49 Simple Things You Can Do to Save the Earth Essay

Some of them, with their complicated timers and instant start-up features, constantly consume small amounts of electricity. (â€Å"Even the TV?† my wife asks. â€Å"Good thinking,† I tell her.) 3. SEPARATE YOUR GARBAGE. At our house we have separate garbage cans for glass, paper, plastic, aluminum, wood, organic matter, natural fabrics, synthetic fabrics, and rubber. (We split the work—my wife does the separating, I drop everything off at the recycling center.) 4. USE LESS WATER. We have two bricks in our toilet tank. But there’s a much simpler way to save water: Don’t flush every time! (â€Å"Don’t take the sports section in there with you!† is my wife’s tip. A sense of humor isso important.) 5. DON’T MOW THE LAWN. Let it grow. Naturally. Like a meadow. (â€Å"Like a dump!† jokes my wife.) See more:  Perseverance essay 6. DON’T SHAVE AS OFTEN. I shave once a week. (â€Å"If it’s good enough for Don Johnson,† I quip. â€Å"That was passà © years ago,† my wife informs me.) 7. DRIVE SLOWER. I try to maintain a nice, steady 40 miles per hour, the legal minimum on most highways. Also, I roll up the windows. It reduces wind resistance — and noise. (â€Å"You can’t hear those horns?† my wife asks, incredulous.) 8. SHOP WITH A RE-USABLE SHOPPING BAG. And, if you can, walk to the store. (â€Å"It’ll do wonders for your figure,† I mention casually to the missus.) 9. BOYCOTT! Boycott polluters, or anyone who sells any product that can cause pollution, or any product that might contain an ingredient that can cause pollution. (â€Å"What does that leave?† my wife asks. â€Å"Just the good stuff,† I reply.) 1 0. DO YOUR LAUNDRY BY HAND. It may be drudgery of the lowest order to have to hand-launder your clothes and hang them on a clothesline, but it saves water and energy. (â€Å"Whistle while you work,† I kid my wife. â€Å"Hitler is a jerk,† she continues. I’d forgotten that verse!) 11. TURN DOWN THE HEAT. Especially the water heater. (â€Å"They take cold showers in Sweden,† I like to hint. â€Å"Go to Sweden!†Ã¢â‚¬â€my wife.) 12. TAKE FEWER SHOWERS. But don’t share them, even if it’s been touted, albeit humorously, in other â€Å"x-number-of-simple-things-you-can-do-to-save-the-earth† books. Why? It uses more water. Figure it out for yourself. Better would be to take a bath in â€Å"recycled† bath water. Best: An occasional sponge bath. (â€Å"No, I’m not kidding,† I tell the wife.) 13. REPLACE METAL DOORKNOBS. During the winter, when it’s very dry, touch a metal doorknob and you get a little shock from the static electricity. That’s wasted electricity, I figure. We’ve replaced all our metal doorknobs with ones made of non-conducting rubber, wood or glass. (â€Å"You’ve got a screw loose,† my wife points out. And she’s right!) 14. GO SOLAR. For a small investment of about ten thousand dollars you can convert your house to solar energy. It’ll pay for itself in twenty years, I estimate. (â€Å"What next?† my wife wonders, as we all do.) 15. MOUNT A WINDMILL ON YOUR ROOF. It’s cheap—about eight hundred dollars—and easy to install. (â€Å"A little more to the right,† I yell up to her.) 16. MAKE YOUR OWN HONEY. In addition to producing delicious honey, our beehive is a real conversation starter. (â€Å"We have to talk,† my wife says. See?) 17. WORK AT HOME. Recently, I quit my job of twenty years to become a full-time writer. I write at home, on a computer. I’m not using up any gasoline or motor oil, I’m not wearing out any clothing or shoes. To put it simply: I’m not a drain on the environment. (â€Å"You don’t move,† my wife observes, exaggerating slightly.) 18. BOARD UP THE WINDOWS. Windows are nice, but they either let in too much heat, or let out too much, or vice versa. (â€Å"This is better than mini-blinds!† I shout to the wife, who can barely hear me over her own hammering.) 1 9. GET RID OF THE TELEPHONE. Think you can’t live without a telephone? Think again. We’ve done fine. (â€Å"Who would call us?† my wife rationalizes.) 20. GET RID OF THE BED. Many leading chiropractors say that sleeping on the floor, with no mattress or cushion, is the best way to sleep. (â€Å"We certainly haven’t needed a bed much lately,† my wife confides to a mutual friend.) 21. GET OUT AND ORGANIZE. At my wife’s suggestion, I got out of the house and into the community—to organize. Now I work with a diverse group of community activists and we meet four times a week—at our house. (â€Å"Whoare these people?† my wife asks. â€Å"They are the people,† I tell her proudly.) 22. BAN ALL CHLOROFLUOROCARBONS. Not just spray cans, but the refrigerator and the air conditioner. Get rid of them! We now have ice delivered to our house every day. (â€Å"You’re crazy!† my wife shouts from the kitchen. â€Å"So was Van Gogh!† I shout back.) 23. TREAT WOUNDS NATURALLY. If you’re injured, cut on the head, above the eyebrow—from a sharp piece of ice, let’s say—treat it naturally. Salt and lemon juice is the combination my wife favors. (â€Å"I want a divorce,† she says, pouring salt on my wound. â€Å"Ouch!† I say.) 24. KNOW THE LAW. And know a good lawyer. (My wife does.) 25. WHEN YOU MOVE, BE A GOOD NEIGHBOR. Having recently relocated to a smaller environment—an apartment—I can empathize with anyone who has had to go through a â€Å"moving experience† as I call it. Remember, along with a new habitat come new co-inhabitants. Get to know them. They are your neighbors and, as simplistic as this sounds, they are the keys to your survival. (When I explain this simplistic theory to one of my new neighbors, she’s fascinated. Maybe the beard works!) 26. CARPOOL. At my new part-time job I carpool with a couple of the ladies from the office. We’re saving gas, money, and we’re getting to know each other better. (â€Å"He used to have a fear of intimacy,† my wife tells the judge. On the advice of Barry, my lawyer, I can say nothing.) 27. MAKE LOVE, NOT WAR. I know, I know. But, if I could just use one earth-saving tip to draw your attention to the beautiful and cosmic experience of making love with a truly giving and understanding sexual partner. (Takethat, you lying, blood-sucking witch!) 28. SHARE YOUR SHOWERS. I’ve done a complete one-eighty on this one. Use a kitchen timer. (Or Ravel’s Bolero!) 29. WOMEN! Or should I say, women judges! (This just in: She gets the car, the house—everything except the profits from this book, Dear Reader.) 30. YOU CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE. When someone (especially someone much younger and less experienced than yourself that you only met two weeks ago) tells you that one person can’t make a difference—that no matter how much shouting and yelling and â€Å"whining and complaining† one person does nothing will change, that â€Å"you’re too old to be acting that way,† that â€Å"you should settle down and focus on one thing and do that well†Ã¢â‚¬â€when someone lays that trip on you, it’s time to split. (â€Å"I can make a difference!† I tell her, gathering my things.) 31. BUNDLE AND RECYCLE NEWSPAPERS. Sorry, I lost sight of what we’re trying to do here, which is save the earth. Take all your old newspapers, bundle them together, and bring them to a recycling center. They’ll give you a few bucks, which is nothing to sneeze at. (What happened?) 32. BUY A â€Å"RECYCLED† CAR. There are some good deals in used cars—if you take the time to look. (I didn’t, and boy am I sorry.) 33. DON’T LITTER THE HIGHWAYS. Be considerate. There are laws, but they’re rarely enforced. (Except in my case, of course. I told the officer I wasn’t living in my car—it had broken down, I was tired—but: A $100 fine for vagrancy, a night in jail, a towing charge of $75, and a ticket—I’m getting rid of this damn car!) 34. KEEP FIGHTING. That’s right. No matter how tough it gets, the fight to save the earth will go on, with or without you. (Right now it’s without. I’m back to my old habits again—smoking, drinking, and hanging out with a bunch of losers. One of them is a real nut, calls himself â€Å"The Master.†) 35. DONATE OLD CLOTHING. There are people out there who can get some good use out of your old moth-eaten sweater or sports jacket or worn-out pair of shoes. (I’m a 41 short.) 36. FOLLOW THE MASTER. The Master has forged an â€Å"alliance with the human spirit† that allows him to speak directly and simultaneously to every living thing on this planet. (Follow The Master.) 37. THINK FOR YOURSELF. Take it from someone who, after having his self-esteem obliterated by a persuasive con man and his gang of sycophants, escaped on foot—with nothing to eat for nine days but wild berries and mushrooms—and lived to talk about it! (You might have seen the story in the papers—†DAZED FOLLOWER OF DIZZY GURU FOUND ON FREEWAY†) 38. HI, HOW ARE YOU? I knew it was her before I picked up the phone. (The cobwebs that covered the receiver were now sticking to my face. â€Å"Fine,† I said.) 39. DON’T BE FOOLED. A wise consumer is a protected consumer. (I told my ex this when we got together for some Irish coffee at the mini-mall, near the old house. She ended up selling that barn for—get this—$650,000! â€Å"Honey, it seems like old times!† I whooped.) 40. RECYCLE! REVIVE! RERUN! Excuse my exuberance, but something is finally happening out there—something positive, something good. People are separating their garbage. They’re using biodegradable, ecologically safe, recyclable and reusable materials. Everything old is new again! (When my ex-wife and I decided to re-marry, I suggested a â€Å"Save the Earth† clause be added to our pre-nuptial agreement. â€Å"We have to talk,† she said, showing great interest at the time.) 41. MOVE TO THE COUNTRY. Inherit the land again. That’s what we did. Bought forty-three acres in Upstate New York. It’s a working farm, where my wife can go out to the barn and milk the cows, pick out the freshest eggs and knit our clothes from the wool she shears from our very own sheep. (And I can finish this book!)

