Rationalisation, flexibility and the impact of presenteeism on the working lives of senior managers in the UK

The writing‘s author demonstrates the impact of changes occuring as a consequence of flexible employment patterns on the position of senior managers, based on an empirical survey. To describe this, the conception of „survival syndrom“ seems to be the most apropriate: the managers wish to prove their commitment to their job by the length of time spent at work

Does An MBA Help Women? : A Comparative Study Of The Career Progress And Labour Market Position Of Part Time Male And Female MBA Graduates

This thesis aims to assess the extent to which an MBA helps women and to ascertain whether significant barriers persist, despite their qualification to their career development. It takes as its frame of reference the sex difference approach within liberal feminism, which argues that key differences between men and women explain their differential career progress, and the organisation- structure approach within radical feminism which emphasises the detrimental effects of structural features of the organisation and of power relations. To this effect a survey of 221 male and female MBA graduates was conducted. Results suggest that the extent to which an MBA helps women depends on the type of benefit in question. The MBA is beneficial to women in terms of intrinsic career factors such as credibility and confidence. The qualification also gives them higher personal status within the context of the formal organisation. However, men appear to benefit more than women in terms of extrinsic career factors such as pay and management level in that they progress further in their careers subsequent to the MBA. In terms of the sex difference approach, differences in individual characteristics between men and women were not found to be sufficiently strong to be able to explain their differential career progress. Instead women MBAs were found to experience hidden barriers relating to attitudes and culture and to be particularly disadvantaged within the informal organisational context. The thesis argues that the way these hidden barriers located within the informal context impact on women's progress within the formal organisation (the informal externality effect) explains their slower career progress subsequent to the MBA in relation to men. The level of disadvantage within the formal context created by these hidden barriers are likely to be greater if the organisation is male dominated, if the gender imbalance occurs at senior levels and if women occupy traditionally female and non powerful roles

Simulation and inference algorithms for stochastic biochemical reaction networks: from basic concepts to state-of-the-art

Stochasticity is a key characteristic of intracellular processes such as gene regulation and chemical signalling. Therefore, characterising stochastic effects in biochemical systems is essential to understand the complex dynamics of living things. Mathematical idealisations of biochemically reacting systems must be able to capture stochastic phenomena. While robust theory exists to describe such stochastic models, the computational challenges in exploring these models can be a significant burden in practice since realistic models are analytically intractable. Determining the expected behaviour and variability of a stochastic biochemical reaction network requires many probabilistic simulations of its evolution. Using a biochemical reaction network model to assist in the interpretation of time course data from a biological experiment is an even greater challenge due to the intractability of the likelihood function for determining observation probabilities. These computational challenges have been subjects of active research for over four decades. In this review, we present an accessible discussion of the major historical developments and state-of-the-art computational techniques relevant to simulation and inference problems for stochastic biochemical reaction network models. Detailed algorithms for particularly important methods are described and complemented with MATLAB implementations. As a result, this review provides a practical and accessible introduction to computational methods for stochastic models within the life sciences community

Motivation to become an entrepreneur: a study of Nigerian women's decisions

Purpose – The paper aims to draw on rational choice theory (RCT) to explore factors underpinning the decision by female entrepreneurs in Nigeria to enter self-employment. Design/methodology/approach – A survey research design involving the use of questionnaire and structured interviews to obtain primary data was adopted. Primary data pertain to 300 female entrepreneurs currently engaged in their businesses in three states within the south-west of the country. A model developed from reviewed literature and multivariate logistic regression analysis was used to analyse data. Findings – Findings suggest the significance of “educational” and “family” capital, an “internal” orientation to social recognition as well as an “external” environment characterised by deregulation of the economy. Results broadly conform to RCT theory postulates of rational behaviour. Research limitations/implications – Inter-regional variances could not be addressed since the data are analysed in aggregate. Analysis of disaggregate data are required to study these differences and also those at the inter-sector (manufacturing/services, etc.) levels. Practical implications – Results from the study indicate that the government measures such as de-regulation which may as yet be in small measures have started to work and that these should be continued. The government can go a step further and identify entrepreneurs with characteristics described in this paper and provide them with the requisite help to get them started on the entrepreneurship route. Originality/value – The study makes a theoretical contribution by applying the lens of rational choice to this specific context. It also makes an original empirical contribution by focussing on an under-researched group by examining the influence of personal, social, market and environmental factors on the probability of females becoming entrepreneur

The role of sustainability assessment in sustainability management for urban redevelopment

