bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025_split huggingface dataset:
A Gestalt perspective of coaching: a case for being more yourself
Authors: Chidiac Marie‐Anne 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline how a Gestalt approach to coaching which makes use of the paradoxical theory of change can lead to personal growth and development.Design/methodology/approachProvides an overview of the key concepts of paradoxical coaching and a case study to illustrate the method.FindingsThe application of the paradoxical theory of change accesses the personal change process of the coachee and leads to improved performance.Originality/valueThe article provides an alternative perspective to the more widespread behaviorally‐based coaching approaches.
Executive coaching across cultural boundaries: an interesting challenge facing coaches today
Authors: Donnison Phil 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to outline the need for cultural sensitivity and knowledge when working as a coach with people from different cultural backgrounds.Design/methodology/approachProvides an overview of Hofstede's descriptions of cultural dimensions and explores how an awareness of these can be useful to coaches in their work.FindingsExecutive coaches working with managers from different countries need to be aware of the influence of local culture on the behaviour of the managers. The manager's culture will often be very different to the coach's and understanding these differences can help coaches work more effectively.Originality/valueThe article provides an alternative perspective to the more widespread behaviourally‐based coaching approaches.
The psychology of “managing mistakes”: some implications for coaches and managers
Authors: Piggott David 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThis paper has two main aims: first, to outline the importance of an understanding of psychological theories of learning for coaches and managers; and second, to delineate the practical implications of adopting either of the two psychological theories presented for coaches and managers.Design/methodology/approachThe main theoretical insights in this paper are derived from the work of the renowned philosopher, Sir Karl Popper, and especially his caricature of learners as active “searchlights” as opposed to passive “buckets” (Popper). The basic tenets of the “searchlight” and “bucket” theories are illustrated with the assistance of analogies from coaching football (soccer) and an argument is advanced in favor of adopting the former.FindingsFollowing from the adoption of the searchlight theory of learning, the paper argues that managers and coaches should work to create environments that foster and support learning. In such an environment, people are treated as creative problem solvers and errors or mistakes are regarded as important learning events.Practical implicationsIn conclusion it is argued that knowledge can only grow in organizations where mistakes are effectively managed rather than punished or ignored.Originality/valueThis paper advances important arguments from the field of epistemology about the nature of learning and the organisational environment. It will be of value to coaches and managers who are interested in how knowledge grows and who wish to foster this process in their organisations.
Modelling rapid climate changes and analysing their impacts
Authors: Bekteshi Sadik , Kabashi Skender , Šlaus Ivo , Zidanšek Aleksander , Najdovski Dimitrij 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this investigation is the modeling of rapid climate changes (RCC) and analysis of their impacts in ecological and economic systems, in particular, their responses on the rate of RCC and assessment of the considered factors most influenced by RCC.Design/methodology/approachFor modeling impacts of the RCC, the model WORLD3 has been used. Since it is expected that the greatest impacts of RCC be in energy, in this case, the WORLD3 model has been used under the assumption that RCC influences the rapid decrease of energy during a time period of one year. Therefore, the results will be more explicit than in the case when the change occurs gradually during a longer time period.FindingsThe results obtained in this work show that increasing the rate of RCC can be associated also with nonlinear responses of economic and ecological factors. It is seen from the analysis that the later the RCC occurs in the time scale considered, the lesser the consequences for ecological and economic systems affected by the RCC.Practical implicationsFrom these results, it can be concluded that adaptability and resilience of ecosystems and economies is needed, especially for the factors that are most affected by RCC – in this case, the population and energy, exert efforts for reducing the causes of RCC, and prompt action to mitigate global warming as the main cause of RCC. Also, these results show the possibility of early development of potential mitigation and adaptation strategies and allow for a better evaluation of risk exposure.Originality/valueThis work is original, as no such analysis has been carried out about impacts of RCC in economic and ecological systems. The paper provides data and results upon which further research could be carried out.