Anti Discriminatory Practice Essay

There are four main ethical ideas that should be taken into account in the health and social care sector. They are: * Justice – People must be treated fairly and equally regardless of their background. * Autonomy – A person’s choice must be respected.  * Beneficence – This involves risks and costs; the health care professional should act in a way that is beneficial to the patient. * Non-maleficence – Any harm caused by treatment should not be greater than the benefits of the treatment. The underpinning principles and values of care practice are centred upon ethical principles and put the individual at the main focus of the health and social care provision. Putting the individual at the heart of service provision To put the individual at the heart of service provision, the health and social care service providers need to: * Provide support consistent with the beliefs, culture and choices of the individual. * Support the service users in the expression of their needs and preferences. * Empower individuals.  * Promote and encourage individual rights, choices and well being. Providing active support consistent with the beliefs, culture and preferences of the individual Active support involves helping an individual as much as possible and taking their beliefs, culture and preferences into account when making choices in a health and social care setting. For example, if you are caring for a Jewish person in a retirement home you would need to ensure that Kosher food is available for them as well as what they would need in order to worship. Another example would be a student joining a teacher’s class who has learning difficulties. The teacher and school would have to ensure that the child is listened to and given any support that they might require with sensitivity and respect. They may also require the support of an advocate. The main forms of support may be: * Advice and guidance * Medical and care planning information * Physical support such as personal care * Social support * Mental health support such as coping strategies Mental health support – coping strategies This has to be treated with thoughtfulness and sensitivity. If someone is identified as needing mental health support, they should have access to services such as social workers, community nurses, occupational therapists and psychiatrists. Other services available are psychologists, counsellors and community support workers such as home helps. These services are in place to take care of the health and social care needs of people who suffer with mental health problems. It’s important that the service users are aware that they must always seek advice from professional services. Supporting individuals to express their needs and preferences This for example could mean the support of an individual who is deaf and needs to find other ways to express their needs and preferences. A health and social care service provider could put the service user in touch with British Sign Language interpreters, Deaf-blind interpreters, lip-speakers, note-takers and speech-to-text reporters. Another reason that an individual may need this kind of support is if they do not speak English and require an interpreter. This is particularly common in hospitals. The interpreter may be a friend or relative or even a person specifically hired to be an interpreter in health and social care settings. Essentially, the interpreter should be anyone who can help the service user express their needs and preferences. All of this is important in the process of keeping the person informed about what is happening to them so they can communicate their preferences and needs. Empowering individuals If everything that needs to be done for an individual’s care is explained and checked over with them, they can be empowered. This gives them the control over the service they receive and leaves them with the confidence that they are the main priority. Empowering an individual ensures that no decisions are made on their behalf, even if it is in their best interests. The service user has to be able to make decisions themselves and it’s important that the health and social care service provider presents them with all the information they need to make an informed decision. The service provider must also respect the choice of the individual regardless of if the decisions and choices they make aren’t necessarily right in their own opinion. Promoting individuals’ rights, choices and well-being Individual rights can be encouraged and promoted through a number of ways. For example, help can be offered with language and communication for those who cannot effectively communicate due to disabilities, illness or the fact that English is not their first language. Information must be provided in a number of forms such as Braille, pictures and in a range of languages. It’s important that a qualified translator is involved in the production of information, for example in medical advice, so that the grammar is correct. If it is wrong, the service user may feel under-valued and silly. Balancing individual rights with the rights of others Balancing an individual’s rights with the rights of others is possible as long as you have good organisational, communication and negotiating skills. Everyone within the health and social care service must work together to come to a solution for individual rights that suites everybody.

