Search

As an exploration of the frustration of users of an online interactive retrieval system, students from the School of Library Science of Syracuse University participated in an experiment using an experimental reference retrieval system for library literature on the IBM system 360/50. The searching consisted of sample searches using key-words. The data base contained library literature citations for the year 1970. In the control group, students were instructed to locate literature related to library management and information retrieval systems. The particular terms in the search and the format were outlined in an instruction session before the students used the system. The experimental group was not restricted to a sample search, or specified search terms, but the format of the searches were to be the same as the control group. It was anticipated that significant variations in the behavior of the users would be displayed and identified by comparing measures of behavior as the man-computer interaction proceeded through the search process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of management literature. They include "Administration and Economic Development in India," edited by Ralph Braibanti and Joseph J. Spengler, "Automation and Technological Change," edited by John T. Dunlop, and "The Business Representative in Washington," by Paul W. Cherington and Ralph L. Gillen.

Information about the Second Annual Computer Applications Symposium held in Chicago, Illinois on October 24-25, 1955 is presented. The first six papers presented are devoted to the business and management aspects of computer utility. Another six papers on engineering and research applications were presented on the second day. A total of 176 people have been listed in attendance at the symposium.

This paper discusses some of the implications of technological modifications and improvements on industrial management in two types of advanced manufacturing systems displaying flow-like characteristics and designated "process" and "quasi-process" systems. Technological advances often result in the structuring of functional relationships and responsibilities, and affect development of an organizational control system which includes human, procedural and mechanical elements. This analysis is based on field research studies as well as studies reported in the literature. Theoretical considerations and empirical findings are set forth to account for organizational developments such as the simplification or complication of organizational structure. Finally, the managerial-supervisory job functions emerging in these advanced systems provide a basis for clarifying the role of supporting groups and added considerations for a key executive function such as managerial manpower planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The advent of electronics in record-keeping and data-processing has placed the office equipment industry in the most challenging, yet potentially rewarding, role in its history. And the same thing can be said for accountants. Electronics is a new mode of transportation. Because of its tremendous speed in carrying out the errands, the electron can take one just about anywhere, statistically speaking. This revolution in office procedures and data-processing, promises to do for man's mind what the industrial revolution did for his body. By harnessing the electron, one will be able to multiply a single clerical employee's efforts many times. In a few more years American business would have been figuratively snowed under by its ever mounting volume of paperwork. At the start of the 20th century, only one man in every 40 employees was a paper worker. With pen and ink as his chief tools, this early-day clerical was able to keep up with all of the demands placed on accounting by business.

Copyright of International Journal of Production Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of International Journal of Production Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The subject of automation in business has had extended coverage in the business press during recent months. Electronics has also captured the imagination of marketing men, but the areas for automation have not been clearly defined. This article answers some important questions and gives specific results that have been obtained. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A description of a system using punched paper tape for the retrieval of documents, by author, title, place and date of publication, and subject employed at the Fluid Mechanics Division of the National Engineering Laboratory of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research. Much attention is given to the construction of the codes employed in the system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information about new methods of printing and reproducing scholarly materials. Three lines of development are being pursued: composing typewriters producing positive images on paper; film composing machines based on standard matrix assemblies; and film composing machines based on non-standard matrix assemblies. The development of composing typewriters is characterized by two forces, to do something as cheaply as possible and to do it as much like metal types as possible. Major developments in printing machinery can be grouped under two heads, faster and more automatic printing equipment, and refinements in offset.

The role, nature, status and future of Information Systems. Objectives and approach of paper. Illustrations of problems for automation. On-Line-Real-Time Information Systems. Control of space travel. Control of airline reservations. Military Command and Control. Planning and Control of Research and Development. Where computers excel. Where men excel. How man works. Heuristic problem solving. Man-machine communications consoles. Solution of ordinary differential equations. Computer aided engineering design. Solution of partial differential and integral equations. Automated Program Evaluation and Review Technique (PERT). Automated Teaching of Languages. Approach for automation. Conclusions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of the writing on the new "Management Science", that is on the application of systematic methodology to the job of managing in the business enterprise, has so far come from the scientists. Understandably it has therefore focused on the finding of areas in business to which the scientist can apply tools and techniques with which he is already familiar, and on the sharpening and development of these tools. The all but universal approach has been: here is a scientific method, here are scientific tools and techniques; let us find applications for them in the business enterprise. This paper proposes to look at "Management Science" from the point of view of the Manager. Its focus will therefore be on determining what methodology, what tools and techniques the Manager needs to do an orderly and systematic job of managing. Concretely the focus will be on the specific process through which the Manager does his work, and on the specific object to which his work is directed; one focus will be on Decision Making, one on the Business Enterprise and its structure. And the aim of this paper is to develop, albeit in rough and sketchy form, some specifications for "Management Science". [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of International Journal of Production Research is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper gives a qualitative treatment of a new approach to the synthesis of sequential control systems. Complex sequential control systems can be assembled from a relatively small number of standard sequence packages. These have useful sequential properties in their own right, but the methods for coupling them together to form larger sequential systems are described by the authors. Additional benefit is gained by using the machine actuators alone as memory devices. This removes any possibility of unintentional disturbance of the state of the memory function in the control system. Three examples are chosen to illustrate the design process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper summarises theoretical and experimental studies of some problems concerning the realisation of broaching of ring thrust faces. It presents descriptions of devices and investigations into the limits of application of this technology such as tool life, the deformation of rings under cutting forces and the stability of rings under clamping forces. The objectives of this project were to increase the productivity rate and continuity of production and to facilitate automation. SUMMARY. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents abstracts of various articles on management topics, including "Management and Motivation," by Sven E. Kock, "Office Automation Administrative and Human Problems," by W. H. Scott and "Acceptance and Resistance," by Alain Touraine.

