Search Results (23)

Background: NHS England has an ageing workforce. Approximately 30 percent of the NHS England workforce are aged 50 years and over, and the British Medical Association has argued that it is important that employers meet the needs of their ageing workforce and retain their skills and expertise. Objective: This sought to explore how NHS England Trusts support employees with fluctuating long-term health conditions, investigating systemic workforce challenges to providing adequate support and identifying opportunities for more inclusive and sustainable employment practices. Methods: Qualitative interviews were conducted with staff working in human resources, occupational health staff and clinical line managers involved in the support and management of staff with fluctuating long-term health conditions (n = 17). Results: The research found a misalignment between clinical managerial practices, human resource procedures, and the overarching NHS human resource policy framework, which was often seen as rigid and poorly suited to the fluctuating nature of some long-term conditions. These tensions were exacerbated by high staff turnover and limited organisational capacity. Nonetheless, instances of effective, person-centred support were also reported, typically occurring where cross-departmental collaboration and flexible, locally adapted approaches were in place. Conclusions: Findings suggest that targeted, flexible interventions for NHS employees with fluctuating long-term health conditions could enhance staff retention, reduce absenteeism, and promote more resilient workforce strategies. Identifying and scaling examples of good practice may be key to fostering a more inclusive and adaptive NHS employment model. Full article

This study explores the integration of Business Intelligence (BI) and Operations Research (OR) as a driver of sustainability within the evolving framework of Logistics 4.0. As logistics systems face pressures from environmental regulations, digital transformation, and stakeholder expectations, the intersection of data analytics and optimization emerges as a critical lever for sustainable operations. Grounded in a Delphi study conducted in a Portuguese logistics firm, this research captures expert consensus across five dimensions of BI implementation: data infrastructure, real-time decision-making, operational transparency, stakeholder coordination, and sustainability performance monitoring. Methodologically, this study employed two iterative Delphi rounds with 61 cross-functional professionals directly engaged with the organization’s BI systems, particularly Microsoft Power BI. Findings indicate that integrating BI with OR models enhances organizational capacity for proactive scenario planning, carbon footprint reduction, and ESG-aligned decision-making. The results also underscore the importance of cross-departmental collaboration, data governance maturity, and user training in fully leveraging BI for sustainable value creation. By providing both theoretical insights and practical guidance, this study advances the emerging discourse on data-driven sustainability in logistics. It offers actionable insights for logistics managers, sustainability strategists, and policymakers seeking to operationalize digital sustainability and embed intelligence-driven approaches into resilient, low-carbon supply chains. Full article

This study explores the integration of circular design principles into automotive product development, focusing on the environmental implications of design decisions related to geometry, material selection, and assembly methods. A case study approach was used to iteratively redesign a plastic automotive component, incorporating structural reinforcements and glass fiber (GF) to enhance performance. While these changes improved mechanical properties, they negatively impacted recyclability due to increased material heterogeneity and irreversible assembly using ultrasonic welding. Circularity performance was evaluated using the Recycling Desirability Index (RDI), Material Circularity Indicator (MCI), and circular design guidelines (CDGs). Despite achieving 20% recycled content, recyclability remained limited. Alternative design strategies—such as eliminating GF, replacing welding with mechanical fasteners, and enabling take-back systems—led to significant improvements in circularity scores. Notably, MCI analysis indicated that energy recovery pathways offered better circularity outcomes than landfilling. The findings highlight the importance of early-stage material standardization and assembly planning to enhance end-of-life recovery. This study underscores the environmental trade-offs inherent in current automotive design practices and calls for stronger collaboration between engineers, designers, and sustainability experts to align product development with circular economy goals. Findings emphasize the need for systemic changes in product development processes and industrial mindsets, including overcoming resistance to design modifications and fostering cross-departmental collaboration, to effectively implement circular economy principles in the automotive sector. Full article

Flood risk governance has gained increasing attention as climate change and urbanization amplify flood risks. While much of the literature has focused on national and supranational governance frameworks, sectoral integration, and public participation, there remains a critical gap in understanding horizontal coordination within municipal administrations—particularly in medium-sized cities. This study examines how local governments coordinate flood risk management across different departments and administrative units, identifying key challenges and enabling factors. Using a case study of Mörfelden-Walldorf, a medium-sized city in southern Hesse, Germany, we analyze the internal governance dynamics shaping flood resilience. The research highlights institutional fragmentation, sectoral silos, and resource constraints as key barriers to effective coordination while also identifying mechanisms that facilitate cross-departmental collaboration. By integrating insights from the public administration literature with flood governance scholarship, this study contributes to a more nuanced understanding of local-level flood risk governance. The findings provide practical implications for enhancing municipal flood resilience through improved governance structures and coordination mechanisms. Full article

