Waiting For Dead Men S Shoes

This monumental study provides an innovative and powerful means for understanding institutions by applying problem solving theory to the creation and elaboration of formal organizational rules and procedures. Based on a meticulously researched historical analysis of the U.S. Navy’s officer personnel system from its beginnings to 1941, the book is informed by developments in cognitive psychology, cognitive science, operations research, and management science. It also offers important insights into the development of the American administrative state, highlighting broader societal conflicts over equity, efficiency, and economy. Considering the Navy’s personnel system as an institution, the book shows that changes in that system resulted from a long-term process of institutional design, in which formal rules and procedures are established and elaborated. Institutional design is here understood as a problem-solving process comprising day-to-day efforts of many decision makers to resolve the difficulties that block completion of their tasks. The officer personnel system is treated as a problem of organized complexity, with many components interacting in systematic, intricate ways, its structure usually imperfectly understood by the participants. Consequently, much problem solving entails decomposing the larger problem into smaller, more manageable components, closing open constraints, and balancing competing value premises. The author finds that decision makers are unlikely to generate many alternatives, since searching for existing solutions elsewhere or inventing new ones is an expensive, difficult enterprise. Choice is usually a matter of accepting, rejecting, or modifying a single solution. Because time constraints force decisions before problems are well structured, errors are frequently made, problem components are at best only partially addressed, and the chosen solution may not solve the problem at all and even if it does is likely to generate unanticipated side-effects that worsen other problem components. In its definitive treatment of a critical but hitherto entirely unresearched dimension of the administration of the U.S. Navy, the book provides full details over time concerning the elaboration of officer grades and titles, creation of promotion by selection, sea duty requirements, graded retirement, staff-line conflicts, the establishment of the Reserve, and such unusual subjects as “tombstone promotions.” In the process, it transcends the specifics of the personnel system to give a broad picture of the Navy’s history over the first century and a half of its development.

This unique and authoritative dictionary contains over 1,100 of the most widely used proverbs in English, utilizing the latest research from the Oxford Languages team to source them. This edition has been thoroughly revised and updated, broadening the cultural range of the proverbs selected, and covering sayings of international origins. With a strong emphasis on concisely explaining the meaning of the proverbs described, the dictionary also provides additional examples of usage, and includes a fascinating history for many entries. Arranged in A-Z order and with a useful thematic index, A Dictionary of Proverbs is ideal for browsing and perfectly suited for quick reference. Look up your old favourites, learn punchy new expressions to get your point across, and find the answer to that crossword clue. It is never too late to learn: find proverbs relevant to every aspect of life in this entertaining and informative collection.

This unique and authoritative dictionary contains over 1,100 of the most widely used proverbs in English and uses research from the Oxford English Corpus, the world's largest language databank. This edition has been revised and fully updated and includes numerous entirely new entries. It also features expanded coverage of foreign language proverbs currently in use in English. With an emphasis on examples of usage, including the earliest written evidence of its use, this A-Z guide provides a thorough - and fascinating - history for every entry. Arranged in A-Z format and with a useful thematic index, A Dictionary of Proverbs is ideal for browsing and perfectly suited for quick reference. Look up your old favourites, learn punchy new expressions to get your point across, and find the answer to that crossword clue. Seeing is believing: find proverbs relevant to every aspect of life in this entertaining and informative collection.

The war in Iraq and the problematic military occupation of that country have called into question the adequacy of America's all-volunteer force. Politicians and others have expressed doubts about its equity and capability; some have called for the reinstatement of the draft. Yet over the past twenty years the all-volunteer military has become a technologically advanced force that has contributed to America's overall military advantage. This book analyzes current military pay and personnel policies and identifies changes needed to maintain and improve America's all-volunteer force. Filling the Ranks argues that to attract qualified and motivated volunteers, the armed forces need to offer better tangible inducements—pay, benefits, and training—to accompany such intangible rewards as pride in serving one's country. Many of the policies related to tangible rewards were established shortly after World War II and are no longer effective. Filling the Ranks presents detailed assessments of US military pay and personnel policies in light of the strategic, demographic, economic, and labor realities of the future. It identifies specific problems that today's military career patterns, training, pay, and benefits pose for officers and enlisted men and women in both active duty and reserve forces, discussing such issues as competition with the private sector for talent, the need to restructure compensation, and provision of family support. It offers recommendations for more flexible, adaptive, and effective policies and a blueprint for achieving them.

This Dictionary contains over 50,000 proverbs, in some 70 European languages and dialects, arranged in 2,500 sets. It is the fruits of over 40 years of collection and research, the only collection of proverbs on anything like this scale ever to be published anywhere in the world. Emanuel Strauss has trawled through innumerable collections of proverbs in all languages, from early printed books and rare items to the latest theses and journals, and grouped together many thousands of proverbs in sets of equivalent meaning. Comprehensive indexes for each language provide access to any proverb by way of its key words. A critical bibliography musters some 500 items, from incunabula to the current decade.

Reprint of the original, first published in 1876.