Established in 2006, TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited operates as the nodal point for Tata businesses in West Africa. TATA Africa Services (Nigeria) Limited has a strong presence in Nigeria with investments exceeding USD 10 million. The company was established in Lagos, Nigeria as a subsidiary of TATA Africa Holdings (SA) (Pty) Limited, South Africa and serves as the hub of Tata’s operations in Nigeria and the rest of West Africa.

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Theory in Practice: Increasing Professional Effectiveness

How the combination of Circular Economy and Industry 4.0 can contribute towards achieving the Sustainable Development Goals

David Coghlan and Teresa Brannick (2009): Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation Sage, London 2010, (3rd edition), $ 44.95, euro 27.99 (amazon), pp. 184, Paperback ISBN: 9781848602168 Reviewed by Richard Ennals This new edition of a popular text, used by researchers and practitioners, focuses attention on central issues in Action Research. David Coghlan has been an active participant in many of the separate traditions of Action Research. Both he and his co-author Teresa Brannick teach in University Business Schools in Dublin, moving Action Research into the mainstream. This new edition takes the opportunity to refer to the latest literature in a fastgrowing and diverse field. It provides a valuable foundation for new researchers in the field. There has been a separate literature, for example dealing with Educational Action Research (Noffke/Somekh 2009; McNiff/Whitehead 2009), with a focus on the individual reflective practitioner. By contrast we can point to work on Action Research and Organisational Renewal, which has included consideration of major managed programmes (Gustavsen et al. 2001; Levin 2002; Fricke/Totterdill 2004) which have deployed Action Research in order to pursue policy objectives. This has raised questions as to how Action Research is itself to be defined (Greenwood/Levin 2007). At this point we may have concluded that what different instances of Action Research have in common is that they are cited as instances of Action Research. There are family resemblances. However, readers of earlier editions of works in the field (e.g. Reason/Bradbury 2001) will have noticed limited cross-citations of literature from other traditions. Coghlan and Brannick have made a welcome contribution, both in the breadth of their referenees, and in the platform which they provide for further debate and development. The title of the book deals with Action Research in one's own organisation. The implication is that such research is not necessarily part of a larger scale managed programme. Reliance is not to be placed on research expertise from outside. The authors define Action Research as "an approach to research which aims at both taking action and creating knowledge or theory about that action. The outcomes are both an action and a research outcome, unlike traditional research approaches which aim at creating knowledge only". They set out the cyclical process of planning, taking action, and evaluating. They emphasise the collaborative dimension, whereby the members of the system which is being studied participate actively in the cyclical process. They highlight the diversity of approaches. The focus is on the combination of organisational roles with the additional demands of a role of inquiry and research. This raises practical challenges such as the selection of a research question, attaining some sense of objectivity, and choice of frameworks for viewing and understanding the data. Action Research work can be undertaken for different reasons, including securing academic qualifications, with some expectation of benefit for the organisation. Action Research can involve dealing with emergent processes, and leading radical change, which requires a capacity for self-reflection, realistic expectations, self-containment and an ability to learn. The book is intended to complement books exploring the theory and practice of action research (Greenwood/Levin 2007; Reason/Bradbury 2008; Shani et al. 2008). The three sections of the book cover "Foundations", "Implementation", and "Issues and Challenges in Researching Your Own Organisation". The book ends with discussion of closeness and distance with respect to the organisation under study, contexts of politics and ethics, and hints on writing an Action Research Dissertation. The style of the book is clear and non-dogmatic, making good use of diagrams and summaries. Researchers and research students will have encountered scepticism about Action Research, and arguments that more traditional approaches are "safer", in the context of the need for academic recognition. …

Doing Action Research in Your Own Organisation

Recent shifts in education and labour market policy have resulted in universities being placed under increasing pressure to produce employable graduates. However, contention exists regarding exactly what constitutes employability and which graduate attributes are required to foster employability in tertiary students. This paper argues that in the context of a rapidly changing information- and knowledge-intensive economy, employability involves far more than possession of the generic skills listed by graduate employers as attractive. Rather, for optimal economic and social outcomes, graduates must be able to proactively navigate the world of work and self-manage the career building process. A model of desirable graduate attributes that acknowledges the importance of self-management and career building skills to lifelong career management and enhanced employability is presented. Some important considerations for the implementation of effective university career management programs are then outlined.

