Analysis of a complex decision situation — The Simpsons/Simpsons-Sears merger proposal

Many of the decision situations that arise in modern organizations are very complex. Conventional methods of decision analysis have only limited applicability in these situations. This paper describes a method that can be used as an aid to decision making in such situations where interactions between the parties involved are an important factor. The method is illustrated by reference to a recent situation in which there was competition between a number of participants with regard to the future of the firm of Simpsons Ltd of Toronto. The analysis described illustrates the application of a step-by-step procedure that can be used by participants in the analysis of such situations.     

Placement stability for adolescents in foster care: findings from a program experiment

Increased stability in foster care placements for adolescents who had multiple placement failures and who were alienated from family and other social institutions is reported as the outcome of a demonstration placement-planning and support service in a public agency. Other positive findings are described.     

Families of Hadamard group divisible designs

By a family of designs we mean a set of designs whose parameters can be represented as functions of an auxiliary variable t where the design will exist for infinitely many values of t. The best known family is probably the family of finite projective planes with υ = b = t² + t + 1, r = k = t + 1, and λ = 1. In some instances, notably coding theory, the existence of families is essential to provide the degree of precision required which can well vary from one coding problem to another. A natural vehicle for developing binary codes is the class of Hadamard matrices. Bush (1977) introduced the idea of constructing semi-regular designs using Hadamard matrices whereas the present study is concerned mostly with construction of regular designs using Hadamard matrices. While codes constructed from these designs are not optimal in the usual sense, it is possible that they may still have substantial value since, with different values of λ₁ and λ₂, there are different error correcting capabilities.     

Sources of Status and Influence in All Female and Mixed Sex Groups*

Hollander's (1958) theory on conformity, status, and idiosyncrasy credits was tested using female rather than male groups. Each group contained either one male or one female confederate who broke procedual norms early, in the middle, late, or never during the 15 trials of an experimental game task. For some groups the task was described as a quasi-mathematical task; for others it was described as a common game. The quasi-mathematical definition of the task and male sex of the confederate resulted in greater conformity to the confederate's choice. Contrary to Hollander's theory, previous conformity was not related to influence. The results were interpreted in terms of traditional sex role expectations and in terms of the perceptual marker function that nonconformity plays in small groups. The marker function was related to perception in Hollander's original theoretical formulation.     

Criteria for the equality between ordinary least squares and best linear unbiased estimators under certain linear models

A new necessary and sufficient condition is derived for the equality between the ordinary least-squares estimator and the best linear unbiased estimator of the expectation vector in linear models with certain specific design matrices. This condition is then applied to special cases involving one-way and two-way classification models.