Showing papers on "Restructuring published in 1981"
01 Jul 1981
31 citations
01 Mar 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that pollution is a symptom of using low technologies which not only waste valuable resources, but which are also unprofitable, and that pollution prevention does pay both in straight financial terms and also in terms of measuring a company's or a country's ability to meet the challenge of a world short of natural and economic resources, in other words to survive.
Abstract: Pollution is a symptom of using low technologies which not only waste valuable resources, but which are also unprofitable. All around the world countries and companies are adopting simultaneously strategies for clean technology and for restructuring towards higher level, higher value-added, and more profitable technologies. Countries such as France, Japan and Singapore make clean technology an explicit part of their national policies, which are also increasingly oriented towards energy conservation, electronics, aerospace and quality. Among companies, the prime example is 3M, which has abated pollution in its plants worldwide, and saved over $80 million as a result. Pollution prevention does pay therefore, both in straight financial terms, and also in terms of measuring a company's or a country's ability to meet the challenge of a world short of natural and economic resources, in other words, to survive.
30 citations
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: An interactive goal programming methodology was devised which sought to minimize the difficulty of prioritizing goals and of restructuring problems to find improved solutions and has been incorporated into a generalizable decision support system which has been tested in an academic decision making environment.
Abstract: The purpose of this research was to develop a multicriteria decision making tool which could take into account the cognitive limitations of human information processing. Specifically, an interactive goal programming methodology was devised which sought to minimize the difficulty of prioritizing goals and of restructuring problems to find improved solutions. This methodology employs a priority elicitation procedure which can accept a variety of ill to well-defined priority structures. It provides feedback after each solution is generated. This feedback describes the tradeoff inherent in improving the achievement of any unsatisfied goals. Goal attainment probabilities and possible goal level revisions are also presented to users of the model to assist them in evaluating alternative restructures of the model. These modifications have been incorporated into a generalizable decision support system which has been tested in an academic decision making environment.
20 citations
TL;DR: The Department of Medicine at the University of Washington has reorganized its residency program to increase the emphasis on general internal medicine and primary care, serving as a model for the development of a regional program for graduate training in internal medicine.
15 citations
TL;DR: The Australian aluminium industry has played a "semi-peripheral" role in world production as mentioned in this paper, and there has been a dramatic restructuring of this pattern with six proposals for smelters producing metal for export.
Abstract: The Australian aluminium industry has played a ‘semi-peripheral’ role in world production. The transnational corporations dominating the world industry were supplied with large cuantities of cheap raw materials for smelters overseas. Three of the firms also produced metal, largely for local sale. Recently, however, there has been a dramatic restructuring of this pattern with six proposals for smelters producing metal for export. The explanation lies not simply in Australia's energy advantages, but in interactions between the corporate global strategies and Australian governments. New patterns of regional ‘comparative advantage’ have been created, in part by corporations setting stale governments in competition with one another to provide cheap energy and supportive infrastructure. The impacts of these changes are inherently uneven geographically.
15 citations
TL;DR: In this article, it was shown that these changes, which began with a redistribution of manufacturing employment initially, but which have more recently been dominated by the restructuring of the tertiary sector, can best be understood as a regional effect of the growing spatial division of labour in the UK and internationally.
14 citations
TL;DR: In this article, the locational dynamics of pharmaceutical retailing are examined, and the pattern of change between 1950 and 1980 is described, showing that the major trend, at both regional and intra-urban levels, is centralization.
11 citations
10 citations
9 citations
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors examine the causes of the current economic crisis in the industrial region of South Wales and argue that past and current government policies played a major role in bringing about the crisis by contributing to the vulnerability of communities in South Wales.
Abstract: This paper examines the causes of the current economic crisis in the industrial region of South Wales. The authors maintain that past as well as current government policies have played a major role in bringing about the crisis by contributing to the vulnerability of communities in South Wales. The authors review the history of the policies which have contributed to the current steel and coal crises. They then provide a brief discussion of current legislative policies designed to combat the crises. Finally, they critique alternative strategies: continued monetarism; a return To Keynesian/‘corporatist’ policies; and the radical restructuring demanded by an ‘Alternative Economic Strategy’ (AES).
TL;DR: The results from two experiments indicated that ill-structured analogies are restructured during problem solving, and both processes exhibited automaticity since repetition of analogy solution attenuated but did not eliminate either restructuring process.
