2,452 research outputs found

    Interactive Concept Acquisition for Embodied Artificial Agents

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    An important capacity that is still lacking in intelligent systems such as robots, is the ability to use concepts in a human-like manner. Indeed, the use of concepts has been recognised as being fundamental to a wide range of cognitive skills, including classification, reasoning and memory. Intricately intertwined with language, concepts are at the core of human cognition; but despite a large body or research, their functioning is as of yet not well understood. Nevertheless it remains clear that if intelligent systems are to achieve a level of cognition comparable to humans, they will have to posses the ability to deal with the fundamental role that concepts play in cognition. A promising manner in which conceptual knowledge can be acquired by an intelligent system is through ongoing, incremental development. In this view, a system is situated in the world and gradually acquires skills and knowledge through interaction with its social and physical environment. Important in this regard is the notion that cognition is embodied. As such, both the physical body and the environment shape the manner in which cognition, including the learning and use of concepts, operates. Through active partaking in the interaction, an intelligent system might influence its learning experience as to be more effective. This work presents experiments which illustrate how these notions of interaction and embodiment can influence the learning process of artificial systems. It shows how an artificial agent can benefit from interactive learning. Rather than passively absorbing knowledge, the system actively partakes in its learning experience, yielding improved learning. Next, the influence of embodiment on perception is further explored in a case study concerning colour perception, which results in an alternative explanation for the question of why human colour experience is very similar amongst individuals despite physiological differences. Finally experiments, in which an artificial agent is embodied in a novel robot that is tailored for human-robot interaction, illustrate how active strategies are also beneficial in an HRI setting in which the robot learns from a human teacher

    Editor’s note/Guest editorial

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    The role of communication in managing the safety climate of construction site environments

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    Managers in the construction sector are met with a critical charge: they are responsible for the safety of employees in one of the most notoriously dangerous industries in the world. In terms of managing the safety climate of construction site environments, no recommendations have been made in literature that truly elucidate the role of organisational communication therein. The aim of this research is to fill this void by enriching the seminal work of Mohamed (2002) which focusses in on the nature of safety climate in construction organisations, and the factors it comprises of. To this end, the research comprises a data-triangulated qualitative and quantitative empirical study undertaken at nine different construction sites in South Africa, which allowed for the reformulation of the model for safety climate management in construction environments, with an added understanding of the role of communication therein. In this, findings indicated that communication is conducive to a positive safety climate when it is managed to be strategic, holistic, relational and symmetrical. The model put forward in this article offers an empirical application of the four identified constructs of communication, which gives way to data-driven recommendations for use in construction organisation settings

    National culture and organizational behavior: Why Fanakalo in the South African mining industry is a bone of contention

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    The subject area of organizational behavior offers up an important body of literature which focusses in on the influence of national culture on individuals functioning within global organizations. The central premise of this body of literature is that national culture has a direct and unwavering influence on the ways in which organizations are managed, and individuals within those organizations behave. Although not refuting this contention, this paper works to unpick two of its inherent baseline assumptions in pointing to the fact that it should not be taken for granted that national cultures are static, or superior to industry and organizational cultures. This is done by exploring the phenomenon of Fanakalo as organizational cultural element within the South African mining industry empirically, by means of in-depth interviews, as qualitatively categorized according to the GLOBE (Global Leadership and Organizational Behavior Effectiveness) cultural dimensions. The findings of the paper work to conclude that national culture should be seen as a dynamic, ever-changing aspect, which is not always the dominant influence vis-à-vis organizational and industry culture

    Decolonising Marketing: Five Fundamental Decisions for Customer Engagement

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    Purpose – This article aims to offer practical, data-led guidance for the decolonisation of marketing strategy, especially as it relates to customer engagement. It does so with an acute understanding of the constraints of brand legitimacy. Design/methodology/approach – The findings of this article are informed both by a conceptual unpacking of institutional, decolonisation and customer engagement literature, as well as an empirical methodology that presents an embedded single case study of a top-ranking banking brand, utilising in-depth qualitative interviews as well as content analyses of brand communications. Findings – The article examines the notion of institutional brand legitimacy alongside the decolonisation of customer engagement. It offers five empirically driven decisions that marketers must consider when they attempt to decolonise their customer engagement strategies. These revolve around a decolonised bottom-up approach; establishing new biases for customer insights; the management of opposing forces; being strategically transformative, and going beyond diversity. Research limitations/implications – A single brand case study is offered that utilises a relatively small sample of interviewees, and does not include customers of the brand. Further research is therefore needed to reflect other organisational contexts and stakeholders. Just so, the article specifically looks at the ways in which decolonisation and institutional legitimacy intersect for customer engagement. Further studies that focus on other organisational concepts impacted by decolonisation would be thought-provoking. Originality/value – To the best of the author’s knowledge, this is the first empirical investigation that offers practical guidance for the decolonisation of marketing strategies – as it relates to customer engagement or any other facets of marketing

    High-pressure Debye-Waller and Grueneisen parameters of Au and Cu

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    The lattice vibrations are determined in the quasi-harmonic approximation for elemental Au and Cu to twice their normal density by first-principles electronic band-structure calculations. It is found for these materials that the important moments of the phonon density of states can be obtained to high accuracy from short-ranged force constant models. We discuss the implications for the Grueneisen parameters on the basis of calculated phonon moments and their approximations by using bulk moduli and Debye-Waller factors.Comment: 4 pages, 2 figures to appear in the proceedings of the 13th APS Topical Conference on Shock Compression of Condensed Matter (scheduled for April 2004

    A new publishing platform and model for JEMDSA

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    The proof is in the pudding: (Re)considering the excellence of activism in the South African mining industry

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    One of the greatest changes organisations in South Africa experienced through the country’s democratisation is the introduction of ‘legitimate’ activism in organisational settings. Organisational communication literature – specifically as manifest in the excellence theory – compounded this through views on the potentially positive impact activism could have on organisations by ‘pushing’ them beyond equilibrium to a state of dynamic equilibrium – mediated through strategic and effectual communication. This view, however, is somewhat fouled by occurrences such as those at Marikana, and concomitant strikes in the country’s platinum industry, which have held the economy ‘captive’ in various ways. Organisations – especially the mining industry – need to ask ‘How much activism is too much activism?’ and organisational communication practitioners need to introspectively consider whether this theoretical contribution should not perhaps have come with greater guidance in terms of the chary (if not restrained) implementation of this potentially positive, yet almost insidiously dangerous, communicative feature. This article aims to explore activism in the mining industry of South Africa, specifically from the vantage points of industry heads, as it concerns the changed communicative landscape in this industry post-Marikana. To this end, the article will report on seven qualitative, semi-structured interviews – along with existing literature on the topic – as it offers up six considerations in applying the aspect of excellence and ‘positive activism’ within organisations in South Africa’s mining industry

    Managing Contestation in Organizational Culture: Lessons Learned from the South African Mining Pidgin Fanagalo

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    This article scrutinizes the idea of organizational culture being built only on that which is shared by members of an organization. In contexts of acute diversity, contestation should be expected as organization-wide shared meaning is not always attainable. A collective contestation around the elements of an organization’s culture can be just as much a feature of culture as shared meaning is. To unpack this stance, this article uses the case of Fanagalo—an industrial pidgin of the mining industry of South Africa—as contested organizational culture element. By means of in-depth qualitative interviews, the article bolsters discussions in organizational culture literature by offering four specific issues to consider when managing contestation in diverse contexts. These issues revolve around the locus of power in organizational culture; the focus of management strategies; using cultural elements as levers for change; and the continued nature of collective contestation
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