Organizational Learning and Change

This chapter discusses organizational learning as a strategic approach for organizational change. In the face of turbulent and uncertain environments, continuous involvement in organizational change is necessary. However, most organizations encounter resistance to change, thus fail to accomplish organizational change despite change efforts. Previous literature explains that resistance to change results from cognitive and psychological processes, social and power relationships, and organizational structural inertia. Given the findings from the previous research, organizational learning theories can provide strategic interventions to effectively deal with resistance and to achieve organizational change goals. The learning organization embrace learning activities – unlearning, experimentation, exploration, double-loop learning, and action learning - to develop the adaptability to environmental changes. This chapter suggests that HR/HRD should play a role in building the learning organization and facilitating organizational learning for change as a change agent.

The Policy of Whistleblowing in Nigeria

One of the most direct methods of exposing corruption in corporate or public institutions is whistleblowing. Quite a number of countries, including Nigeria, have introduced a whistleblowing policy. Among its provisions is to deter corrupt behaviours and guide formal investigations into them. However, Nigeria still lags far behind in this respect, perhaps out of structural inertia in dealing with corruption cases. In this article, the author argues that Nigeria can benefit from the institutional, educational and spiritual framework embedded in whistleblowing in Islam through ‘amr bi-l-ma'rūf wa-naḥy ‘an al-munkar i.e., enjoining good and forbidding wrong. The article, through historical and descriptive approaches, explains the policy of whistleblowing from the Islamic perspective, hence, clarifying some Muslims misconceptions. This study, therefore, presents Islamic principles on the whistleblowing policy and explains some pivotal approaches to addressing whistleblowing policy in Nigeria.

An Investigation of The Behavior of Strain-Hardening Cement-Based Composites (SHCC) Obtained in a Split Hopkinson Tension Bar and the Influence of Structural Inertia

The performance of a normal-strength SHCC under impact loading was studied using the results obtained from a split Hopkinson tension bar (SHTB). The focus of the investigation is to explain the mechanisms behind the peculiar rate-dependent behavior of SHCC under tensile loading. With the help of frames obtained by high-speed cameras and the subsequent Digital Image Correlation (DIC) analysis, the stress-strain relation of the SHCC obtained in SHTB was analyzed. The investigation of the composite’s behavior was supported by constituent-level experiments on the non-reinforced matrix of the SHCC and on the fiber-matrix bond. In the case of the constituent matrix, the well-known apparent increase in the tensile strength of the cement-based matrix and its influence on the behavior of SHCC was studied. For this purpose, experiments on the SHCC specimens with different geometries were performed in the SHTB. The results obtained from these experiments and those obtained by DIC show that commonly used analytical models, in which the specimen is assumed elastic, cannot capture the effects of structural inertia on the results. Thus, an alternative novel method based on the results of DIC has been used to explain and quantify the contribution of structural inertia. The rate-dependent behavior of the fiber-matrix bond was studied by performing high-speed single fiber pullout tests in a miniaturized split Hopkinson tension bar. This novel experimental technique enabled explanation of the rate-dependent bridging action of the fibers in SHCC. Based on the results, the enhanced behavior of SHCC under impact loading is explained.

Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic on Performance of Women Owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises in Kenya

The year 2020 marks the silver jubilee of the Beijing Platform for Action, and was expected to be a moment to celebrate the milestones made in enhancing gender parity and opportunities. However, the effects of COVID-19 pandemic threaten to erode the minimal gains achieved this far. The pandemic, initially a health hazard, fast mutated to a twin-menace that would threaten both lives and livelihoods. Global stock markets plunged in value by about US$6 trillion in less than a week (24th to 28th February 2020), according to S & P Dow Jones Indices; with many yet to recover. The pandemic decelerated Kenya’s projected GDP growth; the Central Bank of Kenya revised its estimate for 2020 from the initial 6.2% to 3.4%. Most affected were Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises; due to limited resources unable to withstand prolonged uncertainty and multi-faceted restrictions, as demanded of them by the pandemic. Key among the ventures threatened with extinction are women owned Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises that faced numerous pre-pandemic challenges. The inevitable priority shift for women entrepreneurs, diversion of business funds, sharp decline in demand and supply of commodities, and costly production, all stifled the mostly informal firms. Theories supporting this magnitude of impact are limited too; with the closest being resource dependency theory, structural inertia theory and real options theory. As uncertain as the viral spread is its ultimate impact on businesses and economies. This study uses available secondary multi-disciplinary resources; research papers, case studies, stakeholder reports and other online sources. Findings are that women owned businesses are disproportionately affected by the pandemic. The study recommends targeted policy, research and resource interventions to help small ventures prepare for recurrence of such contagions through resurgence of the same or new pandemics in future.

