Guide to U.S. Foundation, Their Trustees, Officers, and Donors 2001 (Guide to U.S. Foundations, Their Trustees, Officers and Donors, 2001)

Book Description

Reading history, says Arthur Cohen, is essential for those who would reform higher education.

From the earliest American colleges, debates have ranged over familiar issues in higher education: curriculum changes, faculty selection and review, student admissions, and institutional funding. Yesterday's practices underlie today's problems even as the system continues evolving. How has this evolution taken place? And to what degree have things changed or remained the same?

In The Shaping of American Higher Education, Cohen combines historical perspective with in-depth coverage of current events to provide an authoritative, comprehensive account of the history of higher education in the United States. From the colonial era to the present day--and with particular attention to the past 50 years--the book tracks trends in student access, faculty professionalization, curricular expansion, institutional growth, secular governance, public finance, research, and outcomes, placing them all in the context of contemporary society. Cohen organizes the book around a unique matrix of trends, topics, and eras that enables the reader either to proceed chapter by chapter through a chronological sequence of the entire history, or to easily follow a preferred topic, such as faculty or curriculum, by reading only that specific section in each era.

While other books have detailed the early history of the collegiate system, Cohen's work fulfills the need for an up-to-date account of American higher education that emphasizes the post-World War II era. Cohen synthesizes prevailing views of earlier eras in order to establish a solid background for his extensive examination of the past fifty years.

Customer Reviews:

not good.......2007-09-02

This book is not good. It is just a listing of events and people in higher education, but in paragraph form instead of bullet lists. Instead of telling the story of higher education, it merely catalogs it.

Other respectable histories of higher education is written by Lucas. (I would add Brubacher & Rudy, Rudolph's and Thelin's, but their focus is for the most part focused exclusively on the most selective and wealthy institutions). I recommend those over Cohen's.

covers everything, clear writing........2001-06-30

Mr. UCLA (the reviewer who gave the book 1 star) was probably a student of the writer, who is a teacher in UCLA. He didn't seem to enjoy his class too much.

Anyway, I bought the book because I was working on my so-called "education reform", but realized that I didn't know anything about education. The book helped out a lot. It writes about the full history of American Higher education with an emphasis on later eras. Colonial, Emergent nattion, university transformation, mass higher education, and contemporary are the five stage of Higher Education's development. He wrote about the major trends and characteristics of each era, some trends lasting for several eras, like the continuous expansion of the system, never ending diversification, and constant cries for access. One chapter is for one era, and all chapters are subdivided into eight sections to fully illustrate the details of each generation: societal context, institutions, students, faculty, curriculum and instruction, governance and administration, finance, and research and outcomes. The book is very well researched, and has a tremendous amount of data and charts, which were put together very nicely by the author. But that does not mean the book is boring! Though for most of the parts the author tried to be impartial, there were still many spalkling moments when you could feel the author's passion beaming out from the pages, especially as the book go into more modern eras. I know so much more about the history of US education now, and this whole process of developments is very amazing. With this understanding of history, I also gained a far better good grip on current issues, issues not only relating to higher education, but education as a whole. Don't hesitate, you will learn much!

This is an excellent book!.......2000-03-03

This book provides an insightful and thorough account of the history of higher education.

Useful content, poorly written........1998-11-01

If you're into a stream of interesting facts, get this book. If, instead, you want something pleasurable to read -- try elsewhere.

Customer Reviews:

A founding blocks of contingency approaches in organizational studies and human resource management.......2007-06-13

1967 saw the publication of three books that are now considered founding blocks of contingency approaches in organizational studies and human resource management. Theory of Leadership Effectiveness by Fred Fiedler, Organization and Environment: Managing Differentiation and Integration by Paul Lawrence and Jay Lorsch, and "Organizations in Action" by James D. Thompson. Fiedler created a model of leadership for industrial and organizational psychology while Lawrence, Lorsch, and Thompson studied organizational structure.

