The role of extension in the development of the farmer as entrepreneur

Different viewpoints were expressed at the 1990 annual national conference of the South African Society for Agricultural Extension regarding the role of extension in the development of the farmer as entrepreneur. It is expected that public funding will increasingly be limited to functions of general public interest. To achieve independence farmers should be willing to expose themselves to entrepreneur development stimuli. it is in the public interest to develop scarce human, economic and natural resources. Research findings indicate distinct behavioral differences between entrepreneurs of differing perceptions. A comprehensive interdisciplinary education is recommended for agriculturalists. Because needs change, education programmes must be re‐evaluated from time to time. It serves little purpose to educate people in extension who do not have a technical message to communicate. The state extension service seeks closer cooperation and liaison with agricultural co‐operative and private sector know‐how. Departmental policy will probably be less rigid in future.

A clear distinction should be made between information and extension services. The adoption of an ethical code for extensionists may be opportune. Relevancy is an important contributing factor to extensionist credibility.     

Central sterile supply productivity and time study analysis

As a result of the productivity study in both areas, the following objectives can be attained: Ascertain the number of FTEs necessary for staffing requirements. Determine the efficiency level in daily production of trays and sets. Develop standards to measure the overall effectiveness in delivering service. Although this represents a quantitative analysis of the productivity within a CSS department, it is important not to forget the human element in the relationship between CSS and OR employees.     

The product elimination function

Historically, major consideration given to product management has focused on research and development or the introductory stage of the product life cycle. The authors present an empirical study delineating the variables to be considered in the product elimination process. More specifically, the elimination process is evaluated under a situation of poor product performance despite a generally viable market. The basic objectives of the study were: to determine the significant variables in the product elimination process of the Small Appliance Industry; to determine the relative importance of the variables; to examine the interaction among variables. The data obtained through personal structured questionnaire interviews were analyzed and provided a ranking of twenty-six variables relevant to the elimination process. Moreover, the Johnson's Hierarchical Clustering Schemes was applied to determine the interaction among variables. The results indicate that profitability and financial variables are most significant in the elimination decision-process. Second, the primary clusters of importance are concerned with market share, market growth rate, consumer awareness, and competitive action.     

Law without justice: The dilemmas of formalization and fairness in the legalistic organization

There is growing evidence of a litigation mentality rampant in organizations, which has created a legalistic mindset in many managers. Increasingly, managerial decisions are becoming dominated by a concern for what is legally defensible at the expense of broader social considerations such as justice and fairness. The papers in this special issue explore how this legalistic mindset has created new organizational and social dilemmas, and situations of law whithout justice.     

Sub additive measures of relative information and inaccuracy

Summary In the study of information theoretic measures, additivity has been the basic requirement. However it is quite interesting to investigate the sub-additive measures. Starting from subadditivity for measures associated with a pair of distributions of a discrete random variable, it has been changed into an equality relation using another function of a pair of distributions., Under the sum property of the function and the measures, the relation is expressed in terms of a functional equation of which the most general complex solutions have been obtained. In terms of the real continuous solutions of the functional equation, the sub-additive measures of Relative information and Inaccuracy have been defined and characterized. Particular cases and simple properties particularly the convexities of some of these new measures have also been studied.     

Costs, commitment, and rewards: factors influencing the design and implementation of internal labor markets.

Much research on internal labor markets has been hampered by the failure to differentiate the wide variety of ILMs, by accounts of their determinants that too heavily emphasize isolated causal factors, by the lack of detailed material describing the economic and organizational dimensions of their design and implementation, and by the neglect of managerial perceptions of and motivations for constructing ILMs. This paper presents detailed case studies of three organizations that have constructed very different ILMs. Based on this material, a model of the determinants of ILMs is developed that centers around the concepts of costs, commitment, and rewards and that attempts to assess the interactions of effects of markets and hierarchies on ILMs. The model is built on the premise that the underlying imperatives typically held to affect ILMs are inevitably filtered through managerial beliefs and the constraints on managerial decision making. The implications of these findings for theory and research on ILMs are discussed.     

Relationship between generalizedh-Statistics and polykays

Summary In this paper, relationships between generalizedh-statistics which estimate powers and products of central moments unbiasedly and the polykays by using ordered partitions are established. A table expressing generalizedh-statistics of weight 12 in terms of polykays and vice versa is presented. Expressions of weight less than 12 are obtained from this table.

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Zusammenfassung In der vorliegenden Arbeit wird mittels geordneter Zerlegungen eine Beziehung zwischen verallgemeinerterh-Statistik, welche Potenzen und Produkte von zentralen Momenten erwartungstreu abschätzt, und polykays hergestellt. Eime Tabele mit verallgemeinerterh-Statistik vom Gewicht 12 in polykay-Termen, und umgekehrt, wird gegeben. Gewichtsausdrücke kleiner als 12 werden aus dieser Tabelle gewonnen.

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This research has been supported by a grant from FINEP/Ministério do Planejamento e Coordenacão Geral to the IMUFRJ.