Computational Micro-Macro Analysis of Impact on Strain-Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCC) Including Microscopic Inertia

This paper presents a numerical two-scale framework for the simulation of fiber reinforced concrete under impact loading. The numerical homogenization framework considers the full balance of linear momentum at the microscale. This allows for the study of microscopic inertia effects affecting the macroscale. After describing the ideas of the dynamic framework and the material models applied at the microscale, the experimental behavior of the fiber and the fiber–matrix bond under varying loading rates are discussed. To capture the most important features, a simplified matrix cracking and a strain rate sensitive fiber pullout model are utilized at the microscale. A split Hopkinson tension bar test is used as an example to present the capabilities of the framework to analyze different sources of dynamic behavior measured at the macroscale. The induced loading wave is studied and the influence of structural inertia on the measured signals within the simulation are verified. Further parameter studies allow the analysis of the macroscopic response resulting from the rate dependent fiber pullout as well as the direct study of the microscale inertia. Even though the material models and the microscale discretization used within this study are simplified, the value of the numerical two-scale framework to study material behavior under impact loading is demonstrated.

Computational Micro-Macro Analysis of Impact on Strain-Hardening Cementitious Composites (SHCC) Including Microscopic Inertia

This paper presents a numerical two-scale framework for the simulation of fiber reinforced concrete under impact loading. The numerical homogenization framework considers the full balance of linear momentum at the microscale. This allows for the study of microscopic inertia effects affecting the macroscale. After describing the ideas of the dynamic framework and the material models applied at the microscale, the experimental behavior of the fiber and the fiber-matrix bond under varying loading rates are discussed. To capture the most important features, a simplified matrix cracking and a strain rate sensitive fiber pullout model are utilized at the microscale. A split Hopkinson bar tension test is used as an example to present the capabilities of the framework to analyze different sources of dynamic behavior measured at the macroscale. The induced loading wave is studied and the influence of structural inertia on the measured signals within the simulation are verified. Further parameter studies allow the analysis of the macroscopic response resulting from the rate dependent fiber pullout as well as the direct study of the microscale inertia. Even though the material models and the microscale discretization used within this study are still simplified, the value of the numerical two-scale framework to study material behavior under impact loading is shown.

Structural Inertia as a Constraint for Sustainable Development and Interregional Differences in Quality of Life Reducing

Inertia is an attribute of various systems, including sustainable development. The study of the inertia of sustainable development as a complex industrial-ecological and socio-economic supersystems is necessary to give due depth to theoretical explanations of the processes implemented in the practice of regulating industrial production, economic relations that determine the environmental load, the level of consumption of natural resources, to identify qualitative and quantitative relationships between factors of changes in structural proportions in production and consumption, their sources and relocation productive forces. The result if the study of inertia as a quality of macroeconomic structural changes, immanent to sustainable development, should be a knowledge of the forms of the transition of economic achievements of society into environmental ones. The study of sustainable development inertia is intended to improve the forecasting of various processes of interaction between man and the environment through the use of productive forces. The content of structural inertia of sustainable development can be revealed through the dynamic and actively transforming properties of structural shifts no less than through the conservatism of the structure of the economy, therefore, the creation of conditions for the regulated implementation of structural inertia, its transition into its opposite – acceleration of positive structural transformations – is associated with the regulation of economic relations in the system of environment management, production and consumption of natural resources, dynamization of changes in structural proportions between raw materials production and its processing, to overcome delaying the formation of new structural elements.

Dynamics Analysis of the Deployment of Miura-Origami Sheets

Origami has emerged as a promising tool for the design of mechanical structures that can be folded into small volume and expanded to large structures, which enables the desirable features of compact storage and effective deployment. Most attention to date on origami deployment has been on its geometry, kinematics, and quasi-static mechanics, while the dynamics of deployment has not been systematically studied. On the other hand, deployment dynamics could be important in many applications, especially in high speed operation and low damping conditions. This research investigates the dynamic characteristics of the deploying process of origami structures through investigating a Miura-Ori sheet (Fig. 1(b, c)). In this study, we have utilized the stored energy in pre-deformed spring elements to actuate the deployment. We theoretically model and numerically analyze the deploying process of the origami sheet. Specifically, the sheet is modeled by bar-and-hinge blocks, in which the facet and crease stiffnesses are modeled to be related to the bar axial deformation and torsional motion at the creases. On the other hand, the structural inertia is modelled as mass points assigned at hinges. Numerical simulations show that, apart from axial contraction and expansion, the origami structure can exhibit transverse motion during the deploying process. Further investigation reveals that the transverse motion has close relationship with the controlled deploying rate. This research will pave the way for further analysis and applications of the dynamics of origami-based structures.

Herding the Cats of Deep Time

This chapter aligns scientific and pre-philosophical angles on history with various reflective and methodological considerations. The past, a philosophical puzzle at the best of times, presents itself to us in many ways and at many different scales. If we abandon ideas of providence or progress for more naturalism we are left with numerous often incommensurable stories. And our inescapable performative interest we have in such accounts impacts our understanding of the present age and our arguably dark future. We draw here on phenomenological, hermeneutic, and deconstructive critique to articulate a provisional temporal phronesis by which to address the challenges of Deep Time. This brings to the fore such notions as irreversibility, fatal delay, structural inertia, uneven development, tipping points, time unimaginable, multiple strands, and aporetic time. Every age raises deep philosophical questions in its own way. War, freedom, justice, sexual difference have all had their day, but today the spectacle of anthropogenic climate change presses philosophy to the limit. Agency, responsibility, time, history, nature, earth, life, science, even truth—are not only live issues, they are becoming perspicuously mortal concerns. How to deal with the passions aroused by our situation, which both drive and block an adequate response to it?