Office productivity: the impacts of staffing, intellectual specialization and technology

This paper reports on a series of 20 case studies of office productivity and office technology in major US corporations. The case studies were carried out between the mid-1980s and he early 1990s, and involved over 1700 employees in 95 distinct offices. These studies were shaped by a new conceptual model of the office which focuses on the inteleectual content, rather than the physical attributes, of office work. Our major finding is a significan lack of intellectual specialization among managers and professionals. That is, managers and professionals devote a relatively small fraction of their work time to management and professional level work, and a relatively large fraction of their time to support and non-productive tasks. In addition, we found significant staffing imbalances throughout our cases: in nearly every office, there were more manaers and professionals, and fewer support workers, than were required to perform the work cost-effectively. Out analysis suggests that a typical organization could reduce its annual office payroll costs by 15% by recalibrating its staffing mix and increasing the intellectual specialization of its office workers. Further, we find that the apparent failure of massive corporate investments in office technology to achieve commensurate in white-collar productivity is likely to be due, in large decisions. The paper offers a specific methodology for measuring and tracking office productivity, for developing a coherent office productivity strategy, and for improving office staffing and technology decisions.     

Doubts Regarding the Human Capital Theory of Racial Inequality

Using wage data developed by Smith (1984), this paper compares human capital and institutional explanations of trends in the racial wage gap since 1890. While a regression including daily schooling variables is consistent with the human capital theory, so is an institutional model which omits schooling variables but adds the influences of isolation in the rural South, discriminatory hiring and promotion practices, unemployment, and government policy. Including schooling and institutional variables together casts doubt on the relative importance of schooling compared to labor market demands and political variables.     

Demand relationships and pricing decisions for related products

This paper presents in terms of price changes the theoretical conditions for optimal pricing when products are demand-related. It then suggests an approach which could be used by companies to provide guidance in the pricing of such products over time.     

Analysis of conflicts in dynamical environmental systems via catastrophe theory

This paper addresses itself to long-term conflicting issues in environmental policy analysis. After a brief discussion of the ‘new scarcity’ and its subsequent potential perturbations of our economic system in the long run, attention will be paid to some elements of catastrophe theory which may be helpful in gaining insight into the future impacts of inertia and conflicts in environmental management. Next, a fairly simple model for integrating natural resources and production will be constructed so as to illustrate the usefulness of catastrophe theory in economic-energy-environmental systems. The paper will be concluded with a brief judgement of using catastrophe notions in the social sciences.