The graduate attributes we've overlooked : enhancing graduate employability through career management skills

Achieving optimal levels of indoor thermal comfort in a warm, humid climate continues to pose a challenge to building occupants in such climatic regions. Buildings are either being retrofitted or designed differently to cater to thermal comfort. As a result, a variety of tactics have been deployed to guarantee optimal thermal comfort for occupants. Some scholars have highlighted the salient contributions of various types of construction materials toward the delivery of different housing types which perform differently under a diverse range of climatic conditions. A plethora of studies suggesting better indoor thermal comfort performance of traditional buildings as compared to contemporary dwellings due to various reasons have been observed. However, limited studies have sought to investigate this suggestion within warm, humid climatic regions. As such, this study engages in an evaluation of indoor thermal comfort qualities of traditional and modern buildings during the dry season with the goal of developing design guidelines for a thermally pleasant environment in a town, Okigwe, which is situated in a warm, humid climatic region in Southeastern Nigeria. Data were collected utilizing a field measurement technique. Throughout the survey period, variables of the indoor environment such as relative humidity and air temperature were recorded concurrently in nine selected buildings, two traditional and seven modern buildings. The fluctuations and differences in relative humidity and air temperature between the two building types were investigated using Z-test statistical techniques. The study’s results revealed that the contemporary structures’ indoor air temperature (29.4 °C) was 0.6 °C higher than traditional buildings’ indoor air temperature (28.8 °C). Therefore, the study recommends that architects and planners should make concerted efforts to integrate methods of passive design into the provision of a comfortable indoor thermal environment rather than relying solely on active design strategies, which whilst lacking in traditional buildings, nonetheless did not prevent such buildings from recording lower air temperature readings compared to modern buildings.

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Evaluation of Indoor Thermal Comfort Conditions of Residential Traditional and Modern Buildings in a Warm-Humid Climate

The commitment of Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) to Sustainable Development (SD) seems to be yielding limited positive results. This is evident in the procurement of infrastructure within HEIs situated in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Besides being part of a wider study into Sustainable Procurement (SP) of infrastructure in SSA HEIs, this study reports on facilities directors’ perceptions of sustainable procurement in HEIs within SSA. A phenomenological research design was utilised. Forty-Three HEIs across two different countries in SSANigeria and South Africa were selected based on purposive and convenience sampling. Facilities directors in these HEIs were interviewed through face-to-face and telephone interview sessions. Documents concerning the procurement of infrastructure were also reviewed. Emergent data from these sources were thematically analysed. Preliminary findings indicate that Business As Usual (BAU) mode of procurement has remained the norm in most of the HEIs in spite of their profess commitment to SD. Some barriers identified include: the seeming obsession of HEIs, acting as clients, with low front-end cost of project delivery; poor awareness of what SP entails; absence of skills required to champion the cause of SP within such HEIs, and non-specification of SD based requirements in the contracts documents. It is expected that this study would contribute to deepening existing knowledge concerning implementation of SD in HEIs in SSA.

Barriers to the sustainable procurement of built university assets in sub-saharan africa

Developing a responsive pavement-management infrastructure system is of paramount importance, accentuated by the quest for sustainability through adoption of the Road Traffic Management System. Technological advances have been witnessed in developed countries concerning the development of smart, sustainable transportation infrastructure. However, the same cannot be said of developing countries. In this study, the development of a pavement management system at network level was examined to contribute towards a framework for evaluating a Pavement Quality Index and service life capacity. Environmental surface response models in the form of temperature and moisture variations within the pavement were applied, using sensor devices connected to a data cloud system to carry out mathematical analysis using a distinctive mesh analysis deformation model. The results indicated variation in the Resilient Modulus of the pavement, with increasing moisture content. Increase in moisture propagation increased saturation of the unbound granular base which reduced the elastic modulus of the sub-base and base layer and reduced the strength of the pavement, resulting in bottom-up cracks and cracking failure. The horizontal deformation reduced, indicating that the material was experiencing work hardening and further stress would not result in significant damage. Increasing temperature gradient resulted in reduced stiffness of the asphalt layer. In tropical regions, this can result in rutting failure which, over time, results in top-down cracks and potholes, coupled with increasing moisture content.

Bankole Awuzie

Papers

Evaluation of Indoor Thermal Comfort Conditions of Residential Traditional and Modern Buildings in a Warm-Humid Climate

Barriers to the sustainable procurement of built university assets in sub-saharan africa

Pavement Quality Index Rating Strategy Using Fracture Energy Analysis for Implementing Smart Road Infrastructure.

The place of the Real Estate Management (REM) profession in the emerging infrastructure-based public-private partnerships in Africa

Evaluating the effectiveness of strategies for implementation of health and safety programs on construction sites in Nigeria: A mixed-method study.