Agiles Sprintlernen – ein Konzept für dezentrales betriebliches Lernen: Empirische Begründung und praktische Erfahrungen

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Agiles Sprintlernen ist ein didaktisches Rahmenkonzept für kontextbezogenes und...     

Revisiting the concept “dialogue” in public relations

This paper follows a critical approach in exploring the philosophical underpinnings and key features of dialogue in public relations practice and thinking. It argues that dialogue has been uncritically equated to two-way symmetrical communication, which has not done justice to the nature of dialogue, and has effectively stifled concrete development of a dialogic theory in public relations. The paper draws from a range of literature, including mainstream public relations and communication philosophy—in particular the philosophy of Martin Buber. The purpose of this paper is to inform public relations thinking by encouraging debate rather than proposing a new theoretical approach. As such, it sets out to explore the concept of dialogue and its philosophical underpinning, considers its practical application and suggests that it should not be seen as superior to persuasion.     

Klasse und Geschlecht als Kategorien sozialer Ungleichheit

The issue of the formative influence of class versus gender, respectively, as the two main structural categories of modern societies is discussed in this paper. It presents results of an empirical research project. An overview of recent women’s and gender studies is given, taking a critical look at inequality relations. Selected empirical results of the crossing effects of class and gender are presented, referring mainly to Bourdieu’s (class) model of the multidimensional space of social positions. The materials used in the analysis are quantitative data of the representative West-German Socio-Economic Panel and qualitative biographical interviews with selected women (from interviewed couples) in contrasting social positions. The ?gender class“ hypothesis is being checked quantitatively by positioning it in connection with employment on the basis of mean average comparisons and a factor variance analysis. The ?class gender“ hypothesis is checked qualitatively by means of the case reconstructions on the basis of sequential analysis of interview interpretation. Finally, a theoretical reflection on the results is made in view of both crossing hypotheses.     

An Index of Child Well-being in the European Union

While the living conditions of children and young people in the European Union have gained increasing recognition across the EU, the well-being of children is not monitored on the European level. Based on a rights-based, multi-dimensional understanding of child well-being we analyse data already available for the EU 25, using series data as well as comparative surveys of children and young people. We compare the performance of EU Member States on eight clusters with 23 domains and 51 indicators and give a picture of children’s overall well-being in the European Union. The clusters are children’s material situation, housing, health, subjective well-being, education, children’s relationships, civic participation and risk and safety.     

Measurement error and outcomes defined by exceeding a threshold: biased findings in comparative effectiveness trials

In medical studies, the long‐term level of a risk factor exceeding a threshold is often an outcome of interest. In practice, such a risk factor may not be directly measurable. Instead, outcome variables are based on a single or multiple biomedical measurements that have substantial variability. This variability is due to measurement error in a strict sense, true day‐to‐day variability, or a combination of the two. Estimates of prevalence based on such outcomes are biased; some individuals with long‐term levels below the threshold will be diagnosed, and some with long‐term levels above the threshold will not be diagnosed. From a public health point of view, this is a relatively minor concern; it is much less important than the fact that many individuals are not tested at all. However, in comparative effectiveness research studies, such as clinical trials evaluating a new treatment as compared with a placebo or a gold standard treatment, the combination of a noisy measurement and a threshold can distort the studies’ conclusions in important ways. Using simulations and theoretical formulas, we systematically describe the bias of prevalence difference and prevalence ratio when comparing arms and its effect on trial conclusions. Copyright © 2012 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

An Explanation of the Occupational Structure of Sectors of Industry

Abstract. This study has been carried out by the Research Centre for Education and Labour Market (ROA) as part of a long-range research project commissioned by the Ministry of Education and Sciences. The objective of the project is to develop an education/labour-market information system to help secondary and university students choose the right type of school and/or occupation (ROA 1988). The study reported on here sets out to disclose the factors underlying the development of the occupational pattern. The shares of occupational classes in each economic sector are taken as points of departure. The explanatory variables are technological progress and cyclical and structural sectoral developments. For each occupational class, an estimation is made with the help of a linear model, the estimation method being that of Weighted Least Squares. To permit several variables to be included in the equation, the data have been pooled over sectors and time. In two fifths of all cases, a model with explanatory variables has been chosen; in the remaining instances a sector-dummy model was found to suffice.