Discuss the contributions of ancient Egyptian civilization to the Essay

Discuss the contributions of ancient Egyptian civilization to the modern world - Essay Example ified remains to aid science and medicine in understanding ancient human tissues for use in modern medicine and similar disciplines, among others (Parmar; Tyldesley; Smith 22-35; Rice 5-26). The pyramids for one are a source of vital contributions to the modern world in the various arts and sciences that went into their construction, including in the realm of project management and architecture of the very large structures, the mathematics and civil works sciences that went into calculating with great precision the building blocks and the foundations of the pyramids, and the management of the workers, materials and the entire construction itself for the monumental works. To this day the insights from the various disciplines that were utilized to create the pyramids and the vast public works infrastructure of ancient Egypt continue to inform modern day architecture, civil engineering, mathematics and artistic disciplines in the modern world, and the modern world owes the foundations of those disciplines in part from the high quality of those disciplines as practiced in ancient Egypt and as reflected in its monumental artifacts (Smith 22-35; Rice 5-26). Modern medicine too benefits from the ancient practices of Egypt with regard to the preservation of human remains and the extensive knowledge of physiology and the human body that such preservation knowledge implied. The ancient Egyptians left behind numerous human remains carefully preserved and carefully documented in the documentation that they left behind as artifacts that continue to inform the modern world about rigorous methods of preservation, and a keen eye towards intimately knowing the inner workings of the human body. The human mummified remains too, in the modern world, are primed to allow modern scientists to gain insight into ancient humans, with implications for using such insights to improve human health and the practice of modern medicine. The modern practice of medicine too benefits from the vast

Music During Renaissance And Reformation Periods Essay

Music During Renaissance And Reformation Periods - Essay Example The English Renaissance is considered to extend from the early sixteenth to the early seventeenth century, and refers to a cultural and artistic movement in England. The Reformation is a period that overlaps with that of the renaissance. The English Reformation started in the reign of Henry VIII. (1509 – 1547 A.D.) with England breaking away from the Roman Catholic Church based in Rome. This was brought about by Henry VIII, who insisted on divorcing his first wife, Catharine of Aragon, who could not bear him a male heir, to marry Anne Boleyn. Divorce was not permitted by the Church, due to which the king took this extreme measure, of taking the church’s power as well on himself. His subjects were also not happy with the church’s clergy and priests, who were fraudulent. The Pope’s power was ended, and Henry VIII became the the Supreme Head of the Church in 1534, and the country continued to be Catholic.

Safety Plant Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 5000 words

Safety Plant - Essay Example In the 1980s, the platform received an overhaul to allow for natural gas production, which changed some of the dynamics of its operational and technological systems. Piper Alpha was a fixed platform in the North Sea, consisting of four modules that were segregated by a series of firewalls. Two modules were isolated for gas and oil production, with one module for gas compression and a fourth containing platform wellheads. Later analysis indicated that these firewalls were inefficient for the multiple activities occurring on the platform. The remaining levels of Piper Alpha contained control rooms, helipad operations, and personnel areas (e.g. sleeping quarters and recreational centres). On board were a variety of life rescue boats to facilitate evacuation in the event of emergencies. The events leading to the disaster and occurring during the series of fires were attributed to operational deficiencies, management failures, and process/procedure dysfunction, making this a complex scena rio of human and tangible factors. This report highlights the inter-connectivity of these failures as well as discussion of the sweeping safety and procedural changes that occurred in the industry post-disaster. The events leading to Piper Alpha destruction Piper Alpha maintained two different condensate pumps (Pumps A and B). A condensate pump is designed to remove excess condensate (water vapour) to facilitate compression and production functions. On the morning of July 6, routine maintenance was scheduled for Pump A which called for the removal of the pressure safety valve. For reasons unknown, the actual maintenance was delayed and instead of reassembly, Pump A was closed off with a temporary metal flange and scheduled for lock out. As was part of the Piper Alpha operations and safety processes, a work permit was handwritten by the current technician with information that Pump A should not be turned on due to the temporary inability to handle pressure loads. Up until this point, the safety and operational processes were in-line with platform practice and expectations. Six hours later, the written permit indicating that Pump A should, under no circumstances, be turned on was somehow misplaced by the next shift working in the operations control room. Unknown to the technician who wrote the permit, there was a supplementary permit already posted that authorized construction overhaul of Pump A in the control room. No verbal exchanges occurred between the technician in charge of Pump A lockout and the control room operators as another problem was being dealt with on the platform at the time (Caplan 2005). Thus, the permit was left in the control room and the technician returned to the employee housing area. Earlier in the day, Piper Alpha had been experiencing blockage problems caused by hydrate buildup, a form of ice produced when gas and water molecules form solids under certain temperature and pressure conditions (Sheen 1987). This hydrate blockage stopped P ump B and the control room was unable to get the pump back online. The significance of this was that operations of Pump B were inter-connected with every power system on Piper Alpha, therefore there were only a matter of minutes after Pump B ceased production to ensure no power supply disruption. The control room identified an overhaul permit for Pump A, but no indication about the warning of not turning on Pump A since, as previously identified, it had been misplaced. Therefore, the manager of the control room determined that Pump A was an effective

