A Kantian evaluation of Taylorism in the workplace

A Kantian evaluation of Taylorism in the workplace requires a consideration of four problems; (1) the conditions of agency, (2) the relation of Taylorism to these conditions, (3) an explanation of the method given by the Typic for applying the Categorical Imperative, and (4) the actual application of the Categorical Imperative to Taylorism. An agent who views himself as a performer is distinguished from an agent who is a mere observer of his own actions, and it is argued that Taylorism in effect attempts to remove the purposiveness of action from the workmen and to reduce them to the state of being mere observers of their own actions. Then it is argued that in order for one to attempt to think of a maxim as a universal law, one must posit a universal and necessary connection between the circumstances and the performances and then another such connection between the action and the purpose to be achieved. A model is constructed using heat-seeking machines, and it is argued that a principle analogous to Taylorism could not hold as a universal law for such machines. Thus, Taylorism is not an acceptable solution to the problem of coordinating the activities of self-directed agents within the workplace. Dr. Michael K. Green is Assistant Professor at the Department of Philosophy at SUNY-Oneonta. His most important publications are: Using Nature to Typify Freedom: The Application of the Categorical Imperative, International Studies in Philosophy (Fall 1982); Marx on Utility and Right, Political Theory 11, No. 3 (August, 1983), pp. 433–446; and Kant, Crimes Against Nature, and Contraception, forthcoming in The New Scholasticism.     

Statistical manipulability of social choice functions

We consider the proportion of profiles at which an anonymous neutral social choice function cannot be manipulated to any coalition's advantage. We fix the number of alternatives and consider the limit as the number of individuals goes to infinity, and assume that the limit of the fraction of all profiles in the domain is 1. We show that there is a continuous function on “profile vectors’ which gives the maximum probability of strategy-proofness, and that this is strictly between 0 and 1 for three alternatives. We also analyze a number of common social choice functions along these lines.     

A Micromodel of New Product Adoption with Heterogeneous and Forward-Looking Consumers: Application to the Digital Camera Category

We develop an empirical model for the adoption process of a new durable product that accounts for consumer heterogeneity as well as consumers forward-looking behavior. Accounting for heterogeneity is important for two reasons. As the mix of consumers with different preferences and price sensitivities could change over time, firms need to update their marketing strategies. Further, it allows for a variety of shapes for the aggregate adoption process over time. As prices for durable and technology products fall over time with firms continually introducing enhanced products, consumers may anticipate these prices and improvements and delay their purchases in the product category. Forward-looking consumers optimize purchase timing by trading off their utilities from buying the product and their expectations on future prices, quality levels, and brand availability. Such forward-looking behavior will result in price dynamics in the marketplace as price changes today influence future purchases. And it results in different shapes of the new product sales pattern over time by influencing the time to take-off. We show how the parameters of our model can be estimated using aggregate data on the sales, prices, and attributes of brands in a product category. We apply our model to market data from the digital camera category. Our data are consistent with the presence of both heterogeneity and forward looking behavior among consumers. At the product category level, we are able to decompose the effects of the entry of Sony into primary demand expansion and switching from other brands. At the brand level, we find that there exist several segments in the market with different preferences for the brands and different price sensitivities leading to differences in adoption timing and brand choice across segments. For a given brand, we show how the changing customer mix over time has implications for that brands pricing strategies. We characterize how price effects vary across brands and over time and how price changes in a given time period influence sales in subsequent periods. Model comparison and validation results are also provided.     

Assessment of vehicle speeds on different categories of roadways in Ghana

Empirical evidence from road safety literature suggests that vehicular speed is an important risk factor in the incidence and severity of road traffic crashes globally. Speed studies are at rudimentary stages in developing countries, thus making vehicular speed research imperative. The main aim of the study was to establish two major speed parameters, namely, the mean and dispersion, and their implications for more extensive and long-term speed monitoring in Ghana. Research workers stationed themselves in a parked car and used a radar gun to unobtrusively measure the travelling speeds of 28,489 vehicles at 15 different inter-urban locations on three highway categories. Excessive speeding is very pervasive on all highway categories in Ghana. Travelling speeds through settlements where a speed limit of 50 km/hour is mandatory were particularly excessive. Generally, 98%, 90% and 97% of vehicles exceeded the posted speed limit of 50 km/hour on national, inter-regional and regional roads respectively. Mean speeds and speed dispersions (as assessed by the standard deviations) through built-up areas were 81.3 +/- 17.3 km/hour on national roads, 64.7 +/- 12.3 km/hour on inter-regional roads and 72.6 +/- 13.4, km/hour on regional roads. On rural undivided highways with an 80 km/hour speed limit, mean and speed dispersions were 90 +/- 18.9 km/hour on national roads, 80.1 +/- 16 km/hour on inter-regional roads and 84.4 +/- 15.6 on regional roads; also translating into 66%, 47% and 60% of vehicles exceeding recommended speeds. In all cases, speed dispersions were notably higher than the value of 10 km/hour generally found in developed countries. Excessive speeding and wide speed dispersions are highly prevalent on Ghana's highways. These factors likely account for the high incidence of traffic crashes and fatalities in Ghana. An integrated speed monitoring and control programme and by-passing small and medium settlements would be required for the reduction of speed-related crashes, fatalities and injuries.     

