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The general purpose of this paper is to discuss some philosophy of science concepts as they apply to the development of management theory. The need for agreement on scientific criteria within any field is apparent. It the Academy of Management is to serve the function of directing and encouraging the development of management theory, it appears mandatory that members agree on at least the fundamental requirements for valid generalization and contribution to theory. Such agreement cannot be developed overnight. In a field advancing as rapidly as ours, (with elements of pure and applied research, social and physical sciences, philosophical judgments as well as empirical evidence and contributors who are both academicians and practitioners), such agreement will require substantial dialogue in this meeting, in future meetings and in the literature. Hopefully, this session on management research will encourage such a dialogue. The specific purposes of this paper are to: a. clarify, for panel and audience discussion, the criteria used for the selection of the competitive research papers to be presented this morning; and, b. to advance a set of criteria, consistent with previous work conducted in philosophy of science, by which we might evaluate contributions to management theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Kurt Lewin's major contributions to management theory are 1. the concepts of field theory, 2. action research (the interweaving of laboratory experiment, systematic research in the field, and client service), 3. the study of group dynamics, and 4. aspects of sensitivity training techniques. His ideas appear today in discussions of productivity, management by participation, job enrichment, organizational development, organizational stress, and organizational change. His intellectual development may be conveniently divided into two phases. During the first period in Germany, after the First World War, his philosophy of science and psychology of individuals developed. The second period, in the United States, from the 1930's until his death in 1946, involved a market shift in his interest from the individual to the group and the birth of group dynamics as a field of study. In this brief paper I will trace some historically intriguing antecedents of later work in Lewin's earliest papers, which are not available in English. Although fascinating from a historical viewpoint, these papers do not, of course, show the full development of his thought in his latest papers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper deals with the frequently encountered problem of estimating the probabilities of future events when there are no appropriate historical data with which to compute the probabilities. If adequate data were available, the estimation of probability distributions would be obtained from histograms or relative frequency counts. But in many instances the necessary historical data are not available, and the needed information must be obtained from estimates provided by knowledgeable experts. We include in this paper an approach for obtaining these subjective estimates. The strategy is based on the results of the research work of a number of investigators who have studied this problem, and it differs from the strategy that one might be tempted to use on intuitive grounds. In dealing with this subject, quite unfamiliar and therefore suspect to most readers, we have referenced some of the relevant psychological research. In particular we have drawn heavily upon the reviews by Peterson and Beach (1967). Heinrich (1971), and Slovic and Lichtenstein (1971). Two questions arise: Are subjective probabilities accurate? How can subjective probabilities be obtained? In this paper we examined some practical suggestions for obtaining subjective probabilities. We feel confident, if we may use such a casual phrase in the context of the present paper, that subjective probabilities will be much more frequently used by consultants in the near future than they are now. Our reasons are the following: (1) The days when people forced the problem to fit the technique are gone, and since many problems are probabilistic and do not fit the classical OR techniques. we will see much greater use of techniques that require probability distributions. (2) The rate of social and technological change is accelerating, and thus historical data bases appropriate for estimating probabilities of future events will be less frequently encountered. (3) More and more professionals are accepting t... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Change has become a very popular topic and we find that great emphasis is placed upon the study of organizational change by both practitioners and theoreticians. Today's practitioner, the manager, must guide his organization in a very complex and dynamic environment where he finds himself continually heed with the requirement that he select between several alternative decisions, each representing a major change for his organization. He then must introduce and live with the change. Thus we often hear the expression that equates management with change. The theoretician, on the other hand, tries to explain the process of change within the organization and hypothesizes which conditions facilitate change. While there has been a great interest in organizational change we conclude that very little is known about it. Most of the existing literature focuses upon the problems of bringing about planned change, the frequent resistance to change, and the value of participative change. This paper will first try to provide a framework which will allow organization theorists to compare and contrast theories of planned and participative change. Then the paper will attack the all important problem of a methodology that will allow researchers to gather data on change in the field which then could be used to test the various theories and hypotheses of organizational change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is no reason why accounts cannot devise alternative accounting systems as mathematicians have developed alternative algebras and geometries. In particular, a system can be designed to quantify the factors crucial for replacement decisions, quite irrespective of whether that system truly measures income or wealth. In the past accounting theorists often have claimed that financial accounting results in absolutely true measures of income and wealth.[6] In this paper an alternative system is proposed which will result in only relatively true measures of the parameters for a particular operational model. This new system may be called operational accounting.