Job Satisfaction Versus Absenteeism in Municipalities from Bragança District, Portugal

In Portuguese public administration, the absenteeism rates were 6.8% in 2017, 4.8% in 2016, and 4.5% in 2015 (INE, 2018). Towards such high absenteeism rates, the Portuguese government has set as priorities, in the 2021 State budget (Ministério das Finanças, 2020), the investment in good working conditions and the control of absenteeism in the Public Administration.

Methods and results of extending the life of the International Space Station Russian Segment

The paper discusses the current status of work to extend the life of the International Space Station Russian Segment (ISS RS). The effort to monitor and maintain the ISS RS systems and modules in good working order forms the basis of the work aimed at station longevity and the safety of its crew. It describes measures taken to keep the ISS RS operational in a situation where some of the components have been taken out of production, and specified storage life for the spares, tools and accessories has expired. It reviews changes in the requirements for the operation of constituent components, systems and assemblies that were adopted to support extension of the ISS RS mission. It describes a procedure for detecting the sources of failures and malfunctions found in flight and resolving their causes, which makes it possible to take measures aimed at preventing propagation of faults and malfunctions within the shortest time possible while keeping the systems and assemblies of the ISS RS modules operational during repairs. It describes an approach to analysis of the causes of component failures, which makes it possible to classify them for the purposes of statistical analysis, on the basis of which one could evaluate failure dynamics in the course of the mission and use it for making a conclusion about the feasibility of extending flight tests of the ISS RS till 2024 and further. It provides data on dynamics of changes in the number of component failures in the course of the ISS RS mission, which show that this number does not grow. Key words: International Space Station, ISS RS, Russian Segment, operational integrity, operating life, failures.

SENSOR REGISTRY AS A BASE LAYER FOR SMART CITIES

There is a growing number of sensors, cameras and measuring devices in the public space. Why are they hanging on the lamp post? What are they measuring? And by whom? Those questions are relevant to the citizens to be assured that no private and sensitive data are collected without their approvement. At the same time the municipalities feel obligated to be transparent about the hanging devices to the inhabitants and provide a good working registration tool to the owners of the measuring devices. The sensor owners would also value the clarity about the process to register their devices and uniformity in the legislation if they plan to install their devices throughout more cities. We cannot forget about researchers, developers and data scientists who would highly appreciate the transparency about the measuring devices and the potential access to the data from the sensors.A National Sensor Registry (SensRNet) seems to be the solution to answer the abovementioned questions. The registry would: provide transparency to the municipalities and citizens about the data collected by the devices and the purpose for collection; provide overview and insight into where sensors are placed in public space and who is the owner; allow sensor owners to register the devices in a uniform way; provide access to highly demanded data to utilize the smart city concept; act as a platform that provides transparent, safe and secure environment where citizens and entrepreneurs can get more information or make objections against the reason behind collecting data.

Employee Representatives and a Good Working Life: Achieving Social and Communicative Sustainability for HRM

This article examines the role of employee representatives, who support HRM in positioning itself and the organization as “socially responsible”. Based on a constructivist understanding of organizational communication, employee representatives are examined as previously unrecognized entities that are responsible—and also essential—for guaranteeing a good working life, which also originates through communication. The article provides an overview of existing studies on employee representatives and their positions in companies and tries to bridge the gaps among organizational communication, CSR communication, and management theory by redesigning the role of employee representatives—who have received limited academic attention to date—as communicators. The insights from an international comparative study confirm that employee representatives perceive themselves not only as a “grief box” or “control body” of management, but also as a responsible agent and “medium” for the realization of social and communicative sustainability. This not only opens up new research perspectives, but also highlights the need to conceptually deal and theoretically discuss employee representatives and their roles in internal communication processes from the perspectives of organizational communication, HRM, CSR, and sustainability.

Some machining and handtool properties of tetuya koroi (Albizia odoratissima) wood

The study was conducted to determine the suitability of tetuya koroi (Albizia odoratissima) wood for furniture manufacturing i.e., planing, shaping, boring, mortising, turning, etc machining and handtool property tests of this species grown in south-east Bangladesh.. The evaluation in both machining and handtool property tests was based on the frequency of the defect-free sample. Finishing property was also determined by implementing two types of polishing materials, viz.: carpa and shellac. The defects of the sample were estimated by visual and tactile observation. The percentage of defect free samples was evaluated for each property operation and classified based on five quality grades. The study's findings mainly introduced good working properties, and tetuya koroi wood may be suitable for furniture. All properties exhibited 63 % to 76 % grade 1 and 95 % to 100 % qualified grade. The finishing property of this wood showed good quality as well.

Individual Differences in Prospective Memory Offloading in Laboratory and Naturalistic Settings

The current study examined whether offloading prospective memory (PM) demands onto the environment through the use of reminders eliminates PM differences typically seen between individuals that have poor or good working memory ability. Over two laboratory sessions scheduled one week apart, participants completed three versions of a PM offloading task with and without the use of reminders, along with multiple measures of working memory. Participants also generated a list of naturalistic intentions to fulfill between sessions and were given an intention to email the experimenter every day. They later indicated which intentions were completed with and without the use of reminders. Consistent with prior research, high working memory participants did better in both laboratory and naturalistic settings when having to rely on their own memory. Critically, however, working memory ability was no longer predictive of performance with the use of reminders. Participants with lower working memory also offloaded more often that high ability participants, but this was not optimally calibrated to actual PM performance. These findings suggest that offloading may be particularly beneficial for those with poor cognitive ability. The theoretical and applied ramifications of these findings are discussed.

Good Working Environment and Work Performance Across Higher Institutions in Buea

The objective of this study was to examine how good working environment on work performance of teachers across private higher institutions in Buea. The sample size included a total of one hundred and seven (107) teachers drawn from one hundred and eighty seven (187) teaching staff of the selected institutions. Nine (9) schools were first selected purposely base on their staff strength. Then four schools were further selected using the simple probability random sampling technique. Respondents were then selected proportionately to the size of the various teaching staff. Data was analysed using both descriptive and inferential statistics. The researcher used a multiple regression model that predicted effects of work environment on employee commitment in the Buea municipality. Findings from the study showed that employer/employee relations, working condition and reward and compensation were positive and significantly affect the commitment of teachers in private higher institutions of learning in Buea. It was therefore concluded that work environment positively affects employee commitment in private higher institutions in Buea.