Entscheidungsunterstützung unter Berücksichtigung der Anforderungen von Entscheidungsträgern am Beispiel der Gestaltung von optionalen Girokonto-Tarifen

Quantitative decision models are used only if managers’ implementation conditions are met. Decision makers want tools that offer a set of good solutions so that they can evaluate different solutions according to various objectives without being forced to make their trade-offs explicit in a functional form. This also allows taking into account strategic aspects that cannot be modeled otherwise. In such situations, heuristics are needed which derive solutions from the structure and not so much from the mathematical properties. We present such a decision support tool for the problem of determining a menu of optional tariffs for checking accounts. The heuristic is based on the idea that for reasonably separable preferences across segments it is the best to offer for each segment the most preferred product. We use latent class choice-based conjoint analysis to estimate customer preferences and develop a customized choice-based conjoint design to take differences in individual demand into account. The proposed heuristic was used to support an actual decision problem for which the profit contribution has been increased substantially without having faced a considerable loss of customers.     

Träume im Coaching Ein Beispiel und ein Leitfaden für kollegiale Traumdialoge

Dreams in Coaching. A case study and a guide for dialogues on dreamsAn approach to dreams is offered, that invites consultant into working with dreams even if they are not trained as psychologists. Through an intuitive and creative dialogue with images the consultant as well as the client come into a dialogue with their unconscious perceptions of the development. While discussing the process of a specific case it will be shown how working with dreams helps to understand, to shape, and to control. Hereby it will be illustrated how the consultant can do it and how things relate to each other. Finally an guide for dialogues on dreams describes useful attitudes, questions and experiments in working with dreams.     

Was kosten Kliniken? Zur Weiterentwicklung des Krankenhaussektors am Beispiel Berlins

The costs of hospitals. Developments of the German hospital sector evaluated in the case of Berlin This article illustrates the development of the German hospital sector evaluated in the case of the capital Berlin. Due to the difficult economic situation of the hospital sector after the reunification major reforms became unavoidable. Especially a reduction of the average days of stay per case created overcapacities of personell. But all the reforms which have been taken during the last years had to consider the major role of the hospital sector for the labour market of the city. On the one hand the article shows, that the reforms of the nineties have been successful also with regard to the important role for the labour market. On the other hand the restructuring of the hospital sector is not finished yet, there is still a need for further reforms.     

Qualität in der Personalberatung am Beispiel von Instrumenten der Personalauswahl

Empirical evidence shows that personnel selection methods positively contribute to the quality of the personnel selection process, which is one of the main fields of activity of personnel consultants. Unfortunately it is repeatedly mentioned in literature that selection methods could be implemented more efficiently. Personnel-consulting agencies and self-employed consultants bear a lot of responsibility regarding these aspects: they should recommend proven selection methods to their clients. In this article it is discussed how the selection process can achieve consistent quality.     

Ambivalenzen und Widersprüche als Herausforderungen für Change-Manager

Contradictions and ambivalences are some of the phenomena that accompany change processes but are exhausting for those who experience them and have to deal with them. Drawing on surveys held during workshops, this article summarizes which contradictions are typical of change processes. As a possibility for effectively countering such contradictions, the two-stage concept from Müller-Christ and Weßling for tolerating contradictions is introduced based on this. Finally, information and ideas for conducting workshops on the topic of contradiction tolerance are presented.     

Life-Coaching als Bestandteil von Führungskräfte-Coaching

Executive coaching represents a significant tool of human resources development and is applied to strengthen leadership and management skills. Regardless of specific professional issues on and around the job itself, experience reveals that personal issues should also represent an integral constituent of executive coaching. Indeed, managers do not only encounter professional challenges, but are challenged in their whole personality. Hence, executive coaching expands to life coaching. Based on a specific case study regarding work life balance the following article illustrates how life coaching may successfully be applied in a systematic manner and how the aspects function and human being are mutually dependent.     

Preis und Qualität als Dimensionen von Kompromissoptionen

This article deals with the question of how consumers cope with decision situations in which a compromise product exists. We examine how the compromise product's position influences choice probabilities. The products we test differ in price and overall quality rating. We present theories, which provide hypotheses on the influence of such types of compromise products and we conduct a new experiment to gain insights into the effects of a compromise product on choice probabilities. The results of the study show that even compromise products with a poor quality/price relation are frequently chosen. The loss in choice probability of the existing products depends on the price category the products belong to.     

Zur Bedeutung der Supervision bei stationärer Psychotherapie am Beispiel von psychosomatischen Kliniken

The importance of supervision in inpatient psychotherapy settings such as hospitals for behavioral medicineThis article deals with the organization of supervision in hospitals that offer intensive inpatient psychotherapy (hospitals for behavioral medicine). The ?integrative model“ for supervision proposed by A. Schreyögg (1991) constitutes the theoretical basis. The author discusses the qualification of supervisors as well as aspects of different approaches to supervision, such as the psychoanalytical and the cognitive-behavioral approach. In doing so, she puts primary importance on the reflection of issues on the systemic, i.e. organizational level. At the end, a model for the organization of qualified internal supervision is proposed.     

