The aim with this article is to discuss how changes in technology at workplaces engender both change and restoration of gender constructions within the context of underground mining. The discussions are formed around a constructed case based on material from gender and organizational studies of large-scale industrial mines in different countries, most of them from Sweden. New technologies such as digitalization and automation together with new organizational forms engender changes in mining work, e.g., new types of work tasks, new competence demands, and a move from underground to high-tech control rooms aboveground. One main observation is that the changes challenge the old and recalcitrant blue-collar mining masculinity. On the one hand, the organizational resistance and “lagging” seemed to result in re-gendering and restoration of the male dominance. On the other hand, there were tendencies to adaptation in the workplace cultures, including new ways of forming mining masculinities, perhaps even undoing of gender. The main conclusion is that the most probable development lies somewhere in-between and by analyzing such complex processes of gender, technology, and change future research can get more knowledge of changes of gender constructions in working life.

Purpose

In Sweden, gender mainstreaming policies have a long political history. As part of the national gender equality strategy of the Swedish forest industry, the ten largest forestry companies committed themselves to gender mainstream their policies. Limiting the impact of policies and the agency of change, the purpose of this paper is to focus on the varied and conflicting meanings and constitution of the concepts, the problem and, in extent, the organisational realities of gender mainstreaming.

Design/methodology/approach

In both, implementation and practice, gender mainstreaming posse challenges on various levels and by analysing these documents as practical texts from the WPR-approach. This paper explores constructions of gender and gender equality and their implications on the practice and the political of gender mainstreaming in a male-dominated primary industry.

Findings

The results show that the organisations themselves were not constituted as the subject of the policy but instead some of the individuals (women). The subject position of women represented in company policy was one of lacking skills and competences and in the need of help. Not only men and the masculine norms but organisational processes and structures were also generally invisible in the material. Power and conflict were mainly absent from the understanding of gender equality. Instead, consenting ideas of gender equality were the focus. Such conceptualisations of gender equality are beneficial for all risk concealing power structures and thereby limit the political space for change.

Originality/value

By highlighting the scale of policy and the significance of organisational contexts, the results indicate how gender and gender equality are constitutive through the governing technologies of neoliberal and market-oriented ideologies in policy – emphasising the further limiting of space for structural change and politicalization within the male-dominated organisations of Swedish forest industry.

Annually, more than ten million people in all age groups in the world experience an acquired brain injury (‘ABI’), which is a brain injury caused after birth by external forces (e.g. motor vehicle accidents) or certain internal factors (e.g. stroke). Brain injury survivors are often left with long-term impairments in cognitive, social, or emotional functioning. Despite a promising outset, research on the effectiveness of philosophical dialogues as an educational method for persons with ABI to increase their cognitive, social, and emotional functioning has, to our knowledge, been virtually non-existent. The present research project targets this and uses a pretest-posttest and mixed-method triangulation design and attempts to measure effects of two small-scale interventions carried out in the northern part of Sweden. In this text, the project’s research design, data production, and data processing are described. 

The mining industry safety production situation is becoming more and more severe in China with safety accidents occurring frequently, which is closely related to insufficient safety investments and unreasonable distribution. Additionally, it does not keep in line with the main purpose of occupation health and safety management system (OHSAS18001).In order to carry on the reasonable scientific disposition to the safety investments of the mining industry, increase safety investments efficiency and satisfy the requirements of OHSAS18001, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is adopted to calculate the safety investments, loss and output. Firstly, the analysis software MYDEA of DEA is used to calculate the results to obtain the evaluation result of safety benefits. Secondly, the target value of the improvement work in the aspect of investment is achieved by method of projection analysis when the decision making unit (DMUj0) of non DEA efficiency is changed into DEA efficiency. Lastly, it can be obtained on the basis of grey relational analysis (GM) that the investment amount of safety management and training of employees has the highest relation on the effective safety benefits of the mining industry. Thus, the investment of safety management and training of employees should be strengthened. This kind of empirical method of comprehensive model provides a direction and theoretical reference for safety investments benefits analysis and optimized investment structure, and a structure for the effective operation of mining industry occupational health and safety management system

In order to effectively evaluate the relationship between safety investments and accident impact losses in the mining occupational health and safety management system, a grey relational analysis model is established. Firstly, 4 firstgrade indicators including safety technical measures fee etc. and 23 second- grade ones including ventilation system etc. are established. Secondly, by calculating the grey relational analysis between the variables of the data sequence and the system characteristic variables, analysis results of advantages and the evaluation ones are obtained. Finally, the model is validated by case study. The results demonstrate that the investments of safety technical measures and safety management and training have a great impact on the accident losses. The quantitative analysis of safety investments and losses is realized by the model, which provides the direction for the enterprise's strategic investments and reduces the economic losses.

Cleaner production assessment is a measure of the state and level of cleaner production, also a necessary method of promoting cleaner production in enterprises. For the purpose of the improvement of cleaner production of enterprises, improved Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) model and grey relational analysis (GRA) are used to assess the same nature of the three enterprises of one group with seven quantitative indicators concordant with the Cleaner Production Report. The results are consistent with the clean production reports from three enterprises, which show that the integrated methods are feasible and objective, and can be used as a tool for internal cleaner production assessment.

Studien belyser hur gymnasielärare retrospektivt uppfattar att de förberetts för sitt yrke under lärarutbildningen. Enkätsvar från 1554 gymnasielärare kategoriserades efter den tidsperiod då de examinerades. Frågan om hur väl förberedda de nyexaminerade lärarna var för sitt yrke kopplas till de nationella reformer som styrde lärarutbildningen under den period som läraren studerade. Medan utbildningen i praktisk yrkeskunskap uppfattas ha försämrats över tid, har andra områden förbättrats. Lärosäte hade inte något samband med respondenternas svarsmönster. Slutsatsen är att utbildningsreformerna har samband med förändringar i utbildningens måluppfyllelse, att förbereda lärarstudenter för sitt yrke, samt att utbildningens anpassning till yrkets krav försämrats över tid.