Abstract: The processes involved in analogy solving have been an important investigative area in cognitive psychology. Although problem restructuring has been a central construct in problem solving theory, no restructuring processes have been proposed for analogical reasoning. Yet, the stimulus terms for analogies, as they appear on ability tests, are often ill-structured. That is, they are ordered in a way that does not permit direct problem comprehension. In the current study, both perceptual and semantic problem restructuring processes were hypothesized for analogy solving. The independence, stage of execution, and susceptibility to strategic control of the two processes were examined. The results from two experiments indicated that (1) ill-structured analogies are restructured during problem solving, (2) perceptual and semantic restructuring processes are independent and executed at different stages of analogy solving, and (3) both processes exhibited automaticity since repetition of analogy solution attenuated but did not eliminate either restructuring process. A model of analogical reasoning that incorporated both restructuring processes and their execution sequences was proposed. The nature and automaticity of perceptual and semantic analogy restructuring processes were disscussed.
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors argue that the energy transition is closer to completion than would appear from the behavior of oil markets, primarily because many countries at first resisted the necessary changes in domestic prices.
Abstract: Since 1973 attempts to adjust the structure of the world economy to rapidly rising costs of energy have dominated all other economic issues. This paper argues that the energy transition is closer to completion than would appear from the behavior of oil markets, primarily because many countries at first resisted the necessary changes in domestic prices. Once the energy adjustment appears more manageable, it should be possible to resume progress on the problems of long-term development. In support of these propositions, the extent to which the energy adjustment is already in train will be examined. Then the economic interests of the three main groups of participants in the global adjustment: the oil-exporting countries, the industrial countries, and other developing countries are discussed.
TL;DR: The authors reviewed the record of the Labour Government in social policy 1974-79 and pointed out that many of the cutbacks in public expenditure and restructuring of welfare services now being pursed by the Conservative Government were carried out by the same authors.
Abstract: This article reviews the record of the Labour Government in social policy 1974-79. It points out that many of the cutbacks in public expenditure and restructuring of welfare services now being purs...
TL;DR: The second pillar forms the core of the bulwark against future demographic strain, with private savings being accumulated in personal accounts kept at private pension funds as discussed by the authors. But the necessary restructuring of the state pension scheme is not proceeding fast enough.
Abstract: Today in the Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries there are barely 30 pensioners for every 100 persons of working age. By 2050, the number could rise to almost 80 pensioners. So far Poland has responded the most rigorously to the challenge, establishing a modern three-pillar pension system. The new second pillar forms the core of the bulwark against future demographic strain, with private savings being accumulated in personal accounts kept at private pension funds. Hungary has also established a second pillar of private pension funds, but the necessary restructuring of the state pension scheme is not proceeding fast enough. In the Czech Republic, a three-pillar system thus far exists only on paper.
TL;DR: The Communications Act of 1934, which regulates the United States telecommunications industry, is becoming less able to deal with the changes brought by modern technology and therefore, proposals are being made to restructure the industry.
Book•
24 Aug 1981
TL;DR: In this paper, the authors consider policy responses that have been and are likely to be implemented by developing nations as they face increasing pressures in the areas of food, energy, trade, and debt.
Abstract: The quest for a viable policy toward the Third World will be a dominant theme in U.S. foreign policy throughout this decade. But before any judgments can be made about the range of choices for U.S. policymakers, it is necessary to understand the pressures that are likely to confront developing nations during the 1980s as well as the efforts of these nations as a group to extract greater resources and attention from the international system. This book considers policy responses that have been and are likely to be implemented by developing nations as they face increasing pressures in the areas of food, energy, trade, and debt – the main areas of interaction within the international system. The author also presents an analysis of how the North-South Dialogue functions and why it has produced so few genuine settlements, providing an additional perspective on whether the pressures on the developing countries might be diminished by successful global negotiations. The conclusions reached by examining policy responses and the Dialogue itself provide the basis for a number of specific policy prescriptions. They also help to establish a framework within which U.S. policy initiatives toward the Third World must be formed. The two concluding chapters discuss these policy choices in detail, carefully analyzing the advantages and disadvantages of persisting in present policies, attempting a genuine global restructuring, choosing to concentrate attention on a few "new influentials" in the Third World, and trying to construct a new approach out of selected elements of the other policy approaches.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: The significance of information technology lies in the breadth of its potential impact on society: on work, communications, political processes, education and entertainment It offers not just the possibility, in the current economic crisis, of restructuring work in order to gain greater control over that process the better to increase productivity, but also the possibility of a new cycle of growth in both capital and consumer goods, facilitating the restructuring of modes of consumption and the strengthening and recomposition of capital over patterns of leisure, communication and entertainment.
Abstract: The significance of information technology (IT)' lies in the breadth of its potential impact on society: on work, communications, political processes, education and entertainment It offers not just the possibility, in the current economic crisis, of restructuring work in order to gain greater control over that process the better to increase productivity, but also the possibility of a new cycle of growth in both capital and consumer goods, facilitating the restructuring of modes of consumption and the strengthening and recomposition of capital over patterns of leisure, communication and entertainment
01 Jan 1981
Posted Content•
TL;DR: In this article, the authors report modest operating cost scale economies for small institutions (those with less than about $50 million of deposits in 1968 dollars) but are unclear where these economies might end, if at all.
