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This symposium focuses on the individual and the organization in resource allocation decisions. Budgeting is an information exchange function involving “relational learning,” according to John P. Forrester and Charles J. Spindler. Their framework for assessing budget participant interactions and learning can guide future research on public budget theory. As if in a direct response to Forrester and Sprindler’s call for an examination of "the role played by the executive budget office,” Kurt Thurmaier dissects the microbudgeting decision making process by budget analysts in a state budget office. He examines the rationalities adopted by budget analysts as they shape budget problems (agency requests) into solution sets for consideration by the chief executive. Adopted budgets have implications for employees, especially when allocations challenge organizational culture. Mark A. Glaser and Lee E. Parker assess the impact of a community policing strategy on police officer perceptions as resources respond to a mission-accomplishment focus. I want to thank the ad hoc reviewers for this symposium, including Wes Clark, Ed Clynch, Arie Halachmi, Ken Klase, Earle Klay and Cliff McCue. The authors and reviewers deserve the credit for the quality of the symposium, while I assume any problems that arise from this collective effort

The 1980s was a decade of far reaching change in the relations between management and the workforce. Flexibility can no longer be considered a ‘flash in the pan’, while the ‘Japanisation’ of production is probably the most influential concept since Fordism. Combining these two elements has enabled employers to introduce whole packages for the organisation of work and production where quality of product and process are no longer considered optional, rather a pre‐requisite for firms competing on a global scale.

Links the concept of market‐driven business strategies with the design of production systems. It draws upon the case of a firm which, during the last decade, changed its strategy from being “technology led” to “market driven”. The research, based on interdisciplinary fieldwork involving long‐term participant observation, investigated the factors which contribute to the successful design and implementation of flexible production systems in electronics assembly. These investigations were conducted in collaboration with a major computer manufacturer, with other electronics firms being studied for comparison. The research identified a number of strategies and actions seen as crucial to the development of efficient flexible production systems, namely: effective integration of subsystems, development of appropriate controls and performance measures, compatibility between production system design and organization structure, and the development of a climate conducive to organizational change. Overall, the analysis suggests that in the electronics industry there exists an extremely high degree of environmental complexity and turbulence. This serves to shape the strategic, technical and social structures that are developed to match this complexity, examples of which are niche marketing, flexible manufacturing and employee harmonization.

Concerned with the application of a product cost reduction technique known as Value Analysis (VA). Demonstrates that well established companies like Chubb are realizing the importance of VA to increasing their product focus and the benefits achievable through the use of this technique. Centres upon the application of VA: why the technique was seen as appropriate to the needs of Chubb and what comprises VA; the process of establishing the team within Chubb to undertake the VA exercise; the work carried out by the members of the team and their achievements. Gives an overview and lessons learned from the exercise.

In this paper we develop a framework to assess the implications of information exchange within the complex setting of governmental budgeting. The framework draws on principal-agent relations and organizational learning, a perspective we call relational learning. Matching the agency’s style of learning with predominant patterns of information exchange (i.e., principal-agent relations-organizational networks and relationships), we construct a matrix of definable "relational learning" budget behaviors or models. Each model is associated with a pattern of information exchange recognizable to most budgeters, namely the budget process and budget contract. The models are presented as reasonable theoretical benchmarks for assessing budgeting practice and reforms.

Seeking to build an objective scientific approach to psychiatry, American psychiatrists, physiologists, and psychologists began to turn to the conditional reflex method of Ivan Pavlov from the late 1920s. The generation of “neurotic” animals in the laboratory was critical to the emergence of a new experimental psychiatry in the United States. To understand the development of this field of research, the chapter will draw first on Mary Morgan’s identification of the mediatory and intermediary role of models and their ability to surprise and generate new questions, and second, upon her recent work on narratives in science. It will argue that it was through discursive and descriptive techniques that traced over time the tangled and interconnected lives of experimental subjects, that such elements of unpredictability in the animal laboratory were transformed into tools of research and put to disciplinary uses, promoting the clinical relevance of this new objective approach to psychiatric medicine.

New evidence from a British electronics plant on the experience of a harmonisation programme is presented and questions the generally accepted favourable image of moves towards single status working. The presentation is novel in that instead of offering a traditional literature review followed by the empirical data, the article develops two forms of case description. The first case is a fictional “Composite” account derived from previously published materials in which we have assembled the key themes into a single narrative to convey an image of harmonisation as it is presented in the literature. This can then be compared with the more contradictory experience of harmonisation found during ethnographic research at the Collaborating Company, where management was more constrained and the process was not conflict free. The two cases can be read as a contrast between image and reality which then needs to be explained.

Speed of response to customer demand has long been recognized as a key attribute to business success since customer loyalty can be won or lost on product availability. With everyone implementing lean manufacturing philosophies, companies additionally need to become smart chain managers and ensure continuous improvement to stay competitive. Exploits further the concept of the “seamless supply chain”, by encouraging market place information to move through the supply chain with as little distortion as possible. The simulation model used to benchmark performance improvement is representative of both the MIT beer game and much experimental industrial practice. It is therefore realistic as an aid to the implementation of decision support systems (DSS). Presents the beneficial dynamic effects of enriching each supply chain member’s order decision with undistorted market sales. Concludes that tremendous benefits can result from adopting a holistic approach if the attitudinal problems associated with information sharing can be overcome.

Case Studies generally ask: (1) What accounts for the success/failure of this real‐life “Case” (Corporation, Government or Organization)?; (2) How can we transport the lessons learned across time and space?; (3) What immediate/eventual issue/objective(s) should the “Case” pursue to enhance its survival/success; and How? The student is graded on the Case Study on the force of his/her reasoning and arguments, two diametrically‐opposite action plans both scoring “A”. But which one should the CEO implement? Why? Are there minimal criteria that any Case Study of management should fulfill? The raison d etre of management is the pre‐committing of scarce resources for unknown/unknowable results (e.g., market share, mind share), which are generated by interactions of variables and/or participants. Does the Case Study identify the cogent interactions; does it suggest how to allocate resources to achieve pre‐specified results? This Case Study has been checked by the corporation for accuracy. Westructure the narrative by systems theory which provides a framework to assess what the company has achieved, and to formulate what it should do to improve its chances of survival/success. The theory is buttressed by illustrations of systems approach to complexity, ranging from Apollo lunar landing to the $91‐billion IT Services Company, IBM. According to National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), IT exports rose 30.5 percent to $12.5 billion in Fiscal Year 2003‐04 ending on March 31, 2004 from $9.6 billion in Fiscal 2002‐03. Indian exports totaled $52.72 billion in 2003‐04. Applying the growth in the first five months, we estimate the total exports in 2003‐04 at $54.8 billion. The IT exports contributed 18.2 per cent in 2002‐03, rising to 22.8 percent in 2003‐04.