Sustainability assessment has the potential to influence decision making and hence to improve the management of sustainability. This paper presents the development and reporting of benchmark sustainability indicators and discusses the challenges of embedding sustainability indicators into existing process for urban infrastructure development. It links sustainability indicators with a range of tools that were implemented within a Sustainability Enhancement and Monitoring Framework for the £1billion redevelopment of Dundee Waterfront. The sustainability monitoring framework followed the UK and Scottish Government thematic indicator approach and provided a set of Sustainability Benchmark Indicators for assessing and managing a public sector funded urban redevelopment. The process of indicator development was iterative and consisted of three main activities, literature, interviews and document analysis. Indicators were finalised through close working with Dundee City Council, Scottish Enterprise and partnership stakeholders. The indicators were successfully established in 2010 within Dundee City Council at project and departmental level, providing the link across policies, programmes and projects. The indictor development process is discussed and the findings of a January 2015 review of changes in the benchmark indicators will be reported. The transition of the indicators over time and its impact on future sustainability enhancement opportunities are evaluated alongside the implications for sustainability management of Dundee Waterfront. The efficacy of the benchmark indicators to support sustainability management over the planned 30 year programme of urban redevelopment is discussed. The wider implications of the findings of the Dundee Waterfront project are reviewed in the context of current work on sustainability assessment

Major project team learning:examining building information modelling

The speed of technological advancement of software development drives the need for individual and team learning to exploit these developments for competitive advantage. Using a major long term redevelopment as a case study a review of learning processes and project team learning in the context of a voluntary approach to adopting of BIM prior to 2016 is examined. The speed of adoption of BIM across a large redevelopment project covering several years is variable and the differences of preparedness between team members from different organisations raises the question of how effective the project team can be in sharing learning and increasing the speed of adoption of BIM. The benefits of understanding the project environment as a formal learning context are recognised where teams are working in partnering arrangements but the focus is usually on post project review of what went wrong with little time to critically evaluate other variables. Knowledge Management has the potential to help understand and then facilitate greater participation amongst stakeholders in project team learning. The research team undertook decision mapping and knowledge elicitation techniques and applied these to the Dundee Waterfront to identify key factors relevant to successful project management, enabling the Waterfront Project Team to understand current practice. The effectiveness of project team learning in relation to BIM within this long-term major redevelopment is influenced by positive motivational drivers for individuals to learn how to use and apply BIM, the level of organisational support for learning and professional development and the project information and communication systems. In practice the current approach to sharing of knowledge within the project team indicates a fragmented approach in relation to the adoption and application of BIM to managing construction projects

The micro-evolution and transfer of conceptual knowledge about negative numbers

Children’s failure to re-use knowledge will continue to be problematic until processes that contribute to conceptual growth are better understood. The notion that conceptual knowledge, soundly constructed and reinforced, forms the basis of future learning, as the learner uses it unproblematically to make sense of new situations in related areas, is appealing. This thesis will show this to be an overly simplistic view of learning, failing to take sufficient account of fine-grained processes that contribute to the micro-evolution of knowledge and of connections between cognition and other factors. Much previous research focused on abstraction as key to learning. This thesis examines the role of abstraction in the development of mathematics concepts by children aged 8-9 years, using negative numbers as a window on their development of knowledge in a new domain. The assumption, prevalent in the literature, that abstraction is a requirement for transfer of knowledge is questioned. Three research questions are explored: 1. What resources shape the nature of transfer and the growth of knowledge about negative numbers? 2. What is the role of the interplay of resources in the microtransfer of knowledge about negative numbers? 3. What is the relationship between abstracting and transferring knowledge about negative numbers? Methodology is based on a case study approach, initially recording the work of 3 small groups of children throughout a series of tasks and using progressive focusing techniques to create two case studies which are analysed in depth. The thesis reports how the extent of conceptual development about negative numbers was influenced by interpersonal and intrapersonal learner characteristics, and describes a complex interplay between cognitive and affective factors. Micro-transfer and intermediate abstractions, and reinforcement of the connections that these construct, are found to be crucial for conceptual growth, though abstraction is not a condition for transfer at the micro-level

Reconciling transport models across scales: the role of volume exclusion

Diffusive transport is a universal phenomenon, throughout both biological and physical sciences, and models of diffusion are routinely used to interrogate diffusion-driven processes. However, most models neglect to take into account the role of volume exclusion, which can significantly alter diffusive transport, particularly within biological systems where the diffusing particles might occupy a significant fraction of the available space. In this work we use a random walk approach to provide a means to reconcile models that incorporate crowding effects on different spatial scales. Our work demonstrates that coarse-grained models incorporating simplified descriptions of excluded volume can be used in many circumstances, but that care must be taken in pushing the coarse-graining process too far