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The article announces various events related to the field of operations research in the U.S. The Operations Research Society of America will hold its seventeenth national meeting at the Statler-Hilton Hotel in New York on May 18-20, 1960. A symposium, entitled "The Theory of Traffic Flow," was held by General Motors Corp. at the Research Laboratories in Warren, Michigan on December 7-8, 1959. The Society for Industrial and Applied Mathematics will publish the first issue of Volume IV of "Theory of Probability and Its Applications," an English translation of the Russian journal "Teoriya Veroyatnostei i ee Primeneniya."

A revealing analysis by John L. Lewis of the great General Motors sit-down strike of 1936-1937 is included among the documents in the recently opened Heber Blankenhorn Papers in the Archives of Labor History and Urban Affairs of Wayne State University. Prepared by Blankenhorn on the basis of a conversation with Lewis on February 25, 1937, only two weeks after the conclusion of the strike, the document is the best available contemporaneous source for Lewis' views concerning the settlement of the strike and the factors that contributed to the victory of the United Automobile Workers. Although initiated by sit-downs at the Atlanta Fisher body plant on November 18, 1936, and the Kansas City Fisher Body plant on December 16, 1936, the GM strike did not take on major proportions until sit- down strikes closed the Fisher Body plant in Cleveland on December 28 and the two Fisher Body plants in Flint on December 30. Governor Frank Murphy of Michigan sent the National Guard into Flint on January 12 following the famous Battle of the Running Bulls, but he used the troops to maintain the status quo rather than to dislodge the sit-down strikers.

The first part of this article describes the contrast between W. C. Durant, the innovating genius who "invented" General Motors, and Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., the organizer who made it work by introducing a series of novel administrative skills in organization, forecasting, policymaking, controls, and human relations. The second part is an evaluation of Sloan's contributions to administrative thought through his administrative ideology and methodology. He is considered to have pioneered in applying "scientific management" at the very top levels. Finally, an attempt is made to assess the extent to which Sloan's system may be deterministic beyond the period of service of himself and his associates. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the authors' insights on the new technique to measure employe attitudes, developed by Employe Research Section of the General Motors Corp. The authors say that their new technique for studying work attitude is called My Job Contest (MJC), which involves division of works including content analysis and entry coding, process of tabulation, and continuing follow-up. They state that employe attitude surveys were used in the U.S. industry as a result of the increasing recognition that communication to and from employee is a vital problem in business enterprises. They adds that survey techniques direct attention to a certain feature of job satisfaction and work situation.

The article presents legal developments in marketing relating to the regulation of channels of distribution. Regarding the operating features of marketing institutions, the case "Berry Brothers Buick, Inc. v. General Motors Corporation (Buick Motors Division)," is discussed, in which the court found that, under the Automobile Dealer Franchise Act, General Motors had acted in good faith when it refused to renew a dealer's franchise. Principles established by the decision are discussed, including the necessary element of "coercion, intimidation, or threats of coercion or intimidation" as outlined in the Automobile Dealer Franchise Act.

Presents an abstract of the article "Running an 'Idea Cafeteria': How GM Does It," published in the journal "Management Review." Information on the original source of the article; Description of the use of information racks by General Motors Corp. (GM); Subjects on which booklets were distributed at GM.