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This article investigates the relationship between organization size and frequency of strikes among manufacturing organizations that have been classified according to production method. Despite considerable evidence of interrelationships among size, technology and strike frequency, it seems to be a complex relationship. A characteristic of larger variance on certain dimensions of organizational structure in medium-size plants suggested that managers of these plants may be looking for the right values for these dimensions to much larger extent than managers in the seemingly more stable smaller and larger plants.

The article presents a variety of solutions for companies so they can provide ongoing education opportunities for their research and development (R&D) employees. The suggestions are based on the findings of an interview group comprised of 290 R&D scientists and engineers. The authors found that companies that had an organizational structure which constrained and restricted R&D departments by adding excess paperwork and limiting access to colleagues had the least amount of innovation and creativity, despite educational efforts. In companies that encouraged a more open research environment, employees often discussed what they learned from their coworkers.

The author discusses the need for the Soviet Union to improve the education and training of the country's industrial managers and engineers. A historical overview of Soviet industrial management trends is presented. At the June 1965 economic conference held at Moscow University, the attendees recommended that a new institute run by qualified experts should be set up to deal exclusively with research and problems in industrial management and organization theory. The author compares the economies of the U.S. and U.S.S.R.

The article discusses corporate planning in terms of competitive advantage. According to a 1964 study planning is seen as one of the weakest links in U.S. corporations. Nearly 3000 of the 3,600 leading U.S. manufacturers with sales over $10 million reported having no formalized planning system. A primary component of the planning process is to develop a complete and consistent set of policies and principles. Corporate level long range planning shapes the focus of all other planning efforts. At the highest level planning is concerned with the viability of the firm over the greatest length of time for which some major factors are projectable.

A classification of concepts of technology as operations technology, materials technology, and knowledge technology, is proposed. The construction of scales measuring operations technology at an organizational level of conceptualization, makes it possible to test the broad hypothesis that organizational technology is strongly related to organizational structure, by linear and nonlinear correlational analysis. On a stratified sample of diverse organizations in the English midlands, and on a subset of manufacturing organizations, this sweeping "technological imperative" hypothesis was generally not supported in successive tests. Operations technology was, however, associated with some variables, which are similar in that all were job-counts denoting the proportions employed in specified categories. This result, together with a detailed comparison with Woodward's findings in south-east Essex, leads to a reinterpretation of the role of technology. Operations technology is shown to affect only those structural variables immediately impinged on by the workflow. Thus the smaller the organization the more completely its structure is pervaded by the immediate effects of this technology; the larger the organization the more these effects are confined to variables such as the proportions employed in activities that are specifically linked with workflow, and technology is not related to the wider administrative and hierarchical structure. This interpretation, it is suggested, offers a synthesis for the long-standing divergence in organization theory between statements by classical management writers of management principles irrespective of technology, and the stress by behavioral scientists on the relevance of technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on an analysis of task characteristics and group problem-solving behavior, a division-of-labor form of organization was hypothesized to be superior in performance to committee or hierarchical forms in a business-game simulation. The experimental results strongly support the hypothesis. In addition, an interaction between organization structure and rates of improvement in performance was found and was greatest among groups showing a low level of initial performance. The problem-solving efficiency of different organization structures is discussed in relation to task requirements and the appropriate organizational behavior, to group adaptation to a task aver time, and to various group characteristics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a laboratory experiment, tall and flat organization structures were tested for their effects on group performance. Comparisons of performance on the time taken to complete decisions showed no significant difference between tall and flat organization structures. Although it took longer to process decisions through the several levels of a tall structure, groups with fiat organization took more time to resolve conflicts and to coordinate efforts. Tall organization structures were superior on two other measures of performance: profits and rate of return on revenues. Apparently the greater number of levels in the tall structure provided for more frequent evaluation of decisions and better performance on these two variables. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A multinational enterprise operates in a plurality of dynamic environments. Its organizational structure, therefore, must consist of two parts: (1) a nationally and culturally decentralized base designed to deal with pluralistic conditions through strong, autonomous subentities and (2) a centralized superstructure to achieve coordination throughout the whole. Coordination is predicated on effective international communication -- both its linguistic and non-linguistic aspects. Good communication, in turn, requires comparability of standards, rapid feedback and multiple management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The characteristics associated with the creative individual and the identification of these characteristics have been explored in a companion paper in this Journal. Once this important task has been accomplished, the equally significant administrative question of the optimum utilization of this creative talent arises. The effective utilization of creative abilities within a goal seeking organization is conditioned by many variables including: top management's attitudinal posture regarding the value of creativeness and innovation; the organizational slack present in the resource inputs, and, certainly, the organizational climate created by the organization's design, control system, and reward system. Given the characteristics of the creative individual and given the recruitment of persons with creative abilities, this paper explores the issue of the organizational climate most conducive to the generation and maintenance of constructive creative responses oriented toward the organization's goals. We will first explore the question of what is the administrative hierarchy attempting to accomplish when it establishes a given organizational design. Within this framework, the organizational design of traditional administrative theory will be superimposed upon our model of the creative individual as developed previously. Given the basic incongruities of the "fit," the question of the possible variation of organizational structures to fit variable purposes arises. Finally, implications for possible organizational designs needed to utilize creative talent effectively will be explored. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the three level theory of perceptual-motor functioning. It presented a hypothetical construct which is a meaningful and scientifically accurate model that is compatible both with experimental findings and common observations of human skill. It proposed a framework that is composed of factors at three levels which supported the supposition that general kinds of behavioral tendencies support and mold perceptual-motor performance and learning. The three levels were general behavioral supports, intermediate traits or ability traits, and specific traits or factors such as the unique energy demands of the task, the perceptual components specific to the task, and the kind of past experiences in the task.