Vehicle automated driving systems, capable of performing all dynamic driving tasks are profoundly changing the traffic environment. With increased automation the vehicles are gradually becoming artificial agents that act and interact in conjunction with human agents, creating a pristine social context. This paper addresses the interaction between ‘pedestrian-vehicle’ and ‘driver-vehicle’. The idea is to make interaction as humanlike as possible, to increase safety and a positive user experience. We suggest that concepts describing social attunement in human-human interaction also can be applied to human-vehicle interaction. Social attunement implies a scenario where human and vehicle share intentions, infer goals of the interaction partner, are mutually predictable, and understand performance limitations. Furthermore, we propose the use of an in-vehicle avatar interface to assist in this interaction. A reason for using an avatar is that it can be hypothesised that the user can interact more naturally with an anthropomorphic artificial agent. 

The purpose of this paper is to sketch a taxonomy describing various team leader interventions, as a consequence of interferences occurring at group meetings. The taxonomy is intended to serve as foundation for future research, methodology and test development. Sixteen Swedish business organisation leaders participated in the case study. The study consisted of ten fictitious scenarios, implying interferences concerning goal achievement. The participants were to propose interventions to the different situations. Based on the results, six categories of interventions were identified: control, inform, initiate, await, support, and explore. The categories corresponded to classical leadership theories. Furthermore, fictitious group scenarios seem to provide information about leadership thinking and interventional styles concerning team work. Scenarios also seem to measure something different than traditional assessment instruments do. This is in accordance with social personality theory, emphasising that personality assessments should not be decontextualised by excluding information concerning the situations in which people are acting.

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to discuss conditions for workplace learning (WPL) in relation to temporary agency staffing (TAS), focusing on temporary and regular nurses’ experiences of social relations.

Design/methodology/approach

Data were gathered using qualitative semi-structured interviews with five agency nurses and five regular nurses. Thematic analysis was used to analyse the data.

Findings

Similarities and differences regarding conditions for WPL among “temps” and “regulars” emerged, pointing towards both challenges and opportunities for WPL on various levels. Moreover, although challenges stood out, the context of professional work provides certain opportunities for WPL through, for example, knowledge sharing among nurses.

Research limitations/implications

Results are valid for the interviewees’ experiences of WPL conditions. However, the findings may also have currency in other but similar workplaces and employment circumstances.

Practical implications

Client organisations and temporary work agencies could benefit from developing management and HR strategies aimed at strengthening the opportunities for WPL, related to professional work, to ensure that these opportunities are leveraged fully.

Originality/value

This study adopts a WPL perspective on TAS in the context of professional work, which is still rare.

Vad är genusdriven social innovation och vilken betydelse har det för nytänkande organisations- och samhällsutveckling? Det är de frågor som denna orienteringsbok ska belysa. Samtidigt som Sveriges, EUs och OECDs nya innovationspolitik uppmuntrar utvecklingen av sociala innovationer för att hantera aktuella samhällsutmaningar såsom arbetslöshet, fattigdom, demografiska förändringar m.m. och allt fler forskare har börjat studera denna sorts innovation saknas det tillräcklig kunskap och erfarenhet kring denna typ av innovationer ur ett genusperspektiv. Den långa traditionen av att i svensk forskning, politik och praktik synliggöra, analysera och förändra genusmönster i organisationer och samhälle kan användas som en språngbräda för att utveckla sådan kunskap. Genom att ge praktiska exempel på genusdriven social innovation i Sverige ska denna orienteringsbok öka förmågan hos landets innovationsfrämjande aktörer att stötta förverkligandet av socialt nytänkande idéer för jämställdhet i näringslivet, arbetslivet, kulturlivet, privatlivet etc. I slutet av boken analyseras hur exemplen bidrar till en jämställd samhällsutveckling genom sina innovativa sätt att identifiera behov, utveckla lösningar och skapa förändring.

VAD ÄR SOCIAL INNOVATION I NORRBOTTEN? Det är den fråga som denna orienteringsbok ska besvara. Boken ger särskilt exempel på hur social innovation – i betydelsen av nya varor, tjänster metoder m.m. som är utvecklade på ett socialt inkluderande sätt och som leder till social förändring – kan vara en väg till jämlik och jämställd regional tillväxt. De exempel som presenteras i boken har hämtats från en rad olika organisationer och verksamheter i Norrbotten, med särskilt fokus på Sunderby folkhögskola, Hushållningssällskapet i Norrbotten, Hela Sverige Ska Leva Norrbotten, Coompanion Nord, Winnet Norrbotten och Magma.

This article describes the origins of and changes in Swedish prior learning assessment (PLA/validering) poli-cies since the mid-1990s. The article argues that a key event in this history, the Adult Education Initiative of 1996, was implemented in direct response to significant changes in the Swedish labor market, and that PLA, a “process of structured assessment,” then was called on as a way to recognize unacknowledged work skills. The main course for Swedish PLA has been to lift the educational levels of the low-educated unemployed, thus opening up educational paths that previously did not existed for this and other groups. But during these years, other purposes have been stressed, for example during the recession around 2008 and 2012 where PLA was lifted up as a tool to enhance labor market transitions, and in 2015 during the great migration from especially Syria, it was seen as a way of assessing and recognizing foreign acquired knowledge and skills in order to both integrate newcomers and fill vacancies in trades that lacked skills. The article shows that over the last two decades, both the focus and strength of PLA discussions and implementation in Sweden have varied. In the recent 2015 National Delegation for Validation, for example, the government renewed its inter-est in PLA policy as a means of making knowledge and skills visible. The question of whether this promise can be realized is taken up throughout the article.