[7] Traditional accounting provides figures that are objectively verifiable following generally accepted auditing procedures: operational accounting results in figures which are scientifically verifiable; that is, other investigators can repeat the measurements without statistically significant differences. The design of an operational accounting system can be posed in the usual form of a balance of economic forces: more data results in more precise decisions--but only through greater sacrifices of time and money in gathering data. It was shown that optimum replacement life results from balancing acquisition price against maintenance cost on the fulcrum of the interest rate. Furthermore, it was shown that the optimura life remains unchanged throughout the usual industrial range of interest rates. Replacement decisions are relatively insensitive to errors in the rate of interest. On the other hand, it was shown that losses from estimating the maintenance gradient are considerably greater than those resulting from errors in estimating the rate of interest. Fortunately, the maintenance gradient can be exposed as a percentage of acquisition price. The basic approach suggested in this paper has been that of using a normal distribution to estimate the errors in estimate of the maintenance gradient, whic... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the status of management research, examines its needs and makes suggestions for future research. The author looks at the difference between management research and industrial research. A competition to have research papers introduced by the Academy of Management's Annual Meeting program is discussed. The author feels that the competition, despite being a smart business innovation, should be announced as early as possible. Several of the papers submitted in previous years are criticized for lacking an effective design. Uncertainty within the Academy regarding its priority of interests is mentioned.

The purpose of this paper is to summarize critical problems identified by Health Planners and to suggest that management scholarship has considerable potential as a perspective for analysis of developmental efforts in health service planning. In particular, the managerial lessons from aerospace, venture management and corporate planning need to be related to this important societal area. It is not my purpose to end this paper with a clarian call for members of the Academy of Management to don white medical robes and take prophylactic theories to save disease ridden health planning agencies. What management theory has, at best, is a partial perspective. Public planning for health deals with a much more fragmented and product differentiated world than the corporate or aerospace world. However, coordinated, developmental, large-scale planning has been longer established and much more highly funded in the private corporate sector, and in the quasi-public aerospace sector, than in health, urban planning or social service planning. The lessons we have learned elsewhere should be shared with new planning endeavors in these public agencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Organizational development is described as an organizational learning process, as a method to bring about organizational culture change, and as a technology for improving organizational effectiveness [4]. Indeed O.D. may be one or all of these things. The definitions of organizational development are many and they vary depending on one's perspective. The purpose of this paper is to other still another and slightly different perspective, and perhaps raise a question or two. The major thrust is that organizational development, as we know it, and it is now described in the literature, is less a science than it is an art, and is less an art than it is a magical, spiritual, process between those who are the organizational development consultants and those who are the clients. Regardless of whether or not there is agreement on what organizational development is, if it does in fact help bring about organizational change, then a fuller understanding of the phenomenon seems desirable. The perspective presented here is less a criticism than it is another point of view which may add another dimension to how we think about OD and how it is implemented in organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The first area is the study of organizations, and particularly of what is wrong with them in terms of their effects on the people who work in them. Evidence gathered in this large set of studies forms the basic underpinning of O.D.: it establishes that there is indeed "organization development" that needs to be done. The second major area is the study of how the O.D. practitioner, the agent of organizational Change, SHOULD act if he wants to influence the system. This is primarily normative material an evolving body of prescriptions for effectively influencing organization events. Research and theory is not yet as voluminous in this area as it is in the first; but as more and more material appears, there is no question that material of this second major focus is on the rise [11]. The basic thesis of this paper, however, is that these two areas of O.D. should not continue to develop without being tempered and tested against the practical realities of the O.D. practitioner's situation, that is, against how the organization seems to be TO HIM. The problems and opportunities he is able to perceive in the organization may or may not be the ones diagnosed by academic theories about organizational ills. This is why the study of organizations must be tempered by the practitioner's frame of reference. The ways and means he employs to deal with problems and opportunities may or may not be the ways and means specified in normative theories about how he "should" behave. This is why the theories of how he Should behave must be tempered by his frame of reference. If such tempering does not occur, the risk is that O.D. will metamorphose into a body of idealistic and unrealizable goals which are to be sought by impractical means. This paper seeks to identify some of the key properties of the O.D. practitioner's subjective view of his organization. The phrase "practice theory" is employed to talk about the models of situations and relation to them which the practitioner de... