Coping with complexity

We offer a new typology of problems according to such attributes as the fuzzy set of possible solutions, the fuzzy set of properties a solution should have, the fuzzy set of knowledge necessary and sufficient to find a solution, deadlines and constraints. Problems are ranked by degree of ‘structuredness’ from well-structured to ill-defined. Some real problems are shown to be ill-defined and the causes of their inherent imprecision are traced. A model for coping with ill-defined problems enables us to estimate an optimal degree of precision in both dealing with the problem and in requesting information to help cope with it. This has interesting implications for the design of information systems.     

Country-portfolio analysis— Assessing country risk and opportunity

The author illustrates how the basic concept of product-portfolio analysis, now in common use in strategic management, can be used as a country-portfolio analysis to identify growth rate in international markets. He identifies the ‘Baby’ countries, ‘Star’ countries, ‘Cash-Cow’ countries and ‘Dog’ countries; the factors behind the matrix, i.e. population structure, political stability and product patterns; and concludes with the recommendation for the secure way or the way to high growth potential.     

Der dreifache Bezug zur Arbeit – Transformation öffentlicher Dienste und berufliche Identität

During the last 2 decades the public administration and the public services have undergone far-reaching transformations that resulted in substantial changes in work and employment. This contribution discusses the question as to how workers perceive these upheavals and what consequences these have for their occupational identity. Based on empirical research on an Austrian town the authors show how local government employees, doctors and nurses at the community hospital and the post office’s deliverers and counter clerks interpret the transformations in particular from the perspective of their occupational self-conception. The article makes clear that using the concept of a threefold relationship to work makes it easier to understand workers’ perceptions, interpretations and reactions. Such a threefold relationship to work includes a labour power perspective, a subject perspective and the public sector ethos.     

Christoph Deutschmann: Postindustrielle Industriesoziologie. Theoretische Grundlagen, Arbeitsverhältnisse und soziale Identitäten. Grundlagentexte Soziologie, herausgegeben von Klaus Hurrelmann

Ohne Zusammenfassung     

Gruppenprozesse und destruktive Gewalt

The main thesis of this work is that it is worth to transmit structures, models and results of group research to larger destructive events. This applies primarily to consultancy and decision making processes of higher management positions, for group processes when applying destructive power as well as for the emergence and escalation of destructive power in autochthonous group processes. Some of the essential ways of diminishing or even preventing destructive power are shown using a dozen of constructive suggestions.