Uncertainty management in enroute air traffic control: a field study exploring controller strategies and requirements for automation

The management of uncertainty is a critical aspect of current as well as future air traffic control operations. This study investigated: (1) sources of uncertainty in enroute air traffic control, (2) strategies that air traffic controllers adopt to cope with uncertainty, (3) the trade-offs and contingencies that influences the adoption of these uncertainties, and (4) the requirements for system design that support controllers in following these strategies. The data were collected using a field study in two enroute air traffic control centres, involving “over the shoulder” observation sessions, discussions with air traffic controllers, and document analysis. Three types of uncertainty coping strategies were identified: reducing uncertainty, acknowledging uncertainty, and increasing uncertainty. The RAWFS heuristic (Lipshitz and Strauss in Organ Behav Hum Decis Process 69:149–163, 1997) and anticipatory thinking (Klein et al. in Anticipatory thinking, Proceedings of the eighth international NDM conference, Pacific Grove, CA, 2007) were used to identify reduction and acknowledgement strategies. Recent suggestions by Grote (Saf Sci 71:71–79, 2015) were used to further explore strategies that increase uncertainty. The study presents a new framework for the classification of uncertainties in enroute air traffic control and identified the uncertainty management strategies and underlying tactics, in context of contingencies and trade-offs between operational goals. The results showed that controllers, in addition to reducing and acknowledging uncertainty, may deliberately increase uncertainty in order to increase flexibility for other actors in the system to meet their operational goals. The study describes new tactics for acknowledging and increasing uncertainty. The findings were summarized in the air traffic controller complexity and uncertainty management model. Additionally, the results bring to light system design recommendations that allow controllers to follow these different coping strategies, including (1) the design of alerts, (2) the transparency of prediction tools, and (3) system flexibility as a requirement for acknowledging and increasing uncertainty. The results are particularly important as uncertainty is likely to increase in future operations of enroute air traffic control, requiring automation support for controllers. Implications for future air traffic management scenarios as envisioned within the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SESAR JU in European ATM Master Plan, 2 eds, 2012) and NextGen (FAA in FAA’s NextGen implementation plan, 2014) operational concepts are discussed.     

Enterprise systems and demand chain management: a cross-sectional field study

Increased product variety, compressed cycle times, supply chain network based competition and the uncertainty in business environment are forcing organizations to shift their emphasis towards demand chain management. Though enterprise systems and supply chain management software solutions are well in place in most of the large enterprises in Australia, their ability to support demand chain management approach is not yet known. This paper investigates the adoption of demand chain management in Australian organizations using cross-sectional qualitative field study. It found that the adoption is limited despite the organizational capabilities and sound digital platforms. Standardization, integration, visibility and control of processes and information, enabled by enterprise systems, are helping the organizations in improving their ability to sense and shape market demand and customer needs, and build agility into their decision making processes. Attempts to synchronise operating and finance cycles and collecting market intelligence and sharing of that across the supply chain are some of the initiatives that have started showing benefits. Adopting the demand chain management initiatives such as establishment of market intelligence mechanism, building agility into decision making processes, sophisticated usage of optimization tools embedded in software solutions, and process frameworks such as Supply Chain Operations Reference are helping organizations to achieve both agility and control simultaneously.     

Evaluating the generalizability of the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework: a hospital bed management case study

Cognitive Work Analysis (CWA) provides useful tools for analyzing and modeling work constraints that can inform the development of systems design requirements. However, it does not provide effective tools for analyzing and modeling organizational constraints that can inform the development of organizational design requirements. By integrating organizational theories with the CWA approach, we developed the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework, a formative approach to the analysis, modeling, and design of the organization of work. In this paper, we test the generalizability of the framework by using its two analytical templates—the Organizational Constraints model and Work Possibilities diagram—to analyze the hospital bed management work domain. The research findings suggest that the concepts, investigative probes, and notations from the analytical templates can be applied to complex work domains beyond those in which it was initially developed. We conclude with suggestions for how the Organizational Constraints Analysis framework can complement CWA methods by helping researchers and practitioners develop a broader organizational perspective on the constraints that drive how work can be done in organizations.     

