Mark Robinson

Forecasting future competency requirements: a three‐phase methodology

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to introduce an integrated three‐phase methodology for forecasting future competency requirements more effectively than existing methods.Design/methodology/approach – The methodology is demonstrated with reference to empirical research conducted by the authors. The methodology consists of three phases: phase 1 – preliminary interviews, phase 2 – questionnaire, and phase 3 – critical incident technique interviews. Outputs from phases 1 and 2 are used to generate a framework through which to elicit future competency requirements during phase 3.Findings – The empirical findings, although included, are incidental to the current paper; they serve solely to illustrate the methodology. As such, the development and demonstration of this methodology are the main “findings” of the paper.Research limitations/implications – Methodologies for forecasting future competency requirements should adopt structured integrated approaches to improve predictive accuracy.Practical implicati...

Affinity of molecular interactions in the bacteriophage φ29 DNA packaging motor

DNA packaging in the bacteriophage φ29 involves a molecular motor with protein and RNA components, including interactions between the viral connector protein and molecules of pRNA, both of which form multimeric complexes. Data are presented to demonstrate the higher order assembly of pRNA together with the affinity of pRNA:pRNA and pRNA:connector interactions, which are used to propose a model for motor function. In solution, pRNA can form dimeric and trimeric multimers in a magnesium-dependent manner, with dissociation constants for multimerization in the micromolar range. pRNA:connector binding is also facilitated by the presence of magnesium ions, with a nanomolar apparent dissociation constant for the interaction. From studies with a mutant pRNA, it appears that multimerization of pRNA is not essential for connector binding and it is likely that connector protein is involved in the stabilization of higher order RNA multimers. It is proposed that magnesium ions may promote conformational change that facilitate pRNA:connector interactions, essential for motor function.

The Development of an Agent-Based Modeling Framework for Simulating Engineering Team Work

Team working is becoming increasingly important in modern organizations due to its beneficial outcomes. A teams performance levels are determined by complex interactions between the attributes of its individual members, the communication and dynamics between members, the working environment, and the teams work tasks. As organizations evolve, so too does the nature of team working. During the past two decades, product development in engineering organizations has increasingly been undertaken by multidisciplinary integrated product teams. Such increasing complexity means that the nature of research methods for studying teams must also evolve. Accordingly, this paper proposes an agent-based modeling approach for simulating team working within an engineering environment, informed by research conducted in two engineering organizations. The model includes a number of variables at an individual level (competency, motivation, availability, response rate), team level (communication, shared mental models, trust), and task level (difficulty, workflow), which jointly determine team performance (quality, time to complete the task, time spent working on the task). In addition to describing the models development, the paper also reports the results of various simulation runs that were conducted in response to realistic team working scenarios, together with its validation. Finally, the paper discusses the models practical applications as a tool for facilitating organizational decision making with respect to optimizing team working.

‘When is a teacher not a teacher?’: knowledge creation and the professional identity of teachers within multi-agency teams

Education is centre stage in current UK government initiatives to promote multi-agency team work. This paper draws on a research project which explored the way in which multi-disciplinary teams work and learn together in their practice with children, to consider the implications of ‘joined-up’ practice for theorizing dilemmas of knowledge creation and identity transformation for professionals in multi-agency teams. The paper focuses primarily on the experiences of education professionals. We exemplify some dilemmas of ‘joined-up’ team participation in specific workplace activities involving knowledge exchange. We then explore the impact of belonging to multi-agency teams on professional roles, identities and learning. The paper then summarizes strategies which professionals used for resolving dilemmas around learning and knowledge creation, and considers how participating in shared workplace activities might enable or constrain professionals to consoli date their professional identities and learning. Drawing on theoretical research into workplace participation and professional learning, the paper examines implications for theorizing the professional identity of teachers in multi-agency team work, within a systemic model that takes account of: creating new knowledge and practice; enhancing professional identity; and building inter-professional communities.

