Messung von Wertorientierungen: Ranking oder Rating?

In a methodological study recently published in this journal (No. 3, Vol. 51, 1999: 550–564), Klein and Arzheimer compared two competing methods for the measurement of personal value orientations, namely, rating and ranking. Focussing on postmaterialist value orientations, they concluded that ratings are superior. In this article, it is argued that this conclusion is based on a misleading interpretation of findings and a questionable research design. In particular, the authors do not address the validity of the two measurement methods, implicitly assuming that they both capture the same cognitive dimension. Since it is unclear whether or not this assumption holds, a broader research approach is suggested here, which allows assessment of both the validity and the reliability of the competing methods. Given the lack of empirical evidence regarding these points, theoretical considerations, briefly outlined in the last section, are crucial for the selection of an appropriate measurement strategy.     

Religiosität und politische Orientierung – Radikalisierung,Traditionalisierung oder Entkopplung?

In Germany as in other European countries the share of religious and churched persons is shrinking. The process of secularization is progressing gradually but inexorably and affects both Christian churches alike. In this contribution we examine if and how the numerical shrinkage of religious core segments affects the relation between religiosity and political attitudes. From secularization theory one can derive three partly opposing expectations. The radicalization thesis—particularly popular in the USA—assumes religious groups feel threatened by an increasingly secular society and this ties them together, radicalizes and mobilizes them. A second expectation rests on the assumption that in particular younger, economically well-off and highly educated people leave the churches. Through this process the social composition of the remaining church members changes leading not to radicalization but to traditionalization and withdrawal from politics. Finally, according to a third view it can be expected that the secularization process affects the entire society leading to a disintegration of tight religious milieus which in turn leads to a dissolution of social control and a decoupling of religiosity and political orientations. The central finding of our analyses is that—in support of our third hypothesis—religion loses its function for political attitudes and behaviors. In the German context the effect of religiosity on politics has been nearly exclusively studied with respect to voting behavior. By extending the focus to a wide range of other attitudes and behaviors and by taking a dynamic perspective this contribution thus closes an important research gap.     

Gestaltpädagogische Konzepte und Praxen von Beratung und Förderung sozialer und personaler Kompetenzen in der Aus- und Fortbildung von Erwachsenenbildnern und -bildnerinnen

The article describes pedagogical Gestalt concepts of consultancy and professional development of adult educators. The focus change of the adult educators from teachers to consultants is outlined at the beginning. The changed role demands concepts of consultancy and professional development that can reflect and strengthen the self and social competence of the actors. It is shown that the design pedagogical concepts are particularly suitable because the promotion of the conscious perception of one owns’ body, needs, feelings and imagination and their integration into the self image of the learning person (client) are in the center of such approach. The concept and practice of ‘role-playing’ as part of the course instructors’ further professional training related to the design pedagogical concepts are documented in details using case-studies. It is furthermore detailed where the learning opportunities lie, related to the perception, self reflection and enhancement of one owns’ action potential for teaching and consultancy activities. The summary emphasizes one of the most important axioms of the design approach: It is not about a somehow newly defined nice person but about the paradox of change through precise perception of the actual situation.     

Mitarbeiterintegration und Mitarbeiterbindung von Organisationen – Wie integrieren und binden Organisationen ihr Personal?

This article in the journal “Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO)” provides a brief overview of a semantic integration mechanism how organizations can succeed in integrating and attach their employees. Every organization has basic assumptions about human behavior. These assumptions or images about people, whether implicitly present or explicitly reflected, essentially determine the behavior of the organization and its personnel management. In terms of research theory, the work is based on the system theoretical considerations of Niklas Luhmann. Organizations are fictitious units that are constructed in communication. The employees of organizations belong to the environment of the organization and are structurally linked to it through their employee role. Structurally coupled means the members of an organization are able to influence the structure of the organization. The central result of this article is the identification of a semantic integration mechanism that functions as a membrane that generates resonance both in the social system of organizations and in the psychological system of structurally coupled employees. In the current changing world of work, this mechanism can help organizations to attach their employees to the organization. The empirical data come from a research project on the identity and functional logic of training organizations.     

Bildung und Gesundheitsungleichheit im Alter: Divergenz, Konvergenz oder Kontinuit?t?

