1,796,544 research outputs found
Labor redundancy in the transport sector
Get PDFThe issue of what to do with excess labor is critical to the success of any endeavour to improve the transport sector. Failure to reduce overstaffing leads to excessive wage bills. This exacerbates budget deficits and the losses of parastatal enterprises, which leads to cuts in investment or in the purchase of materials designed to reduce costs, further limiting labor productivity. Moreover, because transport employs so many people, labor redundancy in the sector affects not only the agencies or enterprises concerned but the public sector as a whole. This paper offers no blueprint for action, but categorizes the principal causes of redundancy, reviews the measures used to reduce overstaffing, and discusses the issues that have to be addressed.Municipal Financial Management,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Management and Relations,Roads&Highways,Banks&Banking Reform
Redundancy and Reliability
Get PDFRedundancy is a commonly employed strategy to enhance the reliability of systems involving human factors. However, this paper shows that a system with higher level of redundancy can be less reliable due to free-rider effects.
Survivors of redundancy: a justice perspective
Get PDFOrganisations in and around Britain continue to restructure and downsize their workforce. Redundancies and reorganisation of staff remains a major aspect of internal organisational change. However, the effects of redundancy on those who remain, the survivors, are still little understood (Armstrongstassen, 1993a). This paper attempts to rectify this situation by reviewing theories principally developed in North America within a British context. In particular, the research identifies how organisational justice theories (e.g., Bies et al, 1988; Greenberg, 1990; McFarlin & Sweeney, 1992) are a means to understand the potential effects on survivors of redundancy. The literature review is supported by empirical research which has been conducted in two major British organisations who have experienced significant downsizing and restructuring. The research aim was to explore the range of reactions; emotional attitudinal and behavioural which were experienced by the survivors of a redundancy programme. Data was collected using a variety of methods, including focus groups, in-depth semi-structured interviews and a company wide survey in both case study organisations. The results enabled the development of a conceptual framework which extends previous understanding of the effects of redundancy on survivors. The conceptual framework draws together the current findings with previous research in this field formulating an overview of the factors which influence survivor reactions. Understanding survivor reactions helps to further the knowledge of the potentially damaging effects of redundancy on the future of an organisation. The results indicate that organisational justice theories indeed promote the understanding of the effects of redundancy. In previous studies the emphasis has been laid on distributive and procedural justice (e.g., Daly & Geyer, 1994; Brockner & Greenberg, 1990), however, the current study highlights the importance of interactional justice. The results suggest that survivors reactions are particularly dependent on the interpersonal treatment they receive from both the management team and their immediate line manager or supervisor. Further analysis shows that the communication and amount of interaction a survivor receives from their line manager influences their level of organisational commitment, job insecurity, job satisfaction and turnover intention. Survivors who perceived they had a 'good' relationship with their line manager were less likely to react negatively to the redundancy programme. The research also indicates that survivors were influenced by their work environment and their work colleagues. The analysis found that when survivors perceived their work colleagues to react negatively to the redundancies, they were more likely to react negatively themselves. In practical terms, when implementing redundancies, management should be aware of the potentially damaging effects not only on those who leave, but also on the survivors. The research indicates that the 'line manager' holds a very important role in maintaining the morale and motivation of the remaining staff. The ability to maintain good communication and support to employees can help in the future success of the organisation. The framework developed in this study builds on previous research and introduces new variables found to be important in the field
Reducing labor redundancy in state owned enterprises
Get PDFThis paper focuses on what determines labor redundancy in selected modes of transport (rails, ports, and buses) in six countries: Brazil, Chile, Ghana, Mauritius, Sri Lanka, and Yugoslavia. It also analyzes different approaches for solving the problem, and concludes that analysis of the labor redundancy problem in public transportation enterprises has been neglected because conceptually it is not a simple, easily identifiable phenomenon and because its treatment is often politically controversial, as it affects social welfare. Governments tend to approach the problem only when circumstances are extreme (budget stress or near-complete breakdown of the transport system). Solutions are then hammered out in a tense environment, with no longer-term vision of the optimal employment and pay practices. This paper also presents a framework for identifying labor redundancy within different countries whose social welfare functions vary in the relative weight given to efficiency and equity . Redundancy-reduction schemes can have a high rate of return and still be socially acceptable. But, cash flow problems may necessitate the assistance of international donor agencies. Attention must be paid to how this compensation is administered, as it can make a difference to the workers'welfare.Banks&Banking Reform,Municipal Financial Management,Health Monitoring&Evaluation,Environmental Economics&Policies,Labor Management and Relations
Managerial perceptions of the personal and career transitions of redundant executives and suvivors of redundancy
Get PDFAlthough redundancy became widespread in the late 2Wh century, research was lacking
on the perceived impact of redundancy and redundancy management policies on the
individual. During the 1980s redundancy became more prevalent for managerial
populations and outplacement was used increasingly for redundant executives. Survey
data gathered in 1990 indicated that, the practical nature of outplacement, and the help in
overcoming personal and career transitions, were valued by redundant executives.
