Self-interests and group-interests in employee involvement programs: A case study

What happens in a unionized setting when a participatory management system is adopted? This question is examined based on a field study of a union manufacturing facility that has been operating under a gainsharing system for four years. As suggested by the political science literature on transforming political systems from authoritarian rule to democracies, the events resemble a complicated chess game among management, union officers, and union members pursuing their self-interests or group-interests during and after the transitional process. Although gainsharing bonuses have been minimal, the democratization of organizational structures and relationships has generated multiple beneficial organizational and individual outcomes for management and union members.     

Managing the Risk of Uncertain Threshold Responses: Comparison of Robust, Optimum, and Precautionary Approaches

Many commentators have suggested the need for new decision analysis approaches to better manage systems with deeply uncertain, poorly characterized risks. Most notably, policy challenges such as abrupt climate change involve potential nonlinear or threshold responses where both the triggering level and subsequent system response are poorly understood. This study uses a simple computer simulation model to compare several alternative frameworks for decision making under uncertainty -- optimal expected utility, the precautionary principle, and three different approaches to robust decision making -- for addressing the challenge of adding pollution to a lake without triggering unwanted and potentially irreversible eutrophication. The three robust decision approaches -- trading some optimal performance for less sensitivity to assumptions, satisficing over a wide range of futures, and keeping options open -- are found to identify similar strategies as the most robust choice. This study also suggests that these robust decision approaches offer a quantitative, decision analytic framework that captures the spirit of the precautionary principle while addressing some of its shortcomings. Finally, this study finds that robust strategies may be preferable to optimum strategies when the uncertainty is sufficiently deep and the set of alternative policy options is sufficiently rich.     

A management strategy for information processing. 1—The Segas case

This is the first of three articles by the same author on Management Strategy for Information Processing. This article presents the Segas Case History and shows how if has tackled the implementation of Information Technology over the past 7 years. The second paper will discuss the methodology known as Business Systems Planning for assessing future computer requirements, and the third paper will examine the need for managements to have access to computing facilities.     

Understanding Ethnic Small Business: A Case Study of Marrickville

Ethnic small businesses are an increasingly important feature of economic life in Australian cities. Which groups are most likely to go into this sector, and what are the factors which make for ‘success’? What is the price for survival in terms of working conditions and family life, and what are the fruits of success? These are some of the questions being investigated in a two-year study of ethnic small business in the Sydney region. This paper provides the first report from the study, examining the development of Greek and Vietnamese businesses in the inner suburb of Marrickville.     

Hazard Characteristics and Patterns of Environmental Injustice: Household‐Level Determinants of Environmental Risk in Miami,Florida

Limited systematic comparative knowledge exists about patterns of environmental injustices in exposure to varied natural and technological hazards. To address this gap, we examine how hazard characteristics (i.e., punctuated event/suddenness of onset, frequency/magnitude, and divisibility) influence relationships between race/ethnicity, nativity, socioeconomic status (SES), older age, housing tenure, and residential hazard exposure. Sociodemographic data come from a random sample survey of 602 residents of the tricounty Miami Metropolitan Statistical Area (Florida). Hazard exposure was measured using spatial data from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the National Air Toxics Assessment, and the Emergency Response Notification System. We specified generalized estimating equations (GEEs)—which account for sociospatial clustering—predicting 100‐year flood risk, acute chemical accidental releases, and chronic cancer risk from air toxics from all and on‐road mobile sources. We found that for punctuated, sudden onset events, some socially advantaged people were significantly at risk. Racial/ethnic minority variables were significant predictors of greater exposure to the three technological hazards, while higher SES was associated with 100‐year flood risk exposure. Black and foreign‐born Hispanic residents, and white and U.S.‐born Hispanic residents, shared nearly identical risk profiles. Results demonstrate the complexities found in human‐hazard associations and the roles of hazard characteristics in shaping disparate risk patterns.