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.
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.
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.
Flexibility in power systems is ability to provide supply-demand balance, maintain continuity in unexpected situations, and cope with uncertainty on supply-demand sides. The new method and management ...requirements to provide flexibility have emerged from the trend towards power systems increasing renewable energy penetration with generation uncertainty and availability. In this study, the historical development of power system flexibility concept, the flexible power system characteristics, flexibility sources, and evaluation parameters are presented as part of international literature. The impact of variable renewable energy sources penetration on power system transient stability, small-signal stability, and frequency stability are discussed; the studies are presented to the researchers for further studies. Moreover, flexibility measurement studies are investigated, and methods of providing flexibility are evaluated.
•What is flexibility in power systems?•Variable renewable energy penetration effects on power system.•Studies on power system flexibility measurement.•Solutions to provide power system flexibility.
Although there is large consensus regarding the significance of flexibility in power systems, there exists significant disparity in the definitions and models employed to describe flexibility. To ...structure existing flexibility descriptions, this work classifies the mathematical principles underlying the flexibility models and finds quality metrics, machine learning models, and flexibility envelopes to be the main higher-order classes, with envelopes being the most popular one. It finds that there is a significant degree of mathematical incompatibility among different flexibility models, even within the same class. This is primarily due to the utilization of distinct flexibility metrics. To address the ambiguities in flexibility definitions and terminology, this paper introduces FLEXBLOX, a formal flexibility taxonomy. FLEXBLOX encompasses three core building blocks: a power system’s flexibility requirements, the flexibility potentials provided by flexibility resources, and flexibility mediators that facilitate between the requirements and the potentials. An analysis of 49 flexibility models shows that three of them cover both flexibility requirements and potentials. However, only one of the three approaches also considers a flexibility mediator between them. Two models are generic enough to describe the flexibility potential of diverse flexibility resources, but certain resource characteristics are often excluded. To date, there is no flexibility model that addresses all three flexibility building blocks of the FLEXBLOX taxonomy coherently. This leaves room for future research directions that are suggested in this work.
•Flexibility taxonomy based on the concepts of flexibility requirements and potentials.•Categorization of existing flexibility concepts to structure the research area.•Classification scheme for flexibility models based on mathematical principles.•Analysis of 49 flexibility models with regard to the flexibility taxonomy.•Discussion of future research directions in formal flexibility modeling.
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