Shut the fridge door! HRM alignment, job redesign and energy performance

Anchored within the strategic HRM and alignment literature, and drawing on efficiency and legitimacy perspectives of organisational behaviour, we investigated a Human Resource Management (HRM) intervention targeted at energy reduction goals in a large multinational retailer. The HRM intervention was focused on embedding the environmental and economic performance goals of the firm within the workplace through redesigning the job so that energy tasks were aligned with training and performance management systems, as well as organisational performance goals. Using a randomised control trial design, we tracked changes in energy behaviours and energy consumption in 769 retail stores (685 in the intervention condition, 84 in the control condition). The findings provide evidence that changing the alignment of HRM practices can influence both worker behaviour and organisational outcomes, including environmental outcomes. This work contributes to debates concerning the impact of HRM alignment to both the work and organisational performance context

Replacing a Swiss ball for an exercise bench causes variable changes in trunk muscle activity during upper limb strength exercises

BACKGROUND: The addition of Swiss balls to conventional exercise programs has recently been adopted. Swiss balls are an unstable surface which may result in an increased need for force output from trunk muscles to provide adequate spinal stability or balance. The aim of the study was to determine whether the addition of a Swiss ball to upper body strength exercises results in consistent increases in trunk muscle activation levels. METHODS: The myoelectric activity of four trunk muscles was quantified during the performance of upper body resistance exercises while seated on both a stable (exercise bench) and labile (swiss ball) surface. Participants performed the supine chest press, shoulder press, lateral raise, biceps curl and overhead triceps extension. A repeated measures ANOVA with post-hoc Tukey test was used to determine the influence of seated surface type on muscle activity for each muscle. RESULTS & DISCUSSION: There was no statistically significant (p < .05) difference in muscle activity between surface conditions. However, there was large degree of variability across subjects suggesting that some individuals respond differently to surface stability. These findings suggest that the incorporation of swiss balls instead of an exercise bench into upper body strength training regimes may not be justified based only on the belief that an increase spinal stabilizing musculature activity is inherent. Biomechanically justified ground based exercises have been researched and should form the basis for spinal stability training as preventative and therapeutic exercise training regimes. CONCLUSION: Selected trunk muscle activity during certain upper limb strength training exercises is not consistently influenced by the replacement of an exercise bench with a swiss ball

Towards an understanding of configurational and national influences on international integration in the HR function in MNCs

The human resource (HR) function plays a critical role in how multinational companies (MNCs) centralise decision-making or coordinate and exploit expertise internationally. However, there has been limited attention on the extent to which the HR function in MNCs is integrated internationally and the influencing factors behind this. Using nationally representative, cross-country comparative data, this paper identifies the degree to which internationally integrated HR functions exist and test the extent to which this is shaped by the strategy, structure and nationality of the MNC. We demonstrate the multidimensionality of an internationally integrated HR function; with the structural configuration, level of inter-dependencies between MNC operations and country of origin each partially impacting its nature. A key implication concerns the need to move beyond solely focusing on either nationality as per institutionalist theory, or corporate strategy and structure as characterised in the strategic international HRM literature, towards an integrated explanation that incorporates both sets of factors

The First Whole Genome Sequence and Characterisation of Avian Nephritis Virus Genotype 3

Publication history: Accepted - 27 January 2021; Published - 3 February 2021.Avian nephritis virus (ANV) is classified in the Avastroviridae family with disease associations with nephritis, uneven flock growth and runting stunting syndrome (RSS) in chicken and turkey flocks, and other avian species. The whole genome of ANV genotype 3 (ANV-3) of 6959 nucleotides including the untranslated 5’ and 3’ regions and polyadenylated tail was detected in a metagenomic virome investigation of RSS-affected chicken broiler flocks. This report characterises the ANV-3 genome, identifying partially overlapping open reading frames (ORFs), ORF1a and ORF1b, and an opposing secondary pseudoknot prior to a ribosomal frameshift stemloop structure, with a separate ORF2, whilst observing conserved astrovirus motifs. Phylogenetic analysis of the Avastroviridae whole genome and ORF2 capsid polyprotein classified the first complete whole genome of ANV-3 within Avastroviridae genogroup 2.This research was partially funded by the Department of Agriculture, Environment & Rural Affairs—Code PG 13/02, and the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute (AFBI)—Code 44955

