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Technology and growth: The price we pay
Book Notes
theless a significant and often provocative book. It does provide the basis for a farreaching theory of planning and should stimulate others to construct an even more complete statement of the new planning. Perspectives of Planning-Contributed Papers "Introduction-Planning for Freedom," Salvador de Madariaga "Toward-a General Theory of Planning," Hasan Ozbekhan "Future-Oriented Science,'" Rene Dubos "Integrative Planning of Technology," Erich Jantsch '~he Design of lnte~ated Technological Forecasting and Planning Systems for the Allocation of Resources," Robert H. Rea
"Planning Under the Dynamic Influences of Complex Social Systems," Jay W. Forrester "Long-Range Planning Through Program Budgeting," David Noviek "Toward Information Systems for Environmental Forecasting," Theodore J. Rubin "Political Ir~formation Systems," Ithiel de Sola Pool "Open-Ended Planning," Dennis Gabor "A Language for Organization Design," H. Igor Ansoff and Richard G. Brandenburg ''The Aborting Corporate Plan-a Cybernetic Account of the Interface between Planning and Action," Stafford Beer "A New Corporate Design," Jay Forrester "Redesigning Social Systems-a Note on Bureaucracy, Creative Federalism, Business and the War on Poverty in the United States," Robert A. Levine "Adaptive Institutions for Shaping the Future," Erich Jantsch.
Reviews in Brief
94
E. J. Mishan
TECHNOLOGY AND GROWTH: THE PRICE WE PAY
worth the price we pay. However, that price is ever increasing, and, if nothing else, Mishan leaves the reader with the feeling that the price is too dear.
-Joseph O. Vogel, Indiana University Praeger Publishers, $Z95 Richard N. Farmer Ecology has become an issue that no politician dares oppose. Suddenly, we have become aware of what our technology is doing to our environment. In the past, we looked at technology's effect o n the environment and neglected to correct what it has done to us. In his b r i l f a n t book, Dr. E. J. Mishan confronts us with some of the consequences of our technology. We learn that man invented the automobile as an instrument to ~erve his needs and, instead, has created a monster served b y man. Our cities are "'uglified" b y roads crisscrossing them; man further increases his reliance on this monster b y leaving the ugly cities to "'get away from it all." Maybe we have heard this before, but not with such insight. One solution offered by Mishan is that we must begin to look at the "spill-over effects" of our decisions. How do the decisions we make affect the quality of our l i v e s - n o t just the air we breathe. No doubt businessmen concerned with the b o t t o m line of an income statement and bureaucratic economists concerned with a 3.5 percent real growth in GN-P will be uncomfortable with this type of analysis. But Mishan makes it painfully clear that this is the type of analysis that must be made. The state of our fves as portrayed b y Mishan is somewhat exaggerated; surely, even the author must a d m i t that some technology and growth is indeed
NEW DIRECTIONS- JN_~,IANAGEMENT INFORMA TION TRANSFER Ruschlikon-Zurich, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for Economic and Social Studies The problems of transferring management skills are basically related to those of information transfer. Institutional suppliers of information face major problems of relevance, storage, and retrieval of the materials they- process. After outlining the problems of these areas, Farmer analyzes in detail the environmental barriers to information transfer, the organizational barriers to management transfer, and the personal barriers to management skill transfer. The conclusions drawn as a result of this analysis of information transfer as a total systems2aroblem are as folio ws: There are no cheap and easy ways to transfer such complicated knowledge as management skills The primary barriers are educational and behavioral The field is still open to much profitable research. Farmer suggests seven interdisciplinary study areas in which improved knowledge would contribute to the acceleration of future transfers.
BUSINESS HORIZONS
theless a significant and often provocative book. It does provide the basis for a farreaching theory of planning and should stimulate others to construct an even more complete statement of the new planning. Perspectives of Planning-Contributed Papers "Introduction-Planning for Freedom," Salvador de Madariaga "Toward-a General Theory of Planning," Hasan Ozbekhan "Future-Oriented Science,'" Rene Dubos "Integrative Planning of Technology," Erich Jantsch '~he Design of lnte~ated Technological Forecasting and Planning Systems for the Allocation of Resources," Robert H. Rea
"Planning Under the Dynamic Influences of Complex Social Systems," Jay W. Forrester "Long-Range Planning Through Program Budgeting," David Noviek "Toward Information Systems for Environmental Forecasting," Theodore J. Rubin "Political Ir~formation Systems," Ithiel de Sola Pool "Open-Ended Planning," Dennis Gabor "A Language for Organization Design," H. Igor Ansoff and Richard G. Brandenburg ''The Aborting Corporate Plan-a Cybernetic Account of the Interface between Planning and Action," Stafford Beer "A New Corporate Design," Jay Forrester "Redesigning Social Systems-a Note on Bureaucracy, Creative Federalism, Business and the War on Poverty in the United States," Robert A. Levine "Adaptive Institutions for Shaping the Future," Erich Jantsch.
Reviews in Brief
94
E. J. Mishan
TECHNOLOGY AND GROWTH: THE PRICE WE PAY
worth the price we pay. However, that price is ever increasing, and, if nothing else, Mishan leaves the reader with the feeling that the price is too dear.
-Joseph O. Vogel, Indiana University Praeger Publishers, $Z95 Richard N. Farmer Ecology has become an issue that no politician dares oppose. Suddenly, we have become aware of what our technology is doing to our environment. In the past, we looked at technology's effect o n the environment and neglected to correct what it has done to us. In his b r i l f a n t book, Dr. E. J. Mishan confronts us with some of the consequences of our technology. We learn that man invented the automobile as an instrument to ~erve his needs and, instead, has created a monster served b y man. Our cities are "'uglified" b y roads crisscrossing them; man further increases his reliance on this monster b y leaving the ugly cities to "'get away from it all." Maybe we have heard this before, but not with such insight. One solution offered by Mishan is that we must begin to look at the "spill-over effects" of our decisions. How do the decisions we make affect the quality of our l i v e s - n o t just the air we breathe. No doubt businessmen concerned with the b o t t o m line of an income statement and bureaucratic economists concerned with a 3.5 percent real growth in GN-P will be uncomfortable with this type of analysis. But Mishan makes it painfully clear that this is the type of analysis that must be made. The state of our fves as portrayed b y Mishan is somewhat exaggerated; surely, even the author must a d m i t that some technology and growth is indeed
NEW DIRECTIONS- JN_~,IANAGEMENT INFORMA TION TRANSFER Ruschlikon-Zurich, Gottlieb Duttweiler Institute for Economic and Social Studies The problems of transferring management skills are basically related to those of information transfer. Institutional suppliers of information face major problems of relevance, storage, and retrieval of the materials they- process. After outlining the problems of these areas, Farmer analyzes in detail the environmental barriers to information transfer, the organizational barriers to management transfer, and the personal barriers to management skill transfer. The conclusions drawn as a result of this analysis of information transfer as a total systems2aroblem are as folio ws: There are no cheap and easy ways to transfer such complicated knowledge as management skills The primary barriers are educational and behavioral The field is still open to much profitable research. Farmer suggests seven interdisciplinary study areas in which improved knowledge would contribute to the acceleration of future transfers.
BUSINESS HORIZONS