Utilization of energy from thermal treatment of sludge
Authors: Boran J. , Houdkova L. , Ucekaj V. , Stehlik P. 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to compare well‐known technologies of sludge utilization on the basis of energy and economical balances of real processes. The calculations are based on pilot tests in the Central Waste Water Treatment Plant (CWWTP) in Prague, the biggest waste water treatment plant in the Czech Republic.Design/methodology/approachA key issue for the comparison of mass and energy flow of sludge management is the attainable level of sludge dewaterability. Results of dewatering of anaerobic digested sludge are available from real applications since most sewage plants use digesters. The existing limited knowledge about mixed raw sludge (MRS) dewaterability have driven authors to make pilot tests targeted to establishment of an attainable level of MRS dewaterability. To get as close results as possible even anaerobic stabilized sludge was dewatered and various other data were collected to obtain a comprehensive data set for energy balance of the sludge management calculation. The pilot tests took place at CWWTP in 2005. Measured data were used to calculate energy balance of a number of different sludge managements.FindingsTo produce self‐reliant combusting sludge, a dry matter content of 35‐45 per cent for MRS and 45‐55 per cent for digested sludge has to be achieved by means of dewatering and potentially drying. In recent measurements at CWWTP a dry matter content of about 33 per cent was achieved by dewatering of MRS. This value is very close to the range of the dry matter content at which a self reliant combustion can be expected.Practical implicationsThis comparison together with investment cost analysis should be one of the most important parameters in case of design a new or revamp an old waste water treatment plant.Originality/valueThe paper provides results from pilot tests at CWWTP together with three different energy balances comparison.
A heat atlas for demand and supply management in Denmark
Authors: Möller Bernd 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe objective is to describe and evaluate the development of a novel planning tool for end‐use efficiency in the built environment and for infrastructural changes in the energy system.Design/methodology/approachAfter describing problems related to further reduce heat demand in the Danish built environment, the geographical nature of the planning task is discussed. The requirements are then translated into concepts for the development of a general method, which is implemented in a practical design of a heat atlas. Typical applications are described and discussed.FindingsIt was found that the availability of the extensive public databases in Denmark make feasible the development and application of a highly detailed geographical information base for end use and infrastructure planning and analysis. It was also realised that the development has much higher potentials than explored in this paper. On the other hand, the complex geography of the urban/rural boundaries of cities requires extra care when using this approach.Research limitations/implicationsUnfortunately, the results of this report are only directly applicable for Denmark, which maintains public databases on the built environment and socio‐demography with a very high standard of detail and coverage. The research presented here may require further development of empirical methods of the relation between energy demand and physically and socially mapped data. On the other hand, the research may contribute to better data for analyses in the techno‐economic analyses of future energy systems, which now can be carried out for arbitrary geographical units, independent of administrative boundaries.Practical implicationsThe method presented here may be further developed as a practical tool to be used to revive the municipal and regional energy planning, either by technical consultants or by local governments. Even a publicly accessible, web‐based tool is feasible.Originality/valueThe paper describes how existing data in society can be assembled to a novel method to be used within energy planning, and environmental management as a whole. A system of the one developed does not exist as yet. On the other hand it builds upon existing traditions in energy planning and local governance.
An optimal electricity allocation model for the effective utilisation of energy sources in India with focus on biofuels
Authors: Jebaraj S. , Iniyan S. , Suganthi L. , Goić Ranko 
Published: June 2008

PurposeRenewable energy sources are likely to play a major role in meeting the future energy requirement of a developing country like India. Among the various renewable energy sources, the bio‐energy plays a key role for the power generation. In this paper, an attempt is made to develop a fuzzy based linear programming optimal electricity allocation model (OEAM) that minimizes the cost and determines the optimum allocation of different energy sources for the centralized and decentralized power generation in India with special emphasis to bio‐energy.Design/methodology/approachThe OEAM model optimizes and selects the appropriate energy options for the power generation on the factors such as cost, potential, demand, efficiency, emission and carbon tax. The objective function of the model is minimizing the cost of power generation. The other factors are used as constraints in the model. The fuzzy linear programming optimization approach is used in the model.FindingsThe extents of energy sources distribution for the power generation in the year 2020 would be 15,800 GWh (4 per cent) from the coal based plants, 85,400 GWh (20 per cent) from the nuclear plants, 191,100 GWh (44 per cent) from the hydro plants, 22,400 GWh (5 per cent) from the wind mills, 45,520 GWh (11 per cent) from the biomass gasifier plants, 14,112 GWh (3 per cent) from the biogas plants, 8,400 GWh (2 per cent) from the solid waste, 33,600 GWh (8 per cent) from the cogeneration plants and 11,970 GWh (3 per cent) from the mini hydel plants, respectively.Originality/valueThe OEAM has been developed for the electricity demand allocation for the year 2020. An extensive literature survey revealed that carbon tax and emission constraints were never used in the previous models and they are considered in the present model.
