Search results

Manipulators are often subjected to joint flexibility caused by various causes in industrial applications, such as shaft windup, harmonic drives and bearing deformation. However, many industrial robots are only equipped with motor-side encoders because link-side encoders and torque transducers are expensive. Because of joint flexibility and resulted slow response rate, control performance of these manipulators is very limited. Based on this, the purpose of this paper is to use easy-to-install and cheap accelerometers to improve control performance of such manipulators.

First, a novel tip-acceleration feedback method is proposed to avoid amplifications of approximation errors caused by inversion of the Jacobian matrix. Then, a new control scheme, consisting an artificial neural network, a proportional-derivative (PD) controller and a reference model, is proposed to track motor-side position and suppress link-side vibration.

By using the proposed tip-acceleration feedback method, each link’s vibration can be suppressed correlatively. Through the networks, smaller motor-side tracking errors can be obtained and unknown dynamics can be compensated. Tracking and convergence performance of the network-based system can be improved by using the additional PD controller.

The originality is based on using accelerometers to improve link-side vibration suppression and control performance of flexible-joint manipulators. The previously used methods need expensive link-side sensors or accurate robot model, which is unavailable for many industrial robots only equipped with motor-side encoders. The report proposed a novel acceleration feedback method and used networks to solve such problems.

Despite its past economic success Brazil faces a serious shortage of experienced managers to plan, organise and direct its course into the future. Previously it has relied on other countries to develop its managers. The formation of the Instituto de Administracao e Gerenica (Institute for Administration and Management (IAG)) in the early 1970s is described, which now offers courses in executive development and management behaviour. Its approach is particularly effective in developing balanced executives and providing the more experienced manager with a broader education.

The purpose of this paper is to explore drawing as an instructional method to teach information literacy.

The authors describe their work using Collaborative Speed Drawing with students in a collection of information literacy workshops for students enrolled in English 100 (first-year composition). Examples of student drawings from the workshops are examined to demonstrate the benefits and problems of this teaching method.

Drawing is an excellent low-tech teaching method that helps students demonstrate their competence (or ignorance) of information literacy concepts. This method enables librarians to clarify, reinforce, challenge or change the pictures in student’s heads that underpin their understandings of library instruction and information literacy.

This article provides ideas on how to use drawing in information literacy sessions or credit courses. Many of the ideas shared can be copied, enhanced or tailored to meet the needs of diverse lessons and students taking face-to-face instruction sessions.

This is the first paper in library literature that focuses on and promotes drawing as a teaching method. In doing so, it challenges the high-tech instruction imperative and invites librarians to explicitly consider the images behind the words and concepts used in information literacy and library instruction sessions.

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) and corporate sustainability have gained prominence in the major capital markets. In Brazil, the São Paulo Stock Exchange (BM&FBovespa) has created the Corporate Sustainability Index (ISE) and the Carbon Efficient Index (ICO2), responsible for indicating the performance of sustainable companies. Therefore, this study proposes to examine and compare the stock returns of the sustainability index member companies with the returns of companies out of these indexes. In this methodology we selected the two principal negotiability indexes of that market (IBOV and IBrX50), which are indexes that meet the most traded stocks of BM&FBovespa, and calculated the average daily returns of the four indexes in order to make performance comparisons over the period 2005–2014, based on nonparametric statistical tests. Our findings indicate that the average returns of sustainability indexes were higher, but these differences were not statistically significant, confirming previous evidence. Additionally, by means of a cointegration test, we found that the indexes are cointegrated in the long term. These findings are limited to the analyzed emerging market and are also subject to the limitations of the estimated models. Thus, we can infer that presence in the sustainability indexes does not indicate statistically significant higher returns, which means that companies with sustainable practices in Brazil are not only concerned with economic performance, but also with social, cultural, and environmental issues. The main findings are aligned with the concept of triple bottom line, even in the case of an emerging market.

This article studies how experience and frequency of telework influence the acceptance and self-reported productivity of this mode of work in a context of pandemic-induced remote work.

The authors use a 2021 dataset of 542 professionals with previous or current experience in home-based telework. Two linear regression models are fitted using the willingness to telework and self-reported productivity as dependent variables.

The findings support the idea that previous telework specific experience and frequency of telework have a positive impact on the willingness to telework and self-reported productivity.

This paper questions the widely accepted idea according to which employees who telework occasionally experience the best outcomes. The authors have identified a “time after time” effect that shows the relevance of telework specific experience and frequency for the development of this mode of work.

COVID-19 placed millions of employees under work-from-home/telework. Employers intend extending telework for the long-term, anticipating business benefits. But the benefits are impacted by employees' well-being/ill-being, which is affected by the satisfaction of psychological needs. In turn, need satisfaction is influenced by employees' personal/job attributes. As work-from-home's blended environment disrupts routines, the satisfaction of the psychological need for structure or routines was examined in this study, along with the effect of personal/job attributes.

Cross-section primary data were collected from 500 teleworking information technology employees from India and analysed using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Vigour and exhaustion represented well-being and ill-being. Telework self-efficacy, standardised job, technology assistance and supervisor social support were the determinants or personal/job attributes. Need for structure satisfaction was the mediator.

Telework self-efficacy, technology assistance and supervisor social support were positively associated with structure satisfaction. In turn, structure satisfaction was related positively with vigour and negatively with exhaustion, and thus mediated between personal/job attributes and vigour/exhaustion. Standardised job did not affect vigour, exhaustion or structure satisfaction.

