personality factors were not significantly associated with distracted driving behaviors.ConclusionsPersonality traits may be important predictors of distracted driving behaviors, though specific traits associated with distracted driving may vary across age groups. The relationship between personality and distracted driving behaviors provides a unique opportunity to target drivers who are more likely to engage in distracted driving behavior, thereby increasing the effectiveness of educational campaigns and improving driving safety.     

A system of safety management practices and worker engagement for reducing and preventing accidents: An empirical and theoretical investigation

Objective

The overall research objective was to theoretically and empirically develop the ideas around a system of safety management practices (ten practices were elaborated), to test their relationship with objective safety statistics (such as accident rates), and to explore how these practices work to achieve positive safety results (accident prevention) through worker engagement.

Method

Data were collected using safety manager, supervisor and employee surveys designed to assess and link safety management system practices, employee perceptions resulting from existing practices, and safety performance outcomes.

Results

Results indicate the following: there is a significant negative relationship between the presence of ten individual safety management practices, as well as the composite of these practices, with accident rates; there is a significant negative relationship between the level of safety-focused worker emotional and cognitive engagement with accident rates; safety management systems and worker engagement levels can be used individually to predict accident rates; safety management systems can be used to predict worker engagement levels; and worker engagement levels act as mediators between the safety management system and safety performance outcomes (such as accident rates).

Implications

Even though the presence of safety management system practices is linked with incident reduction and may represent a necessary first-step in accident prevention, safety performance may also depend on mediation by safety-focused cognitive and emotional engagement by workers. Thus, when organizations invest in a safety management system approach to reducing/preventing accidents and improving safety performance, they should also be concerned about winning over the minds and hearts of their workers through human performance-based safety management systems designed to promote and enhance worker engagement.     

Predicting the chip flow for nose radius tools under oblique machining conditions

Abstract

A model is presented which predicts the chip flow direction for nose radius tools with inclination angles. Experimental verification was made in turning that cut on the bars. A comparison of the predicted and experimental results shows excellent agreement, and the results are consistent with previous findings of other workers. The usefulness of the present model is its capacity to predict the chip flow for a given general tool used with any combination of cutting conditions, without any prior knowledge of the work material properties or any machining tests required to determine an empirical formula.     

The importance of vocational education institutions in manufacturing regions: adding content to a broad definition of regional innovation systems

ABSTRACT

This paper explores the importance of vocational education institutions in regional innovation systems, and the role skilled workers have in implementing new technologies in manufacturing industries. The case study is founded on a broad conceptualisation of RISs, emphasising the importance of all relevant parts of the industrial and institutional system. We analyse the collaboration between industry actors and vocational education institutions in two Norwegian manufacturing regions. The analysis demonstrates how, in developing new education programmes tailored for contemporary and future manufacturing, vocational education institutions are essential for manufacturers’ competitiveness. The paper adds empirical content to the hitherto highly theoretical concept of broad RISs, emphasising the key role of skilled workers and engineering technicians when implementing new manufacturing technologies. Furthermore, we explain how the vocational education institutions and RISs are co-evolving with emerging technologies in terms of changed knowledge demands in the industry, prompting new education programmes in vocational education institutions.     

Why have fatality rates among older drivers declined? The relative contributions of changes in survivability and crash involvement

ObjectivesThis study examined the trend in fatality rates per vehicle miles traveled (VMT) among older drivers relative to middle-aged drivers and quantified the contributions of changes in crash involvement and survivability to this trend.MethodsUsing U.S. national databases, changes in driver deaths per crash involvement (marker of death risk when involved in a crash) and crash involvements per VMT (marker of crash risk) from 1995–1998 to 2005–2008 among older drivers aged 70 and over relative to changes among middle-aged drivers aged 35–54 were computed. The contributions of these components to the relative changes in older drivers’ fatality rates per VMT were calculated using the decomposition methodology.ResultsFatality rates per VMT declined more among older drivers than among middle-aged drivers over the study period. Relative to middle-aged drivers, drivers aged 75 and older experienced large declines in crash risk and modest declines in death risk. Relative declines in crash risk accounted for 68–74% of the larger decline in fatalities per VMT among drivers aged 75 and older compared with middle-aged drivers. Drivers aged 70–74 experienced modest relative declines in crash risk and death risk. Declines in death risk among drivers aged 75 and older relative to middle-aged drivers were much larger in side-impact crashes; improvements in crash survivability accounted for nearly half of the relative decline in fatality rates in these crashes. Relative survivability did not change significantly in frontal impacts. Higher death risk was more important than higher crash risk in explaining older drivers’ elevated fatality rates per VMT relative to middle-aged drivers during 1995–1998, and the contribution of heightened death risk was even greater during 2005–2008.ConclusionsMany factors may have reduced crash involvements among drivers 75 and older, including changes in travel patterns, health, and roadway design. In side impacts, side airbags and reduced passenger vehicle incompatibility may have improved survivability for older drivers. Because excess fragility now makes an even larger contribution to older drivers’ elevated fatality rates, future countermeasures that improve survivability can likely provide large benefits.     

