Knowledge that Transforms

Gaining a competitive advantage from computerized manufacturing in batch production operations requires the realignment of structure and technology to create a new fit within the firm and innovative approaches to strategy selection and implementation. This article presents propositions for the effective strategic use of computerized batch production. These propositions are drawn from existing research and from observations offirms using advanced technology to gain a competitive edge.

This article examined earnings across different occupational groups to determine whether compensable factors (characteristics on which organizations base compensation) are treated uniformly. The dependent variable for this study was the log, of mean occupational earnings for males employed year-round in 300 out of 463 detailed 1970 Census occupations. The independent variables were human capital, labor market, industry, and job task. Job task variables were based on the Position Analysis Questionnaire (PAQ). Factor, correlation, and regression analyses were used to examine the data. Results indicate that compensable factors are rewarded differentially among occupational groups, but that there are no radically different emphases on specific compensable factors. The implications of these differencesfor the comparable worth issue callfor additional research.

This article describes the development of Captain Henry Metcalfe's card system of cost accounting and production control at Frankford Arsenal in the 1880s. Metcalfe's concern over being unable to account for costs within the workshops at Frankford Arsenal led to influential consultations with private manufacturers and to a series of correspondence with his superiors, in which he described a card system which would apply the principle of "independence offunction," long accepted in machine design, to both the arsenal's workers and books. These unpublished manuscript materials are discussed and Metcalfe shown to be afigure of wider historical interest.

This study hypothesized that financial decision makers who felt responsible for previous monetary losses in public-sector conditions would allocate less to their specific projects than their nonresponsible counterparts would. The subjects were 320 undergraduate psychology students; 46% were male and 54% were female. Subjects were given a scenario involving a state agency's employability program with a declining placement rate, and asked to determine which of two sponsors would be the recipient of additionalfunds. The factor of responsibility was manipulated and the experiment was repeated in a private-enterprise setting. Results indicated that in public-context conditions, responsible subjects allocated significantly less money than did nonresponsible subjects, although this was not the case in private-context conditions. The findings suggest differential strategies for guiding allocation behavior in different contexts.

This study empirically investigated the propositions generated from agency and constituency perspectives about the nature of the managerial role. The managerial role was conceptualized as an integral part of the existing outcome interdependencies and power relations among a set of constituencies. By using time-series data on 160 companies in 10 manufacturing industries and performing three-stage least squares (3SLS) analyses, it was found that both competitive and symbiotic outcome interdependencies exist among the constituencies of organizations, and that these interdependencies are related to the long-term average outcomes of these constituencies. The implications of thesefindings for the symbolic role of managers is discussed.

This study demonstrates a way of understanding how employees in different countries perceive, attach meaning to, interpret, and organize the stimuli surrounding them, by mapping their perceptions through the statistical technique of higher order factor analysis. Responses to questionnaire items from a sample of267 white-collar workers in 12 banks in the Midwestern United States and 307 employeesfrom 9 banks in the urban parts of India werefirstfactor analyzed. The 19 factors that emerged in each of the two countries through this initial factor analysis, together with six other single-item variables, were then submitted to a higher order offactor analysis, individually for the two samples. Five nets or constellations of variables were captured in each of the two countries. The similarities and differences in the variables in the nets, and the implications of these for managers and researchers, are discussed here.

This article makes a case for workers' self-management through bottom-up strategies and decisions. The Mondragon system of 89 industrial cooperatives, operating in the Basque region of northern Spain, is viewed as a worker-designed organizational network that ensures equality as well as efficiency. The criteria for assessing the Mondragon experience include job retention and expansion, healthy labor relations, individual and collective motivation, organizational performance, and wealth creation. The implications of a worker-managed economy for American scholars and practitioners are discussed.

This article examines the potential of applying network analysis to attribution theories of leadership. Network analysis allows the identification of social groups linked together by work, friendship, influence, or communication relations and of the relative position of actors within the social group. Moreover, network properties such as centrality, influence domain or prestige, and the presence of isolates enable the identification of leaders in relation to their position, status, and influence in a particular social setting. The use of network analysis in evaluating leader-subordinate relationships and leader behavior descriptions is discussed and a research agenda suggested.

This study investigated the early career factors that affect the decision to move from a technical professional job to a technical management position. Sixty scientists and engineers from two research and development (R & D) divisions in the chemical industry were interviewed about their early career decisions. The constant comparative method of qualitative analysis was used to analyze the data. Respondents were categorized into three groups: career technical professionals by choice, career technical professionals by default, and technical managers. Results indicated that favorable job structure, access to mentorslsponsors, and entrepreneurial initiative characterized technical managers and technical professionals by choice, whereas technical professionals by default were characterized by the absence of these factors. The implications of these findings for management research and practice are discussed.

This study examined how customer-firm interface (CFI) mediates the relationship between information processing and task activities in service organizations. Data were collectedfrom 181 service clerks, 83 nurses, and 126 pilot trainers, with average ages of 27 years, 38 years, and 31 years, respectively. The subjects were selectedfrom two retail organizations, two hospitals, and a military installation. Ninety-one percent of the pilot trainers and 63% of the retail clerks were male; all the nurses were female. Information processing was measured in terms of equivocality and amount, and correlational and hierarchical regression analyses were used to examine the data. CFI was found to mediate the relationship between information equivocality and task activities. CFI and task activities were also independently related to information amount. These findings suggest an expansion of earlier research showing only a bivariate relationship between information processing and task activities.