bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The impact of a change in information representation and a change in the amount of information on decision performance*
Authors: Ghani Jawaid , Lusk Edward J.
Published: December 2019

Using elements from the human information processing frameworks proposed by Kochen, and Simon and Newell, environmental complexity and individual differences were examined in a laboratory experiment where individuals were required to abstract specific information as well as to perceive complex relationships among the information over time. Environmental complexity was induced by modifying the report formats and increasing the amount of information provided to decision makers. Individual differences were measured by the Group Embedded Figures Test and the Myers–Briggs Type Indicator. The results of the study were that (1) the subjects indicated a strong preference for the information representation they used initially even after having seen and understood or used an alternative representation, (2) after an increase in information or an increase in information and a change in representation an initial deterioration in performance resulted, (3) the popular notion that graphics are catagorically superior to tables is not supported either by the literature or this study, and (4) individual differences did not account for performance differences.
Perspectives on high technology
Authors: LaPlaca Peter J.
Published: December 2019

High technology can be viewed as the application of science for human benefit. It encompasses electronics, genetics, optics, metallurgy, and many other aspects of science. High technology product development takes place along the three dimensions of product, market, and technology. Successful introduction of high technology requires integration among all three dimensions.
Social impact of automation: Some specific problems of LDCs
Authors: Paula Filho Wilson de Pádua , Luna Henrique Pacca Loureiro
Published: December 2019

The impact of automation in LDCs is discussed, with emphasis on specificities related to their phase of development. It is claimed that social counterpressures that have, in developed countries, softened the impact of automation, are absent in LDCs. The location of decision centers outside these countries is considered a major difficulty. Therefore, the pace of automation in LDCs must be regulated by their governments, in order to cushion effects on strategic dependence, unemployment, and others. Some degree of domestic development of technology is viewed as a necessary step in this direction.
Architectural thinking and some aspects of technical creativity
Authors: Manolescu G.
Published: December 2019

We are largely surrounded by and included in increasingly complex technical systems. These systems often border on the absurd even though they rely on logical and physical forms. This is because they move away from the logical ‘simplicity’ of natural forms. This paper approaches some specific aspects of technical products, i.e. those connected to their formative structure. M. Draganescu emphasized that the aesthetics and the functions of a product are determined by the consonance between the formative structure and the natural structure, and called this ‘architectural thinking’. As an example, consider the well-known ‘golden number’ found both in natural crystals and in artistic and technical products such as the Parthenon. Two questions which this paper addresses are: What is a formative structure? How can the consonance, or harmony, between such a structure and that of a ‘natural’ one be approached?
Decision support systems – dawn or twilight for management science?
Authors: Carlsson Christer
Published: December 2019

Decision support systems (DSS) is a movement aimed at ‘improving the performance of knowledge workers in organizations through the application of information technology’ as stated in one definition. But ‘improving the performance of knowledge workers’ is a field management scientists know something about. Is the information technology now moving into this field, and are the computer enthusiasts establishing a hegemony in our age-old hunting grounds? Yes, and it is even worse – DSS is moving into the boardrooms and the offices of CEOs, and providing the company's top decision makers with computer support … for planning and decision making: “executive support is a system that achieves a coupling of an individual's intellectual resources with those of the machine”. Is, then, the doctrine and the methodology of management science becoming obsolete? Is this the twilight for management science? No, but probably the dawn of a new paradigm!
Austro-Keynesianism – Psychology-supported business cycle-policy
Authors: Tichy Günther
Published: December 2019

In the last two decades, Austria developed a new design of business cycle policy. It starts from the radical, institutionalist Keynesian tradition, emphasizing uncertainty and the incompleteness of price signals for entrepreneurs' investment decisions as causes of deep-rooted instability. So demand management in the fiscalist's tradition is considered insufficient. Contrary to radical Keynesianism, however, Austro-Keynesianism tries to overcome this defect by market-oriented instruments: reduction of the instability by continuity in economic policy, by attempts to make the most important data for entrepreneurial decisions foreseeable, direct reduction of risk and ways to fight inflation, which do not endanger full employment. Much weight is put on a new assignation of instruments to goals, according to the problems of small open economies and to psychological factors.
The future of AI and human flexibility*
Authors: Kochen Manfred
Published: December 2019

A sample of alternate futures of AI is used to illustrate a fruitful approach to meta-AI. At least two important issues generated by progress in AI require analysis. One is the trade-off between building an AI dedicated to a specialized, well-defined domain of problems, at which it excels, and building a flexible AI that can reprogram itself quickly to cope with a variety of unanticipated new tasks. Another central issue concerns the role and value of being human in the face of pressing change of the kind believed to be engendered by AI.
Work organization design in Sweden: Some impressions from 1982–83 (+ Commentary by S. Aguren)
Authors: Kolodny Harvey F.
Published: December 2019