Differences Between Concrete and Virtual Manipulatives in Preparing Thesis

Differences Between Concrete and Virtual Manipulatives in Preparing 10th Grade Math Students for Standardized Tests - Thesis Example PAPPAS Montclair State University Montclair, NJ June 2012 ______________________________________ Thesis advisor: Dr. Ken Wolff Copyright  © 2012 by John G. Pappas. All rights reserved. INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to investigate whether there were any differences in student achievement when students had the use of either concrete (also called physical) manipulatives or virtual manipulatives while studying the same mathematical topic at the 10th grade level. The topics were aligned with the objectives defined by the New Jersey Core Curriculum Content Standards and included problems typical to those found on standardized tests such as the New Jersey High School Proficiency Assessment (HSPA). Years ago, mathematics instructors would implement techniques incorporating concrete manipulatives to facilitate the students’ understanding of concepts through the engagement of the senses. Apart from the traditional writing on the board, topics would become more simplified and even exciting when instructors utilized visual, audio and kinesthetic tools for young students to grasp mathematics more readily. Use of concrete manipulatives in the classroom such as cuisenaire rods, mini cubes, patterned blocks, fraction slices, base-ten blocks, and square tiles enabled students to forge relationships with the abstract thus assisting students in observing a more practical application of mathematics. Since the 21st century, however, it was found that these instruments are too elementary especially when instructors attempt to re-introduce the same concepts to upper level high school or even college students. Also in the technological age when computers continue to evolve and pervade the classroom, students are averting their attention to more virtual presentations. As such, programmes on virtual manipulatives have been engineered to stimulate learning, engage and encourage the youth to be technology-savvy. By testing the different contributions of both concrete and virtual manipulatives in a 10th grade setting, findings would confirm the advantages and even disadvantages of each technique for this particular age bracket (15-16 years). It was expected that concrete manipulatives be more effective for younger minds in elementary school than with an older studentship. Moreover, it was estimated that the virtual manipulatives would be best suited for the upper students in view of the sweeping popularity of computers in the classroom and their familiarity with items of a technological nature. Standardized tests are referred to those compulsory assessments taken at the termination of every school year by students. These examinations determine the success rate of students to understand subject taught, of teachers and by extension schools to communicate information to produce high-achieving students. The effectiveness of standardized tests is very hotly debated especially with the implementation of the No Child Left Behind Act (2001). On one hand , standardized tests regard use the results of specifically stated standards to measure proficiency levels of students in Mathematics,

How important is an understanding of the production and distribution Essay

How important is an understanding of the production and distribution of wealth in the global economy to theorising international - Essay Example Global economies among many nations are not distinct from one another; therefore, it is necessary to re-arrange the economic theory of these nations. This report will give an in-depth insight on why it is important to understand the production and distribution of wealth in regard to international relations. Several international political economy theorists categorically reject the idea of a state-centric international system and consider the state to be only one actor among many. According to Steve Smith, it is evident that the social, economic and political structures affect systems of production, trade and distribution. He defines international relations as the international economic system that is constituted of economic, social and political â€Å"arrangements† of production, trade and distribution. It is not the result of market dynamics or chance, but rather of human decisions, rules, customs and authorities. Smith tries to pinpoint the central authorities whose decision s determine the course of events and power relations at the international level (Smith, Dunne, & Kurki, 2010). There are few elements that influence power relations at the international level, which later affects the decisions of production and distribution of wealth. ... This is a parent material to which security structures fall into. The security structures are factors, which have historically been dominant, particularly during the bipolar period. The second is production structures: it constitutes the essential power of the IPE. Production structures respond to the question â€Å"Who produces what?" Through this power alliances are formed; businesses are developed and become autonomous from states and eventually become transnational. The growing influence of transnational society disrupts the effectiveness of national political economics. Thus, the state's authority dwindles to the point where it becomes powerless and loses influence over its own territory as well as its territory-based economy (Baylis, Smith, & Owens, 2008). It is important to understand the production and distribution of wealth since it involves representations invoked by the actors of world politics. A nation will find it simple to lay out procedures used in this process. Afte r acquiring this information, it will be easy to investigate the practices that constitute entities called ‘actors’ capable of representation. This includes the cultural, economic, social, and political practices that produce particular actors e.g. states non-government organizations etc. it also includes the role of theorist and theories in representing some actors as more significant than others. This reorientation, which evolves from structuralism status as an approach to criticism rather than critical theory per se, is no less practical in its implications.  The main question is,  for both theorist and practitioners of international relations, why does analytic approaches privilege certain understandings of global politics and marginalizes others? The different modes of

Are violent video games bad for kids Term Paper Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Are violent video games bad for kids - Term Paper Example However, some studies have also indicated positive side of video games on children. This paper explores the negative and positive influence of video games on children. Violent video games promote aggressive behavior among children. According to Coon and Mitterer, children who are addicted to violent video games are most likely to develop violent and anti-social behavior (263). Most violent video games are designed in such a way that the more violent a child is when playing, the more points he or she earns. Active involvement of children in violent scenes shapes their behavior into aggressive individuals as they grow up. The interactive nature of the video games creates a perfect learning mode for children to master the art of violence. Video games adversely impact on performance at school. Video games are addictive in nature leave too little time for children to do their homework (Craton Para 15). For example, a child who takes three-quarters of his or her time playing video game will have no adequate reading time and hence likely to record poor academic performance in school. Video games make children to live fantasy life and lose touch with reality. Children addicted to violent video games usually want to do the things they do see in the video games. However, the reality is that video games are packed with fictional scenes. For instance, children usually want to try shooting and or other queer behaviors rewarded in violent video games. However, video games also have some benefits to children who play them. Video games enhance critical thinking in children and enable them to integrate well in the society. The games engage the brain in active and constant abstract thinking (Coon and Mitterer 263). They sharpen mental skills of children by fostering instruction following, logical problem solving, planning resource use, multitasking, quick and effective decision-making skills among others. The present world is technology driven and demands people to