Thompson's book aims at providing what he calls a "conceptual inventory": a framework for tying together a multitude of concepts by various authors. The book reads like a serialized decision tree - a hundred propositions presented in the order of their dependencies, fleshed out by explanations and some examples of the concepts involved.

Thompson's approach is based on two fundamental ideas: 1) The nature of uncertainty in the environment is a determining factor of organizational structure. 2) Simple models cannot work for complex organizations, but for their respective components.

Uncertainty in the environment - variables the organization can neither control nor predict - is a key to understanding organizational structure, according to Thompson. An organization is built around a technical core; in order to achieve high performance, the organization shields the core from uncertainty by setting up separate components that serve as an interface to the outside world. Such a division of responsibility allows an organization to structure their technical core from a closed-system perspective and hence with a rational model. Uncertainty is taken care of, and the technical core component can be designed for maximum performance. The components at the managerial level are also tasked with controlling the technical core. Components at the third, the institutional level cover aspects of the environment that go beyond a straight-forward provision of resources and sales channels - here, uncertainty is high and means of control are few and weak.

In part two of the book, Thompson takes a stab at the human factor. He sketches out some goals of employees: individuals in early-ceiling occupations, for instance, use collective bargaining to improve the standing of their occupation while individuals in late-ceiling occupations try to improve their standing among their peers. Exercising discretion appears as a key problem to Thompson; while acknowledging that "some individuals are more tolerant of risk and ambiguity than others", he goes on with the assumption "that individuals exercise discretion whenever they believe it is to their advantage to do so and seek to evade discretion on other occasions." Individuals make entirely rational choices to present their work in the best light possible (pp. 123, 124), but they are not opportunistic; Thompson briefly discusses what he terms "deviant discretion" and presents it as a relatively minor problem, at least "in societies which possess the appropriate supporting institutions" (p. 122).

In this second part, Thompson appears to be out of his depth. He is not a psychologist - the concepts and models of part two look crude compared to the framework in part one. And while mechanistic models of organizations are commonplace, the reader may be less forgiving when simple models are applied to humans.

It is safe to assume that Frederick W. Taylor was aware that resources don't simply materialize in the factory as needed. Max Weber presented bureaucracy as an answer to an environment where rational-legal authority was on the rise. And both intended to tailor organizations to given problems, guided by their respective principles. From this perspective, Thompson does not stray far from the idea that there should be "one best way" - he offers a formalized, fairly deterministic way for finding the structure that can cope with a given environment, including its uncertainties. In fact, Thompson performs a sleight of hand in plain view of the reader: the highest uncertainty is relegated to a barely defined institutional level - but for that level, precious little insight is offered beyond the common measuring of success in satisficing terms.

What really differentiates Thompson from Weber and Taylor with regards to uncertainty is the assessment of organizations: goals may be unclear or conflicting, and cause/effect relations may be unknown - these are hard problems that bureaucracies and scientific management are ill-equipped to deal with.

Books are not very flexible as a medium. The process of creating and distributing new editions is expensive, and the readership may not even be appreciative, particularly if a book is popular enough to warrant further editions or even regarded as a "classic" (reference books are an obvious exception). And so this reader stumbled over several oddities and omissions: Thompson didn't foresee the rise of Just-In-Time production (pp. 20-23). Within his model, increasing interdependence results in increased power and dependence - an explanation of how this constitutes an "important escape from the 'zero-sum' concept of power" seems lacking (pp. 30-32). And he fails to mention that in many scenarios, coalescence is less constraining than co-optation - joint ventures are separate entities while members of the board of directors affect the main organization (pp. 35, 36). It is worth pointing out that this last problem becomes only obvious when looking at the specific examples given by Thompson.

Thompson's legacy is a more differentiated look at the complexity of organizational structure. If theories evolved, it might have been a decent starting point for a more comprehensive framework of organizational studies. In some disciplines, however, theories tend to be more closely associated with authors than with research subjects. They rarely evolve. They are superseded.

