Personnel Task Research Articles

STANDARD AND ALTERNATIVE METHODS OF STRETCHER CARRIAGE: PERFORMANCE, HUMAN FACTORS, AND CARDIORESPIRATORY RESPONSES

Transporting a casualty on a stretcher is a common task for medical and military personnel. Stretchers are usually carried by hand, but distributing the load to other parts of the body may have advantages. To examine alternative carriage methods, 11 soldiers walked on a treadmill at 4.8 km/h while performing two-person carries of a stretcher containing an 80-kg manikin. In separate trials, soldiers carried the stretcher using: (1) hand carriage, (2) shoulder straps, (3) a specially designed harness that allowed load shifting between the hips and shoulders (hip-shoulder system), and (4) a clip that fitted on the belt of standard military load carrying equipment (LCE) and placed the stretcher mass mainly on the hips. With each system, subjects walked until volitional fatigue or 30 min. While walking, expired gases and heart rates were obtained and subjects rated their perceived exertion (Borg Scale). At the conclusion of all four trials, subjects rated each system on a number of subjective measures. Results showed that average (+/- SD) carriage times were 2.7+/-1.4, 14.5+/-8.3, 25.4+/-8.1, and 21.7+/-9.9 min with the hand, shoulder, hip-shoulder and LCE systems respectively (p<0.01). Hand carriage resulted in considerably more cardiorespiratory stress (higher heart rate and minute ventilation, p<0.05) than the other three systems, but there were few consistent differences among the other three systems. Perceived exertion in the upper body was less with the hip-shoulder and LCE systems than with the other two systems (p<0.05). Subjects preferred the hip-shoulder and LCE systems overall and for specific subjective characteristics such as comfort, ease of use and stability (p<0.01). These data indicate that moving the stretcher load from the hands and placing that load on the shoulders and/or hips results in improved performance, reduced cardiorespiratory stress and favourable subjective evaluations. Further developmental work should focus on the hip-shoulder and LCE systems.

Aspect-independent classification of ‘‘dolphin’’ ensonified mines using Choi–Williams representations

Contemporary anti-invasion mines have aspect-dependent shapes, making discrimination of mines from nonthreat objects, and classification of mines, a difficult task for human mine countermeasures personnel. Shallow-water (SW) noise and bottom reverberation substantially degrade the acoustic structure of mine echoes. Traditional MCM target strength and FFT classifiers are not effective under these conditions. The testing of a novel neural network classifier to solve the task of classifying mines in the SW acoustic environment was begun. Three mine types were ensonified at 1 deg rotations using synthetic dolphin clicks. A learning vector quantization network was trained to classify the mines using the Choi–Williams joint time-frequency distributions of echoes. A training set of 36 echoes per mine (5, 15, 25,..., 355 deg) was created, with the remaining echoes (0, 10, 20,..., 350 deg) reserved for generalization testing. The network correctly classified the mines at novel orientations with 85% accuracy. Performance using CWD will be contrasted with biomimetic sonar target classifiers under varying signal-to-noise ratios. [Research funded by ONR Underseas Active Signal Processing Program.]

The changing roles of health care personnel in health and health care management

Health care reform has become a global phenomenon. Countries are experiencing similar problems with their health care systems and are reaching for similar solutions. Management is seen as crucial in many countries as the principal means of securing supply-side reforms. Many of these centre on establishing a new relationship between professionals, notably the medical profession, and the state. The aim has been to exercise greater influence over how professionals practice and use resources. The application of new public management principles based on industrial sector practices and concepts of management has created tensions within professional groups who feel themselves, and their craft, to be under attack. But the new managerialism has to be seen within a context of rapid social and economic change. It is not possible to predict what the impact of such change is likely to be on health services in the future or on those who provide them. The paper offers an overview of health care reforms and assesses how it is shaping, or re-shaping, the roles and tasks of health care personnel. One conclusion is the mismatch between the management style favoured by policy-makers and reformers and the necessary flexibility required in skill mix and organization of work. High-trust relations lie at the heart of professional forms of organisation whereas the new managerialism appears to be based on the expectation of low-trust relations. The paper concludes with a brief look at the implications of all these developments for training and education and finds that there is still a long way to go before there is any real prospect of providing and equipping health care personnel with the requisite skills to enable them to meet the complex challenges that are a common characteristic of health care systems.

