bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
Computer simulation and library management
Authors: Main Linda
Published: March 2007

In 1975 Bommer said that computer simulation models had remained on the fringes of library science because too much attention has been devoted to the construction and solution of complex mathematical models, and too little attention to the implementation aspect. Nine years later, in 1984, Simonton makes the same point, substantially reflecting the lack of progress in this field.

This paper surveys the relevant literature, and attempts to isolate key issues which might explain why computer simula tion models are not implemented to any extent in libraries.
The computer as mask: a problem of inadequate human interaction examined with particular regard to online public access catalogues
Authors: Azubuike Abraham A.
Published: March 2007

In the typical library operating online public access cata logues (OPACs) the computer masks the librarian from the user resulting in an impaired librarian-user interaction, which in turn results in a great deal of user failure in information retrieval. This is because of the nature of computer intermedia tion which reduces both the librarian's responsibility to the user and user contact with the library.

The present OPACs are operated with practices which emanated from manual catalogues and are unsuitable for online services. The user is expected to access the database online, but communication with him is not emphasized.

The design and management of online public access cata logues should be influenced by the needs and abilities of the user and efforts should be made to maintain personal com munication channels between the user and the information specialist so as to engender more user-cordial information environments.

These conditions, practices and recommendations are elaborated in this paper.
Managers' reading habits in the electronics industry
Authors: Gent A.C. , Bottle R.T. , Crawshaw H.S.
Published: March 2007

A survey of managers in the electronics industry showed that only 11% read any foreign language material. Newspapers and journals were considered a prime source of market infor mation. The average manager spends 2.6 hours per week reading, mainly at home. He reads seven journals with the Financial Times considered the most essential reading. 47% would prefer a single source for all their information needs.
Organizational strategies for decision support and expert systems
Authors: Chen Ye-Sho
Published: March 2007

There has been increasing interest in migrating expert systems (ES) technology to decision support systems (DSS) design to provide a more accessible, productive and domain-in dependent information and computing environment for managers. Most of the research efforts focus on physical integration of DSS and ES. Two areas have received less attention: (1) logical integration of DSS and ES, and (2) organizational strategies for integration. In this paper, we propose an organization-based DSS/ES architecture. A signifi cant contribution of this approach is its cost-effective DSS/ES framework for an organization.
The computerization of documentation in the French education system
Authors: Vuillemin Alain
Published: March 2007

The methods traditionally implemented for processing and distributing information, even when they are computenzed, have proved to be inadequate. On the one hand, the implemen tation of successive programmes for supplying educational institutions with microcomputer equipment seems to be the principal prime mover of computerization processes in the French educational system. On the other hand, the creation of new databases is being hampered by the ever-increasing pace of technical progress, the emergence of new storage and editing devices, the invention of novel ways of information recording, the existence of new distribution outlets, and the rapid obsoles cence of the equipment used. There is a need to combine, rather than merely to juxtapose, these new technologies. But little progress has been made so far in this direction.
Pictorial indexing for an integrated pictorial and textual IR environment
Authors: Bordogna G. , Carrara P. , Gagliardi I. , Merelli D. , Mussio P. , Naldi F. , Padula M.
Published: March 2007

Information retrieval (IR) systems were ongmally devel oped to process, store, search and retrieve narrative informa tion. Structured databases are therefore created to store the items contairung enough information to identify and retneve the onginal documents.

This paper proposes an extension of classification and indexing to pictorial data, specifically to pictorial parts of multimedia documents. This goal is attained by adopting structural techniques for digital image description. The de scriptions of the objects (digital structures) present in the image are proposed as pictorial index terms. Such a generaliza tion has led to a uniform management of the non-homoge neous kinds of data composing the document and has allowed the outlining of a multimedia IR system raised from interdisci plinary experiences.

In the paper the approach to image description is presented and a control structure to index textual and pictorial data is discussed.
The use of information technology by scientists in British and Saudi Arabian universities: a comparative study
Authors: Bukhari A.A. , Meadows A.J.
Published: March 2007

A parallel study has been carried out of the use of information technology by scientists at universities in the UK and Saudi Arabia. A questionnaire survey on this topic was originally carried out in the UK during 1985-86. New surveys. based on the same set of questions, have been carried out in the UK and Saudi Arabia during 1991. On the one hand, this provides a five-year baseline of data for the UK, which can be used to discern trends in usage. On the other, it permits a comparison of current Saudi usage with the position in the UK The results indicate a rapid growth and diversification of information technology activities in the UK. Usage in Saudi Arabia is already approaching the level found in British universities in the mid-1980s.
Documentation practices: the national scene in Greece
Authors: Patrinos D.
Published: March 2007

