Corporate Cultural Change – Is It Relevant For the Organisations of the 1990s?

Partly as a consequence of the popularity of the ‘excellence’ literature of the early 1980s, there was a widespread acceptance that ‘corporate cultural change’ was one of the effective mechanisms within a strategic HRM approach to people management. However, recent research into imposed cultural change programmes in the late 1980s raises doubts about their effectiveness as change mechanisms, as management control devices and as contributors to business performance. This article engages in the current debate concerning the aims, design and implementation of cultural change but goes on to question the relevance of such an idea for organisations in the context of the 1990s. the article extends the many debates within the HRM and corporate culture literature by contextualising them within the emerging features of organisations in the 1990s.     

The structural and economic implications of urbanization

"This study surveys the policy issues associated with urbanization following the abolition of the pass laws [in South Africa]. The demographic background is briefly sketched. Using neo-classical analysis as a starting point, particular attention is paid to the present inefficiencies of city form associated with segregation. It is argued that current planning procedures are in danger of perpetuating or even worsening the situation. Obstacles to employment generation are considered and transport, local government and housing issues are discussed. On every front, urbanization policy is unstable and, even in the short term, there will be pressures to change it."     

Couple's literacy level and acceptance of family planning methods: Lorenz curve analysis

The authors study the acceptance of family planning methods according to the level of couple's literacy in 14 states in India during 1986-87, using the Lorenz curve. The Gini Concentration Ratio and Index of Dissimilarity were calculated by level of couple's literacy for vasectomy, tubectomy, IUD, and all method combined. Firstly, analysis found literates to have accepted vasectomy and IUD more than tubectomy. Secondly, among the 3 methods, a high Gini Concentration Ratio was found for vasectomy when the wife was literate. Moreover, when the wife was literate, the Gini Concentration Ratio of IUD acceptance was higher than the acceptance of IUD by the wife whose husband was literate. Thirdly, the same trend was observed when the husband was illiterate. It is therefore clear that the level of a woman's literacy is a key factor in securing the acceptance of male or female methods of family planning. Planners should therefore concentrate on literacy programs for females independently of their age. Increasing the level of female literacy may ultimately help improve the understanding of family planning methods, while these women may also motivate their husbands to undergo vasectomy which will ultimately foster the success of the family planning program.     

Around-the-clock medical coverage

Marrying workers' compensation and health insurance plans to reduce administrative workloads and get a firm grip on expenses. Can it work?     

Measurement of the Socioeconomic Impact of Lake Restoration: An Assessment Model Employing a Benefit/Cost Cross-Impact Probabilistic Approach

A bstract . A number of lake restoration demonstraton projects have been launched by the Environmental Protection Agency as a result of Public Law 92-500. To evaluate the cost-effectiveness of these public investment projects requires the development of an assessment model. The proposed Benefit/Cost Cross-Impact Probabilistic Approach (BCCIPA) is one attempt at assessing the interdependent socioeconomic and environmental impacts of the lake restoration project over time, both quantitatively and qualitatively, so that various changes brought about by the project can be investigated and evaluated in two comparative stages for three points in time—before, during and after project implementation.     

Health and development∗

The linkage between development and health is clearly spelt out in the definition of primary health care by the World Health Organisation. There is a widespread and growing disillusionment with the traditional Western approach to health care which fails to meet the real demands of the Third World situation.

This paper looks briefly at conditions in the developing world and the strategy proposed by the W H O to attempt to meet the objective of health for all by the year 2000 and refers to the South African situation.     

Book Reviews

Richard Robison, Indonesia: The Rise of Capital, Allen and Unwin, Sydney, 1986 pp. xxv + 425. Indexed. $19.95.

W.L. Korthals Altes, Changing Economy in Indonesia: Volume 7: Balance of Payments, 1822–1939, Amsterdam: The Royal Tropical Institute. pp. 167.

Trade Statistics, Java, 1823–73: Trade Statistics, Indonesia 1874–1937. Mededeelingen van het Centraal Kantoor voor de Statistiek nos 160 and 161

Om Prakash, The Dutch East India Company and the Economy of Bengal, 1630–1720, Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1985 pp. xii + 291, map, tables. graphs, glossary, index. Cloth $38.50.

Sediono M.P. Tjondronegoro, Social Organization and Planned Development in Rural Java, Singapore, Oxford University Press for the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies, 1984, pp. xv + 326.

A. Fujimoto and F. Matsuda (eds), An Economic Study of Rice Farming in West Java, Tokyo: NODAI Research Institute, Tokyo, University of Agriculture, 1986.

A. Fujimoto and T. Matsuda (eds), A Comparative Study of the Structure of Rice Productivity and Rural Society in Southeast Asta Two Village Studies in Indonesta and Thailand, Tokyo: University of Agriculture, 1985. Reviewed by C.L J. van der Meer (1986) Bulletin of Indanesian Economic Studies, 22(2) pp. 124–27

David Jenkins, Suharto and His Generals: Indonesian Military Politics, 1975–1983, Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Monograph Series No. 64, 1984, pp. xiii + 280. US$12.50. David Bourchier, Dynamics of Dissent in Indonesia Sawito and the Phantom Coup, Ithaca: Cornell Modern Indonesia Project, Interim Reports Series, 1984, pp. 128. US$9.00.

Linda G. Martin (ed), The ASEAN Success Story: Social, Economic, and Political Dimensions, East-West Center, distributed by the University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1987, pp. xviii + 253. $15.00.

Mubyarto and Edy Suandy Hamid (eds), Kredit Pedesaan di Indonesia, Badan Penerbit Fakultas Ekonomi, U.G.M., 1986 pp, 160.

Ron Hatley, et al., Other Javas Away from the Kraton, Melbourne: Monash University, 1984, pp. 60.

K.S. Nathan and M. Pathmanathan (eds), Trilateralism in Asia: Problems and Prospects in US-Japan-ASEAN Relations, Antara Book Company, Kuala Lumpur, 1986, pp. xviii + 205. $18.00 (cloth): $12.00 (paper).