Programmed Strategic Decision Making: The View From Mintzberg's Window1

A class of decisions, asset mix decisions made by pension fund managers, which exhibit characteristics of both programmed and strategic choices is examined in this paper. The decisions are classified using the scheme developed by Mintzberg et al., (1976) to highlight the circumstances under which strategic decisions may be programmed. The types of strategic decisions which lend themselves to programming are considered. The advantages and disadvantages of programming strategic decisions are also discussed.     

Competitive analysis—Its role in purchasing

In all cases a company's perception of its strengths/ weaknesses reflects that of its view of its relative power position vis-à-vis the other parties in the system. Tecognition of power/weakness can be a stimulant to redressing the balance in the company's favour. This paper seeks to emphasize the potential for such action in supply markets, for supply markets are sources of considerable potential worthy of careful attention from corporate strategists. The paper illustrates in outline one approach to competitive analysis in supply markets. The approach is not intended to have universal application. However, it should suggest a framework which can be tailored to most situations where input costs are a significant element in output revenue.     

Blunders in international marketing: Fact or fiction

Popular literature on international marketing gives the impression that U.S. firms are insensitive, lack understanding of the unique socio-political, cultural and trade environments of foreign markets, and are probably blundering all the time. Is this really so? To find an answer to this question, this article reports the results of the study that was conducted to verify some of the more publicized blunders in international marketing.     

Enhancing the quality of life of a client with severe developmental disabilities through the application of assistive technology. A case study

This paper describes a structural sequential process aimed to enhance the quality of life of a 29 year old man through the application of assistive technology (AT). The client had life-long severe multiple disabilities, showed increasing fragility and decreasing functional abilities that resulted, among other problems, in a problem with toileting. The process involved a thorough assessment and evaluation of the client, his physical, cognitive and perceptual skills involved in the performance of the task, requirements of the task, the technology, and the task environment. A clinical reasoning model for the provision of AT was applied during the process to identify the functional deficits of the client with respect to the problematic task. The approach enabled a multidisciplinary team of university-affiliated professionals including physical and occupational therapists, an ergonomist, a rehabilitation engineer and care providers in an institution for developmentally disabled people to determine the primary attributes of a technological intervention. The process resulted in the selection of an appropriate piece of AT followed by its modification and adaptation in order to address the specific needs of the client. The client's toilet use was improved in a manner that ultimately contributed to enhancing the quality of his life. Projections for further improvements of the quality of life of the client in this institution were also discussed.     

New Organizational Forms for Competing in Highly Dynamic Environments: the Network Paradigm

Turbulence and rapid change in the business environment have been associated for some time with the development of new network organizational forms which put various types of strategic alliance and other inter-organizational collaborations into effect. This paper traces the rationale for the formation of such networks and the associated vertical disaggregation of functions and implications for internal organizational design. This leads to the proposal of a classification framework for network forms. Using the dimensions of volatility of environmental change on the one hand, and the type of inter-organizational relationship involved (collaborative or transactional) on the other hand, network forms are classified as: hollow networks, flexible networks, value-added networks and virtual networks. In each case it is possible to identify the environmental and organizational contingencies most likely to be associated with the emergence and adoption of a particular type of network arrangement. This argument leads to the identification of a new research agenda which has the goals of developing more robust conceptualizations of network characteristics; better understanding the contingencies surrounding the emergence of network forms and their relative efficiencies and specifying some of the major implications of network formation for internal organizational design. In parallel the paper identifies a number of managerial implications for setting strategic priorities and developing appropriate management systems in these new organizational contexts.     

Mlonte Carlo Techniques for Quantitative Uncertainty Analysis in Public Health Risk Assessments

Most public health risk assessments assume and combine a series of average, conservative, and worst-case values to derive a conservative point estimate of risk. This procedure has major limitations. This paper demonstrates a new methodology for extended uncertainty analyses in public health risk assessments using Monte Carlo techniques. The extended method begins as do some conventional methods--with the preparation of a spreadsheet to estimate exposure and risk. This method, however, continues by modeling key inputs as random variables described by probability density functions (PDFs). Overall, the technique provides a quantitative way to estimate the probability distributions for exposure and health risks within the validity of the model used. As an example, this paper presents a simplified case study for children playing in soils contaminated with benzene and benzo(a)pyrene (BaP).