It is well established that health at an old age is influenced by education acquired earlier in life. Empirical evidence on the extent of health decline across educational levels, however, is heterogeneous. It remains unclear whether the health gap between individuals with high and low levels of education increases in old age (divergence), decreases (convergence), or whether it remains constant (continuity). In the present study, we investigate the effects of education on health changes with data from two waves (2004, 2007) of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE) for respondents aged 50?C80. We estimate OLS regression models drawing on 12 indicators of physical, mental and cognitive health. Our aim is to obtain more generalizable results about the age trajectories of health inequality. We find that divergence is the main pattern of health decline across educational levels: The health gap between individuals with high and low educational levels increases for the indicators of grip strength, limitations of general and of instrumental activities of daily living, mobility limitations, depressive symptoms, numerical ability, and time orientation. For single indicators, however, we also observe continuous (chronic diseases, subjective health assessment, memory) and convergent (fluency of speaking) patterns.     

Personzentrierte Beratung minderj?hriger Frauen in der Schwangerschaft und im Schwangerschaftskonflikt

Pregnancy and conflicts related to pregnancy are exceptional situations for women especially for under aged women. Usually young people have not gained any experience yet neither with pregnancy nor with decision taking act. Person-centred consultation for under aged women during pregnancy offers the possibility to get in contact with them, share empathy, offer recognition and unconditional positive regard and act genuinely as a concerned person at the same time. Thereby person-centred-consultation can adjust, the mainly to adult women addressed abortion consultation, to teenagers?? needs and help them take a sound decision and elaborate future plans as parent or after a possible abortion. (German law guarantees consultation during pregnancy and affords consultation before going through abortion.)     

Was bewegt weibliche Führungsnachwuchskr?fte? – Typische berufliche Anliegen aus der Mentoringpraxis anhand von Fallgeschichten

The present work aims to illustrate mentoring processes for future women executives. Typical concerns of future women executives and how female mentors provide support in coping with these concerns are presented. Based on qualitative interviews with 5 female mentors, 18 mentoring cases were reconstructed. The analysis led to the identification of four categories of concerns: 1) job starting, job changing or career advancement 2) compatibility of job and family 3) acquisition of leadership skills 4) handling a disadvantage in the career evolution due to the gender. Nine functions were observed, which the female mentors take into consideration by handling such a case. At this juncture, it became clear that they support the mentees primarily with concrete and direct advice.     

Der „Kleine Mann“ und die AfD: Was steckt dahinter?

Critics of my work have found a negative effect of the social status on the likelihood of someone voting for the AfD. However, these findings do not sufficiently confirm the Modernisation Losers’ thesis that I had formulated and testest in this journal in 2017. The reason is that attitudes towards society vary dependent on social status, and these attitudes have no reference to economic modernisation. When controlling the influence of these attitudes in multivariate analyses, status effects will disappear. One of these attitudes is the rejection of refugees: AfD voters often perceive refugees as competitors for scarce resources and a threat to the cultural homogeneity of German society. This means that the effect of social status on the intention of voting for AfD is mediated by attitudes towards immigration. I find evidence for this thesis in some of the contributions of my critics and in new analyses based on the German Social-Economic Panel (GSOEP). My conclusion is that a policy of redistribution will not be suitable for winning back AfD voters, because it misses the decisive motive for their voting.     

Management und Teilzeit? – Eine empirische Analyse zur Verbreitung von Teilzeitarbeit unter Managerinnen und Managern in Europa

Part-time work helps organizations to ensure flexibility and allows employees to combine work and family duties. However, despite their desire to work reduced hours, many individuals work full-time – particularly those in leadership positions. This article therefore examines which factors contribute to the use of part-time work among managers. By analysing a data set that combines individual-level data from the European Labor Force Survey (2009) with country-level information from various sources, we identify the circumstances under which managers reduce their working hours and the factors that explain the variations in part-time work among managers in Europe. Our multi-level analyses show that normative expectations and cultural facts rather than legal regulations can explain these cross-national differences.     

Transmission ehrenamtlichen Engagements im Elternhaus – Ergebnis von Sozialisation oder Statustransmission?Intergenerational Transmission of Volunteering – Socialization and Status Transmission Effects Disentangled

This paper focuses on the extent and mechanisms of intergenerational transmission of volunteering in Germany. A possible explanation of intergenerational transmission of volunteering is based on the influence of parental socialization during formative years of adolescence (aged 14–17 years). Respectively, parents can set role models by volunteering themselves which can be observed and imitated by their children due to social learning process which may have long lasting effects even after leaving parental home. However, social, cultural and financial resources provided by parents can also facilitate or impede volunteering. The social status of parents can influence the volunteering of parents as well as the children, and serve insofar as mediator of intergenerational transmission processes and respectively may overlap the socialization effect. Drawing on the German Socio Economic Panel Data (1984–2011) this study aims to disentangle socialization and status transmission processes. The analysis shows a clear positive correlation between parental volunteering during the formative period of its children and young adult’s volunteering now, even controlling for parental and children’s education and social status of parents. Thus, the results are consistent with socialization hypothesis and do not support the status transmission hypothesis.     

