Richard J. Niehaus

This volume is the proceedings of the conference entitled "Manpower Planning and Organization Design" which was held in Stresa, Italy, 20-24 June 1977. The Conference was sponsored by the NATO Scientific Affairs Division and organized jointly through the Special Programs Panels on Human Factors and on Systems Science. Two Conference Directors were appointed with overall responsibilities for the programme and for policy, and they were assisted in their tasks by a small advisory panel consisting of Professor A. Charnes (University of Texas), Professor W.W. Cooper (Carnegie Mellon University, now at Harvard University) and Dr. F.A. Heller (TavistQck Institute of Human Relations). Professor R. Florio of Bergamo kindly agreed to become Administrative Director and, as such, was responsible for all the local arrangements. The Conference Directors were further assisted by "national points of contact" appointed from each of the member countries of NATO. These national representatives played a substantial part in the search for participants and in the collection and trans­ mission of the various conference communications. Although full details of the national points of contact are included in the Appendices, special tribute must be paid to the UK point of contact, Brian Smith of the Civil Service Department. He very capably shouldered the additional burdens of maintaining conti­ nuity and resolving problems during the absence in Canada of Don Bryant in the particularly demanding two months preceding the Conference.

This volume is the proceedings of a symposium entitled, "Strategic Human Resource Planning Applications" which was held at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia on December 4-6, 1985. The meeting was sponsored by the Research Committee of the Human Resource Planning Society. In developing the symposi~m, the Research Committee built upon a study which resulted in a broad research agenda for the Society. The thrust of that research agenda was emphasis on linking the state-of- practice with the state-of-the-art. In the case of the symposium emphasiS was on the presentation of forward looking applications which could help member organizations link current practice with the research frontier. The meeting had sessions on (1) Description of Issues, (2) Human Resource Costs and Strategy, (3) Case Studies of Strategic Planning, (4) Computer Technology and Office Automation, (4) Large Scale Forecasting and Compensation Issues, (5) Models for Policy Analysis, (6) Work Force Optimization, (7) Implementation of Information Processing Activities, (8) Productivity Analysis, and (9) Relationship of Strategy to Practice. Thirty papers were presented with discussion sessions at appropriate points in the m~eting. This volume contains 18 of these papers along with an introductory paper. A short summary is also provided at the beginning of each major subdivision into which the papers are arraigned.