Blended Business Coaching

The article presents an approach of Blended Coaching, which was evaluated in an empirical study in the non-profit-sector and emerged as a concept for the profit sector. Blended Business Coaching helps to transfer training contents of advanced vocational trainings into professional daily life. Using special methods, this transfer coaching utilizes the advantages of both face-to-face communication and internet based communication for the continuing education and coaching of the participants. This article shows the results of the empirical study and the approach itself.     

No sign of harm: issues for disabled children communicating about abuse

While all children may be the victims of abuse, disabled children are particularly vulnerable. This paper explores the views of professionals working with children using alternative/augmented communication systems on the issues relating to communication about abuse. Interviews were carried out with 20 staff from eight establishments for disabled children across Scotland. It describes the range of alternative/augmented communication systems used and the barriers to communication about abuse. Staff generally accepted the importance of providing the appropriate vocabulary in augmented communication systems, but systems that provide such vocabulary were not widely used. Staff considered that a major difficulty concerned the level of understanding disabled children might have about concepts of abuse. They were unsure how the appropriate vocabulary could be introduced in a natural way and how links could be made between the signs and their meanings. Staff saw themselves as those most able to protect the children, but it was felt that discovery of abuse was more likely to come from them noticing physical signs, behaviour or mood changes than from the child communicating explicitly about abuse. The need for appropriate training and increased coordination between social work, health and education is highlighted. Copyright © 2001 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Die Bedeutung der Zinsschranke

The German Corporate Tax Reform Act of 2008 requires an adjustment of classic valuation concepts because it limits interest deduction from taxable income depending on the operating performance of the company. By using time- and state-contingent discount rates in a risk-neutral valuation with predetermined debt levels, a theoretically sound valuation result is obtained. However, a modified APV-concept which assumes deterministic debt over the planning horizon and constant leverage in the terminal value phase also yields consistent valuation results when two types of tax shields with different levels of risk are distinguished.     

Working Poor

The study compares relative risks of working poor in the US and Germany. The risk of working poor is assumed to be a consequence of both the macro-structural change towards post-industrial service societies and the micro-structural change of private households. From this twofold perspective, the guiding hypotheses are developed and then tested with the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The risk of working poor has increased both in Germany and the United States. Both commonalities and marked differences appear: Whereas high numbers of children dominate risks in the US, the German risk-set is determined by the hurdle between part-time and fulltime households, which disadvantages young and lone parents particularly. A common development is the successive devaluation of fulltime employment by sector risks which are growing into the fulltime labour market even in Germany.     

Interkulturelles Training

With proceeding internationalization and globalization of society the demands of working life have changed in the last decades. To meet these demands executives and professionals cooperating with foreign partners abroad or in Germany need the central key qualification of intercultural competence. This important key qualification does not evolve automatically from intercultural experiences, but has to be acquired during an extensive learning process, which is mainly organized in intercultural trainings. This text first describes what intercultural competence is and how it is developed. Based on scientific findings on developmental stages of intercultural competence central aspects of intercultural trainings are covered in detail. Objectives and methods of various intercultural training formats are outlined to illustrate the conceptualization and outcomes of learning effective trainings. The text concludes with future developments of intercultural training in the light of expatriates facing increasing demands regarding the quality of their work. Trainee groups will become more culturally heterogeneous, more trainings will be needed that moderate acculturation processes while staying abroad, training contents and methods have to be adapted according to local customs, modern information technology will play a major role, and family members coming along have to be involved in the training process.     

Art, Nationalism and War: Political Futurism in Italy (1909–1944)

Futurism was launched as a revolutionary, iconoclastic movement encompassing the arts, politics and society. It rejected all ties with the past and preached with missionary zeal the advent of a new man and the total reconstruction of society. Despite its powerful impact on Italian politics, the importance of Futurism has scarcely been addressed in the social sciences. Yet, it continues to attract the interest of historians, literary critics and art historians. In fact, the major methodological hindrance for a more articulated research remains the latter's unchallenged hegemony, with their selective propensity to eulogistic accounts. The result is the neglect of Futurism's political dimension as a fully fledged nationalist movement. Aiming to redress this imbalance, the article analyzes Futurist politics through the movement's actions, proclaims and manifestos. It distinguishes early Futurism's anti-establishment ultra-nationalism (1909–1915) from the more institutionalized 'muscular' patriotism adopted after its merger with Fascism (1924–1944). In a global context of mounting nationalist state-building and spiralling inter-state rivalries, Italy's unitary, homogenizing nationalism provided a congenial matrix for the advent of war-mongering patriotism and irredentism. Here, Futurism found an ideal structure of political opportunities, in which it could articulate its unique repertoire of action. The futurists' peculiar talent in 'manufacturing consent' through the media was put to test in their marketing of war as adventurous boundary-building enterprise, a vision subsequently appropriated by Fascism.     

Complexity: Some Remarks about a Classical Aesthetic Concept

The connection between autonomous art and complexity has been extensively and deeply studied in literary theories in the 20th century. The rise of aesthetic autonomy implies the complexity of literary work as the concept of a sealed container arises from the relationship between the parts that make it up. In this model, the interpretation subject works to directly face literary texts. Instead of pursuing the author’s intention, it aims to reproduce the richness and subtlety of the aesthetic state, and consider the richness and subtlety revealed in the maximum amount of text details in literary works, even if procedurally deviating from the way of mainstream understanding. There is increasing skepticism about the consequences of the autonomous aesthetics, which has been coerced by the development of contemporary capitalism, and it is necessary to develop new forms of aesthetics to reflect the changing social situation.