This report is a literature review of international research focusing on safety culture and safety management practices in the construction industry. More specifically, we discuss how the term “safety culture” can be understood in relation to the broader term “organizational culture” and that there is an intimate connection between the two. Furthermore, we conclude that much of the research takes a normative approach when studying safety culture in the sense of assuming that culture has a certain direction, i.e. that it aims at safety. It is less common that researchers take an interpretative perspective on safety culture where culture, in itself, is viewed as a complex phenomenon that cannot necessarily be controlled or managed in a certain direction. We argue that further studies in the field should also prioritize interpretative perspectives since it would contribute to a more nuanced view on safety culture, e.g., through qualitative methodological approaches such as ethnography. Finally, based on the results of previous research, we suggest a number of activities that can be introduced to the safety training park outside of Arlanda, Stockholm, as a way of strengthening their proactive safety work.

The purpose of this study is to anazlye accidents occurring in the Swedish construction industry focusing specifically on the situation in the individual trades. The article includes all occupational accidents with at least one day of absence from work that were reported to the Swedish Social Insurance Agency for the year of 2016. The results, focusing on accident cause, injured body parts, as well as accidents per weekday, month and age, show that although the trades share commonalities regarding occupational accidents a number of trade-specific problem areas stand out. With this in mind, conclusions are drawn regarding the situation in each respective trade and suggestions are made for future studies focusing on accidents in construction industry trades.

The increasing presence of robots in society necessitates a deeper understanding into what attitudes people have toward robots. People may treat robots as mechanistic artifacts or may consider them to be intentional agents. This might result in explaining robots’ behavior as stemming from operations of the mind (intentional interpretation) or as a result of mechanistic design (mechanistic interpretation). Here, we examined whether individual attitudes toward robots can be differentiated on the basis of default neural activity pattern during resting state, measured with electroencephalogram (EEG). Participants observed scenarios in which a humanoid robot was depicted performing various actions embedded in daily contexts. Before they were introduced to the task, we measured their resting state EEG activity. We found that resting state EEG beta activity differentiated people who were later inclined toward interpreting robot behaviors as either mechanistic or intentional. This pattern is similar to the pattern of activity in the default mode network, which was previously demonstrated to have a social role. In addition, gamma activity observed when participants were making decisions about a robot’s behavior indicates a relationship between theory of mind and said attitudes. Thus, we provide evidence that individual biases toward treating robots as either intentional agents or mechanistic artifacts can be detected at the neural level, already in a resting state EEG signal.

Today’s highly integrated product development practices emphasize the need to transform the engineering education from disciplinary to transdisciplinary. This paper is based on the results of an empirical study designed to introduce a common transdisciplinary design process in engineering education. It aims to validate the hypothesis that engineering disciplines in education share a common engineering design process. It describes the methodology for the development of a Transdisciplinary Engineering Design Education Ontology (TEDEO) for eight major engineering disciplines. It proposes a high-level transdisciplinary engineering design process that consolidates a diverse array of engineering terms and concepts into a generalized model.

This paper examines a digital employee-oriented innovation program at a global IT-firm. It addresses the research question: how is the generation and promotion of employee ideas organised by the management, and what are the behavioural implications in terms of participation of such an organising? Drawing on the literature on inclusive innovation and employee-driven innovation, the authors explore the extent to which ordinary employees are included in innovative processes at work. The critical discourse analysis of written and spoken text exposes inclusiveness concerning the managements’ production and distribution of innovation discourse in the initial phases of the program. However, the analysis simultaneously reveals considerable excluding elements in the ordinary employees’ consumption of this discourse in its latter phases, particularly regarding the parallel discourses “we are all innovators” and “the single winning entrepreneur”.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to advance knowledge about the mechanisms behind, and the implications of, varying involvement in digitally enhanced employee-driven innovation (EDI) by studying how a firm integrates a web-based tool in the organization of its EDI process. Design/methodology/approach: Based on a qualitative in-depth interview study with managers and employees at one high-performing and one low-performing office of a global IT firm, a critical discourse analysis was performed. It explored how the EDI discourse was produced, distributed and consumed in relation to the web-based tool for collecting and selecting employee ideas. Findings: The results demonstrate that the production of the innovation discourse by the top-level management, which emphasizes client satisfaction rather than employee engagement, restricts the employees’ utilization of the digital platform that distributes the discourse. However, at the high-performing office, employee participation is ensured because the local managers act as co-distributors of the digital tool. Research limitations/implications: The single case study design limits the generalizability of the results, but is nevertheless relevant for understanding the mechanisms and implications in similar contexts where web-based tools are used to enhance EDI processes. Practical implications: The study provides practical insights into the importance of local management’s active promotion of digital tools in order to ensure employee involvement. Originality/value: The study contributes to the EDI literature by identifying some mechanisms behind and the implications of varying employee involvement in digitally enhanced EDI processes.

There is a critical gap in understanding how meso-scale team processes - interactions between individuals in a team - develop in design teams and specifically how they dynamically balance design with managerial effort. We treat this deficit by contrasting two in-depth cases using work sampling data. We identify a number of contributions. First, we describe how design team processes display both goal/action and temporal heterogeneity. Second, we demonstrate how this heterogeneity is underpinned by common principles that consistently shape team processes in design. Specifically: proportional goal/action composition and recurring process patterns over time. Finally, we describe how these principles can be integrated via ‘archetypal process types’. Together, these substantially extend prior theory and point to specific implications for future design research.

Effective social interactions rely on humans' ability to attune to others within social contexts. Recently, it has been proposed that the emergence of shared representations, as indexed by the Joint Simon effect (JSE), might result from interpersonal coordination (Malone et al., 2014). The present study aimed at examining interpersonal coordination in cooperative and competitive joint tasks. To this end, in two experiments we investigated response coordination, as reflected in instantaneous cross-correlation, when co-agents cooperate (Experiment 1) or compete against each other (Experiment 2). In both experiments, participants performed a go/no-go Simon task alone and together with another agent in two consecutive sessions. In line with previous studies, we found that social presence differently affected the JSE under cooperative and competitive instructions. Similarly, cooperation and competition were reflected in co-agents response coordination. For the cooperative session (Experiment 1), results showed higher percentage of interpersonal coordination for the joint condition, relative to when participants performed the task alone. No difference in the coordination of responses occurred between the individual and the joint conditions when co-agents were in competition (Experiment 2). Finally, results showed that interpersonal coordination between co-agents implies the emergence of the JSE. Taken together, our results suggest that shared representations seem to be a necessary, but not sufficient, condition for interpersonal coordination. 

