HRM in practice : an application of actor-network theory to human resource management in retail

HRM practices have predominantly been seen as means put in place by top management to achieve certain ends. This thesis argues that approaching the HRM phenomenon in this way is limiting because it establishes a divide in HRM activities between those aspects that conform to top management intentions, contribute to consistency of HRM practices, and produce desired effects; and those that are not part of top management design, are a source of variability in HRM practices, and are at best irrelevant, at worst detrimental to the efficacy of HRM practices. Variability in HRM practices within organisations has become an important focus for debate in the strategic human resource management (SHRM) literature. This thesis argues that an alternative view of HRM is required for the field to move forward. Practice perspectives in organisation and management studies provide the basis for an alternative approach to studying HRM. Actor-network theory is particularly well suited for examining patterns of repetitive activity across time and space, and thus constitutes a useful framework for understanding consistency and variability in HRM practices. This thesis presents empirical research that applies actor-network theory to provide a ‘flat’ description of HRM activities in a large UK-based fashion retailer. Through an innovative research design that uses participant narratives of HRM episodes (n=112), HRM activity in the company is characterised as distributed, emergent and patterned. It is distributed in the sense that employment outcomes were produced through assemblies of heterogeneous –human and nonhuman– elements. It is emergent in the sense that the set of associations that were made in order to produce an employment outcome was not predictable, nor was the outcome itself. Both were the result of the associations that became stabilised during the flow of activity. Finally HRM activities were patterned through the standardising actions of central actors and their associated artefacts. In particular members of the HR department found ways to retrieve information from the field, transform it into standards, and deploy these standards back to the field in order to produce repetitive patterns. This alternative view of HRM implies a novel understanding of the nature of HRM practices, the role of variability and consistency, and the ways in which the effects of HRM may be produced. Such understanding acknowledges that effects of HRM are produced as much through variability as through consistency, and that these must not be understood as opposite, mutually exclusive features of HRM systems. The implications for research and practice are wide-ranging. This thesis strongly advocates a case study research programme that provides rich descriptions of HRM activities in diverse settings, as the best way to advance the field and produce practitioner relevant knowledge and advice. Practitioners are advised to pay attention to the processes through which HRM outcomes are produced in their organisation, and to the means by which they themselves deploy their agency to create patterns in those processes

Potential use of the Undersampling Technique in the Acquisition of Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Signals

This communication reviews the use of undersampling techniques to acquire NMR signals. Undersampling transforms bandpass free induction decay (FID) signals, centered at high frequencies, into lowpass signals or bandpass signals centered at much lower frequencies. Consequently, the analog electronic stages that perform the demodulation can be eliminated, gaining in stability and reducing the phase distortion while maintaining an equivalent or better signal to noise ratio when an adequate sampling rate is chosen. The technique has been tested on a BRUKER BIOSPEC BMT 47/40, and the results show that undersampling could be used to process NMR and MRI signals, extending the range of applications of the ‘digital radio’ techniques to NMR and MRI apparatusPublicad

Design of a Low-Cost Multiplexer for the Study of the Impact of Soiling on PV Panel Performance

Atmospheric factors, such as clouds, wind, dust, or aerosols, play an important role in the power generation of photovoltaic (PV) plants. Among these factors, soiling has been revealed as one of the most relevant causes diminishing the PV yield, mainly in arid zones or deserts. The effect of soiling on the PV performance can be analyzed by means of I–V curves measured simultaneously on two PV panels: one soiled and the other clean. To this end, two I–V tracers, or one I–V tracer along with a multiplexer, are needed. Unfortunately, these options are usually expensive, and only one I–V tracer is typically available at the site of interest. In this work, the design of a low-cost multiplexer is described. The multiplexer is controlled by a low-cost single-board microcontroller manufactured by ArduinoTM, and is capable of managing several pairs of PV panels almost simultaneously. The multiplexer can be installed outdoors, in contrast to many commercial I–V tracers or multiplexers. This advantage allows the soiling effect to be monitored on two PV panels, by means of I–V indoor tracers. I–V curves measured by the low-cost multiplexer are also presented, and preliminary results are analyzedThis research was funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy, Industry, and Competitiveness “PVCastSOIL” project No ENE2017-83790-C3-1-2-3-R, in collaboration with the European Regional Development Fun

Effects of an eccentric training protocol using gliding discs on balance and lower body strength in healthy adults

Impaired balance and lower body weakness are the main causes of falls, which are considered to be the major cause of fractures and head injuries in the elderly and are recognised as a serious health problem. The aim of this study is to observe the effect of eccentric training, introducing new technologies (gliding discs), on body composition, lower body strength, balance and quality of life. A quasi-experimental study was carried out with 56 healthy participants who were divided into an experimental group (n = 31) who underwent the protocol consisting of 12 training sessions and a control group (n = 25) who did not undergo the training. Before and after the intervention, all participants underwent a measurement of body composition, the SJ jump, balance with accelerometry and quality of life with the Short Form 12 Health Survey. In the experimental group, statistically significant improvements were found in the variables balance and lower body strength. The application of this training protocol improves lower body strength and the ability to control balance in the adult population

