Are you flexible like me? When I'm lying on the sofa watching Strictly Come Dancing, it's astonishing how far I can stretch my arm to reach for my wine.
The organizational flexibility finds a substantial place in the literature; however, limited evidence of its institutionalization by managers is noticed. This paper analyzes the managerial paradox ...toward flexibility in managing business complexity, uncertainty handling, organizational reorientation, and structuring decisions across organizational functions. Thematic analysis is used to investigate the managerial flexibility paradox. The literature is identified in three categories related to workplace, frameworks or concepts, and business environment. It further shows two kinds of orientations: the first one deals with concerns in the implementation of flexibility, and the second showcases the concomitant benefits or performance. The literature related to concerns deals with uncertainty and risk management, while the performance-related literature deals with the augmentation of flexibility theories. The practicing manager seeks advice in the literature to implement the concepts of flexibility and finds its limited availability. This is the prime reason for the emergence of managerial paradox. This paper recommends that future contributions should emphasize the guidelines for flexibility adoption while expounding the flexibility theories. The findings presented in this paper can potentially draw the attention of academicians and practitioners to devise the ways to implement and enhance organizational flexibility.
The purpose of this research is to examine how different dimensions of organizational flexibility (strategic, structural, and operational) impact organizational ambidexterity within the higher ...education sector in Iraq. To collect data, a survey instrument is used and a quantitative approach is adopted, with 85 academic staff members participating out of a targeted sample size of 295 lecturers from colleges and institutes within Duhok Polytechnic University (DPU) located in Duhok city, Iraqi Kurdistan Region. Structural Equation Modelling is utilized to determine the direction of the relationship between the variables. Based on the study, it was found that Structure Flexibility has a positive and significant impact on both Exploration and Exploitation of organizational ambidexterity. Additionally, Operational Flexibility also had a significant and positive effect on Exploration and Exploitation. However, the effect of Strategy Flexibility on organizational ambidexterity (Exploration and Exploitation was not significant and surpassed the significance level of 0.05. In addition to the findings, this study addresses the key policy implications, limitations, and recommendations for future research regarding higher education institutions.
This paper develops models for capacity, product mix, distribution and input supply flexibility and integrates them in a strategic level, mixed integer supply chain (SC) planning model as a way of ...addressing demand and supply uncertainty, as well as improving market responsiveness. Capacity flexibility is modeled via the SC’s production capacity planning to address budgeted demand and ensure the fulfillment of prospective demand increases when considering various market scenarios. This model selects an optimal number of products from fast moving and extended product range options—based on the product mix flexibility. The model confirms a quick response to a changing marketplace by considering elements like transportation and supply lead time along with the probabilities of stock out options when addressing input supply and distribution flexibility. This paper proposes a solution procedure to solve the model for real world problems, and investigates the sensitivity of the model outputs with respect to changes in flexibility measures.
Increasing economic and environmental challenges leads to the need for changes in the chemical industry. In this context, a promising approach is utilizing flexible apparatuses and flexible plants to ...react to changing boundary conditions. However, the concept of flexibility in chemical engineering, which originated in manufacturing, still lacks a comprehensive organization and categorization of different types of flexibility. Thus, in this work, the origin of flexibility in manufacturing is traced, and a literature overview on flexibility in chemical engineering is provided. Based on a subsequent cluster analysis, four types of flexibility are identified and defined. Furthermore, this work enables research on flexibility to be integrated into a general and consistent definition of flexibility. The definitions are applied to examples from literature to achieve comparability. While enabling the qualitative assessment of flexibility, this work identifies open research gaps regarding the quantification of flexibility.
Logically, the practice of corporate finance and corporate strategy should be closely coordinated, but in reality there remains a massive gap between the two. This can lead strategically oriented ...firms to de‐emphasize or even discard NPV. Neither financial theory nor competitive strategy has been very open to the economic value of investment opportunity capture. Strategy must recognize that financial flexibility provides powerful advantages and financial theory must evaluate entire strategic programs rather than discrete, stand‐alone projects.Necessarily, the financial discussion of cost of capital and capital structure has to change. The authors offer two specific concepts to bridge the Gap between Finance and Strategy:1) Reserve Financial Capacity is the annual sum of Free Cash Flow, Financing Flexibility and Cash Reserves over the period envisioned for strategy execution. Individual projects must belong to strategic programs in the sense that they either: 1) keep the base business running; 2) preserve an existing competitive position; or 3) form part of a program to enhance advantage or fashion a strategic breakout.2) Strategically Sustainable Cost of Capital is the true, blended cost of capital required to complete an entire capital program.These concepts provide financial rigor to firms with well‐defined strategies and allow managements to wield Financial Flexibility as a strategic weapon, creating options on unique buying opportunities, such as at the bottom of industry cycles.