The organisational learning effects of management accounting information under advanced manufacturing technology

This study empirically examined the organisational learning effects of the nonfinancial performance information provided by management accounting information systems (MAISs) under advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). In this study, a target costing system and the frequent and quick reporting of information were considered the facilitators of learning. First, we examined the relationships between AMT level and the amount of nonfinancial performance information produced by MAISs. The empirical results showed that there are significant positive relationships between the level of AMT and nonfinancial performance information. With a systems approach, we also proved the impact of the relationships among AMT levels, nonfinancial performance information and learning facilitators on the organisational performance of a firm. The results of our research suggest that under a high level of AMT, for the provision of information to result in an increase of performance through organisational learning, a target costing system must be introduced and a large amount of information should be provided frequently and quickly. The results of this study also showed that although AMT level may be low, fairly well-arranged facilitators and a moderately large amount of information may be necessary for the improvement of performance. In conclusion, effective organisational learning depends on the provision of relevant information as well as efficient learning support mechanisms.     

High-performing organizations match technology and management strategies: Results of a survey

Simultaneous engineering involves, in part, the design of processes. For many companies today, processes being designed often include some form of advanced manufacturing technology (AMT). An engineering decision often made during a simultaneous design process is whether to create stand-alone islands versus an integrated process. The implication of that decision on management practices has been speculated about at length and examined using individual case studies. In this article, a quantitative survey of companies is described to address the question: Is there an empirically supported relationship between degree of technical integration and types of management practices that is tied to plant performance? Survey data indicated that plants with integrated ATM adopted different management practices than plants with non-integrated AMT, and that adoption of these different practices was correlated with plant performance. For simultaneous engineering, then, these results suggest that when designing a production process, consideration must be given to the management practices implied by technical choices made, since different management practices are needed for different technical choices if plant performance is to be fostered.

Relevance to industry

Engineers designing the degree of electronic or mechanical integration between machines will need to take into account that degree of integration creates different demands on management practices and that if these practices are not implemented when the integration is implemented, the organization will not succeed. The different management practices needed for significant versus little integration are described.     

Formulating strategies for stakeholder management: a case-based reasoning approach

The management of competing stakeholders has emerged as an important weapon for strategic management. Typically, reactive, defensive, accommodative, or proactive (RDAP) strategies have been employed for getting into the world of stakeholders. This paper proposes a methodology for formulating strategies for stakeholder management by the use of these RDAP strategies. Our methodology consists of four phases: stakeholder analysis, strategy retrieval, strategy revision, and strategy implementation. Strategies are derived on the basis of similar cases stored in case bases. A system called the stakeholder management strategy support system (SMSS) is implemented to put our methodology to work. In order to demonstrate the practical usefulness of this system, Korean Healthcare IT (Information Technology) industry is illustrated. This illustration implies that our methodology is useful, especially in view of dynamic nature of business and its stakeholders. Our methodology will be able to help any business leader create value while navigating a multi-stakeholder environment.     

Proactive management of distributed organisational computing: Prevention always pays, doesn't it?

Organisations have eagerly adopted the new opportunities provided by distributed computing technology. These opportunities have also created new dependency on the technology and threats of technical problems. Information technology (IT) management has to choose its position towards these new technical risks. Should the problems be prevented proactively in advance or settled reactively afterwards? This paper draws conclusions from an action research case study aimed at proactive versus reactive end-user support. Between 1994 and 1997 one of the business units in Nokia Telecommunications required a new approach for its distributed information systems (IS) to facilitate rapid organisational growth. The distributed IS and its end-user support were established and organised during a 30-month re-engineering process. These results provide a new view to the dependencies between business processes and IT. The new distributed IT has become, often insidiously, a necessity for vital business processes. Therefore, risk management should be adopted as a standard tool for IS management to identify such dependencies. Proactive actions should be aimed at those areas where IT-related business risks are identified. Proactivity should be supplemented by reactive support to provide daily assistance for the end-users.     

跨网段ARP欺骗的原理及防治策略的研究

ARP协议主要实现了网络层地址到数据链路层地址的动态映射,由于ARP协议具有无序性、无确认性、动态性、无安全机制等特性,ARP欺骗攻击成了局域网中一种常见的攻击现象.在深入研究ICMP重新定向原理的基础上,通过一个实例解释了跨网段ARP欺骗原理和具体实现过程,并给出了具体的检测与防范方法.     