The information "explosion" combined with the capabilities offered by the new technologies poses a new challenge to all those involved in documentation work: pro ducers, librarians, documentation and information specialists, and users. This paper presents an overview of current docu mentation practices in Greece It also addresses subjects associated with documentation work, such as standards. telecommunications networks, education and training, and library automation issues It outlines the progress made in some areas during the recent years and attempts to identify the major problems related to the delayed implementation of modern means and practices in the Greek documentation environment
Syntactic and semantic structure analysis of article titles in analytical chemistry
Authors: Sano Hikomaro , Fujiwara Yuzuru
Published: March 2007

Titles of scientific papers often include words that develop definite syntactic patterns around them. In analytical chemistry, these roles are played by frequently used analysis- related words which demand an object, such as "analysis of", "analyse" or "analysing". Syntactic patterns of the titles in cluding these words were studied paying particular attention to prepositions which were then collectively expressed by Backus Naur Form (BNF) notations. The patterns can be utilised to extract word strings corresponding to analyte, ma trix and analytical procedure, which are the main facets through which we grasp the core ideas in analytical chemistry papers. Facet tabulation of extracted words provides a display easier to see and understand than the titles themselves. In addition, this method can be applied to automatic assignment of facet categories to title words; and the word categories may be used for analysis of titles in other diversified syntactic patterns. This approach can be extended to the analysis of article titles in other disciplines.
ISDN: an emerging electronic highway for business data communications
Authors: Philip G.
Published: March 2007

The implementation of the Integrated Services Digi tal Networks (ISDN) in most advanced nations of the world marks the beginning of the end of the traditional piecemeal approach to developments in communication networks ISDN, which is a product of digital technology, aims to integrate the existing disparate networks into a single electronic highway tor the combined transport of information in a multiplicity of formats While the provision of a whole portloho of services on a single line sounds ideal for the business environment, unfortunately, the main thrust for ISDN, at the moment, is coming from technological push rather than from market pull Many putential customers are sceptical about the usefulness of the ISDN service for a number of reasons such as cost, standardisation problems and the need to upgrade existing hardware The purpose of this paper is to make a detour of the ISDN landscape of Europe, North America and the Far East to review current developments and applications, and also to examine the reasons for the present low customer base for the service The ISDN service is likely to remain as nothing more than an expensive and sophisticated technologi cal highway unless telecommunication vendors play a more proactive role in promoting customer awareness through the development and demonstration of a whole range of new business-driven applications.
GENIE: a global environmental network for information exchange
Authors: Medyckyj-Scott D.J. , Newman I.A. , O'Brien S.M.
Published: March 2007

Future policy decisions concerning global environ mental change (GEC) will be influenced, increasingly, by data and research collated from the physical and social sciences. The GENIE project addresses the imperative needs of GEC researchers to identify, locate, retrieve and process relevant datasets and associated information which are distributed in Data Centres and Archives, and, further, to exchange per sonal or domain-related perspectives of the datasets. The provision of appropriate facilities is an endeavour with impli cations for the combined disciplines of computer and informa tion science.
information support for the training function
Authors: Pettinger Gail , Bawden David
Published: March 2007

This paper describes a study of the use of informa tion by training professionals, in the planning, delivery and evaluation of training programmes, and in the assessment of training needs.
Mailing to the machine
Authors: McMurdo George
Published: March 2007

Electronic mail is generally thought of as a means of communicating and interacting with other people, either one-to-one or one-to-few, by personal e-mail, or else by participation in electronic discussion groups. However, electronic mail can also be used as an interface to a quite comprehensive range of Internet information retrieval util ities, where the communication is with machines rather than people. Tools and services accessible by e-mail include: searching and retrieval from Bitnet e-mail list archives; archie searches of files available at anonymous FTP (file-transfer protocol) sites; file retrieval from anony mous FTP sites; browsing of menus and retrieval from gopher menus; 'veronica' index searches of gopher infor mation; retrieval of World Wide Web information; searching and retrieval from WAIS (wide-area information server) information sources; reading and contribution to Usenet newsgroups; directory services, such as 'whois' and 'finger', for locating people and their e-mail addresses.
OVIDE and teledemocracy
Authors: Davies Garth W. P. , Jegu Pierre
Published: March 2007