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper examines the subject area of strategy and strategic planning from the point of view of an academic teacher and student. Part of the purpose of this paper is to point to some of the more glaringly obvious gaps in our knowledge and to explore some of the difficulties of research and teaching in the broad rind ill-defined field of organization strategy. At the same time, I do not wish my comments to be interpreted as belittling to the work done to date. Rather I aim to be constructive and hope to point to some areas for research which are badly in need of attention if we are to continue to make significant progress in the field of management theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Management education faces two devastating questions which seem increasingly important in the '70s: first, what will be the predominant characteristics of the social, technological, economic, political and physical environments of organizations; and second, what should managers learn in order to be prepared to assist their organizations to function effectively in these environments? This paper asserts that the business environment predominating in the 1970s will be of a previously neglected and decidedly unpleasant kind called a "turbulent-field" organizational environment. Its unpleasantness stems largely from the fact that it is worse than uncertain, since an organization does not know what factors may be crucial for its survival. It can initiate search activities, however, and discover causal relationships that are crucially relevant. Further, this paper explores some of the ramifications of turbulent-field environments for both organizations and for managers. Finally, some of the implications for management education that would prepare managers for coping with turbulent-field environments are outlined. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper represents the findings of a study conducted in Barcelona, Spain, in 1968, which compares some aspects of the operations of American subsidiaries and domestic firms.[2] The research methodology attempts to go beyond individual case studies by dealing with the interaction of firm and environment and by exploring their interchange. This paper is addressed to the problem of establishing cause and effect relationships between the corporate policy and strategy of a firm and the efficiency of the firm in the long run. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents some findings from a study which was designed to generate some verifiable knowledge about the dominant value content of selected normative administrative theories. Explicitly formulated, replicable content analysis techniques were used. So far as is known, the study partially reported here is the only study that has been done where an attempt was made to collect data systematically about the value content of any portion of the prescriptive literature on administration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to develop further the rationale for Fiedler's prediction that a task-oriented (low LPC) leader will tend to be more effective where the situation is either very favorable or very unfavorable for the leader to exert influence and that a relations-oriented (high LPC) leader will tend to be more effective in situations intermediate in favorability. Specifically, this paper will attempt to clarify what the least preferred co-worker (LPC) score actually measures and will try to show how the behavior patterns of the two types of leaders differ. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The decision making problem in Research and Development (R&D) has been aptly characterized as a systematic problem solving process in which decisions must be made and progress achieved under conditions of substantial uncertainty. Starting from initial conditions of broad uncertainty, the manager makes a stream of decisions, committing resources in an effort to continuously improve confidence in an appropriate choices. The initial uncertainty is a key element in this process, and strategies for dealing with it are crucial to the effective conduct of R&D. The common term, uncertainty, fails to discriminate effectively, however, in respect to important categories of assessments. This paper examines important categories of uncertainty in R&D projects and offers a polar distinction between two, namely, technical uncertainty and need uncertainty. Such a distinction has important implications for practicing managers; further we hope to have provided an analytical framework for further systematic study. We have developed, and we believe supported, the proposition that there are two categories of uncertainty in R&D activities. What relevance, however, does this distinction as to uncertainty have to either the practitioner or the student of R&D? As a partial answer to this question consider the following situation drawn from a separate study into factors influencing the choice of parallel strategies in R&D projects. A technical organization faced a difficult task in developing a new component. Requirements were stringent and four technical approaches to the task were undertaken. Each was carefully tested and evaluated against criteria established to reflect relevant capability. Finally, recognition of both types of learning is important simply because current trends reflect concern with only technical learning. Massive documentation requirements, rigid specifications and inflexible control devices make the costs of improving objectives very dear. The i [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper is to provide perspective for those involved in administration. At the outset it should be understood that in the context of this paper, organization behavior is envisioned as intimately related to managerial action. That is, management is viewed as the catalytic agent which directs, organizes, and controls resources so as to influence organization behavior. That is not to say that management can determine exactly what happens. Rather, what I wish to emphasize is that the point of view taken here is that of management (or administration) and what follows is being presented in the framework of "what those who are professionals in the field of management (or administration) should understand about the prediction of organization behavior." Moreover, as discussed here, organization behavior is viewed as the behavior of "a system of consciously coordinate activities of two or more persons".