Millers dramatic presentation Essay Example for Free

Millers dramatic presentation Essay Discuss Arthur Millers dramatic presentation of Mary Warren in The Crucible. Arthur Millers play The Crucible is based on the events in a 17th Century town called Salem, where a young girl by the name of Abigail Williams cries witchcraft when she is almost charged for conjuring spells. Abigail and her friends were caught dancing on night around a fire by their town priest and Abigails uncle Reverend Parris. After that day strange things were believed to have happened, consequently leading to a lot of women being charged of witchcraft. This was quite unfortunate as back in 1692 the penalty of witchcraft was hanging. In Act one, Mary is presented as a naive, scared and a lonely, seventeen year old girl. Whom evidently is bullied by her employer John Proctor and the other girls in the village, especially Abigail, as she is petrified at been called a witch by the other village people. Mary also comes across as being pathetic in the sense that she has no real friends and relies on a liar like Abigail for trust. Miller in his own words, describes Mary Warren as a naive, lonely, subservient seventeen year old girl, who is treated with little respect by Abigail and the other girls. Oh, youre a great one for lookin, arent you Mary Warren? What a grand peeping courage you have! It is possible that the other girls are in fact terrified of her, knowing that she is weak and can easily slip up under pressure, reviling their doings in the forest that night. When she meets John Proctor, a strong willed character who is not afraid to speak his mind, Mary expectedly is very frightened of him as he regularly threatens her and occasionally refers to giving her a whipping! Ill show you a great doin on your arse one of these days. Now get home; my wife is waitin with your work! Mary very quickly jumps to the sound of his voice and as Miller describes in a stage direction, trying to retain a shred of dignity, she goes slowly out. This highlights the control some like Proctor has on someone like Mary. In Act two, the audience learns a great deal about the events happening in Salem through Mary, hence she being made an official of the court. This in a way speaks on its own, how totally out of hand the situation in Salem has become with someone of Mary stature being made an official of the court and the share pace of everything in just eight days. Mary later informs us on the amount accused, No sir. There be thirty-nine now This being thirty-nine women, thirty-nine charges and trials of those being accused of witchcraft, in just eight days from when Abigail fist accused Tituba of witchcraft! Through Mary, the audience is made aware of the influence Abigail has on the court and the Salem community and reveals how Elizabeth was accused with sending her spirit out against Abigail. This was due to Abigail dislike of Elizabeth and desire to get rid of her so she could have John Proctor all to herself. Hence Mary immediately connects herself to the condemning of Abigails accusation and saving of Elizabeths life. I saved her life today! Miller ensures that the audience are aware of the absurdity of the situation in Salem, due to the court appointing a servant girl like Mary as an official. Unlike Proctor, she doesnt speak out of her place and listens and does everything she is told to by such people like Parris or Danforth which could explain why the court were keen to appoint some like her as an official. Although we also notice a change in Mary Warrens character from being a good, obedient servant to a slightly ruthless more and self confident young woman. Ill not stand whipping anymore! This is directed at Proctor as he tries to order Mary around, but fails. Furthermore, on her return from court, Mary unknowingly condemns Elizabeth by giving her a poppet with a needle placed in it as a gift she had earlier on that day in court. We later discover that this proves to be very unfortunate on Elizabeths behalf as she is later charged for sending her spirit out against Abigail and stabbing her. After Elizabeth is taken away, Proctor realises that in order to save his wife, he needs Mary to support him in court as a witness against Abigail and the other girls. To prove all their outbursts in court of being attacked by spirits were false and just an act. At the end of Act two Mary is clearly frightened by Elizabeths arrest, as she really begins to see Abigail true influence over the court and ends up being bullied to give evidence against her. In Act three when Mary arrives in court to accuse the girls of lying, she seems to refer to her previous characteristics in Act one of being very quite and frightened, as to what the other girls might do to her if she talks. I cannot, theyll turn on me This taken from the end of Act two and shows the hold of fear someone like Abigail still has on her. On of the most dramatic incidents in the play, is when all the other girls turn on Mary by saying they see her spirit and begin to repeat whatever she says: Mary: Abby, you mustnt! Abby+ other girls: Abby, you mustnt! This eventually make Mary realise that she will be accused of witchcraft if she continues to oppose Abigail and evidently Mary turns against Proctor and accuses him of making her defy the court and turning her to the devil. Thus Mary returns to her new found personality of being confidents and only thinking of herself. In conclusion, Mary Warrens character makes The Crucible tenser through Arthur Millers dramatic presentation of her. Presented through his description of her being and subservient in the begging of Act one, to her speaking and acting on, with more confidence in Act two. In addition, in Act three Mary is once again bullied by Abigail and Proctor to an extent that she breaks down into tears at one point and speaks out of proportion to save herself. Therefore once again she ends up being described in the manner of being terrified, pleading and almost collapsing, when she is finally pushed by Abigail and Proctor to designate between them. Thus she is once again a pathetic loner!