On-line/Off-line: Joint Negotiation Teaching in Montreal and Vienna

E-business systems, the most recent generation of information systems, can be effectively used in teaching. One such system was developed and used in a collaborative project that involved teaching of negotiation theory and practice to students from Austria and Canada. The system provides customized course materials and a platform to conduct various e-negotiation activities. The design allows combining e-learning technologies designed to support students in their independent and individual learning with conventional face-to-face training. Our experience indicates that professional negotiation training accompanied by e-learning, and tools to support decision-making and negotiation can foster students' appreciation of the technology as well as demonstrate its limitations. The combination of technology-intensive and conventional resources contributed to students' awareness of social influences on negotiations, importance of communication, and focussed their attention on the problem and its solution. Deeper customization of the course content and delivery may further contribute to effective learning and acquiring of both communication and analytical skills.     

Perceived ethical values of Malaysian managers

This paper examines the perceived ethical values of Malaysian managers. It is based on the opinions of 15 hypothetical ethical/unethical business situations from the 81 managers who agreed to participate in the survey. The findings of this study showed that these Malaysian managers have high ethical values. However 53% of the respondents believed that the ethical standards of today are lower than that of 15 years ago. Apparently, this is related to the existence of many unethical business practices prevalent in the modern business world. The behavior of one's immediate superior is the most important factor in influencing managers to commit unethical practices. The results also indicate only a slight variation among the managers in terms of perceived ethical values by virtue of job position, job specialization, type of business activity or the size of the business organization.A. R. M. Zabid is Head of Department, Department of Management and Marketing, University Pertanian Malaysia. He obtained his Doctorate in Management. He also teaches the course entitled Current Issues in Malaysian Management in the Bachelor and MBA Programs. His current research interest includes business ethics and social responsibility in Malaysia.S. K. Alsagoff is lecturer in Computer Science and Information Technology, Department of Management and Marketing, University Pertanian Malaysia. He obtained his Ph.D., and currently teaches courses in Data Processing and Computer in the Bachelor and MBA Programs. His research interests include computer modelling and business ethics.     

Money management practices influencing household asset ownership

The purpose of this research is to describe the types and amounts of assets owned by households, and to determine socio-demographic variables and money management practices that influence the household's total asset ownership. The data used for this study are from a survey conducted during the winter of 1982. Definite patterns of financial asset ownership emerged. A majority, 70% or more, of the households owned current and savings accounts, and cars and real estate. A minority, 30% or less, owned certificates of deposit, mutual funds, stocks, bonds and individual retirement accounts. Age, net income and housing tenure were significant socio-demographic variables in explaining variation in total asset ownership among households. Only two money management practices, i.e. number of credit cards owned and the amount the manager felt comfortable charging on these cards, were significant in explaining variations in the amount of total assets owned by a household.     

Artificial Neural Network Modeling for Groundwater Level Forecasting in a River Island of Eastern India

Forecasting of groundwater levels is very useful for planning integrated management of groundwater and surface water resources in a basin. In the present study, artificial neural network models have been developed for groundwater level forecasting in a river island of tropical humid region, eastern India. ANN modeling was carried out to predict groundwater levels 1 week ahead at 18 sites over the study area. The inputs to the ANN models consisted of weekly rainfall, pan evaporation, river stage, water level in the drain, pumping rate and groundwater level in the previous week, which led to 40 input nodes and 18 output nodes. Three different ANN training algorithms, viz., gradient descent with momentum and adaptive learning rate backpropagation (GDX) algorithm, Levenberg–Marquardt (LM) algorithm and Bayesian regularization (BR) algorithm were employed and their performance was evaluated. As the neural network became very large with 40 input nodes and 18 output nodes, the LM and BR algorithms took too much time to complete a single iteration. Consequently, the study area was divided into three clusters and the performance evaluation of the three ANN training algorithms was done separately for all the clusters. The performance of all the three ANN training algorithms in predicting groundwater levels over the study area was found to be almost equally good. However, the performance of the BR algorithm was found slightly superior to that of the GDX and LM algorithms. The ANN model trained with BR algorithm was further used for predicting groundwater levels 2, 3 and 4 weeks ahead in the tubewells of one cluster using the same inputs. It was found that though the accuracy of predicted groundwater levels generally decreases with an increase in the lead time, the predicted groundwater levels are reasonable for the larger lead times as well.     

A Simple Conceptual Model of Sediment Yield

The sediment graphs (time distribution of sediment yield) are very essential if the sediment transports the pollutants that are toxic at high concentrations, requiring determination of peak, rather than average sediment flow rate. In this paper, an effort has been made to develop a simple conceptual model of sediment yield based on Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN) method, instantaneous unit sediment graph (IUSG) method, and Power law and the performance is tested using real field data of Chaukhutia watershed of Ramganga river catchment (area = 452.25 km²). The proposed model is found to provide realistic estimates of temporal variation of sediment yield as well as total sediment yield during a storm event. The model is found to be most sensitive to parameter β followed by k, \upalpha\upalpha, A, and n_s. A comparison is made with the existing IUSG based models of Kumar and Rastogi (J Hydrol 95:155–163, 1987) and Raghuwanshi et al. (J Hydraul Eng ASCE 120(4):495–503, 1994) for developing sediment graphs.