The technology of small batch production in Sweden is changing dramatically and with it has come a range of innovations in the organization of work. Flexibility objectives are driving the changes. They generally result in smaller, more responsive, product focusssed units based on re-organized material handling, faster product throughput times and partly unmanned manufacturing. Cycle times and the individual differences of workers are being reassessed. While Sweden has legislated participation in the workplace, it works less well than most had hoped. The prospects for developing high commitment work designs are also not very optimistic as Sweden continues to accomplish its successful organizational work innovations through the pragmatic orientation of its industrial engineers. This apparent reluctance to involve workers gives long term cause for concern, but in the short run the accomplishments of Sweden's engineering infrastructure are impressive. Sweden continues to provide leadership in work organization designs on the factory floor.
Adapting performance appraisal systems to changed technologies
Authors: Oliver John E. , Nussbaumer Chris , Grimmett David R.
Published: December 2019

As organizations adapt to changes in technology, the management systems of the organization change. The organization design and job designs change, moving toward a more hierarchic organization design with simplified, routine jobs requiring less responsibility and learning, or toward a more professional organization design with technical or professional knowledge acquisition, or toward a more entrepreneurial organization design with individual autonomy in goal setting and achievement, or toward a more group oriented organization design where responsibility and learning are shared to enhance performance. As these changes occur, the performance appraisal and reward systems of organizations adapt to suit the unique needs of the new organization and job designs. This study indicates that the four work designs require different performance criteria, unique measures of performance, appropriate communication processes, and congruent forms and procedures.
Technology and the financial institutions industry: Evolution of electronic fund transfer systems*
Authors: Arshadi Nasser
Published: December 2019

This paper presents a discussion on the new environment for retail banking under the influence of changing regulatory structure, advances in technology, and shift in consumer demand for financial services. It is argued that the Electronic Fund Transfer Systems (EFTS) play a substantially different role than the past. In the previous period, the absence of price competition in the financial services industry, the early stage of technological development, and resistance of customers towards EFT systems, limited their usage only to a social strata which was younger, more educated and had an above average income. For this group, EFTS was a non-price, convenient device that Financial institutions offered them. EFTS plays an important role in the new environment. Its cost cutting possibilities will enable institutions to provide low priced services. Its telemation provides services at more convenient times and places to consumers. Its homogenization of financial services leads the participating firms in the industry towards a more comprehensive multi-purpose financial firm. The evolution of EFTS also has numerous security and human resource implications.
Reassessing technological choices
Authors: Heller Frank A.
Published: December 2019

Some modern technology has made work less meaningful for large numbers of people; it has reduced freedom of choice for both managers and employees and imposed inappropriate decisions on organizations. At the same time, technological advances can be beneficial and make work less onerous and more flexible. The paper will illustrate positive as well as negative aspects of changes in technology by stressing the existence of choice through the use of socio-technical thinking in two case examples. Appropriate choices can lead to greater work autonomy and improved utilization of human competence.
Statistical investigation of robot performance specifications
Authors: Schlesinger Robert J. , Imany Mohammad M.
Published: December 2019

The technical manager attempting to evaluate robot performance from published specification data faces an increasingly complex decision problem. This problem complexity results from the nonuniformity of robot parameter data due to lack of standards and the rapid technological changes taking place in robotics. An evaluation of the currently available data base of robot specifications is presented and a statistical approach to evaluating the potential impact of trade-offs of performance requirements is presented. An example using four robot parameters – repeatability, velocity, degrees of freedom, and lifting capacity – is given.
On human systems management: An emerging paradigm
Authors: Zeleny Milan
Published: December 2019

In this short paper we summarize how a new paradigm of management – human systems management – emerges naturally from the spontaneous dynamics of the ongoing processes of division of labor, division of knowledge, high technology, and systems thinking. The paper concludes by identifying the shift from a ‘systems-coordinative’ paradigm to the requisite ‘systems integrative’ paradigm.
The role of human resources in the computerized factory
Authors: Gerwin Donald , Sorge Arndt , Warner Malcolm
Published: December 2019