Entropy analysis of metal production and recycling
Authors: Gößling‐Reisemann Stefan 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe paper attempts to address both resource consumption and recycling effectiveness, using concepts from thermodynamics: entropy production for evaluating the costs (resource consumption) and statistical entropy for evaluating the benefits (separation of materials) of recycling processes.Design/methodology/approachResource consumption, in this context, is to be understood as the overall thermodynamic devaluation of matter and energy flows. The recycling effectiveness, on the other hand, can be measured by the process's ability to reduce the “mixedness” of the material flows, using statistical entropy (entropy of mixing) as an indicator. Statistical entropy has been used by others as an indicator for the performance of waste separation processes, and its application to metal recycling seems straightforward. Entropy production has been applied as a measure for resource consumption in copper production. Here, the two concepts are combined to reach an expression describing the resource efficiency of recycling.FindingsThe theoretical description of the approach is supported by an example calculation for copper recycling. The findings suggest a near perfect effectiveness of the copper separation when processing medium grade copper scrap in a primary copper smelter. The resource consumption, on the other hand, is quite large when compared to the service of the process, giving rise to a rather small thermodynamic efficiency (in terms of the definition of efficiency as applied in this paper).Research limitations/implicationsBoth measures used here, recycling efficiency and recycling effectiveness, are very demanding concerning the data basis, making applications time consuming. These drawbacks can be overcome by linking material flow tools (e.g. LCA software) with thermodynamic databases. More examples have to be considered to show the practical relevance of the approach.Originality/valueThe paper addresses effectiveness and efficiency using a common denominator, thermodynamic entropy. This unification helps in ranking different recycling options regarding their performance in terms of technical effectiveness and resource consumption.
Political online communities in Saudi Arabia: the major players
Authors: Al‐Saggaf Yeslam , Einar Himma Kenneth , Kharabsheh Radwan 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explore the major players operating onAl‐Saha Al‐Siyasiaonline community, which is by far the most widely spread political online community in Saudi Arabia receiving 20 million page views per month.Design/methodology/approachIn addition to using “focused” silent observation to observeAl‐Saha Al‐Siyasiaover a period of three months (May‐July 2007) and thematic content analysis to examine 2,000 topics (and their replies) posted toAl‐Saha Al‐Siyasiaduring the period of May‐June 2007, semi‐structured interviews were conducted (in Arabic) with 15 key informants to report their perceptions regarding Islamic fundamentalists, extremists and liberals, etc. on their forum.FindingsThe results of this study indicate that there are three main players operating inAl‐Saha Al‐Siyasia: Islamic fundamentalists, extremists, and liberals. Islamic fundamentalists who are the vast majority on this community use the forum as a medium to promote their image and defend their way of practising the religion. Extremists on the other hand, although their numbers in the forum are very small, use the forum as a medium to establish their credibility and the grounds for their actions. Finally, the liberals use the forum to communicate with the public, and advocate their plans for social reform, invite people to adopt a less strict version of Islam and adopt secularism as a way of life.Originality/valueThis paper continues the first comprehensive descriptive study of the size and influence of the Islamic fundamentalists, extremists, and liberals in their activities as online communities.
The intercultural ethics agenda from the point of view of a moral objectivist
Authors: Einar Himma Kenneth 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to attempt to resolve some unclarity about the nature and character of intercultural information ethics (IIE).Design/methodology/approachBy survey of some of the relevant literature, the paper identifies and explains the distinctive projects of IIE. In addition, to facilitate the achievement of these projects, the paper attempts to identify the most fruitful metaphysical and meta‐ethical assumptions about truth and moral truth. In particular, to identify and determine which of objectivist theories of truth and morality or intersubjectivist theories of truth and morality provides a better theoretical foundation for IIE.FindingsTwo projects are identified: a descriptive project and a normative project. It is argued that moral objectivism provides a better foundation for the normative (project than moral intersubjectivism (or, as it is sometimes called, normative cultural relativism) in the sense that objectivism provides a more solid ground for the principle grounding the normative project – namely that agreement among cultures on principles of information ethics is good or desirable. In other respects, it is concluded that moral objectivism and moral intersubjectivism do equally well in grounding the normative project.Originality/valueThe paper is the first to compare the two methodological approaches and points in the direction of the most fruitful approach to take in pursuing IIE.
