Kann man Dankbarkeit lernen?

In most psychotherapeutic systems the feeling of gratitude is not present. The article is analyzing Gestalttherapy, psychodynamic therapies (including the narcissistic oriented therapies) in reference to this also for human society important feeling. Whether one can “learn” it stays as an open question.     

Kann denn Coaching Führung sein?

May coaching be leadership? An analysis of literature on the term coaching. An analysis of the German-speaking literature about coaching shows for what the term Coaching or rather the title coach is used in actual publications dealing with the leading manager as a coach. It becomes apparent, that coaching is not seen as a specialized advisory profession. Instead the term is used as an alternative expression for leadership vocabulary as management style or managerial functions. The elaboration of terms and concepts concludes, that semantically it is meant leadership when it comes to the concept of the coaching manager. To be an exception, the management by systemic approach forms a brand-new perspective about organizations. However, to give respects to the German-speaking coaching community there should be a difference between leadership and coaching as well as notions and titles should be used more accurate among professional management coaches.     

Soziale Kompetenz – was ist das?

Within modern organizations, the ability to interact socially competent represents one of everybody’s main tasks. This article looks into the concept of “social skills” and deals with the question whether there is a common understanding on the concept of “social skills” in the German speaking area. To that purpose, the landscape of (scientific) literature was studied to find out about differences and similarities in definition, within and between the different disciplines. In a comparative presentation, these similarities and differences are demonstrated in scientific discourse. Finally, considerations for the practical implementation of advising organizations are negotiated.     

„Manchmal muss es einfach sehr schnell gehen …“

In career counseling, time and resources can sometimes be scarce. One case in point are scholarship holders. Some scholarship programmes include succinct individual career counseling sessions. This condensed counseling programme consists of a group workshop, a one-on-one coaching session and an individual remote follow-up. This consultation programme includes values clarification, an analysis of biography and career as well as a profile development. For this succinct form, intensive preparatory work on both sides is essential. The participants receive tasks and instructions beforehand. The results thereof are then the basis for the workshop and coaching session. Despite these challenging general conditions excellent results can be achieved.     

Business- oder Life-Coaching: Ist das die richtige Frage?

Three case studies are the basis for pointing out how a coaching may proceed to life–coaching. Some formal and methodical requirements for the consulting process are developed and possible central questions regarding the subsequent meta–level-dialogue are specified.     

Are g.p.a. and ethics related?

This article reports results of a study of some 200 college-aged students at California State University. Ethical values are measured using a subset of the well-known and frequently used Rokeach Value Survey. Using nonparametric statistical analysis, four value measures, and four different consistent tests of significance and probability, the research data, perhaps disappointedly for many observers including the authors, reveal that there is no relationship between college grade point average and student ethics. Statistical analysis was done on g.p.a. splits of less than 3.0 versus 3.0 or more and also on g.p.a. data for 2.5 or less versus 3.5 or more. In all cases, there are no significant relationships between high or low grade point averages and scores on ethical value rankings.     

Coaching,Training und Co – ist das alles Personalentwicklung?

This paper focuses on coaching and similar types of consulting in the field of personnel development. First the author discusses the current debate concerning personnel development; finally she describes the special goals, target-groups and issues of coaching, clinical supervision, mediation, mentoring and outplacement-consulting within the field of personnel development.     

Opportunities? Barriers? It's up to you.

This career advice column is usually directed toward those in transition--physician executives who are actively pursuing job opportunities or preparing to do so. But most of your career is actually spent in a position and on the job. So it seems appropriate to focus on the great majority of physician executives who are not currently in the job market. Take a look at opportunities to learn and grow in your present position.     

Aufrecht gehen! – Vom Ausstieg reifer Existenzgründer aus ihrer Führungsrolle

A decision to go independent means creating your own business at the age of 50 or beyond. This is not only a courageous step; it is also a risky one too. This decision is always accompanied by a complex process of “letting go” of a role that during the long period of a professional life provided predictability, status, recognition and financial security. To counter the tendency to idealise business start-ups later in life, we attempt in this paper to retrace the process of detachment in the context of the individual’s career biography. We do this by drawing on personal reflections accompanied by a theoretical framework and conceptual clarification. Suggestions and recommendations for coaching, supervision and consulting complement the more procedural aspects of necessary resources and support offerings.     

