Ks-band (2.14 micron) imaging of southern massive star formation regions traced by methanol masers

We present deep, wide-field, Ks-band (2.14 micron) images towards 87 southern massive star formation regions traced by methanol maser emission. Using point-spread function fitting, we generate 2.14 micron point source catalogues towards each of the regions. For the regions between 10 degrees and 350 degrees galactic longitude and galactic latitude +/- 1 degree, we match the 2.14 micron sources with the GLIMPSE point source catalogue to generate a combined 2.14 to 8.0 micron point source catalogue. We provide this data for the astronomical community to utilise in studies of the stellar content of embedded clusters.Comment: Accepted PASA. Full version including figures available from http://www.cfa.harvard.edu/~slongmor/snl_iris2_withfigs.pd

DI in the outer Galaxy

We report on a deep search with the Westerbork Synthesis Radio Telescope towards the galactic anticenter for the 327 MHz hyperfine transition of DI. This is a favorable direction for a search because: (i) the HI optical depth is high due to velocity crowding; (ii) the observed molecular column density is low (implying that most of the deuterium would probably be in atomic form, rather than in HD); and (iii) the stellar reprocessing should be minimal. Our observations are about a factor of two more sensitive than previous searches for DI in this direction. We detect a low significance (about 4 sigma) feature, consistent in both amplitude and center frequency with an emission feature reported previously (Blitz & Heiles 1987). If this is the DI line, then the implied N_D/N_H of 3.9+/-1.0 x 10^-5 is comparable to the inferred pre-solar deuterium abundance. Our observation is consistent with the recent low measurements of D/H towards high-redshift Lyman-limit systems. On the other hand, if the reports of high DI abundance (about 24 x 10^-5) in such systems are confirmed, then our observations imply that even in regions of reduced star formation within the outer Galaxy, the DI abundance has been reduced by a factor of about 6 from the primordial abundance.Comment: 4 page LaTeX requires l-aa.sty and psfig.sty, 1 ps figure. Accepted for publication in A&A Letter

Engineering Bureaucracy: The Genesis of Formal Policies, Positions, and Structures in High-Technology Firms

[Excerpt] This article examines the impact of organizational founding conditions on several facets of bureaucratization—managerial intensity, the proliferation of specialized managerial and administrative roles, and formalization of employment relations. Analyzing information on a sample of technology start-ups in California\u27s Silicon Valley, we characterize the organizational models or blueprints espoused by founders in creating new enterprises. We find that those models and the social composition of the labor force at the time of founding had enduring effects on growth in managerial intensity (i.e., reliance on managerial and administrative specialists) over time. Our analyses thus provide compelling evidence of path dependence in the evolution of bureaucracy—even in a context in which firms face intense selection pressures—and underscore the importance of the logics of organizing that founders bring to new enterprises. We find less evidence that founding models exert persistent effects on the formalization of employment relations or on the proliferation of specialized senior management titles. Rather, consistent with neo-institutional perspectives on organizations, those superficial facets of bureaucracy appear to be shaped by the need to satisfy external gatekeepers (venture capitalists and the constituents of public corporations), as well as by exigencies of organizational scale, growth, and aging. We discuss some implications of these results for efforts to understand the varieties, determinants, and consequences of bureaucracy

Inertia and Change in the Early Years: Employment Relations in Young, High Technology Firms

[Excerpt] This paper considers processes of organizational imprinting in a sample of 100 young, high technology companies. It examines the effects of a pair of initial conditions: the founders\u27 models of the employment relation and their business strategies. Our analyses indicate that these two features were well aligned when the firms were founded. However, the alignment has deteriorated over time, due to changes in the distribution of employment models. In particular, the \u27star\u27 model and \u27commitment\u27 model are less stable than the \u27engineering\u27 model and the \u27factory\u27 model. Despite their instability, these two blueprints for the employment relation have strong effects in shaping the early evolution of these firms. In particular, firms that embark with these models have significantly higher rates of replacing the founder chief executive with a non-founder as well as higher rates of completing an initial public stock offering. Some implications of these findings for future studies of imprinting and inertia in organizations are discussed

Determinants of Managerial Intensity in the Early Years of Organizations

This paper examines how founding conditions shape subsequent organizational evolution— specifically, the proliferation of management and administrative jobs. Analyzing quantitative and qualitative information on a sample of young technology start-ups in California’s Silicon Valley, we examine the enduring imprint of two aspects of firms’ founding conditions: the employment blueprints espoused by founders in creating new enterprises; and the social capital that existed among key early members of the firm—their social composition and social relations. We find that the initial gender mix in start-ups and the blueprint espoused by the founder influence the extent of managerial intensity that develops over time. In particular, firms whose founders espoused a bureaucratic model from the outset subsequently grew more administratively intense than otherwise-similar companies, particularly companies whose founders had initially championed a “commitment” model. Also, firms with a higher representation of women within the first year subsequently were slower to bureaucratize than otherwise-similar firms with a predominance of males. Our analyses thus provide compelling evidence of path-dependence in the evolution of organizational structures and underscore the importance of the “logics of organizing” that founders bring to new enterprises. Implications of these results for organizational theory and research are discussed