Number Of Hierarchical Levels Research Articles

Razvoj kontingentne/kontekstualne teorije - pregled istraživanja

The contingent/contextual approach to the theory and practice of the organization arose in the 60s of the previous century, and its verification and empirical improvement are still ongoing, with increasing topicality and the presence of an increasingly strong trend of quantifying the influence of contingent/contextual factors and the increasing complexity of research with the same aim - it is expected that by mastering the effect of given factors, the overall efficiency of the company can be increased and that standardization in this field can bring great benefits. So far, the best researched and quantified is the impact of company size and technology on organizational structure factors. However, a large number of interdependencies are still not resolved among contingent factors, such as: a) the connection of decentralization with other contingent factors - company size, environment, etc., b) the influence of digitalization on the range of management, c) the direction of the influence of the degree of mass production on the number of hierarchical levels, d) the impact of innovation as a part of strategy on the organizational structure and many others. Various authors try to solve the above-mentioned questions, but the conclusions between them have not been confirmed so far; what's more, numerous results are released to the scientific public, which are mutually contradictory, as shown in the tabular presentation in the paper. In particular, the contribution of the latest version of the ISO 9001 standard from 2015, which for the first time recognizes the context in the given area, should be highlighted. Finally, it can be concluded that the empirical verification and theoretical enrichment of the contingent theory has been going on for decades, with the presence of an increasingly strong trend of quantifying the impact of contingent factors and the increasing complexity of research with the same goal - it is expected that mastering the effect of contingent factors can increase the overall efficiency of the company.

Examining the limits of the Condorcet Jury Theorem: Tradeoffs in hierarchical information aggregation systems

Condorcet’s Jury Theorem states that the correct outcome is reached in direct majority voting systems with sufficiently large electorates as long as each voter’s independent probability of voting for that outcome is greater than 1/2. Previous research has found that switching to a hierarchical system always leads to an inferior result. Yet, in many situations direct voting is infeasible (e.g., due to high implementation or infrastructure costs), and hierarchical voting may provide a reasonable alternative. This paper examines differences in accuracy rates of hierarchical and direct voting systems for varying group sizes, abstention rates, and voter competences. We derive three main results. First, we prove that indirect two-tier systems differ most from their direct counterparts when group size and number are equal (i.e., when each equals [Formula: see text], where Nd is the total number of voters in the direct system). In multitier systems, we prove that this difference is maximized when group size equals [Formula: see text], where n is the number of hierarchical levels. Second, we show that while direct majority rule always outperforms indirect voting for homogeneous electorates, hierarchical voting gains in accuracy when either the number of groups or the number of individuals within each group increases. Third, we prove that when voter abstention and competency are correlated within groups, hierarchical systems can outperform direct voting. The results have implications beyond voting, including information processing in the brain, collective cognition in animal groups, and information aggregation in machine learning.

Applying the Prigogine view of dissipative systems to the major transitions in evolution

AbstractIlya Prigogine'strinomialconcept is, he argued, applicable to many complex dissipative systems, from physics to biology and even to social systems. For Prigogine, this trinomial—functions,structure,fluctuations—was intended to capture the feedback-rich relations between upper and lower levels in these systems. The main novelty of his vision was his view of causation, in which the causal arrow runs downward from dissipative structures to their components or functions. Following this insight, some physicists and biophysicists are beginning to apply terms formerly used mainly in biology, such asevolution,adaptation,learning, andlife-like behavior, to physical and chemical nonequilibrium systems. Here, instead, we apply Prigogine's view to biology, in particular to evolution, and especially the major transitions in evolution (MTE), arguing that at least the hierarchical transitions—the transitions in individuality—follow a trajectory anticipated by the trinomial. In this trajectory, formerly free-living organisms are transformed into “functions” within a larger organic “structure.” The Prigogine view also predicts that, consistent with available data, the increase in number of hierarchical levels in organisms should accelerate over time. Finally, it predicts that, on geological timescales, ecosystems and Gaia in particular will tend to “de-Darwinize” or “machinify” their component organisms.