ORGANIZATIONS IN ACTION Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory

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ORGANIZATIONS IN ACTION Social Science Bases of Administrative Theory
James D. Thompson
Manufacturer: Transaction Publishers.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K0EO9S

Book Description

Strategic management has been increasingly characterized by an emphasis on core competences. Firms are advised to divest unrelated businesses and return to core business. Moreover, competitive advantage is now increasingly seen as a matter of efficiently deploying scarce knowledge resources to product markets. Much of this change in emphasis has occurred because of the emergence of a unified and rigorous approach to strategy, often called the resource-based approach. This Reader brings together extracts from the seminal articles that created this dominant perspective in strategic management. It includes the pioneering work of Selznick, Penrose, and Chandler and more recent writing by Wernerfelt, Barney, Teece, and Prahalad and Hamel.

Book Description

"Company town." The words evoke images of rough-and-tumble loggers and gritty miners, of dreary shacks in isolated villages, of wages paid in scrip good only at price-gouging company stores, of paternalistic employers. But these stereotypes are outdated, especially for those company towns that flourished well into the twentieth century. In Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest, Linda Carlson provides a more balanced and realistic look at these "intentional communities." Many of the later towns attracted professionals as well as laborers; houses were likely to be clapboard Victorians or shingled bungalows; and the mercantile store carried work boots, baby diapers, and Buicks and extended credit even to striking workers. Company owners built schools, power plants, and movie theaters.

Drawing from residents' reminiscences, contemporary newspaper accounts, company newsletters and histories, census and school records, and site plans, the book looks at towns in Oregon, Washington, and Idaho, considering who planned the towns and designed the buildings. It examines how companies went about controlling housing, religion, taxes, liquor, prostitution, and union organizers. This vibrant history gives the details of daily life in communities that were often remote and subject to severe weather--as much as 100 inches of rain a year near the coast or 10 feet of snow in the mountains. It looks at the tragedies and celebrations: sawmill accidents, mine cave-ins, and avalanches as well as Independence Day picnics, school graduations, and Christmas parties. Finally, it tells what happened when people left--when they lost their jobs, when the family breadwinner died or was disabled, when the mill closed.

This lively and well-researched book will be welcomed by those interested in Northwest history, as well as students of labor and business history. An ample selection of illustrations, most never previously published, broadens its appeal.

"This remarkable survey of life in the company towns of the Pacific Northwest and their significance to the economy of the region makes an important contribution to the social history of the West. Here Carlson identifies over a hundred full-blown company-owned towns, where, in most cases, the company provided all the housing, stores, schools, recreational facilities, law enforcement, and even ministers. Her well-written story reveals paternalism at both its best and its worst."--James B. Allen, author of The Company Town in the American West

Customer Reviews:

A Book for All Generations.......2003-10-29

This a book for every generartion.

The Seniors can relive parts of the life they lived earlier in their lives.

The Boomers can find verification for the tales their granparents told of early hard times and inconveniences.

The Young Ones can marvel at how real people lived without a car or TV.

Average customer rating:
Company Towns of the Pacific Northwest.
Linda. Carlson
Manufacturer: University of Washington Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000UWW8AS

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Gilchrist, Oregon, a company town of the Pacific Northwest
John Driscoll
Manufacturer: J. Driscoll?
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006Y6SN8

Book Description

Resource Allocation Mechanisms derives the general welfare properties of systems in which individuals are motivated by self-interest. Satisfactory outcomes will emerge only if individual incentives are harnessed by means of a communication and payoff process, or mechanism, involving every agent. Professor Campbell employs a formal and abstract model of a mechanism that brings into prominence the criteria by which the performance of an economy is to be judged. The mechanism approach is used to prove some fundamental theorems about the possibility of designing an economic system satisfying the criteria. It also establishes a way of thinking about economic issues that is becoming increasingly useful in special branches of economics, such as industrial organization and public finance. This book can be viewed as two different texts: one constitutes an introduction to the theory of mechanism design and the other is a treatment of welfare economics with conventional emphasis on Pareto optimality as well as providing substantial material on incentives, uncertainty, and existence of equilibrium.

