Silence is golden: the role of team coordination in health operations

Wearable Systems for Unveiling Collective Intelligence in Clinical Settings

Nowadays, there is an ever-growing interest in assessing the collective intelligence (CI) of a team in a wide range of scenarios, thanks to its potential in enhancing teamwork and group performance. Recently, special attention has been devoted on the clinical setting, where breakdowns in teamwork, leadership, and communication can lead to adverse events, compromising patient safety. So far, researchers have mostly relied on surveys to study human behavior and group dynamics; however, this method is ineffective. In contrast, a promising solution to monitor behavioral and individual features that are reflective of CI is represented by wearable technologies. To date, the field of CI assessment still appears unstructured; therefore, the aim of this narrative review is to provide a detailed overview of the main group and individual parameters that can be monitored to evaluate CI in clinical settings, together with the wearables either already used to assess them or that have the potential to be applied in this scenario. The working principles, advantages, and disadvantages of each device are introduced in order to try to bring order in this field and provide a guide for future CI investigations in medical contexts.

Transcendental and Material Silence: A Multimodal Study on Silence in Team Meetings

Silence in management and organization studies has been predominantly understood as something negative. However, recent examples have highlighted silence as a positive element in learning and organizing. We contribute to prior literature on positive silence and multimodality by arguing silence can operate as a semiotic mode that mobilizes resources for meaning-making. Ten team meetings in a financial organization in Europe were investigated. Visual ethnography was mobilized to gather data through interviews, observations, and photographs. Our analysis identified two types of silence—transcendental and material—that both function through three mechanisms to resemiotize meaning. A framework is presented to situate silence in relation to verbal and visual modes. Three contributions are made to studies on silence and multimodality: extended conceptualizations of silence, silence as a semiotic mode in itself, and methodological pathways for studying silence. In addition, practical implications for team meetings and silence in the workplace are discussed.

Healthcare Monitoring Using Low-Cost Sensors to Supplement and Replace Human Sensation: Does It Have Potential to Increase Independent Living and Prevent Disease?

Continuous monitoring of health status has the potential to enhance the quality of life and life expectancy of people suffering from chronic illness and of the elderly. However, such systems can only come into widespread use if the cost of manufacturing is low. Advancements in material science and engineering technology have led to a significant decrease in the expense of developing healthcare monitoring devices. This review aims to investigate the progress of the use of low-cost sensors in healthcare monitoring and discusses the challenges faced when accomplishing continuous and real-time monitoring tasks. The major findings include (1) only a small number of publications (N = 50) have addressed the issue of healthcare monitoring applications using low-cost sensors over the past two decades; (2) the top three algorithms used to process sensor data include SA (Statistical Analysis, 30%), SVM (Support Vector Machine, 18%), and KNN (K-Nearest Neighbour, 12%); and (3) wireless communication techniques (Zigbee, Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, and RF) serve as the major data transmission tools (77%) followed by cable connection (13%) and SD card data storage (10%). Due to the small fraction (N = 50) of low-cost sensor-based studies among thousands of published articles about healthcare monitoring, this review not only summarises the progress of related research but calls for researchers to devote more effort to the consideration of cost reduction as well as the size of these components.

Blockchain Smart Contract to Prevent Forgery of Degree Certificates: Artificial Intelligence Consensus Algorithm

Certificates are often falsified, such as fake diplomas and forged transcripts. As such, many schools and educational institutions have begun to issue diplomas online. Although diplomas can be issued conveniently anytime, anywhere, there are many cases wherein diplomas are forged through hacking and forgery. This paper deals with the required Blockchain diploma. In addition, we use an automatic translation system, which incorporates natural language processing, to perform verification work that does not require an existing public certificate. The hash algorithm is used to authenticate security. This paper also proposes the use of these security protocols to provide more secure data protection. In addition, each transaction history, whether a diploma is true or not, may be different in length if it is presented in text, but converting it into a hash function means that it is always more than a certain length of SHA-512 or higher. It is then verified using the time stamp values. These chaining codes are designed. This paper also provides the necessary experimental environment. At least 10 nodes are constructed. Blockchain platform development applies and references Blockchain standardization, and a platform test, measurement test, and performance measurement test are conducted to assess the smart contract development and performance measurement. A total of 500 nodes were obtained by averaging 200 times, and a Blockchain-based diploma file was agreed upon at the same time. It shows performance information of about 4100 TPS. In addition, the analysis of artificial intelligence distribution diagram was conducted using a four-point method, and the distribution chart was evenly distributed, confirming the diploma with the highest similarity. The verified values were then analyzed. This paper proposes these natural language processing-based Blockchain algorithms.