We challenge the appropriateness and feasibility of a wholesale substitution of computerized automation for human resources in the factory of the future. Employees will exert greater influence than ever before because of the complexity, cost and critical role of the equipment with which they work. Tills view is supported through examples of the significance of human inputs in almost every level and function of the automated factory including management, the work force, and staff and service occupations. The truly effective computerized factory will consist of a well balanced interaction of human and technical elements.
Programmable automation and the skill question: A reinterpretation of the cross-national evidence*
Authors: Kelley Maryellen R.
Published: December 2019

In this paper, the author re-examines the cross-national case study evidence from her own and others' research on management's job design practices when using programmable automation (PA) technologies to automate the machining process. She finds that there is no over-riding pattern of deskilling. Neither is there much evidence to support the opposing notion of a general tendency toward skill-upgrading. Differences in the skill and authority structure of production jobs associated with the introduction of PA seem to be explainable by a number of factors: the form of the technology adopted, industrial relations systems, the experience of unexpected technical and logistical problems with the technology, and the pre-existing form of work organization. Finally, the author concludes by proposing a typology to explain the observed case study differences in management approaches to the design of jobs. Three policies, or strategic approaches to the utilization of human resources are evident – scientific management, technocentric participative, and worker-centered participative. Each carries different implications for the skill structure of production jobs, for exploiting the technology's flexibility, and for the risks posed in the long term for the development of the technology. This typology provides a useful schema for comparison with other analyses of management strategy that focus on the organization of work and labor relations.
Human-resources implications of new technology*
Authors: Warner Malcolm
Published: December 2019

This paper puts forward a set of empirical propositions relating to technology, skills, and training. It attempts to link them together to point to a general theory of work-organization, by seeing how skill-needs are changing and leading to a new occupational profile in the enterprise. The implications for training, selection and recruitment are then explored.
Managing the environment: Strategies for executives in human service organizations
Authors: Schmid Hillel
Published: December 2019

This paper delineates strategies for executies in human service organizations, which enable them to effectively manage the turbulent environment in which the organizations act. The administrative strategies are derived from a conceptual framework of organization-environment relations, and are intended to present executives with an overall scheme of the various linkages. Based on this framework, the paper suggests ways for executives to learn, scan and map the opportunities and risks inherent in the environment.
Management support systems: Towards integrated knowledge management
Authors: Zeleny Milan
Published: December 2019

Humans do not apply formalistic scaffolds of fixed rules of ‘knowledge’ to integrate the a priori given objective world of data ‘out there’: they do not compute the world. Regardless of some ‘knowledge’-modeling assumptions, just the opposite is true: humans use their subjectively perceived world of turbulent circumstances to bring forth (create, recreate and adapt), again and again, knowledge as an autopoietic network of relations through which they coordinate their actions. Such knowledge brings (through language) coherence and coordination to the otherwise turbulent and chaotic world of human action. Knowledge is not ‘processing of information’ but a coordination of action. As a consequence, any management support system (DSS, AI, ES, etc.) claiming knowledge as its purpose or its base, cannot be of the symbolic computation type à la Simon.
Uncovering some paths in the Japanese management theory jungle
Authors: Shenkar Oded
Published: December 2019

Various explanations have been advanced to account for the Japanese managerial success. Most of these explanations, however, entail a segmentary view of Japanese management, highlighting a particular managerial or environmental factor while disregarding the intricate interdependencies among Japanese managerial principles and environmental variables. The present paper represents an attempt to analyze some of these relationships. Implications for the transferability of the Japanese model are proposed.
Rule regimes and backstage processes: Organizing production and justice*
Authors: Tropea Joseph L. , Sterniczuk Henryk
Published: December 2019

This article argues that ‘backstage’ processes and rules are deep-seated organizational phenomena. They provide guides for organizational actors who, in ‘real-life’ situations, face dilemmas in implementing official rule regimes. Cases from Polish industry and criminal justice systems in the United States provide a comparative approach in illustrating how these backstage processes – socio-political and negotiated exchange – overcome the rule-imposed dilemmas of bounded rationality and insufficient exclusivity.
A metasystemic view of a disaster: Example of the Space Shuttle Challenger failure
Authors: van Gigch John P. , Borghino J.A. , Le Moigne J.F. , Logan A.R. , Vervilos V.
Published: December 2019

This paper summarizes a portion of reports written by members of a graduate seminar in Complex Systems Design whose assignment was to study the Space Shuttle Challenger disaster as a system failure. This article follows another report recently published in HSM (6(4), (1986)), where the connection between image and technology was used to provide another perspective of the Challenger accident and system failure.
Improvement of Productivity Versus Humanity
Authors: Kondo Yoshio
Published: December 2019

