Influence of workers councils on employee engagement – An Action-Research approach to influence employee engagement through workers council initiatives

An organisation is a complex entity, being made of its employees, the management, and the overall structure. The German principle of co-determination adds another complex structure that influences the way how employees experience the whole entity. This principle includes the details how workers councils may influence the organisations’ decisions. Thinking more about employee binding and engagement as well as the overall satisfaction at the job created the question about how the co-determination system adds to the employees’ satisfaction and engagement level during work. In general, while observing the organisation, I encountered many different layers being present that might endanger the overall job-level satisfaction of employees. While observing those layers, it seemed obvious that, if a workers council is present, employees might relate to their presence and actions within an organisation. Based on the observations, my objective within the research was to examine whether workers councils may influence the employees’ engagement within their daily work. Furthermore, my goal was to examine how this engagement, as well as the overall satisfaction, can be positively altered through different initiatives and actions related to the council’s presence within the organisation. By using an action research approach, I started thinking about the way workers councils can influence the overall satisfaction of the workforce present within an organisation. This led me to the main questions if the satisfaction engagement of employees is linked to and influenced by actions as well as the presence of a workers council and how employees experience the availability of a council within the organisation. Having my organisation as the total target population, I started with a qualitative approach by conducting interviews with different employees from within the company. Within a learning set approach, by using the council members as learning set members, I introduced an agile working method, using principles and methodical approaches common in agile software development. Based on this approach, actions were defined with the set members and different first ones introduced within the organisation during a first sprint, while still holding further actions in the backlog. After a certain amount of time, those actions were reviewed in interviews again with the participants of the study and the results were discussed within the learning set. Together with the learning set, the different steps within action research cycles were introduced and followed. The learning set, while adding the agile framework, constructed different actions that should be introduced within the organisation. My first objective within the study was to examine if workers councils can directly take influence on the organisation’s culture, its environment as well as how employees experience both, the organisation in general as well as the council’s presence. Following the research, the satisfaction and engagement level of the employees is strongly tied to how the council acts within the organisation. The research did show, that introducing simple actions like regular newspapers, enhancing communications and using different channels to communicate and by introducing round table talks as well as regular employees’ meetings, especially in a more familiar way without inviting the CEO of the company, sharply increases the overall satisfaction of employees. Besides those positive outcomes and findings, the research did also reveal that the general benefit an organisation could draw from the actions is strongly tied to the overall organisational culture and openness to change. Concluding, I can say that if the organisation, in this case, represented by the employees and the council, is open to adopting this approach, a benefit can be experienced. However, this fact can also be a drawback within an organisation if it lacks the openness required to introduce the approach. As with agile methodology within software development, a willingness for organisational change is mandatory within the organisation. Adaption has to occur if the results are transferred to other organisations

Novel Hyperacute Gimbal Eye for Implementing Precise Hovering and Target Tracking on Board a Quadrotor

International audienceThis paper presents a new minimalist bio-inspired artificial eye of only 24 pixels, able to locate accurately a target placed in its small field of view (10°). The eye is mounted on a very light custom-made gimbal system which makes the eye able to track faithfully a moving target. We have shown here, that our gimbal eye can be embedded onboard a small quadrotor to achieve accurate hovering with respect to a target placed onto the ground. Our aiborne oculomotor system was enhanced with a bio-inspired reflexe in charge to lock efficiently the robot’s gaze onto a target and compensate for the robot’s rotations and disturbances. The use of very few pixels allowed to implement a visual processing algorithm at a refresh rate as high as such as 400 Hz. This high refresh rate coupled to a very fast control of the eye’s orientation allowed the robot to track efficiently a target moving at a speed up to 200°/s

Reconstruction bathymétrique sonar en présence de trajets multiples et de bruit impulsif

National audienceCet article propose une méthode de poursuite de l'angle d'arrivée de l'écho principal rétrodiffusé par le fond marin pour la reconstruction bathymétrique. Cette méthode présente certains avantages par rapport aux techniques classiques d'estimation de l'angle d'arrivée et permet en particulier de régulariser la trajectoire de l'angle estimé et ainsi réduire le niveau d'interférence causé par les échos secondaires

Disorder-specific characteristics of borderline personality disorder with co-occurring depression and its comparison with major depression: An fMRI study with emotional interference task

