Continuous Process Of Change Research Articles

Characteristics of Organizational Environments and Perceived Environmental Uncertainty

Twenty-two decision groups in three manufacturing and three research and development organizations are studied to identify the characteristics of the environment that contribute to decision unit members experiencing uncertainty in decision making.' Two dimensions of the environment are identified. The simple-complex dimension is defined as the number of factors taken into consideration in decision making. The static-dynamic dimension is viewed as the degree to which these factors in the decision unit's environment remain basically the same over time or are in a continual process of change. Results indicate that individuals in decision units with dynamic-complex environments experience the greatest amount of uncertainty in decision making. The data also indicate that the static-dynamic dimension of the environment is a more important contributor to uncertainty than the simple-complex dimension.

Two Neo-Conservative Myths in Germany 1919-32: The "Third Reich" and the "New State"

army.2 By the end of the nineteenth century, moreover, the full impact of the industrial revolution had radically changed the face and character of society in Germany. Vast industrial cities were the characteristic features of the countryside: the idyllic calm and orderliness of what earlier had been still very much an agrarian society were increasingly replaced by a harsh stridency and by a continual process of change in which the old society with its independently wealthy classes of landowners and other notables was elided by modern industrial society with its economically dependent masses.3 Completed in less than thirty years, the immensity of this change was strikingly evident in the

Influence of the corpus allatum on the development of internal organs in Galleria mellonella L.

Effects of corpus allatum hormone (JH) on the growth and differentiation of the internal organs of Galleria larvae were investigated. Some of the internal organs develop continuously, others only for a period in each larval instar. They maintain larval form until the second third of the last larval instar or later and then differentiate towards the imaginal form. Differentiation appears as a continuous process of changes based mostly on degeneration of some parts and more profound growth of the others, which may be interrupted at most points by JH. In this way insects with internal organs intermediate between larval and imaginal structure result. The overall growth of the organs continues after hormone application but at a different rate. Slight morphological change in wing disks which appears in the penultimate larval instar may be also prevented by JH.

DISCONTINUITIES AND LUMPINESS IN RECORDS OF EXTINCTION.

Records containing 2,154 inter‐response intervals (latencies) were obtained from 40 rats undergoing experimental extinction of a habit of pressing a bar to obtain food. The latencies do not generally tend to increase exponentially during the course of an experimental record, or follow any other smooth, continuous process of change. Gross discontinuities and lumpiness can be demonstrated; and these are the features that distinguish the records most clearly from random sequences of time intervals. The final event, extinction itself, appears as a significant discontinuity in every case but one. It can evidently occur without being induced by any continuous process; and perhaps the explanation of its occurrence should be sought by examining more closely the phenomena of discontinuities and lumpiness which contemporary theories overlook, and attempting to control them experimentally.

The Role of Experimental Work

The difficulties in making the physics laboratory truly a part of the education of students are considered. The tendencies toward the use of less standardized equipment and toward allowing more freedom to the students are resulting in improvements, but they, in turn, introduce new problems—those of cost, of the preparation of laboratory assistants, and of the prevention of over-specialization at an early stage. Among the activities that offer hope for the improvement of our laboratories are the work of the AAPT Committee on Apparatus, especially the Apparatus Drawing Project. Broad specifications of the requirement for good instructional apparatus and laboratory instructions are outlined, and instructors are encouraged to engage in a continuous process of change in their laboratories. Finally, some of the educational achievements of well-run experimental work are listed and discussed.