Using Hollywood's greatest film scenes to illustrate concepts of organisational behaviour and management

Great film moments achieve a life of their own. They seem to hang around in the viewer's subconscious mind begging for clarification or, if nothing else, classification. The author proposes using these moments or ‘greatest film scenes’ for the purpose of illustrating concepts of organisational behaviour and management. A chart is derived that enumerates the top 10 greatest film scenes, associates a relevant management concept or concepts to that scene and then provides a series of citations relevant to the concept. The citations are provided for the purpose of enabling further research.     

The influence of controllable task-lighting on productivity: a field study in a factory

This study examines whether or not a controllable task-lighting system that allows people to select high lighting levels will enhance productivity under real working conditions. For a period of 16 months a study was carried out in a luminaire factory in Finland in which such a task-lighting system was installed above 10 individual workstations. The illuminances selected by the users were recorded and productivity was monitored. Enhancing productivity can be relevant in industrial processes. The increase of productivity for the test group was +4.5% compared to a reference group, and statistically significant. The mechanism for this increase can be improved visual performance, biological effects of light, or psychological effects. Different dimming speeds were used to see whether the subjects' choices were based on illuminance or on the response of the control system. Decreasing the dimming speed of the system decreased the illuminance chosen by 13%. However, at slower dimming speeds the subjects took 55% longer to reach a given level, which suggests that they were aiming to set the lighting to their preferred level and not just pushing the button for a certain time.     

Using Hollywood's greatest film scenes to illustrate concepts of organisational behaviour and management

Great film moments achieve a life of their own. They seem to hang around in the viewer's subconscious mind begging for clarification or, if nothing else, classification. The author proposes using these moments or 'greatest film scenes' for the purpose of illustrating concepts of organisational behaviour and management. A chart is derived that enumerates the top 10 greatest film scenes, associates a relevant management concept or concepts to that scene and then provides a series of citations relevant to the concept. The citations are provided for the purpose of enabling further research.     

基于WLAN的安全管理需求与安全管理策略

无线局域网(WLAN)摆脱了传统的繁琐综合布线设置,其简易与方便更是被多数单位内部所广泛使用,解决WLAN的安全保密问题就显得尤为突出,针对WLAN安全管理需求问题进行研究和分析,提出了解决WLAN安全管理问题的方法和策略.     

Multi field modeling of a microelectromechanical speaker system with electrostatic driving principle

The need for computer modeling tools capable of precisely simulating multi-field interactions is increasing. The accurate modeling of an electrostatically actuated Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems speaker results in a system of coupled partial differential equations (PDEs), describing the interactions between electrostatic, mechanical and acoustic fields. A finite element (FE) method is applied to solve the PDEs efficiently and accurately. In the first part of this paper, we present the driving technology of an electrostatic actuated Micro-Electro-Mechanical-Systems speaker, where the electrostatic mechanical coupling is realized with reduced order electro mechanical transducer elements. The electrostatic attracting force is derived from the capacity to gap relation of our device. In a second investigation, we focus on generation of the generated sound including open domain characteristics and propagation region optimization. The sound pressure level is computed with Kirchhoff Helmholtz integral as well as with FEM by using CFS++. We use the Kirchhoff Helmholtz model to characterize the interactions of multiple speaker cells in arrays and the FE tool for single speaker cell investigations. At the acoustic FE model, the focus is on mesh generation and optimization of the propagation region using non-conforming grids (Mortar FEM) and in addition at the boundary region to model open domain characteristics. We apply a recently developed perfectly matched layer technique, which allows us to truncate the acoustic propagation domain with open domain characteristics. Finally, we present an optimization method taking advantage of stress induced self-raising realized with various merged layers with different intrinsic pre-stress. The buckling back plate concept can be compared to bimetal characteristics.     

