Technology and managing people:

conclusion The Information Age has revolutionized the workplace. While it is possible to purchase or copy machines and technology, their very interchangeability means they fail to cre-ate a sustained competitive advantage for an organization (Barney, 1991). The research directions this paper offers are intended to develop firm knowledge that allows creation of inimitable human resources. Importantly, in the rush to embrace new information technologies, organizations must remember the fundamental principle that workers will invest in firm goals in the presence of shared values and a commitment by the firm to make their well-being a priority. We urge continued attention to fulfillment of the psy-chological contract, and to the "people issues" that frequently seem less critical than issues of hardware or technology.     

Profiles of refugee and non-refugee Palestinians from the West Bank and Gaza

Relying on demographic and labour surveys which the Palestinian Central Bureau of Statistics collected in 1995, this article investigates the profile of West Bank and Gaza refugees. Refugees are better educated and have higher fertility than non-refugee Palestinians, but the difference is small. However, they have a significantly lower participation rate, a higher unemployment rate and a higher incidence of arrests and work stoppage than the corresponding rates among non-refugee Palestinians. A smaller proportion of Palestinians commute to work into the Israeli labour market and refugees earn lower wages than non-refugees. Returns to investment in education are small for both groups. High fertility among refugees imposes a future challenge for policy makers in terms of resources required for the provision of appropriate education and health facilities. Employing future labour market entrants is another serious policy challenge.     

Mapping child maltreatment: looking at neighborhoods in a suburban county

This study used administrative data, census data, and geographic information system (GIS) technology to map and analyze the rates and distribution of child physical abuse, sexual abuse, and neglect at the neighborhood level in a suburban jurisdiction. The results provide an example of how administrative data, census data, and GIS technology can give child protective services and community-based agencies a visual tool to help identify and target neighborhoods in which children may be at high risk for maltreatment.     

Receiving shadows: governance and liminality in the night-time economy

This paper focuses upon the emergence of the night-time economy both materially and culturally as a powerful manifestation of post-industrial society. This emergence features two key processes: firstly a shift in economic development from the industrial to the post-industrial; secondly a significant orientation of urban governance involving a move away from the traditional managerial functions of local service provision, towards an entrepreneurial stance primarily focused on the facilitation of economic growth. Central to this new economic era is the identification and promotion of liminality. The State's apparent inability to control these new leisure zones constitutes the creation of an urban frontier that is governed by commercial imperatives.     

Use of Markov Chain Monte Carlo Analysis with a Physiologically-Based Pharmacokinetic Model of Methylmercury to Estimate Exposures in U.S. Women of Childbearing Age

A Bayesian approach, implemented using Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) analysis, was applied with a physiologically‐based pharmacokinetic (PBPK) model of methylmercury (MeHg) to evaluate the variability of MeHg exposure in women of childbearing age in the U.S. population. The analysis made use of the newly available National Health and Nutrition Survey (NHANES) blood and hair mercury concentration data for women of age 16–49 years (sample size, 1,582). Bayesian analysis was performed to estimate the population variability in MeHg exposure (daily ingestion rate) implied by the variation in blood and hair concentrations of mercury in the NHANES database. The measured variability in the NHANES blood and hair data represents the result of a process that includes interindividual variation in exposure to MeHg and interindividual variation in the pharmacokinetics (distribution, clearance) of MeHg. The PBPK model includes a number of pharmacokinetic parameters (e.g., tissue volumes, partition coefficients, rate constants for metabolism and elimination) that can vary from individual to individual within the subpopulation of interest. Using MCMC analysis, it was possible to combine prior distributions of the PBPK model parameters with the NHANES blood and hair data, as well as with kinetic data from controlled human exposures to MeHg, to derive posterior distributions that refine the estimates of both the population exposure distribution and the pharmacokinetic parameters. In general, based on the populations surveyed by NHANES, the results of the MCMC analysis indicate that a small fraction, less than 1%, of the U.S. population of women of childbearing age may have mercury exposures greater than the EPA RfD for MeHg of 0.1 μg/kgg/day, and that there are few, if any, exposures greater than the ATSDR MRL of 0.3 μgg/kgg/day. The analysis also indicates that typical exposures may be greater than previously estimated from food consumption surveys, but that the variability in exposure within the population of U.S. women of childbearing age may be less than previously assumed.     

Decompositions of λ K v

In a series of 2 papers, Kang, Du and Tian solved the existence problem for G-decomposition of λ K _n when G is any simple graph with 6 vertices and 7 edges, except when G is the graph T=K ₄∪K ₂. Notice that a T-decomposition can be considered to be a Pairwise Balanced Design in which each block of size 4 has been matched to a block of size 2. In this paper we remove this exception for all λ≥2. The case when λ=1 is also addressed. This paper is written in honor of Frank Hwang on the occasion of his 65th birthday.     

A productivity study in a chemical plant

This paper describes a case study in the application of a productivity analysis model in a plant producing industrial gases. Although the process is a relatively simple one, several inputs (labour, electricity, capital and some materials) and several outputs (liquid and gaseous oxygen, gaseous nitrogen, argon and a hydrogen-nitrogen mixture) are involved. The case study demonstrates how measures of total input and total output can be applied and analyses the performance of the plant over a 15-month period in terms of a variety of managerial control ratios.     

"Conflict management" and "conflict resolution" are not synonymous terms

Robbins sees functional conflict as an absolute necessity within organizations and explicitly encourages it. He explains: "Survival can result only when an organization is able to adapt to constant changes in the environment. Adaption is possible only through change, and change is stimulated by conflict." Robbins cites evidence indicating that conflict can be related to increased productivity and that critical thinking encourages well-developed decisions. He admits, however, that not all conflicts are good for the organization. Their functional or dysfunctional nature is determined by the impact of the conflict on the objectives of the organization. The author identifies several factors underlying the need for conflict stimulation: (1) managers who are surrounded by "yes men"; (2) subordinates who are afraid to admit ignorance or uncertainty; (3) decision-makers' excessive concern about hurting the feelings of others; or (4) an environment where new ideas are slow in coming forth. He suggests techniques for stimulating conflict; manipulating the communication channels (i.e., repression of information); changing the organizational structure (i.e., changes in size or position); and altering personal behavior factors (i.e., role incongruence). Robbins stresses that the actual method to be used in either resolving or stimulating conflict must be appropriate to the situation.     

The need for revaluation and assessment of Australian foster care programmes

This is a brief report on one aspect of a programme of applied research, in a large social welfare agency, designed to provide a basis for the evaluation of the policies, activities and structure of the agency.     

Daubert v. Merrell Dow pharmaceuticals: Toward a better relationship between law and science

[Scientists] are neither Gods nor charlatans; they are merely experts, like every other expert on the political stage. They have, of course, their special area of expertise, the physical world, but their knowledge is no more immaculate than that of economists, health policy makers, police officers, legal advocates, weather forecasters, travel agents, car mechanics, or plumbers. The expertise that we need to deal with them is the well‐developed expertise of everyday life; it is what we use when we deal with plumbers and the rest. Plumbers are not perfect-far from it‐but society is not beset with anti‐plumbers because being anti-plumbing is not a choice available to us.1