Additive Manufacturing (AM) provides several benefits for aerospace companies in terms of efficient and innovative product development. However, due to the general lack of AM process understanding, engineers face many uncertainties related to product qualification during the design of AM components. The aim of this paper is to further the understanding of how to cope with the need to develop process understanding, while at the same time designing products that can be qualified. A qualitative action research study has been performed, using the development of an AM rocket engine turbine demonstrator as a case study. The results show that the qualification approach should be developed for the specific application, dependent on the AM knowledge within the organization. AM knowledge is not only linked to the AM process but to the complete AM process chain. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the manufacturing chain during design and to develop necessary knowledge concurrently with the product in order to define suitable requirements. The paper proposes a Design for Qualification framework, supported by six design tactics. The framework encourages proactive consideration for qualification and the capabilities of the AM process chain, as well as the continuous development of AM knowledge during product development.

In recent years, reducing cost and lead time in product development and qualification has become decisive to stay competitive in the space industry. Introducing Additive Manufacturing (AM) could potentially be beneficial from this perspective, but high demands on product reliability and lack of knowledge about AM processes make implementation challenging. Traditional approaches to qualification are too expensive if AM is to be used for critical applications in the near future. One alternative approach is to consider qualification as a design factor in the early phases of product development, potentially reducing cost and lead time for development and qualification as products are designed to be qualified. The presented study has identified factors that drive qualification activities in the space industry and these “qualification drivers” serve as a baseline for a set of proposed strategies for developing “Design for Qualification” guidelines for AM components. The explicit aim of these guidelines is to develop products that can be qualified, as well as appropriate qualification logics. The presented results provide a knowledge-base for the future development of such guidelines.

Qualification of components and processes is crucial for implementing additive manufacturing (AM) as part of a company’s manufacturing process portfolio. Currently, extensive research is ongoing in industry and academia to understand the capabilities and limitations of AM in order to enable qualification. For critical structural components, understanding the impact of the AM process and material on mechanical properties is essential. While an overall logic for qualification of AM parts is sought for, the complexity of these multidisciplinary end-to-end manufacturing processes requires comprehensive knowledge to be built in the pursuit of such a logic. As part of this work, GKN Aerospace is using demonstrator hardware to mature the AM process.

While early expectations on AM often considered it as a universal manufacturing process, the hype has now subdued and it is generally accepted that AM is not suitable for all products. However, in the cases where AM is a good match, it has potential for cost and lead time reduction, while maintaining performance and reliability. GKN has identified liquid rocket engine turbines with highly loaded parts, complex designs, and that are manufactured in low volumes, as a perfect fit for AM. Currently, GKN is designing a new ultra-low-cost turbine demonstrator relying on three objectives; (1) low number of components, suppliers and processes, (2) robust design, and (3) efficient manufacturing. The fully laser powder bed fusion (LPBF) manufactured turbine demonstrator scheduled for engine test in 2020, is an important step in the GKN AM technology demonstration for highly loaded aerospace parts. The verification and demonstration of the AM turbine rests on three pillars; (i) material data, (ii) analysis, and (iii) hardware. Analytical verification using AM material data is the foundation in the verification of the AM turbine. To support this, material testing is an important part of verifying the AM material, as is component testing to check design margins in relation to prediction. Additional testing includes traveler specimens or structures built simultaneously as the full part. Non-destructive inspection of components and travelers verify material quality, and destructive inspections validate the results from non-destructive inspections.

This paper presents the use of this verification approach on a LPBF turbine, where correlation of material data, component testing and inspection to analyses are discussed. Furthermore, conclusions are drawn on future needs for the development of a qualification logic for serial production AM hardware.

The use of metal Additive Manufacturing (AM) has increased in recent years with potential benefits for novel design solutions and efficient manufacturing. In order to utilise these potentials, engineers need to address uncertainties related to product design and the AM process. This paper presents a design process utilising product-specific AM Design Artefacts (AMDAs) to assess uncertainties identified during design. The process emphasises the importance of concurrently developing the product and AM knowledge. Based on a research collaboration with industry, three case studies describe the use of this process in the development of products for AM. In total, six different types of AMDAs show how AM-related uncertainties are resolved to provide confidence in design solutions and manufacturability. The contributions of this paper are: (i) a design process where AMDAs are used as support in evolving and defining an AM design specification, (ii) an example of how Design for AM (DfAM) is practiced in industry and of typical AM uncertainties that are encountered and addressed, and (iii) an example of how collaborative research can facilitate new knowledge for both industry and academia. The practical implication is a DfAM process for engineers to use and adapt according to existing AM knowledge.

The engineering design community needs to development tools and methods now to support emergingtechnological and societal trends. While many forecasts exist for technological and societal changes,this paper reports on the findings of a workshop, which addressed trends in engineering design to 2040.The paper summarises the key findings from the six themes of the workshop: societal trends, ways ofworking, lifelong learning, technology, modelling and simulation and digitisation; and points to thechallenge of understanding how these trends affect each other.

The master thesis aimed to investigate issues regarding work environment with additive manufacturing and related technologies for development of Defence applications. The project background emerged from FOI’s (Swedish Defence Research Agency) interest in additive manufacturing inside of a transportable container-like facility. They envisioned a solution that could be more independent of conventional logistics, aid in repair/maintenance purposes and reduce spare part inventory. FOI issued the project for a deeper understanding of work environmental issues from an Industrial Design Engineering perspective regarding additive manufacturing in Swedish environments. The purpose was to come up with a list of risks and solutions while the goal was to create a production design to visualize concept ideas.

