Towards a flexible future ? The nature of organisational response in the clothing industry.

In this contribution, the central questions concern the need for structural transformation, the diffusion of innovative organisational practices, and the dominance of particular organisational models in the Belgian clothing industry. In order to answer these questions, the results of two Trend Study surveys are used, covering a total of 104 companies : a 1995 survey among companies employing more than 50 workers and a 1996 survey in the segment of companies employing between 20 and 50 workers.Industry;

Unravelling decision making about the future developments of Amsterdam Airport Schiphol

The time that airports were merely infrastructural works for supporting air transportation is no more. Over the years, especially the major airports have developed from airfields into multi-modal transportation nodes and cities of their own. Amsterdam Airport Schiphol is a perfect example of this. The airport has developed into an attractive pool for urban and economic development, known as an AirportCity. Airports like Amsterdam Airport Schiphol, took up their newfound position in the emerging network society and implemented new business strategies to cope with the increasing volatility of future transport volumes. The search for additional finances has lead to further commercialization of the airport and gave rise to Airport-city like concepts. However, this evolving form of airports did not find its way into Dutch national planning policy. An analysis of Dutch national spatial strategies shows an increased interest for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol as being of major importance for the national economy, but the emphasis is still mainly on the airport as an important piece of physical infrastructure. With fierce competition of cities like Barcelona and Dublin in mind, the Amsterdam region needs a strong, widely supported, development strategy to maintain and strengthen its concurrence position. A strategy that acknowledges the new airport day-to-day realities and that goes beyond the narrow definition of the airport as merely infrastructural. Such a widely accepted strategy does not exist at this moment, which causes serious problems if policies are willing to strengthen the role of Schiphol for the national economy in the future. This paper explores the newfound position of airports in the network society. It links this position to an analysis of the processes of policy making to identify reasons why there is currently no strong development strategy for Amsterdam Airport Schiphol (region). A comparison is made between the policy development process in the late 80’s and early 90’s, which did result in a widely accepted development policy for the airport, and the policy development process that currently takes place. Interviews with primary stakeholders and analyses of policy documents shed light on the success factors that made the reach of an agreement possible in the early 90’s as well as the reasons for not being able to reach such agreement today.

VLSI top-down design based on the separation of hierarchies

Despite the presence of structure, interactions between the three views on VLSI design still lead to lengthy iterations. By separating the hierarchies for the respective views, the interactions are reduced. This separated hierarchy allows top-down design with functional abstractions as exemplified by an experimental self-timed CMOS RISC computer design

Measuring the degree of organisational transformation.

Abstract: International organisations are increasingly urging governments to support the dissemination of new organisational concepts. Research into the efforts made by the business community in its quest for new organisational concepts and permanent monitoring of the effects of organisational transformation are necessary tools for supporting these policy lines. Since 1980 a variety of organisation surveys have been undertaken in an effort to evaluate the extent and effects of workplace innovation. Comparisons of the findings or results of these major organisation surveys are fraught with major difficulties because the choices of methodology and survey design differ widely. Moreover, little information is currently available about the methodological limitations of these organisation surveys. This paper therefore concentrates on the methodological design of 16 major organisation surveys. The objectives of the paper can be described as follows: (1) comparison of organisation surveys with the aim of making an inventory of 'good practices' at several levels (e.g. sampling method, non-response strategy, etc.), which can strengthen the quality of research into the diffusion and effects of new organisational concepts; (2) charting current 'methodological diversity' with the aim of investigating the possibilities for cross-national research into the spread and effects of new organisational concepts.Complications; Characteristics; International; Effects; Surveys; Strategy;

Some morphological observations on the Neobradyidae Olofsson, 1917 (Copepoda, Harpacticoida) including the redescription of <i>Antarcticobradya tenuis</i> (Brady, 1910) comb. nov.

