New technology and developments in management organization

New technology can provide the means to institute considerable changes in management organization, both through its application to operations and through its direct use in managerial work. These changes are expected to lead to smaller more cohesive management structures on the basis of the advantages offered by new technology for control and integration. However, a number of organizational design choices are involved with the introduction of new technology. These may present uncertainties, and it is not expected that the changes discussed will be appropriate to all kinds of organization. In Britain, there are also particular institutional and cultural barriers to the full realization of new technology's managerial potential.     

Output planning for material requirements under uncertainty

This paper considers a production planning and control system requiring that, for each work station, a time-phased series of input and output values be estimated. It is assumed that the projected input levels can vary significantly across time periods and that anticipated output levels can be determined by management, subject to limits specified by available manpower and subcontracting. The actual input and output levels for each period depart from the planned levels according to a probability distribution determined empirically. An approach is presented that allows management to evaluate a chosen set of output levels to determine the probability that sufficient amounts of work will be available at a work station each period.     

The use of a hand-held microcomputer in the collection of physiological,subjective and behavioral data in ecologically valid gambling settings

A small, hand-held micro-computer was linked with telemetry equipment to permit simultaneous collection of heart rate, subjective ratings, and behavioral/environmental events. The two objectives satisfied by the system were unobtrusiveness in real-life gambling settings and capacity to down-load data directly to a host computer.This project is supported by the Australian Research Scheme grant no. A 284157490 I. Receiver and transmitters loaned by the Department of Zoology, ANU, and technical advice from Jim Bishop and Lyle Carpenter.     

Wage patterns: An evolutionary perspective

The existence of wage patterns is often cited as evidence that the labor market is affected by institutional forces outside the purview of economic theory. In this paper, it is argued that such patterns can be understood as the result of an information-acquiring activity of labor market participants that enhances their chance of survival. Wage comparisons are selected, sometimes mistakenly, in an effort to cope with the uncertainty of the environment. This evolutionary analysis denies a distinction between market forces and spillovers. Helpful comments on an earlier draft were received from John Pencaval, Melvin Reder, and Stanley Siebert. The usual disclaimer attaches.     

The level and growth of union/nonunion relative wage effects, 1967–1977

This paper pools cross-section data to obtain an estimate of the overall effects of unions on relative wages for the period 1967 through 1977. We found the average union wage premium for all workers to be roughly 24 percent, but that this premium varies substantially between subgroups of workers. Our analysis showed that real wage rates increased faster in the union sector than in the nonunion sector between 1967 through 1977. However, we found that this relative growth pattern in wages was caused by economic conditions rather than in any fundamental shift in the power of unions. We wish to thank James S. Cunningham, H. Gregg Lewis, and John Pencavel for helpful comments.     

Testing for not-at-home bias in social surveys

When subjects are not found at home in a social survey, the question arises whether the subsample encountered at home, on the first or subsequent visits, is random or biased. A procedure is presented by which this question can be statistically tested, by comparing the decline rate in unfound subjects, over repeated visits, with those expected if the subsample were random or strongly biased. The randomness of the subsamples can be compared between the first and subsequent visits. The procedure can be carried out during a programme of revisits, to check quickly whether a satisfactory sample is being obtained.     

A MODEL FOR COLLABORATIVE TEAM PROCESSING IN BRIEF SYSTEMIC FAMILY THERAPY*

While there has been considerable growth in recent years in the use of collaborative teamwork in Systemic Family Therapy, there has been a dearth of literature concerning the process of team functioning. Based upon a careful analysis of actual teamwork, a model for conducting more efficient and effective team conferences has been developed. The ensuing discussion examines the risks in working in teams and proposes ways to counteract these. Further avenues of research are suggested.     

Cancer Risk Assessment with Intermittent Exposure

Applications of methods for carcinogenic risk assessment often focus on estimating lifetime cancer risk. With intermittent or time-dependent exposures, lifetime risk is often approximated on the basis of a lifetime average daily dose (LADD). In this article, we show that there exists a lifetime equivalent constant dose (LECD) which leads to the same lifetime risk as the actual time-dependent exposure pattern. The ratio C = LECD/LADD then provides a measure of accuracy of risk estimates based on the LADD, as well as a basis for correcting such estimates. Theoretical results derived under the classical multistage model and the two-stage birth-death-mutation model suggest that the maximum value of C, which represents the factor by which the LADD may lead to underestimates of risk, will often lie in the range of 2- to 5-fold. The practical application of these results is illustrated in the case of astronauts subjected to relatively short-term exposure to volatile organics in a closed space station environment, and in the case of the ingestion of pesticide residues in food where consumption patterns vary with age.