Cybernetics is the science of effective organization, i.e. the science that describes the general principles of growth, learning and adaptation in complex, dynamical systems. Stafford Beer regards his viable system model as a design for effective formal organization. He also declares that since his model is explicitly based upon the principles of cybernetics, it facilitates consideration of what is and is not possible within formal organizations and provides guidance in creating efficient structures. The purpose of this research is to demonstrate and test Stafford Beer's ideas on the viable system model via the simulation of certain business activities. A methodology for getting access to the cybernetic body of knowledge is given as well as examples of cybernetic laws relevant to managerial and business practice. An important part of the work is devoted to the explanation and discussion of Stafford Beer's viable system model, and the importance it represents as a cybernetic method for the design of organizational structures. Simulation models incorporating the major activities of a business firm are represented and used as case studies to investigate how basic industrial organizations based on Beer's viable system model work under operational conditions.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 305-307.

Issued also as Thesis (Ph. D.)--Columbia University. / Bibliography: p. 305-307.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1968. / Typescript. Vita. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references.

This dissertation examines how the United Auto Workers (UAW) incorporated the applied social sciences behind the emerging postwar field of human relations to navigate the postwar terrain of labor relations and manage its membership. Like his counterparts in management, union president Walter Reuther was drawn to human relations' scientific approach to solving the human conflicts that beset large bureaucratic organizations. It traces the history and politics surrounding this psychological research, which includes the areas of group dynamics, counseling, opinion polling, personality profiling, motivational research, and attitude formation, and shows how these concepts were at the heart of the union's most ambitious reforms that overhauled membership education and leadership training programs, staff and organizer training, as well as its political action and public relations initiatives. The UAW's use of social science framed how the union met a range of large-scale challenges, from labor relations, to the Cold War and threat of automation. On the one hand, the union's use of applied psychology illustrates a unique willingness to innovate and modernize to address new problems and recapture the union's dynamism of the 1930s. While these innovative reforms did not always succeed, such experimentation with organizational science was unique among a labor movement that was largely isolated from these trends. On the other hand, however, the top-down nature of these reforms exerted social control that clashed with the union's democratic traditions. Applied psychology played a key role in Reuther's rise to political power and was subsequently at the center of Reuther's efforts to control and repress union democracy. These science-based reforms were rarely introduced without political controversy. The methods of applied psychology could be used to promote and repress union democracy and this dissertation shows how Walter Reuther used applied psychology towards both ends. Moreover, this dissertation examines the cultural context that prompted union leaders to pioneer organized labor's use of the applied social science as an organizational tool. Walter Reuther's willingness to embrace the newest scientific methods stemmed from his technocratic faith in society's ability to engineer pathways to material prosperity and socially-engineer ways to democratize that prosperity. Reuther was part of liberal reform community that included a number of progressive social psychologists who believed that the tools of applied social science were essential to maintaining a stable and rational, albeit highly managed, democratic society that could fend off the forces of reaction and fascism. Applied psychology emerged as a tool for many in the postwar era looking to effectively manage the complexity of communication in vast bureaucratic organizations. But for leaders of democratic organizations like Walter Reuther, this tool had to be handled with care so as not to erode the core values that first gave the union strength and legitimacy. The history of how the UAW balanced this task provides a revealing glimpse into how a grassroots organization weighed its democratic values against its desire to effectively participate among the powerbrokers that increasingly shaped America's political and economic future. Moreover, it highlights the class politics that framed postwar scientific research and illustrates the complex ways that applied social science influenced power relations and democracy in postwar American society.

Empirical and theoretical topics in applied microeconomics are discussed in this dissertation. The first essay identifies and measures managerial advantages from access to high-quality deals in venture capital investments. The underlying social network of Harvard Business School MBA venture capitalists and entrepreneurs is used to proxy availability of deal access. Random section assignment of HBS MBA graduates provides a key exogenous variation for identification. Being socially connected to peer venture capital firms and private equity seeking startups leads to more deal flow, larger asset under management and better performance in the inaugural funds of HBS-executive run venture capital firms. The second essay presents a two-stage model of competing ad auctions. Search engines attract users via Cournot-style competition. Meanwhile, each advertiser must pay a participation cost to use each ad platform. Advertiser entry strategies using symmetric Bayes-Nash equilibrium that lead to the Vickrey-Clarke-Groves outcome of the ad auctions are derived. Consistent with the model predictions, empirical evidence shows that multi-homing advertisers are larger than single-homing advertisers. Comparative statics on consumer choice parameters, quality, and user welfare are used to analyze the prospect of joining auctions to mitigate participation costs. The analysis provides conditions when such joins do and do not increase welfare. The third essay develops and computes a dynamic model of search in internet advertising. Micro-level browsing data from Microsoft's Bing.com (formerly known as Live.com) is used for structural estimations. The model predicts that users do not click on any ad with weak signals due to accumulating search cost and monotonicity of the value function. Rational search reveals a cascading pattern: the user clicks on a sufficiently high, highest-signal ad first, then moves on to the ad with the next highest conditionally expected probability of match once his assessment on the current ad degrades over time. The user exits when maximum assessment of likelihood of match over all ads is below a threshold value. The essay provides a novel approach to understanding rational herding behavior when product quality is only partially unraveled.

