Suchergebnisse

THIS ARTICLE ARGUES THAT CAREFUL STUDY OF THE CHANGING DYNAMICS AND REVOLUTIONS IN CAPITALIST TECHNOLOGY AND ORGANIZATION IS A KEY STEP TOWARD GENERATING NEW VISIONS OF SOCIALISM. IT CONSIDERS SOME OF THE CHALLENGES POSED TO SOCIALISTS BY THE CHANGES WROUGHT IN THE POST-MODERN, POST-FORDIST SOCIETY TOWARDS GREATER "FLEXIBILITY." IT CONSIDERS FLEXIBILITY IN RELATION TO LABOR PROCESSES. IN LABOR MARKETS, IN QUESTIONS OF STATE POLICY, AND GEOGRAPHIC MOBILITY.

Presents diverse perspectives on the role of flexible, as opposed to intransigent behavior in the resolution of international conflicts through negotiation by principals and through the mediation of third parties; 11 articles. Includes negotiations on environmental issues, border disputes, cease-fires in civil wars, and the status of newly independent nations in Central Europe, with special reference to Bosnia-Herzegovina.

Antizyklische Regelmechanismen für den Staatssektor («formula flexibility») werden mit diskretionärer staatlicher Konjunkturpolitik verglichen. Damit wird der häufig anzutreffende Vergleich vermieden, bei dem die kontroversen Strategien sich ausserdem durch die Zielsetzung unterscheiden oder mit unterschiedlichen Annahmen über die Funktionsmechanismen der Wirtschaft konfrontiert werden. Sowohl theoretische Überlegungen als auch anhand empirischer Beispiele belegte Ergebnisse (Indikatorvorschläge aus den USA, Gesamtindikator des Sachverständigenrats und Bestersscher Indikatorvorschlag aus der BRD) lassen «formula flexibility» als völlig ungeeignet zur Lösung konjunkturpolitischer Probleme erscheinen.

This introductory article provides an overview of the concept of flexibility and the articles to follow. Both positive and problematic aspects of flexibility for conflict resolution are discussed: if manifest in joint problem-solving behavior, flexibility can contribute to improved negotiated outcomes; if used tactically by one or another party, it can lead to unfavorable outcomes for at least one of the parties. Flexibility can be understood at each of three levels of analysis—individual, small group, and organizational behavior—and the articles in this collection reflect these different levels. A variety of factors have been shown to influence flexible behavior, including the way negotiators plan, their orientations, tactics, and a number of aspects of the negotiating situation. These and other factors are treated in the articles to follow, each of which is summarized in this article. The articles in this collection are intended to contribute to our understanding of this concept, and the key lessons learned are presented in a final article.

PurposeTo provide an update on a paper published in 1987 in IJOPM.Design/methodology/approachProvides an assessment and update of "An agenda for research on the flexibility of manufacturing processes".FindingsGerwin's seminal work added welcome rigor to a concept, manufacturing flexibility, which had gained prominence during the previous decade. Finds that many of Gerwin's insights have stood the test of time. A number of things have changed since that time, but others have remained much as they were. Machines have become more capable and computer‐based controls have improved machine and process flexibility, but the character of that flexibility has remained very much the same.Originality/valueRevisits Gerwin's conceptualization of manufacturing process flexibility and subsequent progress in understanding it.

The word "flexible", when viewed in an industrial
context, although accepted by users and suppliers equally, does not bear
uniformity of meaning, as different types of flexibility require
different manufacturing responses. Change can be capacity‐related,
induced by customers or equipment‐related, and a manufacturing strategy
may involve price, and/or speed and reliability of delivery. However,
although types of flexibility may interrelate and conflict with one
another, organisations must ensure that their investments produce the
benefits appropriate to their markets.

ABSTRACTThis study examines the effects of sequencing flexibility on the performance of rules used to schedule operations in manufacturing systems. The findings show that taking advantage of even low levels of sequencing flexibility in the set of operations required to do a job results in substantial improvement in the performance of scheduling rules with respect to mean flowtime. Differences in the mean flowtime measure for various rules also diminish significantly with increasing sequencing flexibility. Performance improvements additionally result for such due‐date related performance measures as mean tardiness and the proportion of jobs tardy. At high levels of sequencing flexibility, some nonparametric scheduling rules outperform the shortest processing time rule in terms of the mean flowtime criterion. Rules based on job due dates also outperform rules based on operation milestones in terms of tardiness related criteria at high levels of sequencing flexibility. The implications of these findings for the design of manufacturing systems and product design are noted.

