Lateral carbon export from the southern Benguela upwelling system

Includes bibliographical references (leaves 153-[169]).The objective of this study was to quantify the lateral export of organic carbon from the continental shelf of the southern Benguela upwelling system to the open ocean. The flux is potentially important because the Benguela is one of the most productive and biogeochemically active ecosystems in the global ocean. Furthermore, a significant fraction of oceanic carbon storage is modulated through the biological pump mechanism, and on millennia 1 timescales the global ocean regulates atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide. The current study builds on previous work, and examines both the physical and biogeochemical aspects of the lateral carbon flux from the southern Benguela. Multiple physical mechanisms capable of inducing cross-shelf advection were examined, including dynamic interaction with Agulhas Rings and upwelling front instability, however the bottom boundary layer (BBL) was the focus

Who does what in enabling ambidexterity? Individual Actions and HRM practices

In this paper, we explain how ambidexterity, the simultaneous pursuit of exploration and exploitation, is enabled at the individual level of analysis. Research on ambidexterity has been dominated by theoretical approaches focusing on the organisational level; however, we know little about how ambidexterity is enacted by employees. There is also limited work on the multilevel aspects of individual employee actions, for example, particular roles and specifically the level of seniority of the role. We address these gaps by asking: Which individual actions are undertaken by employees at particular levels of seniority in the organization to enable ambidexterity? In order to answer this question we draw on previous research to construct reliable measures of the individual actions that enable ambidexterity. The hypothesized mediation effect of these individual actions is confirmed on the basis of survey data from 212 employees from a UK-based Professional Service Firm. The findings indicate that senior employees are more likely to use ‘integration’, ‘role expansion’ and ‘tone setting’, whilst employees with specialist knowledge about their clients use ‘gap filling’ to enable ambidexterity. Finally, we draw together these findings with 35 interviews conducted to present the HRM practices which support ambidexterity

Comparing trends in the Southern Annular Mode and surface westerly jet

We examine trends in the Southern Annular Mode (SAM), and the strength, position and width of the Southern Hemisphere surface westerly wind jet in observations, reanalyses and the Coupled Model Intercomparison Phase 5 (CMIP5) models. First we consider the period over 1951 to 2011, and show that there are differences in the SAM and jet trends between the CMIP5 models, the HadSLP2r gridded sea-level pressure (SLP) dataset, and the Twentieth Century Reanalysis. The relationships between these trends demonstrates that the SAM index cannot be used to directly infer changes in any one kinematic property of the jet. The spatial structure of the observed trends in SLP and zonal winds is shown to be largest, but also most uncertain, in the southeast Pacific. To constrain this uncertainty we include six reanalyses and compare with station based observations of SLP. We find the CMIP5 mean SLP trends generally agree well with the direct observations, despite some climatological biases, while some reanalyses exhibit spuriously large SLP trends. Similarly, over the more reliable satellite era the spatial pattern of CMIP5 SLP trends is in excellent agreement with HadSLP2r, while several reanalyses are not. Then we compare surface winds with a satellite based product, and show that the CMIP5 mean trend is similar to observed in the core region of the westerlies, but that several reanalyses overestimate recent trends. We caution that studies examining the impact of wind changes on the Southern Ocean could be biased by these spuriously large trends in reanalysis products

The role of knowledge resources in managing project complexity

In this paper we consider the nature of project complexity and draw on current literature to make the argument that we do not yet understand fully which resources managers draw on and how they then respond to the range of complexities they face. We consider the role of knowledge resources underpinning complexity responses, and ask the research question "What is the role of knowledge resources in managing project complexity?" We then summarise the empirical work we have undertaken to date in investigating this. Looking at the aerospace industry, we find a range of responses to different forms of complexity, drawing on important human, social and organizational capital

Ambidexterity in projects:An intellectual capital perspective

This paper examines the role of knowledge assets in projects. We identify the desirability of simultaneously using knowledge assets both to exploit and explore (ambidexterity) and highlight the significance of this for the project context. We use an intellectual capital perspective and theorise that managing projects draws upon human, social and organisational capital. We examine how this is used by managers, in a qualitative empirical study of managers in technology projects, to explain better how ambidexterity is achieved in projects. Ambidexterity in the use of knowledge assets is shown to exist in the practices of managers but without them necessarily having a conscious strategy for it. We identify the mechanisms by which this happens and note the distinctive role of social capital. We demonstrate the integrative nature of the mechanisms, and how each mechanism can involve the deployment of either single or multiple elements of intellectual capital. In so doing we extend existing theory to the operational level and demonstrate the utility of this approach