AbstractBorderline personality disorder (BPD) and major depressive disorder (MDD) are both associated with abnormalities in the regulation of emotion, with BPD being highly comorbid with MDD. Disorder-specific dysfunctions in BPD, however, have hardly been addressed, hence the lack of knowledge pertaining to the specificity of emotion processing deficits and their commonality with MDD.24 healthy comparison subjects, 21 patients with MDD, and 13 patients with comorbid BPD and MDD (BPD+MDD group) were studied using functional MRI. The subjects were required to perform an emotional interference task that entailed categorizing facial affect while ignoring words that labeled the emotional contents of the external stimuli.Collapsing across emotional face types, we observed that participants with BPD+MDD uniquely displayed a greater involvement of the visual areas and the cerebellum. During emotional conflict processing, on the other hand, the lateral prefrontal cortex (LPFC) appeared to be affected in both patient groups. In comparison to the HC, the MDD group showed differences also in the posterior medial frontal cortex (pMFC) and the inferior parietal lobule (IPL).Thus, our data indicate dysfunctionality in the neural circuitry responsible for emotional conflict control in both disorders. The enhanced visual cortex activation in BPD+MDD suggests the visual system's hyperresponsiveness to faces at an early perceptual level. Not being associated with co-occurring depression, this effect in BPD+MDD appears to represent specific personality traits such as disturbed reactivity toward emotionally expressive facial stimuli

SOF’S ROLE IN STRATEGIC COMPETITION: A WARGAME

Includes Supplementary MaterialCan a wargame effectively model how Special Operation Forces’ (SOF) irregular warfare capabilities influence strategic competition, and more broadly, do wargames have a place in the education of SOF professionals? SOF needs educational tools that stimulate critical thinking and intellectual creativity to address the challenges and complexities of irregular warfare and strategic competition so they can maintain their position as the DOD’s premier option for irregular warfare. Educational wargames have an extensive history in professional military organizations, and the wargame Tears of Tyranny is ready for use now to educate joint SOF on irregular warfare at the tactical and operational levels. Further development of Tears of Tyranny should include digitization and refinement through an additional capstone team.Outstanding ThesisMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyMajor, United States ArmyApproved for public release. Distribution is unlimited

Species richness and abundance of native leaf miners are affected by the presence of the invasive horse-chestnut leaf miner

The effect of the alien horse-chestnut leaf miner, Cameraria ohridella, on native fauna was studied by comparing the species richness of native leaf miner communities and the abundance of selected native leaf miner species in the presence and absence of horse-chestnut trees infested by C. ohridella, in various environments in Europe. The species richness of native leaf miner communities in Switzerland was lower at sites where C. ohridella was present than at control sites. In Switzerland, France and Bulgaria, several native leaf miner species were significantly less abundant in the vicinity of infested horse-chestnuts. The native species most affected by the presence of the invasive alien species were those occurring early in the year and sharing their parasitoid complex with C. ohridella. These results suggest apparent competition mediated by shared natural enemies because these are the only link between C. ohridella and native leaf miners using other food resource

Epidemiology and Comorbidity in Children with Psoriasis and Atopic Eczema

Background First studies have shown that juvenile psoriasis is associated with an increased prevalence of comorbidity. Objectives We carried out a data analysis to characterise the profiles of comorbidity in children with psoriasis and atopic eczema. Methods Prevalence data were derived from the database of a German statutory health insurance company according to ICD-10 codes L40 (psoriasis) and L20 (atopic eczema) of children up to 18 years insured in 2009. Results Data sets included 1.64 million persons and 293,181 children. 1,313 children = 0.45% (0.42-0.47) had a diagnosis of psoriasis and 30,354 = 10.35% (10.24-10.47) had a diagnosis of atopic eczema. Obesity, hyperlipidaemia, arterial hypertension and diabetes were more often diagnosed in children with psoriasis in comparison to all children without psoriasis and to those with atopic eczema. Conclusion Children with psoriasis and atopic eczema show different and specific patterns of comorbidity which should be detected early and treated adequately

Control of the repeatability of high frequency multibeam echosounder backscatter by using natural reference areas

The increased use of backscatter measurements in time series for environmental monitoring necessitates the comparability of individual results. With the current lack of pre-calibrated multibeam echosounder systems for absolute backscatter measurement, a pragmatic solution is the use of natural reference areas for ensuring regular assessment of the backscatter measurement repeatability. This method mainly relies on the assumption of a sufficiently stable reference area regarding its backscatter signature. The aptitude of a natural area to provide a stable and uniform backscatter response must be carefully considered and demonstrated by a sufficiently long time-series of measurements. Furthermore, this approach requires a strict control of the acquisition and processing parameters. If all these conditions are met, stability check and relative calibration of a system are possible by comparison with the averaged backscatter values for the area. Based on a common multibeam echosounder and sampling campaign completed by available bathymetric and backscatter time series, the suitability as a backscatter reference area of three different candidates was evaluated. Two among them, Carré Renard and Kwinte, prove to be excellent choices, while the third one, Western Solent, lacks sufficient data over time, but remains a valuable candidate. The case studies and the available backscatter data on these areas prove the applicability of this method. The expansion of the number of commonly used reference areas and the growth of the number of multibeam echosounder controlled thereon could greatly contribute to the further development of quantitative applications based on multibeam echosounder backscatter measurements