Information Systems and Organization Essay Example for Free

Information Systems and Organization Essay This paper, and the special issue, address relationships between information systems and changes in the organization of modern enterprise, both within and across firms. The emerging organizational paradigm involves complementary changes in multiple dimensions. The revolution in information systems merits special attention as both cause and effect of the organizational transformation. This can be illustrated by considering two key variables: the location of information and the location of decision rights in organizations. Depending on the costs of information transmission and processing, either the MIS solution of transferring information, or the organizational redesign solution of moving decision rights, can be an effective approach toward achieving the necessary collocation of information and decision rights. When information systems change radically, one cannot expect the optimal organizational structure to be unaffected. Considering the interplay among information, incentives and decision rights in a unified fashion leads to new insights and a better organizational planning. The papers in the special issue address different facets of this interaction. Despite significant progress, our understanding of the economic role of information systems in organizations remains in its infancy. We conclude that successful design of modern enterprise will require further narrowing  of the historic gap between research in information systems and research in economics. The organization of work is in the midst of transformation. In many industries, mass production by large, vertically-integrated, hierarchically-organized firms is giving way to more flexible forms of both internal organization and industrial structure. Work is increasingly accomplished through networks of smaller, more focused enterprises. The resulting structure of loosely coupled sub-organizations blurs the boundaries of both firms and industries. A canonical case in point is the computer industry. In the past, the industry was dominated by large, vertically-integrated firms such as IBM and Digital Equipment which created products and services throughout the value chain from the microprocessor level all the way up to the provision of solutions. The vertical structure is now being replaced by a series of layers, each of which is, in effect, a separate industry. Value is generated by ever-changing coalitions, where each member of a coalition specializes in its area of core competence and leverages it through the use of tactical or strategic partnerships. Internally, team structures are replacing the traditional hierarchical form, and the Silicon Valley model of internal organization is emerging as a clear winner.3 Internal incentives are increasingly based on performance, and this further blurs the differences between inter- and intra-firm contracts. In sum, modern enterprise is undergoing major restructuring. In this short paper we briefly discuss the newly emerging organizational paradigms and their relationship to the prevailing trends in information technology (IT). We argue that IT is an important driver of this transformation. Finally, we place the studies selected for this special issue of the Journal of Organizational Computing within this context. 1. Emerging Organizational Paradigms: Symptoms and Causes At the turn of the century, Frederick Taylor sought to put the nascent wisdom  for successful business organization on a scientific basis. His work guided a generation of managers towards success in meshing their organizations with the technologies, markets, labor and general environment of the era. By the 1920s, Henry Ford had applied the Taylorist approach with a vengeance and soon dominated the automobile market, driving dozens of competitors under. Ironically, these same principles are almost diametrically opposed to the prevailing wisdom of the 1990s. For example, consider the following guideline from The Science of Management [1] It is necessary in any activity to have a complete knowledge of what is to be done and to prepare instructions the laborer has only to follow instructions. He need not stop to think. The current emphasis on empowerment, learning organizations, and even thriving on chaos stands in sharp contrast to Meyers advice (cf. [2] , [3] ). Similar contrast can be found with many, if not most, of the other principles that lead to success even as late as the 1960s. Consider, for example, the growing calls for downsizing (vs. economies of scale), focus (vs. conglomerates), total quality (vs. cost leadership), project teams (vs. functional departments), supplier partnerships (vs. maximizing bargaining power), networked organization (vs. clear firm boundaries); performance-based pay (vs. fixed pay), and local autonomy (vs. rigid hierarchy). Milgrom and Roberts [4] make the point that the different characteristics of modern manufacturing, an important example of the emerging organizational paradigm, are often highly complementary. This complementarity, coupled with the natural tendency to change organizational attributes one at a time, makes the transition from one paradigm to another particularly difficult. Strong complementarity implies that in order to be successful, change must be implemented simultaneously along a number of related dimensions. Organizations that adopt only one or two key components of the new organizational paradigm may fail simply by virtue of this complementarity. For instance, Jaikumars [5] study of 95 US and Japanese companies found that the majority of US companies had failed to achieve productivity  increases despite switching to flexible manufacturing technology. The reason was that they had preserved dozens of manufacturing practices such as long production runs and high work-in-process inventory levels, which complemented the old technology but kept the new technology from fulfilling its potential. Thus, the transition from the old structure to the new one is overwhelmingly complex. The switch would be easier if we apply design guided by theory instead of piecemeal evolution. There are many possible explanations for the change in the prevailing wisdom regarding organizational design. For instance, it is common to justify calls for radical change with reference to heightened competitive pressures: although firms that applied the old principles were among the most successful competitors of their day, presumably the nature of competition has changed in some way. Others suggest that consumer tastes have changed, making customized items more appealing than they once were. While historians would argue that the taste for mass marketed items was itself something that had to be developed in the early days of mass production, increased wealth or social stratification may make this more difficult today. It can also be argued that some of the new principles were as applicable fifty years ago as they are today, but that they simply had not yet been discovered. Although the enablers of the current organizational transformation are undoubtedly numerous and far from mutually independent, we would like to single one out for special attention: the rise in IT. Brynjolfsson [6, p.6] argues that IT is an appropriate candidate for explaining these changes for three reasons: First, compared to other explanations, the advances in information technology have a particularly reasonable claim to being both novel and exogenous. Many of the fundamental technological breakthroughs that enable todays vast information infrastructure were made less than a generation ago and were driven more by progress in physics and engineering than business demand. Second, the growth in information technology investment is of a large enough magnitude to be economically significant the result has been what is commonly referred to as the information explosion Third, there is a  sound basis for expecting an association between the costs of technologies that manage information and the organization of economic activity. The firm and the market have each been frequently modeled as primarily information processing institutions (see Galbraith [7] and Hayek [8] , respectively). Miller [9] foresaw the key features of the new paradigm as a natural outcome of the information era and the associated economy of choice: The new technologies will allow managers to handle more functions and widen their span of control. Fewer levels of management hierarchy will be required, enabling companies to flatten the pyramid of todays management structure. The new information technologies allow decentralization of decision-making without loss of management awareness; thus employees at all levels can be encouraged to be more creative and intrapreneurial. The key responsibility of the CEO will be leadership; to capture the light or energies of the organization like a lens and focus them on the key strategic objectives. The new organizational paradigm is indeed intertwined with the structure of an organizations information systems. Under the old paradigm, the firm was governed by a relatively rigid functional structure. This separation into distinct and well-defined organizational units economizes on the information and communications requirements across functional units and reduces cost and complexity. There is a tradeoff, however: the old structure is less flexible, less responsive and ultimately results in lower quality. In our view, the growing use of IT and the trend towards networking and client-server computing are both a cause and an effect of the organizational transition. Lowering the costs of horizontal communications, facilitating teamwork, enabling flexible manufacturing and providing information support for time management and quality control are key enablers on the supply side. It is equally clear that the new organizational paradigm demands new information systems: nothing can be more devastating for cross-functional teamwork than a rigid information system that inhibits cross-functional information flows. We can unify these perspectives by noting that the structure of the organizations information system is a key element of  organizational transformation. Changes in IT change the nature of organizations just as changes in organizational structure drive the development of new technologies. 