Showing papers on "Retrenchment published in 1976"

On Soviet Managerial Incentive Structures

Abstract: For the past decade, the painfully slow groping of a command economy in search of more effective planning procedures would aptly describe economic reform in the USSR. The industrial reform of 1966, following on the famous Liberman debate, introduced a price for capital and trumpeted the arrival of profits as an important managerial motivator. Although the number of centrally determined constraints on managerial decisions was reduced, quantity targets are still used to implement planners' objectives within the materials supply network, hereafter MSN. During the implementation of the reform, some retrenchment occurred as previously discarded targets were reapplied. In 1973, a second reform was begun with a less heralded organizational change in which production units are to be integrated into larger decision-making units called associations. The purpose of this note is to understand the logic of these reforms by analyzing the effect of various combinations of incentive structures and quantity targets on the production decisions of the socialist manager. Recently in this journal, W. Leeman [3, 434] has argued that value considerations, implicit in managerial reward schemes, should be examined. Following this suggestion, we calculate optimal expansion paths for Soviet reform managers and find the implicit own factor price ratio to contain the

Middle-Level Collegiate Administration in a Period of Retrenchment.

Abstract: Middle-level administrative costs and personnel are increasing at a time when other areas are being forced to cut back. These middle-level positions are the deans and directors and assistants of support services in the areas of admissions, counseling, business, accounting and personnel offices, fund raising, safety, public information, alumni affairs, student personnel, registration and scheduling, and similar nonacademic support staff areas. The three functions of these staff are to act as liaison with external suppliers of resources; to implement procedures for internal allocation of resources and control of activities; and to work with student activities and curricular responsibilities. Specific examples of these functions are given. The staffing of these positions has moved from faculty with part-time assignments to the hiring of recent graduates without experience to a combination of the two. In the present period of retrenchment, due to tighter budgets, the need for more professionalism has become apparent. Influences on the future of college administration are discussed including affirmative action and the process of retrenchment itself. Some problems of middle-level personnel that are considered are the lack of mobility, the lack of opportunity for career growth, and the lack of continuing challenge. Some available solutions for these conditions are discussed. (JMF) *********************************************************************** Documents acquired by ERIC include many informal unpublished * materials not available from other sources. ERIC makes every effort * * to obtain the best copy available. Nevertheless, items of marginal * * reproducibility are often encountered and this affects the quality * * of the microfiche and hardcopy reproductions ERIC makes available * * via the ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS). EDRS is not * responsible for the quality of the original document. Reproductions * * supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original. * *********************************************************************** U S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION &WELFARE NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION THIS DDCUME NT HAS BEEN REPRO. DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIGINATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPINIONS STATED DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF EDUCATION POSITION DR POLICY MIDDLE-LEVEL COLLEGIATE ADMINISTRATION IN A PERIOD OF RETRENCHMENT* Robert A. Scott Cornell University Recently, Jonathon Fife, Eric Clearinghouse on Higher E going to California to give the establishment of a new collegiate officer, Associate ducation, a speech in Director of the told me that he was which he would recommend the InformatioA *Paper presented to the New York University Institute on College Management in a Period of Retrenchment, June 11, 1976.