Human Resource Department Power and Influence Through Symbolic Action

The present study integrates theory and researchon power, politics, and social constructionism toinvestigate how human resource (HR) departments inorganizations gain influence. Survey results from 242 organizations demonstrated that symbolicactions are stronger predictors of HR department powerthan unionization, HR performance, and top managementattitudes. Implications of the results are discussed as are directions for futureresearch.     

AGAINST THE GRAIN: DECENTERING FAMILY THERAPY

This paper is an interpretive polemic. It has two aims: (a) to clarify the concept of "system" as it is employed in family therapy, and, by doing so, to undermine and call into question the practice that follows from, or is contained within, a systemic perspective,¹ (b) it will offer several suggestions towards the development of an alternative perspective which preserves the idea of system in a social network/diachronic framework. With respect to the first aim, an argument will be made that there are severe and insurmountable problems in attempting to maintain a systemic perspective, that the methodology of analysis is fatally flawed, and that the results of analysis imprisons the therapist in a framework, which though extremely powerful interpersonally, must be rejected as overly authoritarian and overly restrictive in the range of perceptions of social situations allowed. A position will be adopted advocating a move of decentering family therapy to a more peripheral space within a social network perspective. What immediately follows is a redefinition and repunctuation of what can only be considered as a highly problematic paradigm.     

Ethnic Conflict and Healthcare: Cultural Dimensions of the Healthcare Delivery Crisis in Mostar, Bosnia-Herzegovina

The internecine conflict that erupted in Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992 was only one episode in hundreds of years of ethnic tension that also produced culturally rich communities. The city of Mostar once known for its interethnic tolerance is now torn between Croatians and Muslims living together in what has been described as an armed truce. This is especially well demonstrated in the failure to rebuild the regional healthcare system, even as the health status of the population continues to deteriorate. Nonetheless this failure provides an opportunity to begin a dialogue that can lead to well being through both improved healthcare and enhanced civility.     

Diskussionslinien der Entrepreneurial Marketing-Forschung: Ergebnisse einer Zitationsanalyse

Entrepreneurial Marketing (EM) is a research field that grows dynamically and that seems to be heterogeneous. Heterogeneity of a research field exacerbates the orientation in and the advancement of the field. Therefore, this article strives to inventarize the EM-literature and thereby to identify key discussion lines of EM research.Based on a comprehensive literature analysis, we first outline the history of EM research, and identify core authors and core journal Based on a citation analysis of 199 EM papers with a total of 6,222 references and an ensuing expert evaluation, we identify four key discussion lines: (1) theoretical foundations, (2) entrepreneurship-marketing interface, (3) new venture- and SME-marketing, and (4) EM in the sense of innovative, proactive and risk-oriented marketing. These four discussion lines and the respective literature constitute a framework for the advancement of EM research.     

How Probabilistic Risk Assessment Can Mislead Terrorism Risk Analysts

Traditional probabilistic risk assessment (PRA), of the type originally developed for engineered systems, is still proposed for terrorism risk analysis. We show that such PRA applications are unjustified in general. The capacity of terrorists to seek and use information and to actively research different attack options before deciding what to do raises unique features of terrorism risk assessment that are not adequately addressed by conventional PRA for natural and engineered systems—in part because decisions based on such PRA estimates do not adequately hedge against the different probabilities that attackers may eventually act upon. These probabilities may differ from the defender's (even if the defender's experts are thoroughly trained, well calibrated, unbiased probability assessors) because they may be conditioned on different information. We illustrate the fundamental differences between PRA and terrorism risk analysis, and suggest use of robust decision analysis for risk management when attackers may know more about some attack options than we do.