All-optical aggregation and distribution of traffic in large metropolitan area networks using multi-Tb/s S-BVTs

Current metropolitan area network architectures are based on a number of hierarchical levels that aggregate traffic toward the core at the IP layer. In this setting, routers are interconnected by means of fixed transceivers operating on a point-to-point basis where the rates of transceivers need to match. This implies a great deal of intermediate transceivers to collect traffic and groom and send it to the core. This paper proposes an alternative scheme based on sliceable bandwidth/bitrate variable transceivers (S-BVTs) where the slice-ability property is exploited to perform the aggregation of traffic from multiple edges n -to-1 rather than 1-to-1. This approach can feature relevant cost reductions through IP offloading at intermediate transit nodes but requires viable optical signal-to-noise ratio (OSNR) margins for all-optical transmission through the network. In this work, we prove through simulation the viability and applicability of this technique in large metro networks with a vertical-cavity-surface-emitting laser-based S-BVT design to target net capacities per channel of 25, 40, and 50 Gb/s. The study reveals that this technology can support most of the paths required for IP offloading after simulation in a semi-synthetic topology modeling a 20-million-inhabitant metropolitan area. Moreover, OSNR margins enable the use of protection paths (secondary disjoint paths) between the target node and the core much longer than primary paths in terms of both the number of intermediate hops and kilometers.

The impact of intrapreneurship strategy on business performances of Italian companies

Intrapreneurship is a decentralized management strategy applied in large and medium-sized companies. The strategy enables employees to use their entrepreneurial skills for the benefit of both the company and the employee. Talented employees get the opportunity to create ideas, undertake innovative ventures, to experiment, to gain access to financial resources and other resources in order to encourage innovative change and results. The creator of the idea was the Pinchot couple in 1978, but to this day the concept has undergone several evolutionary waves (Antoncic, 2020). The intrapreneurship strategy positively affects the agility in the company, raises efficiency, has a positive effect on team spirit, increases productivity, reduces costs and raises profitability. The main goal of the paper is to analyze the level of intrapreneurship presence in large and medium-sized companies in the Italian region of Campania. The influence of intrapreneurship parameters on companies' business indicators is also measured. An instrument for measuring intrapreneurship was created for the needs of paper. The instrument measures the presence of autonomous teams in the company, the possibility of taking business initiative, speed of access to resources for testing purposes and realization of new business ideas, encouraging risk with the aim of realizing business ideas, mobility of resources within the company, the degree of management tolerance in order to realize new business ideas of employees, the presence of rewards, the level of management support at all levels, the number of hierarchical levels in the company and the role of crowdsourcing in the development of internal entrepreneurship. After factor and regression analysis, Factor 1 has a dominant impact on all three business indicators, while Factor 2 has a smaller but statistically significant impact on the company's volume of business and investments

Stability of Action and Kinesthetic Perception in Parkinson's Disease.

We present a review of action and perception stability within the theoretical framework based on the idea of control with spatial referent coordinates for the effectors at a number of hierarchical levels. Stability of salient variables is ensured by synergies, neurophysiological structures that act in multi-dimensional spaces of elemental variables and limit variance to the uncontrolled manifold during action and iso-perceptual manifold during perception. Patients with Parkinson’s disease show impaired synergic control reflected in poor stability (low synergy indices) and poor agility (low indices of anticipatory synergy adjustments prior to planned quick actions). They also show impaired perception across modalities, including kinesthetic perception. We suggest that poor stability at the level of referent coordinates can be the dominant factor leading to poor stability of percepts.

CRITERIA-BASED MODELING OF SHIPBOARD AVIATION SYSTEMS OPTIMIZATION PROCESS AT THE CREATION OF AIRCRAFT CARRIER

Criteria-based modeling is one of the new directions in the development of methods problems solving at optimization, evaluation and control of large systems with complex hierarchical structures, with a large number of distributed tasks, functions and processes, without using of iterative methods of sequential search for extremum. A criterion (probabilistic) model is constructed for each borderline shipboard aviation system, the adequacy of which is determined not so much by the degree of its correspondence to the real system, as by the goals of the operational functioning of an Aircraft Carrier. The construction of criteria models is carried out by the decomposition and structuring of the criteria space for the operational functioning of an Aircraft Carrier, up to the level of qualities and properties of shipboard aviation systems. The depth of structuring, that is, the number of hierarchical levels in the “cross-cutting” structural model, is determined for each priority of the objective function (functional optimality criterion), which make up the criteria space for optimization and evaluation of shipboard aviation systems during the operational functioning of an Aircraft Carrier at the sea crossing, during combat deployment, in defensive and offensive naval operations. “Cross-cutting” criterion process of optimization is established the conditions for observing the identity of the results of research and testing on the evaluation of parameters and characteristics of shipboard aviation systems, is established the requirements to the shipboard aviation systems and is formatted the Decision-Making Support System for the creation of the effective aircraft carrier with sequent evaluation of the requirements fulfillment on the all stages of the Aircraft Carriers Life Cycle.