Neobrady pectinifera T. Scott, 1892 is thoroughly redescribed and figured. Parastenhelia (?) tenuis Brady, 1910 collected during the "Deutsche Südpolar Expedition 1901-1903" and placed species incerta sedis in the Parastenheliidae by Lang (1948) is also recognized as a Neobradyidae and assigned to a new genus Antarcticobradya gen. nov. The Neobradyidae are considered remnants of a formerly widespread group and brief reference is made to the phylogenetic relationship of the family

Crustacea Copepoda: <i>Amphicrossus pacificus</i> gen. et sp. nov., an erebonasterid copepod (Poecilostomatoida) from the New Caledonian continental shelf

A new species of Erebonasteridae, Amphicrossus pacificus, is decribed on the basis of a single female from a depth of 155 m north of New Caledonia in the Grand Passage zone. The new species is closely related to Erebonaster spinulosus Humes and for that reason the latter is transferred to the new genus Amphicrossus. Differences in body ornamentation and armature of maxilla, maxilliped and P4 serve to distinguish Amphicrossus and Erebonaster. Other noticeable discrepancies are found in the structure of the rostrum, the shape of the thoracic epimera and the design of the fifth pair of legs. A peculiar structure, the "sensory area", is shown on the posterior surface of enp-2 P2 in both Amphicrossus species which can be differentiated from each other on the basis of differences in antennulary setation, ornamentation of Pl-P4 (exopods, intercoxal sclerites) and length:width ratio of anal somite and PS exopod. The discovery of A. pacificus in the southern hemisphere considerably extends both the depth range and geographical range of the family

The delayed transformation: restructuring in the automobile, chemical, clothing and machine tool industries.

In this paper, we focus on the results of the Belgian Trend Study. The intention of this study was to examine the prevalence of new production concepts within the widest possible range of companies in the automobile, the machine-tool, the chemical and the clothing industries. The Trend Study aimed to answer the following questions : is the Taylorist division of labour a thing of the past ? What are the alternatives ? Are shifts in the division of labour accompanied by another type of personnel policy, and do traditional relations have to make way for this new approach ? The methodological concept used had to guarantee that the findings at the level of each industry could be generalized. Though the picture emerging from the empirical data collected in the four industrial sectors is inevitably diverse, the data make it possible merely to suggest a 'neo' rather than a 'post' Taylorist or Fordist concept.

Superornatiremidae fam. nov. (Copepoda: Harpacticoida): An enigmatic family from North Atlantic anchihaline caves

A new family Superornatiremidae is described from 7 inland marine caves of Bermuda and from Jameos del Agua Cave, a sea water-flooded Holocene lava tube on Lanzarote in the Canary Islands. The family is proposed to accommodate three new genera, Superornatiremis, Neoechinophora and Intercrusia, and six new species: S. mysticus, N. fosshageni, N. daltonae, N. jaumei, N. karaytugi and I. problematica. The major diagnostic character is the unique leg 1 which exhibits supernumerary elements on the proximal and middle exopod segments and the middle and distal endopod segments. The increase of armature elements is regarded as a secondary phenomenon in copepod evolution and not as the result of character reversal. Other unique characters comprise the presence of an epicopulatory flap closing off the copulatory pore, the laterally displaced female gonopores and the paired copulatory ducts, the modified trilobate proximal endite of the maxilla, the fused labrum and labium (derived from the fused paragnaths) forming a well developed oral cone, the modified endopod of leg 2 and the transformation of the distal inner seta of P2-P3 enp-3 into a spine. The family is further characterized by the complete lack of sexual dimorphism on the swimming legs. The three genera can be differentiated primarily by the combination of P1 armature, structure of the outer exopod spines of P1, genital field morphology and segmentation of the male PS. The problematic status of Intercrusia is discussed. The new family is placed in the tisbidimorph complex of families and seems to occupy an intermediate position between the two free-living tisbid subfamilies Tisbinae and Idyanthinae. The biogeography of the family is briefly discussed