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This paper aims to investigate methods of implementing in‐process fault avoidance in robotic friction stir welding (FSW).

Investigations into the possibilities for automatically detecting gap‐faults in a friction stir lap weld were conducted. Force signals were collected from a number of lap welds containing differing degrees of gap faults. Statistical analysis was carried out to determine whether these signals could be used to develop an automatic fault detector/classifier.

The results demonstrate that the frequency spectra of collected force signals can be mapped to a lower dimension through discovered discriminant functions where the faulty welds and control welds are linearly separable. This implies that a robust and precise classifier is very plausible, given force signals.

Future research should focus on a complete controller using the information reported in this paper. This should allow for a robotic friction stir welder to detect and avoid faults in real time. This would improve manufacturing safety and yield.

This paper is applicable to the rapidly expanding robotic FSW industry. A great advantage of heavy machine tool versus robotic FSW is that the robot cannot supply the same amount of rigidity. Future work must strive to overcome this lack of mechanical rigidity with intelligent control, as has been examined in this paper.

This paper investigates fault detection in robotic FSW. Fault detection and avoidance are essential for the increased robustness of robotic FSW. The paper's results describe very promising directions for such implementation.

The purpose of this study is to explore managers' understanding of workplace health promotion (WHP) and experiences of WHP activity within small and medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in a Health and Social Care Trust area of Northern Ireland. The paper aims to focus on engagement with activities within the context of prevention of ill‐health and health protection, lifestyle issues and working culture and the environment as defined in the Luxembourg Declaration on WHP.

A Heideggerian interpretive phenomenological methodology is adopted, using in‐depth telephone interviews with a purposive sample of 18 SME managers. Data are analysed using Benner's strategy for data analysis.

“Levels of awareness of WHP activity” are revealed as a central theme and interpreted as “high awareness activities”, including the need to: preserve and protect employee health and safety, prevent ill‐health and injury and promote employees' quality of daily living, and “low awareness activities”, including the provision of training and development, human resource management and environmental considerations.

An “Iceberg” model, grounded in the data, draws attention to the limited awareness of what constitutes WHP activities and the untapped meaningfulness of organisational and environmental activities.

The important series of mechanical charging systems known generally as Indicators, have never been fully described, either from the historical or structural standpoint. Papers describing one or other of the individual varieties have been published from time to time during the period of thirty‐six years they have been in use, but except the partial notices of a select few published by Mr. F. J. Burgoyne and myself, nothing of a comprehensive or accurate nature has ever appeared. Before proceeding to describe each separate invention in its order, it may be well to enquire briefly into the reasons for the origin of a device which has called forth not a little ingenuity and inventive talent. When libraries were first established under the provisions of the various Acts of Parliament, two things happened as a matter of course in every district: a building, suitable or otherwise, was provided; and, the readers in a town increased in number to an enormous and unprecedented extent. Straitened means generally led to the provision of a cramped and inconvenient building, in which the space set apart for books was often ridiculously inadequate; with the result that lofty shelves were the rule, which secured economy of storage at the expense of rapidity of service. Previous experience in mechanics' institutes, or similar libraries, was found by the new librarian a useless criterion for public library needs, and especially as a guide to the multitude of readers and the variety of their demands. Delays in service occurred continually and the poor librarian was often abashed or offended at the freely expressed scepticism with which the public received his reports of books being out. From these factors was evolved the idea of the indicator, which by and by took practical shape as a machine for saving the legs of the librarian and his assistants from frequent and fruitless climbs to high shelves, and enabling readers to satisfy themselves that books were actually in use. The original indicators were intended only for showing, by means of numbers, the novels which were out or in, but since then a considerable number of libraries have applied them to all classes.

The purpose of this study is to present a comprehensive review of the fundamental concepts and terminologies pertaining to different types of aluminium metal matrix composites, their joining techniques and challenges, friction stir welding (FSW) process, post-welding characterizations and basic control theory of FSW, followed by the discussions on the research reports in these areas.

Joining of aluminium metal matrix composites (Al-MMC) poses many challenges. These materials have their demanding applications in versatile domains, and hence it is essential to understand their weldability and material characteristics. FSW is a feasible choice for joining of Al-MMC over the fusion welding because of the formation of narrow heat affected zone and minimizing the formation of intermetallic compounds at weld interface. The goal in FSW is to generate enough thermal energy by friction between the workpiece and rotating tool. Heat energy is generated by mechanical interaction because of the difference in velocity between the workpiece and rotating tool. In the present work, a detailed survey is done on the above topics and an organised conceptual context is presented. A complete discussion on significance of FSW process parameters, control schemes, parameter optimization and weld quality monitoring are presented, along with the analysis on relation between the interdependent parameters.