2. Information Systems, Economics and Organizational Structure Jensen and Meckling [10] provide a useful framework for studying the complementarities between information systems, incentive structures and decision rights in organizations. In their framework, the structure of an organization is specified by three key elements: (i) The allocation of decision rights (i.e., who is responsible for what actions/decisions); (ii) the incentive system, which defines how decision makers are to be rewarded (or penalized) for the decisions they make; and (iii) a monitoring and measurement scheme used to evaluate these actions and their outcomes. According to Jensen and Meckling, informational variables are key to the structure of organizations because the quality of decisions is determined by the quality of information available to the decision maker. The co-location of information and decision rights enables the decision maker to make optimal decisions. The implementation of this co-location depends on the nature of the pertinent information. Jensen and Meckling distinguish between specific knowledge which is localized, difficult to represent and transfer, and depends on idiosyncratic circumstances, and general knowledge which can be easily summarized, communicated and shared by decision makers. Now, there are two ways to bring information and decision rights together: (i) The MIS solution: transfer the information required for the decision to the decision maker, using the organizations (possibly non-automated) information systems; or (ii) the organizational redesign solution: redesign the organizational structure so that the decision making authority is where the pertinent information is. By definition, general knowledge which is useful for a decision calls for the MIS solution because it can be transferred at low cost. In contrast, when specific knowledge plays a key role in a decision, the best solution calls for restructuring decision  rights so as to provide the decision authority to the one who possesses or has access to the pertinent information (since the transfer of specific knowledge is too costly).4 Jensen and Meckling thus represent the structure of organizations as an efficient response to the structure of their information costs. But then, a change in information costs must induce a change in organizational structure. In particular, IT has changed the costs of processing and transferring certain types of information (e.g. quantitative data), but has done little for other types (e.g. implicit knowledge or skills). IT changes the structure of organizations by facilitating certain information flows as well as by turning knowledge that used to be specific into general knowledge. By developing a taxonomy of information types and identifying the differential impacts of new technologies on their transferability and importance, we can take a significant step towards applying the simple insight that information and authority should be co-located [11] . Intra-organizational networks and workgroup computing facilities reduce the information costs of teamwork and hence make it a more efficient solution to the organizational design problem. Client-server computing technology lowers cross-functional (as well as geographic) barriers. IT (when applied properly) streamlines the types of information that used to be the raison detre of middle management quantitative control information and turns it into general knowledge that can be readily transmitted to, and processed by, people other than those who originally gathered the data. A reduction in the number of management layers and the thinning out of middle management ranks is the predictable result. Similar considerations apply to enterprises that cross firm boundaries. As a simple example, consider the organization of trading activities [12, 13, 14] . Traditionally, trading took place on the floor of an exchange, which was the locus of numerous pieces of specific knowledge, ranging from the hand signals indicating bids and offers to buy and sell a security to traders facial expressions and the atmosphere on the floor of the exchange. Under that structure, much of the information pertinent to trading is specific and  localized to the floor. Thus, when an investor instructs her broker to sell 1,000 shares of a given stock, the broker transmits the order to the floor of the exchange and only the floor broker attempts to provide best execution. The decision rights (here, for the trading decisions) are naturally delegated to the decision maker who has the pertinent specific knowledge, and since that knowledge resides on the floor of the exchange, the floor broker is best suited to have the decision rights. Technology, and in particular screen-based systems, turns much of the specific knowledge on the floor (i.e., bids and offers) into general knowledge. This shifts decision rights up from the floor to the brokers screens. The inevitable result is the decline of the trading floor and the increased importance of brokers trading rooms. The demise of the trading floor in exchanges that turned to screen-based trading (such as London and Paris) is a natural outcome of the shift in the locus of knowledge. More generally, markets in particular, electronic markets transform specific knowledge into general knowledge [15] . Ironically, even as IT has sped up many links of the information processing chain and vastly increased the amount of information available to any one decision-maker, it has also led to the phenomenon of information overload. This can perhaps best be understood by a generalization of the Jensen and Meckling framework to include finite human information processing capacity. As more information moves from the specific category to the general category, the limiting factor becomes not what information is available but rather a matter of finding the human information processing capacity needed to attend to and process the information. Computers appear to have exacerbated the surfeit of information relative to processing capacity, perhaps because the greatest advances have occurred in the processing and storage of structured data, which is generally a complement, not a substitute, for human information processing. As computer and communications components increase their speed, the human bottleneck in the information processing chain becomes ever more apparent. Information overload, when interpreted in light of this framework, can provide an explanation for the increased autonomy and pay-for-performance  that characterize a number of descriptions of the new managerial work (cf. [6] ). Economizing on information costs means that more decision rights are delegated to line managers who possess the idiosyncratic, specific knowledge necessary to accomplish their tasks. Shifting responsibility from the overburdened top of the hierarchy to line personnel not only reduces the information processing load at the top of the hierarchy, but also cuts down unnecessary communications up and down the hierarchy. This blurs the traditional distinction between conceptualization and execution and broadens the scope of decision rights delegated to lower level managers. By the Jensen-Meckling [10] framework, any such shift in decision authority (and in the associated routing of information) must also be accompanied by a change in the structure of incentives. Disseminating information more broadly is ever easier with IT, allowing line workers to take into account information that goes well beyond the formerly-narrow definitions of their job. Meanwhile, providing the right incentives for the newly empowered work force is an equally crucial element of the current reorganization of work. Agency theory predicts that performance-based pay is necessary when decision rights are decentralized (otherwise, the agents may be induced to act in ways that are inconsistent with overall organizational goals). It therefore follows that incentive-based compensation is appropriate for better-informed workers [16].5 Thus, the confluence of better-informed workers, an empowered workforce and more incentive-based pay is consistent with our thesis that IT is a key driver of the new organizational paradigm. Furthermore, the theory of incomplete contracts suggests that the analysis can be extended to include interorganizational changes such as increased reliance on outsourcing and networks of other firms for key components [17] . Here again the shift can be explained in incentive terms: one ultimate incentive is ownership, so entrepreneurs are likely to be more innovative and aggressive than the same individuals working as division managers. Both within and across organizations, then, changes in information systems are accompanied by changes in incentives and in the organization of work. 3. The Special Issue The papers in this special issue attest to the role of information systems in the structure of modern enterprise and the blurring of the differences between inter- and intra-firm transactions. Starting from the firms level, Barrons paper studies how a firm determines its internal organization and how IT affects this determination. Barron considers a traditional firm, with well-defined boundaries that are endogenously determined by considering flexibility and scope of control. Ching, Holsapple and Whinston broaden the scope of the enterprise to the network organization a construct obtained by tying together a number of firms that cooperate through a well-defined communication mechanism. Specifically, they use a bidding protocol to manage the relationship between suppliers and producers. Beath and Ang examine another form of inter-firm cooperation, the relational contract, in the context of software-development outsourcing. They show how relational contracts embody a relationship that can be characterized as a network consisting of two organizations. Whang studies a more subtle form of networking information sharing between buyers and suppliers. Bakos and Brynjolfsson examine the impact of incentives and information costs on the nature of buyer-supplier relationships. They show that committing to a partnership with a small number of suppliers can be an optimal strategy for a buyer because it will maximize the suppliers incentives