Improvement in business productivity is always desired. This social trend will become more severe in the decades to come. In contrast to the Taylor system of the past, future improvement in productivity will be achieved by making the most of the human nature of workers. The present wide-spread QC circle activities are seen as a symptom of the growing participate management. For the development of management of this type a basic concept of human-oriented management and a new leadership of managers are sought. This concept and leadership should be worthy of employees' support.
The Process Approach to Organizational Design
Authors: Mackenzie Kenneth D.
Published: December 2019

Organizations should be viewed less as static entities and more as a set of processes to become something else. The process approach for designing organizations to become more productive, adaptable and efficiently adaptable focusses on these many processes in order to derive the Organizational Architecture. The process approach emphasizes how things occur and avoids teleological reasoning whenever possible. A process is a time dependent sequence of elements governed by a rule called a process law. Because organizations engage in a wide variety of processes, understanding what these processes are and how they combine allows an analyst to better understand how the organization operates. This paper provides a tutorial on process thinking which is illustrated by the research of the author and his colleagues. It also introduces the concept of combined congruency and explains how to use this concept in the Organizational Audit and Analysis technology for organizational design.
Epistemological Sources of New Business Problems in the International Evironment
Authors: Maruyama Magoroh
Published: December 2019

The business environment is becoming increasingly international, involving cultural and epistemological differences. Recent business problems require new ways of analysis. Mindscape theory is used in analyzing the American failure to increase export, agricultural policy failure in Japan, unsuccessful American attempts at creating Japanese-style general trading companies, many firms' tendency to reverse their management principles when operating in foreign countries, and new aspects of qualitative methodology.
The Current State of Multiple Criteria Decision Support Systems
Authors: Eom Hyun B.
Published: December 2019

This research examines the current state of multiple criteria decision making (MCDM) model-embedded decision support systems (MCDSS). A comprehensive bibliography of 203 specific DSS applications was extracted from over 1100 English-language journals published in the last 18 years (1971–April 1988). The survey identified 26 MCDM model-embedded DSS (13% of the 203 DSS applications). Approximately 30% of the MCDSS applications (8 out of 26 applications) were developed to support strategic decisions; about 70% support tactical and operational levels of decisions. The integration pattern over the last two decades was also analysed. During the 1970s only two MCDM model-embedded DSS were developed; however, the number of MCDSS models has increased proportionately during the 1980s.
The Cash Value of Confucian Values*
Authors: Bond Michael Harris , Hofstede Geert
Published: December 2019

This is a short paper intended to summarize a line of research that we have been pursuing separately and together for the last two decades. Given the scope of the project, we propose only to adumbrate the issues and findings, pointing the interested reader to the appropriate references.
Managing Technological Transfer with Korea as a Catalyst
Authors: Kim Youn-Suk
Published: December 2019

Criticism of imported technology from industrial countries (Ics) has centered on the problem of absorption, since most developing countries (Dcs) are unprepared to accomodate the modern technology of Ics. The technology of Ics tends to be in physical-capital-abundant and human-capital-abundant design. Dcs need a different type of technology, because they tend to have abundant unskilled labor and little physical or human capital. The appropriate technology in such situation is labor intensive and small scale. Korea industrialized through labor intensive and small scale technology can play a role as a catalyst in international technological transfer series between Ics and Dcs. Thus the policies of Dcs must stress suitable technologies for their workers, if they are to escape the present crippling patterns of world trade.
Impediments to the Proliferation of Electronic Mail: A Study from the User's Perspective
Authors: Pliskin Nava , Ball Leslie D. , Curley Kathleen Foley
Published: December 2019

Proliferation of electronic mail is limited despite cost and time advantages over other forms of communication. This study identifies, from the users' perspective, non-technical factors that must be addressed before electronic mail can realize its potential as a cost effective and efficient communication tool. Two of the human implementation factors identified as most influential in discouraging the use of electronic mail are directory assistance and the small number of E-mail counterparts among colleagues. Thus, the communication efficiency suffers not necessarily because electronic mail fails to perform, but because of human implementation factors.
Soft Systems Methodology*
Authors: Checkland Peter B.
Published: December 2019

One of the intellectual legacies of the 50s and 60s was the approach to tackling real-world problems embodied in such methodologies as Systems Engineering and RAND Corporation Systems Analysis. Such methodology entails a search for the best means to achieve an end defined as desirable. In a programme of collaborative research undertaken in real problem situations, such an approach was found inadequate when faced with obscure objectives and multiple legitimate viewpoints. The alternative which emerged, Soft Systems Methodology, SSM, uses models of purposeful activity systems to set up a debate about change and learns its way to changes which would be both (systematically) desirable and (culturally) feasible. The shift from a paradigm of optimizing to one of learning marks the new systems thinking of the 70s and 80s the emergence and nature of SSM as described.
The Stable Long-term Employment System of Japan: A Microeconomic Perspective*
Authors: Hiwaki Kensei
Published: December 2019