The project used industrial design methodology, which has human needs in the center of development by utilizing four steps. Project planning, to establish a purpose and a plan as well as structuring time and resources. Context immersion, so that the user needs and current situation could be identified. The context included two study visits of traditional workplaces interested in the technology and one benchmarking interview for practical information about additive manufacturing, as well as literature study to further investigate risks with 3d-printing. Then the third step was ideation, to come up with solution proposals producing a process chart summarizing the user tasks, risks and possible solutions together. Finally an implementation step of using the ideas by creating a Sketch-Up model to visualize the results.

The results were a mapping of the process that a user of the additive manufacturing container solution would experience and a categorization of it into five general steps. First “computer desk” which involved all the computer related tasks such as CAD, which regarded ergonomic design and ergonomic risk awareness of office work. Then “Setup” which assessed the risks of setting up a few common types of plastic 3d-printers and running them. This considered material handling (powder), hazardous gases, noise and chemical risks. Thirdly “Cleanup” that referred to taking care of a part after its been printed including several printing methods, this would assess issues regarding removal of support material and maintenance of the 3dprinters. Then “Post-processing” to adapt the produced part after application which was deemed too broad and uncertain to investigate outside of a specific practical case because of the potentially immense variety of uses for different applications. Lastly “External factors” aiming at Swedish environments such as cold winters and different geographical contexts such as the marine, air or field environment. The results were summarized in the chart of appendix 4. Safety equipment and printer enclosures were some of the common solutions to risks but powder material handling was particularly important due to imposing the most serious health risk. The individual ventilation, noise pollution and post-processing needs could be accurately determined by a practical case, this should consequently be investigated further during practical testing of additive manufacturing inside the container solution proposal.

Today, there are a lack of studies focusing on the relationship between occupational complexity and executive functioning. This is noteworthy since executive functions are core aspects of cognitive processing. The present study was aimed to investigate if three occupational complexity factors (with data, people, and things) of main lifetime occupation were related to performance in executive tasks (inhibition, switching, updating). We analyzed cross-sectional data that were available for 225 participants aged 50–75 years. Results from structural equation models showed that higher complexity levels of working with data were related to lower error rates in the updating component of cognitive control. In addition, higher rates of complexity working with people was associated with lower error rates in task-switching, which also persisted after adjustment of fluid intelligence. Complexity with things, however, was not related to performance in the executive tasks. Future studies would benefit from a longitudinal design to investigate if the results from this study also hold in the long term and to further investigate the directionality between factors.

The devolution of public sector schooling systems has been a feature of education reform since the 1980s. In Western Australia, the Independent Public School (IPS) initiative has recently been installed, announced by the state government in 2009. Now over 80% of the state’s public school students attend IP schools. Drawing on interview data from a broader study of devolution and the conditions of teachers’ work, this article explores the cases of two schools – one IPS and one non-IPS. While both schools were ostensibly disadvantaged, they proved to be highly contrasting schooling sites, responding to the school marketplace in markedly different ways. We consider the ways in which the IPS initiative is contributing to the operation of market dynamics within the public school sector in WA, and argue that it has created new mechanisms for the residualisation of particular, and specifically non-IP, schools. Furthermore, while one school was apparently more of a ‘winner’ within the school marketplace, as it was attracting increasing student enrolments, we query what it might actually mean to ‘win’ in such a policy settlement, with staff at both schools reporting significant dissatisfaction in their work.

Memory is facilitated by reflecting upon, or revisiting, the environment in which information was encoded. We investigated these “context reinstatement” (CR) techniques to improve the effectiveness of facial composites – visual likenesses of a perpetrator’s face constructed by eyewitnesses. Participant-constructors viewed a face and, after a one-day-delay, revisited (Physical CR) or recalled the environmental context (Mental/Detailed CR) before recalling the face and constructing an EvoFIT or a PRO-fit composite. Detailed CR increased correct naming of ensuing composites, but only when participant-constructors suitably encoded the environment. Detailed CR was also effective when combined with another interviewing technique (Holistic-Cognitive Interview), with focus on a target’s character; it was no more effective prompting constructors to engage in greater environmental recall. Analyses indicate that the Detailed CR advantage was mediated by an increase in face recall. Results are applicable by forensic practitioners to aid eyewitness memory, thereby potentially increasing suspect identification and subsequent arrest rates.

Apparent from the latest pandemic, the dynamics and rate of change in society accelerate on a global scale. Ongoing mega-trends in society, such as digitalization, sustainability, and servitization, fundamentally changes the conditions for manufacturers when developing and providing new products. This study clarifies the combined impact and consequences on product development capabilities in manufacturing firms of the three mega-trends: (i) digitalization, (ii) sustainability, and (iii) servitization. The research is based on a pre-study, complemented with a semi-structured interview study at small, medium-sized, and large Swedish-based manufacturing companies, and a systematic literature review. The research makes evident that the main challenge is to empower engineers and development teams to model, present, evaluate, and develop expected and smart digitalized solutions in a time-limited environment and prioritize the most resource efficient and sustainable solution. Therefore, four complementary support resources are suggested: (i) a knowledge management platform, (ii) a data management platform, (iii) a set of criteria and metrics measuring progression, and (iv) support methods and tools to define, model, and evaluate solutions. When integrated into a digital platform, developers can simultaneously access and process the necessary information needed for sustainable, digitalized, and servitized solutions.