Research Plan 2023–2025

Snow avalanches are a frequent and significant natural hazard in Norway. Each year, avalanche events result in fatalities, evacuations, interruptions, and damage to infrastructure networks such as roads, railways, and electrical transmission lines. This combines to a substantial impact on the livelihoods of the people living and working in mountainous areas or also along the fjords in Norway. Persistent avalanche hazard in steep terrain is a major factor considered during land-use planning and development. During the snow season, variations in the avalanche danger identified in regional and site-specific bulletins influence the operation of the transportation networks and the safety of workers in these areas. Applied research on avalanches and their societal impacts has been conducted at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute (NGI) since 1973. The year 2023 will mark the 50 years anniversary of this research project. The research has been funded in part by an annual grant from the Norwegian parliament administered by the Norwegian Water Resources and Energy Directorate (NVE). Recent research activities have improved our understanding of avalanche formation, movement and impacts from avalanches. For example, enhanced knowledge of the individual processes leading to avalanche initiation, avalanche dynamics and avalanche impacts have been applied to develop tools for prediction of avalanche events, runout distance and impact pressures. While much has been accomplished within the avalanche research community in recent years, many key questions remain. Research in this area becomes increasingly important as a changing climate will vary the frequency and behaviour of avalanche events. In addition, the transfer of resent research outcomes into common practise is an ongoing challenge which needs continuous attention. This project plan will: Present the research goals for the 2023–2025 period. Outline the project organisation. Present the work-package structure and specific research tasks to be undertaken by the applied avalanche research group at NGI over the next three years.NVE (Norges vassdrags- og energidirektorat

Sustaining and Embedding:A Strategic and Dynamic Approach to Workplace Wellbeing

Much research on practices to improve workplace health and wellbeing focuses on specific ‘interventions’ or combinations of ‘interventions’. In this stream of research, an intervention is a specific and discrete organisational action mandated by management with a planned and specific target. However, organisations typically can and do adopt multiple workplace health and wellbeing practices in a strategic and evolving programme. In the current chapter, we outline a model of how organisations sustain, embed and change patterns of workplace health and wellbeing practices over the longer term in coherent and strategic programmes. We suggest that this adaption of programmes is especially relevant in the current turbulent era we find ourselves in, post-Covid

Subcritical and supercritical granular flow around an obstacle on a rough inclined plane

A blunt obstacle in the path of a rapid granular avalanche generates a bow shock (a jump in the avalanche thickness and velocity), a region of static grains upstream of the obstacle, and a grain-free region downstream. Here, it is shown that this interaction is qualitatively altered if the incline on which the avalanche is flowing is changed from smooth to rough. On a rough incline, the friction between the grains and the incline depends on the flow thickness and speed, which allows both rapid (supercritical) and slow (subcritical) steady uniform avalanches. For supercritical experimental flows, the material is diverted around a blunt obstacle by the formation of a bow shock and a static dead zone upstream of the obstacle. Downslope, a grain-free vacuum region forms, but, in contrast to flows on smooth beds, static levees form at the boundary between the vacuum region and the flow. In slower, subcritical, flows the flow is diverted smoothly around the dead zone and the obstacle without forming a bow shock. After the avalanche stops, signatures of the dead zone, levees and (in subcritical flows) a deeper region upslope of the obstacle are frozen into the deposit. To capture this behaviour, numerical simulations are performed with a depth-averaged avalanche model that includes frictional hysteresis and depth-averaged viscous terms, which are needed to accurately model the flowing and deposited regions. These results may be directly relevant to geophysical mass flows and snow avalanches, which flow over rough terrain and may impact barriers or other infrastructure

International human resource management in multinational companies: Global norm making within strategic action fields

The formation of global norms that affect work is a crucial element to how multinational companies (MNCs) achieve a degree of HR integration internationally. We establish a ‘strategic action fields’ framework to guide research into global norm-making in MNCs in general and for analysing the work of those that we term ‘globalising actors’—those who are active in globalising a firm's management of its human resources—in particular. We position our framework with relation to existing research in international human resource management, and show how the field can benefit from achieving an approach to global norm-making that is contextualised, personalised and contested