Technical change and work organisation

The increasing use of new technology in factories has radical implications for the modern organisation and experience of work. All the things which determine the experience of the worker are being redesigned around the latest equipment and machinery. This article reports on case studies concerned with the introduction of new technology in British industry.     

The budgeting process for R&D laboratories

The author had been associated with the writing of a short series of case studies into the process by which companies allocate their R&D budgets to individual departments or projects. A key question became the location of responsibility for determining the objectives of work under-taken in R&D, and also responsibility for the allocation of resources in R&D.
The cases revealed that decisions were taken by senior R&D managers at one extreme, and by marketing or production managers at the other, but also most often jointly between the functions with different weightings of authority. The parameter most clearly differentiating between the loci of responsibility was the project duration. This led to the development of a two dimensional diagram correlating the expected remaining duration of the project, with the locus of responsibility for its management.
It is expected that this model which fits current practice into a normative framework will enable organizations to review and adjust their present methods of coping with the complexities of R&D budgeting.     

Neo-liberalism and New Labour policy: economic performance, historical comparisons and future prospects

The paper analyses19760/70s inflation, the replacement of Keynesianwith neo-liberal economic policy, and the post-1979 declinein inflation. It is shown that the fall in inflation is explainedby trends in import prices rather than by switches in economicpolicy. However, New Labour's conversion to neo-liberalism meansthat no alternative to it is on political offer, despite returnsto pre-Keynesian policy-making, the success of which will dependon price policies based on an understanding of the institutionalroots of inflation.     

Developing an expert system on project evaluation: Part III: The managerial questions raised by the work

Abstract
This is the third paper to arise from the same piece of research concerned with the development of Expert Systems (ES's) in the management of R&D. The first paper described the overall approach to the work and summarised the problems encountered, whilst the second focused on the software side of the work and the problems it entailed.
In this paper the focus is on the process of project evaluation itself. The simple purpose of creating an ES is to capture the expertise of those well versed in a particular field and try to reproduce it in the ES. In this work, however, the hypotheses on which the development of the ES was based, and their subsequent support by considering actual projects, cast doubt on the theoretical background of project evaluation as reviewed in literature. The basis of these doubts is set out in this paper together with discussion on what is necessary to improve the situation. It was necessary to come to these conclusions prior to the development of a final ES on project evaluation, and is here published not only because of its interest in its own right, but so that others who have already worked in the field might reconsider their data in the light of the criticisms. By this means they would have a contribution to make to a better understanding of evaluation and of the on-going work on a new ES, now developed and operational, which has been designed as a research tool as well as its normal function of giving managerial advice.     

The Impact of U.S.-Sponsored Foreign Trade Office Activities

ABSTRACT

Foreign trade offices (FTOs) are an important, little-understood element in the export promotion portfolio of U.S. state export promotion organizations. The value of these organizations is in dispute. In recent years California closed its FTOs in response to budgetary pressures, claiming that these organizations exist primarily to enhance the political standing of politicians rather than to act as effective export development tools. During the same period Washington State opened several new FTOs. Clearly the value of these organizations is in dispute. Another consideration in the effectiveness of U.S. exporters is the subnational contour of the American economic system. State business climates vary considerably, thereby influencing exporter success as well as those programs (such as FTOs) intended to improve firm performance. We hypothesize and find that (a) state entrepreneurial climate is positively related to state exports and (b) FTO network entry activities amplify the impact of state entrepreneurial climate on state exports. Implications for firms and policy makers are explored.     

Sales driven company

Selling has become dispersed through the use of selling teams that include members from functional areas other than marketing or sales. This now occurs within many firms utilising key account management strategies, within both business-to-business and business-to-reseller environments. This article is aimed at developing a better understanding of factors affecting ‘team selling’ and its impact on sales performance, with clear benefits to company management.