Using analogies from systems theory and economic theory, a more precise specification of the nature of the problem posed by `turbulent' organizational environments is developed. This analysis points to the need for macro-organizational theory to explain the behaviour of complex interorganizational systems. Models from political theory are used as a basis for studying the integrative problems of pluralistic systems and the process of macro-organizational management. The role of `second order' and network organizations in developing the capacity of a system to formulate and implement `macro-policies' is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During the Vulcan Series last year, a number of points were explored which attempted to extend current thinking and methods in the traditional training man's area of work. Some examples were given of approaches which are finding favour in certain applications. The following article describes the extension and combination of several training approaches as applied to a practical, highly skilled operator training problem. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a list of teacher competencies associated with open education implementation. This article describes the process used to investigate the development of some of the competencies. Groupings relating to specific competencies to more generalized areas of classroom behavior were formed during the process of developing the list. The groupings includes Group A which has competencies involving skills essential for curriculum development suited for open education implementation, Group B which has competencies involving interpersonal relationship and their impact on open education implementation and Group C which has competencies involving teaching devices that will affect the accomplishment of the open classroom curricula and classroom behavior.

Sociology needs precise, comparative, reliable data. This requires the splitting down of unitary `grand' concepts into operationally defined variables, fashioned to attack particular problems, and amenable to multivariate statistical analysis. This approach can be exemplified in the study of bureaucracy by the development of scaleable dimensions of organization structure such as specialization. This concept has been operationally defined, and a comparative analysis across 52 work organizations of the degree of `functional specialization' and of `role specialization' within each function, has yielded 17 scales on which to base a profile, characteristic of each organization. An `overall specialization scale', obtained by factor analysis, gives a range of scores in the sample from o (no specialists) to 87 (an extremely high degree of role specialization within the organization). Using size and technology as independent variables, a prediction analysis gives a multiple correlation with overall role specialization of 0.81. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A teacher preparation model for interrelated areas in special education is described. The model provides (a) behaviorally defined specifications of competencies desired, (b) criterion measures for assessing entry and proficiency, and (c) instructional options available for achieving these objectives. A program is outlined for teacher education from the junior undergraduate level through the master's degree, with possible doctoral level extension. Evaluation of the model is twofold and concerns the project's effectiveness in teacher preparation and eventually, in pupil gains. The model synthesizes the common competencies necessary for teachers in interrelated areas of special education. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Forty-seven teachers of emotionally disturbed children in a midwestern state completed an 88 item checklist. Teachers' Evaluation of Competencies, which was originally used in a study conducted by Mackie, Kvaraceus, and Williams. A comparison was made between the Mackie study and the present study regarding proficiencies and competencies valued by teachers. Four hypotheses and several corollaries were investigated and evaluated. Significant differences were found in all cases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In a three year research and demonstration project to determine the feasibility of employing the educable retarded adult in a competitive work setting after appropriate vocational training, the training time and work performance of a retarded group were compared with the performance of nonretarded employees at Abilities, Inc. Results indicated that the retarded worker was able to learn the typical industrial and commercial skills needed at Abilities. The crucial matter in success was not in learning job skills per se, but in developing adequate work habits and personal social skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article evaluates the special competencies needed by teachers of disturbed children and regular classroom teachers in the U.S. According to teachers in residential schools, interests and friends outside the field of education are not necessary. Regular classroom teachers felt that it is important for them to make case studies, to administer social maturity scales and individual intelligence tests, and to have a knowledge of defense mechanisms. The teachers in public schools, in regular or special classes, feel that they need to know about different cultural and social groups including the needs of minority groups. The competencies that are cited by teachers of disturbed children as important and could be developed through college preparation are: 1) experience on a clinical team with psychiatrists, psychologists, and social workers; and, 2) knowledge of the competencies and roles expected of psychiatrists, clinical psychologists, and social workers.