Teledemocracy is a concept which has emerged over the last ten years. It is concerned with furthering the demo cratic process through the aid of modern information technology. This article describes the particular goals and experiences of the OVIDE system in the context of teledemocracy. OVIDE is a European-wide communica tion and information system installed by the European Parliament primarily to help the elected Members of the Parliament and permanent staff in their work. A key factor in the OVIDE concept, however, has been its potential to bridge the gap between the citizen and the complex processes of decision-making in the develop ment of the European Union. Examples are given of the ways in which concrete efforts have been made to use OVIDE in order to help to fill this information gap and encourage the citizen to come closer to the policy-making framework within which the future of the European Union is being forged.
Which layout do you prefer? An analysis of readers' preferences for different typographic layouts of structured abstracts
Authors: Hartley James , Sydes Matthew
Published: March 2007

BACKGROUND. Structured abstracts - which include subheadings such as this one - have replaced traditional abstracts in most current medical journals. However, the number and detail of the subheadings used varies, and there is a range of different typographic settings.
Event-based personal retrieval
Authors: Bovey J.D.
Published: March 2007

People who work in a research, academic or business envi ronment often have personal information collections which are large enough to need retrieval aids. A major difference between personal information retrieval and normal docu ment retrieval is that the items to be retrieved are often associated with events in the searcher's life and can be retrieved by their relationship to other events as well as by content. This paper describes some of the background to event-based retrieval and then describes a prototype graph ical event-based retrieval system.
Organizations as Instruments of Social Change in Postindustrial Societies
Authors: Cherns Albert
Published: March 2007

There are two ways of looking at the relationship between organizations and society. One features the impact of society on the organization, the social environment; the other attends to the impact on society of the organization and its appetite for resources. The first shows organizations lagging in their cultural prescriptions, the second shows them leading. Both are right. The relationship is circular. Because the work organization, is the principal agent of distribution of society's resources, both material and immaterial, it is a splendid fulcrum for a sociotechnical Archimedes.
A Power-Strategy Alternative to Organization Development
Authors: Borum Finn
Published: March 2007

In this article assumptions implied in the organization development (OD) literature about organizations, members of organizations, and the external consultant are pointed out on the basis of studies of the literature. These assumptions are criticized and a set of alternative assumptions is formulated.

In the light of this, a strategy for change is formulated which constitutes an alternative to OD strategies, both in purpose and in the phases of change.

According to the alternative strategy, power is regarded as the crucial variable, in connection with organizational change. The 'power' strategy prescribes the strengthen ing of a party's power bases prior to negotiations with the 'opponent' and formalization of mechanisms for the regulation of conflicts; this is contrary to the OD strategies, which imply confrontation, a change in perceptions and attitudes, and solution of conflicts.

The 'alternative' strategy is exemplified and discussed with reference to an action research project, which the author carried out in collaboration with the employees of a surgical unit at a Danish general hospital. The change project was initiated by lower participants in the organization, and the external consultant was not neutral as is usually prescribed in the OD literature.
Indirect Participation, Influence, and Power: Some Danish Experiences1
Authors: Lund Reinhard
Published: March 2007

This paper compares the indirect (representative) participation of workers in the processes of employers' decision making as these processes mirror the nature of enter prise organization. Hereby some major hindrances to an extension of workers' influ ence, power, and participation in employers' decision making are highlighted. This article presents an in-depth study of three decisions covering the areas of daily business, investments, and organizational structure in a manufacturing company in Denmark. The implications of the results for theories on influence, power, and participation are discussed.
Technological Implications Theory: A Japanese Test
Authors: Marsh Robert M. , Mannari Hiroshi
Published: March 2007

Previous theory and research in England, Canada, and the United States indicates that the nature of the dominant type of technology used in an organization has important causal implications for many aspects of the social structure of the organization. This study of industrial manufacturing firms in Japan consists of one factory in each of three types of technology: small-batch production (Sake Company), mass production assem bly line (Electric Factory), and automated continuous process (Petroleum Company). A fourth factory (Shipbuilding Factory) combines aspects of unit and mass production technology.

Of the thirteen hypotheses derived from seven more general propositions about the relationships between technology, organizational structure, and employee behaviour and attitudes, and tested, eight are fully and four partially confirmed. These findings are interpreted as supporting technological implications theory, and as a further indication of the greater importance of technological and structural variables than of cultural differences between Japan and the West.
Organization Theory and Federalism: Interorganizational Networks and the Political Economy of The Federalist
Authors: Boschken Herman L.
Published: March 2007

