The development and current specification for the Shadow Hand and Arm project are described. The Shadow robot has human like movements and uses air muscles to replicate the action…
Abstract
The development and current specification for the Shadow Hand and Arm project are described. The Shadow robot has human like movements and uses air muscles to replicate the action of human muscles. This produces a robot mechanism that is compliant, intrinsically safe and suitable for use in direct contact with disabled and able bodied people.
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Eleonora Pantano and Kim Willems
In confining the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing was key, with traditional, bricks-and-mortar retailing being shut-down for weeks, and have nearly universally moved into…
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In confining the COVID-19 pandemic, social distancing was key, with traditional, bricks-and-mortar retailing being shut-down for weeks, and have nearly universally moved into online channels. At the same time, online players have started to operate physical stores. This chapter provides an analysis of how COVID-19 has accelerated the digitalization of retailing, focusing on the shift towards the online and mobile shopping channel. On the basis of success stories and failures in retail business practice, lessons are distilled for developing effective future phygital scenarios.
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Ian McEvoy has been appointed Director of Operations at DEK Printing Machines Ltd, Weymouth.
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Suggests that the end of the twentieth century may witness the end of modernity and that the post‐modern world of organizations will be driven by a new set of expectations. On the…
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Suggests that the end of the twentieth century may witness the end of modernity and that the post‐modern world of organizations will be driven by a new set of expectations. On the one hand certain trends are discernible as a result of globalization and on the other internal debates within Organizational Development will reshape intervention strategies through organizational learning and Human Resource Development.
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Recently, the author facilitated a particularly difficult organization development (OD) intervention with a private non‐profit organization. It was an organization whose staff and…
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Recently, the author facilitated a particularly difficult organization development (OD) intervention with a private non‐profit organization. It was an organization whose staff and governing board were deeply divided by interpersonal conflict. Although he tried to avoid it, the author found himself pulled into the politics of this organization. This intervention caused him to ask the question: Who is the client in an OD intervention? Is it the person who hired him? The entire organization? The organization's board? OD practitioners, as reflected in the academic literature, either provide conflicting views on this point or ignore the question altogether. Citing quotations from many prominent OD practitioners, including Golembiewski, Bennis, Burke, French and Bell, and Weisbord, the author searches for a definitive answer in the literature. In this paper, which is part literature review and part case study, he takes a critical look at the OD literature on this topic; ties OD to Jean Jacques Rousseau's concept of the general will; writes an in‐depth case study; and provides his reflections on this issue. The author concludes that within a highly politicized and contentious organization, it can be highly problematic for the OD practitioner to work for the organization as a whole, since he/she may, at times, be forced to take sides.