Kann zu viel Kundenorientierung nachteilig sein? Eine Analyse der Wirkung der Kundenorientierung von Verkäufern auf die Kaufentscheidung

Zusammenfassung  In diesem Beitrag wird analysiert, wie das kundenorientierte Verk?uferverhalten auf die Kaufentscheidung der Kunden wirkt. Die Analyse erfolgt auf der Ebene der Dimensionen des kundenorientierten Verkaufens, namentlich Entscheidungsunterstützung, Aufbau eines positiven Gespr?chsklimas und Vermeidung von Abschlussdruck. Die Ergebnisse best?tigen die indirekte Wirkung des kundenorientierten Verkaufens auf die Kaufentscheidung über die Beratungszufriedenheit. Daneben k?nnen sowohl ein direkter umgekehrt u-f?rmiger Effekt der Vermeidung von Abschlussdruck auf die Kaufentscheidung als auch ein direkter negativer Einfluss des Aufbaus eines positiven Gespr?chsklimas auf die Kaufentscheidung nachgewiesen werden. Zudem zeigt sich, dass der Aufbau eines positiven Gespr?chsklimas den st?rksten Einfluss auf die Beratungszufriedenheit ausübt.

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Can too much customer orientation be less effective? An analysis of the effects of customer-oriented selling on customers’ decision to buy

Summary  This research investigates the effects of customer-oriented selling on customers’ decision to buy. In so doing, the focus of the analysis is on the effects of the dimensions of customer-oriented selling, namely supporting customer decision-making, building a positive interaction climate, and avoiding pressure to close the sale. The findings of an empirical study support an indirect effect of customer-oriented selling on customers’ decision to buy through customer satisfaction with the sales interaction. The results also support a direct inverted u-shaped effect of avoiding pressure to close the sale on customers’ decision to buy as well as a direct negative effect of building a positive interaction climate on customers’ decision to buy. And building a positive interaction climate was found to have the strongest effect on customer satisfaction with the sales interaction.

Der Autor dankt den zwei anonymen Gutachtern für die wertvollen Anmerkungen und Anregungen zu einer früheren Version dieses Beitrags.     

Whose Risk? Why Did the U.S. Public Ignore Information About the Ebola Outbreak?

To test a possible boundary condition for the risk information seeking and processing (RISP) model, this study experimentally manipulates risk perception related to the 2014 Ebola outbreak in a nationally representative sample. Multiple‐group structural equation modeling results indicate that psychological distance was negatively related to systematic processing in the high‐risk condition. In the low‐risk condition, psychological distance was positively related to heuristic processing; negative attitude toward media coverage dampened people's need for information, which subsequently influenced information processing. Risk perception elicited more fear, which led to greater information insufficiency and more heuristic processing in the low‐risk condition. In contrast, sadness was consistently related to information processing in both conditions. Model fit statistics also show that the RISP model provides a better fit to data when risk perception is elevated. Further, this study contributes to our understanding of the role of discrete emotions in motivating information processing.     

What Drives Media Slant? Evidence From U.S. Daily Newspapers

We construct a new index of media slant that measures the similarity of a news outlet's language to that of a congressional Republican or Democrat. We estimate a model of newspaper demand that incorporates slant explicitly, estimate the slant that would be chosen if newspapers independently maximized their own profits, and compare these profit‐maximizing points with firms' actual choices. We find that readers have an economically significant preference for like‐minded news. Firms respond strongly to consumer preferences, which account for roughly 20 percent of the variation in measured slant in our sample. By contrast, the identity of a newspaper's owner explains far less of the variation in slant.     

Why don't U.S. boards get more involved in strategy?

About 5 years ago there was strong interest in the United States in increasing the role of the Board in corporate strategy development. In practice, these expectations were not met. The reasons include: lack of governmental and other pressures; the lack of conspicuous ‘success’ stories among major companies with active Board committees of this kind; and general reappraisals of the strategic planning process itself. There are continuing grounds for skepticism. Nevertheless, there are some reasons for optimism, including two surveys of Boards of Directors indicating that expectations continue to glow.     

