Work rhythm, flow and success in a project : a case study research

Organisations and individuals are shaped and influenced by their environment and interaction with others in a conscious or unconscious manner. Due to increased competitiveness, organisations need to be aware of elements in their environment and how these can affect operations and outcomes. Rhythms in organisations and the employee’s work rhythms are considered to influence flow and the achieved level of success in organisations. This thesis aims to investigate factors setting the work rhythms for organisations and individuals, and to study whether work rhythms influence flow and level of success. Our research question was: “What factors sets the work rhythm and how does the work rhythm influence flow and level of success?” The theoretical foundation that was used to approach this research question, were various terminologies within the field of rhythm, flow and success. Thereafter, a case study was conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the phenomenon. This study is based on interviews with workers in “Nor-Oil”, an organisation working within the petroleum industry. Nor-Oil was responsible for one part of the project studied in this case, project Alpha. Nor-Oil had many challenges during this project, where some of these were considered to influence rhythm and flow of the workers and the level of success. Through this study, we found that the main internal factors setting the work rhythm were: insufficient planning in project organisation, no clear and realistic schedules, contract workers, structured and informative handover meetings and unstructured and inefficient project meetings, in addition to the external factor Acknowledgement of Compliance. In project Alpha, we found that the good temperamental job-fit of the workers was most likely a factor influencing the work rhythm in a positive way. The experience of flow was present for some of the workers, but it become clear that it was a highly individual factor. From this we can state that flow is not a prerequisite for gaining success. Project Alpha maintained the quality of work and was completed within the final deadline, while costs were understood as non-relevant factor for the level of success of project Alpha. From this we can state that factors setting the work rhythm can have an influence on flow, however flow is not a prerequisite for success. However, other success factors can also determine the level of success for project Alpha. One of these is the end-user, since the end-user appeared to be satisfied with the product. Based on our findings, we suggest some improvements for future projects. We believe these factors will increase work rhythm and flow in similar projects. These are the following: • Having a clear and updated organisational matrix • Distributing information to the right people • Prioritising efficient meetings

Isotope fractionation in juvenile and large rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss): Repeatability of stable isotope measures and their relationship to growth rate

publishedVersio

Indications of a negative genetic association between growth and digestibility in juvenile Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

acceptedVersio

Verifying the relationship between δ¹³C isotope profile variables and individual feed conversion ratio in large rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss)

publishedVersio

δ13C in muscle, liver, and adipose fin and their relationship to weight change during both growth and starvation in rainbow trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss), after feeding a diet low in 13C

publishedVersio

Beta cell function, hepatic insulin clearance, and insulin sensitivity in South Asian and Nordic women after gestational diabetes mellitus

South Asians have higher risk of type 2 diabetes after gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) than Nordic women; however the mechanisms behind this difference remain unclear. We investigated insulin sensitivity, beta cell function, and hepatic insulin clearance, in 179 South Asian and 108 Nordic women ∼17 months after GDM (mean age 35.3 years and BMI 29.1 kg/m2), via an oral glucose tolerance test using deconvolution of C-peptide kinetics. 31% of South Asian and 53% of Nordic participants were normoglycemic at the time of measurement. South Asian women had higher area under the curve (AUC) for glucose, pre-hepatic insulin, peripheral insulin, and lower levels of insulin sensitivity, disposition index, and fasting hepatic insulin clearance compared with Nordic women. In the group with prediabetes or diabetes, South Asian women displayed similar AUC for glucose and pre-hepatic insulin, but higher AUC for peripheral insulin, and lower levels of disposition index, and fasting hepatic insulin clearance compared with Nordic women. The waist-to-height ratio mediated ∼25-40% of the ethnic differences in insulin sensitivity in normoglycemic women. Overall, our novel data showed that normoglycemic South Asian women after GDM displayed lower insulin secretion for a given insulin resistance, and lower hepatic insulin clearance compared with Nordic women. South Asian women are at high risk of developing type 2 diabetes after GDM, and preventive efforts should be prioritized