This article attempts to provide an argument for a new perspective as regards the Japanese stable long-term employment system (abbreviated as the SLES). The most important factor and vehicle of the present argument is the time-preference rate of the average worker in the ‘communal firm’. A gradual change downward of his time-preference rate is assumed to be induced by the very nature of the SLES, given a high growth trend in demand for the firm's products. In other words, implicit assurance of long-term employment by itself may encourage the worker to plan for a longer span of time than otherwise. This change in time-preference rate is most likely to induce an increase in the ‘communal saving’. The ‘saving’ partially comprising the labor's ‘interest subsidy’ tends to escalate the firm's capital formation. Attempting to introduce the new perspective, the present article is basically theory-oriented.
Different Epistemologies Beneath Similar Methods: The Case of Causal Loop Thinkers
Authors: Maruyama Magoroh
Published: December 2019

Causal loop thinkers are found scattered in several fields. Many of the researchers in the following three fields are causal loop thinkers: (1) General Systems Theories; (2) Operations Research and Management Science; (3) System Dynamics. Within each of these three clusters, there are subclusters. Epistemological differences exist among clusters as well as among subclusters. Conceptual cross-fertilization is rare but desirable. Treatment of heterogeneity varies from cluster to cluster and from a subcluster to another, but is absent among most of the causal loop thinkes.
Chaos and the Dynamics of Self-Organisation
Authors: Zuijderhoudt Robert W.L.
Published: December 2019

The relatively new understanding of self-organisation completely outranks the importance of the classical cybernetic principles (cybernetics) on which most of the science of change was based. After more than ten years' experience of looking through the spectacles of self-organisation, we may say that we will regard the processes of change in a completely different light. There appear to be major similarities, whether they occur in individual people, in groups, in organisations or at a social level. We may make a clear distinction between developments which pass off gradually and in a controlled manner on the one hand and changes on the other. The latter are discontinuous and entail a temporary period of some chaos. We have learned how patterns are broken up and replaced by new ones. We understand how and why a distribution of tasks and a hierarchy arise in complex processes and how these are determinative for the form and structure of organisations. We understand why rigidity and stagnation arise where there are no adequate conditions for self-organisation.
Boundary Management: A Dynamic Balance Between Rules and Space
Authors: Feijen M.H.P.F.
Published: December 2019

It is striking that in my practical experience, in the end the concept ‘Boundary Management’ first of all relates to intrapersonal and interpersonal boundaries. Aversion, defence mechanisms, fear, etc. are aspects which play an important part here. In my opinion the possibility of steering and influencing the processes is overrated. Things just go the way they go. The only task left for the managers is to keep relations inside and outside the organization open. That precludes neurotic behaviour in organizations. The way to achieve that is to keep everything open to discussion and to appeal to the own strength. The solution to organizational problems lies with the managers and the employees themselves. The consultant can only act as a catalyst in the, sometimes arduous, discussions about each others performance. I will also outline a few simple models, or rather metaphors which I use in my consultancy activities. Simple, making them recognizable for everyone in an organization. But tricky to use them in a disciplined manner. There is nothing new under the sun – for me neither. The only thing is that now and then I look at reality in a different manner, both in practice and in theory development. It makes the world of organizations habitable, understandable and, in the most favourable case, enjoyable and successful. And in this respect everyone chooses his own view of reality.
Evaluating the Investment in Knowledge-Based Systems
Authors: Lin Binshan
Published: December 2019

The main purpose of this paper is to draw attention to some fundamental issues of evaluating the investment in knowledge-based systems. Four perspectives ar identified as interesting: (1) creating knowledge assets, (2) organizational control, (3) risk management, and (4) form analysis. Attention is focused on how and why they might contribute to successful development of knowledge systems in organizations. This paper reinforces the preponderance of managerial and organization-related issues over technological issues as the major barrier to effective use of knowledge-based systems.
Complexity and Cognitive Equilibrium: Experimental Results and Their Implications1
Authors: Warfield John N.
Published: December 2019

