„Opportunity coaching“: Ein ermutigender Weg in die Coaching-Zukunft

?Opportunity coaching“ — a powerful way into coaching future This article stresses a powerful coaching approach: to work on a client’s resources, on a client’s potential improvement, oriented at a client’s future possibilities, chances and “opportunities”. Starting from a dialectic “as well as” paradigm: seeing strength and weaknesses, past and future, problems and possibilities not being mutual exclusions but parts of an holistic entity, the author elaborates core aspects and approaches of “opportunity coaching” and reports examples out of his coaching experience.     

The nature of action learning

Action Learning has developed to such an extent that there is now a demand to ‘know’ what it is. There is one way, and one way alone, of getting to ‘know’ what action learning is, and that is by doing it. For those who most clamour to ‘know’ what something might be are usually the victims of an educational system that leaves the vast majority who pass through it ignorant of the meaning of the verb to ‘know’ .... If, for example, I am asked “Do you know that woman?”, it is most probable that the questioner does not ‘know’ what he is asking me. Does he mean “Do I know her name? Or where she lives? Or am I able to introduce him to her? Or what she does for a living? Or do I recognise her by sight? Or have I been to bed with her? And, if so, what progress did I make?...” Thus, with action learning: “Have I read a book about it? Or attended a seminar at which somebody was trying to sell places on an action learning programme? Or visited a set of participants meeting as part of such a programme? Or tried to organise real persons tackling real problems in real time, and trying thereby to learn with and from each other? Or been an active participant myself in such a programme?...” To ‘know’ what action learning is, one must have been responsibly involved in it; since this cannot have been done merely by reading about action learning, it is impossible in this, or any other, note to convey more than the vaguest impression of what this educational approach may be. The day action learning becomes explicable in words alone will be the day to abandon the practice of it.     

Sage mir,wie viel Zeit du hast,und ich sage dir,wer du bist

Time as a dimension of the social value of persons in Bourdieu’s ?Meditations“In his book ?Meditations“ (2001), Pierre Bourdieu’s idea of ?Habitus“ plays a major role also with respect to the role and influence of ?time“. Only if expectations and possibilities are in close correspondence, our feeling of time does function in the sense, that time goes by unnoticed and continuously. Bourdieu does concede time to be of major influence and to be a powerful parameter of our lives, e.g. when unemployed workers lose control over their lives because they have too much time they cannot use it in a satisfying way. At the other extreme, people are as well able to dominate others by using this power of time (e.g. by waiting respectively letting people wait etc.). The shortage and in fact the importance, which is granted for a man’s time, in Bourdieu’s eyes is a relevant factor for the social value of a person in general.     

Linking organisational commitment with continuous learning through peripheral vision and procedural memory

Under some circumstances such as the lack of commitment of peers or the imposition of excessive authority, many employees tend to turn a blind eye to either the development of new, more effective procedures or recognise that new or modified customer needs have developed. In these situations, organisational commitment is a preliminary step not only to the effective implementation of current procedures but also to questioning values of the organisation and future needs of customers. This study proposes that organisational commitment helps alleviate these problems by maintaining an ambidextrous perspective between procedural memory and peripheral vision to promote continuous learning. This research has therefore been conducted to explain both conceptually and empirically how peripheral vision could interact with and influence procedural memory, and hence facilitate continuous learning (CL) within the business. While peripheral vision is often associated with developing and supporting knowledge structures for the exploration of new opportunities and with identifying and addressing new clients, many consider these knowledge structures as examples of organisational routines and procedures, and thus as aspects of the ‘procedural memory’ of an organisation. To contribute to the understanding of these relationships, this study addresses two questions: (1) Are outcomes of CL processes within the organisation determined by the presence of organisational procedural memory – both skills and knowledge, and (2) Does an improved peripheral vision result in higher levels of learning? After using PLS-SEM on a sample of 203 employees of Spanish banks, our findings support the theory that peripheral vision facilitates the emergence of new and unconventional behaviours within a culture, which in turn has a positive effect on the firm’s continuous learning.     

Coaching für niedergelassene Ärztinnen Ein kognitiv-verhaltenstherapeutischer Ansatz

The article states special aspects for coaching office-based women doctors, because their problems in managing a doctor’s office are originated in their typical female socialisation. First these burdening factors of managing a doctor’s office were collected phenomenologically in women doctors’ perspective, then the underliing cognitions – internalized ?driver and blocker“ – were highlighted and explained by psychoanalysis. To change these gender cognitions a coaching approach based on cognitive behavioral therapy was presented and differentiated from a therapeutical method.     

Erfolgsfaktoren beim Einzel-Coaching

Success factors of executive coaching. A screening of the coaching scenery from the client’s point of viewThis survey, based on questionnaires, examines the success factors of one-to-one coaching from the client point of view. Firstly, ten success factors in coaching were established by means of factor analysis. Secondly, more extensive analysis shows that, contrary to previous research in this field, the “professional system” is not necessarily a determining success factor in coaching. As an exclusive instrument of staff development, coaching seems to be effective even without support from the professional system. The analysis also indicates that the clients perceive their coach as an advisor and confidant as regards role expectations. Furthermore, multiple regression analysis discloses the predictive effects of the two success factors “the coach’s qualification” and “the coach’s involvement” for the overall success of coaching from the client’s point of view. The overall success of coaching itself is established through three items: the clients’ attitudes towards coaching, their attitude concerning further coaching, and the extent to which their objectives were met in coaching.     