Status Competition and Implicit Coordination: Based on the Role of Knowledge Sharing and Psychological Safety

Implicit coordination is an important research topic in the field of social cognition. Previous studies have studied implicit coordination behavior from the perspective of team mental model but ignored the internal mechanism of individual status competition motivation on implicit coordination behavior. Based on the differences of status competition motivation, the individual status competition motivation is divided into prestige-type and dominant-type. With knowledge sharing as the mediating variable and psychological safety as the moderating variable, this research constructed a process model of the influence of status competition motivation on implicit coordination behavior. The empirical study was carried out with a sample of 367 employees of 44 enterprises. The research results show the following findings: (1) Status competition has a differentiated impact on implicit coordination. Prestige-type status competition has a significant positive impact on implicit coordination behavior, while dominant-type status competition has a significant negative impact on implicit coordination behavior. (2) Knowledge sharing plays a mediating role between status competition (prestige-type status competition and dominant-type status competition) and implicit coordination. (3) Psychological safety positively moderates the relationship between prestige-type status competition, dominant-type status competition, and knowledge sharing. The research results provide a new perspective for the field of implicit coordination; reveal the mechanism of status competition motivation in implicit coordination, which is of great significance to the practice of enterprise team management and human resource management.

Enhancing operations management through smart sensors: measuring and improving well-being, interaction and performance of logistics workers

Purpose

The purpose of the research is to conduct an exploratory investigation of the material handling activities of an Italian logistics hub. Wearable sensors and other smart tools were used for collecting human and environmental features during working activities. These factors were correlated with workers' performance and well-being.

Design/methodology/approach

Human and environmental factors play an important role in operations management activities since they significantly influence employees' performance, well-being and safety. Surprisingly, empirical studies about the impact of such aspects on logistics operations are still very limited. Trying to fill this gap, the research empirically explores human and environmental factors affecting the performance of logistics workers exploiting smart tools.

Findings

Results suggest that human attitudes, interactions, emotions and environmental conditions remarkably influence workers' performance and well-being, however, showing different relationships depending on individual characteristics of each worker.

Practical implications

The authors' research opens up new avenues for profiling employees and adopting an individualized human resource management, providing managers with an operational system capable to potentially check and improve workers' well-being and performance.

Originality/value

The originality of the study comes from the in-depth exploration of human and environmental factors using body-worn sensors during work activities, by recording individual, collaborative and environmental data in real-time. To the best of the authors' knowledge, the current paper is the first time that such a detailed analysis has been carried out in real-world logistics operations.

Recommending Suitable Smart Technology Applications to Support Mobile Healthcare after the COVID-19 Pandemic Using a Fuzzy Approach

The COVID-19 pandemic seems to be entering its final stage. However, to restore normal life, the applications of smart technologies are still necessary. Therefore, this research is dedicated to exploring the applications of smart technologies that can support mobile healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, this study compares smart technology applications to support mobile healthcare within the COVID-19 pandemic with those before the pandemic, so as to estimate possible developments in this field. In addition, to quantitatively assess and compare smart technology applications that may support mobile healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic, the calibrated fuzzy geometric mean (CFGM)-fuzzy technique for order preference by similarity to ideal solution (FTOPSIS) approach is applied. The proposed methodology has been applied to evaluate and compare nine potential smart technology applications for supporting mobile healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic. According to the experimental results, "vaccine passport and related applications" and "smart watches" were the most suitable smart technology applications for supporting mobile healthcare after the COVID-19 pandemic.

