The Tender Ship: Governmental Management of Technological Change

262 Pages·1986·5.875 MB·English

by  Arthur M. Squires (auth.)

The
Tender Ship
Governmental Management of
Technological Change
The
Tender Ship
Governmental Management of
Technological Change
Arthur M. Squires
Foreword by Harold C. Livesay
A Pro Scientia Viva Title
Springer Science+Business Media, LLC
Arthur M. Squires
Department of Chemical Engineering
Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University
B1acksburg, VA 24061
First Printing, 1986
Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data
Squires, Arthur M., 1916-
The tender ship.
Governmental management of technological change.
"A Pro scientia viva tide."
Includes index.
1. Technology and state-United States. 1. Tide.
T21.S68 1986 338.97307 85-12972
ISBN 978-0-8176-3312-7
CIP-Kurztitelaufnahme der Deutschen Bibliothek
Squires, Arthur M.:
The tender ship : governmental management of
technological change / Arthur M. Squires. - Boston
Basel ; Stuttgart ; Birkhiiuser, 1986
(A Pro Scientia Viva tide)
© Springer Science+Business Media New York 1986
Originally published by Birkhăuser Boston, Ine., in 1986
Softeover reprint of the hardeover 1 st edition 1986
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval
system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photo
copying, recorded or otherwise, without prior permission of the copyright owner,
Birkhiiuser Boston, Inc., 380 Green Street, P.O.B. 2007, Cambridge, MA 02139, USA.
ISBN 978-0-8176-3312-7 ISBN 978-1-4757-1926-0 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4757-1926-0
Manufactured in the United States of America
The Tender Ship is reproduced from camera-ready copy prepared under the author's
supervision by the Printing Center of Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State
University.
It seems to us of vital importance that this program be managed in a
spirit of fullest competition and interchange of information among all
groups. On the one hand there should be the most complete interchange
of information and on the other, as much competition in research,
development, and operation as possible.
Bernard M. Baruch, James D. Conant, and Karl T. Compton
- report to President Franklin D. Roosevelt
on establishing a synthetic rubber industry,
September 10, 1942.
Contents
Figures Xl
Foreword by Harold C. Livesay XUI
Preface
XV
Acknowledgments XIX
Chapter 1. The Vasa . .. the RlOO ... the RIOI
wherein fates of three ships illustrate the technological
practitioner's first duty: utter probity toward the engineered
object - from its conception through its commissioning
for use;
wherein Nevil Shute serves his apprenticeship as an
aeronautic engineer under Barnes Wallis.
Presenting Chapters 2 and 3 II
Chapter 2. Maestros ... Apprentices 13
wherein the United States government plugs into a network
of "maestros of technology" to organize a structured effort
for reaching a designable engineering goal;
wherein I switch from physical chemistry to chemical
engineering in an apprenticeship under Manson Benedict.
Chapter 3. Ways of Bureaucracy 47
how good managers spend their time;
how, in contrast, Parkinson's Law leads to a conservative
organization, resisting novelty.
VII
viii CONTENTS
Presenting Chapters 4 through 7 55
Chapter 4. The AR-15 ... the M-16 57
wherein the U.S. Army, in assigning responsibilities
according to signs on bureaucrats' doors, creates problems
when it puts a well-built rifle into production;
wherein the knowledgeable refrain from tattling;
wherein an unexpected need for the rifle causes a tragedy.
Chapter 5. Sand ... Water ... Superflight 87
wherein the U.S. mounts and abandons programs to protect
beaches, to desalinate water, and to power aircraft with
nuclear engines.
Chapter 6. Species of Bureaucracy 103
how dissonance in communications between levels of
bureaucracy - or differences in objectives or values -
diminish the "consistent" effort achievable at the "shop
floor";
how politics consume energies of managers at middle levels
in a bureaucracy;
how "consistent" effort can fall to a low level in pathological
instances of bureaucracy;
how constituencies of articulate users monitor performance
of certain bureaucracies, which develop "priesthoods"
maintaining "consistency" of effort even when directed by
unsympathetic or inattentive managers;
how the organization of a Japanese automobile
manufacturing concern resembles that of an architect
engineering firm building petroleum refineries in the 1930s;
how an American automobile company's organization
typically fosters greater "inconsistency" of performance on
the shop floor.
CONTENTS ix
Chapter 7. Honest Direction ... Directed Dishonesty 115
how guidance of the exploration and directed investigation
stages of research ideally relies upon consensus within circles
of practitioners;
how specific investigation, modeling, testing, and study/
planning stages of research and development (R&D) ideally
engage a number of participants who collaborate "in a spirit
of fullest competition and interchange of information";
how a maestro of technology, devoted to the engineered
object, ideally manages the project stage of an R&D -
assembling an ad hoc team of qualified practitioners, setting
a strict time schedule, and making timely decisions
according to Watson-Watt's Law of the Third Best;
how these ideal circumstances contrast with the tendency
of governmental R&D to nurture permanent institutions
of poor utility, an endemic loss of integrity toward the
engineered object, an attitude that "nothing matters
anyway," and a terrible work experience for the beginner.
Presenting Chapters 8, 9, and 10 141
Chapter 8. Presidents 143
wherein Wilson freezes the East Coast and creates divided
authority and confusion in manufacture of aircraft;
wherein Roosevelt lets the petroleum industry "do its thing"
in production of aviation gasoline;
wherein Roosevelt's administration stumbles at first in
manufacture of synthetic rubber but recovers to mount a
flexible, successful program, in spite of a bad press;
how the contrast between Wilson's and Roosevelt's
performances in managing technology in World Wars I and
II illustrates that who is in charge matters.
x CONTENTS
Chapter 9. Professors 171
wherein the National Science Foundation (NSF) expands
American science;
wherein distant state administrations and academic
administrators create inefficiency and worse;
how governmental funding of academic research provides
money for academic administrators as well as for scientists;
how governmental funding practices often favor ROMSing
- the application of a powerful scientific tool or theory
- even when the investigator addresses a trivial question;
how ROMSing hurts academic research in engineering.
Chapter lO. Practitioners 193
how education favoring procedure over content contributes
to a shift from innovation toward "product improvement,"
in science as well as in industry;
how the apprenticeship experience today rarely identifies
a maestro of technology, either to him- or herself or to
others.
Chapter 11. The Fat and Far ... the Lean and Near 205
wherein we reach the question, "What can we do about
it?"
Chapter 12. Bureaucracy ... Civilized Life 225
how ways of bureaucracy relate to trends of thought and
attitude that threaten civilized existence - another reason
why the question, "What can we do about it?" is important.
Appendix 233
Students in four Honors Colloquia at Virginia Tech, with
titles of their papers.
Index 235
Figures
1. Ideal gaseous diffusion cascade IS
2. Squared-off cascade 16
3. Gauss' curve for distribution of values given by a large
number of "identical" measurements 31
4. Pressures in rifle barrel for two propellants 68
5. (a) Unshaded bar denoting "consistency" of sovereign
executant's effort 104
(b) How sovereign manager and four assistants spend their time 105
(c) "Consistency diagram" for a three-tier bureaucracy 105
6. A smart executive's allies on the shop floor 107
7. Bureaucratic politics 107
8. Consistency diagram for U.S. automobile company 108
9. Consistency diagram for a "good" governmental agency
saddled with an inappropriate chief 109
10. Pathological consistency diagram, typical of governmental
bureaus without user clienteles 110
11. Consistency diagram for the flexibly extensible organization
of an architect-engineering firm III
12. Flexibly extensible organization of a Japanese
automobile company 113
Xl