During the past decade, numerous data have been collected and analyzed relating to group performance in organizing knowledge for decision-making purposes. These data reveal results that have been viewed as surprising by scholars. Generally speaking, the data provide new insights into necessary conditions for groups to arrive at cognitive equilibrium in relation to complex issues. The data further provide insights that show how poorly past conceptualizations related to group activity have been conceived; and especially the inadequacy (and sometimes the irrelevancy) of the assumptions that have justified past approaches to group activity. When these experimental results and their interpretations are combined with prior research results of Bales, Tuckman, Miller, Simon, Argyris, Janis, and others; a new paradigm for people working together on complex issues emerges in clear perspective.
The Role of Profound Knowledge in the Continual Improvement of Quality
Authors: Anderson John C. , Dooley Kevin J. , Misterek Susan D.A.
Published: December 2019

Profound knowledge, as espoused by W. Edwards Deming, is a much-needed and sought-after element in the workings of continual improvement within business organizations. This paper explores the concept of profound knowledge, first by seeing how Deming's use of the term interacts with concepts behind his 14 points to management, and then by expanding the concept of profound knowledge to a broader perspective. Profound knowledge is presented as the requisite intelligence needed to implement the scientific method, or the PDSA cycle, for continual improvement of quality. The paper draws upon the fields of cognitive psychology, statistical and scientific theory, organizational behavior and theory, and systems theory in forming its conclusions.
Human Resource Accounting is Social Accounting: A Managerial Reappraisal*
Authors: Filios Vassilios P.
Published: December 2019

It has often been argued that social accounting has been a new dimension of the science of accounting. This paper shows that social accounting has been a natural development of human resource accounting. It examines, therefore, the societal utilisation of corporate human resources from an accounting point of view; it describes the underutilised so far concept of human capital budgeting; it analyses the major problems (of social, mainly, nature) in implementing human resource accounting systems and eventually it synthesizes all the above towards a revival of human resource accounting interest for a more managerial utilisation of its recent developments.
The Importance of Metaethics*+
Authors: van Gigch John P.
Published: December 2019

System Design consists of modeling and of metamodeling. The relationship between these two aspects of System Design is explained. We apply metamodeling to Value Systems and show the relationship which exists between ethics and metaethics. Whereas ethics takes place in the inquiring system at the object level, metaethics is generated in the inquiring system at the metalevel. This framework is used to model and metamodel Environmental Ethics and to discuss the Ethics and Metaethics of Conservation.
Multilevel Ethics of Conservation*
Authors: van Gigch John P. , Roswall Jan
Published: December 2019

The System and Metasystem Approach are applied to the Problem of Conservation Ethics. The cultural and historical heritage is affected by detrimental and spillover impacts which originate in business and industrial systems, as well as by decisions taken by public and private enterprises. These entities will have to be included in the Conservation System if we are to harbor any hope of reversing current trends of damage and of deterioration to natural and cultural heritages. The Conservation Ethic must encompass not only the cultural/historical heritage but also the natural/biological heritage. The latter involves the conservation of natural resources, energy, and, in general, the preservation of all environments on the planet Earth. Unless Conservation becomes an issue which pervades decision making of natural/biological, as well as cultural/historical resources, no progress will be made in efforts to modify the current Ethos which guides this planet's decision-making forces. As a start toward meeting this objective, the value concepts which underlie the Conservation Ethic must be enlarged and operationalized. It is argued that the level of abstraction of the concepts of historical and cultural heritage must be lowered in order to operationalize them. They must be translated into concepts which can be used to calculate how much Conservation is worth and how much it costs to organizations. Decision makers understand ‘economic language’ better than ‘moral language’.
A Sociological Process Model of Organ Transplantation
Authors: Machado des Johansson Nora
Published: December 2019

The paper presents a methodology for modelling complex organizational processes, enabling one to specify and to examine the complex linkages between multiple social actors, different action settings, phases and types of activity, and social rules that structure and regulate the activities. The paper applies the methodology to organ transplantation in a modern high-tech medical system. It identifies several key social rules including medical norms and public laws that are applied in concrete decision and activity settings. Important details of the organ transplantation process are represented in a flowchart model, showing key actors, action settings, choices and operations in the process.
Lessons from Japanese Management Failures in Foreign Countries
Authors: Maruyama Magoroh
Published: December 2019

Many of the Japanese firms are poor at management adaptation in foreign countries and have lost talented foreign employees. A considerable percentage of American managers in foreign posts have low capacity for cultural adaptation and lose themselves or able local employees. This article gives concrete examples of Japanese failures, in which Americans can recognize their weaknesses and strengths.
Leadership and the Power Circle*
Authors: Schultz Marian C.
Published: December 2019

