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Thus there ere grades linked hy a direct teacher - pupil
relation, and the teacher-pupil ratio corresponds to the
span cd control in management. Indeed, the "teaching" in
a rather general sense plays a largo role in production
and all economic activities; to a large extent the
function of the skilled person is giving (specialised)
information and advice, or "being ready to give information
and advice, serving as a repository or "memory" for
certain special knowledge. This will naturally establish
hierarchies of skill, with different grades.
The diffusion of new knowledge from the researcher to
the routine production will tend to proceed over a
series of gradations of "skill". This scale, however,
inter. in a curious way with others: The diffusion
of technical knowledge will have to go ur the managerial
scale at some points!
There ore also skills, however, which do not need diffusion
to he applied: The highly specialised surgeon applies his
knowledge directly to the consumer, his patient.
This "brings us to another group of income earners: the
stars. They ore in direct contact (in a sense) with their
audience, and owing to the mass media, their "range” is,
or can he, very wile. A hierarchy of actors etc. has
of course always existed owing to their different talent