Police supervision on the street: An analysis of supervisor/officer interaction during the shift

This article examines a major assumption of street supervisors in police agencies—that control of police officer behavior is dependent on strict hierarchical organization. The intellectual roots of this assumption are examined, and an emerging perspective developed from direct observation of patrol operations is presented. The research questions are addresses with data that were collected from observations of patrol activities in 60 residential neighborhoods in 24 agencies. The analysis, which is referenced to officers' shifts of duty, shows that the effect of supervision is in the direction posited by the authors of traditional police administration texts, but the magnitude of the effect is not overly strong. The findings are used to inform the evaluation of a common policy option directed at improving officer performance through supervision.     

Building successful technology transfer teams: A theory of cascading commitment

The attempt to transfer a technology from a publicly funded laboratory to a profit-oriented manufacturer can be a lengthy and complex process, involving several organizations and several key individuals within each organization. For example, a product technology transfer team may include the public lab itself, one or more end user organizations during product development and trial, a transfer agency, a public funding agency, the receptor manufacturer, and a private funding agency. Studies of such multi party transfers have suggested many factors that have contributed to their success or failure. We feel that most of these factors can be organized under the rubric of a more general theory of cascading commitment. Specifically, in this paper we propose that the likelihood of a transfer's success can be substantially affected by excellent management of the team building process by the public lab's R&D manager/director. Successful teams are built by gaining the commitment of appropriate individuals from appropriate organizations in a sequential cascading effect, by insightful and customized solicitation of each new team member to join at the appropriate stage of commercialization. To do this, the manager must be cognizant of, and individually appeal to, each new team member's perceptions of three sets of variables: evidence of the prior members' credibility, evidence of the prior members' commitment, and the set of personal benefits to be gained from participation.     

Is technology transfer more than a “mechanical” process?

Editorial Advisory Board     

The Evolution of the Office of Management and Budget Under President Reagan

This article introduces a series of retrospective articles on the Reagan administration. The Office of Management and Budget became a major actor in the budget debate over the last eight years. The Reagan administration has seen a change in OMB's role from that of an advisor to the president, to an agency with a central role to play in the development of the president's foreign and domestic policy within budgetary constraints. The article focuses on how OMB has reacted to these changes producing budget conventions and techniques unique to the 1980s.