The Federalist collection of papers, written by three co-founders of the American Constitution, Hamilton, Madison, and Jay, appeared periodically in 1787 and 1788 in New York. The papers were an attempt to persuade the polity of a pivotal state to accept a new form of government. This article is a theoretical inquiry into the congruence of The Federalist to modern concerns of organization theory. Its purpose is to look at this conceptual cornerstone of American government as a guide for the design and reorganization of present-day public organizations. The article points out areas of concern to modern administration and then links The Federalist logic to them through the notion of interorganizational networks. Following this, this article illustrates the congruency by addressing the problems of differentiation and integration. Some might view The Federalist as limited to the American setting, but in fact its creation occurred in light of European precedents and the rise of the administrative state. It, therefore, holds significance for the more general interests of administrative theory.
Interorganizational Co-operation and the Implementation of Labour Market Training Policies: Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany
Authors: O'Toole Laurence J.
Published: March 2007

In this article a theory of interorganizational co-operation is utilized to render some cases of local implementation understandable. The policy studied is labour market training and placement. Data from four locales in Sweden and the Federal Republic of Germany are analysed. In each nation one more- and one less-successful community are examined. First, the author compares the administrative requirements of the labour market task with the two national policies to assess their suitability. Then reasons for the degree of policy success and degree of interorganizational co-operation observed are sought. Perceived common interest in the locale and the presence of an interorganiza tional facilitative agent seem to be among the factors which affect co-operation. Some conclusions and implications for policy makers, implementers, and students of administration are sketched.
Managerial Orientations and Workers' Job Responses in Labour-Owned and Private Industrial Plants in Israel
Authors: Mannheim Bilha
Published: March 2007

The study compares the managerial orientations and workers' attitudes in labour- owned enterprises to those in privately owned enterprises in Israel. Data were collected by means of closed questionnaires from production managers and 847 production workers in a representative sample of 57 industrial plants stratified by size and sector of ownership. Contrary to the expectations derived from the formal ideology of labour control, no differences were found in the orientations of line managers to workers and in the work centrality, job satisfaction and identification with the enterprise of workers in labour-owned plants as compared to privately owned plants. It was found, however, that in small plants managerial orientations explain more variance of workers' responses, especially of work centrality, in labour as compared to private plants. In large plants, these stronger relationships were not found.

The findings are discussed in terms of their implications for labour ownership and worker outcomes, both from a general theoretical point of view and in the context of the labour economy in Israel.
Managerial Cultures and Industrial Strategies in British Firms
Authors: Gunz Hugh , Whitley Richard
Published: March 2007

Managerial cultures are important mediating phenomena between environmental changes and the strategic responses of firms. Major components of managerial cultures are succession patterns to senior posts and standards used to assess managerial performance. This paper discusses 'specialist' and 'generalist' managerial career paths and performance standards in four British firms and their connections to the responses of these firms to the current recession.
Barriers to Change in a Quango
Authors: Gregory Geoff
Published: March 2007

This case study shows how a quango has failed to achieve effectiveness because its cumbersome structure prevents the active minority pressing for change from achieving it. A catch-22 situation arose in events associated with revising the Act under which the quango was constituted. The main stumbling block preventing proposed revisions from succeeding was Council representation, a critical factor for effective decision-making, as evidenced by its inability to reach a decision on it.
Organizational Permeability in U.S. Social Service Agencies
Authors: Colignon Richard
Published: March 2007

The concept of organizational permeability is operationalized and examined in relation to environmental contingency and organizational design characteristics. This study indicates that environmental contingency and boundary permeability have differential and selective impact on characteristics of organizational design. The results suggest that there is a dynamic relationship between organizational design and interorganizational linkages as two alternative forms of adaption to environmental contingencies needing further research and theoretical elaboration.
Against the Current: Organizational Sociology and Socialism
Authors: Clegg Stewart R. , Higgins Winton
Published: March 2007

The critical current in organization analysis has not only called into question the conservative assumptions of more orthodox organization theory, but also the purely cosmetic nature of what often passes for worklife reform. However, it has chosen to mount these attacks from essentialist starting points - the 'division of labour' and 'bureaucracy' - which circumscribe its theoretical critique of organizations in capitalist society. Consequently, it is difficult to couple critical organization theory to a political project which generates a confrontation with capitalism based on criteria of socio-economic re-organization, in which mutually dependent criteria of democracy and efficiency are operative. By default, it ends up endorsing functionalist fatalism.
The Problem of Human Agency in Organizational Analysis
Authors: Reed Michael I.
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the manner in which 'the problem of agency' has been reflected in the development of organizational analysis as a field of study and as an intellectual practice. The development of the latter is seen to be shaped by successive attempts to come to terms with the former in four interrelated aspects. First, as an intellectual leitmotif directing the trajectory of the historical development of organizational analysis. Second, as an analytical and methodological conundrum focussing theoretical and technical debate within the field. Third, as a moral preoccupation shaping a wider ethical debate over the implications of organized action for individual conduct. Fourth, as an ideological discourse within which conflicting views concerning the socio-political relevance of complex organizations can be expressed. The general implications of this exploration for the present condition and future development of organizational analysis are also considered.
Hierarchies and Size: A Problem of Identification
Authors: Abdel-khalik A. Rashad
Published: March 2007