Financial Controls And Schools: Accounting In 'Public' And 'private' Spheres

This paper will consider the nature of accounting in schools, particularly that which has been introduced by Local Management of Schools (LMS). It will argue that while some accounting has always been carried out in schools LMS has introduced accounting of a very different nature. The main task which has been introduced is that of budgeting. The paper seeks to introduce the distinction between accounting in two spheres, the 'public' and the 'private', as a way of analysing both the accounting tasks and the attitude to those tasks of personnel involved in their implementation. The paper concludes that LMS is introducing accounting in the 'public' sphere and that schools are not used to this, although they have been involved in accounting in the 'private' sphere for some time. It will argue that while schools have had to operate with accounting in the 'public' sphere they have, in the context of the school, chosen approaches which move least from the 'private' orientation with which they are familiar. In their interactions with a wider environment school personnel have been far more open to using accounting information as a tool of rhetoric and have moved more towards the 'public' sphere.

Human Resource Aspects: Decentralization and Devolution

Responsibility for human resource management is being spread around organizations in two ways: by decentralization, the allocation of personnel tasks formerly undertaken centrally to more local parts of the organization; and by devolution, the allocation of rules formerly undertaken by personnel specialists to line managers. Evidence from The Netherlands indicates that both processes are working there but with a considerable degree of doubt as to whether line managers can handle devolved personnel tasks. Comparative data from across Europe show that The Netherlands is in the top half of countries devolving these functions. Such decentralization and devolvement may mean a new role for personnel specialists.

Metabolic analysis of support personnel in low-seam coal-mines

Support personnel tasks of brattice construction and rock-dust bag carrying were simulated in a laboratory setting. Two different seam heights (1.07 m and 1.37 m) and two different postures (kneeling and stooping) were studied for stooping construction. For bag carrying, a handle was either used or not. All dependent measures, energy expenditure, heart rate and Borg's rating of perceived exertion, indicated that the kneeling posture was preferred over stooping. Similarly, the use of handles reduced the difficulty of bag carrying.

Perceptions of Personnel System Constraints in Public, Private, and Hybrid Organizations

Public and private managers' perceptions of flexibility of personnel procedures, authority over personnel actions, and approval times for basic personnel tasks are compared. A phone survey of 78 top managers of Syracuse, New York area organizations followed by 210 responses from middle and upper managers to a mail survey constitutes the data source. Differences were studied using two approaches of organizational characterization: a category scheme dividing organizations into core public, hybrid, and core private groupings based on the nature of the primary product or service produced and Bozeman's (1987) publicness model. Results, in part, indicate private managers perceive more flexible personnel proce dures, greater authority over personnel actions, and shorter approval times for hiring and dis missing employees compared to public managers.

Task-Operator Study for the Primary Flight Control Center of Tarawa Class (LHA) Ships

This report presents the findings of a Task-Operator study for the Primary Flight Control (Pri-Fly) major operating stations aboard Tarawa class (LHA) ships. The LHA carries a variety of attack and cargo helicopters, plus AV-8A Sea Harrier jet aircraft. Pri-Fly is the area of the ship which controls the landing and recovery of aircraft, as well as flight control when aircraft are in the immediate vicinity of the ship. Two main positions were examined by this study, the Air Administrator (Air-Boss) and the Assistant Air Administrator (Mini-Boss). The purposes of this study were to perform a task-operator study of Pri-Fly personnel task requirements, to identify human-equipment interface design problems given the existing configuration of Pri-Fly within LHAs, and to provide general design recommendations based on the findings of the study. Seven tasks were undertaken to meet the objectives of the project. Overall, the review identified numerous human engineering design problems in Pri-Fly, many of which severely limit the performance of Pri-Fly personnel. Based on this review, it is asserted that significant improvement can be realized, in terms of air operations safety and efficiency, by instituting a Pri-Fly improvement program.