The article reports on technological innovations, particularly automation, and the impact these developments can have on all segments of business. Most of the significant progress in automation has previously been confined to production processes and manufacturing. Only recently have automation methods been linked with marketing. This has been confined largely to warehousing, transportation, order picking and handling. These innovations speed up the distribution process and lower marketing costs. But what about the other important marketing functions: selling; new product development and testing; communications, including advertising, public relations, and publicity; packaging; and marketing research?

Sociologists interested in the panorama of work have increasingly brought theft insights to bear on the role of automation in the "dehumanization" of labor, the consequent alienation of the worker from the fruits of his efforts, and the resulting leisure more tedious than the routine of work itself. The attention devoted to these problems suggests that it may perhaps be appropriate to consider a re-evaluation of the notion of work. This paper represents a first approximation at such an attempt. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper began with the problem of the effects of size and automation on the decentralization of decision making. On the basis of previous theory and re- search I expected to find that increases in size force decision making to become decentralized, while automation allows recentralization to occur, since the rapid feedback of information to top management enables top management to make decisions which formerly had to be made at lower levels. However, the data showed exactly the opposite set of relationships. Automation had a strong positive effect on decentralization, and size had a weak negative effect. This led to reconsideration of the original hypothesis, which proved to have two obvious weaknesses. First, office automation, at least in the state employment agencies, is used only for the most routine tasks, so that any effect that it has on the decentralization of hiring decisions must be very indirect. Second, the argument assumed that centralization is always and inherently desirable and that top executives decentralize only out of necessity. This assumption is certainly open to question, especially in large organizations, where the decentralization of some decisions may be quite desirable but impossible unless there are mechanisms which routinize the internal organizational processes, thereby increasing the capacity of people at all levels of the organization to take on new responsibilities and to delegate others. Automation has this effect in that it reduces routine problems at the lowest level of the organization. This frees first-line supervisors from some of their day- to-day problems and allows them to accept the responsibility for decisions which had been forced back up to higher levels in the hierarchy. Each level is, in turn, freed from its more routine tasks; and the process repeats itself on up to the director, who sets the flow of authority in motion by delegating some of his own authority so that he can take on more appropriate executive functions such as long-range planning and the maintenance of interorganizational contacts. The pressure created by the new responsibilities which thus devolve on the second level force personnel on that level to further delegate some of their more routine responsibilities, and authority cascades down through the hierarchy to fill the vacuum which automation has created. The use of this model enabled us to explain why there should be such a strong correlation between the two decentralization variables, assuming that one of them is a decision on a higher level than the other. It also showed that the effect of automation on lower-level decisions was indirect, since it travelled entirely through higher-level decisions. The plausibility of the model was further strengthened by the fact that an alternative model which assumed that the correlation between automation and decentralization was spurious, due to the effects of size and formalization of personnel procedures, could not explain away the correlation between automation and decentralization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Medical & Biological Engineering (0025696X) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The current interest in predicting the impact of computers and automation on society, and the disturbing conclusions reached in papers sponsored by the Center for the Study of Democratic Institutions, raise questions as to whether many studies have been undertaken on a scientific basis, using hypotheses subjected to disciplined and Systematic methods of testing. In the following article, the author makes a preliminary analysis of the credibility of the conclusions reached by considering both a set of sample data and a probability estimation procedure. The author believes that scientific methods are appropriate but have not been used and that the predictions and conclusions of the cited studies therefore cannot be accepted without careful systematic analysis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a reprint of a paper by Daniel J. Leahy of Collegiate School, New York, which was presented at the Association for the Education of Teachers in Science's dinner meeting held October 28, 1961 in New York City. He reports on the implications of automation for the teaching of science. He also examines the issues relating to programmed instruction.