Flexibility, quality and competitiveness are all hallelujah words in current debate about national economic performance. The achievement of more flexibility or higher quality or greater competitiveness, it is said, will help the UK become a more successful economy. At the same time increased labour market flexibility and deregulation has been seen by UK governments since the early 1980s as a means of creating jobs and tackling unemployment. In following this line the UK government has looked to the North American example, and has suggested on numerous occasions that overregulation and inflexibility in most European countries' labour markets has worsened unemployment. While the record of enhanced labour market flexibility in boosting employment is not the focus of this article (for details of the debate, see Solow, 1998; Walwei, 1998), this job creation aspect of flexibility is important because it has coloured discussions of flexible forms of employment in the UK and has often led to our conflating flexibility with deregulation. As will be argued below, the evidence from Europe in fact suggests that the use of some forms of flexible employment are not incompatible with relatively high degrees of labour market regulation."I do not know what the word 'flexibility' is. Rarely in international discourse has a word gone so directly from obscurity to meaninglessness without any intervening period of coherence. Some people when they talk about labour market flexibility are talking about the freedom of employers to fire workers, the freedom of employers to reduce wages. I tell you something. That kind of freedom is not going to lead to higher standards of living in any of our countries." Robert Reich, speaking at the International Labour Organisation, 10 June, 1994.

"Scheduling is a broad research area and scheduling problems arise from several application domains (production systems, logistic, computer science, etc.). Solving scheduling problems requires tools of combinatorial optimization, exact or approximated algorithms. Flexibility is at the frontier between predictive deterministic approaches and reactive or on-line approaches. The purpose of flexibility is to provide one or more solutions adapted to the context of the application in order to provide the ideal solution. This book focuses on the integration of flexibility and robustness considerations in the study of scheduling problems. After considering both flexibility and robustness, it then covers various scheduling problems, treated with an emphasis on flexibility or robustness, or both."--Publisher's description.

AbstractThis article is concerned with the impact of late modernity on patterns of solidarity in friend and family relationships. It takes as its starting point the transformations in partnership, family, and household formation and dissolution that have been occurring in Western societies since the 1970s. Accepting these shifts as indicative of the greater freedoms people now have over the construction of their personal relationships and social networks, the article examines the degree to which the domains of family and friendship are merging. Its principal argument is that despite increased flexibility in the construction of personal life, including diversity in the prioritization of different relationships, at a cultural level clear boundaries exist between family and friendship ties.

Showing flexibility by being willing to add and subtract issues in an effort to find a solution to internal militarized disputes can be vital to success. Examples drawn from recent negotiations involving Angola, Cambodia, El Salvador, Mozambique, and the former Yugoslavia provide a number of lessons concerning the manipulation of issues and how that might facilitate agreement or make it less likely. In some instances, these involve certain dilemmas, since subtracting issues may help agreement, but the resulting agreement may not mean much; efforts to punish perpetrators of violence on the other side will impede negotiations, but failure to do so may undermine popular support for the agreement; and regionalizing the negotiation may bring in other parties and issues, allowing more tradeoffs, but can delay the negotiation by adding complexity.

SHOWING FLEXIBILITY BY BEING WILLING TO ADD AND SUBTRACT ISSUES IN AN EFFORT TO FIND A SOLUTION IN INTERNAL MILITARIZED DISPUTES CAN BE VITAL TO SUCCESS. EXAMPLES DRAWN FROM RECENT NEGOTIATIONS INVOLVING ANGOLA, CAMBODIA, EL SALVADOR, MOZAMBIQUE, AND THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA PROVIDE A NUMBER OF LESSONS CONCERNING THE MANIPULATION OF ISSUES AND HOW THAT MIGHT FACILITATE AGREEMENT OR MAKE IT LESS LIKELY. IN SOME INSTANCES, THESE INVOLVE CERTAIN DILEMMAS, SINCE SUBTRACTING ISSUES MAY HELP AGREEMENT, BUT THE RESULTING AGREEMENT MAY NOT MEAN MUCH; EFFORTS TO PUNISH PERPETRATORS OF VIOLENCE ON THE OTHER SIDE WILL IMPEDE NEGOTIATIONS, BUT FAILURE TO DO SO MAY UNDERMINE POPULAR SUPPORT FOR THE AGREEMENT; AND REGIONALIZING THE NEGOTIATION MAY BRING IN OTHER PARTIES AND ISSUES. ALLOWING MORE TRADEOFFS, BUT CAN DELAY THE NEGOTIATION BY ADDING COMPLEXITY.