Description of Security Systems — a Few Reflections

This article presents fundamental issues concerning the description of the security system of an organization understood as an entirety composed of people equipped with tools, machines and materials, which are connected with one another by a specific bond and between which there are relations connected to ensuring an undisturbed existence and creating opportunities for development. The description of security systems is a complex undertaking. It is a consequence of its complexity, which is primarily a result of the set of relations between organizational elements. They include: accumulation (expressed in the number of hierarchical levels, range (related to the number of subordinations and dependencies), spread (associated with the number of elements subordinate to a single superior at each organizational level), organizational cohesiveness (connected to the mutual structural and functional dependencies between organizational elements due to performed tasks), information links (reflecting the channels and network of information flow), as well as the division of powers (associated with the right to make decisions), and division of duties (related to the relationship between organizational elements). The complexity of the description of security systems is also determined by the activity of the organization’s security systems, which can be divided into: material (concerning the types of activities), temporal (related to the order of its conduct in a specific time), and spatial (connected to conducting activities in specific places). The description of security systems is only possible through the use of: appropriate methodological procedures and a systemic approach, as characterized within the constraints resulting from the expression formula. This paper also indirectly addresses the determinants of the description of security systems. These are: up-to-date knowledge, concreteness and reliability of the description and sufficient detail.

Mixing performance of a fractal-like tree network micromixer based on Murray’s law

In this paper, we designed the Y-type and T-type micromixer based on generalized Murray’s law. We studied the influence of geometric parameters and pressure drop on mixing efficiency and analyzed the concentration curves of fluid at the outlet. The influence of geometric parameters on mixing performance is studied by using COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2a. The number of hierarchical levels can have a significant effect on mixing efficiency and the more of the levels, the higher of the mixing efficiency. For Y-type micromixer, the influence of different branch angles α = 30°, 60°, 90° on the mixing efficiency was analyzed, and the 30° Y-type micromixer has the best mixing performance. The micromixer designed in this paper has a high mixing efficiency of over 90% in the range of Re 0.5–100. The generalized Murray's law can be widely used in the design of micromixers.

Gerrymandering in a hierarchical legislature

We build a multiple hierarchical model of a representative democracy in which citizens elect ward representatives, ward representatives elect county representatives, county representatives elect state representatives, and state representatives elect a prime minister. We use our model to show that the policy determined by the final representative can become more extreme as the number of hierarchical levels increases as a result of increased opportunities for gerrymandering. Thus, a sufficiently large number of voters provide a district maker an advantage, enabling her to implement her favorite policy.

Influence of Characteristics of the Organizational Structure of Management on Level and Structure of Transactional Costs of Firm

Efficiency of goal achievement of the organization, implementation its strategy, efficiency of interaction with the external environment is in many respects determined by the correct creation of an organizational structure of management. Main goal of existence of an organizational structure of management is ensuring sustainable development of the organization. Achievement of this purpose is carried out by means of improvement of ways of interaction of the organization with the external environment, and also interactions of elements in the organization. Exact feature of management- based organizational has great influence on structure of transactional costs of that organization. High transactional costs reduce efficiency of functioning of the organization. It is possible to increase efficiency of organization activity by management of transactional expenses. Classification of transactional costs is given in this work, the main characteristics of an organizational structure of management are considered too. The analysis of influence of the following factors: level of formalization of an organizational structure of management, extent of centralization of an organizational structure of management, number of hierarchical levels of management, number of hierarchical levels of management, number of functional divisions, control range on the transactional costs was completed.

Evolution of the Organization Model in Socio-Economic Formations

Social changes, transformation of human activity from labour to creative work, alteration of material conditions and use of new production factors are bound to cause changes in the organization itself. In the article the author tries to show how the organization could change in the future. The author depicts how the organization changed under the influence of its activity development and under the impact of the external environment. Organization models in industrial, post-industrial and information society are described. Some of these models are designed by the author himself. The organization model in economy of knowledge was considered in detail. The author’s concept implies that in economy of knowledge features and aims of organizations of business and social field will be somewhat similar. Organizations of the future will differ from current organizations in the following way: 1) another organizational culture, which will foster creativity and freedom of man; 2) broad application of knowledge in all fields of organization’s activity; 3) continuous, wide use of innovation in order to attain organization’s goals; 4) high degree of specialization; 5) minimum number of hierarchical levels in management, reducing the use of the command (project) approach to work (task) fulfillment, changing the role of management. Theoretical conclusions are corroborated by examples from world practice, which are not so numerous today.