Information systems for national security in Thailand: ethical issues and policy implications
Authors: Kitiyadisai Krisana 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to explicate the influence of US national security approach on the Thai Government's national security, the criticisms on the US and Thai intelligence communities and ethical debates on national databases, including the introduction of the concepts of “spiritual computing” and Buddhism to the ethical aspect of intelligence databases.Design/methodology/approachThe methodology of this paper is based on the interpretative approach which includes literature survey and interviews of the intelligence community (IC) in Thailand. The relevant literature survey consists of the literature on US intelligence databases for Homeland Security, criticisms of the IC, the ethical debate on national databases in the USA, the Thai National Security Council, ethical debates on the Internal Security Act and Computer Crime Act, Buddhism and “spiritual computing.”FindingsThe findings reflect that the US model of national security has significant influence on the Thai intelligence approach and application of IT for national security while both intelligence communities have similar intelligence problems and have raised ethical debates on violations of human rights.Research limitations/implicationsThe research limitations include the nature of the topic which is a closed subject under legal restrictions in Thailand so that the sources of official information could not be disclosed nor elaborated in details; and literature on this topic has not been widely available except unclassified information which limits a more in‐depth investigation and analysis.Originality/valueThe value of this paper lies in being the first attempt to throw light on a “forbidden” subject in Thailand by discussing the US experiences against the Thai case study. The application of “spiritual computing” and Buddhist precepts to the context of national security and intelligence databases could be a starting point for developing a “happier” and “successful” IC and possibly open a new approach to national security.
Updating multidimensional XML documents
Authors: Fousteris Nikolaos , Gergatsoulis Manolis , Stavrakas Yannis 
Published: June 2008

PurposeIn a wide spectrum of applications, it is desirable to manipulate semistructured information that may present variations according to different circumstances. Multidimensional XML (MXML) is an extension of XML suitable for representing data that assume different facets, having different value and/or structure under different contexts. The purpose of this paper is to develop techniques for updating MXML documents.Design/methodology/approachUpdating XML has been studied in the past, however, updating MXML must take into account the additional features, which stem from incorporating context into MXML. This paper investigates the problem of updating MXML in two levels: at the graph level, i.e. in an implementation independent way; and at the relational storage level.FindingsThe paper introduces six basic update operations, which are capable of any possible change. Those operations are specified in an implementation independent way, and their effect explained through examples. Algorithms are given that implement those operations using SQL on a specific storage method that employs relational tables for keeping MXML. An overview is given of multidimensional XPath (MXPath), an extension of XPath that incorporates context, and show how to translate MXPath queries to “equivalent” SQL queries.Research limitations/implicationsThough the proposed operations solve the problem of updating MXML documents, several problems, such as formally define MXPath and its translation to SQL, remain to be investigated in the future in order to implement a system that stores, queries and updates MXML documents through a relational database infrastructure.Practical implicationsMXML is suitable for representing, in a compact way, data that assume different facets, having different value or structure, under different contexts. In order for MXML to be applicable in practice, it is vital to develop techniques and tools for storing, updating and querying MXML documents. The techniques proposed in this paper form a significant step in this direction.Originality/valueThis paper presents a novel approach for updating MXML documents by proposing update operations on both, the graph level and the (relational) storage level.
COTS‐based software product line development
Authors: Fernando Capretz Luiz , Ahmed Faheem , Al‐Maati Shereef , Al Aghbari Zaher 
Published: June 2008

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to provide an overview of a pragmatic approach to components off‐the‐shelf (COTS)‐based development. Software product line (SPL) is at the forefront among the techniques for reducing costs, decreasing schedule time, and ensuring commonality of features across a family of products – as COTS are reused in multiple products.Design/methodology/approachA disciplined process for SPL development is still needed. This paper proposes the Y‐model for COTS‐based SPL development. The model put forward identifies and elaborates the essential phases and activities of SPL development from COTS‐based repository.FindingsThe Y‐model provides an efficient way of integrating the approaches of SPL and COTS‐based development as a cohesive software development model.Practical implicationsThe model has the potential to tremendously increase software engineers' productivity. Thus, software architects, domain engineers and component designers should become aware of how to use these ideas to structure their models and designs.Originality/valueThis paper describes a systematic approach for COTS‐based development that takes into account the cataloguing and retrieval of software assets permeating a process that encompasses all stages of software development, from system product requirements engineering to system deployment.