Gedanken zum Charisma-Diskurs in der Führungsforschung Braucht die Unternehmensführung Kompetenz in Zwischenmenschlichkeit oder Charisma?

Considerations on Charisma in Leadership research An African caravan leader as described in an ethnological report corresponds in no ways to Western ideals of a leader with eloquence and brightness. What is now the structure of leading and being led? Philosophical, sociological and psychological ideas are discussed in trying to answer to the question. Max Weber’s notion of power (today leadership) contains, among others, the concept of charisma, which he describes explicitly as being “outside of economy”. Therefore, the application of the enigmatic term of charisma is questionable. It is recommended to refer to group dynamics as a whole rather than applying selected concepts of psychoanalysis, such as narcissism, in order to understand and describe interaction in leadership of companies and institutions.     

Quo vadis ... Orientierungshilfen durch Coaching und Karriereberatung — Eine Einzelfallstudie

Quo vadis — Coaching and career counseling as guidance. A case study The individual case study presents coaching and career counseling as effective and efficient strategies for personnel development, particularly as it regards its ?exclusive“ potential: Contents, methods and counseling process can be adapted to the executive’s concern, person and background, adjustable in time and with precision. Public administrations and private enterprises, both in ?profit“ and ?non-profit“ areas, will therefore increasingly (have to) make use of this professional form of management counseling, since successful personnel management has established itself as a decisive factor for business success a long time ago.     

The Learning Organization: Adult Learning and Organizational Transformation

The concept of the ‘learning organization’, with its roots in self-development and action-learning, has recently caught the imagination of many organizations and researchers. However, emerging definitions are creating ambiguity. There is, therefore, a need to add substance to them, and widen our understanding of what the concept means, by concentrating on what is meant by ‘learning’, and focusing on exactly how adults learn. Understanding and facilitating adult learning in organizations is, by and large, a confused activity that fails to connect with an individual's other experiences and needs, and with what modern psychology and research have to teach us. In particular, learning and skills need to be linked to the questioning of purpose and value in an organization.     

基于“硬件/软件”平台产品性能改进的定价策略与激励合同研究

构建了一个“硬件/软件”平台，平台一边是互补内容或服务的提供商，一边是购买平台产品和内容的最终消费者。在刻画平台产品和内容之间互补网络效应的基础上，考虑平台产品性能改进，运用博弈论方法，揭示了平台产品定价、内容定价、平台收费及平台产品性能水平决策的内在机理，并进一步探索了优化平台产品性能的激励合同设计。研究结果表明：(1)在一定条件下平台产品可以亏本销售，但内容必须具有盈利性。(2)互补性网络效应越强、平台产品性能改进效率越高或敏感系数越小将促使平台提高产品性能并制定更高的平台接入费，同时内容价格也会提高。但平台产品性能水平与其价格的变化并不总是保持一致。(3)数量折扣和固定转移支付合同的组合合同可以实现双边市场系统的协调并进一步优化平台产品性能水平，且当固定转移费用在一定范围内时，实现平台和内容提供商利润的帕累托改进。     

Looking for Their Dick Vermeil: How Prior Performance Influences the Selection Decision

When replacing an executive, an organization is faced with the choice of either promoting someone internally or hiring an outsider. Prior research in the private sector supports the contention that poor performing organizations will be adaptive and seek an outsider in hopes of initiating change that will improve performance. Do public organizations behave similarly? We address this question in the context of public education and examine the superintendent hiring decisions in 491 school districts. We find that school boards make sophisticated assessments of the district’s performance and these assessments influence their selection decisions.     

TOWARD A “NEW ARCHITECTURE” FOR POM

The field of POM is steadily expanding its scope. This allows us to pursue interesting new fields of inquiry and makes us ever more relevant to the needs of practitioners. But it also increases the risk that over time our efforts will become fragmented and unfocused, causing us to slowly lose our sense of community and break up into separate camps. In this paper I ask, “What kind of new organizing framework, or ‘architecture,’ will allow us to maintain our sense of community as our interests diverge?” I describe the experience of one academic organization that faced a similar problem several years ago and how the situation was resolved. This experience leads us to propose a possible solution to Pom's emerging problem: engage with real operations managers and focus our efforts on helping them deal with the actual problems they are facing in today's complex and fast‐changing world.     

Philosophie als Einübung des Perspektivenwechsels am Beispiel von Platon und Nietzsche

Philosophy as exercising the shift of perspectives, exemplified with Plato and NietzscheIn professional counselling a shift of perspectives is useful to develop new options of thinking and of action in the case of seemingly hopeless situations. Philosophy presents a great variety of concepts and also of models of change processes, which may offer a resource to counsellors. With regard to Plato’s “cave metaphor” and to Nietzsche’s “transvaluation of all values” the author presents a structure of change in three stages. Concerning the practice of counsellors some relevant aspects are derived from these discussions.     