Current costing models: are they suitable for allocating health resources? [An article from: Accident Analysis and Prevention]

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Current costing models: are they suitable for allocating health resources? [An article from: Accident Analysis and Prevention]
J. Moller
Manufacturer: Elsevier
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Digital

Elsevier | By Publisher | e-Docs | Formats | Books
ASIN: B000RR3DX2

Book Description

This digital document is a journal article from Accident Analysis and Prevention, published by Elsevier in 2005. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Media Library immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.

Description:
The example of fall injury among older people is used to define and illustrate how current Australian systems for allocation of health resources perform for funding emerging public health issues. While the examples are Australian, the allocation and priority setting methods are common in the health sector in all developed western nations. With an ageing population the number of falls injuries in Australia and the cost of treatment will rise dramatically over the next 20-50 years. Current methods of allocating funds within the health system are not well suited to meeting this coming epidemic. The information requirements for cost-benefit and cost-effectiveness measures cannot be met. Marginal approaches to health funding are likely to continue to fund already well-funded treatment or politically driven prevention processes and to miss the opportunity for new prevention initiatives in areas that do not have a high political profile. Fall injury is one of many emerging areas that struggle to make claims for funding because the critical mass of intervention and evidence of its impact is not available. The beneficiaries of allocation failure may be those who treat the disease burden that could have been easily prevented. Changes to allocation mechanisms, data systems and new initiative funding practices are required to ensure that preventative strategies are able to compete on an equal footing with treatment approaches for mainstream health funding.

Discrete allocation mechanisms (Working papers in economic theory and econometrics)

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Discrete allocation mechanisms (Working papers in economic theory and econometrics)
Leonid Hurwicz
Manufacturer: Center for Research in Management, Institute of Business and Economic Research, University of California
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00073EIBM

The formation of resource allocation strategy of the firm and the underlying performance related mechanisms: An empirical study of Finnish consumer goods ... Oeconomicae Helsingiensis. Sarja A)

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The formation of resource allocation strategy of the firm and the underlying performance related mechanisms: An empirical study of Finnish consumer goods ... Oeconomicae Helsingiensis. Sarja A)
Matti Lehti
Manufacturer: Helsinki School of Economics and Business Administration
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Incomplete resource allocation mechanisms (The Economics series technical report)

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Incomplete resource allocation mechanisms (The Economics series technical report)
Peter J Hammond
Manufacturer: Institute for Mathematical Studies in the Social Sciences
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006Y3IIQ

India: Mechanism for the allocation of resources to education from the federation to the states

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India: Mechanism for the allocation of resources to education from the federation to the states
J Veera Raghavan
Manufacturer: International Institute for Educational Planning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007B4XO6

Information processing for a finite resource allocation mechanism (Paper / Krannert Graduate School of Management, Institute for Research in the Behavioral, Economic, and Management Sciences)

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Information processing for a finite resource allocation mechanism (Paper / Krannert Graduate School of Management, Institute for Research in the Behavioral, Economic, and Management Sciences)
James C Moore
Manufacturer: Institute for Research in the Behavioral, Economic, and Management Sciences, Krannert Graduate School of Management, Purdue University
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B0006OVVCG

Mechanisms of resources allocation to education from central government to provinces: Case of Indonesia

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Mechanisms of resources allocation to education from central government to provinces: Case of Indonesia
Aris Pongtuluran
Manufacturer: International Institute for Educational Planning
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Education | Nonfiction | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0007B4XMS

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Memorandum
Eric Jon Friedman
Manufacturer: Electronics Research Laboratory, College of Engineering, University of California
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

