Richard Green, Ian Dolphin, Chris Awre and Robert Sherratt
The purpose of this paper is to report on the work of the JISC‐funded RepoMMan project, which is developing a tool that will allow users to interact with a Fedora‐based…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to report on the work of the JISC‐funded RepoMMan project, which is developing a tool that will allow users to interact with a Fedora‐based institutional repository. The tool facilitates user interaction with the repository whilst developing content, using a browser interface, and will bring partial automation to the process of assigning metadata to objects, as they are made accessible to a wider audience.
Design/methodology/approach
The development of the RepoMMan tool is user‐needs‐driven and the project team has conducted face‐to‐face interviews and an online survey with potential research users. The findings from these parallel approaches have provided an insight into the needs of this group. Similar work will be undertaken with potential users in the teaching and learning community, and in administration. The RepoMMan tool utilises BPEL to orchestrate a range of web services.
Findings
Potential user needs are many and varied. The RepoMMan tool will be the basis for flexible user interaction with a repository during the development of materials; the web‐service approach also allows for the development of a range of ways to access repository objects appropriate to the needs of the content.
Originality/value
The results in this paper highlighted the potential value of a repository for general day‐to‐day purposes: the RepoMMan workflow tool is being designed to adapt to these purposes as required.
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Bashir Tijani, Xiao-Hua Jin and Osei-Kyei Robert
Design of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations expose project management practitioners (PMPs) to poor mental health due to the influence of…
Abstract
Purpose
Design of architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations expose project management practitioners (PMPs) to poor mental health due to the influence of project organization designs on project management activities assigned to the PMPs. The AEC project organization design comprises the integration of permanent organization, project organization and external environment layers. In spite of the link between project organization design and mental health, limited studies have examined the impact of permanent organization factors, project organization factors and external environmental factors on mental health management practices. Therefore, this study aims to examine the interactive relationships between permanent organization factors, project organization factors, external environment factors and mental health management indicators.
Design/methodology/approach
Four organizational theories: institutional theory, agency theory and resource-based theory were integrated to develop a theoretical model guiding the aim of the study. Eighty-two survey data were collected from PMPs in AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to test the relationships between the constructs.
Findings
The study found that mental health management indicators are predicted by the interactive and direct effects of permanent organizational factors, project organizational factors and external environmental factors. The results of the interactive effects of the factors and mental health management indicators revealed that 20 of 26 proposed hypotheses were supported. Based on the established hypotheses, economic factors, technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and organizational culture positively correlated with mental health management indicators. Likewise, human resources management (HRM), corporate governance, project governance and integrated project delivery (IPD) positively impact mental health management indicators. However, political factors, social factors, knowledge management and project management skills negatively impact mental health management indicators. Moreover, political factors, economic factors, technological factors, environmental factors, legal factors and organizational culture are positively related to corporate governance. Additionally, organizational culture positively impacts corporate governance, project governance and HRM, whereas project governance positively correlated with IPD and knowledge management.
Originality/value
The findings provide guidelines to AEC firms on achieving positive mental health management indicators through concentration on project organization design.
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In the good old days, before civilisation and artificial eating habits caught up with mankind, the majority of people in the world got all the Vitamin B and protein their bodies…
Abstract
In the good old days, before civilisation and artificial eating habits caught up with mankind, the majority of people in the world got all the Vitamin B and protein their bodies needed through micro‐organic foods. Before the discovery of tea and coffee as beverages, European man drank beer and ale, and the people of Africa, Asia and Australasia drank palm wines. These drinks were prepared by the use of micro‐organisms or fermentation, and supplied large quantities of high‐grade protein and Vitamin B, so essential for health and growth. With the discovery of food yeast and the proposed manufacture of this remarkable food in the British Colonies, the modern diet is going to be revolutionised. The manufacture of bakers' yeast is a simple process and has been known to man for hundreds of years. Into a certain weight of yeast is. introduced a solution of sugars, nitrogen and phosphates and this is allowed to multiply and grow until it has increased its weight fourfold. During this time air is pumped into the solution so the micro‐organisms can breathe, and at the end of nine hours the yeast in the vat is separated from the bulk of the used food solution, washed and pressed ready for use. Yeast has become in recent years increasingly popular as a food, and research workers, knowing the value of yeast in the diet to correct deficiencies, have not been idle in this field. For many years Dr. A. G. Thaysen, Ph.D., M.Sc., has been conducting experiments with yeast, and now, under the auspices of the Colonial Products Research Council, the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research