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Brian Hunt

Publications and source records attributed to Brian Hunt.

6 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2004

Learning at work: competence development or competence-stress.

Changes in work and the ways in which it is carried out bring a need for upgrading workplace knowledge, skills and competencies. In today's workplaces, and for a number of reasons, workloads are higher than ever and stress is a growing concern (Health Risk Soc. 2(2) (2000) 173; Educat. Psychol. Meas. 61(5) (2001) 866). Increased demand for learning brings a risk that this will be an additional stress factor and thus a risk to health. Our research study is based on the control-demand-support model of Karasek and Theorell (Health Work: Stress, Productivity and the Reconstruction of Working Life, Basic Books/Harper, New York, 1990). We have used this model for our own empirical research with the aim to evaluate the model in the modern workplace. Our research enables us to expand the model in the light of current workplace conditions-especially those relating to learning. We report empirical data from a questionnaire survey of working conditions in two different branches of industry. We are able to define differences between companies in terms of working conditions and competence development. We describe and discuss the effects these conditions have on workplace competence development. Our research results show that increased workers' control of the learning process makes competence development more stimulating, is likely to simplify the work and reduces (learning-related) stress. It is therefore important that learning at work allows employees to control their learning and also allows time for the process of learning and reflection.

Adult↗
PubMed2004

Towards a learning networked organisation: human capital, compatibility and usability in e-learning systems.

In all parts of organisations there flourish developments of different new subsystems in areas of knowledge and learning. Over recent decades, new systems for classification of jobs have emerged both at the level of organisations and at a macro-labour market level. Recent developments in job evaluation systems make it possible to cope with the new demands for equity at work (between, for example, genders, races, physical abilities). Other systems have emerged to describe job requirements in terms of skills, knowledge and competence. Systems for learning at work and web-based learning have created a demand for new ways to classify and to understand the process of learning. Often these new systems have been taken from other areas of the organisation not directly concerned with facilitating workplace learning. All these new systems are of course closely interrelated but, in most organisations, a major problem is the severe lack of cohesion and compatibility between the different subsystems. The aim of this paper is to propose a basis for how different human resource systems can be integrated into the business development of an organisation. We discuss this problem and develop proposals alternative to integrated macro-systems. A key element in our proposition is a structure for classification of knowledge and skill to be used in all parts of the process. This structure should be used as an added dimension or an overlay on all other subsystems of the total process. This will facilitate a continued use of all existing systems within different organisations. We develop Burge's (personal communication) model for learning to show that learning is not a successive linear process, but rather an iterative process. In this way we emphasise the need for greater involvement of learners in the development of learning systems towards increased usability in a networked system. This paper is divided into two parts which are closely related. The first part gives an overview of the lack of compatibility between the different subsystems. In this first part we note two paradoxes which impact learning and for which we propose solutions. The second part deals with 'usability' aspects of these competency-related systems; in particular, usability in e-learning systems. In this second part we describe an example of a new organisational structure. We conclude by discussing four key concepts that are necessary conditions for organisations to address when developing their human capital. Establishing these conditions helps ensure compatibility and usability in e-learning systems.

Computer-Assisted Instruction↗
PubMed2003

Dynamical origin for the occurrence of asynchronous hyperchaos and chaos via blowout bifurcations.

We investigate the dynamical origin for the occurrence of asynchronous hyperchaos and chaos via blowout bifurcations in coupled chaotic systems. An asynchronous hyperchaotic or chaotic attractor with a positive or negative second Lyapunov exponent appears through a blowout bifurcation. It is found that the sign of the second Lyapunov exponent of the newly born asynchronous attractor, exhibiting on-off intermittency, is determined through competition between its laminar and bursting components. When the "strength" (i.e., a weighted second Lyapunov exponent) of the bursting component is larger (smaller) than that of the laminar component, an asynchronous hyperchaotic (chaotic) attractor appears.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2003

Fractal properties of robust strange nonchaotic attractors in maps of two or more dimensions.

We consider the existence of robust strange nonchaotic attractors in a simple class of quasiperiodically forced systems. Rigorous results are presented demonstrating that the resulting attractors are strange in the sense that their box-counting dimension D0 is larger than their information dimension D1 by 1 (i.e., D(0)=D(1)+1). We also show how this property is manifested in numerical experiments.

Journal Article↗
PubMed2002

Evolving networks with multispecies nodes and spread in the number of initial links.

We consider models for growing networks incorporating two effects not previously considered: (i) different species of nodes, with each species having different properties (such as different attachment probabilities to other node species) and (ii) when a new node is created, its number of links to old nodes is random with a given probability distribution. Our numerical simulations show good agreement with analytic solutions. As an application of our model, we investigate the movie-actor network with movies considered as nodes and actors as links.

Journal Article↗