Results from the study present the research gaps in the FSW studies for joining of the aluminium-based metal matrix composites, and they highlight further scope of studies pertaining to this domain.

It is observed that the survey done on FSW of Al-MMCs and their control theory give an insight into the fundamental concepts pertaining to this research area to enhance interdisciplinary technology exploration.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a theoretical model of leadership and knowledge creation by drawing on two contrasting diversity perspectives. The model argues a moderating role for leadership in explaining the influence of diverse composition on team knowledge creation.

A model of leadership's impact on knowledge creation is developed based on an interdisciplinary review of literature spanning the creativity, innovation and learning literature, diversity management, top management team demography and upper echelons literature and learning from transformational leadership research.

The main contribution of this paper is the development of a model of transformational leadership's impact on knowledge creation in diverse teams based on a series of propositions. Focusing on the information/decision‐making perspective, our model depicts the role of leadership in facilitating constructive cognitive effects on knowledge creation. From the social categorisation perspective our model depicts the role of leadership in mitigating against destructive emotional barriers to group effectiveness.

This paper's review and model indicate significant implications for future research and practice. The model provides a better understanding of the effects of transformational leadership on knowledge creation. The paper present justification for two pathways, cognitive and affective, through which leadership moderates the impact of diversity on team outcomes. By examining the model and its proposed relationships, we believe that it will enable researchers to shed new light on these issues for further investigations.

This review is among the first to address the role of transformational leadership in diverse teams, and one of the only papers to connect leadership, diversity and knowledge creation.

This paper aims to explore the impact discourse has on decision making practices within the boardroom and considers how personal proficiency in micro-language use can enhance an individual’s personal efficacy in influencing boardroom decisions. The work uses Habermas’ theory of communicative action to critique board talk, highlighting the need for greater understanding of the power of everyday taken for granted talk in strategy shaping. It illuminates the contribution that human resource development (HRD) professionals can make to the management of such behaviour and minimising dysfunctional behaviour and enabling effective boardroom practices.

Traditional governance theory from a business and organisational perspectives are provided before considering the boardroom environment and HRD’s role. The authors undertake ethnographic research supported by conversation analysis to explore how directors use talk-based interpersonal routines to influence boardroom processes and enact collective decision making. The authors provide one extract of directors’ talk to illustrate the process and demonstrate what the data “looks like” and the insights it holds.

The analysis suggests that the established underlying assumptions and rationale ideologies of corporate governance are misplaced and to understand the workings of corporate governance HRD academics and professionals need to gain deeper insight into the employment of talk within boards. Armed with such insights HRD professionals can become more effective in developing strategies to address dysfunctional leadership and promote good governance practice throughout their organisation.

The work raises a call for HRD to embrace a societal mediation role to help boards to become a catalyst for setting good practice which is strategically aligned throughout the organisation. Such roles require a more dialogical, strategic and critical approach to HRD, and professionals and academics take a more holistic approach to leadership development.

The paper considers the role of the development of HRD interventions that both help individuals to work more effectively within a boardroom environment and support development to shape a boardroom culture that promotes effective governance practice by influencing boardroom practice thereby promoting strong governance and broad social compliance throughout the organisation.

The enduring popular image of James Bond is (in the words of the theatrical trailer for Dr No) ‘the gentleman agent with the licence to kill’. Yet the screen Bond is hardly a hero in the manner of gentlemanly archetypes such as Cary Grant and David Niven (reputedly Ian Fleming’s preferred choice for the role). This chapter will explore how the image of Bond in the films has changed over time both in response to wider social and cultural archetypes of masculinity and due to the different performance styles of the various actors to play the role: Sean Connery, whose rough-hewn Scottishness can be seen as a means of representing the ‘otherness’ of Fleming’s character (‘Bond always knew there was something alien and un-English about himself’); George Lazenby, whose one-off appearance as an emotionally damaged Bond in On Her Majesty’s Secret Service anticipated later portrayals of the character; the parodic variant of Roger Moore; the brooding Byronic hero of Timothy Dalton; the ‘Milk Tray Man’ charm of Pierce Brosnan; and Daniel Craig, whose combination of bull-in-a-china-shop physicality and vulnerable masculinity (literally so in Casino Royale) has by common consent successfully transformed Bond from a cartoon superman into a twenty-first century action hero.