is setting up a Micro‐biological Research Laboratory to carry out further experiments. As a result of visits to the West Indies by Sir R. Robinson and Professor Simonsen, it has been decided that this laboratory should be built in St. Clair, Port of Spain, where Dr. Thaysen will conduct experiments for an initial period of three years. Dr. Thaysen is of Danish origin, a naturalised British subject. He went to England early in 1914 to work at the Lister Institute on micro‐organisms, and when World War I. broke out the Admiralty secured his services for special war work. After the war he continued his research work with the Admiralty, and in 1936 his laboratory was transferred to the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Recently the Colonial Products Research Council, by arrangement with the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, secured Dr. Thaysen's services for the study of food yeast in the West Indies. Whereas bakers' yeast will only increase fourfold in nine hours, it has been possible to increase the weight of food yeast 64‐fold in the same time, and this yeast shows the same behaviour in its life cycle as is characteristic of all free living bacteria. The aim of these experiments is the manufacture of food yeast on an industrial scale, and some years ago a small pilot plant was started at Teddington, England, where some 100 to 150 lb. of food yeast could be produced weekly. With the experience gained at this plant, the Colonial Office has set up a commercial scale plant in Jamaica with funds provided under the Colonial Development and Welfare Act. Jamaica was chosen for the site of this first pilot plant in the West Indies because the West Indies Sugar Company had the available accommodation, surplus power and technical staff to manufacture food yeast economically, and also had adequate supplies of molasses, sugar and cane juice close at hand. A similar plant is under construction in India. In planning for a wide scale manufacture of food yeast it is necessary to select localities where there is an abundant and cheap supply of the necessary sugars or other carbohydrates. The West Indies and India, for instance, can supply molasses; Africa, maize and other grains; the Middle East, citrus fruit and carob beans; and Canada, Newfoundland and the United States, waste sulphite liquor from the manufacture of paper. Food yeast, as produced in the pilot plant, is a light, straw‐coloured flaky powder with a pleasant nutty or meaty flavour. It has a protein content of between 40 and 45 per cent., contains some 2 per cent. of phosphorus, a balanced proportion of Vitamin B, riboflavin and nicotinic acid, and is superior to liver and the various yeast extracts at present on the market. One ton of food yeast can be produced from 1·7 tons of sugar products or other carbohydrates. Food yeast has been fed successfully to livestock with remarkable results, and for human consumption it can be incorporated into flour for bread and biscuits and used for flavouring soups and stews. To quote Dr. Thaysen : “ It is essential to produce food yeast at the lowest possible price if it is to serve its primary purpose of supplying those sections of humanity who are least blessed with worldly riches with a wholesome and abundant protein and Vitamin B food.” In other words, it can well be seen that the discovery of food yeast is going to be one of the greatest contributions science has made in our own time, the atomic bomb notwithstanding, and with so many people in the world at the moment suffering from years of malnutrition in varying degrees, food yeast is going to be one of the Allied Nations' greatest contributions to the rehabilitation of the world and the immediate need to feed Europe, after years of war, can be faced confidently now that Jamaica is producing it in sufficient quantity.
Joseph Calandro Jr. and Paul A. Sherratt
The principles of value investing present an alternative way to strategically approach the challenges and opportunities generated from the global risk landscape.
Abstract
Purpose
The principles of value investing present an alternative way to strategically approach the challenges and opportunities generated from the global risk landscape.
Design/methodology/approach
The principles of value investing – based on the lessons learned from highly successful practitioners – can be distilled into six core managerial considerations.
Findings
In theory, the prescriptions of value investing appear straightforward, but executives need to augment their skillsets with those of both an astute investor and discerning banker, balance their attention between conventional and non-traditional sources of information, and exhibit the patience and grit to go against the herd and focus on longer-term compounded returns.
Practical implications
The concept of “rationality” is a way of monitoring executive behavior to ensure that stated goals, objectives and strategies reconcile to business actions over time.
Originality/value
Insights for corporate leaders, investors, M&A teams and activists. These six principles will likely be increasingly valuable during the challenging times ahead: Adding cost-effective resource allocation to the strategy tool kit. Conservative financing. Balancing non-traditional and traditional information. Clarity about the complexity of risk. Humility in times of uncertainty. Focusing on compounded returns.
Bashir Tijani, Xiao-Hua Jin and Robert Osei-Kyei
Architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations are under constant pressure to improve the mental health of project management practitioners (PMPs) due to…
Abstract
Purpose
Architectural, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations are under constant pressure to improve the mental health of project management practitioners (PMPs) due to complexity and dynamism involved in project management practices. Drawing on institutional theory, this research explores how external environmental factors, political factors, economic factors, social factors, technological factors, environmental factors and legal factors (PESTEL), influence mental health management indicators that contribute to positive mental health.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling method was used to collect survey data from 82 PMPs in 60 AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling was used to test the hypotheses based on 82 items of data collected from PMPs.
