University professional staff in collaborative third space environments: a multiple case study of the Australian and Singapore campuses of one university

Natalia Veles conducted a qualitative multiple case study of the university third space collaboration of professional and academic staff of one Australian university across two culturally dissimilar contexts (Australia and Singapore). She developed a novel "Conceptual framework of the university cross-boundary collaboration", which is intended to improve university professional practice

Critical thirding and third space collaboration: university professional staff and new type of knowledge production

In this article, the author first addresses the persisting knowledge invisibility of university professional staff by drawing on selected findings from their qualitative, multiple case study research conducted in an Australian university with a campus in Singapore. Analysing a selected case of a university project, the author applies critical thirding as a concept to demonstrate how university third space collaboration resulted in creating new, Mode 3 institutional knowledge and led to a transformative change of research commercialisation practices. The author then compares research findings from this selected Australian university case study to the insights from a systematic literature review which was conducted three years later as a separate research project using an international literature sample. The review provided evidence that since the 2000s university workers, professional and academic alike, in tertiary education institutions around the world, have been engaged in complex identity work, demonstrating increased agency towards de-invisibilisation of their roles and co-creating new knowledge, thereby contributing to university advancement. The author concludes that by applying the analytical power of critical thirding to social spaces of new knowledge production, it is possible to support and promote equal contributions of all university actors to achieving institutional goals

Optimising the university third space professional partnership in the world of work(er) dislocation

In the higher education context, university third space is a clever and relevant metaphor describing how the new and emerging ways of academic and professional staff’s working together are accompanied by crossing, disrupting and transcending the boundaries of their respective roles and identities, thereby challenging the confines of organisational structure (Soja, 1996, 2009; Whitchurch, 2008, 2012, 2018). It is a space characterised by appreciation of diverse thinking, co-creating new practices, and challenging and changing outdated systems and processes. It is also an imperceptible space of professional tensions and challenges that boundary crossing inevitably produces (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011a, 2011b). Drawing on the selective findings from the doctoral research of the university third space of professional collaborations in the intercultural (Australia and Singapore) environment, this paper presents an argument for the third space as a site of practice to enable and sustain university collaborations. Provided that certain motivational factors are met for staff, and cross-boundary capabilities are developed by staff, third space becomes a representational site for developing the organisational collaborative capital – an intangible form of capital fostering growth and development. In this paper, I provoke critical reflection on how the interconnected concepts of third space, boundary learning and collaborative capital can be mobilised strategically in the environment where technology continues to shape the future of work leading to perceived and actualised dislocation of traditional work(ers), redefinition of professional identities, reconceptualisation of competence and learning in the new digital economy

Stand-by Vessels as Universal Guard for Norwegian Platforms

Safety stand-by vessels are one of the resources with which people who have ended up in the water can be rescued. The Emergency Response Plan defines the number of safety stand-by vessels that should be in the direct vicinity of the offshore installation at any given point, to be able to comply with the 20+20 and 120+20 minute requirements. Not every sea going vessel is suitable to act as a safety standby vessel. Design and construction of safety stand-by vessels has evolved rapidly and continues to do so with new types, new technology and new roles coming to the forefront, although a number of challenges remain. Also there are special standards and requirements, as well as certifications for stand-by vessels. Typically of our work is that in spite of the standards stand-by vessels are different from each other and there is an assumption that this difference affect the effectiveness of the emergency response. The purpose of this work is to determine the most suitable stand-by vessel from a technical perspective in order to improve the level of platforms guard

Third space environments: learnings from an intercultural inter-campus multiple case study in one Australian university

University professional staff are arguably underutilised in the workplace. In the context of the increasingly complex and volatile global(ised) convergent/divergent higher education sector, underutilisation of any staff may reduce the ability of universities to harness their collaborative capabilities and predispositions that improve university performance and enhance its collaborative capital (Pham & Tanner, 2015). A recent comprehensive literature review of the diversification of the academic workforce (Marini, Locke, & Whitchurch, 2019), and empirical research into professional and academic staff collaboration focusing on professional staff contributions to diverse projects (Graham & Regan, 2016; Ryttberg & Gerschwind, 2017; Botterrill, 2018), demonstrates that synergistic effort and wider contributions from all university communities are required to solve current and emerging higher education challenges. These studies recommended further research to explore how professional staff, working on collaborative third space projects, co-create and innovate; and to investigate how different the needs for cross-boundary collaborative competencies may be in various global contexts. Involving one Australian regional university with campuses in Australia and in Singapore, this qualitative PhD study explored five diverse cases of professional and academic staff collaborative engagement. Cases were selected to cover different organisational contexts, drawing on a conceptual typology of the university third space environments (Whitchurch, 2008; 2018). The outcomes of each collaborative project were examined through the analytical lens of the Multilevel Boundary Crossing Framework (Akkerman & Bruining, 2016) with a particular focus on specific needs of professional staff for boundary skills and cross-boundary competencies (Akkerman & Bakker, 2011) and feelings of competency, autonomy and relatedness (Ryan & Deci, 2000; 2017) in order for them to be better prepared and more predisposed to collaboration. Co-constructing with project participants, the narrative case summaries with subsequent analysis and cross-case synthesis of emerged themes, offered invaluable insights into professional staff working across multiple boundaries of culture, geography and activity domains. Findings suggest that these professional staff are continuously renegotiating professional spaces and identities. For example, although the opportunities to work on collaborative projects were claimed to be infrequent, with professional staff at times lacking confidence to take initiative, all five investigated projects were developed and executed by academic and professional staff who worked together to bring about innovation and change for the university within the continuously changing higher education environment. One of the most significant pragmatic outcomes of this exploratory research was the development of a University Cross-boundary Collaboration framework. This framework was used to formulate practical recommendations for the university leadership, in terms of how to use the creative energy of professional staff through enabling them to be more predisposed toward collaboration: to continue championing, driving, and facilitating change and innovation

Distribución de las precipitaciones en Rafaela y Esperanza, Santa Fe

p.85-89Para determinar el modelo estadístico que provea el mejor ajuste para la distribución de precipitaciones en las localidades de Rafaela y Esperanza (Santa Fe), se utilizaron los registros de precipitaciones mensuales de Esperanza (1929 - 1975) y Rafaela (1937 - 1998). Las distribuciones empíricas se compararon con las teóricas Normal y Logaritmica (LN), Normal Raíz Cúbica (NR) y Gamma Incompleta (GI). Según la prueba de Lilliefors, NR y GI presentaron el mejor ajuste para todos los meses (p menor 0,01). LN presentó buen ajuste (p menor 0,05) para todas las estaciones del año, excepto el invierno