Mellanchefer har en komplex roll, där de befinner sig i en gränsposition mellan anställda och ledning. Deras unika position gör att de har stor insikt i olika delar av organisationen, inom såväl det strategiska som det operativa arbetet. Många gånger berörs mellanchefer av beslutsimplementeringar, där deras roll kan beskrivas som strategiska förkämpar. De förväntas styra gruppen åt ett gemensamt mål samtidigt som krav kommer både uppifrån och nerifrån i organisationer, vilket leder till orättvisa förväntningar som är svåra att möta. Det finns begränsade studier inom företagsekonomin vad gäller mellanchefers roll i beslutsimplementering, samt hur mellanchefer själva upplever sin roll. Syftet med denna studie är att förstå mellanchefers upplevda roll i beslutsimplementering inom industriella organisationer. Denna kvalitativa studie antar ett hermeneutiskt förhållningssätt och genomförs induktivt med hjälp av kvalitativa och kvantitativa data. Semistrukturerade intervjuer samt enkäter utgör grunden för insamlingen av data. Den insamlade data analyseras med hjälp av IPA-metoden och leder till sju identifierade teman och tre identifierade kluster. Kluster 1) Chefsrollen med teman kommunikation, tillit & förtroende samt ledarskap. Kluster 2) Krav & Utmaningar med teman krav, ansvar och förväntningar samt utmaningar. Kluster 3) Delaktighet med teman operativ samt strategisk delaktighet. Dessa kluster och teman utgör grunden för studiens resultat och skapar förståelse för hur mellanchefer upplever sin roll i beslutsimplementering. / Middle managers have a complex role in their position between employees and management. Their unique position means that they have great insight into different parts of the organization in both the strategic and the operational work. Middle managers are often affected and involved in the implementation of decisions, where their role can be described as strategic advocates. They are expected to lead the group towards a common goal while at the same time, handle the demands from above and below in the organization, leading to unfair expectations that are difficult to meet. There are limited studies within the field of business regarding the role of middle managers in decision making, and how middle managers themselves perceive their role. The purpose of this study is to understand the perceived role of middle managers in decision implementation within industrial organizations. This qualitative study assumes a hermeneutic approach and is conducted inductively with the help of qualitative and quantitative data. Semi-structured interviews and surveys are used to collect data. The collected data is analyzed using the IPA method and leads to three identified clusters and seven identified themes. The collected data is analyzed using the IPA method and leads to seven identified themes and three identified clusters. Cluster 1) The managerial role with the themes of communication, trust, and leadership. Cluster 2) Requirements & Challenges with the themes of requirements, responsibilities, and expectations as well as challenges. Cluster 3) Participation with the themes of operational participation and strategic participation. These clusters and themes form the basis for the study's results and create an understanding of how middle managers perceive their role in decision implementation.

<p>Održivo poslovanje i pozicioniranje kompanija na trži&scaron;tu zahteva od kompanija da maksimiziraju dodatu vrednost uz minimalno iskori&scaron;ćenje resursa. Sve veći izazov za kompanije predstavlja racionalna upotreba energije i energetskih izvora, a sve sa ciljem očuvanja životne sredine. Industrijski sistemi, pre svega proizvodni sistemi, predstavljaju najveće potro&scaron;ače energije. Istraživanje ima za cilj utvrđivanje trenutnog stanja u praktičnoj primeni sistema menadžmenta energijom u proizvodnim i uslužnim sistemima u Srbiji. Motivacija za ovakvu temu je pritisak evropske regulative na primenu mera za u&scaron;tedu energije, kao i za za&scaron;titu životne sredine. Standardi za sistem menadžmenta energijom, na kojima se ovo istraživanje zasniva, razmatraju energetsku performansu koju postiže organizacija. Jedan od najpoznatijih predstavnika ove vrste standarda je ISO 50001. Istraživanjem su statistički analizirane veze određenih faktora i nivoa primene zahteva za sistem menadžmenta energijom.</p> / <p>Sustainable business development and companies market positioning require companies to maximize added value with minimal resource utilization. The rational use of energy and energy sources is also a growing challenge, which aims to preserve the environment. Industrial systems, primarily production systems, are the largest energy consumers. The aim of this research is to determine the current situation regarding the application of energy management practices in production and service systems in Serbia. The motivation for these theme is the pressure of European regulation on the implementation of energy saving measures as well as on the environment. The standard for the energy management system on which this research is based consider the energy performance achieved by the organization. One of the most well-known representatives of this type of standard is ISO 50001. The research has statistically analyzed the relations of certain factors and levels of requirements application for the energy management system</p>

This thesis is a study of the Community Relations Department of the Southern Organizing Committee of the Congress of Industrial Organizations during the CIO’s Southern Organizing Drive, often referred to as “Operation Dixie.” The Community Relations Department was primarily interested in improving relations between organized labor and organized religion, in the hopes that improved church-labor relations would produce a situation more conducive to labor organizing, and reduce attacks on the CIO from religious leaders. This thesis examines the methods utilized by the CRD to achieve this end, and presents an analysis both of their efficacy and of their implementation. Specific programs that are explored are the CRD’s compilation, and publication, of various religiously themed pamphlets, the formation of Religion and Labor Fellowship groups, and the CRD’s relations with various anti-labor newspapers that made use of religious arguments to attack the CIO and Operation Dixie.

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