Introduo: A mobilizao neural bastante aplicada na pratica clnica. Objetivo: Avaliar o efeito da mobilizao neural das razes lombares na fora e flexibilidade dos msculos flexores e extensores do ...joelho. Mtodos: Foram selecionados 14 homens (22,42,87 anos) saudveis. A flexibilidade foi avaliada para flexo de joelho (FJD e FJE), extenso de quadril (EQD e EQE) e coluna lombar (FL). A fora muscular foi avaliada para flexo e extenso do joelho. As avaliaes foram realizadas antes da tcnica (PR), imediatamente aps (PS1) e uma semana aps (PS2). Resultados: Nas avaliaes PS1 e PS2 foi observado aumento significativo da fora muscular na FJE. Para a flexibilidade, na avaliao PS1, observou-se aumento significativo na FJE, EQD e EQE. Concluso: A tcnica de mobilizao neural promoveu aumento da fora dos msculos flexores de joelho esquerdo e da flexibilidade no movimento de flexo de joelho esquerdo, extenso de quadril direito e esquerdo em homens sedentrios saudveis.
Manufacturing flexibility is often viewed as a strategic capability that enables firms to more effectively meet heterogeneous market demands arising, in part, from increased product proliferation. ...However, recent studies suggest that the operational challenges associated with meeting this objective may be heavily dependent not only upon a firm's internal modification, mix, and new product flexibilities, but also upon the flexibility of its inbound and outbound supply chain partners. Drawing upon the theory of Complementarity, we examine if simultaneous utilization of both internal and external flexibilities does in fact create synergies that can improve a firm's delivery performance. Based on a sample of 158 U.S. manufacturing plants, we find that the extent to which performance enhancing synergies are generated is primarily dependent upon the type of internal flexibility that is paired with supply chain flexibilities. Additionally, we find that when synergies do exist, external supplier and logistics flexibilities generally tend to enhance the scope of flexible response, while internal flexibilities generally tend to enhance the achievability of a flexible response. Taken together, our findings suggest that the ability of firms to actually reap the synergistic benefits of an integrated system of supply chain flexibility is much more complex and nuanced than previously believed or expected.
Category:
Midfoot/Forefoot
Introduction/Purpose:
Range of motion measurements of the first metatarsophalangeal joint (MTPJ) are an essential component in assessing and classifying hallux rigidus ...(HR). However, they provide little information about joint function and are limited by variability in technique. As an alternative, measuring joint flexibility can characterize intrinsic properties of the joint—aside from simply maximum dorsiflexion and plantarflexion—that may prove more clinically meaningful. No prior study has assessed hallux MTPJ flexibility in patients with HR. The purpose of this study was therefore to assess the reliability of a custom flexibility device and to compare flexibility between HR patients and controls.
Methods:
Fifteen patients with Coughlin stage II or III HR indicated for cheilectomy and 20 healthy controls were recruited prospectively. Each of two raters performed a series of seated and standing tests on each subject with the device. Dorsiflexion angle and applied torque were plotted against each other to generate a flexibility curve. “Early flexibility” and “late flexibility” were defined as the slope of the curve in the first 25% and last 25% of motion, respectively. From these two parameters, three additional parameters were calculated: laxity angle, laxity torque, and torque angle (Figure). Differences between (1) HR patients and controls and (2) sitting and standing testing positions were assessed with t-tests. Intra-rater test-retest reliability, remove- replace reliability, and inter-rater reliability were assessed with intraclass correlation coefficients (ICCs).
Results:
Patients in the HR group were older than patients in the control group (p < 0.001) and had significantly lower maximum dorsiflexion (p < 0.001). HR patients were less flexible as measured by three of the five flexibility parameters: early flexibility (p = 0.027), laxity angle (p < 0.001), and torque angle (p = 0.002). After controlling for age on seated measurements, only laxity angle and maximum dorsiflexion differed significantly between HR patients and controls (p < 0.001). Generally, patients were more flexible in the seated position than in the standing position, with this effect being more marked in HR patients. All parameters had good or excellent intra- and inter-rater reliability (ICC = 0.60).
Conclusion:
This is the first study to demonstrate a reliable method of measuring first MTPJ flexibility in patients with HR. We found that flexibility, even early in the arc of motion, is impaired in patients with HR. Moreover, significant differences between sitting and standing measurements suggest that soft tissue tension may be a major contributor to this finding. We do not know yet how flexibility of the joint relates to symptomatology, or if the surgeries performed for HR affect flexibility. Further research will be required to determine the clinical utility of these measurements.
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