The article discusses relative predictability of occupational groups and performance criteria in an extreme environment. Prediction of personnel performance in industrial or military settings tends to be difficult even within stable and well-defined organizational structures. Whether actuarial or clinical methods are employed, predictive validities tend to be low, and cross-validities often are insignificant. The need for valid personnel selection devices remains, however, and development of useful selection models is an urgent concern of many professional psychologists.

The article focuses on the elements of manpower planning in underdeveloped economies. According to the author, efficient utilization of human resources is the most pressing need of underdeveloped nations. A researcher observes that underdeveloped countries are unable to achieve their optimum rate of economic growth because they concentrate their investment on the creation of nonhuman capital while spending very little on developing skills and knowledge. The core of human resource development lies in the implementation of plans designed to improve the qualitative aspects of population. These plans, as the author suggests, are envisaged to be so comprehensive in nature as to include such key factors to development as health, nutrition, housing, education and training. Further, it is opined that an underdeveloped economy can attain a rising level of living for its population and can enjoy sustained development through careful and balanced planning, designed to increase its capacity both to produce and to consume.

The concept of career is both useful and necessary for the study of organizations. Through members' constructions of organizational careers, an organization becomes real and capable of action. Organizational careers intermediate between the programmatic and the symbolic elements of organizational situations. Careers, through their objective and subjective dualism, penetrate both the organization's symbolic order and its objective activity and order, constituting a third and essential element in organizational structure. Careers are highly interdependent upon communication processes, notably as negotiation of joint plans of action and of identity, role and status. Careers, work, and identity are seen as interrelated aspects of the self as a social object. Events and interactions in organizational situations lead to shifts in the moral definitions of the self and others, and to behavior which serves to protect the self from becoming profaned. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The effects of different organizational strategies on group performance were studied. Two performance criteria were proposed: (1) "effectiveness"—maximum group performance; and (2) "efficiency"—performance per unit of time. One hundred and forty-four Ss worked individually, or in dyads using a divided labor, shared labor or free choice strategy. Tasks were a difficult and easy crossword puzzle. The free choice and shared labor strategies were more effective than divided labor. Free choice and divided labor were more efficient than shared labor. The same patterns of results occurred on both the easy and difficult tasks. The various strategies and task difficulty produced differences in task satisfaction, interpersonal relations and amount of interaction between Ss, with shared labor having the highest ratings and divided labor the lowest ratings on these variables. The effects of amount of interaction and task difficulty were discussed with respect to group performance and member satisfaction. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the development of Federal statistics since the establishment of a coordinating authority in 1933. The growing consensus that Federal statistical data must be interrelatable if analytical needs are to be adequately met is used as the basis for raising questions about the present adequacy of the Federal statistics organization. The idea of a Federal Statistical Data Center to achieve greater consistency of statistical series for interrelated uses and easier access to such data is reviewed along with suggestions for modifying the present organizational structure for producing a better coordinated body of Federal statistics. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article describes an investigation into the nature and extent of changes in job skills brought about by the introduction of numerically controlled (NC) machine tools. A NC machine tool is directed in its operation by numerical input information, either to be read by the operator, or in machine readable form such as punched paper tape. Firstly, four job skills were identified in machine tool operation: motor, perceptual, conceptual and discretionary. Sixteen jobs, eight NC, and the eight jobs replaced by NC machines, were studied by direct observation and interview in four companies. Detailed job skills analyses were prepared which described important features and emphasized their distinguishing characteristics. It appears that the great majority of job skills needed for NC will already be possessed by conventional operators. Where skill profiles indicate extra perceptual and conceptual demands, operators, selected for their adaptability, might benefit from specific training programmes dealing for example with tape language, display codes and programme sheets.