[1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Of course we predict behavior. We do so in small groups, in organizations, in communities and in society at large. We do so every day of our lives, in our roles as scholars and as managers, and indeed in all roles we play, by choice or by force of circumstance. This paper seeks to make explicit some aspects of small groups and the prediction of behavior. Specifically, it concerns itself (1) with the major modes of interpersonal prediction. (2) with managerial style in the prediction process and (3) with an integrative mode as an educational approach to improve interpersonal predictive outcomes. Given the lament, oft-repeated and half believed, about the fickleness of human nature, it may seem a miracle that so often we succeed in our predictions. Still, we live with a gnawing feeling that we should be doing better and indeed we should. The point is that we are rarely articulate about what we do when we attempt to forecast interpersonal behavior. Some vacillate between excess feelings of certainty, ("I can read'm like a book"), to a sense of despair, ("I quit ... I can't tell from minute to minute what he's going to do"). And others, fearing the fate of the centipede who when asked to point to the leg with which he takes the first step finds himself paralyzed, decline to be analytical about the predictive task. This paper seeks to make explicit some aspects of small groups and the prediction of behavior. Specifically, it concerns itself (1) with the major modes of interpersonal prediction, (2) with managerial style in the prediction process and (3) with an integrative mode as an educational approach to improve interpersonal predictive outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The focus of this paper is on long-range planning in large business organizations. Much that is said, however, is applicable to smaller business firms and to non-business organizations.[1] Long-range planning deals with the futurity of present decisions. Decisions are made only in the present. Actions taken today will have long-range consequences and long-range planning examines these evolving chains of cause and effect. Long-range planning is the examination of future alternatives open to a business to provide a framework, perspective, or umbrella, within which current decisions can be made. Long-range planning, in this view, is the setting of future goals and the basic strategies to achieve them. These serve as guides to current operating decisions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a report of an analytical attempt to measure and explain the essential factors inherent in the determination of compensation and status for managerial jobs. This study is an outgrowth of a management development program designed and conducted for the Research and Development Division of The National Cash Register Company. As a result of studying compensation and organization theory, the top management of the R & D Division authorized a search for measurements which can be used for assigning compensation and organizational status to managerial jobs, and for rewarding management jobs on the basis of their contribution to organizational objectives. The study was an exploratory effort which will require additional empirical investigation before final consideration is given for implementation. This paper reports the results of the exploratory study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A foundation for planning has been achieved, some advocate, when a firm can state its strategic plan in terms of products and markets (referred to as the "business form" in this paper). If this statement is true, what factors will aid a firm in achieving the business form in its strategic plans? This paper relates several factors from an empirical research sample to a firm's strategic plans in order to illustrate the significance of these factors to the form of the plan. Experience and a focus of strategic planning guidance at the top of the organization are shown to the be the most significant factors mitigated by situation and management style in this sample. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between the nature of manpower practices and organizational effectiveness. More specific questions explored are: (1) Are manpower management practices of the United States subsidiaries operating in India and local firms similar or different? (2) How far do the technology, product market conditions, and size explain the differences in manpower management practices of firms studied? and (3) What is the reiationship between the nature of manpower practices and selected elements of organizational effectiveness? Although data from various management practices (e.g., planning behavior, organizational set-up, controlling aspects, etc.) were collected in a larger study, this report concerns only those practices dealing with manpower management. The importance of this aspect can hardly be over emphasized in terms of its contribution to economic and industrial growth in developing countries. As Likert has stated: "Of all tasks of management, managing the human components is the central and most important task, because all else depends on how well it is done." Our findings indicate that the two important aspects of manpower management, man power planning and selection of employees, are largely executed on an unsystematic or ad hoc basis in the majority of the firms studied. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to provide a conceptual and methodological structure for the examination of organizational communication processes. To fulfill this purpose, there is presented, first, a logic for the identification of communication systems, and then, a method by which these systems can be examined, audited, or evaluated. Organizational communication is defined as a system in terms of purpose, operational procedures, and structure. The achievement of organizational goals is stated as the purpose of organizational communication; and for the particular organization unit, this is accomplished through the appropriate employment of communication networks, communication policies, and communication activities. Four communication networks are identified: (1) regulative, (2) innovative, (3) integrative (maintenance), and (4) informative-instructive. To further the explicit identification of the organizational communication system, an exploratory taxonomy of communication activities is exhibited. It is suggested that an examination of communication effectiveness is best approached by initially considering the overall communication system and later studying individual communication activities. Appraisal workplans are detailed for both the overall communication system and individual communication activities; also, there is noted the application of various measurement techniques with selected illustrations provided from an actual case study. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pressures to improve the "quality of work" in the U.S. are opening up a new frontier for the OD field. The field, however, seems unprepared to cross this frontier, especially where labor unions are involved. In this paper, the authors explore some of the essential differences between organizational change situations involving only one organization and those in which labor unions play a major role. These differences revolve around four basic concepts: goal incompatibility, shared power, structurally-based conflict, and the multiple objectives and concerns of union leaders. Using these concepts as a base, implications for consulting strategy in unionized situations are drawn. These include the need to: (1) learn more about the nature of issues that are salient to management and union leaders; (2) adapt an instrumental, as opposed to an affective or interpersonal, style; (3) encourage and facilitate bargaining and compromise behavior as legitimate means of conflict resolution; and (4) coordinate and integrate programs of organizational change with the more traditional collective bargaining process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Observations resulting from residence and research in Ethiopia from 1968 to 1970 are reported in this paper. I first discuss the problems of management development, concluding by presenting a generalized portrait of the Ethiopian manager. Then, to place the portrait in context, cultural values influencing managerial behavior are defined. Next, signs favorable to accelerating developmental activity in Ethiopia are summarized. From there I posit the existence of three critical developmental areas: 1) the involvement of top management, 2) attitudes held by managers being developed, and 3) deficiencies in skills and techniques. Finally, a series of recommendations for approaching development in each area is offered for consideration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper suggests that Business Policy is generally thought of as a course, not a field of study, and that such thinking is a limitation to its development. A broader view of Business Policy is needed. We call that view Strategic Management. Our purpose is to first indicate the common view of Policy and then to show that Strategic Management, a wider view, not only accommodates the conventional purpose awarded Policy, but it can also facilitate development of a new, burgeoning field of study based on empirical research. Finally, several teaching issues raised by this wider view of Policy are indicated. Nothing we have said denies the need for the Business Policy course or suggests its replacement as the central core of Strategic Management. However, if we are to view Strategic Management as more than a course, as having a wider purpose than simply helping to integrate knowledge received elsewhere, and as an area worthy of study in its own right, then there must be coursework in place and available for the student who would study it, either for purposes of becoming a staff expert, a line manager, or a research scholar and teacher in the area. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the past decade, there has been a growing interest in the idea of accounting for people as organizational resources. This interest has led to an emerging interdisciplinary field of research known as "Human Resource Accounting." This paper reviews the current body of theory and research in human resource accounting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It was the diversity of methodological models employed by writers in the area of management history over the past forty years -- a small selection will be discussed herein which prompted the title of this paper. The four terms which appear most frequently in the literature that require definition are: (1) general history, (2) economic history, (3) business history, and (4) management history. Needless to say, these terms are not mutually exclusive; however, general history considered from the broad view may be said to be the examination of past social, political, economic, cultural, and religious relationships in their connection with each other. Economic history, it has been suggested, is the study of a particular class of historical events. These are events which arise out of economic choice, where men find themselves faced with the need to make their resources match the ends which they set for themselves. Management history is thus certainly not just a subset of business history. It extends beyond the boundaries of business. However, them is a good deal of conceptual overlap since the objectives of management are clearly discernable in the business organization, which are in turn closely related to economic objectives. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although management theory and thought is really just beginning to solidify into a recognizable body of knowledge, early efforts to trace its history have already begun by several scholars and will hopefully enable scholars and practitioners alike to more fully understand developments in the field. Any history of management thought must deal with changes in the treatment of basic managerial concepts; and one method of investigating such changes is to examine the literature surrounding a particular concept, except, of course, when it is relatively new or has a relatively small body of literature regarding it. This paper attempts to trace the concept of the span of management, which is neither new nor lacking in published comment, by conducting a study of the literature surrounding it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many words have been written to try to explain the span of control, of management, or of knowledge, and to define the size of span for general situations. A principle has been proposed by NICB, "There is a limit to the number of positions that can be coordinated by a single executive." Recently there have been several models developed to determine the proper span. At the same time, each school of management thought appears to advocate a different approach to the resolution of the problem of determining the proper span. The purpose of this paper is to present through a simulation model some new dimensions of the problem. Hopefully, future use of this model will provide information for the sutdy of other aspects of organization theory. Recently, Carzo and Yanouzas applied queuing theory to determine the span of control. They based their analysis on the random need of each supordinate for the services of his superior and the rate at which the superior could perform these services. They arrived at an optimum span for a certain set of conditions by balancing the cost of the subordinate's waiting against the cost of the manager. This approach considered two variables and provided a useful model. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The research described in this paper represents an attempt to explore some of the questions raised by such results. Will more training sessions, a more involving situation, or different types of uncertain quantities reduce the percentage shocks? Can some individuals be trained or selected to provide density functions with about 2 percent shocks? If calibration is difficult or impossible, in what way should the techniques and models of decision making under uncertainty and the instruments of the organizational researcher be modified? With these questions in mind let us turn to our experiments and the tentative results. The techniques discussed in this paper also have direct application in the classroom. Several faculty have used the DFAQ technique to increase the level of student involvement by asking them to assess what they know about several key factors in preparation for a lecture. For example, a lecturer in Economic History of the United States might ask the students to estimate the U.S. population or the slave population at the time the Constitution was drafted. Further it is possible that assessment skill, given the importance of decision making under uncertainty, is more crucial to the success of the future executive than are the collection of facts and decision-making techniques that currently comprise many business school curriculums. Should this be so, then much more emphasis should be placed upon these types of exercises. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

If as much organization development (OD) were occurring as is claimed by people who say they are "doing OD", we would have much more evidence of change in organizations than I believe presently exists. I have occasion to talk with a great many of the faithful in the field who are quick to affirm their commitment. As the conversation progresses, however, I inevitably discover that either (a) they do not actually believe significant change is occurring in their organization, or (b) they ask me if I know of any new techniques for really getting OD underway. The purpose of this paper is to explore this apparent contradiction and to try to account for it. First I point to evidence that OD is a popular and growing field. Then describe some of the current problems and limitations of OD. Next I discuss some of the forces which are shaping the current practice of OD. And, in conclusion, I briefly explore the future of organization development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The concern in this paper has been with the problem of identifying the character of performance appraisal among a group of judges as applied to a particular set of subjects. The most immediate problems to be considered are: (1.) The complexity of factors actually used in appraisals. (2.) The extent to which several judges appraise the similarity or dissimilarity of a set of subjects in the same framework. (3.) The extent to which experience alters the character and intensity of preference evaluations. (4.) The influence of differential information and personal contact on the judgmental evaluations made on subjects. Although in a very formative stage, it has been suggested that multidimensional scaling techniques may provide a powerful tool to investigate questions such as these. The opportunities for application to a variety of appraisal situations is very high. Within organizations, comparative appraisals between ostensibly similar organizations, appraisals influenced by groups in potential conflict (e.g labor-management joint appraisals) are a few of many potentially useful applications. The opportunities for investigation and fruitful contributions to management are sufficient in number to warrant serious investigation by many students of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents a discussion highlighting some of the pitfalls facing a researcher in trying to develop a valid questionnaire instrument which is nonetheless acceptable within an environment influenced by the prevailing perceptions, values, and philosophies of operating managers. Various management groups representing the sponsor may have interest both in the content of the questionnaire and the data generated. This interest of the sponsor, creates a problem for the researcher both in terms of determining who should be informed and who should participate in questionnaire design. Too many researchers alienate management groups because they don't take this communication problem into consideration when they plan their project. There is no doubt that touching all bases slows a project down but in the long run the success of present and future research may depend on this communication. Turning now to some of the problems associated with the respondents, there are three areas of particular concern: Questionnaire acceptability, anonymity, and participation in questionnaire development. It has been our experience that questionnaires are typically administered to a population which is quite different from the researcher both in terms of vocabulary and level of reading comprehension. Yet, too often the questionnaire is developed which includes behavioral science jargon and is written at a reading level too high for the participant's. Pretesting of the questionnaire will highlight these problems but pretesting may not be undertaken because the researcher lacks the confidence to stand up to his sponsors who arc pushing for results, or the researcher just simply fails to adhere to accepted principles of questionnaire development. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

