Search results

Before Philip King sold his five bookstores in Christchurch roughly 10 years ago to Whitcoulls, a large Australian-owned bookstore and office supplies operation, he hardly fancied himself as an entrepreneur. Books were his passion: He loved to read. However, his first job was selling barbeque charcoal to New Zealand℉s South Island residents.

Discusses how transforming a large company from a quality control style of management to TQM requires careful planning and senior management commitment. Reveals how Philips Germany′s 35,000 employees responded to the total quality challenge. Describes a quality policy explained by Deming′s “chain of reaction”. Contends that the wholehearted support of management is the most important element in the successful introduction of TQM ‐ unless those in authority understand and practise TQM, it is no use training the personnel. Concludes that beginning with a quality policy, an extensive well‐structured training programme which involves everybody has to be carried out. Asserts it is a continuous process which needs patience and permanent support from management.

Argues that the influence of developments in production technology and process innovation on the selection of the location of production has markedly increased and, as a consequence of this, the role of wage levels has diminished, in spite of the fact that many of the top managers of European enterprises stubbornly continue to maintain that the opposite is true. On the one hand challenges the statement that wage levels in The Netherlands are too high compared with other European countries and on the other hand (and more important) argues that the role of wage levels has diminished in the discussion of how to increase European employment. To illustrate the shift in industrial strategy, the actual (re)location behaviour of a large Dutch electronics concern, namely Philips Electronics, can be given. By examining this corporation′s behaviour side‐by‐side with the developments in production technology, demonstrates that, while wage costs played a significant role in determining the location policy in large‐scale enterprises in the 1960s and 1970s, the importance of this factor since the 1980s has diminished. Casts a different light on the constantly reiterated admonitions by European managers (and economists) that high wage levels in Europe will lead to the emigration of enterprises to low‐wage countries with disastrous consequences for the European levels of (un)employment.

Now that Japanese consumers have gained considerable purchasing power, multinational companies need to envision a triad market composed of Western Europe, North America, and Japan.

Multinationals are maintaining a tight‐lipped silence oyer the abduction of high‐ranking executives who are held to ransom by guerilla movements. For these self‐styled ‘revolutionaries’ it's an easier way of getting money than robbing a bank, reports John Lawless.

F/A‐18 Hornet Strike Fighters have accumulated more than 9,000 flight hours and since November have demonstrated reliability and maintainability two to three times better than the F‐4 and A‐7, the aircraft the Hornet replaces, it was announced recently by McDonnell Douglas Corporation.

The purpose of this paper is to report on a qualitative study of data management and recordkeeping in the research sciences and their roles in information creation and professional identity formation.

The study uses ethnographic fieldwork data in an academic laboratory to examine documentation practices as a part of the trajectory of scientific professionalization. The article examines ethnographic fieldnotes and medical records as cognate areas that provide insight into the topic.

The paper argues that scientific recordkeeping is essential for learning to balance professional standards and personal knowledge, establishing comfort with ambiguity, and can be a process marked by ritual, anxiety, and affect. The article does this by discussing the creation of record from data, tacit knowledge as part of that process, and the process of legitimate peripheral participation (LPP).

The qualitative nature of the study suggests the need for similar studies in other environments.

The article emphasizes recordkeeping as a part of documentation studies by taking an interdisciplinary, ethnographic approach that is still emergent in information studies. The article is written primarily for fellow researchers.

The purpose of this paper is to contribute to science communication literature by further highlighting the underexplored role of organizational and corporate perspectives in science communication.

The paper takes the form of a conceptual article that uses two illustrative vignettes to highlight the power of corporate science communication.

The key argument is that corporate science communication is a compound ideology that results from merging the hegemonic corporate voice with the ultimate/god-term science (see the work of Kenneth Burke) to form a mega-ideological construct and discourse. Such communication can be so powerful that vulnerable publics and powerful advocates speaking on their behalf have little to no recourse to effectively challenge such discourse. While critiques of corporate science communication in practice are not new, what the authors offer is a possible explanation as to why such discourse is so powerful and hard to combat.

The value of this paper is in the degree to which it both sets an important applied research agenda for the field and fills a critical void in the science communication literature. This conceptual article, in the form of a critical analysis, fills the void by advocating for the inclusion of organizational perspectives in science communication research because of the great potential that organizations have, via science communication, to shape societal behavior and outcomes both positively and negatively. It also coins the terms “compound ideology” and “mega-ideology” to denote that while all ideologies are powerful, ideologies can operate in concert (compound) to change their meaning and effectiveness. By exposing the hegemonic power of corporate science communication, future researchers and practitioners can use these findings as a foundation to combat misinformation and disinformation campaigns wielded by big corporate science entities and the public relations firms often hired to carry out these campaigns.

The purpose of this paper is to review the work of the artist Edward Ihnatowicz (1926‐1988), describing his approach to his artistic practice and his major works (including sound‐activated mobile, The Senster and The Bandit) and to examine how he achieved his aim of making his cybernetic sculptures move in an elegant way despite working with severely limited computational resources.

The paper uses documentary research of the artist's private papers together with interviews with family and collaborators. Implementation of computer simulations of approaches to generating elegant motion.

The paper presents a comprehensive description of Ihnatowicz's work. A simple algorithm for generating elegant motion.

The paper is of historical value in documenting the work of an early cybernetic pioneer who had a unique approach to his artistic practice. The lessons learned from his installations are of relevance to current artists and designers who are interested in designing interactive environments.