When is policing fair? Groups, identity and judgements of the procedural justice of coercive crowd policing

ABSTRACT Procedural justice theory (PJT) is now a widely utilised theoretical perspective in policing research that acknowledges the centrality of police ‘fairness’. Despite its widespread acceptance this paper asserts that there are conceptual limitations that emerge when applying the theory to the policing of crowd events. This paper contends that this problem with PJT is a result of specific assumptions that are highlighted by two studies using a novel experimental approach. Study 1 systematically manipulated the social categories used to describe crowd participants subjected to police coercion. The experiment demonstrates how these social categories dramatically affected participants’ perceptions of the same police action and that it was participants’ relational identification with the police, rather than a superordinate category, that mediated the association between judgements of procedural fairness and intentions to cooperate. In Study 2, using a quasi-experimental design, we then replicated and extended these findings by demonstrating how perceptions of procedural fairness are also influenced by levels of in-group identification. The paper concludes by exploring the implications of the data for reconceptualising the social psychological processes mediating these judgements and impacts of police legitimacy.

An Agent-based approach to modelling integrated product teams undertaking a design activity.

The interactions between individual designers, within integrated product teams, and the nature of design tasks, all have a significant impact upon how well a design task can be performed, and hence the quality of the resultant product and the time in which it can be delivered. In this paper we describe an ongoing research project which aims to model integrated product teams through the use of multi-agent systems. We first describe the background and rationale for our work, and then present our initial computational model and results from the simulation of an integrated product team. The paper concludes with a discussion of how the model will evolve to improve the accuracy of the simulation.

RNA Multimerisation in the DNA Packaging Motor of Bacteriophage φ29

The use of bacteriophages as experimental tools allows the investigation of interactions between components at the molecular level that are often not possible in more complex virus systems. The bacteriophage φ29 acts as a molecular machine to package its own genomic DNA during viral assembly. Self-associating RNA molecules, called pRNA, have an essential role in the function of this machine. This paper reports the characterization of this self-association (which leads to multimerisation of wild-type and truncated variant pRNAs) by analytical ultracentrifugation (including determination of the partial specific volume of the pRNA), together with an investigation into the domains of the molecule important for multimerisation by the use of complementary DNA probes.

Social work practice and identity in joined-up teams : Some findings from a research project

This paper draws on an ESRC project that explored how multi-disciplinary teams work together in their practice with children. The specific aim of this paper is to examine the role of the social worker in such teams by focussing on some of the possibilities and tensions. It is concluded that, despite the many challenges, social work has a positive role to play in developing the joined up policy and practice agenda.

Simulating crowd evacuation with socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional elements

In this research, the effects of culture, cognitions, and emotions on crisis management and prevention are analysed. An agent-based crowd evacuation simulation model was created, named IMPACT, to study the evacuation process from a transport hub. To extend previous research, various socio-cultural, cognitive, and emotional factors were modelled, including: language, gender, familiarity with the environment, emotional contagion, prosocial behaviour, falls, group decision making, and compliance. The IMPACT model was validated against data from an evacuation drill using the existing EXODUS evacuation model. Results show that on all measures, the IMPACT model is within or close to the prescribed boundaries, thereby establishing its validity. Structured simulations with the validated model revealed important findings, including: the effect of doors as bottlenecks, social contagion speeding up evacuation time, falling behaviour not affecting evacuation time significantly, and travelling in groups being more beneficial for evacuation time than travelling alone. This research has important practical applications for crowd management professionals, including transport hub operators, first responders, and risk assessors.

Quantitative Research Principles and Methods for Human-Focused Research in Engineering Design

Engineering design is increasingly recognised as a complex socio-technical process where the human and social aspects of the system require alignment with those focusing on technical product development. Social science research methods are therefore essential to conduct effective and holistic research into such processes. Accordingly, this chapter provides a grounding in the principles and methods of quantitative social science research. First, the measurement of variables in a reliable and valid manner is considered. Second, scientific principles and the nature of variable relationships are examined, including main effects, mediation effects, and moderation effects. Third, experimental and correlational research designs for exploring the relationships between variables are discussed. Fourth, an overview of statistical methods for analysing quantitative data is provided. Finally, participant sampling, ethical issues, and specialist methods are considered.