This paper shows that logarithmic transformation of the number of employees in an organization is nothing other than an approximation of the number of levels of hierarchy in that organization. Since the log of the number of employees has been used extensively in the literature as a measure of 'size', many of the empirical findings concerning the relationships between 'size' and organizational structure variables need to be re-examined. In particular, correlating the log of the number of employees with the number of levels of hierarchy amounts to correlating two different empirical measures of the same variable. Understanding the real meaning of the logarithmic transformation of the number employed should shed a different light on the interpretation of many earlier empirical studies.
The Gods and Goddesses: Personifying Social Life in the Age of Organization
Authors: Bowles Martin L.
Published: March 2007

All social life is underpinned by the activation of archetypal processes. These processes are understood here as representing the gods and goddesses, as they have been conceived by mankind since antiquity. This is not a religious but a psychological account of those energies which emerge from the collective unconscious and dictate the form of the world as we understand it. The pantheon of gods and goddesses as found in Greek myth is used to describe the represen tation of 'divinities' as they are 'worshipped' in the age of organization. Those gods and goddesses who seldom appear on the corporate Mt. Olympus, but who are sorely needed to address a staleness in the experience of organizational life, are briefly reviewed.
Transnationals, International Organization and Deindustrialization
Authors: Pitelis Christos
Published: March 2007

We examine the link between transnational corporations (TNCs), international state apparatuses and deindustrialization. We suggest that international state apparatuses, such as the EC, are institutional devices, complementary to firms (including TNCs) and states in international production and the division of labour. Their policies are the result of, or express, a complex interaction of (the interrelationships between) often conflicting interests of, for example, consumers, TNCs and state functionaries. The complex articulation of the relationships involved and the associated often non-predetermined nature of emergent policies, allows for the identification of applicable, e.g. consensus-based, policies. Internat ionalization of production and the TNC is linked with the emergence of internat ional state apparatuses, such as the EC, but also the 'new international division of labour, deindustrialization and 'relative decline'. Being a home base to TNCs does not immunize a country from deindustrialization. All these support the concept that EC policies which support forces competitive to TNCs could be of benefit to Europe.
Breaking the Paradigm Mentality
Authors: Willmott Hugh
Published: March 2007

This paper reflects critically upon the core argument of Burrell and Morgan's highly influential Sociological Paradigms and Organizational Analysis and evalu ates responses to it. Although Burrell and Morgan were explicitly concerned to open up a wider field of vision to students of organization, their book simultan eously declared a new dogma: the mutual exclusivity of paradigms. The specific target of the paper is Burrell and Morgan's sharp division of 'subjectivist' and 'objectivist' forms of analysis. To challenge this dogma, attention is given to Kuhn's understanding that there is continuity as well as incommensurability in the process of theory development. In contrast to the 'pluralist strategy' favoured by Reed (1985) and the defence of paradigm incommensurability recently made by Jackson and Carter (1991), the paper follows Kuhn in commending a process of reflection committed to the identification and remedying of anomalies within existing theories. This argument is illustrated by examining the process of theoret ical development within one branch of organizational analysis: labour process theory, where anomalies within the orthodox formulation of the dynamics of social reproduction have been identified by Burawoy and others.
On Duty — Off Guard: Cultural Norms and Sexual Harassment in Service Organizations
Authors: Folgerø Ingebjørg S. , Fjeldstad Ingrid H.
Published: March 2007

This article focuses on sexual harassment, defined as unwanted sexual attention at work. Due to their inherent characteristics, service organizations are a prime breeding ground for such harassment. In spite of this, the problem is rarely in focus. The authors argue that a major reason for this is the particular cultural norms in service organizations: employees are not allowed to perceive them selves as victims of sexual harassment. An explorative study supports this proposition. Implications for management are discussed.
Differing Managerial Responses to Change in Poland
Authors: Kostera Monika
Published: March 2007