Abstract and Keywords  The thesis concerns different conceptions of rationality and their implications for organisations, especially in the public sector. The focus is on performance management (as widely defined) within public sector organisations as a subject for exploring these issues. This has long been controversial because seemingly simplistic approaches to performance management persist, despite well recognised shortcomings, such as a tendency to perverse incentives and unintended outcomes.  Therefore, in the kappa, I analyse the notion of instrumental rationality, examine the established critique of instrumental rationality from a ‘political’ perspective and present the dilemma that this creates; i.e. how to improve processes of resource allocation and performance evaluation, while recognising organisational realities such as imbalances in power. The potential of communicative rationality as an alternative conceptualisation of rationality in organisations is then discussed.    The development of public sector management from the fiscal crises of the 1970s is explained, with the rise of the ‘New Public Management’ based on neo-liberal ideas, and the subsequent opposition to it from ‘New Public Governance’ and ‘New Public Services’ paradigms. These potentially give more scope to participative and deliberative processes of generating performance measurement packages and control systems. Moreover, in practice, particularly interesting examples of participatory approaches have been found in developing countries which align with communicative rationality. A critical position is adopted in the thesis, seeking to challenge ‘managerialist’ orthodoxies.  As a theoretical guide to understanding these issues, conceptual frameworks from the management control literature are used. Broadbent and Laughlin’s (2009) conceptual model of performance management systems has been of particular value. They draw on Weber and Habermas to distinguish between instrumental and communicative rationality models and between transactional and relational performance management systems. This enables them to identify two distinct ideal types of ‘rationality clusters’ (instrumental and communicative) to which organisations will incline. They also contend that contingent factors influence where actual organisations are located between these two ideal types.          7  The four papers I have selected for the licentiate from my various publications report on research carried out in three different public sector settings using different methods of investigation. Paper 1 considers the approaches to resource allocation and performance measurement then used by English Health Authorities at the time of writing. In Paper 2 an evaluation carried out at an English police service, utilising cost-consequences analysis, is described and discussed. Papers 3 and 4 concern a performance management regime for the English ambulance service, which became noted for promoting perverse incentives and ‘gaming’, and its subsequent replacement. The first two papers foreground issues of rationality and the last two issues of performance management; but these topics are interrelated and are relevant throughout. It is argued in all the papers that comprehensively ‘rationalistic’ approaches are flawed and that participation, deliberation and dialogue between stakeholders are desirable.

This doctoral thesis critically examines the role of performance management in public sector organisations. In particular, it explores how performance management relates to different concepts of rationality (instrumental, value and communicative), including issues around rationality and power, and the relationship between these concepts and various models of participation and democracy. In it, theoretical accounts of public sector management, particularly the New Public Management (NPM) and New Public Governance (NPG) are analysed; theoretical accounts of democracy, including deliberative democracy and agonistic pluralism, are investigated; and conceptual contributions from the accounting and management control literature are discussed.

This thesis builds on one for which a Licentiate in Philosophy was awarded in 2019 (Heath, 2019). That thesis concerned the nature of instrumental and communicative rationality and their implications for public sector organisations, especially in connection with performance evaluation. The role of performance management has long been controversial in the public sector because of the prevalence of imposed performance regimes with well-known perverse incentives and unintended consequences; which, nevertheless, are recurring problems. It was concluded that such regimes persist despite their limitations because they seem to legitimise public services through claims to instrumental rationality. However, a more deliberative and participatory approach to performance management, enacting communicative rationality, could have distinct advantages over the more commonly applied methods.

The issues raised there are investigated here in greater theoretical depth, with the key ideas advanced further and to a higher level of analysis. In order to do this, the four papers selected for the Licentiate are enhanced by a further three papers, chosen specifically for this doctoral thesis. All the papers referred to are based on research using a range of methods which had been carried out in various public sector settings. Thus the doctoral thesis comprises: Paper A (about higher education); Paper B (about ambulance services) and Paper C (about public services generally but drawing particularly on ambulance services). Paper A concerns the views of HR professionals in UK Universities on how their role contributes to organisational effectiveness and especially to organisational change. Paper B focuses on cultural transformation and perpetuation in ambulance services and explores the relationship between cultures, performance measures and organisational change.  Paper C examines performance measurement within the public sector and the problems that can be encountered, with special reference to the English ambulance service. Although all the cases are drawn from England, international research has also been examined in the thesis.

Themes of democracy, rationality and power, public governance, and accounting and performance management are explored. The analysis of these themes draws particularly on Broadbent and Laughlin’s (2009) conceptual framework of performance management systems. Their model distinguishes between two ideal types: the instrumental rationality cluster is associated with rational-legal authority and transactional performance management systems and the communicative rationality cluster with reflexive authority and relational performance management systems.

Simplistic, imposed performance management regimes are a feature of the NPM, which is seen here as a neo-liberal response to the fiscal and legitimacy crises of the 1970s. This places public sector organisations near the instrumental rationality cluster, but it is proposed that many of them might belong closer to the communicative rationality cluster. This points to attempts to bring participation, deliberation and discourse into public management and accountability. It is contended that, although adopting Deliberative Democracy in a ‘pure’ form may be utopian, combinations of representative and participatory democracy might be developed, reflecting contingent factors and path dependency. Participatory Budgeting is one practical example of this. In addition some forms of the NPG are conducive to it.

The papers selected for the two theses are written from a critical-interpretive perspective. This perspective focuses on how accounting affects and is affected by organisational behaviour and political and social institutions, rather than seeing it as a neutral and purely technical instrument. The work anticipates the call of Steccolini (2019) and Steccolini et al. (2020) for interdisciplinary studies in public sector accounting. Moreover, it forms part of the ‘turn’ to social theory in the academic accounting literature identified by Jack (2017). The thesis makes its particular contribution to the literature by demonstrating the potential of democratic and participatory approaches to enhance performance management in the public services; whilst recognising complexity and contingency. 

