Implementation of allocation rules under perfect information

We study subgame perfect implementation through perfect information mechanisms in economic environments. We assume that worst bundles exist for each agent and can be assigned to them independently of the bundle assigned to at least one other agent. We restrict our attention to allocation rules that are anonymous, efficient on their own range, single-valued in welfare, and that induce agents' participation. We define a class of mechanisms, which satisfy properties of minimal path length and finiteness of message dimensions. We characterize the class of allocation rules which can be implemented through those mechanisms.I would like to thank Bhaskar Dutta, Louis Gevers, Matthew Jackson, Ozgur Kibris, Hervé Moulin and Arunava Sen for stimulating discussions, seminar participants at Université de Montréal (the Axiomatic Theory of Resource Allocation meeting, May 1996), Universitat Autonoma de Barcelona, Universitad Carlos III de Madrid and Université de Paris Dauphine for their comments, and Frédéric Gaspart, Tarik Kara, James Schummer, William Thomson and an anonymous referee for extremely useful comments and suggestions on earlier versions.     

On monotonicity in economies with indivisible goods

We consider the problem of fair allocation in economies with indivisible objects that may or may not be desirable (for instance, activities that may or may not be pleasurable but have to be carried out unless there are not enough agents for that). We search for efficient solutions satisfying two additional properties. First, each agent should find his bundle at least as desirable as the bundle that would be assigned to him in the hypothetical economy in which all agents have preferences identical to his, under equal treatment of equals and efficiency. In a preliminary step, we show that there is no logical relation between this requirement and no-envy, and between it and egalitarian-equivalence. We also establish the existence of efficient allocations satisfying it. The second property, object monotonicity, says that the availability of additional objects either has a negative impact on everyone's welfare, or it has a positive impact on everyone's welfare. We show that there is no object-monotonic selection from the correspondence that associates with each economy its set of efficient allocations meeting an even weaker version of the bound.I am grateful to Atila Abdulkadiroglu, Koichi Tadenuma, and a referee for their very helpful comments.     

Wie wird Coaching in einem traditionellen technischen Dienstleistungsunternehmen angenommen?

How coaching is accepted in a traditional technological service-companyFor the present article four leading managers (two women, two men) of a big technological service-company were asked about their experiences with coaching. Their individual accounts are interpreted on the back-ground of the concrete changes in structure and culture of the company. The report gives an impression about the fact, how coaching is accepted in a more traditionally labelled, mainly hierarchically organized and male-dominated structure. There are some points of special interest for the implementation of coaching in that kind of organization structure.     

Qualitätsmanagement in Netzwerken der Integrierten Gesundheitsversorgung

Quality management in networks of the Integrated health care. Theory and practiceSelf evaluation is one of the most important sources for the quality management in ambulatory care of integrated health care systems. The quality testing of the survey instrument itself is of outstanding importance, since only a high quality instrument is able to supply high quality data, which can serve as a reliable base for improvement strategies. The paper shows the aspects of a quality management in organizational networks for integrated health care delivery systems. The technique allows the management and the single practioner on the one hand to identify the critical areas at a glance and on the other hand to focus — where necessary — on the single aspects in order to define detailed improvement actions.     

Qualitätsmanagement — alles nur lauwarme Luft? Statt einer Buchbesprechung

Quality Management — idea and dysfunctional effectsThe author discusses the idea and the dysfunctional effects of Quality Management. By means of two books, an older and a newer one, the debate with its historical and its actual basis is delineated. In short, the author comes to the result: Quality Management is important, but you have to be very critical.     

Wenn die Arbeitsfähigkeit gefährdet ist: Möglichkeiten institutioneller Konfliktbearbeitung

Mediation and conflict-moderation in organisational conflictsOrganisations are subject to permanent changes and must therefore master the task of permanently dealing with conflicts from a new. If the functioning of work of subsystems or the organisation as a whole is threatened, rapid interventions are demanded. The author introduces mediation as a intervention method. Two methods are compared in a practice test: mediation and conflict-moderation.     

Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions of Values and Personal Value Orientation of Nigerian Managers: Implications for Management Practice

The paper investigates to what extent the personal value orientations of Nigerian managers, measured by using England's PVQ, fit the national cultural dimensions identified by Hofstede. While the study is not conclusive, the results suggest a fit. Implications for the transfer of management know-how to different cultures, especially LDCs were given. This revised version was published online in August 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The effect of labor relations climate on the union participation process

Research examining union member attitudes and behaviors have produced inconsistent results for key relationships in models of union participation. Social information processing theory suggests that a contextual variable, labor relations climate, should systematically influence the attitudinal variables in these models. Our meta-analysis shows that labor relations climate moderates four of five key relationships. Consequently, theory on union member participation should be altered to reflect the recent emergence of less adversarial union-management relationships.     

Local influence on a test of linear hypothesis in multiple regression model

SUMMARY The local influence method is adapted to investigate the influence of observations on testing the linear hypothesis. The method provides information about individually or jointly influential observations in performing the test, which the usual diagnostic methods do not yield. An example is presented for illustration of the method.