Experimentarium as arena for common learning during change processes

The initiating question guiding this study is how employee participation can be established during an organisational change process in order to ensure the employees' involvement in the design of their future work environment. A case study where an "experimentarium" (learning lab) was set up in a medium size Danish company is presented in this paper. The case study demonstrates that it is feasible to generate employee participation in designing their future working environment in the experimentarium when careful attention is given to the influence of situational factors and a stringent pedagogical method is utilised

Reactions of [NH3+·, H2O] with carbonyl compounds: a McLafferty rearrangement within a complex?

AbstractThe reactions of the water solvated ammonia radical cation [NH3·+, H2O] with a variety of aldehydes and ketones were investigated. The reactions observed differ from those of low energy aldehydes and ketones radical cations, although electron transfer from the keto compound to ionized ammonia is thermodynamically allowed within the terbody complexes initially formed. The main process yields an ammonia solvated enol with loss of water and an alkene. This process corresponds formally to a McLafferty fragmentation within a complex. With aldehydes, another reaction can take place, namely the transfer of the hydrogen from the CHO group to ammonia, leading to the proton bound dimer of ammonia and water, and to the NH4+ cation. Comparison between the available experimental results leads to the conclusion that the McLafferty fragmentation occurs within the terbody complex initially formed, with no prior ligand exchange, the water molecule acting as a spectator partner

Corporate financing decisions: UK survey evidence

Despite theoretical developments in recent years, our understanding of corporate capital structure remains incomplete. Prior empirical research has been dominated by archival regression studies which are limited in their ability to fully reflect the diversity found in practice. The present paper reports on a comprehensive survey of corporate financing decision-making in UK listed companies. A key finding is that firms are heterogeneous in their capital structure policies. About half of the firms seek to maintain a target debt level, consistent with trade-off theory, but 60 per cent claim to follow a financing hierarchy, consistent with pecking order theory. These two theories are not viewed by respondents as either mutually exclusive or exhaustive. Many of the theoretical determinants of debt levels are widely accepted by respondents, in particular the importance of interest tax shield, financial distress, agency costs and also, at least implicitly, information asymmetry. Results also indicate that cross-country institutional differences have a significant impact on financial decisions