Steuerreformen durch Tarif-oder Zeiteffekte? Eine Analyse am Beispiel der Thesaurierungsbegünstigung für Personenunternehmen

Zusammenfassung  Der Beitrag diskutiert Tarif- und Zinseffekte anhand der begünstigten Besteuerung nicht entnommener Gewinne von Personengesellschaften, die 2008 in Deutschland eingeführt wurde. Bei Eigenfinanzierung und Betrachtung von Grenzsteuers?tzen zeigt der Beitrag, dass die Thesaurierungsbegünstigung stets nachteilig ist, wenn eine abgeltend besteuerte private Kapitalmarktanlage die Alternativanlage darstellt. Müssen Gewinne thesauriert werden, weil Mittel im Unternehmen ben?tigt werden, so entf?llt die private Alternativanlage und die Thesaurierungsbegünstigung kann bei hohen Zins- und Steuers?tzen vorteilhaft sein. Wird die Einkommensteuerprogression berücksichtigt, zeigt der Beitrag, dass bei schwankenden Gewinnen die Thesaurierungsbegünstigung oftmals vorteilhaft ist, auch gegenüber der Abgeltungsteuer. Bei fremdfinanzierten Investitionen kann die Inanspruchnahme der Thesaurierungsbegünstigung sehr vorteilhaft sein, da die geringere Steuerzahlung bei Gewinnanfall den Umfang des ben?tigten Fremdkapitals mindert. Insgesamt zeigt sich, dass sich Reformen von Steuertarifen wesentlich st?rker auf die Vorteilhaftigkeit von Investitionen auswirken als Zinseffekte.

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Tax reforms by tax rate effects or timing effects? An analysis based an the German tax privilege for retained earnings

Summary  This paper analyzes two typical effects of tax reforms, tax rate effects and timing effects. The example chosen for the analysis is the tax privilege for retained profits of partnerships and sole proprietorships, which was implemented in Germany in 2008. Taking equity-financing and top marginal tax rates into account, the so-called tax privilege turns out to be a disadvantage under most assumptions. If the alternative investment is private capital income taxed at a flat-rate tax, the tax privilege will always be disadvantageous. If profits have to be retained and business income is the alternative investment, then the tax privilege will be advantageous in case of high income tax rates and interest rates. Analyzing progressive tax rates instead of top marginal tax rates reveals favorable results in case of fluctuating profits if the tax privilege is claimed. The same is true if debtfinancing is taken into account. All in all, the paper shows that a reform of tax rates influences the attractiveness of investments much more compared to timing effects.

     

Zeit und Zeitgeist in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre — dargestellt am Beispiel der betriebswirtschaftlichen Flexibilitätsdiskussion

Zusammenfassung  Gegenstand des vorliegenden Beitrags ist die Untersuchung der über 80 Jahre andauernden Flexibilit?tsdiskussion in der deutschen Betriebswirtschaftslehre. Eine quantitative und qualitative Analyse dieser Diskussion macht deutlich, dass die Zeit (bzw. die im Zeitablauf feststellbaren Entwicklungen oder Ereignisse) sowie der Zeitgeist (als Gesamtheit der eine Epoche kennzeichnenden Auffassungen, Ideen und Lebensformen) erkl?rende Variablen einer wissenschaftlichen Diskussion und ihrer Ergebnisse sein k?nnen. Schon der relativ lange Zeitraum der wissenschaftlichen Behandlung l?sst das Flexibilit?tsthema als „L?ngsschnittstichprobe“ zur Prüfung der oben genannten Hypothese geeignet erscheinen. So wird gezeigt werden, dass die Flexibilit?tsdiskussion durch externe Ereignisse ausgel?st wurde und im Zeitablauf immer wieder „neu“ an Dynamik gewonnen und sich an jeweils vorherrschende Themen und Probleme — den „Zeitgeist“ — ausgerichtet hat. Am Ende der Untersuchung stehen die folgenden Erkenntnisse:

Standardisierte Qualitätsinformationen und ihr Einfluss auf die Wahl von Leistungsanbietern – Ergebnisse einer empirischen Studie am Beispiel der Qualitätsberichte von Krankenhäusern

This study analyses the impact of standardized quality information of complex services on decisions, exemplified for Germany’s hospital quality reports. The presumed impact of quality information on decisions is based on theoretical considerations and hypotheses are developed accordingly. Though results of two experiments show that simplified quality indicators used in the quality reports for hospitals basically lead to consistent decisions, results also show that the impact of standardized quality information on decisions is not stable. It is disturbed and superimposed by the effects of additionally presented quality information. Implications for competition on hospital markets and for the effectiveness of standardized quality information as they are used in the hospitals’ quality reports are discussed as well as general conclusions about standardized information of complex services are drawn.     

