Search results for "Process"

Adoption and use of work-life initiatives: Looking at the influence of institutional pressures and gender

2015

Under the lens of Institutional Theory, this paper examines how coercive, normative and mimetic pressures on employers encourage the adoption and use of work-life balance. Analyzing a sample of Spanish private firms, we find that the diffusion of work-life practices may be explained as an isomorphic process in which particular normative pressure significantly influences the adoption and use of work-life programs, while mimetic pressures only affect the level of use. Interestingly, the presence of women in organizations is found to be relevant to the adoption and use of work-life benefits only when this presence refers to managerial positions.

Managing a Software Development Organization with a TQM Approach for Balance in a Period of Rapid Growth

2007

Gender and Work-Life Balance: a Contest Analysis on Nursey Schools in Palermo

2018

This paper reflects on the gender inequalities and their influence in the access to labor market and, on the other one, to reproductive process. Maternity and work often arise as choices excluding one another due for the inadequacy of care services. The essay reviews some laws of the last years for encourage the work-life balance and analyzes the presence of the services for children in Palermo. The “case study” of the municipality of Palermo shows a general lack of services and a progressive reduction of public nurseries and kindergarten, despite the economic investments of the last decades at institutional level. It points out how many obstacles persist that discourage female participatio…

Constrained consistency enforcement in AHP

2020

Abstract Decision-making in the presence of intangible elements must be based on a robust, but subtle, balance between expert know-how and judgment consistency when eliciting that know-how. This balance is frequently achieved as a trade-off reached after a feedback process softens the tension frequently found between one force steadily pulling towards (full) consistency, and another force driven by expert feeling and opinion. The linearization method, developed by the authors in the framework of the analytic hierarchy process, is a pull-towards-consistency mechanism that shows the path from an inconsistent body of judgment elicited from an expert towards consistency, by suggesting optimal c…

Sex in an uncertain world: environmental stochasticity helps restore competitive balance between sexually and asexually reproducing populations

2014

Like many organisms, individuals of the freshwater ostracod species Eucypris virens exhibit either obligate sexual or asexual reproductive modes. Both types of individual routinely co-occur, including in the same temporary freshwater pond (their natural habitat in which they undergo seasonal diapause). Given the well-known two-fold cost of sex, this begs the question of how sexually reproducing individuals are able to coexist with their asexual counterparts in spite of such overwhelming costs. Environmental stochasticity in the form of 'false dawn' inundations (where the first hydration is ephemeral and causes loss of early hatching individuals) may provide an advantage to the sexual subpop…

The eio proposal for a directive and mafia trials: Striving for balance between efficiency and procedural guarantees

2013

PD EIO could mark a turning point in the development of “European criminal procedure.” The Proposal will obtain evidence in cross-border cases and is particularly suitable for investigations on the subject of international organized crime. From the long gestation period and the contents of the Proposal emerges, however, the difficulty of making a balance between the investigation of crimes and the guarantees of the individuals involved. The use of collected of evidence from different legal systems is often an overly neglected aspect. Doubt surrounds the regulation of banking instruments, the rules on wiretapping, and all provisions for undercover investigations.

Enhancing strategy design and planning in public utilities through “dynamic” balanced scorecards: insights from a project in a city water company

2008

In the last decade there has been an increasing effort to provide public utilities managers with planning and control tools, to take into account not only operational but also strategic issues. Among them are customer satisfaction, internal business process efficiency, business image, and bargaining power against other counterparts (e.g., the municipal administration). Often, however, such an effort has been oriented to generate a large volume of data, focused only on financial indicators and on a static view of the relevant system. This paper shows how the use of “dynamic” balanced scorecards can significantly improve the planning process in a strategic learning perspective. Insights from …

Optimización de las propiedades de emulsión de betún para la estabilización de balasto

2017

Ballasted track, while providing economical and practical advantages, is associated with high costs and material consumption due to frequent maintenance. More sustainable alternatives to conventional ballasted trackbeds should therefore aim at extending its durability, particularly considering ongoing increases in traffic speed and loads. In this regard, the authors have investigated a solution consisting of bitumen stabilised ballast (BSB), designed to be used for new trackbeds as well as in reinforcing existing ones. This study presents the idea behind the technology and then focuses on a specific part of its development: the optimisation of bitumen emulsion properties and dosage in relat…

A New High-Efficiency Procedure for Aggregate Gradation Determination of the Railway Ballast by Means Image Recognition Method

2013

Abstract The mechanical characteristics of the railway superstructure are related to the properties of the ballast, and especially to the particle size distribution of its grains. Under the constant stress-strain of carriages, the ballast can deteriorate over time, and consequently it should properly be monitored for safety reasons. The equipment which currently monitors the railway superstructure (like the Italian diagnostic train Archimede) do not make any “quantitative” evaluation of the ballast. The aim of this paper is therefore to propose a new methodology for extracting railway ballast particle size distribution by means of the image processing technique. The procedure has been teste…

Digital image analysis technique for measuring railway track defects and ballast gradation

2018

Abstract In order to guarantee safety and driving comfort and to maintain an efficient railway infrastructure, the first step is to carefully monitor the track geometry and wear level of the materials constituting the superstructure. To that end diagnostic trains are widely used on main lines, in that they can detect several geometric track parameters and rail wear, but under no circumstances they can yet detect ballast gradation. Due to the practical implications for the planning of maintenance operations on the railway network, this article presents a “DIP” digital image processing technique for measuring the transverse profile and corrugations of the rails as well as ballast gradation. T…