企事业员工内在工作动机对完美主义和工作满意度的中介作用

探讨企事业员工的完美主义与工作满意度、内在工作动机的关系。用完美主义量表、明尼苏达满意度问卷和企事业员工内在工作动机量表对444员工进行了测验。结果发现:①管理人员的积极完美主义高于其他员工;②积极完美主义与工作满意度和内在工作动机的所有指标呈显著正相关,消极完美主义与绝大多数指标不相关;③内在工作动机对积极完美主义和工作满意度中起部分中介作用,但不同员工的中介模型存在差异。     

Effects of worker size on the dynamics of fire ant tunnel construction

Social insects work together to complete tasks. However, different individuals within a colony may vary in task proficiency. We investigated if fire ant (Solenopsis invicta) worker body size influenced the ability to construct tunnels—a key component of subterranean nests. We monitored excavation by worker groups in a substrate of small wetted glass particles in quasi-two-dimensional arenas. Morphological and network features of the tunnel system were measured. Total tunnel area did not differ significantly between groups of large and small workers, although the tunnel area of control sized workers was significantly larger than that of large workers. Moreover, large workers created wider but shorter tunnels, with slower growth rate of tunnel number. However, edge–vertex scaling and degree distribution of the tunnel network were similar across all treatments. In all cases, the amount of excavated material was correlated with the number of active workers. Our study reveals that morphological features of excavated tunnels show modest variation when constructed by workers of varying sizes, but topological features associated with the tunnel network are conserved. These results suggest that important behavioural aspects of tunnel construction—and thus nest building—are similar among morphologically distinct members of fire ant societies.     

Oculomotor behaviour as a reflection of attention and memory processes: Neural mechanisms and applications to human factors

The present paper provides a review of the current state of knowledge on the neuroanatomical circuits underlying different types of eye movements, including prosaccades, antisaccades and memory-driven saccades. This is accomplished through a review of human lesion, neuroimaging and psychophysical studies. Research which has focused on the explication of the role of attentional and memory processes in oculomotor control is also reviewed and discussed. Finally, it is suggested how this knowledge might be applied in the study of a variety of different issues of relevance to human factors including display design, workload assessment, training and selection.     

The acquisition of tacit knowledge in China: An empirical analysis of the ‘supplier-side individual level’ and ‘recipient-side’ factors

The

A Manager's Perspective on Employee Involvement in Manufacturing

ABSTRACT

This paper describes employee involvement (EI) tactics used in several Memphis-based manufacturing firms and uses contemporary academic and business writings to develop a theory-based rationale for them. Generic economic forces creating a need for greater EI are discussed, along with the relationship between workers' contributions and those forces.

Research is reviewed that links a firm's use of EI strategies with improved ROI. Lawler's method of classifying EI methods in terms of their movement of information, knowledge, power, and rewards to lower organization levels is discussed. It is shown that reported payoffs from EI increase in proportion to the transfer of Lawler's four key factors. EI programs requiring little transfer of the four factors seem to behave like short-term savings projects. More-complex programs have a potential to lower total manufacturing costs up to 35% or more over the long term.

Implementation of EI programs requires resources, time, and patience. Most applications need expert change management skills, perhaps from outside the organization. Extensive transfer of Lawler's four key factors within an organization requires team-work and peer interaction that may threaten managers and workers. For more advanced EI applications, cost-to-benefit relationships are currently unquantifiable, but the durability of EI programs suggests that justifying EI with a simple cost calculation is to ask the wrong question. The real payoff from EI is improved long-term competitive advantage.