Purpose -This paper seeks to contribute to a more effective co-ordination of humanitarian operations by military and civilian organizations involved in a peace support mission in response to a complex emergency. Design/methodology/approach -The information processing view, in particular Galbraith's typology of generic mechanisms for achieving co-ordination, is taken as the theoretical framework. This framework is subsequently applied to the co-ordination of humanitarian operations by military and civilian organizations. Empirical data are derived from a set of expert interviews with both military and civilian respondents in The Netherlands and a four week visit to Kabul and Baghlan, a province in northern Afghanistan. During this visit 40 military respondents have been interviewed and over 60 meetings have been held with local authorities, humanitarian organizations, small entrepreneurs, refugees and local villagers. Finally, conclusions are drawn and recommendations are provided with regard to a more effective co-ordination of humanitarian operations in a peace support mission. Findings -The article's main finding is that "self-contained tasks" in combination with lateral relations are the dominant co-ordination mechanisms. "Slack resources", though observed in practice, is not considered a viable co-ordination mechanism since this implies an excess, and thus waste, of scarce resources. "Information systems" are, unfortunately, not well-developed leading to mismatches between policy and practice. Keeping "self-contained tasks" as the major co-ordination mechanism, the main recommendation is to develop and implement innovative "information systems", that can also be used to support "lateral relations", in particular those between military and civil actors. Originality/value -The paper applies the information processing perspective to a unique and important subject, namely co-ordination between military and humanitarian organizations in peace support missions.

R&D managers in China experienced significant changes in the past decade, in particular because of Government policies of economic reform and opening to the outside world. These developments have brought about a number of rather specific R&D management issues and problems. The paper addresses the main problems faced by R&D managers in China. First, the current situation of R&D management in China is discussed, as well as the future developments. The paper then presents a case study of the CISRI (Central Iron & Steel Research Institute), a large comprehensive R&D organisation in Beijing. The analysis leads to the critical issues in CISRI's R&D management. After that, a further investigation is described into the trends of Chinese R&D management. The outcomes described focus on the future of R&D management in China as well as on the integration of Western R&D management theory in China. The paper concludes with the major issues and recommendations for the further development of R&D management in China.

This paper seeks to contribute to an improved information management and exchange between humanitarian organisations and military agents in complex emergencies. To do so, a theoretical information management process model was developed and applied to the case of information management between International Security Assistance Force troops and humanitarian organisations such as Cordaid, DACAAR and the International Office for Migration in Kabul, Afghanistan. Based on this analysis the main shortcomings and problems in each stage of the information management process were identified. These include a lack of structured information databases, the absence of identification of information needs, and an over-classification of documents by the military. Using a logical framework analysis, six major improvement tactics were developed, including the creation of more overlap in rotations of personnel, the specification of aims and tasks regarding information management, the improvement of skills and competences of personnel involved, and the introduction of regular joint civil-military evaluations.

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The article develops a decision support model for a military commander who has to determine what humanitarian assistance will be provided in cooperation with which civil organizations in peacekeeping situations. After an investigation of the current methods decision theory was used to develop an initial decision method, consisting of consecutive steps to inventory potential humanitarian tasks, to identify attributes to evaluate these tasks, and to actually prioritize the selected tasks using an extensive scorecard. The initial decision method and its tools were reviewed in-depth in a series of expert interviews, resulting in an improved decision method.