Assertion and Consensus Motives in Argumentations

Fair and non-manipulative argumentation plays a key role in contemporary German ethics and business ethics. The purpose of this paper was to examine the question whether psychological dispositions for this type of communication do exist. In three empirical studies consisting of 839 subjects it was possible to establish four argumentative motives. Furthermore, the data show that these motives are correlated with basic personality traits. These motives have also implications for social integration, rationality, use of information, time demand, and interpersonal trust in business communication. In sum, fair and non-manipulative argumentation is a realistic tool for solving everyday ethical problems. Thus, discourse ethics is not only good for theory but also good for practice. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

The Canadian Tour Operator Problem on paths: tight bounds and resource augmentation

In the prize-collecting travelling salesman problem, we are given a weighted graph \(G=(V,E)\) with edge weights \(\ell :E\rightarrow \mathbb {R}_+\), a special vertex \(r\in V\), penalties \(\pi :V\rightarrow \mathbb {R}_+\) and the goal is to find a closed tour \(T\) such that \(r\in V(T)\) and such that the cost \(\ell (T)+\pi (V\setminus V(T))\), which is the sum of the edges in the tour and the cost of the vertices not spanned by \(T\), is minimized. We consider an online variant of the prize-collecting travelling salesman problem related to graph exploration. In the Canadian Tour Operator Problem the task is to find a closed route for a tourist bus in a given network \(G=(V,E)\) in which some edges are blocked by avalanches. An online algorithm learns from a blocked edge only when reaching one of its endpoints. The bus operator has the option to avoid visiting each node \(v\in V\) by paying a refund of \(\pi (v)\) to the tourists. The goal consists of minimizing the sum of the travel costs and the refunds. We study the problem on a simple (weighted) path and prove tight bounds on the competitiveness of deterministic algorithms. Specifically, we give an algorithm with competitive ratio equal to the golden ratio \(\phi =(1+\sqrt{5})/2\). We also study the effect of resource augmentation, where the online algorithm either pays a discounted cost for traversing edges or for the penalties.     

The effects of employee burnout on customers: An experimental approach

ABSTRACT

This study investigated the different effects of employee burnout dimensions (depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion) on customer service perceptions. We hypothesised that customers who interact with depersonalising employees will feel angry and hostile, which, in turn, should be related to low service perceptions. Emotional exhaustion was hypothesised to attenuate this effect because customers might perceive exhaustion as a reason for the depersonalising behaviour and may be affected less negatively. Each of the 156 study participants read 12 vignettes in which university employees displayed depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion symptoms. Multilevel analysis showed that employee depersonalisation negatively affected customer perceptions towards employee service and organisation service. Customer anger and hostility mediated this effect. Employee emotional exhaustion moderated the indirect effect such that depersonalisation had the strongest effect on customer service perceptions via anger and hostility when the employee did not display emotional exhaustion. Findings highlight the importance of studying the effects of depersonalisation and emotional exhaustion separately, and taking into account customer affective processes.     

Nutzen von Mitarbeiterjahresgesprächen in einer sozialen Organisation

The benefit of staff appraisal interviews in an organization of social work In a great organization of social work (the catholic Caritas in Frankfurt/M.) since 2000 annual staff appraisal interviews are established. The author explains the concept and the contents of the questionnaire. The benefit of these dialogues to the participants as well as to the organization is discussed. A ?Coaching seminar“ has to prepare the staff members, in order to optimize the benefit of the appraisal interview.     

Effektive Führung heterogener Teams

This article in the journal “Gruppe. Organisation. Interaktion. (GIO)” analyzes theoretical and empirical findings of international research on the role of leadership in diverse teams. While practitioners often tend to expect primarily positive effects of team diversity, research has revealed both positive and negative consequences on team performance. Thereby, realizing positive outcomes of diversity appears to depend on additional boundary conditions; among these, leadership is often considered to be crucial. According to our analysis of the literature, established leadership styles (e.?g., transformational leadership, LMX, leader consideration) may contribute to increased performance of diverse teams. In addition, they will be most effective when leaders perceive and treat their followers as individuals rather than as members of a (sub-)group and when they carefully adjust their behavior to the most critical diversity attribute in the team. Based on these results, we provide practical implications for leadership in diverse teams and discuss how adequate leadership skills can be systematically developed in organizations.     