It is important that we recognize that all our measures are imperfect and, hence that their use involves error. An error will be as serious in its implications if made on the basis of one measure as on the basis of another. Errors of prediction arc errors, and no greater comfort is to be taken in the making of one kind of error than another. The measures to be discussed in this paper, unobtrusive and nonreactive measures, are imperfect, but their degree of validity can ordinarily be known, and to the degree that they are valid, they are as good as any other measures. For example, if birth order correlates .30 with academic achievement, then it is as good a basis for making a decision as a test that correlates .30. However, there is a tendency to disparage certain kinds of measures on the ground that they are far from perfect, without applying the same stringent standards to more conventional tests It must be reiterated that the approach taken here does not represent a rejection of widely accepted and useful techniques of interviewing and testing. They have shown their value. But they have also had their weaknesses revealed, and it is the purpose of the foregoing presentation to recommend ways of supplementing interviews and questionnaires so that their shortcomings are counterbalanced. When sources of error are complementary rather than overlapping, great strength in measurement is achieved. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The subject of this paper is the relationship of the Academy of Management to the profession of management. Its purpose is to explain some of the reasons for our reorganization within the Academy and to suggest directions for the future. First, let us review what has been happening in the Academy. The last year witnessed a significant reorganization. Underlying these changes was the philosophy that as an Academy we must provide professional services for our members! These members, traditionally, are professors of management. Although we have increased the number of executive members significantly, we still have 90 percent academics as members. Due to the nature of the training for academic life, many of the younger men have been weak or lacking in direct contact with the world of work. Because of this their teaching is apt to be sterile. Personally, I am convinced that the gestaltists such as Wertheimer and Lewin were correct. Namely, much of the learning of the skills of management involves subtle processes which can best be achieved by direct experience and involvement. Most of us are perceptually rather than conceptually oriented. We have to experience things first before we can understand them. Thus, we have seen as an important function of the Academy of Management the provision of avenues for bringing professors into direct contact with the world of "reality". Namely, we have organized to help provide dialogue between practitioners and academics. The profession of management is crowded with moral hazards. If we are to truly be a profession, we must face these directly and develop our own code of ethics and moral guidelines. This is a tremendously difficult task and ultimately it is the kind of a thing that each of us has to do for himself However, if management is truly to be a profession. it must have the ethical guidelines which are so essential for professional behavior. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a response to the paper "The Future Role of Staff in a Changing Corporate Environment," by Jack 0. Vance. The author uses the example of his company, Coca Cola Bottling Company, to illustrate how organizational structure is affected by company growth. The author discusses how the company's growth has decentralized and complicated the structural makeup of Coca Cola, and outlines important staff functions for the future of business. The author also discusses staff's importance in the evolution of a company and the qualifications of competent staff personnel.

This paper reports briefly on an attempt to give operational definition to the notion of organizational metamorphosis.[1] An analytic procedure is outlined, and then time series data about ten business firms are analyzed to assess the explanatory efficacy of metamorphoses for their histories. Each firm's history is analyzed separately as if it were a single case study, but all ten firms are treated analogously as if the cases study had been replicated ten times. Metamorphosis models focus on structural changes which the model-builder judges to be dominant and critical. The history of an organization is divided into stages. Structural changes which occur within a given stage are deemphasized as having lesser importance; structural changes which take place between two consecutive stages are emphasized as having greater importance. Consequently, the historical development within a single stage in cast as a relatively smooth and continuous process, but the overall development pattern is marked by sharp and discrete transitions from one stage to the next. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we report certain preliminary findings of a comparative field study of behaviour associated with decision-making across departments of an industrial firm. This study is intended to explore and to extend a general model of interdepartmental conflict and its management which the authors have given elsewhere (Walton and Dutton, 1967). The overall model of interdepartmental conflict makes a three-way distinction in organizational phenomena. Thus, the model is comprised of three panels of variables: Panel 1 includes the contextual, organizational and personality factors which are the determinants of interunit conflict. Panel 2 are the attributes of an emergent interunit relationship. Panel 3 includes the consequence of the relationship pattern for organizational performance and for member conditions. We focus here on a set of four variables which measure particular aspects of interdepartmental cooperation. Each of these variables measures a way in which one department may facilitate or impede either the decision-making or other performance activity of another or both. Three of the four task facilitation variables used in the study are directly relevant to the decision-making process. These several measures of cognitive, information-processing behavior are related to measures of two other dimensions of interdepartment behavior: namely, structure (pattern of interaction) and attitudes. The foregoing is intended to illustrate approaches to the analysis of interunit decision processes. We enter the analysis with a large conceptual model from which we obtain a large set of ceteris paribus propositions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The body of current organization theory is introspective, providing an inside view of leaders, groups and internal communication, analyzing decision-making within the "black box," and so forth. Economics is obsessed with the environment but notoriously uninterested in what goes on inside the firm. This paper makes a case for the study of the interplay of organization and environment and predicts that ecological approaches will produce another vital strain in organization theory. While research on human organization may derive considerable inspiration from plant and animal ecology, there are important distinctions to be made. Humans have long-term objective, and they have certain amount of foresight (as well as hindsight). They can plan for and administer