Produktrückgaben und Preise im Versandhandel: Ein internationaler Vergleich

E-Commerce sales have been constantly rising over the past years. Among the reasons for this trend are advantages such as reduced search costs and low transaction costs for the buyer. A disadvantage of online shopping is that customers cannot inspect the product they buy online. In Germany, customers are entitled to get full refund when withdrawing from any distance selling. Customers can withdraw from a contract within two weeks without any explanation. Many retailers in the USA do not refund the full price to the customer in case of product return and charge restocking fees. A reason for such a restrictive return policy is the reduction of opportunistic product returns. In this paper, the authors compare prices in online-shops for identical products in the USA and Germany. The comparison shows that the alleged consumer protection achieved by a legal prohibition of restocking fees leads to higher average prices for electronic products in Germany.     

Woran erkennt man pseudowissenschaftliche Theorien und weshalb sie im Coaching problematisch sind – am Beispiel NLP

The paper presents general characteristics for pseudo-scientific theories and concepts. Quotes from the literature prove that Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP) is a pseudo-scientific approach: (1) A scientific evaluation of the claimed exceptional effects is generally rejected by the NLP developers. (2) Technical quotations and terminology are associative, inaccurate and distort theories and methods of well-known scientists and can to a certain extent be regarded as constructed fake-knowledge. (3) Basic models such as the representation systems and especially the effectiveness of the methods cannot be confirmed by scientific studies and negative research results are concealed. Overall NLP can be regarded as a degenerative pseudo-scientific program. Doubts are appropriate whether it is possible to improve NLP in the future by methodically careful scientific research.     

Implementierung von Coaching für Schulleitung und Schulaufsicht

Implementation of coaching for principals and supervisory school authorityGerman schools will have to improve the quality of their work to be able to compete on an international level. School development is also personnel development. Establishing professionalism of school executives (among others by coaching) plays a major role in this matter. First of all the author describes the implementation process of internal coaching for principals and thereafter for officers of the supervisory school authority. In doing so, he also points out problems that can arise during such a project. The evaluations of surveys prove the acceptance and importance of coaching for this target group. Finally, possible future coaching offers for school executives are addressed.     

Coaching und Internet? Chancen und Grenzen des Internets für Coaches und Klienten

Coaching and internet? Chances and limitations of the internet to coaches and clientsThis article describes potentials and limitations of Internet-based coaching and counseling. It focuses on the capabilities of the Internet as a medium of information and communication and its significance for coaches, clients and newbies. Some suggestions are given on how coaches and clients could use the Internet for working purposes. The necessity to analyze and integrate important medium-specific, individual-specific and interpersonal factors should be kept in mind. This follows the fact that they function together in a dynamic way, as the media-ecologic model of Döring (2003) postulates.     

Der Einfluss von Kognition und Affekt auf Unternehmensgründungsentscheidungen: Eine vergleichende Analyse von Angestellten und Unternehmern

The relationship between individuals?? entrepreneurial behavior and objective situational characteristics of an entrepreneurial opportunity??individual-opportunity nexus??lies in the focus of entrepreneurship research. The role of subjective appraisals and affective influences in the pre-entrepreneurial process was neglected in this context so far. On the basis of a questionnaire experiment with two different samples of employees and entrepreneurs, our results confirm central assumptions of cognitive appraisal and emotion theories. The subjective appraisals of objective entrepreneurial opportunities better predict entrepreneurial evaluation and exploitation decisions than the objective characteristics of the entrepreneurial opportunity. Furthermore, the results show in addition to an inverse direct effect of negative affect that the relationship between the entrepreneurial evaluation and exploitation is negatively moderated by negative affect. Our analyses indicate that the two subsamples show differences in their cognitive processes, but that they are still generally comparable. The affective influences on the pre-entrepreneurial process, however, demonstrate no group specific differences. These results extend the individual-opportunity-nexus-paradigm that is based on objective characteristics by examining the meaning of subjective appraisals and affective reactions and therefore the intersection of individuals and entrepreneurial opportunities.     

Supervision und Coaching als interne Beratungsangebote in der Bundesagentur für Arbeit

Supervision and coaching as internal consulting in a great public administrationThe author describes the process of the implementing of supervision, coaching and practise discussion in a great public administration. The difficulties of such an intention are shown, which appear, if an organization has no experiences with these formats and the decision makers have no background knowledge. Furthermore it is explained by which measures an institutional anchorage was possible. Because the process is not finished yet, a view of further developments is given.     

Wertewandel in Organisationen und Unternehmen als Fragestellung für Organisationsberater/innen

Change of values in organizations and enterprises as an issue to organization counselors Ethical issues are hardly ever explicitly formulated in the process of supervision or organizational development. However they have a strong impact on the everyday procedures of an organization in the form of conflicting values and goals. The costs of such unresolved conflicts for organizations and enterprises should not be underestimated. Organization counselors have the adequate potential to facilitate even complex processes of value changes within an organization. The following article explains by an example how the controversies about conflicting interests based on value issues can be adressed in the context of an organizational development process. This is done on grounds of the person-centered approach by Carl Rogers.