Mysterium tremendum und mysterium fascinans

The history of Western modernity must not only be regarded as a linear process of secularisation: even the “classics” of sociology like Emile Durkheim, Max Weber, and Georg Simmel have dealt with the ambiguities of the modern age, thereby referring to both the “disenchantment” and the “re-enchantment”. Worldly replacements such as science and political movements partly took over the function and the meaning of traditional religions. Political ‘religions’ not only adopted, transformed and amalgamated the contents of Christian texts and imaginations and used Christian rites and symbols, but also fulfilled special functions for their “believers”. One of the most important functions both of traditional religions and political ‘religion’ is to evoke emotions and to give opportunities to act on emotions. The article deals with the relationship between traditional ‘religions’ and political ‘religions’ with regard to emotions. In this context, the political ‘religion’ of Soviet communism until Stalin’s death is examined.     

Between Collaboration and Subordination: State and Non-state Actors in Russian Anti-drug Policy

Due to weak state and administrative capacity, the Russian government has involved resource-rich non-state actors into policy-making since about 2005 and established numerous institutionalized platforms, networks, and forums. These networks mainly emerge on regional and local levels and are designed to generate policy advice, implement decisions, and contribute to output legitimacy. A crucial question is how the authorities govern and regulate these bodies under the terms of a hybrid regime. The paper sheds light on why and how state authorities interact with non-state actors and unravels functions and flavors of governance networks in Russia. Drawing on the empirical results of case studies on anti-drug policy conducted in the regions Samara and St Petersburg, the paper reveals that state dominance within networks is a significant characteristic, although authorities rarely apply explicit ‘hard’ tools of government onto collaborations with non-state actors. The paper also allows for theorizing on the role of governance networks in a hybrid regime.

     

Do You Do as I Do?: Young Toddlers Prefer and Copy Toy Choices of Similarly Acting Others

Recognizing similarity between one's own and others' actions is important for identifying others with whom to affiliate and from whom to learn. In this study, 40 19‐month‐old toddlers recognized when a puppet chose the same toys as them. Toddlers preferred to affiliate with a puppet who chose the same toys as themselves relative to a puppet who chose other toys and they modified their subsequent behavior by choosing the same toys as that puppet when presented with novel toys. Toddlers' actions were not based on perceivable features of the puppet (e.g., similar accent or language as oneself) or an association between the puppet and the preferred toys (as assessed in a control condition). Results indicate that toddlers identified and recognized the similarity in action choices between themselves and the puppet via comparison between their own and the puppets' actions. Identifying this similarity is critical for children's developing understanding of and engagement in interactions with others.     

Reporting probabilistic expectations with dynamic uncertainty about possible distributions

We study how experimental subjects report subjective probability distributions in the presence of ambiguity characterized by uncertainty over a fixed set of possible probability distributions generating future outcomes. Subjects observe draws from the true but unknown probability distribution generating outcomes at the beginning of each period of the experiment and state at selected periods a) the likelihoods that each probability distribution in the set is the true distribution, and b) the likelihoods of future outcomes. We estimate heterogeneity of rules used to update uncertainty about the true distribution and rules used to report distributions of future outcomes. We find that approximately 65% of subjects report distributions by properly weighing the possible distributions using their expressed uncertainty over them, while 22% of subjects report distributions close to the distribution they perceive as most likely. We find significant heterogeneity in how subjects update their expressed uncertainty. On average, subjects tend to overweigh the importance of their prior uncertainty relative to new information, leading to ambiguity that is substantially more persistent than would be predicted using Bayes’ rule. Counterfactual simulations suggest that this persistence will likely hold in settings not covered by our experiment.