The paper is about the alternative ways in which managers and enterprises respond to the contemporary situation in Poland. Adopting a cultural perspect ive and interpretive approach, it first seeks to establish in which ways the social role of manager has changed in regard to the professional dimension and contextual constraints. The main point concerns the current situation, where different ways of enactment of organizations' environments coexist, as do different managerial roles, as representing these different cultures of organ izing. The paper proposes a typology of enterprises and roles, which can be used both in theory and practice, but perhaps more specifically by consultants who intend to introduce important changes in East European enterprises. Taking the differences in responding to change into account would perhaps make the change itself more effective and more realistically aimed.
Corporate Ideology, Diversification and Firm Performance
Authors: Goll Irene , Sambharya Rakesh B.
Published: March 2007

The literature suggests that the fit between corporate culture and strategy influences firm performance. The present study examines the moderating effect of diversification strategy on the link between corporate ideology, a component of culture, and firm performance. A cross-sectional survey of the largest manu facturing firms in the United States was conducted measuring corporate ideo logy and diversification strategy. A moderated regression analysis was con ducted and it was found that the interaction between ideology and diversification exerts a significant effect on firm performance thus supporting the importance of strategic fit.
Emotional Subtexts in Corporate Greening
Authors: Fineman Stephen
Published: March 2007

This paper explores the view that pro-environmental organizational changes depend on the emotional meanings that managers attribute to greening. It is theoretically rooted in recent literatures on the strategic role of emotions and green organizational transformation. A comparative, qualitative study of senior managers in six U.K. supermarkets, of differing degrees of greenness, is reported. Four emotionally significant subtexts are identified: enacting green commitment, contesting green boundaries, defending autonomy and avoiding embarrassment. These are related to the way different green pressures are received, developed and culturally incorporated — or rejected. The study finds little evidence to support the emotional basis of 'true' ethically green organiza tional cultures, although managerially engineered commitment of 'belonging' to a socially responsible culture can serve some aspects of greening in a rela tively stable manner. The less-green companies are instrumental in their responses, have few corporate symbols of community or care and their man agers will deprecate or demonize those who believe otherwise. The implica tions for green organizational change suggest a key expressive role for leaders in shaping an appropriate climate. However, this is far from fool-proof, and is not suited to all organizations. Pressure from external green activists and regulators offer more coercive routes, based on creating fear, shame or embarrassment.
Social Structure and Managerial Agency in India
Authors: Sahay Sundeep , Walsham Geoff
Published: March 2007

In this paper, we argue the need to understand the relationship between mana gerial agency and social structure within a broad societal context. Managers are members of different social systems arising from both work and non-work related activities. These systems have various sets of rules and resources embedded within them which managers draw upon to create agency, which in turn can either reinforce or change social structure. Drawing upon sociological approaches to the study of human agency, we propose a framework to describe possible influences that social structure has on the shaping of managerial atti tudes in India. We then use this framework to provide the lens through which a specific Indian-government-initiated, information-technology project is ana lyzed. We see the approach that has been illustrated in this paper to have implications for management studies in three areas: the management of cross- cultural projects; management practice in India; and future research on man agement in organizations.
How Fragmentation Can Improve Co-ordination: Setting Standards in International Telecommunications
Authors: Genschel Philipp
Published: March 2007

There is a stark contrast between the way industrial economics asks us to think about standard setting in telecommunications and the way standard-setting is actually organized. On the one hand, leading scholars maintain that standard setting is a natural monopoly. On the other hand, the number of standards organizations for telecommunications is quite large and there is no indication that this number will decrease. The paper analyzes how to resolve this discrep ancy. It argues that there are reasons to believe that the natural monopoly hypothesis is wrong. Under a certain set of conditions which are prevalent in international telecommunications, the distribution of standard setting to a multitude of competing standards organizations is both stable and efficient.
phenomenology in america
Authors: levin david michael
Published: March 2007

Democracy as compared with other ways of life is the sole way of living which believes wholeheartedly in the process of experience as end and as means; as that which is capable of generating the science which is the sole dependable authority for the direction of further experience and which releases emotions, needs, and desires so as to call into being the things that have not existed in the past. For every way of life that fails in its democracy limits the contacts, the exchanges, the communications, the interactions by which experience is steadied while it is enlarged and enriched. The task of this release and enrichment is one that has to be carried on day by day. Since it is one that can have no end till experience itself comes to an end, the task of democracy is forever that of creation of a freer and more humane experience in which all share and to which all contribute.
Administrative Elites in Multiethnic Polities
Authors: Armstrong John A.
Published: March 2007