Hits and (near) misses: Exploring managers’ actions and their effects on localised resilience

Resilience is clearly a desirable attribute, but characterising it is challenging, especially as it can be understood either as the response to an incident, or its successful avoidance. Individual- and organizational-level resilience are established fields of study, whereas mid-range, managerial-level, evidence of how ‘localised’ resilience (e.g. in the department, work unit or project) is achieved is lacking. We ask the question ‘What do managers do to support resilience?’ We report on a study carried out with senior staff from five major UK-based organizations. From our qualitative data investigating critical incidents and ‘near-misses’, we unpack the key (ongoing) actions that managers undertake, and show that these can be understood as a complex interweaving of exploitative and exploratory activities. We also identify five response archetypes utilised when an incident occurs. We show the simultaneity of multiple enabling and responding arrangements and, in so doing, uncover the ‘messy’ characteristics over time which enable the awareness and containment of potential and realised adversities, i.e. resilience

Visualizations as a tool to increase community engagement in climate change adaptation decision-making

Many barriers to behavioural change exist when it comes to climate change action. A key element to overcoming some of these barriers is effective communication of complex scientific information. The use of visualizations, such as photographs or interactive maps, can increase knowledge dissemination, helping community members understand climatic and environmental changes. These techniques have been utilized in many disciplines but have not been widely embraced by climate change scholars. This paper discusses the utility of climate change data visualization as a tool for climate change knowledge mobilization. This paper draws on the case studying drivers of coastline change of Lake Ontario in the Town of Lincoln, Ontario, Canada. Historical aerial photographs were used to measure the rate of coastline change and visualize vulnerable sections of the coast. To better visualize the changes that occurred over time from a resident viewpoint, selected land-based historical photographs were replicated by taking new photographs at the same locations. These visualization tools can be useful to support the community in developing strategies to adapt to climate change by increasing understanding of the changes and knowledge through social learning. These tools can be generalized to other case studies dealing with community engagement in coastal adaptation efforts

Making it happen: how managerial actions enable project-based ambidexterity

The literature on ambidexterity is dominated by theoretical development and does not fully explain how ambidexterity is enacted. There is limited focus on the managerial actions in day-to-day operations that enable this important phenomenon. We posit that projects offer an ideal context to investigate the actions that enable ambidexterity since they necessarily combine planning and control (exploitation) with some degree of novelty (exploration). Using extensive data from eight project-based case studies in the Information Technology services sector, we ask the research question, How is project-based ambidexterity enabled? Within this context, we identify two different types of project-based ambidexterity (distributed and point ambidexterity) and five managerial actions (buffering, gap-filling, integration, role-expansion and tone-setting) that enable ambidexterity. We investigate the underlying resource utilisation in terms of intellectual capital (namely, human, social and project capital) and show the complexity of their interplay in achieving ambidexterity. Finally, we develop a model that brings these concepts together and identify how the ‘integration’ function is central to, and interwoven with, the other actions

The role of social capital in project managers’ responses to complexities

Social capital has been demonstrated to be an important commodity for managers in project-based operations. This paper examines the role of social capital in the work of 36 managers from three engineering firms, using qualitative case data. We ask the research question ‘How is Social Capital used by Project Managers in responding to complexities?’ We derive an improved understanding of how social capital is used in responding to their context. To do this, we draw on two established bodies of work. First, we use the lived experience of the complexity faced by the managers to describe the context. Secondly, we use social capital theory to examine what elements of social capital are employed in response. The interchange between these is initially framed with ‘contextual complexities’ as stimulus and the 'social capital employed’ as response. Our findings show the temporal dynamics of complexity, whereby responses are not isolated but dependent upon both recent experience and expectations of future events. We also show the importance of social relationships in developing valuable recursive patterns of interaction in the project context.EURAM 2024: Fostering Innovation to Address Grand Challenge