Assessing the organizational fit of a just-in-time manufacturing system: Testing selection, interaction and systems models of contingency theory

The adoption of new manufacturing practices such as just-in-time (JIT) and total quality management (TQC) is only a first step to improving manufacturing performance. Even more critical is the fit between manufacturing practices and organizational design, structure and processes. Using archival and survey data, this paper reports the results of a field study within a Fortune 500 company that tests three operationalizations of contingency theory as discussed by Van de Ven and Drazin (1985) [The Concept of Fit in Contingency Theory, Research in Organizational Behavior, pp. 333–365]. Results show that the misfit between worker empowerment required by JIT/TQC practices and existing authoritarian management partially explain relative workgroup performance as do other conflicts within workgroups and between operators and supervisors.     

Food transfers to Asia: A Delphi forecast of required levels

The authors obtained the views of a number of agricultural economists on the desirability and feasibility of future food transfers from rich to poor countries. The consensus view which emerged was that food aid will still be needed in the 1980s but that practical institutional arrangements for it are more likely to come from the political than the economic arena.     

On the optimal taxation of two person households

This paper generalises the optimal commodity tax formulae for households containing one person to cover the empirically relevant case of two person households. We provide an appropriate framework for the empirical estimation of the optimal tax structure and argue that this may be largely determined by female labour supply behaviour.     

Influence of the guaranteed annual wage upon labor relations and productivity: National sugar refinery's experience

The guaranteed annual wage is not in itself a source of motivation, but is more what Herzberg would call a maintenance factor, something that will dissatisfy if removed. The authors conclude that National Sugar has been unable to reap any lasting benefits since the guarantee has been taken for granted by its employees.     

Preparing for evil

How can you plan for every crisis that might occur, even for ones you can't imagine? The task seems so daunting and so limitless that many firms don't even start. In fact, as the authors' 20 years of research shows, three out of four Fortune 500 companies are prepared to handle only the types of calamities they've already suffered, and not even all of those. That's unfortunate because the research also shows that crisis-prepared companies fare better financially, have stronger reputations, and ultimately stay in business longer than their crisis prone counterparts. Crisis-prepared companies use a systematic approach to focus their efforts. In addition to planning for natural disasters, they divide man-made calamities into two sorts--accidental or "normal" ones, like the Exxon Valdez oil spill, and deliberate or "abnormal" ones, like product tampering. Then they take steps to broaden their thinking about such potential crises. They consider threats that would be common in other industries, for instance. And they seek input from outsiders such as investigative journalists and even reformed criminals. But if these companies think broadly about possible threats, they think narrowly about implementation. Each year, smart companies focus their resources and attention on a few facilities picked at random, just as airlines conduct detailed security checks on just a few passengers for each flight. That reduces the probability of an attack on the entire organization even as it allows the business to migrate steadily to a higher level of crisis readiness. Crisis-prepared companies know that disasters cannot be managed through cost-benefit analyses. It is precisely because the effects of a disaster cannot be predicted or controlled that smart companies focus their efforts on preventing crises rather than containing them after the fact.     

Retirements at risk: employees lack a comprehensive, realistic view of resources and needs

Employees who are following conventional retirement-planning advice will be in for a rude awakening as they approach retirement and discover that they can't afford to retire just yet or are likely to outlive their retirement funds. The article discusses how we have arrived at this point, what the implications are, and what both employers and employees can do to remedy the situation.     

Profitability and supply price in the US domestic oil industry: implications for the political economy of oil in the twenty-first century

In May 2001, the US Government's National Energy Policy DevelopmentGroup proposed to increase investment in domestic oil resourcesand to diversify further the sourcing of US oil imports by increasingproduction in new petroleum provinces. The paper argues thatboth strands of this policy are dependent upon a third, unstated,objective—to ensure that OPEC retains sufficient marketpower to prevent the sort of collapse in world oil prices thatoccurred in 1998–99. The consequences of that collapse,when the real price of US oil fell to its lowest level in 53years, are explored. Finally, it is argued that the outcomeof the crisis was a rapprochement between OPEC and the US. Itis suggested that the consensus between the US and OPEC as tothe desired range within which the world oil price should moveis likely to survive any temporary political disturbances.