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I aim to understand how informal relationships at work provide a supportive context for individuals and contribute to their engagement in an environment of disruptive change when they are likely to be stressed.

The research was conducted in three UK public service organizations during pre-Brexit disruption. An app was used to capture 400+ transient emotions, reactions, and diary entries of employees about their interactions with co-workers, colleagues, and close colleagues. This was followed by 25 interviews to reflect more deeply on those relationships documented in the app.

Interactions with co-workers, colleagues, and close colleagues are shown to contribute in different ways to emotions felt and different aspects of engagement. Closer relationships, less transactional and more emotional in nature, contribute to feelings of trust, significance, and mutual reliance. A typology of four close colleague relationship types also emerged variously driven by the depth of the relationship and sense of shared mutuality.

This research documents employees' lived experience during disruption to show that relationships provide support for the meaningfulness, psychological safety, and availability aspects of personal engagement. It maps the process of developing supportive workplace relationships that form the relational context with four sub-contexts, distinguishing work, and personal engagement by their different foci. Practical and social implications are discussed.

We explore the role of workplace friendships as a lens for understanding the emotional element and relational context for personal engagement (Kahn, 1990). The review of engagement theory differentiates personal engagement, recognizing the role of emotions play in enabling individuals’ “preferred selves.” Workplace relationships and friendship provide a conceptual discussion of individuals in social and workplace roles in engagement, drawing on friendship, emotion, attachment theories, particularly Kahn’s work. A case study drawn from recent research illustrates our discussion before concluding with ideas for the development of a future research agenda in answer to recent calls for work on the social context of engagement.

In this chapter, we develop and present the Multi-Perspective Multilevel Model of emotional labor in organizations. This model is based on three perspectives: (1) a service requirement, (2) an intra-psychic process, and (3) an emotional display, each involving five levels of analysis: within-person, between persons, in interpersonal exchanges, in groups, and across the organization as a whole. Our model is differentiated from earlier characterizations of emotional labor in that we propose that the phenomenon begins with energy generation instead of energy depletion; and is neither a one-way nor a one-by-one service episode. We further proffer that the intra-psychic processes embedded in emotional labor represent a form of social self-regulation that impacts across multiple levels within service organizations. We conclude by discussing the implications and limitations of our model for emotional labor research.

An extensive radon remediation programme in National Health Service properties in Northamptonshire has been conducted since 1992 and has resulted in many buildings with raised levels being identified and remediated. In the autumn of 1997, several of the remediated properties were surveyed in order to determine the viability of the remedial measures and the dose reduction to staff. The initial assumption that reduction factors in radon levels would be greater than reduction factors in radiation dose per person was partially confirmed. This was due to the part‐time working patterns of staff and their mobility during working hours.

Billions of pounds worth of metal parts and assembled and part‐assembled machinery are stored and transported within, and exported from, the U.K. annually. It is a matter of general knowledge that, unless the correct steps are taken, corrosion will damage or effectively destroy a large proportion of these goods.

The assembly quality of complex products is pivotal to their lifecycle performance. Assembly precision analysis (APA) is an effective method used to check the feasibility and quality of assembly. However, there is still a need for a systematic approach to be developed for APA of kinematic mechanisms. To achieve more accurate analysis of kinematic assembly, this paper aims to propose a precision analysis method based on equivalence of the deviation source.

A unified deviation vector representation model is adopted by considering dimension deviation, geometric deviation, joint clearance and assembly deformation. Then, vector loops and vector equations are constructed, according to joint type and deviation propagation path. A combined method, using deviation accumulation and sensitivity modeling, is applied to solve the kinematic APA of complex products.

When using the presented method, geometric form deviation, joint clearance and assembly deformation are considered selectively during tolerance modeling. In particular, the proposed virtual link model and its orientation angle are developed to determine joint deviation. Finally, vector loops and vector equations are modeled to express deviation accumulation.

The proposed method provides a new means for the APA of complex products, considering joint clearance and assembly deformation while improving the accuracy of APA, as much as possible.

This paper considers the impact of the Investors in People (IIP) Standard upon small‐ to medium‐sized enterprises (SMEs) in the Midlands. The paper describes IIP, then considers the significance of SMEs and the impact of training and development in that sector. The paper then presents an analytical framework, firmly rooted in a literature review, that provides the basis for an examination of the reasons why SMEs might commit (or fail to commit) to IIP, the difficulties encountered and the benefits received. Our empirical findings are discussed in the context of this framework. These findings are based on questionnaire responses from almost 600 SMEs, and interviews with promoters of IIP. Some key responses are broken down according to size‐band and/or growth‐orientation. In addition, follow‐up interviews were conducted with selected firms, ranging from IIP enthusiasts to rejecters. This study therefore combines quantitative data with qualitative input. The attitudes and experiences of the respondents offer fresh insight into the appropriateness of IIP as an organisational development tool for the SME sector. The SME support network in England and Wales is undergoing a critical transition. The role of the Training and Enterprise Councils in promoting IIP to SMEs also comes under scrutiny, and our study has lessons for the promotion of IIP by the new learning and skills councils.

The purpose of this paper is to present a state‐of‐the‐art review of dimensional tolerance synthesis and to demonstrate the evolution of tolerance synthesis from product to process‐oriented strategy, as well as to compare the same for single stage and multistage manufacturing systems (MMS). The main focus is in delineating the different approaches, methods and techniques used with critical appraisal of their uses, applicability and limitations, based on which future research directions and a generic methodology are proposed.

Starting with issues in tolerancing research, the review demonstrates the critical aspects of product and process‐oriented tolerance synthesis. The aspects considered are: construction of tolerance design functions; construction of optimization functions; and use of optimization methods. In describing the issues of process‐oriented tolerance synthesis, a comparative study of single and multistage manufacturing has been provided.

This study critically reviews: the relationship between the tolerance variables and the variations created through manufacturing operations; objective functions for tolerance synthesis; and suitable optimization methods based upon the nature of the tolerance variables and the design functions created.

This study is limited to dimensional tolerance synthesis problems and evolution of process‐oriented tolerance synthesis to counteract dimensional variation problems in assembly manufacturing.

The paper provides a comprehensive and step‐by‐step approach of review of dimensional tolerance synthesis.

This paper aims to focus on increasingly entrepreneurial approaches to urban governance in the country’s second city Cork, where neoliberal strategy has driven uneven spatial development.

This paper combines insights from literature review with new knowledge derived from interviews with key informants in the city.

Post-colonial themes provoke a consideration of how uneven power dynamics stifle social innovation in the built environment.

Assembled narratives expose opaque aspects of governance, ownership and participation, presenting opportunities for rethinking urban vacancy through placemaking.

These draw on nuanced models for tourism as a platform for a broader discourse on rights to the city.

A century after independence, Ireland is recast as a leading small European economy, away from historical framings of a rural economic backwater of the British Empire.

The model of success is based on a basket of targeted investment policies and somewhat dubious indicators for growth.