Managing an in-house R&D service department

The paper reports a study carried out in a large UK industrial R&D establishment which had recognised that queuing for service from support groups was becoming a serious problem.
The main part of the study was carried out on the operations of an analytical department. Interviews were carried out with both 'servers' and 'customers' at all levels in the organisation. These were supplemented by observations of the actual process by which service was demanded and rendered, and by analysis of records.
The study revealed why the queuing problem arose and the reasons for its undesirable effects. The authors concluded that resolution of the problems is a matter for the organization as a whole, and not merely for servers and customers.
The situation is further analysed in terms of queuing theory. It is argued that improvement could be achieved if a systematic priority allocation system which took into account both urgency and importance were instituted. However, rational scheduling is possible only over a short time horizon, given current human and computing abilities. To achieve optimization over a longer time horizon the authors recommend the development of an expert system incorporating past experience into its knowledge base.     

Deliberative structures and their impact on voting under economic conflict

Experimental Economics - We conduct a laboratory experiment to investigate how different deliberative structures of varying inclusiveness affect collective decisions in the presence of economic...