En komparativ livsløpsanalyse av elektriske og konvensjonelle kjøretøy

I 2015 gikk FNs 193 medlemsland sammen og vedtok 17 mål for en global, bærekraftig utvikling. Dette innebærer å ende fattigdom, bekjempe ulikheter og takle klimaendringene vi i dag står overfor. Klimagassutslipp fra menneskelig aktivitet har forårsaket en global temperaturøkning på 1℃ over førindustrielt nivå, og temperaturen fortsetter å øke. Bærekraftmål 13, Climate Action, har som hovedfokus å bekjempe klimaendringene og takle konsekvensene de fører med seg. Når det gjelder menneskeskapte klimagassutslipp, er transportsektoren en av de største bidragsyterne. I Norge står transportsektoren for omtrent 30% av de totale klimagassutslippene, hvorav 56% kommer fra veitrafikk. Elektriske biler og hybridbiler har blitt presentert som et viktig tiltak til et mer bærekraftig transportsystem sammenlignet med konvensjonelle kjøretøy drevet av fossilt drivstoff. Med dette arbeidet ønsker vi å besvare følgende problemstilling: Hvor store er klimagassutslippene fra produksjon og bruk av elbil, sammenlignet med hybrid-, diesel- og bensinbil? Vi har valgt å ta for oss åtte ulike energikjeder. Fem av energikjedene inkluderer elektrisk bil med forskjellig elektrisitetskilde, i tillegg til en ladbar hybridbil, en bensinbil og en dieselbil. Vi har utført en livsløpsanalyse av klimagassutslipp, basert på sekundærdata. Totale utslipp (Figur 1) består av produksjonsutslipp, fra kjøretøy og batteri, samt utslipp ved bruk. Bruksutslippet, Well-To-Wheel (WTW), består av to deler; Well-To-Tank (WTT) som tar for seg prosessene fra ressursutvinning til levering av drivstoff i kjøretøyet, og Tank-To-Wheel (TTW) som tar for seg drivstoffet fra det blir hentet på tanken, til det blir brukt for at bilen skal bevege seg

Stable isotope profiling for large-scale evaluation of feed efficiency in Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar)

acceptedVersio

Selection for feed efficiency in Atlantic salmon using individual indicator traits based on stable isotope profiling

Abstract Background We used stable isotope profiling (15N and 13C) to obtain indicator phenotypes for feed efficiency in aquaculture. Our objectives were to (1) examine whether atom percent of stable isotopes of nitrogen and carbon can explain more of the variation in feed conversion ratio than growth alone, and (2) estimate the heritabilities of and genetic correlations between feed efficiency, growth and indicator traits as functions of nitrogen and carbon metabolism in various tissues. A 12-day experiment was conducted with 2281 Atlantic salmon parr, with an average initial weight of 21.8 g, from 23 full-sib families that were allocated to 46 family tanks and fed an experimental diet enriched with 15N and 13C. Results Using leave-one-out cross-validation, as much as 79% of the between-tank variation in feed conversion ratio was explained by growth, indicator traits, and sampling day, compared to 62% that was explained by growth and sampling day alone. The ratio of tissue metabolism, estimated by a change in isotope fractions relative to body growth, was used as an individual indicator for feed efficiency. For these indicator ratio traits, the estimated genetic correlation to feed conversion ratio approached unity but their heritabilities were low (0.06 to 0.11). These results indicate that feed-efficient fish are characterized by allocating a high fraction of their metabolism to growth. Among the isotope indicator traits, carbon metabolism in the liver had the closest estimated genetic correlation with feed conversion ratio on a tank level (− 0.9) but a low estimated genetic correlation with individually recorded feed efficiency indicator ratio traits. The underlying determinants of these correlations are largely unknown. Conclusions Our findings show that the use of indicator ratio traits to assess individual feed efficiency in Atlantic salmon has great prospects in selection programs. Given that large quantities of feeds with contrasting isotope profiles of carbon and/or nitrogen can be produced cost-effectively, the use of stable isotopes to monitor nitrogen and carbon metabolism in various tissues has potential for large-scale recording of individual feed efficiency traits, without requiring individual feed intake to be recorded