for non-contractible investments such as information sharing, innovation or quality. The papers thus present a spectrum ranging from a study of the boundaries of the traditional firm through different forms of networking to explicit buyer-supplier relationships. A common theme is the organization of work so as to reduce overall information costs not only within an organization but across them as well. The surviving enterprise is often (though not always) the one that attempts to reduce information costs while capitalizing on the comparative advantage of the participating organizations. This calls for opportunistic cooperation that benefits the members of the network for as long as they cooperate. IT reduces the costs of such cooperation by  facilitating communication and increasing the flexibility of the participating organizations. Using the Jensen-Meckling terminology, different network participants can make more effective use of their specific knowledge when the costs of transferring and processing general knowledge are reduced. Further, technology enables the development of markets that, by their very nature, transform specific knowledge into general knowledge. Thus, the bidding and communications protocols proposed by Ching, Holsapple and Whinston in their paper Modeling Network Organizations effectively transform the specific knowledge inherent in the production technology of the competing suppliers into general knowledge that encompasses not only prices but also their reputations. From this perspective, IT is key to the development of network organizations. In his paper Impacts of Information Technology on Organizational Size and Shape: Control and Flexibility Effects, Barron builds a stylized quantitative model to study the impact of IT on the structure of organizations. Examining flexibility and scope of control, he identifies sixteen different cases with different patterns of the actual causality between IT and firm structure. Barron shows that simplistic statements regarding the impact of IT are not as straightforward as one might imagine due to the interaction of size, scope and flexibility. His results suggest that the impact of IT is rather complex, and that further specification is necessary prior to making predictions on the impact of IT on organizational size or shape. Hierarchical Elements in Software Contracts by Beath and Ang focuses on the contractual structure of outsourced software development. This is an interesting example of the new organizational paradigm because of the key role of information systems in any organization. Effective software development hinges on cooperation, communication and joint management which are at the heart of the new organizational paradigm. Beath and Ang examine the mechanisms used to govern outsourcing projects as specified in their outsourcing contracts. They suggest that the relational contract, which converts an arms-length transaction into a joint project with governance and resolution procedures that resemble those used by firms internally, is an  effective way to accomplish this. Thus, while Ching, Holsapple and Whinston view bidding and explicit reputation formation as the alphabet of the network organization, Beath and Ang view actual contract clauses as the key linguistic constructs. The paper shows how the structure of the contract is driven by the attributes of the project as well as those of the parties to the transaction. In Analysis of Economic Incentives for Inter-Organizational Information Sharing, Whang addresses the question of information sharing in non-cooperative buyer-supplier settings. Whang studies this question for two different models. He first shows that due to adverse incentives, suppliers will not be willing to share information regarding their costs. The situation is different when the information to be conveyed is regarding the expected delay or lead time. Whang shows that suppliers are better off disclosing lead-time information to buyers (when the demand curve for their product is convex). This result is consistent with our general thesis, whereas the former one introduces a note of caution: adverse incentives pose limits to the scope of information sharing among network organizations. In From Vendors to Partners: Information Technology and Incomplete Contracts in Buyer-Supplier Relationships, Bakos and Brynjolfsson start with the assumption that, in many cases, complete information exchange between two firms will be infeasible, so any contract between them will be incomplete in the sense that some contingencies will remain unspecified. They then explore how the interplay of IT and organizational structure can affect the role of non-contractible investments, such as innovation, quality and the exchange of information. For example, Bakos and Brynjolfsson show that when fewer suppliers are employed, they collectively capture a larger share of the benefits of the relationship, and this will increase their incentives to make non-contractible investments. As a result, even when search costs are very low, it may be desirable for the buyer to limit the number of employed suppliers, leading to a partnership-type of relationship, rather than aggressively bargaining for all the benefits by threatening to switch among numerous alternative suppliers. Like Whang, they show that the incentive effects of the applications of IT must be explicitly considered in any model  of their effect on inter-organizational cooperation. 4. Conclusion In this paper, we have stressed the joint determination of the location of information and decision rights. The default mechanism used to achieve this co-location depends on ones point of reference. Information Systems researchers are likely to take the locus of decision authority for granted. They will typically focus their attention on devising schemes that will efficiently organize, retrieve, sort, filter, transmit and display information for designated decision makers. In contrast, the economist is likely to focus on the allocation of decision rights and the concomitant effect on incentives.6 As we discussed in Section 2, transferring information and transferring decision authority are two sides of the same question. Because economics and information systems research evolved to address different problems, this complementarity long went unnoticed. Each of the papers in the special issue addresses a different aspect of the interplay among information, incentives and the structure of economic enterprise. In every case, insights resulted when both information and incentives were explicitly considered. Each paper contributes an additional piece to an emerging mosaic that describes not only the features of the new organization, but also gives some insight into their theoretical underpinnings. The papers in this special issue also highlight the incomplete state of knowledge in the subject area and the dearth of empirical guidance to the formulation and testing of theoretical research. We started this paper with a discussion of the computer industry as the canonical example of the new paradigm as exercised in Silicon Valley, and continued by arguing that its products actually fuel the shift to this paradigm. It is only appropriate to close the loop by examining the dictum of that paradigm as it applies to the inner workings of firms in the computer industry. A major effort along these lines in being undertaken by one of the authors and his colleagues in Stanford Universitys Computer Industry Project. Understanding these changes so that they can be harnessed for productive ends remains a central challenge for the next decade of research. The rapid progress in designing computers and communications systems contrasts starkly with the uncertainty clouding organizational design. Yet, new ways of organizing will be necessary before the potential of IT can be realized. Furthermore, because the new organizational paradigms involve numerous complementarities, the trial-and-error methods which were important in the rise of the organizational forms of the past century, such as large hierarchies and mass markets, may be unsuited for making the next transition. Understanding and implementing one aspect of a new organizational structure without regard to its interaction with other aspects can leave the make the organization worse off than if no modifications at all were made. Design, rather than evolution, is called for when significant changes must be made along multiple dimensions simultaneously. Successful organizational design, in turn, requires that we understand the flow of information among humans and their agents every bit as well as we understand the flow of electrons in chips and wires. Perhaps, then, the revolution in information processing capabilities not only calls for a change in business organization, but also a re-evaluation of the historic separation between Information Systems and Economics. REFERENCES [1] Meyers, G. The Science of Management. In C. B. Thompson (Eds.), Scientific Management Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1914. [2] Kanter, R. M. The New Managerial Work. Harvard Business Review, Nov-Dec, 1989, pp. 85-92. [3] Peters, T. Thriving on Chaos, Handbook for a Management Revolution. New York: Knopf, 1988. [4] Milgrom, P. and Roberts, J. The Economics of Modern Manufacturing: Technology, Strategy, and Organization. American Economic Review, Vol. 80, No. 3, 1990. [5] Jaikumar, R. Post-Industrial Manufacturing. Harvard Business Review, November-December, 1986, pp. 69-76. [6] Brynjolfsson, E. Information Technology and the New Managerial Work. Working Paper # 3563-93. MIT, 1990. [7] Galbraith, J. Organizational Design. 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[14] Amihud, Y. and Mendelson, H. Liquidity, Volatility and Exchange Automation. Journal of Accounting, Auditing and Finance, Vol. 3, Fall, 1988, pp. 369-395. [15] Malone, T. W., Yates, J. and Benjamin, R. I. Electronic Markets and Electronic Hierarchies. Communications of the ACM, Vol. 30, No. 6, 1987, pp. 484-497. [16] Baker, G. P. Incentive Contracts and Performance Measurement. Journal of Political Economy, Vol. 100, No. 3, June, 1992. [17] Brynjolfsson, E. An Incomplete Contracts Theory of Information, Technology, and Organization. Management Science, forthcoming, 1993.