This article examines the institutional evolution of university data governance in China through the lens of historical institutionalism, offering a novel perspective on this critical topic. This framework provides a structured approach to analyzing the role of institutional factors, power dynamics, and path dependence in shaping university data governance. Since the onset of the information age, Chinese university data governance has evolved through three distinct phases: functional departmentalism, cross-departmental collaborative governance with hierarchical structures, and governance focused on data openness and application. At a deeper level, shifts in governmental data governance serve as key indicators of transformations in university data governance, demonstrating the interplay between institutional frameworks and power structures. Path dependence is evident, with rational choices made by both the government and universities driving the persistence of existing governance models. Legitimacy emerges as the core driving force behind these institutional changes, while efficiency acts as an accelerator, contingent on legitimacy. To advance data governance, Chinese universities must break free from path dependence, reform institutional frameworks, and adapt data power structures to meet the evolving demands of data openness and effective application. Full article

In today’s urban environment, disasters are not isolated events but part of continuous, complex processes that threaten both sustainable urban development and effective emergency management. Traditional emergency management practices are hindered by departmental silos and fragmented information exchanges, which often lead to conflicting interests, unclear responsibilities, ineffective tools, and imprecise task divisions. In response, our study repositions emergency management within the broader context of sustainable urban development by emphasizing resource optimization, strengthened inter-agency coordination, and strategic decision support to achieve UN Sustainable Development Goal 11. Based on observations from 31 departments in Dongtai City, we identified key contradictions within the current activity system. Guided by activity theory, we designed the Cross-Organizational Emergency Intelligence System (COEIS), which synchronizes real-time data across agencies via a novel information exchange mechanism. Implementation in a real-world setting and evaluation using grounded theory demonstrated that the COEIS enhances collaborative efficiency and decision support capabilities, thereby improving inter-organizational resilience. This study makes both theoretical and practical contributions by integrating the DSRM, activity theory, and grounded theory, offering a replicable pathway for transforming fragmented crisis management infrastructures into sustainable and resilient networks aligned with urban development strategies. Full article

In recent years, landscape-scale green infrastructure (LGI) has evolved from academic discussions into a critical approach to achieving sustainable development in national strategies in many countries. Since 2014, Japan has proactively integrated LGI into various policy documents; however, there is still a lack of systematic research on its policy positioning and strategic expectations. This study employs text mining, qualitative comparative analysis, and policy integration analysis to establish a comprehensive analytical framework for examining 66 screened and validated national-level policy strategy documents related to LGI in Japan. The results reveal four common core themes, four potential innovative directions, and seven topics defining the policy positioning of LGI. Additionally, the study highlights thematic preferences across different departments and temporal evolution trends. The findings indicate that Japan’s policy positioning on LGI is transitioning from a technical tool to an institutionalized management framework. However, this shift remains precarious due to the influence of competing strategic priorities. The “core–periphery” departmental coordination structure exacerbates risks of policy fragmentation to some extent. Overall, while an LGI policy system has begun to take shape in Japan, further efforts are needed in cross-level linkages and collaborative governance mechanisms. Full article

Traditional construction safety management, reliant on manual inspections and heuristic judgments, increasingly fails to address the dynamic, multi-dimensional risks of modern projects, perpetuating fragmented safety governance and reactive hazard mitigation. This study proposes an integrated building information modeling (BIM)–AI platform to unify safety supervision across the project lifecycle, synthesizing spatial-temporal data from BIM with AI-driven probabilistic models and IoT-enabled real-time monitoring for sustainable construction safety management. Employing a Design Science Research methodology, the platform’s phase-agnostic architecture bridges technical–organizational divides, while the Multilayer Neural Risk Coupling Assessment framework quantifies interdependencies among structural, environmental, and human risk factors. Prototype testing in real-world projects demonstrates improved risk detection accuracy, reduced reliance on manual processes, and enhanced cross-departmental collaboration. The system transitions safety regimes from compliance-based protocols to proactive, data-empowered governance. This approach offers scalability across diverse projects. The BIM-AI intelligent fusion platform proposed in this study builds an intelligent construction paradigm with synergistic development of safety governance and sustainability through whole lifecycle risk coupling analysis and real-time dynamic monitoring, which realizes a proactive safety supervision system while significantly reducing construction waste and accident prevention mechanisms. Full article