多人从经验中学习模型研究：基于信息和分析方法不对称视角

当前,日益复杂且动态变化的形势和环境对多人从过往事件中不断学习、积累应对经验、快速迭代应对措施等提出了更高的要求。然而,在多人从经验中学习时,常出现由于不同个体间不了解彼此掌握的信息和会使用的分析方法而导致的莫衷一是、讨论进程拖沓、无法及时达成结论等现象。本文将个体间不了解彼此掌握的信息和/或会使用的分析方法的现象概括为“不对称”,并采用理论构建的方法,聚焦于多人从经验中学习的过程,以“信息”和“分析方法”为维度,构建基于信息不对称性和分析方法不对称性的二维矩阵,提出多人从经验中学习时会存在信息不对称且分析方法不对称、信息不对称且分析方法对称、信息对称且分析方法不对称,以及信息对称且分析方法对称四种情况,并指出信息和/或分析方法的不对称性会降低多人从经验中学习的效率,构建了基于不对称性视角的多人从经验中学习过程机制模型。随后,从“意愿”和“能力”两个方面,提出了降低信息和分析方法不对称性的实践方法,建立了降低不对称性的多人从经验中学习的实践方法库。本文针对多人从经验中学习时,由于信息和/或分析方法的不对称性而导致的问题进行探索,并为提升学习效率提供了理论基础和实践指导。     

Das Reflektierende Team als Methode des „Peer-Coaching“

The Reflecting Team as method of ?peer coaching“ Presented is the employment of coaching in leadership training to grant for the participants a ?peer coaching“ method (collegial case study) for the day by day operations. The scope is the expansion for the problem solving capability. As methodical procedure is a ?reflecting team“, which originally was developped in the systemic psychotherapy and is applied as well as supervisory tool in a modified form. Application possibilities and methodical procedures as frame conditions are described. The feed back by the participants refering to usefullness and practical results are in general of positiv relevance.     

Die „ganze Person“ im Coaching — Ambivalenzen und Optionen

As a specific type of counselling, which focuses on the individual and his/her personality within the professional context, coaching has to strike constantly a balance between looking at the ?whole person“ and looking at one facet of this person, i.e. his/her professional role. This leads to ambivalent attitudes towards coaching from the client’s point of view, which should be discussed and turned into beneficial factors during the coaching process. The following article illustrates the construct of the ?whole person“-approach in coaching and argues for an understanding of coaching based on comprehensive methodologies and concepts.     

Network learning: Episodes of interorganizational learning towards a collective performance goal

Little is known about learning processes in horizontal networks. This study focuses on networks as learning entities, i.e. learning by multiple organizations as a group, and the mechanisms involved in developing and addressing a network-level performance goal. By using a narrative approach, we gather in-depth primary data from network members to examine: how do firms engage in network learning? and, how is network learning coordinated towards a performance goal in a horizontal inter-firm network? Our findings comprise two learning episodes: ‘learning how to compete’ and ‘learning how to perform’. These episodes help us to understand network learning processes; the relationship between network learning and organizational learning; and the regulatory role a hub firm provides towards a collective performance goal.     

The newsvendor problem with barter exchange

Barter exchange, as an alternative to move distressed inventory, has become increasingly popular in business. Many companies barter their unsold product for the product they need via barter exchange platforms at full prices. In this paper we consider the newsvendor problem with the barter exchange option. A retailer (the newsvendor) facing stochastic demand not only sells its product, but also buys other product that it needs from the market. It either trades its unsold product for the product it needs on a barter platform or disposes of its unsold product at discounted prices at the end of the selling season like in the classical newsvendor model. We derive the retailer’s optimal order quantity, then analytically and numerically examine the impacts of barter on the retailer’s inventory decisions and profit. We find that barter exchange can help the retailer to manage demand uncertainty and improve profit. The optimal order quantity decreases with barter commission and barter uncertainty, while increases with demand uncertainty and the value of the product that the retailer needs. Barter is more advantageous with lower barter commission, larger demand uncertainty, lower barter uncertainty, and higher value of the product it needs.     

Action Learning - A Paradigm in Emergence: the Problems Facing a Challenge to Traditional Management Education and Development

This paper examines the proposition that action learning is a new paradigm in management education. Action learning is becoming widely accepted methodology for the development of managers and managerial competence. This is in both public and private sector organizations and within the context of certificated and organisationally based programmes. The paper seeks to use Kuhn's work on the nature of paradigms and change as a way of explaining the increase of interest in his approach. Importantly, although this approach promises to answer some of the problems of traditional management education, it is not without its own critics. Kuhn's criteria for a paradigm change are explained with reference to action learning literature and knowledge of practice. From this a framework is developed that compares a traditional approach to management education with an action learning approach on three levels. Our conclusion is that action learning is a new paradigm, but for the maximum benefit to be gained from the approach its application needs to be more carefully considered, particularly in relation to the provision of some wider external frameworks for the manager to use as‘tools for thinking’