Technological Challenges and Management (Manufacturing Design and Technology)

Today’s organizations find themselves in a race to adopt new technologies in order to keep up with their competition. However, two questions must be answered: Are these organizations ready for new technological advancements, and are these new technologies appropriate for every organization? Technological Challenges and Management: Matching Human and Business Needs focuses on the new advances and challenges that today’s organizations face in the areas of human resources and business, resulting from continuous and highly complex changes in technological resources.

Organizations need to implement a more proactive and flexible management, matching their human and business needs. Due to this reality, it is important to study and understand varied contributions made by researchers, academics, and practitioners in this field of study worldwide. With the focus of this reality, this book exchanges experiences and perspectives about the state of technological challenges and management research, and future directions for this field of study. It also takes into account the deep implications that these challenges have in the organization of human resources.

The authors support academics and researchers and those operating in the management field in dealing with different challenges that organizations face today. This is especially true concerning the relationship between technological changes, human resources management, and business. They propose the sharing of knowledge, through debate and information exchange, about technological challenges and management, matching the critical items of human and business needs. The book is divided into seven chapters that span from evaluating new technologies to finding the perfect fit.

Carolina Machado earned her PhD in management sciences from the University of Minho, Braga, Portugal, in 1999, and a master’s degree in management from the Technical University of Lisbon, Portugal, in 1994. She has been teaching human resources management subjects since 1989 at the University of Minho and became an associate professor in 2004, with research interest in human resource management, training and development, and management change and knowledge management. She is the head of Human Resources Management Work Group at the University of Minho and the chief editor of the International Journal of Applied Management Sciences and Engineering (IJAMSE).

J. Paulo Davim earned his PhD in mechanical engineering from the University of Porto, Portugal, in 1997; the aggregate title from the University of Coimbra, Portugal, in 2005; and a DSc from London Metropolitan University, United Kingdom, in 2013. He is a professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Aveiro, Portugal. He has authored or coauthored more than 6 books, 50 book chapters, and 350 articles. He also is the editor-in-chief of eight international journals, a guest editor of journals, a book editor, a book series editor, and a scientific advisor for international journals and conferences.