Findings
Overall, this study revealed interesting findings on the impact of external environmental factors on mental health. The hypothesized positive association between political factors and mental health management indicators was rejected. The data supported the proposed hypothetical correlation between economic factors and mental health management indicators and the influence of social factors on mental health management indicators. Moreover, a hypothetical relationship between technological factors and mental health management indicators was supported. The significant positive impact of environmental factors on mental health management indicators proposed was supported, and legal factors’ positive correlation on mental health management indicators was also supported.
Originality/value
Despite the limitations, the present findings suggest that all the external environment factors except political factors shape mental health management outcomes.
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Bashir Tijani, Xiaohua Jin and Robert Osei-Kyei
This conceptual paper aims to develop a multi-level mental health management framework for project management practitioners (PMPs) in architecture, engineering and construction…
Abstract
Purpose
This conceptual paper aims to develop a multi-level mental health management framework for project management practitioners (PMPs) in architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations through organizational design theories to extend current knowledge on mental health by revealing organizational, project and external environmental factors contributing to mental health management in AEC project organizations.
Design/methodology/approach
A systematic literature review was adopted to propose a theoretical model that integrated five organizational design theories: institutional theory, agency theory, resources-based theory (RBT), contingency theory and complexity theory.
Findings
The model reveals permanent organization, project organization and external environment factors for mental health management in AEC project organizations. It further proposed hypothetical interrelationships between elements of permanent organization, project organization, external environment and mental health management indicators to unravel the resultant effects of the interactions on mental health of PMPs.
Originality/value
This research contributes to the body of knowledge by developing a multi-level mental health management framework that identify and shows how combination permanent organization, project organization and external environment elements impact mental health of PMPs in AEC project organizations. It offers a model that offers guidance to practitioners on permanent organization and project organization management practices that can be implemented to improve mental health.
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Bashir Tijani, Xiaohua Jin and Robert Osei-Kyei
Due to the frenetic and dynamic working conditions ascribed to architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations, enormous research has addressed the poor…
Abstract
Purpose
Due to the frenetic and dynamic working conditions ascribed to architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) project organizations, enormous research has addressed the poor mental health propensity of project management practitioners (PMPs). However, research has not considered the distant factors related to organizational design causing poor mental health. Therefore, this study addresses the problem by integrating institutional theory, agency theory and resource-based theory (RBT) to explore the relationship between organizational design elements: project governance, knowledge management, integrated project delivery, project management skills and mental health management indicators. Examples of mental health management indicators include social relationships, work-life balance and project leadership.
Design/methodology/approach
Purposive sampling method was adopted to collect survey data from 90 PMPs in 60 AEC firms in Australia. Structural equation modelling (SEM) was utilized to test the relationship between the variables.
Findings
The research found that project governance, knowledge management and integrated project delivery are positively correlated to mental health management indicators. However, the research finding suggests that project management skills have a negative impact on mental health management indicators.
Originality/value
The findings offer guidelines to AEC firms on achieving positive mental health management outcomes through concentration on project governance, knowledge management and integrated project delivery. It further calls for a reconsideration of existing project management skills causing poor mental health management outcomes.
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Predicting the future is a risky business, and in retailing in particular it is especially hazardous. Which may be the reason why only one or two of the speakers at the Financial…
Abstract
Predicting the future is a risky business, and in retailing in particular it is especially hazardous. Which may be the reason why only one or two of the speakers at the Financial Times conference, “Retailing to 1996”, actually dared to prophesy. Nonetheless the two‐day conference, held in London in May, was valuable in that it put forward some useful analyses of current trends in retailing. The range of themes tackled was comprehensive; it included the changing consumer, the two‐nations syndrome, multi‐niche formulae, the specialists versus generalists debate, the emergence of the cellular household, out‐of‐town developments — and the retailer as entertainer! The 150 delegates comprised a wide range of interests — retailers, market analysts, technologists and property developers — and included our contributor, Michael Poynor.
GLASGOW was later by about one hundred and thirty years than some of the Scotch towns in establishing a printing press. Three hundred years ago, though Glasgow contained a…
Abstract
GLASGOW was later by about one hundred and thirty years than some of the Scotch towns in establishing a printing press. Three hundred years ago, though Glasgow contained a University with men of great literary activity, including amongst others Zachary Boyd, there does not appear to have been sufficient printing work to induce anyone to establish a printing press. St. Andrews and Aberdeen were both notable for the books they produced, before Glasgow even attempted any printing.