Applying undersampling to the nuclear magnetic resonance signal

Proceedings of: 18th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Amsterdam, 31 Oct. - 03 Nov. 1996.This paper presents the use of undersampling in an NMR prototype equipment. The results show that undersampling is a convenient tool to be used in the processing of these signals. It allows to easily transform bandpass Free Induction Decay (FID) signals, centered at high frequencies, into lowpass signals or bandpass signals at much lower frequencies. Main advantages of using this technique are improved signal to noise ratio and analog electronic stages suppression.Publicad

Pensando la grupalidad en contexto de encierro

El presente trabajo es una reflexión sobre la práctica que se realizó en una unidad penitencia bonaerense entre los años 2010-2012 en el marco del Programa Provincial de Prevención de la Violencia en Cárceles implementado por la Subsecretaría de Política Criminal E Investigaciones Judiciales desde el año 2010.Facultad de Humanidades y Ciencias de la Educació

Stability of synchronous queued RFID networks

Queued Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) networks arise naturally in many applications, where tags are grouped into batches, and each batch must be processed before the next reading job starts. In these cases, the system must be able to handle all incoming jobs, keeping the queue backlogs bounded. This property is called stability. Besides, in RFID networks, it is common that some readers cannot operate at the same time, due to mutual interferences. This fact reduces the maximum traffic that readers can process since they have to share the channel. Synchronous networks share the channel using a TDMA approach. The goal of this work is to analytically determine whether a synchronous queued RFID network attains stable operation under a given incoming traffic. Stability depends on the service rate, which is characterized in this paper using an exact numerical method based on a recursive analytical approach, overcoming the limitations of previous works, which were based on simplifications. We also address different flow optimization problems, such as computing the maximum joint traffic that a network can process stably, selecting the minimal number of readers to process a given total load, or determining the optimal timeslot duration, which are novel in the RFID literature.This work was supported by the Project AIM, (AEI/FEDER, EU) under Grant TEC2016-76465-C2-1-R

OhPlease! - Análisis de un Modelo de Negocio de Economía Colaborativa

En el presente Trabajo de Fin de Grado se analiza el modelo de negocio de OhPlease!, una empresa ideada por mí que consiste en un marketplace online donde se ponen en contacto la oferta y la demanda de servicios como las clases particulares, el servicio de niñeras o las reparaciones puntuales. Un lugar donde poder resolver las necesidades relacionadas con estos servicios mediante la economía colaborativa, un sistema que se caracteriza por los intercambios de productos o servicios directamente entre particulares. Por tanto, el trabajo se centra en analizar su modelo de negocio, y para ello se utiliza la metodología Lean Startup, ideal para este tipo de negocios que se caracterizan por una especial incertidumbre inicial. Esta metodología se centra en la rápida puesta en marcha del negocio mediante el conocido como producto mínimo viable, pero como se trataba de un proceso demasiado costoso para el marco de este trabajo, lo que se realiza en él es una aproximación a la misma. Aprovecharemos su esencia para explicar sus fundamentos y los pasos a seguir, pero también haremos hincapié en el análisis del modelo de negocio que se puede realizar antes de ponerlo en marcha.Y para ello analizaremos los principales aspectos internos del mismo, como los clientes o la propuesta de valor, así como los externos, tanto del entorno general como del específico

“Fools are those who suspect”. How do we build a culture of legality through trust and social norms?

Luego de revisar algunas de las más destacadas aproximaciones teóricas a la cultura de la legalidad y a los mecanismos para promoverla y/o fortalecerla, este artículo entrega una definición de la misma asociada al cumplimiento de normas (formales e informales) y expectativas y propone la construcción de confianza como factor determinante para el trabajo en pro de aumentar los niveles de cumplimiento. El análisis de intervenciones rigurosas en diferentes campos, basadas en las ciencias del comportamiento, permite concluir que el uso de normas sociales y pequeños empujones es efectivo a la hora de mejorar nuestras expectativas colectivas, de construir confianza y de promover un mayor cumplimiento de normas y acuerdos.After reviewing some of the most outstanding theoretical approaches to the culture of legality and the mechanisms to promote and / or strengthen it, this article provides a definition of it associated with compliance with standards (formal and informal) and expectations and proposes the construction trust as a determining factor for the work towards increasing compliance levels. The analysis of rigorous interventions in different fields, based on behavioral sciences, allows us to conclude that the use of social norms and small nudges is effective in improving our collective expectations, building trust and promoting greater compliance with norms and agreements