The article reports that job design is the organization of a job to satisfy both the technological and organizational requirements of the work to be accomplished in an organization and the personal requirements of the individual performing the work. The intent of research on job design is to examine the content and structure of jobs in order to develop theory and principles for the design of effective jobs, insofar as the individual, the organization and the process are concerned. Social and behavioral scientists have concerned themselves extensively with the job holder's personal and social needs. Their studies have largely been limited to organizational and personal factors with the work content of the job taken as predetermined by technology and therefore not a variable suitable for study. Consequently studies of jobs and organizations emanating from these disciplines tend to have an individual orientation. Job content and its interaction with organizational structure have been given consideration only very occasionally.

The article presents several abstracts pertaining to the study of mental retardation which include "Program trends for the mentally retarded," by Amy Allen and Mary Harnett, "Guide to jobs for the mentally retarded," by Richard O. Peterson and Edna M. Jones, and "Teaching imbeciles industrial skills," by Ann Clarice.

The article assesses the employability of lower level mental retarded in Detroit, Michigan. The Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) and the Community Workshop in cooperation with the Detroit Association for Retarded Children have carried a pilot research project to test the feasibility for vocational rehabilitation of a group of low level mentally retarded. The details and features of the workshop program are presented. Finally, the project demonstrates that many mentally retarded can be positively influenced by an intensive sheltered Workshop program.

Various features of organizational structure function to retard and resist the development of new careers programs. The theoretical sources of these obstacles are identified, as well as the specific forms they take. Tactical maneuvers to modify their negative consequences are suggested. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information regarding the changes in the organization of the Ministry of Public Building and Works. The Ministry of Public Building and Works has been reorganized on April 1, 1963 and has added the works organizations of the Service Departments in the existing duties to form a single organization that will be responsible for carrying out the constructional work directly undertaken by the government. The outline of the Ministry's responsibilities and a brief description on the duties of the headquarters organization were also provided.

The article reports on the socio-psychological theory of performance in competitive situations. The research centers upon the influence that group factors have individual self-evaluations and ability levels and is concerned with the normative influences upon individual performance levels. A theory makes a distinction between social and non-social bases for the evaluation of one's performance. Data are presented from two studies with identical designs carried out and drawn from different social backgrounds. This research would also be significant in the formative years in personality theory.

This article discusses the elementary school teacher's knowledge of and core competencies in economics in the midst of the World War. The teacher's function as interpreter of economic matters was not caused by the war, but was part of the transition from a book-centered to life-centered elementary curricula. Excerpts are presented that illustrate the economic content of common topics.

This article presents a review on the research of integrating faculty and student life cycles. The traditional roles of the university in which faculty partakes are teaching, research and public service according to the author. A number of analysts have made a start in examining the ways in which there can be more opportunities for faculty to find greater satisfactions in teaching and the literature abounds with material covering ways in which student growth and development can be enhanced. The author explores the problem of accommodating student and faculty needs within the traditional organizational structure of higher education.

The article discusses the results of several studies which measured the competency of U.S. teachers in developing the creative potential of school children. The need to translate research studies into action programs for the classroom teacher is emphasized. An overview of a research is presented which measured the knowledge of teachers of research findings and materials on creativity reported or developed during the previous years.

The article discusses factors affecting the work skill of an employee in an industrial setting. It investigates the personal qualities of a worker, such as his intelligence and judgment, in a particular occupation that requires technical skills. It describes skilled trades as a non-technical literature which tends to deteriorate into a series of mechanical processes. It cites examples of the types of labor which is not made interesting by the mere fact of the product being such as the nail industry and potteries.