Einmal mehr: Ranking oder Rating?

In his discussion of our article “Ranking and Rating Procedures for the Measurement of Values, Analyzed with an Example of the Inglehart-Index. Empirical Results of a Methodological Experiment” (KZfSS 51, 1999: 550–564) Stefan Sacchi questions the appropriateness of the methodological experiment described in our paper. In this rejoinder we show that Sacchi’s criticism does not do justice to our analysis in all respects, because — among other things — he starts from inappropriate theoretical assumptions. In addition, his own modified research design is not suitable to decide the question whether the method of ranking or of rating is more appropriate for the measurement of value orientations.     

Gl?serne Decke oder goldener K?fig: Scheitert der Aufstieg von Frauen in erste Managementpositionen an betrieblicher Diskriminierung oder an famili?ren Pflichten?

Using data from the HIS-Graduate Panel 1997, this analysis scrutinizes competing explanations for the gender gap in attainment of first management positions. Homophily, allocative and statistical discrimination as causal mechanisms which studies with a focus on organizations emphasize, in this analysis exert no explanatory power for gender inequality. Two non-organizational factors here fully account for the gender gap. Besides women??s and men??s self-selection into different fields of study, the gender-specific consequences of family formation explain the major part of the gap. Our findings show that motherhood nearly reduces the probability by half for a woman to hold a management position ten years after graduation from university. We argue that family policy and the availability of child care services moderate the size of the mother gap. In line with this reasoning, our results show that the mother gap in early management positions is smaller in East-German states than in West-German states.     

Online-Befragungen im Kontext von Lehrevaluationen – praktisch und unzuverlässig

Online-surveys enjoy increasing popularity and they seem to be especially suited for evaluating the quality of teaching in academic courses. The fact remains, however, that the reliability of their results has hardly been tested. Compared to the results of a written questionnaire carried out with the same university-courses online-surveys demonstrate grave deficiencies. These imperfections render their results useless: 1. Students’ participation in the onlinequestioning is—compared to their participation in the written questionnaire—considerably lower (in several courses too low to be of any analytical use). 2. In the case of all courses and analysed questions the results diverge from those of the written questionnaire which achieved census-quality. Rankings based on these two proceedings differ widely. This occurs regardless of them being set up in individual lists or in groupings. 3. There are clear indications that the way respondents answer online-questionnaires is less reliable than in paper&pencil methods. Although online-surveys benefit by being cost-efficient their methodological shortcomings raise important questions about their reliability for judging the quality of academic teaching.     

Teamarbeit und Gesundheit – Der Einfluss von Teammerkmalen auf Stressbewältigung und Gesundheit bei Un- und Angelernten

To date, research on teamwork and health is sparse. This accounts for teams with low-qualified workers in particular. In this paper a work psychological model for resource and stress management in teams and a study with teams of low-qualified workers are presented (N?=?265 in 33 teams). Results of multi-level analyses show, that team resources in the social work system and understaffing in teams as a team stressor have significant influence on collective coping and explain team differences. Further, team resources in the technical work system, i.e. the quality of teamwork design have significant influence on psychosomatic complaints. These influences go beyond the influences of socio-demographic variables and individual job stressors and job resources.     

Alfred Schütz — Ökonom und/oder Soziologe?

In 1996, Hartmut Esser published a rational choice model of the “Definition of the Situation” in this journal (KZfSS 48, 1996: 1–34). This work is based on his economic interpretation of the theory of Alfred Schutz, a co-founder of interpretative sociology. This paper analyses Hartmut Esser’s attempt to reconstruct the sociological concept of the definition of the situation by means of economic theory. It shows that Esser’s misinterpretations and abridgements of the theory of Alfred Schutz (this is especially true of the interactive aspects) lead to considerable discrepancies between Esser and Schutz in modelling the definition of the situation. In his economic modelling of the definition of the situation Esser fails to conceive the sociological essence of this concept (the construction of sense structures) because he formulates a model of rational behavior in accordance with the economic tradition. Schutz, however, advocates the construction of rational models of human behavior, which also includes “irrational” (not utility-maximizing) or “sense”-directed behavior.