Hierarchical microcrack model for materials exemplified at enamel

ObjectiveThis article investigates the mechanical properties of a material with hierarchically arranged microcracks. MethodsHierarchically structured biomaterials such as enamel exhibit superior mechanical properties as being stiff and damage tolerant at the same time. The common mechanical explanation for this behavior is based on the hierarchically structured arrangement of hard minerals and soft organics and their cooperative deformation mechanisms. In situ mechanical experiments with mm-sized bovine enamel bending bars an scanning electron microscope reveal that enamel is able to withstand mechanical loading even if it contains microcracks on different lengths scales. To clarify this issue an analytical hierarchical microcrack model of non-interacting cracks is presented. Results and SignificanceThe model predicts a decrease of the elastic modulus and the fracture strength with increasing levels of hierarchy. The fracture strain on the other hand may decrease or increase with the number of hierarchical levels, depending on the microcrack density. This simple hierarchical microcrack model is able to explain already published experiments with focused ion beam prepared μm-sized enamel cantilevers on different hierarchical levels. In addition it is shown that microcracking during loading in hierarchical materials may lead to substantial pseudoplastic behavior.

INTRODUCTION OF INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGIES IN ORGANIZATIONS: FROM OPTIMIZATION OF STRUCTURE TO IMPROVED COMPETITIVE ABILITY

Introduction of information and communication technologies (ICT) in organizations entails a reduced number of hierarchical levels, expansion of the range of control, decentralization at the operational level. Therefore, there is a close relationship between changes in the organizational structure and the prospects of using different types of advanced ICT. This relationship should be taken into account as the improvement of organizational structure is a necessary step to improve the efficiency of innovation processes and competitive performance of enterprises.

Micromechanical design of hierarchical composites using global load sharing theory

Hierarchical composites, embodied by natural materials ranging from bone to bamboo, may offer combinations of material properties inaccessible to conventional composites. Using global load sharing (GLS) theory, a well-established micromechanics model for composites, we develop accurate numerical and analytical predictions for the strength and toughness of hierarchical composites with arbitrary fiber geometries, fiber strengths, interface properties, and number of hierarchical levels, N. The model demonstrates that two key material properties at each hierarchical level—a characteristic strength and a characteristic fiber length—control the scalings of composite properties. One crucial finding is that short- and long-fiber composites behave radically differently. Long-fiber composites are significantly stronger than short-fiber composites, by a factor of 2N or more; they are also significantly tougher because their fiber breaks are bridged by smaller-scale fibers that dissipate additional energy. Indeed, an “infinite” fiber length appears to be optimal in hierarchical composites. However, at the highest level of the composite, long fibers localize on planes of pre-existing damage, and thus short fibers must be employed instead to achieve notch sensitivity and damage tolerance. We conclude by providing simple guidelines for microstructural design of hierarchical composites, including the selection of N, the fiber lengths, the ratio of length scales at successive hierarchical levels, the fiber volume fractions, and the desired properties of the smallest-scale reinforcement. Our model enables superior hierarchical composites to be designed in a rational way, without resorting either to numerical simulation or trial-and-error-based experimentation.

A MATHEMATICAL FORMULATION OF URBAN ZONING SELECTION CRITERIA IN A DISTRIBUTED SERVICE NETWORK

Distributed Service Network is a wide term related to distribution and travelling i.e. distribution of resource among facilities located at various locations and travelling of resource along a distributed network. Policy making problems in distributed service networks can be clearly classified into a number of hierarchical levels. The levels are distinguished by time horizon of the problem, by amount of cost involved in the implementation of a solution, and by the political implications of the solution. In the public sector, it includes ambulance, fire, police and other services. In the private sector courier, taxi, repair, maintenance and the like are considered to be distributed service network. In this paper an attempt has been made to obtain a mathematical model by which a network can be partitioned into subnetworks in a Distributed Service Network. The constraints like demand equity, contiguity, compactness, enclaves etc. are applied for Zoning.

Predicting the effective stiffness of cellular and composite materials with self-similar hierarchical microstructures

Many natural and man-made materials exhibit self-similar hierarchical microstructures on several length scales. The effective macroscopic mechanical properties of such materials or composites are affected by the number of hierarchical levels and the topology of microstructures. Although the effective mechanical properties can be determined numerically using homogenization techniques, the computational costs can become prohibitively high as the level of hierarchy increases. This paper proposes an analytical approach to predicting the effective stiffness of a class of materials and structures with self-similar hierarchical microstructures. For each microstructural configuration, a simple relationship between the effective stiffness and the hierarchical level is established and verified against results of finite element analysis or data in the literature. It is found that the simple relationships we have developed provide quite accurate stiffness predictions of various hierarchical materials and composites including the Menger For composites, the predicted effective stiffness is accurate even when one of the phases is near its incompressibility limit, with its Poisson ratio close to 0.5. Inspired by the Menger sponge and informed by our topology optimization result, we propose a lighter yet stiffer cross sponge.