The accelerated development of urban agglomerations in China has resulted in the significant regional expansion of infrastructure and urban spaces, which has led to the fragmentation of habitats and the degradation of ecosystem function. Ecological networks have been shown to reconnect isolated habitat patches within urban agglomerations by identifying ecological sources and constructing corridors, which could enhance regional ecological security. Nature reserves, as critical areas for the protection of key species and ecosystems, play a vital role in this process. Investigating the influence of nature reserves on the ecological networks of urban agglomerations helps to integrate regional ecological resources, optimize ecological network structures, and enhance cross-departmental coordination in nature reserve management and ecological environment protection. Using the urban agglomeration in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River as a case study, this research analyzes the impact of nature reserves on the ecological network of urban agglomerations. Initially, ecological source patches are identified using the “Quality-Morphology-Connectivity” evaluation model. Different types of nature reserves are then superimposed to create four distinct source schemes. Subsequently, a resistance surface is constructed through a comprehensive evaluation method to assess ecological barriers. Then, ecological corridors are generated using circuit theory tools. Finally, a comparison of the effectiveness of the four ecological networks is conducted using 12 landscape pattern metrics. The results indicate several key points. Firstly, the inclusion of nature reserves is shown to supplement ecological sources and increase corridor numbers, thereby enhancing the optimization effect of the urban agglomerations’ ecological network threefold. Secondly, the impact of nature reserves on the ecological network is closely related to the spatial scale of patches, and patch scale consistency should be considered to prevent network functionality loss. Thirdly, establishing a cross-departmental and cross-regional collaborative management mechanism is recommended to organically integrate nature reserves with ecological networks. These results provide a data-driven foundation for the optimization of ecological networks in urban agglomerations and inform effective management strategies for nature reserves, to promote the construction of ecological civilization in urban agglomerations. Full article

As pioneers in this field, our role in shaping the future of serious games in healthcare logistics is crucial. Digital media design significantly influences the quality of gaming simulation studies in healthcare. The leading challenge scholars face is introducing innovative and valuable features to university students. The data–simulation–gaming pyramid could serve as a blueprint for outlining how interactive simulations could be conducted. A participatory design process is important in serious game development. More recently, the literature has illustrated the contribution of extended reality. However, researchers have not explored this research framework in detail. This paper traces the participatory design process of serious games using an emergency logistics case study in Stockholm, Sweden. It underscores the importance of choosing the correct narratives and game mechanics to support the implementation of serious games using extended reality for the demonstration of non-technical skills. The research findings are threefold. (1) The participatory design process helps to place focus on the implementing philosophy that values health equality in networked hospitals. (2) Further analysis reveals that gamification could turn everyday tasks in the emergency department, which represents a stressful workplace in a hospital, into a spectrum of learning experiences for in-demand skills, including situational awareness, leadership, communication, and ethical thinking. (3) A closer inspection of the reality-changing methods shows new requirements to shorten patient queues before and after the (implementation of the) strengthened waiting time guarantee proposal in 2024. There is abundant room for principals in healthcare institutions to implement reality-changing methods to foster collaboration at the departmental, cross-departmental, and cross-institutional levels. Full article

With the advent of digitization, digital twin technology is gradually becoming one of the core technologies of the Industry 4.0 era, highlighting the increasing importance of digital twin project management. Despite its potential, DT projects face significant risks during implementation, stemming from technical, managerial, and operational complexities. To address these challenges, this study proposes an improved failure mode and effect analysis (FMEA) framework by integrating double hierarchy hesitant fuzzy linguistic term sets (DHHFLTSs) and the Technique for Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution (TOPSIS). This framework converts qualitative assessments into quantitative metrics and calculates weights using a hybrid approach, enabling more precise risk prioritisation. Application of the model to an automotive manufacturing company’s DT project identified key risks, particularly in the iteration and upgrade phase, emphasising the importance of cross-departmental collaboration and robust digital infrastructure. The proposed model provides a systematic framework for enterprises to assess and mitigate risks, ensuring the successful deployment of DT projects. Full article