Abstract: THE ISSUE OF scale economies in banking has a rich history. Most earlier studies report modest operating cost scale economies for small institutions (those with less than about $50 million of deposits in 1968 dollars) but are unclear where these economies might end, if at all. Unfortunately, these studies are limited in four important respects. First, those that were well specified did not measure the total cost of banking operations but concentrated on estimating scale economies for individual banking functions (e.g., demand deposits separately from commercial loans). Second, an average cost curve that could take a U shape over the full range of banks was not fitted, either because larger banks were not included or because of the functional form used (Cobb-Douglas). Consequently, the optimum or minimum cost size of a bank or office could not be determined. Third, the variables measuring the costs of branching were misspecified. Fourth, the branch
TL;DR: Gitlin this article argues that socaologiszs have railed to raise critical questions because of intellectual, institutional, and ideological commitments, and the theoretical barrenness of the field after 30 years of effects research is resulting in a marvelous paradox-the decomposition of the paradigm itself.
Abstract: In a critique of the dominance in media sociology of the ~.azarsfeldian paradigm, with its view of the mass media as relatively powerless and unimportant, Todd Gitlin argues that socaologiszs have railed to raise critical questions because of intellectual, institutional, and ideological commitments. Not only has the dominant sociology of mass communication been unable to grasp fundamental features of the subject, &dquo;it has nbs;;uied the, scanted them, at times defined them out of existence, and therefore it has had the effect of justifying the existing system of mass media ownership, control, and purpose (Gitlin, 1978: 205). However, Gitlin writes, the theoretical barrenness of the field after 30 years of effects research is resulting in a marvelous paradox-the decomposition of the paradigm itself (Gitlin, t978~ 206). At another level, the limits of this paradigm are becoming apparent through the obtrusion of concern over the fate of press freedom and the threat to the democratic process posed by the conspicuous trend toward press concentration, chain ownership, and the monopolization of news collection and distribution. The disintegration of a web of myths regarding the freedom of a market-based press and the inseparability of government subsidies and government interference (e.g., cf. Smith; 1977: 3-4), coupled with increasing economic pressures on the press, is forcing media consumers, practitioners, critics, and scholars to rethink questions of control, management, funding, and ownership of the press.
Journal Article•
TL;DR: After restructuring budgetary responsibility for nursing services will be pushed down to unit level, and area nurse Peter Creighton draws attention to the problems created by special duty payments.
Abstract: After restructuring budgetary responsibility for nursing services will be pushed down to unit level. Peter Creighton, area nurse (service and capital planning), Redbridge and Waltham Forest AHA, draws attention to the problems created by special duty payments.
TL;DR: A comprehensive industrial policy means full production and the transfer of resources to growth industries through a development bank rather than a reconstruction finance corporation as mentioned in this paper, which is the case in the UK.
Abstract: A comprehensive industrial policy means full production and the transfer of resources to growth industries through a development bank rather than a reconstruction finance corporation Former Senator Stevenson defines these and other policy suggestions in an interview He prefers a conditional financing that promotes restructuring instead of bailing-out ailing industries with adjustment subsidies or trade restrictions An independent institution could provide capital for industrial development in the areas of new products and processes - for firms in growth sectors and for essential public services - and be kept free of political pressure Funds could be offered contingent upon restructuring agreements (DCK)
Journal Article•
TL;DR: An analysis of basic objectives and methods shows no valid ground for conflict, and instead all that is needed is agreement on how to implement the most efficient pattern of prevention for the benefit of all children.
Abstract: The importance of community and preventive child health services is generally recognized, but the questions raised about the delivery of these services are jeopardizing their development. The sequelae to the Court report have clouded the future for clinical medical officers; there are arguments about the relationship between general practitioners and the community services, whose management in turn may be reduced by NHS restructuring; while the debate about computer systems has caused further acrimony. However, an analysis of basic objectives and methods shows no valid ground for conflict, and instead all that is needed is agreement on how to implement the most efficient pattern of prevention for the benefit of all children.
01 Jan 1981
TL;DR: The importance of communication both as an instrument of social control and a process of socialization in China is discussed in this paper, where the authors make selective use of communication technologies and the restructuring of the current economic system is not expected to give priority to investment in this sector.
Abstract: The importance of communication both as an instrument of social control and a process of socialization in China is discussed. China is now making selective use of communication technologies and the restructuring of the current economic system is not expected to give priority to investment in this sector.