The experience of multiethnic empires (Habsburg, Russian, and Ottoman) can be especi ally instructive for contemporary polities. Although all three of these historical adminis trative types were ultimately unsuccessful, informed statesmanship in different historical conditions might have adapted parts of the models they provided, notably the integration of administrative recruits with differing patterns of socialization derived from diverse ethnic cultures.
Regional Politico-Geographical Studies
Authors: Vitkovsky Oleg V. , Kolossov Vladimir A.
Published: March 2007

Regional studies are the main component of political geography. Rightly so, since the balance of political forces in a country—a balance which determines the foreign policy of that country and exerts influence on the world's political equiiibrium—depends on the balance of political forces in its various regions and centers. As for the objective base of regional political differences, it lies in geographical differences in social class struc tures. But the complicated correlations between the elements of spatial socioeconomic structures studied by political geography require the use of the systems dialectical- materialistic approach, which takes into account all the other essential factors partici pating in the formation of the territorial balance of political forces. The authors try to show the importance of this method, using as examples the cases of the FRG and of Italy. They propose a model of regional political-geographical categories that include (1) his torical-politico-geographical, (2) social-geographical, (3) general political-geographical, and (4) regional political-geographical elements.
Health Care in Israel
Authors: Arian Asher
Published: March 2007

While there is a widely accepted norm of universal health care provision in Israel, the major sources of health care are particularistic organizations, tied to political parties committed to universal health care provision within particularistic structures, and opposed to nationalization of this vital social service function. Although the ideology of statism remains dominant, those who would lose most by its implementation have con sistently succeeded in scuttling the transfer of social service functions from the particu laristic sector to the national sphere. The organization of health services in Israel demon strates the importance of the political dimension when discussing structures for the delivery of health care.
Issue Information and Connotation in Candidate Imagery
Authors: Davis Dwight F.
Published: March 2007

Due to a simplistic conception of candidate imagery and overreliance on survey methods in voting research, relatively little is known about the dynamics of candidate imagery. This experiment exposed subjects to typewritten transcripts of candidate issue positions from an actual campaign, and measures of subjects' candidate images were taken. Results indi cate that subjects are prone to conceptualize candidates in personal terms, even though only issue-position information was made available. This tendency appears to be affected by the volume and content of issue-position information to which subjects are exposed. If these findings apply to the general population, researchers may have to reformulate the "issue voting" controversy in voting research.
The Effect of Psychological Stress on Influence Distributions
Authors: Madsen Douglas
Published: March 2007

This research focuses on the effect environmentally-imposed psychological stress has on the concentration of influence in a collective problem-solving process. A small-group experiment tests the hypothesis that, all else equal and within some upper limit, higher levels of stress will produce more concentration of influence and lower levels of stress more dispersion of influence. Noise is used as the stressor in the experiment. The results support the hypothesis, although not unambiguously. They also provide guidance for design modifications and improved measurement, both of which are discussed.
Politicos, Apoliticals, and the Processing of Political Information
Authors: Lodge Milton , Wahlke John C.
Published: March 2007

While such concepts as "belief systems" and "levels of conceptualization" have played a central role in research on "issue voting" and other important questions, political scientists have paid relatively little attention to the processes by which human organisms process the signs and symbols they encounter in political (or in survey interview) situations, or to how people selectively attend to those stimuli. The research reported here takes from cognitive psychology and information processing the concept of a "schema" which organizes and structures those stimuli in varying ways and to varying degrees. Utilizing various measures of stimulus recall and recognition, it compares the reaction to political and non-political stimuli of persons putatively possessing a well-developed political schema ("politicos") and those lacking such a schema ("apoliticals"). The results suggest that the concept offers a promising approach for research on problems of political perception and response.
Modeling Interdependence and Analyzing Conflict
Authors: Yamakage Susumu
Published: March 2007

Conflict, one of the oldest concerns in international relations theory, and interdepen dence, one of the most recent concerns, are the interlocking problems that endanger world politics and economy. This article designs and constructs a mathematical model that causally explains how and why transactional interdependence between nations actualizes conflict. In addition to the two above concepts, the model deals with power and conflict resolution. Furthermore, in the framework provided by the model, various definitions, implications, and situations concerning interdependence, which make the concept elusive and confuse the controversy surrounding it, are rigorously postulated and compared. Validation follows the specification of the model in the context of North-South relations. While this article deals mainly with the simplest case, a two-actor, transaction, several directions for generalizing the model are suggested.
Economic Scarcity and Political Philosophy
Authors: Schaefer David Lewis
Published: March 2007