The 43 agents of the life insurance district were intensively interviewed using an open-ended questionnaire which was concerned with the respondents' expectancies toward the three principal positions in the organizational structure, and certain personality factors. One of the most revealing of the latter was the Success Attitude. This attitudinal complex, which had developed partly in response to the intense competition inherent in the system, involved high and rigid aspiration levels, self-blame, and a certain distortion of reality. The Success Attitude operates to explain to the men, however erroneously, their successes and failures. It was our hypothesis that the ambiguity of certain of the expectancies about the functions of the managerial positions could be explained best by the mechanisms of externalization and projection which the agents used to cope with their frustration, which was, itself, partly a product of the Success Attitude. We have thus attempted to analyze a particular instance of the articulation between the social and the personality systems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on the adoption of the group training concept for commercial and clerical workers in Great Britain. In the autumn of 1968, the working party considered the concept of modular training for clerical workers, and the possibility of group training. It was then decided to examine the feasibility of a group training scheme in the Upper Thames Area. To assist with this BACIE Headquarters seconded a training officer to the area for a week, and the EITB seconded a training officer for a month. Both training officers prepared comprehensive reports. When the formation of the Industrial Training Boards was considered, it was realized that clerical training was a problem which stretched right across industry. However it was generally agreed that it was against the spirit of the Industrial Training Act to set up a Training Board solely concerned with clerical training. Instead an Advisory Committee, the Commercial and Clerical Training Committee, was set up to advise the Central Training Council and the Industry Training Boards on clerical training. One of the Group Training Officer's major jobs would be to look at the training needs of the area, and then to look at the training facilities within companies, and the facilities within private institutions, and then to match the training facilities of the area to the training needs of the area.

The central concept in the study of organizations is that of the organizational goal. One might even claim that the notion of a goal is coincidental with that of an organization. In order to survive, all systems must attain whatever goals they set out for themselves. However, a special kind of a system, namely the organization, is singled out as being that in which the problem of goal attainment has primacy over all other problems. It is the dominating presence of a goal which marks off an organization from all other kinds of systems. Organizations undoubtedly differ in the complexity of their goal structures, with universities being among the more complex. Yet every organization must grapple with adaptation, management, motivation, and positional goals, in addition to its output goals. The most obvious organizational goals are, of course, output goals. Yet anything can become an organizational goal as long as it is considered as an organizational problem. Goals may and do change over time, but some kind of adaptation, management, motivation, and positional goals will always be present in every organization.

An organizational analog is constructed in the form of an operational game to be used for testing hypotheses concerning the effect of organizational structure on the efficiency of organizational performance The ultimate objective is to develop mathematical theory, which makes this relation explicit Several experiments using the game are described where the effect of such variables as the presence or absence of an executive, the availability of communication channels, and the cooperativeness or competitiveness of payoffs are tested The work is preliminary, but holds promise of productive use of gaming in theory construction [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Almost every freshman entering Dartmouth College in the last 20 years has completed the SVIB; this is a report of the trends in their measured interests over this period. Briefly, interest in scientific occupations has been increasing, interest in business occupations decreasing. Mean scores on the CEEB and high school rank information are included here, and may show substantial increases among the more recent classes. Selection with these variables may have created the trends in measured interests. Because selection of a student, or of his peer group, is probably the most important influence an institution has on a student, we should know more about the indirect effects of our current selection techniques. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

One hundred Negro ninth graders were matched with 100 Caucasian ninth graders on the basis of scorn attained on the Multiple Aptitude Test. Aptitude scores were then correlated with vocational interest scorn derived from the Picture Interest Inventory. When matched, correlations between aptitude and interest were found to be negligible and to be differentiating between the races to only a small degree. Vocational interests of the two races, on the other hand, were found to be significantly different. The Negro youth was interested in interpersonal, business, verbal, computational, and long training occupations; the Cauasian, in occupations concerned with nature awl with machines. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents information on the professional preparation of counselors and their role. It is informed that counslors has an obligation to promote clearer concepts of counselor qualifications and responsibilities and to establish conditions which will make it more likely that counseling services of appropriate quality and type will be available to all school-age children and youth as well as to others who have the need for such services. In order to achieve this goal it is necessary that all counselors meet the basic and essential requirements of preparation. It is opined that the role of the counselor is influenced by his professional skills, his professional interests, the environment in which he works, and the definition of function established by the profession. However, there is a core of preparation and a professional role which should be common to all counselors. It is further informed that the major responsibility of the counselor is to assist an individual through the counseling relationship to utilize his own resources and his environmental opportunities in the process of self-understanding, planning, decision making, and coping with problems relative to his developmental needs and to his vocational and educational activities.

The article discusses several aspects or points of reference useful for evaluating professional status. One significant dimension in determining the objectives and methods of any new profession is the neighboring profession. Another attribute that evaluators consider in examining professional status is the relation of philosophies or objectives of one profession to another. It is also viewed that any emerging profession must justify its claim to certain unique skills and training which other professions do not have access to.