As railway infrastructure projects become increasingly complex, the potential of Building Information Modeling (BIM) technology to enhance project efficiency and management has garnered significant attention. This paper analyzes the quantitative and qualitative benefits of BIM in the design and construction stages of railway development projects through case studies and compares its effectiveness in these two phases. The results indicate that BIM primarily benefits the design stage by reducing design errors and optimizing processes to save costs and time, averaging cost savings of USD 41,000 and a reduction of 49 days in project duration. In the construction stage, the impact of BIM is even more pronounced, reflected in reduced rework, dynamic resource management, and shortened project timelines, leading to savings of USD 710,795 and a reduction of 89 to 104.5 days in project duration. The 3D modeling and real-time information-sharing capabilities of BIM significantly enhance cross-departmental collaboration efficiency and information transparency, minimizing rework caused by communication issues and greatly optimizing project management and execution. This study shows that BIM can lay the groundwork for construction during the design phase and further improve project management efficiency during the construction phase. Full article

The 21st century has spotlighted environmental sustainability in global discourse, urging businesses to act responsibly amidst climate change and resource depletion. This study explores the role of green human resource management (GHRM) in fostering the New Ecological Paradigm (NEP) among employees, enhancing organizational commitment (OC), and promoting organizational citizenship behavior towards the environment (OCBE) within the hospitality industry. Findings demonstrate that GHRM practices, including green recruitment, training, and performance management, significantly improve environmental performance and employee engagement in sustainability initiatives. Data were collected from 382 employees working in 5-star hotels in South Korea, utilizing a structured online survey to gather insights into GHRM’s influence on NEP, OC, and OCBE. The analysis was conducted using covariance-based structural equation modeling (CB-SEM) to rigorously test the hypothesized relationships among these constructs. However, integrating GHRM with NEP presents challenges, such as aligning organizational culture with eco-centric values and overcoming resistance to change. Motivated by the urgent need for sustainability, this research underscores the necessity for integrated HRM approaches to achieve sustainability. A key motivation behind this integration is to establish a workforce that not only understands but actively champions environmental stewardship, thereby strengthening the organization’s reputation and competitive advantage. Additionally, challenges such as balancing short-term operational costs with long-term environmental goals persist, requiring strategic commitment and effective resource allocation. Recommendations include embedding sustainability in HR policies, providing comprehensive environmental training, incentivizing green initiatives, establishing robust monitoring systems, and fostering cross-departmental collaboration to reduce the ecological footprint. This study contributes to the growing body of literature on sustainable business practices and highlights the strategic importance of eco-leadership. Full article

This paper addresses the problem of multi-source survey data sharing in power system engineering by proposing two improved methods: a survey data sharing method combined with differential privacy and a permission change method based on attribute encryption. The survey data sharing method integrated with differential privacy achieves effective cross-professional and cross-departmental data sharing while ensuring data security by introducing multi-discriminator architecture and dynamic noise adjustment. To reduce the computational and communication overhead when user permissions change during survey data sharing, the attribute encryption-based permission change method supports dynamic changes in user permissions. The effectiveness of the proposed methods has been validated through targeted experiments in different scenarios. The work in this thesis provides a new solution for dynamic sharing of survey data in power network engineering. It contributes to the digital transformation of power network projects. Full article

This study provides an in-depth analysis of the current status of the promotion and application of BIM software in China, highlighting its differences from the international market. Chinese BIM software shows advantages in data security, cost-effectiveness, user habit adaptability, and localization standards, but faces challenges in terms of technological maturity and ecosystem development. By employing bibliometric methods and utilizing literature resources from CNKI and the Web of Science, the study offers a comprehensive analysis of the market and policy environment and proposes targeted recommendations. The study indicates that Chinese BIM software has significant advantages in enhancing data security and cost-effectiveness but lacks technological maturity and requires improvements in ecosystem development. User habits are crucial for the promotion of BIM software, and the localization and adaptability of the software need further enhancement. To promote the widespread application of BIM in the architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) industries, a robust market mechanism needs to be established. The government should strengthen policy support and improve regulatory frameworks; software developers should enhance product functionality and work closely with users; and application enterprises should actively provide feedback to promote software improvements. Moreover, the introduction of reasonable capital and the collaboration between educational institutions and enterprises to cultivate professional talent are critical for the promotion and application of BIM technology. The research emphasizes that forming a cross-departmental joint mechanism to promote a virtuous cycle in the AEC market is key to achieving the widespread application of BIM technology. These measures can provide strong market impetus for the development of BIM software, accelerate the maturity and ecosystem construction of Chinese BIM software, and ultimately realize the comprehensive upgrading of informatization and digitization in the construction industry. Full article