The history of political philosophy exhibits two fundamentally opposed responses to economic scarcity. The classical view, exemplified by Aristotle's Politics, accepts scarcity as an inevitable feature of human existence, but endeavors to direct at least some individuals toward a life of virtue that transcends the concern with economic acquisition. Aristotle rhetorically exaggerates nature's beneficence to humans in order to facilitate this goal. A concomitant of his approach is the acceptance of slavery, despite its acknowledged injustice, as the precondition of the leisure essential to the practice of virtue by the city's governing class. In contrast, the modern doctrine, as expounded in Montaigne's Essays, emphasizes the natural neediness of humans and their consequent need to ameliorate their condition by the technological mastery of nature. The modern view aims to liberate human acquisitiveness from the moral and political restraints that both classical and medieval thinkers had endeavored to impose on it. Part of the reason for Montaigne's advocacy of acquisitiveness and self-indulgence had been the desire to divert people's minds from the religious, moral, and political concerns that generated civil strife and religious persecution. The materialism and privatism that characterize modern liberal society render it vulnerable to the attacks of the radical left, however, and subject also to the more profound criticism of Solzhenitsyn.
Liberal Democracy and the Problem of Scarcity
Authors: Jennings Bruce
Published: March 2007

A growing recognition of the ecological limits to past forms of industrial production and economic growth has made the problem of scarcity arise as a central political challenge. This article explores the possibility that liberal democracy will not be able to meet that challenge and so must be replaced by new political theories and institutions. It discusses the work of several post-liberal theorists who maintain that ecological constraints will create a legitimation crisis for liberal democracy and that an authoritarian state will probably emerge from that crisis. Criticizing these theorists, the article argues that they underestimate the continuing viability of liberal democracy and concludes that a solution to the problem of scarcity can still be found within the theoretical and institutional resources of the liberal democratic tradition.
The Primacy of Politics
Authors: Domínguez Jorge I. , Lindau Juan
Published: March 2007

Before embarking on an analysis of decisions, this article sets out three structural constraints that condition Latin America's foreign policies: (a) the persisting hierarchy of the international system; (b) the countries' low degree of industrialization; and (c) the high centralization of political decision-making The article then sees how these elements are manifested in Cuba's decisions to deploy her forces in Africa (i.e., a great power's policy by a small power), and Mexico's decision to conduct an active policy in Central America. This comparative analysis leads to two general conclusions: (a) the primacy of the presidential center, especially in the field of high politics; and (b) the more centralized and authoritarian the political system, the less likely that foreign policy decisions need satisfy internal political demands. Moreover, the analysis of these decisions indicates an additional but more specific conclusion: the marginality or even absence of economic gains; on the contrary, both countries were ready to incur economic costs.
Federal States and Federal Societies, With Special Reference To Canada
Authors: Smiley Donald
Published: March 2007

This article relates federalism to the evolving paradigm advanced in Canada by Alan Cairns, and more generally by Eric A. Nordlinger in The Autonomy of the Democratic State, which affirms the autonomy of the state from social forces and the considerable capacity of the state authorities to shape those forces. The contradictory society-centered view of federalism as advanced most persuasively by William S. Livingston cannot explain the persistence of this form of government in Australia and the Federal Republic of Germany or the continuing strength and vitality of the Canadian provinces other than Québec. A corollary argument is made that institutional structures do matter, that the way in which power is organized within political systems is an important determinant of the outputs of these systems.
Le "Para-Federalisme" Belge
Authors: Claeys Paul H. , Loeb-Mayer Nicole
Published: March 2007

Le pluralisme en Belgique était garanti par la Constitution et assuré par les mécanismes de la "démocratie de concordance". Quels sont à cet égard les effets directs et indirects de la fédéralisation du pays? Les moyens institutionnels destinés à résoudre les conflits "communautaires" compromettent les équilibres antérieurs. D'autre part, certaines structures sociales unitaires résistent à un processus de fédéralisation qui se traduit par un cloisonnement de la société plus que par une mise en valeur des complémentarités. Le clivage linguistique se prêtera-t-il à une nouvelle "pilarisation" ou bien les antagonismes qu'il suscite ainsi que les réformes destinées à y faire face rendront-ils inapplicable en Belgique le modèle de la "démocratie de concordance"?
Ideologie Territoriale Et Ethnogenese
Authors: Claval Paul
Published: March 2007

Les fondements rationalistes de la pensée sociale sont actuellement remis en cause dans de nombreuses sociétés industrielles. Cette remise en cause nous permet de mieux saisir l'importance que joue l'idéologie spatiale lorsqu'une culture cherche l'équilibre entre l'universalisme dont se réclame une bonne partie de la société occidentale et le culturalisme qui, des nationalismes du 19e siècle, mène aux régionalismes des années 1970-1980.