Hybrid organization structures: A path to cost savings and customer responsiveness

In order to cut costs while increasing customer responsiveness, some corporations are integrating the competitive features of small companies with the resources of large corporations. They are adopting a hybrid type of organization by decentralizing decisionmaking to the business units and centralizing administrative functions at the corporate level. This article outlines the characteristics of a hybrid corporation and describes the role of corporate staffs within five corporations that have evolved to a hybrid structure. Some first steps on the path to a hybrid structure and corresponding staff activities are also described. © 1996 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc.     

Selecting Pesticides and Nonchemical Alternatives: Green Thumbs' Rules of Thumb Decision Tools

This study of a sample of home gardeners indicates that rules of thumb, or heuristics, are used to select between chemical pesticides and nonchemical alternatives. Such rules of thumb serve to simplify otherwise complicated choice decisions. Heuristics commonly used to choose pesticides include how safe, effective, efficacious, and economical they are, whereas for alternative products consumers more often take into account convenience, efficiency, competency, and handiness. Generally, in an overall ranking of 24 individual choice attributes, pesticies rank low on these attributes where alternatives rank high and vice versa. Gender, age, and years using pesticides are significantly correlated with pesticide selection.     

An approach to evaluate the acute impacts from simulated accidental releases of chlorine and ammonia

The manner in which specific chemicals are used is studied in order to identify plausible release scenarios and the probability of their occurrence.     

Middle-School Children's Sources and Uses of Money

Despite their growing economic power, children's acquisition and use of money rarely has been investigated in academic research, although it has been a frequent topic in the media. This study (1) describes sources and uses of money children (age 10–15) receive; and (2) investigates the association of children's uses of money with their age, gender, family structure, and sources of money. The sources of money are associated with children's uses of it, but age, gender, and family situation do not relate to the way they use money. Consumer education should focus on the sources of children's money in relation to the way they use it.     

Safe storage of dilute ethylene oxide mixtures in water

In the past industry has had to rely on a number of “rules of thumb” to provide a means of reasonable analysis for many design, operation, safety and similar issues. The lack of readily available computing facilities made the use of “rules of thumb” a necessary part of doing business in the hydrocarbon processing industry. And these “rules of thumb” have proven useful and allowed many tasks to be accomplished successfully. Today, however, availability of mainframe computers or desktop computing facilities has provided a tool that has decreased the need to rely on “rules of thumb.” And in many cases processing improvements can only be accomplished by replacing “rules of thumb” with more rigorous analysis. In the ethylene oxide producing/consuming industry a widely-used “rule of thumb” concerns the storage of ethylene oxide water solutions. A well-publicized “rule” stated that solutions in excess of 1-2 weight percent ethylene oxide in water should not be stored [1]. This “rule” is certainly valid in many situations. However, this guideline may be unnecessarily restrictive in other cases. The impact of several key process parameters impacts the amount of ethylene oxide in water than can be safely stored. This study will show that higher concentrations of ethylene oxide in water can be safely stored under the right circumstances. The study will also discuss the key variables that determine whether aqueous ethylene oxide solutions can be safely stored. Finally, a methodology used in determining how much ethylene oxide in water can be safely stored will be outlined.