Health care reform. Gridlock and pork?

Can Americans expect the same gridlock and pork between now and the 21st Century? What are the possible directions that the United States can move in regarding health care reform and the long-term financing of health entitlement programs? Here, the author offers a snapshot of current politics and some predictions for the next four years. And explores the question: Are Americans willing to make the necessary sacrifices for future generations to profit by the significant changes needed by entitlement and health reform, or will it be business as usual? America's centrist perspective was recently reinforced by the 1996 election, suggesting that no major innovations in entitlement or in the health system should be anticipated in the next four years.     

Health care evolution. Or is it?

Should we be using evolution as our theory for understanding the radical changes overtaking medicine? Evolution is a theory for explaining changes in biological systems. The power and simplicity of evolutionary theory have made it the major scientific framework for looking at why certain animals and plants dominate ecosystems, and why one species dies out only to be replaced by another. Health care is a socio-economic system--changes occur because of scientific, economic, and political reasons. Using evolutionary jargon and examples can lead us astray. So, why do we often use evolutionary language and ideas and what is a better way of looking at the changes confronting the industry at such a rapid pace? This author finds the answer in dialectic thinking.     

False expectations? Expectations vs. probabilities for dying

It is widely recognized that the code of the physician has undergone dramatic changes in the last century--changes which have serious implications for the patient-physician relationship. This is an ethnographic study examining how certain changes in the role and abilities of biomedical physicians have affected patient attitudes and expectations about end-of-life care. In-home interviews were conducted with eighteen persons age fifty-five and older, including a sample of Hemlock Society members. Results indicate a broad spectrum of end-of-life concerns including capacity, autonomy, pain, and burden to loved ones. Most participants reported a reluctance to begin a discussion of death or future deteriorating capacity with their physicians. Instead, when conversations about death were reported, they had been largely limited to the scenarios of catastrophic illness (e.g., hospitalization, ventilator, etc.) and the Living Will. While this discussion does not overlook the utility of the Living Will, it proposes the reliance on this document for preparing patients for end-of-life care is inadequate.     

Research in organizational evolution. What comes next?

The literature about organizational evolution has been witnessing a tremendous amount of and continuous development among strategists since the second half of the 20th century and this critical review article aims to provide readers with a thorough discussion of past and contemporary research within this area. From the beginning, the article works through analogies with biology in attempting to trace the current boundaries of the field, with much of the review’s content thus structured around the proposed conceptual (and methodological) framework. In addressing the question of what forces drive organizational evolution, the article then takes on a middle ground by mainly focusing on the development of the dialectical and co-evolutionary approaches. It ends by prospecting what can come next for evolutionary (and co-evolutionary) research in the strategic management field.     

Real executives make career moves. Will you?

Not all physician executives have accepted the career move as a key part of executive life. They prefer to stay put and they often do just that. While clinicians may have the luxury of choosing a single geographic location and remaining there through retirement, physician executives often have to reorder their priorities to give the position greatest significance in career decision-making. Spouses and families need to be educated to the new reality of executive life--sometimes, to support an important career opportunity, a move is required. Physician executives unwilling to make career moves limit their career potential.     

Physician-sponsored networks. Will physicians take back medicine?

Until about the late 1980s, American physicians and their allies, hospitals and the health care manufacturing industries, dominated all facets of the health system--the clinical, the economic, and the political. The bulk of these providers' revenue flowed to them from a highly fragmented insurance system whose governing principle was to provide each insured patient free choice of doctor and hospital. Two distinct, concurrent shifts threaten to erode the medical profession's traditional dominance. The first is a rapid, general shift of control from the supply side of the health sector to its demand side. The second is a shift away from government control, over which organized medicine held much sway in the past, toward private regulators--the executives of the managed care industry. Is the trend towards greater dependence of practicing physicians on non-physician executives inevitable, or can physicians retain--and, in part, regain--their hitherto autonomous position in the health system?