Tidigare forskning visar att ideella organisationer har en lång tradition av att utveckla nytänkande lösningar på behov och utmaningar i samhället. På senare år har det blivit allt vanligare att beskriva detta i termer av innovation, i samband med att nytänkande lösningar efterfrågas på aktuella samhällsutmaningar och de globala hållbarhetsmålen i Agenda 2030. Där ses ideella organisationer som en viktig innovationskraft utifrån deras allmännyttiga och medlemsnyttiga syften, förankring i civilsamhället , ideella insatser, med mera. Allt fler forskningsstudier undersöker hur innovationsutveckling går till i ideella organisationer i Sverige och internationellt. Med detta kapitel vill vi bidra till denna kunskapsutveckling genom att utforska den ideella sektorns innovativitet inom utbildning och lärande, vilket vi valt att kalla för pedagogisk innovation. Syftet är att öka insikten i hur ideella organisationer bidrar till personlig, organisatorisk och samhällelig utveckling genom nytänkande pedagogik. Det är relevant att studera eftersom kunskap och lärande kan antas vara en förutsättning för förnyelse. Dessutom har tidigare forskning om pedagogisk innovation sällan studerat just ideella organisationer. Syftet uppnås genom en explorativ studie där erfarenheter från ett urval av ideella organisationer i Sverige används för att skapa en initial bild av hur pedagogisk innovation kan förstås i den ideella sektorn. Genom en abduktiv ansats vägleds analysen av organisationernas egna förståelser av pedagogisk innovation och tidigare forskning om innovation i den ideella sektorn.

Esports are a rapidly growing phenomenon and understanding of factors underlying game performance are therefore of great interest. The present study investigated the influence of satisfaction of basic psychological needs (competence, autonomy, and relatedness), type of motivation (amotivation, external regulation, introjected regulation, identified regulation, integrated regulation, and intrinsic motivation), and number of matches played (time on task) on individuals’ performance on a matchmaking rating (MMR) in the video game Defence of the Ancients 2 (Dota 2). Collected data from 315 participants was included in the analyses. A web-based questionnaire was used to collect data and structural equation modelling (SEM) was performed to analyze the data. The results show that perceived competence and autonomy were the only significant predictors of MMR performance beyond matches played. Fulfillment of relatedness, as well as motivational factors, were not found to be predictors of MMR scores. The strong effect of matches played, used as proxy of time on task, emphasize the effect of time and practice as a critical aspect of video-game expertise.

The aim of the paper is to foster a discussion in the engineering design community about its understanding of the innovation phenomena and the unique contribution that comes from engineering design. The paper reports on the dialouge originating from a series of workshops with participants from different backgrounds in engineering design, systems engineering, industrial design psychology and business.

Definitions of innovation are revisited as used in business, management and engineering design contexts. The role of innovation is then discussed related to product development from (i) the management perspective, (ii) a systems architecture perspective and (iii) in relation to sustainable development as one driver of innovation.

It is argued that engineering design has a central role in how to realise the novelty aspect of innovation and often plays a critical role in maturing these into the valuable products, and there is a need to articulate the role of engineering design in innovation to better resonate with the business and management research. 

This paper investigates the impact of the three mega-trends (1) digitalisation (2) sustainability and (3) servitisation on design and development capabilities in manufacturing companies. First, technological advancements have created both product opportunities, and new aids, captured in e.g. the Industry 4.0 paradigm, and intensively driving digitalisation of businesses, that, besides the technological challenges, cause new challenges and problem areas, such as information ownership and shared long-term responsibilities. Second, the need for sustainable solutions increases the focus on the design of circular, resource efficient and radically new technological solutions to be designed with a total life cycle perspective in mind, through use phase, repair and overhaul, until recycling and end-of-life. Third, and finally, the classical roles for suppliers, integrators and users are being changed as servitisation and Product-Service Systems (PSS) offerings affect both products and businesses, and ultimately entire value networks with new constellations of business partners contributing to the realization of solutions for customers. This paper builds on a conceptual literature review to identify relevant information about the three trends regarding their impact on design and societal development. In addition, a semi-structured interview study was conducted to investigate possibilities and challenges that four different types of manufacturing companies perceive today with respect to the mega-trends, and more specifically how these trends impact the design and development capabilities in the studied companies. Results from this empirical study show that digitalisation is viewed as an opportunity to find new solutions to meet customer needs and be competitive at the future market. Sustainable Product Development (SPD) was instead primarily to fulfil requirements and legislation. However, it was clear that some manufacturers start to see market forces as a driver. PSS can be seen as a means to create new solutions, often with digital tools as facilitator. Altogether, the literature study and the empirical data show that increasingly, designers are expected to design entire solutions, as opposed to merely artefacts. This implies that designers need to consider not only the product performance and cost, but products’ and solutions’ behaviour and impact over complete life cycles, developed and organized by business networks together with several suppliers and other partners with different capabilities. The basis for the designer is a technology mix comprising services, software, electronics and hardware, bundled into offerings in new business models, interlinked with new digital opportunities. Moreover, it is clear that the three trends do not represent stand-alone perspectives but affect one another in an intertwined way. To achieve long-term effects, the sustainability issues need to be integrated with many other subject areas, and implemented simultaneously as digital solutions, e.g. digital twins to physical artefacts are conceived, and value creating networks are being built up. Obviously, these three trends affect the need for change in product design capabilities and escalate the challenges of the integrated product development viewpoint, in a way that is difficult to master for individual engineers. Support for design and development work is needed that takes into account the mega-trends digitalisation, sustainability, and servitisation.

Chinaʹs mining enterprises are confronted with insufficient safety investments, insufficientsafety benefits, recurrent occupational diseases and accidents, low level of safety riskmanagement, and many employee complaints, that seriously affect the economicdevelopment and the sustainable development of the country. Selection of scientific, accurateand comprehensive evaluation methods of all aspects of occupational health and safetymanagement will directly affect the evaluation results and then the direction of improvement;which is greatly needed.

The aim of this thesis is twofold: one aim is to test and analyze a set of evaluationmethods that provide different perspectives on how occupational health and safetymanagement really works in the mining industry in Ezhou City, China. The other aim is toexplore a set of comprehensive evaluation methods that are suitable for occupational healthand safety management in the industries as a whole.

This thesis is based on the theory of Multi Objective Decision Making and Grey System,and is broken down into three phases including:

•  The first phase of my study: to describe the applications of the methods in five aspects ofoccupational health and safety in the mining industry in Ezhou City, China. This isshown in five articles and Chapter 1‐5.