change. Man and the organizations he creates are to a certain extent the masters of their own destiny. To some degree we may shape our own environment, and are not merely shaped by it. This is most clearly evident in the case of such powerful entities as national governments or large corporations, but it is actually characteristic of all human organizations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Professor Richard Farmer and myself have been exploring models of and approaches in the fields of comparative management, international business, and economic development of several years. Our interest in such models has several dimensions, since they can typically be used for both macro and micro studies involving countries, branches of industry, and individual firms. Although our research to date has revolved around inter-country comparisons, it seems that our basic methodology and parts of our overall conceptual framework may also have applications for comparative research involving different industries and firms in the same country, including the U.S. The chief concern of this paper is to consider empirical applications of our conceptual framework or research model. However, some general background information on what we are trying to do and on the nature of our framework will also be presented. For those who want more details about our overall model and methodological approaches, I refer you to some of our already published works[1]. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing realization that what has come to be called the systems approach can provide the manager with another valuable tool with which to perform his functions. This analysis, then, will have two purposes: 1) to ascertain the systems responsibility of management; and, 2) to suggest how this responsibility can be exercised. As for the first purpose, it will be suggested that from a systems point of view, the management function can be considered as the design, installation, operation, maintenance and evaluation. of behavioral systems. Before discussing this further, a behavioral system. should he defined. This paper will be restricted to behavioral systems which are normative in nature. Although no complete agreement exists over the definition of a normative system, the following construct by Richard Kershner is representative. He notes, "A system is a collection of entities or things (animate or inanimate) which receives certain inputs and is constrained to act concertedly upon them to produce certain outputs, with the objective of maximizing some function of inputs and outputs.''[1] Such systems are man created or inventions to serve specific human purposes. They are purposeful, deliberate, rational and subject to modification in order to increase the value to be optimized. Normative systems can be broadly classified in terms of the nature of the components or entities which comprise the system: these are 1) machine to machine, 2) man to machine, and 3) man to man. For the purpose of this analysis, the terms "man to man" and "behavioral systems" will be used synonymously. Meredith Crawford has observed. "A football team can be designated a man to man system in which man supplies the power, movement, striking force, information processing, memory and decision-making." On the other hand, he noted that a guided missile battery consists of machines that perform these same operations." Furthermore, within the possible future competence of the... [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper is a combination of research in the behavioral sciences and administrative behavior, concerning the realm of change in village culture. The findings have been formulated in terms of a case study because the research lends itself admirably to such a format, anthropologists have been interested in case studies,[1] and, innovation follows certain patterns[2] which may be conveniently and usefully traced in the format of a case. The central theme reflects a theoretical treatment of an important, though often neglected view--that culture strongly affects the activities o f business administration. Many authors seem to recognize this phenomena; Pfiffner and Sherwood have treated the subject in some detail. They state that cultural awareness gives management better understanding, ability to predict behavior, vicarious experience, and aid in facilitating change.[3] Few writers, however, have exemplified this through research studies. The following research study makes specific examination of the various characteristics of village culture in general, anal particularly in India, and their effects on the management of an enterprise. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The need for an alternative approach to the analysis of managerial functions arises front the inherent limitations of the "traditional approach.'' (1) The traditionalists have not distinguished between true principles or facts and recommendations about what practice should be. (2) The validity of the "traditional approach" and its conclusions has not been demonstrated. (3) The acceptability of the approach and its conclusions rests in large measure upon frequent repetition by writers in the field. (4) The universality of application sought by the traditionalists is retarded by the very nature of their approach. These limitations impair the effectiveness and weaken the contribution of the traditional analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The objective of this paper is to place in perspective what has been termed here the mathematical approach to management problem solving. That there is some misunderstanding with respect to the role which mathematics can and should play relative to management practices seems clear. In assessing its role and evaluating its contribution, one must understand the nature of mathematics in its relation to management problem solving. Mathematics is after all only a way of thinking about problems, a means by which one may express and manipulate any set of perceived relationships in a problem situation. The important thing about mathematics is the tremendous increase in effectiveness which it allows in a problem-solving situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper has attempted to indicate the most serious obstacles in the way of applying the scientific approach in the management of people and to point out some encouraging signs for the future. With an increasing awareness of the need for more research in the social sciences, increasing progress is sure to be made in areas that will affect the art of management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]