Organisational Resilience: A Propositional Study to Understand and Identify the Essential Concepts

Increased exposure to turmoil has raised business, social and governmental concerns over the ability of organisations to anticipate and respond positively to disruptions. Organisations are spending increased sums of money to raise levels of security; however, Organisational Resilience is a vague, multidisciplined and diverse philosophy, requiring a multiplicity of skills and knowledge that reaches far beyond security alone. The resilience domain is still developing and expanding; however, early embodiments of Organisational Resilience, originating in the United Kingdom and the United States, were nothing more than a rebranding of business continuity management strategies, put together as a ‘resilience processes’, or ‘resilience systems’. More recently ‘resilience management systems’ claiming to emulate benefits that International Standards Organisation 9001 gave the Quality Assurance discipline have emerged, nevertheless, there is an absence of any clearly defined and researched compilation of the essential concepts that make up the theoretical structure of Organisational Resilience

Does being based in an emerging market influence the positive attention multinational corporation subsidiaries obtain from headquarters

This study assessed multinational corporations (MNCs) from developed markets with subsidiaries based in the emerging markets, to determine whether being based in a dynamic market influences the positive attention in terms of support and autonomy that these subsidiaries receive from headquarters. The purpose of the research was to expand on previous research conducted by Bouquet and Birkinshaw (2008) by surveying subsidiaries from emerging markets, and determining whether MNCs amend their attention strategy to subsidiaries based in emerging markets as a result of their limited understanding of the dynamics of the local business environment, or whether they maintain a standardised strategy for engaging all subsidiaries. 39 MNC subsidiaries from the emerging markets of Southern Africa, Latin America and the Middle East were surveyed via a web-based questionnaire, assessing various aspects of their business activities and local business environment to determine the type of positive attention which subsidiaries in these markets received from headquarters. The results indicated that the business environment within emerging markets is complex and requires alternative forms of assessment and involvement by headquarters, however overall subsidiaries based in emerging markets do not receive the support and autonomy from headquarters which is required to exploit local opportunities effectively.Dissertation (MBA)--University of Pretoria, 2012.Gordon Institute of Business Science (GIBS)unrestricte

Radio Observations of X-ray Sources

Wetensch. publicatieFaculteit der Wiskunde en Natuurwetenschappe

Rotation periods of late-type stars in the young open cluster IC 2602

We present the results of a monitoring campaign aimed at deriving rotation periods for a representative sample of stars in the young (30 Myr) open cluster IC 2602. Rotation periods were derived for 29 of 33 stars monitored. The periods derived range from 0.2d (one of the shortest known rotation periods of any single open cluster star) to about 10d (which is almost twice as long as the longest period previously known for a cluster of this age). We are able to confirm 8 previously known periods and derive 21 new ones, delineating the long period end of the distribution. Despite our sensitivity to longer periods, we do not detect any variables with periods longer than about 10d. The combination of these data with those for IC 2391, an almost identical cluster, leads to the following conclusions: 1) The fast rotators in a 30 Myr cluster are distributed across the entire 0.5 < B-V < 1.6 color range. 2) 6 stars in our sample are slow rotators, with periods longer than 6d. 3) The amplitude of variability depends on both the color and the period. The dependence on the latter might be important in understanding the selection effects in the currently available rotation period database and in planning future observations. 4) The interpretation of these data in terms of theoretical models of rotating stars suggests both that disk-interaction is the norm rather than the exception in young stars and that disk-locking times range from zero to a few Myr.Comment: 23 pages, 8 figures, accepted for publication in the Astrophysical Journa

The chromospheric emission of solar-type stars in the young open clusters IC 2391 and IC 2602

In this paper we present chromospheric emission levels of the solar-type stars in the young open clusters IC 2391 and IC 2602. High resolution spectroscopic data were obtained for over 50 F, G, and K stars from these clusters over several observing campaigns using the University College London Echelle Spectrograph on the 3.9-m Anglo-Australian Telescope. Unlike older clusters, the majority (28/52) of the solar-type stars in the two clusters are rapid-rotators (vsini > 20 km/s) with five of the stars being classified as ultra-rapid rotators (vsini > 100 km/s). The emission levels in the Calcium infrared triplet lines were then used as a measure of the chromospheric activity of the stars. When plotted against Rossby number (NR) the star's chromospheric emission levels show a plateau in the emission for Log(NR) < -1.1 indicating chromospheric saturation similar to the coronal saturation seen in previously observed X-ray emission from the same stars. However, unlike the coronal emission, the chromospheric emission of the stars show little evidence of a reduction in emission (i.e. supersaturation) for the ultra-rapid rotators in the clusters. Thus we believe that coronal supersaturation is not the result of an overall decrease in magnetic dynamo efficiency for ultra-rapid rotators.Comment: 19 pages, 14 figures, Landscape tables in separate tex file, Accepted by MNRA

Properties of serendipitous X-ray flares discovered in XMM-Newton observations

We present the results of a search of the XMM-Newton public data archive for stellar X-ray flares. We find eight flaring sources for which we identify 7 optical counterparts. Three of these sources have distance estimates which allow us to determine their luminosities. Based on the decay time of the flares and their luminosity we derive loop half-lengths of ~2-7x10^10 cm and emission measures of ~10^54 cm^-3: these are similar to values derived for other stellar flaring sources. One of the stars shows two flares in close succession. We discuss the likelihood of this double event being either sympathetic or homologous in nature. A comparison to a pair of similar flares on the Sun suggests that homology is the more likely process driving the flare event.Comment: Accepted MNRAS, 7 page

XMM-Newton observation of the persistent Be/neutron-star system X Persei at a high-luminosity level

We report on the XMM-Newton observation of the HMXRB X Persei, the prototype of the persistent and low-luminosity Be/neutron star pulsars, which was performed on February 2003. The source was detected at a luminosity level of ~ 1.4x10^35 erg/s, which is the highest level of the latest three decades. The pulsation period has increased up to 839.3 s, thus confirming the overall spin-down of the NS detected in the previous observations. The folded light-curve has a complex structure, with features not observed at lower luminosities, and shows a significant energy dependence. The spectral analysis reveals the presence of a significant excess at low energies over the main power-law spectral component, which can be described by a black-body spectrum of high temperature (kT_BB ~ 1.5 keV) and small emitting region (R_BB ~ 340 m); its properties are consistent with a polar-cap origin. Phase-resolved spectroscopy shows that the emission spectrum varies along the pulse period, but it is not possible to prove whether the thermal component is pulsed or not.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figures, 4 tables. Accepted for publication by Astronomy & Astrophysic