Redundant executives were dissatisfied with the fact that outplacement did not always
secure them a job.
Another survey in 1992 identified the corporate rationale for outplacement policies.
Perceived benefits included professional, objective help to facilitate the transition for
redundant individuals and a potentially ameliorating effect on the survivors of
redundancy. However, a survey in 1994 indicated that companies were more focussed on
managing organisational needs than the personal or career transition issues of survivors.
The research suggested that outplacement
had become a normative HR policy response
which may have been instrumental in setting new parameters for the psychological
contracts of redundant executives, such as re-balancing work and non-work life, and
reviewing commitment and attachment to a corporate entity. For the survivors of
redundancy, a psychological contract based on a looser association appeared to be the
corporate offer. As highlighted by the study of the employment
deal for graduates in the
mid 1990s, against the backdrop of large scale redundancy, companies were quite
ekplicitly offering developmental opportunities rather than a career, even to those
destined for senior management levels. These combined data signalled shifts in the
employment relationship. This thesis describes and analyses some of the apparent
ambiguities between theory and practice relating to redundancy management, and
outcomes at the individual level. It seeks clarification through the development of a
model of redundancy management
Parameter Identifiability and Redundancy: Theoretical Considerations
No full textBackground - Models for complex biological systems may involve a large number of parameters. It may well be that some of these parameters cannot be derived from observed data via regression techniques. Such parameters are said to be unidentifiable, the remaining parameters being identifiable. Closely related to this idea is that of redundancy, that a set of parameters can be expressed in terms of some smaller set. Before data is analysed it is critical to determine which model parameters are identifiable or redundant to avoid ill-defined and poorly convergent regression.
Methodology/Principal Findings - In this paper we outline general considerations on parameter identifiability, and introduce the notion of weak local identifiability and gradient weak local identifiability. These are based on local properties of the likelihood, in particular the rank of the Hessian matrix. We relate these to the notions of parameter identifiability and redundancy previously introduced by Rothenberg (Econometrica 39 (1971) 577–591) and Catchpole and Morgan (Biometrika 84 (1997) 187–196). Within the widely used exponential family, parameter irredundancy, local identifiability, gradient weak local identifiability and weak local identifiability are shown to be largely equivalent. We consider applications to a recently developed class of cancer models of Little and Wright (Math Biosciences 183 (2003) 111–134) and Little et al. (J Theoret Biol 254 (2008) 229–238) that generalize a large number of other recently used quasi-biological cancer models.
