Statistical forecasting—The state of the art

A survey is given of the state of the art of statistical forecasting as it exists in practice. The survey covers:

1. (a) the types of model in use

2. (b) the ways these models are used to obtain forecasts

3. (c) how the forecasts may be adapted or adjusted for effective practical use

4. (d) how forecasts are analysed and controlled

5. (e) how they are applied.

     

Pioneering Process Research: Andrew Pettigrew's Contribution to Management Scholarship, 1962–2014

This paper assesses Andrew Pettigrew's contribution to management scholarship. This review addresses the process, content, and context of his research career. Chronologically, the process will be subdivided into three distinct phases: the period leading up to the establishment of the Centre for Corporate Strategy and Change, Pettigrew's time with the Centre, and Pettigrew's research since leaving the Centre. The content of Pettigrew's research focussed on big problems and emerging phenomena such as decision‐making, organisational culture, organisation development, strategic change, human resource management, competitiveness, new public management, boards of directors, innovative forms of organising, high‐performing research teams, and business schools. His contextualist methodology for process research will be explicated. Pettigrew's contribution will be contextualised by comparing it with contemporary research. The paper concludes that there is still a need not only to examine big problems and emerging phenomena but also to provide a processual understanding of management reality. There is a need to further develop process research methodologies such as Pettigrew's contextualism, especially with respect to process research methods.     

Swedish industrial policy planning— A workshop report, Stockholm, 6–7 March 1980

The Society for Long Range Planning is one of six European member societies of EPLAF, the European Planning Federation. The recent discussions in Stockholm arranged by SORA, the Swedish Operations Research Association, proved to be of great interest when set against the European scene, and the U.K. delegates were able to contribute in full measure to the discussions which interspersed the formal presentations given by speakers representing Swedish organizations and closely involved in various aspects of industrial policy making.     

Operations management – from Taylor to Toyota – and Beyond?

This paper sets out to review past and current research in operations management, and to explore current and future issues facing the area. It reviews the history of the area, and the patterns of research content and type. It reviews the evolution of lean production connecting the work of Taylor to its development at Toyota, and uses this to propose three key elements of operations management in the 1990s, namely, the core, interfaces and convergence. Current issues relating to research in operations management are explored and it is argued that there is a need for aggressive research agendas. Finally, possible future agendas for the area are explored.     

Engineering or metal-bashing?—Changing the image

This paper is concerned with the image of two large engineering firms, both based in the UK, but with global ambitions rapidly being realized. In both cases, the firm's image had conveyed the impression of a Midland's ‘metal-basher’, a traditional engineering firm manufacturing a wide range of uncomplicated products. In neither case was this image an accurate reflection of the firm's businesses, and in neither case was the image deliberately cultivated. However, in one case senior management saw the metal-bashing image to be so incompatible with global aspirations that it was deliberately expunged. In the other, the same image was deemed less damaging to international aspirations and no specific efforts were made to change it. The paper examines some of the strategic implications of making such a change, and considers some of the lessons that might be derived for organizational change in general. Senior managers in both companies were interviewed over a two-year period and their views are recorded in quotation throughout the paper.     

Children and Gender — Wage Differentials

ABSTRACT: In this paper we present a test of wage discrimination between women and men in Italy, controlling for individual productive characteristics. We emphasise the importance, in empirical tests of wage discrimination, of explicitly modelling the reproductive role of women within the family. We show that ignoring the impact on women wages of the presence of children can seriously bias the results in favour of the hypothesis of wage discrimination. Our results illustrate that a considerable wages gap exists, but that only part of the observed differential can be attributed to pure discrimination; the remainder is explained either by heterogeneous productivity of men and women or by the effect of having children on female human capital formation.