•  The second phase: to present some suggestions of improvements for the development ofthe occupational health and safety in the mining industry in Ezhou City, China. This ispresented in Chapter 6 in my study.

•  The third phase: to explore a set of comprehensive evaluation methods that are suitablefor the occupational health and safety management in the industries. This is also shownin Chapter 6 in my study.

In this thesis I mainly used six methods to evaluate occupational health and safetymanagement and the suitability of them for this type of research as well as in other types inindustrial activity. The six methods included in my research are: entropy weight(EW), failuremode and effect analysis (FMEA), improved analytic hierarchy process (AHP), dataenvelopment analysis (DEA), grey relational analysis (GRA) and 2‐tuple linguisticinformation (2‐TLI). The results of the analysis showed that:

•  EW can be well used to evaluate the multi indicators of occupational health and safetymanagement, and can be extended to other areas such as safety management evaluation,the quality of the project, project forecasting and other industrial activities;

•  FMEA has been proved practical, simple and less costly in the perspective of riskmanagement, occupational health and safety management, identification and control ofenvironmental factors in enterprises, and quality key point preventive control in allindustrial activities;

•  Improved AHP is practical, simple and less costly for multi objective and multi criteriadecision making problems in all industrial activities;

•  DEA is special for production efficiency and can well estimate the effective productionfrontier by calculating the history data of the financial department, and embodies itsunique advantages in dealing with multi indicator inputs and multi indicator outputs inall industrial activities;

•  GRA does not require too much sample size and any typical distribution regulation; thecalculated amount of data is relatively small, and the results would always be in goodagreement with the qualitative analysis, so it is quite suitable for measuring the degree ofassociation between factors for indicator evaluation according to their similarity ordissimilarity. GRA can cope with the types of problem associated with comparisonbetween evaluation objects and the comparison object in all industrial activities;

•  2‐TLI is special for language information and can provide the basis for multi‐attributedecision analysis in spite of large amounts of calculation in all industrial activities.

On the whole, each method has its advantages and disadvantages, and the key to judgingwhether a method is most suitable is if it can withstand the validation of practice. Anyhow,the main contribution of this research is that it has systematically tested and verified a set ofstatistical methods applied in a mining industry in Ezhou, China, and explored a set ofstatistical methods utilized in occupational health and safety management in industrialactivities. Additionally, another contribution of this research is that it has provided a directionfor improvement of sustainable development.

Manufacturing processes constantly improve with automation solutions, in order to enhance production efficiency, effectiveness, and improved ergonomic solutions. The aim of this paper is to explore the transition of small automation suppliers or integrators into offering product service systems (PSS) through guidance by the Integrated Product Service Engineering (IPSE) methodology. It reports results from a longitudinal investigation of small companies providing solutions for industrial automation and digitalization, in an industrial cluster, where the IPSE methodology was applied. As the era of digitalization and smart industry emphasizes automation and robotisation of the manufacturing industry, the importance of such automation suppliers or integrators increases. There is for example a risk that small manufacturers are left behind due to the high investments needed; the studied small automation suppliers or integrators then can tailor “right automation”. Their customers are both large and small manufacturers. They are known to develop cost-efficient and innovative solutions, in close dialogue with customers. These solutions, developed and tested in the small firms’ workshop facilities with build-and-test laboratories, are rooted in their deep knowledge of manufacturing processes, mechatronics, robotics, control systems, and interface programming. By articulating value-added business offerings as PSS, the small automation suppliers or integrators could develop agreements ensuring increased win-win opportunities for both customers and automation providers, i.e. also their partners and suppliers. The paper presents how the IPSE methodology can facilitate the transition from traditional product or service selling to PSS offerings for the small automation suppliers or integrators studied. The common denominating challenge for the firms in this niche was based on classical business limitations due to smallness. Being a small supplier towards larger customers, negotiation for price and payment dates are difficult; towards small manufacturing firms, the challenge instead being to be able to address the customer company’s lack of investment possibilities. State of practice for the focal firms at the setting out of the study was an unclear business position, with unclear value proposition and fluctuating financial results. The applied IPSE method includes integrated business and technology development and, in the adapted version presented in this paper, addresses especially the liability of smallness that the automation suppliers were suffering from, such as contractual issues, and the articulation of value for the larger market towards their customers, which may be both small and larger manufacturers. The result was a transition from being regarded as stand-alone automation supplier companies towards becoming automation service providers (ASPs).

Work is a central part of our lives in many aspects. Half ofour awake time is for most of us performed as paid work. Atwork, we create the values we need to live the life we desire.At work, we are socialized and shaped into the human beingswe are. We are all concerned about how our work willbe in the future; will we be able to handle the new technologyor will we be replaced by a robot? These are important questionsbut at the same time we must be aware that the futurework is shaped here and now. LTU should be an active partwhen we create the work of the future. This means that weneed to get a picture of what is happening and then relateto that development but we also need a vision of where wewant to go

BACKGROUND

The paper is a research review focusing on occupational safety in the construction industry.

OBJECTIVE

The purpose is to present research that highlights the areas of occupational safety and risks and to identify areas where research is lacking.

METHODS

326 articles from scientific journals, mainly covering the construction industry in Europe, Canada, USA, Australia and Japan have been studied. The findings are presented under 11 categories: accident statistics; individual factors; legislation and regulations; ethical considerations; risk management; leadership, management, organization; competence; safety design; cost-benefit calculations; programs and models; and technical solutions.

RESULTS

The research is dominated by initiatives from researchers and government authorities, while the construction industry only appears as the object for the research. There is a scarcity of research on integrated systems encompassing subcontractors, as well as a lack of research with sociological perspectives on accidents. Furthermore, only a few studies have applied a gender perspective on safety in construction, i.e. there is a need of further research in this particular area.

CONCLUSIONS

A range of initiatives have been taken to increase safety in the construction industry and the initiatives are mainly reported to be successful. There are some cultural differences, but basically researchers present similar results regardless of country.