Improving high lean team performance through aligned behaviour-value patterns and coactive vicarious learning-by-doing

Purpose

Why are some lean workfloor teams able to improve their already high performance, over time, and others not? By studying teams' and leaders' behaviour-value patterns, this abductive field study uncovers a dynamic capability at the team level.

Design/methodology/approach

Various methods were employed over three consecutive years to thoroughly examine five initially high-performing lean workfloor teams, including their leaders. These methods encompassed micro-behavioural coding of 59 h of film footage, surveys, individual and group interviews, participant observation and archival data, involving objective and perceptual team-performance indicators. Two of the five teams continued to improve and perform highly.

Findings

Continuously improving high lean team performance is found to be associated with (1) team behaviours such as frequent performance monitoring, information sharing, peer support and process improvement; (2) team leaders who balance, over time, task- and relations-oriented behaviours; (3) higher-level leaders who keep offering the team face-to-face support, strategic clarity and tangible resources; (4) these three actors' endorsement of self-transcendence and openness-to-change work values and alignment, over time, with their behaviours; and (5) coactive vicarious learning-by-doing as a “stable collective activity pattern” among team, team leader, and higher-level leadership.

Originality/value

Since lean has been undertheorised, the authors invoked insights from organisational behaviour and management theories, in combination with various fine- and coarse-grained data, over time. The authors uncovered actors' behaviour-value patterns and a collective learning-by-doing pattern that may explain continuous lean team performance improvement. Four theory-enriching propositions were developed and visualised in a refined model which may already benefit lean practitioners.

Sociometric wearable devices for studying human behavior in corporate and healthcare workplaces

Wearable sensor technology enables objective data collection of direct human interactions. The authors review sociometric wearable devices (SWD) and their application in healthcare. Human interactions captured by wearable sensors have been shown to correlate with social constructs such as teamwork and productivity in the office. Application of SWD in the field of healthcare requires special considerations: validation studies have shown technological disadvantages in acute medical settings. Application of SWD in healthcare should be considered based on the strengths and weaknesses of the methodology. SWD can also play an important role in investigation of human interaction and epidemic spread. When study designs and methodologies are carefully considered, incorporation of SWD in healthcare research has promising potential for new insights.

Social Image Impacting Attitudes of Middle-Aged and Elderly People toward the Usage of Walking Aids: An Empirical Investigation in Taiwan

The elderly need the assistance of walking aids due to deterioration of their physical functions. However, they are often less willing to use these aids because of their worries about how others may think of them. Not using professional walking aids often makes elderly people fall easily when walking. This study explores the behavioral intention factors of middle-aged people (45–64 years old) and elderly people (65 years and older) that affect the use of walking aids. Based on the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA), subjective norms, attitude toward usage, behavior intention, safety, and usefulness were combined with social image to establish the research framework. This study used questionnaire surveys both in paper form assisted by volunteers and in online electronic form. A total of 457 questionnaires were collected. Data analysis was carried out in three stages: descriptive analysis, measurement model verification, and structural equation model analysis. The results showed that social image had a significant impact on the attitude toward using walking aids. Factors such as attitude toward usage, subjective norms, and safety of walking aids also had a significant positive impact on behavioral intention. Finally, through the research results, some suggestions are proposed for stakeholders to improve the elderly’s concerns about the social image of using walking aids.

Operations adding value to society

Purpose

The purpose of this article is to discuss the role of operations management in society. The article detects trends, raises critical questions to operations management research and articulates a research agenda to increase the value of such research in addressing societal problems.

Design/methodology/approach

This paper evaluates the papers presented at the EurOMA 2019 conference to detect trends and discuss the contributions of operations management research to society. It further goes to identify gaps in the research agenda.

Findings

The article finds several important streams of research in operations management: sustainable operations and supply chains, health care and humanitarian operations, innovation, digitalisation and 4.0, risk and resilience. It highlights new trends such as circular economy research and problematises when to stop implementing innovation and how to address and report their potential failure. Importantly, it shows how it is not just a question of offshoring vs reshoring but of constant change in manufacturing that operations management addresses.

Originality/value

The article highlights not just novel research areas but also gaps in the research agenda where operations management seeks to add value to society.