The dynamics of culture, organisational culture and change

The interface between cultural anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, cultural psychology and indigenous psychology provides a rich context for examining recent developments within the field of organisational culture, both from a societal (national) and a cross-cultural perspective. It is argued in this paper that cultural patterns in society impact deeply on cultural patterns in organisations. In other words, organisational culture reflects the way in which the societal context shapes the organisational context, which in turn moulds the beliefs, attitudes and behaviour of its members — individuals and groups. It is further posited that organisational cultural and societal culture recursively mirror one another. The complexity of the interdependence between societal culture and organisational culture will be traced, drawing on the evolving nature of the construct culture within the traditions of anthropology, cross-cultural psychology, indigenous psychology and organisational psychology. The hidden source of cultural elements embedded in the organisational domain will be examined from the perspective of an appreciation of diversity and a recognition of the need to support and encourage the variations that add to our creativity as well astosystem/organisational effectiveness.     

The discrete-time maximum principle : a survey and some new results

In this paper we present a review of the development of the discrete maximum principle. In the presentation, the emphasis is on a geometrical interpretation. The crucial assumptions in the theory developed are pointed out, and the attempts to overcome the limitation in the resulting theorems ore exposed. Following the review, we present a new approach to optimization of the multi-stage optimization problems called the ’ upper boundary approach ’. The classical methods of solving this problem are shown to fit smoothly into the new approach. Moreover, using this approach a number of new results have been developed, among these a new generalized version of the discrete maximum principle. The new version does not require the assumption of directional convexity.     

School knowledge management framework and strategies: The new perspective on teacher professional development

During the epoch of knowledge-based economy and knowledge management, teachers must learn in order to improve professional development. The paper discusses on the problems of teacher professional development in China, and analyze on the relationship among teacher learning, teacher professional development and school knowledge management. From the perspective of schools, this study develops school knowledge management framework to facilitate teacher learning and improve teacher professional development, in the basis of this framework, schools’ knowledge management strategies are presented, and provide references for administrators of schools. The result reveals the knowledge management strategies to improve teacher professional development, including school organizational reforger and knowledge leaders, constructing learning school and organization learning culture, establishing teacher knowledge management system of teacher professional development, encouraging team learning, teaching cooperation and knowledge sharing, establishing performance assessment mechanism of knowledge applications and development.     

Pricing strategies in online book industry: a comparative study

In this paper, we examine pricing strategies in the U.S. online book industry over two time periods, with an aim to understand whether and how the driving factors of price dispersion change over time. Our empirical results show that dispersion in prices has remained substantial over the period of 2001–2006, but the driving factors of these variations in price have evolved. In 2001 online book retailers generally engaged in obfuscation, frustrating consumer search by manipulating shipping options. As documented by prior literature and revealed in our 2001 data, higher prices charged by retailers were positively related with longer shipping time. This strategy has been abandoned, as shown by our results of a 2006 sample. Online retailers are now competing to ship items quicker than rivals and to pass fewer or no shipping costs on to consumers. The impact of trust assurance seals (e.g., seals of online security and privacy) on price has materialized over the period of 2001–2006. This is because as more consumers become security conscious, the effects of assurance seals on the price becomes better recognized. Moreover, although retailers are roughly clustered into three cohorts, they strategize prices across different product items within each cohort.     

Population coding and decoding in a neural field: a computational study

This study uses a neural field model to investigate computational aspects of population coding and decoding when the stimulus is a single variable. A general prototype model for the encoding process is proposed, in which neural responses are correlated, with strength specified by a gaussian function of their difference in preferred stimuli. Based on the model, we study the effect of correlation on the Fisher information, compare the performances of three decoding methods that differ in the amount of encoding information being used, and investigate the implementation of the three methods by using a recurrent network. This study not only rediscovers main results in existing literatures in a unified way, but also reveals important new features, especially when the neural correlation is strong. As the neural correlation of firing becomes larger, the Fisher information decreases drastically. We confirm that as the width of correlation increases, the Fisher information saturates and no longer increases in proportion to the number of neurons. However, we prove that as the width increases further--wider than (sqrt)2 times the effective width of the turning function--the Fisher information increases again, and it increases without limit in proportion to the number of neurons. Furthermore, we clarify the asymptotic efficiency of the maximum likelihood inference (MLI) type of decoding methods for correlated neural signals. It shows that when the correlation covers a nonlocal range of population (excepting the uniform correlation and when the noise is extremely small), the MLI type of method, whose decoding error satisfies the Cauchy-type distribution, is not asymptotically efficient. This implies that the variance is no longer adequate to measure decoding accuracy.