Organizational flexibility in Korean companies: rules and procedures on managerial discretion and employee behaviour

This paper examines organizational flexibility in Korea by concentrating on the rules and procedures on managerial and employee behaviours (safeguard and control rules), and their association with size, ownership, strategy and performance. The data reported were collected from forty-five organizations in South Korea. The results showed that flexibility in terms of low control rules (rules on employees) relates to innovation strategies, and lack of flexibility (high control rules) relates to cost-reduction strategies. The results also show that in Korea, a 'fit' between this aspect of organizational flexibility and strategy had a positive impact on organizational performance. Rules on managerial behaviour (safeguard rules) were strongly related to family or individual ownership in the Korean context. The implications of 'congruence' between organizational strategy and presence/absence of flexibility for employee behaviour are discussed.     

Every flow has its ebb: The impact of flow on work–family conflict and adjustment in global careers

Despite an increase in research in psychology on the mental state of flow, little is known within the area of organisational studies about its “dark side.” Although prior organisational studies literature suggests that flow leads to generally positive work outcomes, we use conservation of resources theory to argue that expatriates in the state of flow can accumulate resources that lead to work adjustment but at the same time may experience unintended negative work–family conflict consequences. Specifically, we argue that being in the state of flow can improve expatriates' work adjustment because they can concentrate on the task at hand in an unencumbered way. Yet the exclusive concentration on work tasks and the distortion of time while in the state of flow may reduce psychological and time resources available to the family, resulting in work–family conflict. We explore whether flow theory needs to be altered to discover potentially negative work–family conflict outcomes inherent in the complex work regimes associated with global careers. Structural equation modelling analyses based on a sample of 230 expatriates in the United States and 169 expatriates in Brazil revealed that flow increased both work–family conflict and work adjustment.     

Learning cycles in Bertrand competition with differentiated commodities and competing learning rules

This paper stresses the importance of heterogeneity in learning. We consider a Bertrand oligopoly with firms using either least squares learning or gradient learning for determining the price. We demonstrate that convergence properties of the rules are strongly affected by heterogeneity. In particular, gradient learning may become unstable as the number of gradient learners increases. Endogenous choice between the learning rules may induce cyclical switching. Stable gradient learning gives higher average profit than least squares learning, making firms switch to gradient learning. This can destabilize gradient learning which, because of decreasing profits, makes firms switch back to least squares learning.     

Men and islands: Dealing with the family in empirical labor economics

Recent research in family economics emphasizes the interdependence of men's decisions about work and family, and should prompt a reconsideration of the standard practice in labor economics of ‘controlling’ for marital status and children in the analysis of labor market outcomes. Several factors contribute to a concern about work-family simultaneity. First, married men behave very differently from single men, and fathers from non-fathers. Second, transitions into and out of marriage, cohabitation, and custodial parenthood respond to current economic conditions, and not just to fixed individual characteristics. Finally, demographic changes in developed countries have left marriage and parenthood optional, economically ambiguous, and relatively unstable. Labor economists need to recognize that a man's current partnership and parenting status are current choices that can change, that are expected to change, and that respond to the social, economic, and institutional forces that also condition labor market behavior.     

OPPC在220kV线路的应用与分裂导线的粘连问题

光纤复合相线（Optical Phase Conductor,OPPC）,是在传统的相线结构中嵌入光纤单元的一种新型特种光缆。用OPPC代替三相中的一相,解决电网通信问题,OPPC在220kV及以上线路中应用时,可以通过多种方式避免分裂导线互相粘连的问题。文章通过分析分裂导线粘连的原因并对比各种解决方法的优劣,给出工程应用当中的建议,对指导日后工程具有积极的贡献。     

基于景观生态安全格局的泥石流多发城镇防灾、减灾体系构建--以昆明市东川区为例

通过对泥石流灾害形成原因及对城镇造成危害的调查分析,提出泥石流多发城镇的灾害防御应首先从土地资源的保护和利用以及景观的战略布局着手,在城市避难疏散系统的构建中统筹兼顾各类城市灾害的危害性.采取灾害测报系统及布局、生命线保障系统规划,救灾设施及布局、抗灾防灾工程建设和疏散及避难通道规划等五项工程性措施,通过防灾救灾组织指挥体系建设、救灾队伍建设、灾害应急预案的制定、防灾救灾的宣传教育和灾害政策法规建设等五项非工程性措施的支撑,从根本上达到防灾减灾的目标,构建生态安全的城市.