Underlying dimensions of human problem solving and learning: implications for personnel selection, training, task design and expert system

This study presents experimental evidence on the dimensions underlying the interaction of the learning process with human cognitive representation of problem solving. An experiment was conducted in three sessions. Each session consisted of performing 12 problem solving tasks and obtaining their similarity rating. The observed four-way data made up of 12 tasks × 12 tasks × 6 subjects × 3 sessions were analyzed using a multidimensional scaling model. The analysis resulted in three major dimensions across the learning process. Two of the dimensions are described as distinctions of bottom-up vs. top-down and conscious vs. subconscious reasoning. The third one is identified as a dimension inherent to the task characteristics. It is shown that the former two dimensions are affected significantly by learning and hence become more dominant in the process of understanding. The implication of the findings for personnel selection, job rotation, task design, and expert system design is discussed.

Maximizing the benefits of health care information systems.

Information systems can improve cost control, increase the timeliness and accuracy of patient care and administration information, increase service capacity, reduce personnel costs and inventory levels, and improve the quality of patient care. However, experience shows that most of these benefits will not occur automatically following system implementation. Operational problems may exist that diminish information timeliness, accessibility, and accuracy; policies and procedures may not have been sufficiently tailored to reflect the realities and intents of the systems; and personnel tasks may not have been adequately restructured. In order to realize the full potential of information systems, health care organizations must plan for and implement strategies that are designed to maximize such benefits. This paper describes a method for developing benefits maximization strategies. The processes used to define strategies and their outcomes are presented.

Integrating Organizational Action in Emergency Management; Strategies for Change

Creating effective organizational response under the complex, uncertain operating conditions of a major disaster poses a sobering challenge to public service agencies which bear the primary responsibility for emergency management. The emergency response process, initially designed in standard, hierarchical organizational format for reactive agency operations, demands careful reconsideration in the rapidly changing, increasingly interdependent social environment of the 1980s. The perceived responsibilities of national, state, and local agencies in disaster vary with political and economic conditions. Finding the optimal mix of shared responsibilities within the specific limitations of time, resources, and professional skills available in any given emergency, constitutes a continuing task for emergency service personnel. This article examines the role of information search processes within and between organizations as a means of integrating multiple agency and/or jurisdictional operations into effective emer-

Intuitive Prediction and Judgment on a Personnel Task by Naive and Experienced Judges

Two experiments examined individuals' tendencies to make extreme trait attributions and behavioral judgments based on little and nondiagnostic information. In Experiment 1, naive subjects, using only sketchy biographical information and excerpts from a fictitious personnel file, made strong attributions about a stimulus person's personality and potential in a work‐related situation. Subjects failed to make use of manipulated statistically diagnostic information, although the manipulations were correctly perceived. These judgments were held with high confidence and extended to areas about the stimulus person in which no information was given. These effects were replicated in Experiment 2 using experienced personnel officers as subjects. These results are discussed in terms of the concept of “base rate fallacy.'' Implications for interpersonal judgment in organizational settings and personnel work are presented.RésuméAu moyen de deux expériences de laboratoire, on a étudié la tendance qu'ont les individus à attribuer des traits de caractère très prononcés et à porter des jugements sur le comportement des autres à partir d'informations peu nombreuses et non systématiques. Dans la première expérience, des sujets peu expérimentés n'utilisaient qu'une biographie sommaire et des extraits d'un dossier personnel fictif. Ils se sentaient néanmoins en mesure de caractériser nettement les motivations et le potentiel d'un employé. Les sujets n'ont pas eu recours aux statistiques falsifiées qu'on leur avait fournies, mais ont décelé le sens de la falsification. Les jugements étaient portés avec une grande assurance et extrapolés à des domaines sur lesquels on n'avait fourni aucune information. La deuxième expérience était semblable à la première, à cette exception près que les sujets étaient des gestionnaires de personnel expérimentés. Les résultats des expériences sont étudiés à l'aide du concept du “sophisme du point de départ.'' On en présente les conséquences pour les jugements interpersonnels dans les organisations et la gestion du personnel.