Conclusions/Significance - We have shown that the previously developed concepts of parameter local identifiability and redundancy are closely related to the apparently weaker properties of weak local identifiability and gradient weak local identifiability—within the widely used exponential family these concepts largely coincide
Modelling, control and monitoring of high redundancy actuation
Get PDFThe High Redundancy Actuator (HRA) project investigates a novel approach to fault tolerant actuation, which uses a high number of small actuation elements, assembled in series and parallel in order to form a single intrinsically fault tolerant actuator. Element faults affect the maximum capability of the overall actuator, but through control techniques, the required performance can be maintained. This allows higher levels of reliability to be attained in exchange for less over-dimensioning in comparison to conventional redundancy techniques. In addition, the combination of both serial and parallel elements provides intrinsic accommodation of both lock-up and loose faults. Research to date has concentrated on HRAs based on electromechanical technology, of relatively low order, controlled through passive Fault Tolerant Control (FTC) methods. The objective of this thesis is to expand upon this work. HRA configurations of higher order, formed from electromagnetic actuators are considered. An element model for a moving coil actuator is derived from first principles and verified experimentally. This element model is then used to form high-order, non-linear HRA models for simulation, and reduced-order representations for control design. A simple, passive FTC law is designed for the HRA configurations, the results of which are compared to a decentralised, active FTC approach applied through a framework based upon multi-agent concepts. The results indicate that limited fault tolerance can be achieved through simple passive control, however, performance degradation occurs, and requirements are not met under theoretically tolerable fault levels. Active FTC offers substantial performance improvements, meeting the requirements of the system under the vast majority of theoretically tolerable fault scenarios. However, these improvements are made at the cost of increased system complexity and a reliance on fault detection. Fault Detection (FD) and health monitoring of the HRA is explored. A simple rule-based FD method, for use within the active FTC, is described and simulated. An interacting multiple model FD method is also examined, which is more suitable for health monitoring in a centralised control scheme. Both of these methods provide the required level of fault information for their respective purposes. However, they achieve this through the introduction of complexity. The rule-based method increases system complexity, requiring high levels of instrumentation, and conversely the interacting multiple model approach involves complexity of design and computation. Finally, the development of a software demonstrator is described. Experimental rigs at the current project phase are restricted to relatively low numbers of elements for practical reasons such as cost, space and technological limitations. Hence, a software demonstrator has been developed in Matlab/Simulink which provides a visual representation of HRAs with larger numbers of elements, and varied configuration for further demonstration of this concept
Redundancy Pay and Collective Dismissals
Get PDFRedundancy payments for collective dismissals are incorporated into a Shapiro-Stiglitz model of efficiency wages. It is shown that a fixed payment will lower wages, leave employment and welfare unaffected if there are no wage-dependent taxes, no additional firing costs and if unemployment benefits are not altered by redundancy payments. If payroll taxes exceed firing costs and unemployment benefits are independent of redundancy pay, employment and welfare will rise with redundancy payments. If these payments are also a function of previous wages, positive employment effects will be mitigated. A substitution of wage-dependent for lump-sum redundancy payments can lower employment, allowing for a continuous variation of effort.collective dismissal, efficiency wages, employment, redundancy pay, welfare
Parameter Redundancy with Applications in Statistical Ecology
Get PDFThis thesis is concerned with parameter redundancy in statistical ecology models. If it is not possible to estimate all the parameters, a model is termed parameter redundant. Parameter redundancy commonly occurs when parameters are confounded in the model so that the model could be reparameterised in terms of a smaller number of parameters. In principle, it is possible to use symbolic algebra to determine whether or not all the parameters of a certain ecological model can be estimated using classical methods of statistical inference.
We examine a variety of different ecological models: We begin by exploring models based on marking a number of animals and observing the same animals at future time points. These observations can either be when the animal is marked and then
recovered dead in mark-recovery modelling, or when the animal is marked and then recaptured alive in capture-recapture modelling. We also explore capture-recapture-recovery models where both dead recoveries and alive recaptures can be observed in the same study. We go on to explore occupancy models which are used to obtain
estimates of the probability of presence, or absence, for living species by the use of repeated detection surveys, where these models have the advantage that individuals are not required to be marked. A variety of different occupancy models are examined included the addition of season-dependent parameters, group-dependent parameters and species-dependent, along with other models.
We investigate parameter redundancy by deriving general results for a variety of different models where the model's parameter dependencies can be relaxed suited to different studies. We also analyse how the results change for specific data sets and how sparse data influence whether or not a model is parameter redundant using procedures written in Maple. This theory on parameter redundancy is vital for the correct use of these ecological models so that valid statistical inference can be made
Modelling of High Redundancy Actuation Utilising Multiple Moving Coil Actuators
Get PDFThis paper presents the modelling of a moving coil actuator for use as an element in a High Redundancy Actuator (HRA). A single element model is derived from first principles and verified using experimental data. This model is subsequently used to describe an approach to deriving models of multi-element HRAs and determine the effect of a variety of faults, chosen to be appropriate for the electro-magnetic technology, on the behaviour of multi-element assemblies
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