Job-Sharing Charge Storage in a Mixed Ion/Electron Conductor Electrode towards Ultrafast Na Storage

For the cathode materials potentially available for high power capability, reducing their particle size can improve the bulk ionic conductivity due to reduced ion diffusion length, and exploiting new reaction mechanism must be fundamentally advantageous. However, other issues such as synthesis difficulty, poor charge storage stability, and capacity decay can emerge. To simultaneously address these issues, in this work, we first find solid-solid interfacial storage for the ultrafine insertion cathode materials in the space-charge region of a mixed ion/electron conductor through the so-called “job-sharing” mechanism. This mechanism shows that electrons and ions can be stored in the different phases around the interface and transport only inside there, which looks thermodynamically distinct from most of conventional charge storage mechanisms in terms of the relationship between charge storage and cell voltage. The insertion cathodes governed by the “job-sharing” mechanism thus exhibit the outstanding performances with high capacity, fast kinetics, and stable cyclability. Herein, the inverse conceptual compositing between ionic conductor and electronic conductor to harness the size effect offers a potential research direction for not only electrode design in high-power batteries, but also other electrochemical potential applications such as solid-state electrolytes and so on.

Job-Sharing Charge Storage in a Mixed Ion/Electron Conductor Electrode towards Ultrafast Na Storage

For the cathode materials potentially available for high power capability, reducing their particle size can improve the bulk ionic conductivity due to reduced ion diffusion length, and exploiting new reaction mechanism must be fundamentally advantageous. However, other issues such as synthesis difficulty, poor charge storage stability, and capacity decay can emerge. To simultaneously address these issues, in this work, we first find solid-solid interfacial storage for the ultrafine insertion cathode materials in the space-charge region of a mixed ion/electron conductor through the so-called “job-sharing” mechanism. This mechanism shows that electrons and ions can be stored in the different phases around the interface and transport only inside there, which looks thermodynamically distinct from most of conventional charge storage mechanisms in terms of the relationship between charge storage and cell voltage. The insertion cathodes governed by the “job-sharing” mechanism thus exhibit the outstanding performances with high capacity, fast kinetics, and stable cyclability. Herein, the inverse conceptual compositing between ionic conductor and electronic conductor to harness the size effect offers a potential research direction for not only electrode design in high-power batteries, but also other electrochemical potential applications such as solid-state electrolytes and so on.

How Job Sharing Can Lead to More Women Achieving Senior Leadership Roles in Higher Education: A UK Study

This article explores the opportunity that job sharing offers as a way of encouraging more women into senior management roles in the higher education sector. There is a scarcity of female leadership representation in the higher education context, in particular a lack of female leadership pipeline. The article examines the underlying influences that limit the representation of women in leadership roles. To address these contextual limitations the process of job sharing is offered as a possible solution for harnessing the skills and talents of women in leadership positions in higher education and enabling the development of a leadership pipeline. To illustrate how such job sharing could occur the article provides a detailed vignette of a job share between two senior women leaders within a single UK university context and the positive impact this had on the organisation, the individuals and their leadership development. This article seeks to make a contribution by exploring how leadership job sharing can occur and sets out some recommendations for the adoption, negotiation and establishment of job share structures in the future.

Pathways from flexible work arrangements to financial performance

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the direct and indirect effects of flexible working arrangements (FWAs) on return on labour (ROL). Design/methodology/approach Data from 4,204 employees and their employers were used to construct regression models to assess separately, the direct relationships between the FWAs and ROL and also the indirect relationships, with job satisfaction and staff turnover as mediating variables, applying Baron and Kenny’s (1986) mediation rules. Findings Flexible work hours significantly and directly increased ROL and indirectly through reduction in staff turnover, while the negative direct effect of job sharing on ROL was indirectly reduced by its positive effect on job satisfaction. Time in lieu of overtime (TOIL) and working from home reduced ROL with the direct negative effects of TOIL on ROL worsened by a reduction in job satisfaction. Practical implications The results suggest that not all FWAs increase ROL and that the direct effects of FWAs on ROL emanate from the efficacy with which work is reallocated in FWA negotiations. The indirect effects derive from employees’ reciprocation of FWAs through improved job satisfaction and turnover. The onus is therefore, on employers to maximise returns from FWAs through efficient work reallocation during negotiations. Originality/value The study makes a contribution by examining the direction of effects of FWAs on ROL and the pathways (direct and indirect) by which the effects occur. Research in this area has hitherto considered subjective and qualitative performance measures. FWAs, such as job sharing and TOIL, which are rarely considered in the literature, are covered in the study.