Higher Administrative Positions Research Articles

Formal Organizational Structural Factors and Perceived Job Satisfaction of Classroom Teachers

Tall, medium, and flat public school organizations were tested for possible effects on job satisfaction of teachers. Comparisons between teacher groups in each of the three structural types showed significant differences in job perceptions. Although these differences were inconsistent in all areas tested, teachers in flat organizations perceived higher job satisfaction than their counterparts in tall and medium organizational types in three areas: community prestige, professional authority, and participation in determining school goals. Generally, the more administrative levels existing between higher administrative positions and teaching positions, the more these positions were perceived by the incumbents as restrictive, regimented, and formalized.

Limitations of the Business Executive as Government Administrator

AN IMPORTANT aspect of an emergency mobilization program is the recruitment by the federal government of competent personnel. While much has been said recently of the difficulties the government has encountered in hiring personnel at all levels, the problem of finding suitable personnel for the more responsible positions obviously has ,special importance. Persons occupying these positions participate in the administration of the vast powers over the national economy which reside in the executive branch of the government. Incompetence and inefficiency in these positions can do harm to the economy and even jeopardize the public welfare, especially during periods of national emergency. Fortunately these facts are widely recognized. Responsible citizens have become highly conscious of the growth of the executive powers within the past two decades and are mindful of their continued growth and of the manner in which those powers are exercised. Congress, too, is mindful of these matters, as it has demonstrated on numerous occasions. Since the advice and consent of the Senate are necessary for appointments to the highest administrative positions, senators have been particularly concerned about the qualifications of persons selected for these posts. Although the President's choice is generally confirmed, the Senate does not fail to scrutinize closely any candidate it suspects of being incompetent or unfit or to withhold its consent where there appears reason to do so. During World War II, when employment in the war agencies was expanding rapidly, several senators became concerned about the experience and competence of the persons appointed not only to the highest administrative positions but to all responsible administrative positions. Accordingly, in I943, consideration was given to a bill requiring Senate confirmation of all appointments at salaries of $4,500 or more a year. Since the Senate is not a suitable body to screen the qualifications of candidates for many of these positions, it was fortunate that the bill failed to pass. Nevertheless, the fact that a bill of this sort was even seriously considered serves to indicate the length to which some senators have been willing to go to assure that administrative positions are filled by the best qualified persons.

A Survey of Milk Distribution

THIS survey of milk distribution was undertaken in part of Battersea which appeared typical of many urban areas over the country. It is a working class area, and does not contain representatives of those professional, higher executive and higher administrative positions so characteristic of London. The whole area divides fairly naturally, but not quite abruptly into two sections. One, called the Western Section, is classified by the New Survey of London as containing skilled workers. The other, the Eastern Section, contains unskilled labourers, mostly above the poverty line, though sections of some of the streets have a substantial number living below Charles Booth's poverty line. The method of procedure was to obtain the milk consumption for each family in the area instead of the more usual method of sampling. The method used here gives more information about the problems of milk distribution. The area chosen contained nearly 2,000 houses and considerably more families in eighteen roads with a total length of about four-and-a-quarter miles. Information of milk consumption was given by eleven and refused by one of the chief distributors. Only two of the dairies knew the names of their customers, and the supplier had to be checked in those houses which contained two or more families. After consideration it was decided to take the milk distributed in the week ending 2Ist November, I936, as being a normal week, undisturbed by holidays or festivities, or by the influenza epidemic of the following spring. Ninetyfour per cent. of the milk recorded in the area was distributed by the eleven retailers who gave information. The remainder had to be obtained by personal enquiry, most of the visits for which were made in April and May of I937, and the time gap will introduce minor inaccuracies. In addition it

Sixth International Congress for Scientific Management

THE Proceedings of the Sixth International Congress for Scientific Management, which have now been published (London: P. S. King and Son, Ltd.), completes the series of seven volumes containing the papers and speeches at the Congress. The six volumes issued prior to the Congress contained the papers to be presented at the various sectional meetings. The final volume includes reports on the actual discussions, and the excellent summaries of the rapporteurs give epitomes of the matter contained in the previous volumes. Full reports are given of the speeches at the first plenary sessions when “Management Problems arising from Government Intervention” were discussed. In the Educational and Training Section, the scientific worker will find much that is of interest in the discussions on sources of recruitment and methods of selection, which ranged over a wide field of personnel problems, and on objects and methods of training and further education, or on the avoidance of excess and waste of personnel selected and trained for high administrative positions. The wider use in administrative work of technical and scientific workers possessing administrative ability, while an urgent need hi industry as in Government to-day, is only part of the general question of encouraging the development and securing the best selection of those possessing real administrative powers. The second plenary session, on the simplification of data, the place of statistics and the standardisation of terms, as well as various discussions in the manufacturing and agricultural sections, are also of considerable interest; for example, those on scientific methods applied to works management and on production control. For a volume designed as a permanent record, it is a pity that the subject index is so meagre.

Training Chemists for Administration

IN a series of articles published in recent issues of the Industrial Chemist, there will be found many pertinent observations and useful suggestions regarding the problems connected with the training of chemists for administrative posts in industry. In an editorial, it is pointed out that chemists have all too often been regarded as unfitted for high administrative positions, a disability which they have been alleged to share with other scientific workers. Few technical men are to be found on boards of directors and in managerial positions. Incidentally, this peculiarity is one of the many distinctions between British and German technical industry.

Sixth International Congress for Scientific Management

AT the Sixth International Congress for Scientific Management to be held in July of next year, arrangements have been made for the discussion of many papers giving accounts of management in relation to a variety of problems. These include business forecasting, budgetary control, the inculcation of best methods of management, production control and technique, standardisation, the distribution problems of manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers, selective education and training for high administrative positions. Many international and national problems would be affected by the greater use of scientific method. The management of industrial and agricultural undertakings is gradually being based on more precise data and on improved techniques of management independent of the many and specific points on which scientific workers of different kinds—chemists, physicists, geologists and many others—are qualified to advise. Management consists in taking decisions with due regard to the multifarious factors of the organisation either within or without the control of the manager. The Congress is well supported by a large number of professional bodies and by eminent industrialists. H.R.H. the Prince of Wales is the patron; the chairman is Sir George Beharrell. Dr. E. F. Armstrong and Sir Henry Fowler are among the chairmen of committees. The fuller programmes and membership forms will be available from Mr. H. Ward, 21 Tothill Street, London, S.W.1, at the end of October. The papers to be discussed will be printed in six volumes and be available to members before the Congress.