The focus of this paper is the situational impact of power and how it influences leadership effectiveness. The ‘Power Circle’ concept is utilized to depict an individual's power configuration in a given situation. To be totally cognizant of one's ability to act in a contingency, an individual must be aware of and utilize those particular power bases in which he or she is situationally strong. Someone's power base may change according to the needs of the situation. An individual must constantly be aware that changes can and will occur. Additionally, the ability to achieve power effectiveness in a given situation enhances one's future power potential in similar situations.
Business Challenges in Industrial Production
Authors: Westkämper E.
Published: December 2019

Production is the foundation of value addition in industry. Technical developments in the economic centres of the world and above all within the Triad, the economic territories of Europe, the United States and Japan, have brought about prosperity and freedom of movement. On closer inspection of these economic territories, we state that there are considerable changes regarding their position in competition, the reasons for which are not to be found in the different cultural and basic conditions, but are due to the methods of industrial production and newer methods of organization. Far Eastern enterprises have clearly better positions in competition, particularly compared to European enterprises. Changes in production engineering due to new technologies also always effect our work. At the moment, electronics has a structure-changing influence. Never before have we been able to process information and accelerate production handling so fast as is possible today. The computer-controlled production releases new potentials and opens up new paths for the design of flexible and autonomous production concepts which in joint condition can be applied European-wide. If a linkage of these production concepts with the methodical approaches of an optimized production can be realized successfully, high efficiency reserves will be activated. Computer-controlled production also demands an adaptation to the different requirements of people. As it was possible in the past to achieve compatibility of labour and technology, there have to be possibilities in the future to harmonize production with environment.
Total Quality Concepts
Authors: Wyatt Mike
Published: December 2019

Much has already been written and spoken on the concepts of total quality, and how they might be applied to a particular business. This paper will focus on the development of these concepts and their application to the improvement of the performance of total supply and distribution chains. The paper will emphasise the practical aspects of total quality in order to make rapid change happen – and then to make it stick.
Open EDI for Multi-Supplier Operations in the Automotive Industry
Authors: Schaber Wolfgang
Published: December 2019

In this paper the CMSO approach of analysing, modelling and supporting interorganisational manufacturer/supplier operations in the automotive industry is presented. Starting from a global point of view the CMSO model of logistics chains is defined, and the requirements for intelligent and open communications between organisations are discussed. The CMSO-Box concept, a powerful means for implementing open EDI, is introduced by presenting two significant open business communication scenarios. Finally the CMSO EDI reference model and a brief outline of the general system architecture on which the CMSO-Boxes are technically based are presented.
Critical Look at the Baldrige Award
Authors: Dimitroff Gail R.
Published: December 2019

In 1987, the U.S. Congress established the Baldrige Award. Since that time, the award has triggered much interest, however, many believe it has become over-exaggerated in its importance. It is clear that no other award has attained comparable status – so much that it is being copied by other countries including Mexico. In this issue are the pros and cons of the national award. Some noted quality Gurus have pointed to the inherent dangers of “prize fever”. Philip Crosby has said, “Like most government programs, the Baldrige will have the opposite effect to the one intended”. The most strident criticism comes from W. Edwards Deming who sees the award as a forced method of striving for goals instead of improvement. Jerry Main agrees that there are problems. “The award isn't perfect, takes loads of time and money to apply for, and won't solve all of a company's problems. Beware of a focus on winning, instead of on quality”. Curt Reiman, the award administrator, agrees that there are problems but industry must be clear about what is and what is not the process. He points out applicants must demonstrate that they meet certain very specific criteria set up by the National Institute of Standards and Technology.
Reflections on the Role of Business in Educational Reform
Authors: Nodoushani Omid
Published: December 2019

Recently, business, government, and educational leaders across America have sounded the alarm over what has been called the education crisis. In this essay I will suggest that we need to rethink the meaning of professional education, and in this rethinking effort, we should be aware of the crucial role that schools of business could play in reviving the professions and corporate America.
Telework at Home: The Home and the Organization Perspective
Authors: Richter Judith , Meshulam Illan
Published: December 2019

The rapid development of telecommunication devices during the last decade has afforded organizations the option of employing salaried workers who are located at their own homes. The focus of this paper is on the daily challenges faced both at home and in the organizational arenas. First, the domain of the worker and his family is explored via the issues of blurring the boundaries between professional and private life. Then a system's approach model, integrating the different components involved in the proper application of telework at the organizational setting is described. These components include the tasks, rewards system, people, structure, processes and organizational culture leading to the practical implementation of telework.
Max Weber, Bloc Buster from the Past?
Authors: Shrader Rodney C.
Published: December 2019

