Knowledge that Transforms

Books Reviews is this articles Fineman, Stephen, White Collar Unemployment—Impact and Stress. Nelson, Daniel. Frederick W. Taylor and the Rise of Scientific Management. Reason, P. and Rowan, J. (Eds). Human Inquiry: A Sourcebook of New Paradigm Research. McLean, Adrian, Sims, David, Mangham, Iain and Tuffield, David. Organization Development in Transition: Evidence of an Evolving Profession. Whitley, Richard, Thomas, Alan and Marceau, Jane. Masters of Business? Business Schools and Business Graduates in Britain and France. Thomson, Andrew and Warner, Malcolm (Eds). The Behavioural Sciences and Industrial Relations. Watts, A. G., Super, Donald E., and Kidd, Jennifer M. Career Development in Britain. Cook, John D., Hepworth, Susan J., Wall, Toby D. and Warr, Peter B., The Experience of Work A Compendium and Review of 249 Measures and Their Use. Singleton, W. T. (Ed.) Management Skills. Zammuto, Raymond F. Assessing Organizational Effectiveness: Systems Change, Adaptation and Strategy. de Wolff, C. J., Shimmin, Sylvia and Montmollin, Maurice. Conflicts and Contradictions: Work Psychologists in Europe. Eilon, Samuel. Management Control.

This paper reports the application of the priority scaling method to financial cutback decisions in a social services organization, and provides an overview of the priority scaling method. The method is used to elicit a weighted scale of individual and group priorities between options from paired‐comparison exercises, together with a measure of internal consistency of judgment. The weighted scale of option priorities may be adjusted to align with the relative values individuals and groups assign to the multiple criteria which guide their judgments, and a measure of internal coherence of judgment obtained. Decision‐makers’ allocations of resources may be inferred from their priority weightings together with budgets for each option. Applying the method in reverse, decision‐makers’ implied priorities may be directly inferred from proposed budget cuts. A set of reliability tests are incorporated in rigorous versions of the method.

The data on which this paper is based come from an ethnography of rehabilitation of the elderly. Two main themes, methodological and substantive, predominate. Some methodological issues surrounding ethnographic techniques are highlighted. These include gaining access, establishing relationships and the researcher having a number of roles rather than just one. The ethnomethodological perspective on organizations as a constellation of rules informs the substantive theme of the paper. Within this perspective rule use is situated and the meanings of particular rules are discerned from their use in specific contexts. This approach enables attention to be directed to the practical problems with which individuals are confronted in doing organizational work and how actors orient to them in action. The ways in which organizational rules may be defeased, manipulated or suspended are detailed with reference to nurses working on geriatric wards.

Single‐ and double‐loop organizational learning are discussed in the context of retrenchment in higher education. A model of the research university illuminates impediments to internal resource reallocation, programme elimination and integrative leadership, and suggests the need for alternatives to usual efforts to increase efficiency while retaining existing norms, goals, and organizational structures.

The mutual perceptions were obtained of 113 Japanese and 100 British managers working in the London offices of 18 Japanese companies. Eighteen semantic differential items were used to permit each respondent to report his auto stereotype of his own nationality of manager, his hetero stereotype of the other nationality, and his meta stereotype (his opinion as to how they would assess his own group). The degree of agreement between the auto stereotype of each group and the hetero stereotype held of it by the other group is discussed, and the accuracy of the meta stereotypes is examined. It is also shown that the 18 semantic items can be reduced to 3 principal components which, after rotation, are consistent in meaning between the two nationalities. The three rotated factors are interpretable as ‘approval’, ‘open style’ and ‘functional’. The factors permit a more concise comparison of the stereotypes.

ABSTRACT decision‐making processes are compared in American and British subsidiaries in Britain to investigate how far processual characteristics as distinct from structural features, may be implanted in subsidiaries abroad. Managements in the British owned subsidiaries tend to route their biggest decisions through the formalities of standing committees in conformity with customary procedures, taking a comparatively long time to do so. Managements in the American owned subsidiaries tend to rely on informally assembled working groups which help to arrive at a decision comparatively rapidly through a process which does not ostensibly follow any recognized procedure. The British mode is formal within a non‐formalized customary pattern, the American mode informal within a formalized frame.

This paper describes the design, implementation, and accompanying conceptual developments of a course in the behavioural sciences at the Israel Defence Forces Command and General Staff College. The objective of the course is to improve the effectiveness of the student as a problem‐solver, decision‐maker and crisis‐manager. The two basic assumptions underlying the course are: (1) That the latter objective can be achieved by helping the student put into practice certain ideas, models and methods from the areas of descriptive epistemology, problem‐solving, decision‐making under uncertainty, and decision‐making under stress; (2) That the likelihood of utilizing acquired knowledge is directly related to its concreteness and relevance. On the basis of the latter assumption, the methodology of experiential learning was adapted for teaching conceptual material. Results of final examinations indicate that the instructional method of the course is comparable to traditional methods for the purpose of teaching conceptual knowledge. It is still too early to judge its effectiveness vis à vis the more ambitious goals of the course. The experience gained in implementation revealed two problematical issues which must be resolved if these goals are to be achieved. The first issue concerns the over‐all coherence of the course, the other, the emotional reactions of resistance and defensiveness which characterized the learning process. In an attempt to resolve these issues, a new conceptual framework was developed, which embeds the subjects of problem‐solving and decision‐making within descriptive (or lay) epistemology. The framework is centred around the concept of reality images, defined as the way in which an individual perceives his external situation and internal condition, and the meanings which he selects or attributes to them. It is argued that the effectiveness of problem‐solving, decision‐making and crisis‐management are a function of the reality image construction process. Furthermore, normative models of problem‐solving and decision‐making will be utilized most effectively if they are conceived as tools for the construction of reality images. Finally, it is suggested that the most important aids for constructing reality images of high fidelity are exercising reflection and inquiry. The paper concludes with a discussion of several basic questions, raised by the course, which are relevant to the applicability of recent developments in cognitive psychology.