Need for structure is mostly studied as a trait, with implications of greater/lesser preference for structure examined. However, this work acknowledges structure as a basic ubiquitous need. Everyone needs some structure. Hence, need for structure is researched from the novel perspective of its satisfaction. This paper also uniquely combines job demands–resources model which identifies personal/job attributes, with concepts of epistemic which posit the need for structure.

The purpose of this paper is to study the preload range of tendon-driven manipulator and the relationship between preload and damping. The flexible joint manipulator (FJM) with joint flexibility is safer than traditional rigid manipulators. A FJM having an elastic tendon is called an elastic tendon-driven manipulator (ETDM) and has the advantages of being driven by a cable and having a more flexible joint. However, the elastic tendon introduces greater residual vibration, which makes the control of the manipulator more difficult. Accurate dynamic modeling is effective in solving this problem.

The present paper derives the relationship between the preload of the ETDM and the friction moment through the analysis of the forces of cables and pulleys. A dynamic model dominated by Coulomb damping is established.

The linear relationship between a decrease in the damping moment of the system and an increase in the ETDM preload is verified by mechanics analysis and experiment, and a curve of the relationship is obtained. This study provides a reference for the selection of ETDM preload.

The method to identify ETDM damping by vibration attenuation experiments is proposed, which is helpful to obtain a more accurate dynamic model of the system and to achieve accurate control and residual vibration suppression of ETDM.

We sought to examine the effect of responsible leadership on employee safety in the workplace both directly and indirectly through mediation effects of safety motivation and safety culture in the oil and gas industry in Ghana.

We employed a quantitative approach (survey) to collect data from 226 pump attendants of the fuel stations in the Accra Metropolis. This study used PLS-SEM to test the research hypotheses in the study.

Our findings show that leaders’ responsible behaviours had a positive and significant impact on both their employees’ wellbeing and safety as well as their motivation to adhere to safety standards and also imbibe a sense of safety culture in the workplace. Furthermore, the inclusion of safety motivation and safety culture as mediating variables reveal that leaders’ ability to achieve a robust workplace safety through responsible leadership was partially contingent on these organisational factors.

We highlight that leaders should continuously improve their responsible leadership behaviours and also the management of oil and gas companies should encourage managers to focus on day-to-day interactions with employees on safety-related matters (e.g. effectively inspiring and motivating employees to adhere to safety standards and procedures and applying sanctions when necessary).

This study answers the recent calls for a contingency perspective on the relationship between leadership styles and organisational/employee level outcomes by providing empirical support for our conceptual model which identifies safety motivation and safety culture as important organisational factors by which responsible leaders can positively influence workplace safety.

This qualitative study is grounded on in-depth interviews with 30 Western women self-initiated expatriate (SIEs) currently living and working in the UAE. When selecting the interviewees, the author used purposeful sampling to ensure a diverse sample of interviewees with respect to nationality, age, gender and occupation.

The present study, drawing on boundary theory, aims to investigate the work–life balance (WLB) of Western women SIEs regarding how these women construct and manage the borders between the non-work and work lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

The results demonstrate that women SIEs experience conflicts and enrichment during overseas employment. Both directions – the impact flowing from working life to personal life and vice versa – were significant. Different career and life phases appeared to be crucial to these experiences. The study also found that some women SIEs in the UAE experience high pressure in the WLB approaches, which are primarily impacted by the specific work–life environment in the UAE. Mostly, work–life boundaries are culturally and socially induced. Hence, many women SIEs encounter disparities between the robust work–life separations in the home country compared to the host country; women SIEs, therefore, need to relax the boundaries to adapt to the competitive work–life environment in the UAE.

The present study contributes to research on work–life boundary management approaches in local settings, such as UAE, by analyzing cross-cultural and individual dimensions. Moreover, although women are still a minority among SIEs, the number of women is increasing. As prior studies have mainly focused on male SIEs, more research is required focusing specifically on women with overseas jobs. The present study endeavors to fill this research gap.

Compared to wholly owned subsidiaries (WOSs), certain international organizational forms such as international joint ventures (IJVs) often fail. Moreover, associated expatriations to these organizational forms also regularly fail, which contributes to or exacerbates the problem described above. To address this issue, this article aims to investigate the effect of expatriates’ role conflict on their desire to terminate an international assignment and on venture performance, measured as managerial satisfaction, by comparing expatriates who are delegated to an WOS with expatriates who are delegated to an IJV.

Drawing on role theory, a vignette-based experimental study was conducted with role conflict and organizational form as experimental variables. After conducting two pilot studies, data were gathered by means of an online questionnaire targeting organizational assigned expatriates (AE) for the main study.

The results indicate that role conflict negatively influences managerial satisfaction with venture performance, but has no effect on expatriates’ desire to terminate an international assignment and show no moderating effect of the organizational form. Additionally, we found a significant direct effect of organizational form on managerial satisfaction with venture performance. Hence, participants were less satisfied with IJVs compared to WOSs.

Studies in international business research lack experimental investigations. This article addresses this deficiency for the presented topic by applying a vignette-based experimental approach, thereby drawing causal inferences. Moreover, we extend role theory to the context of IJVs and contribute to organization research, as this article is the first to make a comparison between WOSs and IJVs for the context of role conflict. Fertile opportunities for future re-search are also provided.