Measurement, variation, and scaling of osteocyte lacunae: a case study in birds

Basic issues surrounding osteocyte biology are still poorly understood, including the variability of osteocyte morphology within and among bones, individuals, and species. Several studies have suggested that the volume or shape of osteocytes (or their lacunae) is related to bone and/or organismal growth rate or metabolism, but the nature of this relationship, if any, is unclear. Furthermore, several studies have linked osteocyte lacuna volume with genome size or growth rate and suggested that osteocyte lacuna volume is unrelated to body size. Herein the scaling of osteocyte lacuna volume with body mass, growth and basal metabolic rates, genome size, and red blood cell size is examined using a broad sample of extant birds within a phylogenetic framework. Over 12,000 osteocyte lacuna axes were measured in a variety of bones from 34 avian and four non-avian dinosaur species. Osteocyte lacunae in parallel-fibered bone are scalene ellipsoids; their morphology and volume cannot be reliably estimated from any single thin section, and using a prolate ellipsoid model to estimate osteocyte lacuna volume results in a substantial (ca. 2–7 times) underestimate relative to true lacunar volume. Orthogonal thin sections reveal that in birds, even when only observing parallel-fibered, primary, cortical bone, intra-skeletal variation in osteocyte lacuna volume and shape is very high (volumes vary by a factor of 5.4 among different bones), whereas variation among homologous bones of the same species is low (1.2–44%; mean=12%). Ordinary and phylogenetically informed bivariate and multiple regressions demonstrate that in birds, osteocyte volume scales significantly but weakly with body mass and mass-specific basal metabolic rate and moderately with genome size, but not with erythrocyte size. Avian whole-body growth rate and osteocyte lacuna volume are weakly and inversely related. Finally, we present the first three-dimensionally calculated osteocyte volumes for several non-avian dinosaurs, which are much larger than previously reported values and smaller than those of large extant avians. Osteocyte volumes estimated from a single transverse section and assuming prolate morphology, as done in previous studies, are relative underestimates in theropod dinosaurs compared to sauropod dinosaurs, raising the possibility that no major change in osteocyte volumes (and genome size) occurred within Theropoda on the lineage leading to birds. Osteocyte volume is intertwined with several organismal attributes whose relative importance varies at a number of hierarchical levels.

Plastic deformation: Shearing mountains atom by atom

Abstract Conventional wisdom established atomistic defects, dislocations, as agents of plastic deformation. On macroscopic scale, rock, wood, steel, tough ceramics, fiber reinforced composites, and silicon all deform in the same way and produce the same pattern; shear bands. The argumentation presented here, starts on the largest length scale of the problem at hand and leads through a number of hierarchical levels down to the atomistic mechanism. Shear bands develop discontinuously by the motion of a process zone. Locally, i.e. in the process zone, deformation proceeds perpendicularly to the macroscopic shear, in combination with a rotation. The microscopic shear itself may occur again in a discontinuous manner and again orthogonally to the intermediate level and so on at ever smaller scale. Material properties come into play at the highest hierarchical level, i.e. at the smallest length scale where they control the well-known micromechanisms.

Organizational factors and the attitude toward health promotion in German ICT-companies

This study takes a first step toward examining the relationship between organizational characteristics and the perceived attitude toward health promotion in companies from the perspective of chief executive officers (CEOs). Data for the cross-sectional study were collected through telephone interviews with one CEO from randomly selected companies within the German information and communication technology (ICT) sector. Multivariate logistic regression analysis (LRA) was performed, and further LRA was conducted after stratifying on company size. LRA of data from a total of n = 522 interviews found significant associations between the attitude toward health promotion and the company's market position, its number of hierarchical levels, the percentage of permanent positions and the percentage of employees with an academic education. After stratification on company size, the association between the attitude toward health promotion and both market position and the percentage of employees with an academic education was still present in small companies. There were no significant relationships between the attitude toward health promotion and the structural characteristics of medium-sized and large companies. The preliminary results of the study indicate that a perceived attitude toward health promotion in companies can be explained, to a certain degree, by the intraorganizational characteristics analyzed. Our key findings highlight that efforts toward establishing a positive attitude toward health promotion should focus on small companies with a lower market position and a greater number of employees with a lower education level.