Fundamental principles from Schumpeter's Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy (1942), and Weber's The Theory of Social and Economic Development (1921) are offered as frameworks within which to examine the current status of emerging free market economies in Central Europe. This examination suggests that entrepreneurs and small businesses may be key ingredients to the successful unfreezing of these recently socialist markets, and while much progress has been made to facilitate free markets, many obstacles remain.
Flaws and Remedies in Corporatisation and Privatisation1
Authors: Turnbull Shann
Published: December 2019

This paper analyses the inherent operational defects of centrally controlled hierarchies which are common to both the public and private sectors in Anglo-Saxon corporate architecture and suggests how these defects may be ameliorated. The defects arise from the use of unitary boards which introduce conflicts of interest for directors and reduces both their ability and incentive to improve operational performance. The use of supervisory boards and stakeholder councils to decentralise control, provides a basis for improving the operational performance of directors and their organisation. Also, stakeholder participation provides a way to convert ‘open’ hierarchies into several decentralised ‘closed loop’ information and control systems to improve operating performance. Practical examples are found in Japanese keiretsu firms, the employee/consumer co-operatives found around the town of Mondragón in Spain and in the governance of the Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Commission. This paper considers the opportunities for public and private sector organisations using Anglo-Saxon corporate architecture to improve their performance, social accountability and competitiveness by introducing stakeholder governance.
Democratic Capitalism: Self-Financing Local Ownership and Control*
Authors: Turnbull Shann
Published: December 2019

The paper argues that Eastern European countries should adopt the bottom-up reforms so successfully being implemented in the PRC which are concurrently producing rapid economic growth. The paper reviews why the existing forms of capitalism does not provide a suitable role model because of its unequitable, inefficient and corrupt features. Techniques for gradually reforming either socialist or capitalist economies are suggested through the adoption of dynamic stakeholder property rights and decentralised banking. Institutional arrangements are described which would allow economic development to be internally financed and at the same time provide local ownership and control by stakeholders. It is recommended that the World Bank change its business from distributing credits to distributing the knowledge of self-financing development processes. The introduction of a World Corporate Code is also recommended to facilitate locally owned democratic sustainable development.
A New Mixture of Management Skills: Meeting the High-Technology Managerial Challenges
Authors: Shenhar Aaron J. , Thamhain Hans J.
Published: December 2019

This paper suggests a new model for analyzing the issue of management skills in modern organizations. The model is an update development of R. Katz's classical framework of 1955, and it attempts to surmount several ambiguities and limitations existing in Katz's early model. This update is particularly relevant in high technology organizations where managers are often faced with changing technologies that have a direct impact on both operational and strategic decisions. The approach presented here is then used to discuss the managerial transformations in today's organizations from the first level of management to the middle level, and then to the top level. Further questions addressed are related to management skill development and managerial obsolescence in high technology organizations.
Government Policy for Firm-Specific Efficiency
Authors: Gong Byeong-Ho
Published: December 2019

To overcome the rapid decline in the competitive edge of Korean products, a new industrial policy which beefs up firm-specific efficiency of the Jaebul was introduced as of June 1, 1991. To evaluate the effectiveness of this ‘specialization’ policy, which regulates the diversification of the Jaebul, this paper measures the firm-specific efficiency of Korean firms using DEA models. The paper concludes that in 24 among 34 sectors the subsidiaries of the Jaebul are operating more efficiently than independent firms.
Japan's Technology Policy and the United States
Authors: Kim Youn-Suk
Published: December 2019

The complexity and the dynamic nature of technology relations between Japan and the United States have been complicated as the industrial weakness of the United States has been exposed by its massive, continuing trade deficits. Throughout the postwar years, the Japanese government has been active in establishing an industrial policy by absorbing imported technology into its thriving industrialization. This served Japanese educational system well as a supplier of a highly skilled labor force for its industries.
Financial Liberalization and Asset Market Behavior*
Authors: Oh Kap-Soo
Published: December 2019

Financial liberalization by the government and associated innovations by the private sector have had profound effects on the financial system of industrial countries. Greater competition in financial services has led to a more efficient financial system and has contributed to a more efficient allocation of financial resources. In general, asset prices provide a more accurate signal for efficient capital allocation. A more competitive financial market structure has contributed to efficiency and also has greatly expanded financial opportunities for consumers and firms. Although volatility has increased for some financial and macroeconomic variables, the macroeconomic system as a whole has shown long-run stability. The rapid growth of market priced financial assets has blurred the distinction between money and other assets. As a result, interest rates have been increasingly emphasized as a policy tool. However, the relation between interest rates and economic activity appears to have weakened.