Personnel Management in Third World Countries

The effective harnessing of human resources is inevitably an issue of considerable moment in any modern nation state. Nevertheless, particularly because of the rapidity of change, in countries in which major processes of economic and technical advancement are in train, this problem undoubtedly assumes a particular significance. In the following analysis, therefore, some of the general forces which affect the personnel function in the organisation will first be examined. This will be followed by a review of the ways in which “human resource management” may be different in “emergent” countries from other developed nations. Evidence from case studies of the constraints upon and the actual operation of personnel departments in the Third World will then be assessed. And, finally, the thesis will be advanced that there is considerable choice in the ways in which the personnel task may actually be performed in the countries under review.

Laboratory Management Training for Medical Technology Students

An exercise designed to provide effective practice in specified areas of laboratory management is described. This student project was incorporated into an existing course in the medical technology curriculum. Completion of the project required students to prepare work schedules and budgets, order supplies, assign personnel tasks according to varying educational levels, and formulate recommendations concerning equipment, supplies, methods and personnel requirements for a simulated clinical laboratory.

School Library Personnel Tasks (II)

School Library Personnel Tasks (II)

School Library Personnel Tasks (I)

School Library Personnel Tasks (I)

Job Performance Aiding Systems Technology Selection Algorithm

A nine-step selection algorithm is described which relates personnel aptitude, experience, task and equipment complexity, and degree of proceduralization in a decision chain for choosing optimum combinations of job performance aids (JPAs) and training technologies. The algorithm has been useful in (1) identifying JPA research and technology gaps, (2) identifying candidate JPA systems for Navy personnel, maintenance and training tradeoff analyses, and (3) in selecting specific JPA systems for test and evaluation in the Navy Performance Aids Test and Evaluation project. The algorithm development has also included efforts to identify and evaluate specifications and guidelines available for JPA procurement/implementation and to highlight areas where information should be gathered for an integrated JPA/training/maintenance/personnel user handbook.

Some Determinants of Compensation Decisions.

This research investigated the effects of three variables upon compensation decisions. Results indicated that, in a simulated personnel task, both subordinate pay equity and subordinate equity off the job directly affected subjects' decisions. The strength of the subordinate's demand for a raise also influenced compensation decisions through its interaction with each of the other two variables.

Some Determinants of Compensation Decisions

This research investigated the effects of three variables upon compensation decisions. Results indicated that, in a simulated personnel task, both subordinate pay equity and subordinate equity off the job directly affected subjects' decisions. The strength of the subordinate's demand for a raise also influenced compensation decisions through its interaction with each of the other two variables.

Treasury Department regulatory material under the tax code

The legislative process in the tax field and the administrative process for the issuance of regulatory and interpretative material by the Treasury Department are closely coordinated. The same persons and interests both inside and outside of Government are involved in both processes. There is thus continuity of expertise, understanding of what is at stake, adversary viewpoints, and Washington knowhow. The preparation of administrative material within the Treasury is a task for those technical personnel and policy officials who in varying degrees also have a voice in the preparation of the Treasury's legislative position and the legislative development of statutory language. The outside forces who watch legislative activity also closely watch administrative activity and seek to shape the latter just so they do the former. The response of the Treasury is much the same in both situations, and governed by the policies, attitudes and predilections of tax policy officials and career personnel.