On the generic non-optimality of dominant-strategy allocation mechanisms: A general theorem that includes pure exchange economies (Stony Brook working papers / Department of Economics)

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On the generic non-optimality of dominant-strategy allocation mechanisms: A general theorem that includes pure exchange economies (Stony Brook working papers / Department of Economics)
Leonid Hurwicz
Manufacturer: Dept. of Economics, State University of New York at Stony Brook
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

General | Popular Economics | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B00071LT3Y

Book Description

The man who has been called the ``master strategist'' of direct marketing now describes how and why database marketing is revolutionizing the field. Readers will learn how to develop and implement effective database marketing strategies that generate sales, avoid pitfalls, promote a positive company image, and capitalize on ``golden'' opportunities. Here are a wealth of techniques for: Building an in-house database, purchasing the perfect lists from other sources, and achieving the right mix of the two; Refining and maintaining a database to consistently get the biggest bang for the mailing buck; Tailoring strategic and creative approaches to the target market; Using database marketing in the packaged goods, financial services, and business-to-business areas; Increasing knowledge of database marketing terminology via the convenient glossary. All readers will benefit from this extraordinary primer on the marketing field's latest and most powerful tool!

Customer Reviews:

Great introduction to the possibilities of DB Marketing.......1999-09-28

This books offers a nice overview of the various possibilities of database marketing and how it can be applied to get and retain customers. The chapters on analyses and database building have been written by others than Nash and turned out to be the least usefull in the book since they don't really explain 'how' to use the various concepts and their writing style is very different from Nash'. The rest of the book is an enthusiastic guide into Databasew Marketing with lots of short case studies for B-to-B, B-to-C and financial marketing. The book is already 6 years old and needs a bit of an update really since some of the technologies and trends which are discussed are already out of date. Still a very pleasant and informative book for people who just entered the field of DBM.

A good introductory guide.......1998-04-05

I work as a mrktg database consultant, and I find that this is a good introductory book on database marketing, the very next big trend in relationship marketing. It happens to be one the most useful guides I have ever seen about database marketing. If you want to hear the bad part of the tale, the technical concepts about supporting technology are a little bit poor. As I said before, maybe the best guide for newbies

Database Marketing : The Ultimate Marketing Tool

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Database Marketing : The Ultimate Marketing Tool
Edward L. Nash
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000OFYX9A

Book Description

This book constitutes the refereed proceedings of the First International Conference on Multi-Criterion Optimization, EMO 2001, held in Zurich, Switzerland in March 2001.
The 45 revised full papers presented were carefully reviewed and selected from a total of 87 submissions. Also included are two tutorial surveys and two invited papers. The book is organized in topical sections on algorithm improvements, performance assessment and comparison, constraint handling and problem decomposition, uncertainty and noise, hybrid and alternative methods, scheduling, and applications of multi-objective optimization in a variety of fields.

Customer Reviews:

The reference in evolutionary multi-objective optimization.......2003-05-29

Evolutionary multi-objective optimization is becoming more and more used these days, and most breakthroughs in this subject can be found in these proceedings (proceedings of EMO'03 are even better than EMO'01, the program committee did a wonderful job). These are not the standard technical proceedings whose intended audience are specialists in the field, anyone with a basic knowledge of evolutionary computation can understand these papers. The proceedings begin with short tutorials explaining what EMO is and after that about the first half deals with more theoretical aspects while the second part with applications.

Reading these proceedings like a book is feasible (you may skip some papers you're not interested in) and most of the papers are very well written, so if you're interested in recent advances in EMO, reading these proceedings is almost required. The book by Kalyanmoy Deb (Multi-objective optimization using evolutionary algorithms) is nice but does not provide enough treatment from an applications perspective, but it constitutes a nice textbook to enter the subject of EMO anyway.

Both EMO2001 and 2003 proceedings are "must-read" in evolutionary multi-objective optimization !

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