Visual challenges using Visual Display Units (VDU) in office landscapes

A total of 85 VDU operators, in three main Scandinavian Alcatel-Lucent headquarters, were followed in a process moving from single occupancy offices to an office landscape. This paper discusses the visual challenges and implications in such a transfer. In the oral presentation recommendation on how to avoid visual problems will be given.     

A senior manager with a knowledge management portfolio: the Santa Clara County experience

The agency director sought to create a systematically coordinated department that utilizes knowledge management strategies to promote evidence-informed practice. In his view, the organization was not providing needed information or organizational supports for practitioners to use knowledge effectively. To address this issue, he created a Director of Development and Operational Planning (DDOP) position with the responsibility to build structures and facilitate processes that support knowledge management. The DDOP oversees research and planning, government relations, legislative development and support, Board of Supervisors communications, staff development and training, community contracts, public information and in-house communication. The DDOP is reorganizing units under her supervision to create a knowledge management matrix that will implement new knowledge sharing strategies related to evaluation, contracts, legislation, organizational development, policy and planning, and staff development. The case study describes challenges and strategies related to: government regulations, size and complexity of the agency, staff resistance, and the developmental nature of the process.     

Boundary dimensions of social innovation: negotiating conflicts and compatibilities when developing a national agenda

In order to add to the existing knowledge on the complex institutional dynamics of negotiating conflicts and compatibilities in innovation processes that address societal challenges and social needs, this article scrutinizes the scientific and societal debate on the theoretical and practical application of “social innovation” by means of the concept “boundary object” linked to institutional theory. A participatory case study of the development of an R&I agenda for social innovation in Sweden, formulated through dialog between stakeholders from the public, private and non-profit sectors, is presented. The results show that the unpredictable, emergent, evolving and adaptable character of needs, challenges and solutions in social innovation processes is made more theoretically and practically manageable by acknowledging social innovation as a boundary object. This is since this concept, despite its ambiguous character, helps balance complexity and usefulness in a way that serves to expand existing knowledge on institutional dynamics.     

Varieties of Democracy: Interest Groups and Corporatist Committees in Scandinavian Policy Making

Corporatism may be seen as variety of capitalism in which specific structural prerequisites such as unionization, centralization, and strong states combined with bargaining and concertation produce certain economic outputs. Corporatism may also be seen as a variety of democracy in which interest groups are integrated in the preparation and/or implementation of public policies. Departing in the last position, we measure the strength of Scandinavian corporatism by the involvement of interest groups in public committees, councils, and commissions. Corporatism in relation to the preparation of policy has gone down in all three Scandinavian countries whereas corporatism in implementation processes are more varied among the three countries.     

Parallel Subjective Well-Being and Choice Experiment Evaluation of Ecosystem Services: Marine and Forest Reserves in Coastal Oregon,USA

Social Indicators Research - There is significant policy and research interest in (a) ecosystem services as a framework for understanding the benefits humans receive from natural systems and (b)...     

Social Impact Investing in Germany: Current Impediments from Investors’ and Social Entrepreneurs’ Perspectives

The paper provides empirical evidence on impediments of the emerging social impact investment field in Germany. The study is based on 19 in-depth interviews with social impact investing funds, investment advisors, and social entrepreneurs as investees. It takes an explorative approach because of the nascent stage of research on the subject. By systematically relating the perspectives of the actors involved, the study gives a broad empirical picture on the major challenges for social impact investing in Germany. Results reveal nine critical problem areas we have arranged along three dimensions: financial returns, social returns, and relationships and infrastructure. They comprise investors’ and social entrepreneurs’ practices, institutional settings which are still heavily influenced by peculiarities of the German welfare systems, as well as undeveloped framework conditions in the social investment market. By interpreting the results through a lens of conflicting institutional logics, we further contribute to this research stream by showcasing social impact investing as a core area of friction between the logics of the market and civil society.     

Effects of neckbands on survival and fidelity of white-fronted and Canada geese captured as non-breeding adults

We conducted an experiment to examine the effect of neckbands, controlling for differences in sex, species and year of study (1991-1997), on probabilities of capture, survival, reporting, and fidelity in non-breeding small Canada ( Branta canadensis hutchinsi ) and white-fronted ( Anser albifrons frontalis ) geese. In Canada's central arctic, we systematically double-marked about half of the individuals from each species with neckbands and legbands, and we marked the other half only with legbands. We considered 48 a priori models that included combinations of sex, species, year, and neckband effects on the four population parameters produced by Burnham's (1993) model, using AIC for model selection. The four best approximating models each included a negative effect of neckbands on survival, and effect size varied among years. True survival probability of neckbanded birds annually ranged from 0.006 to 0.23 and 0.039 to 0.22 (Canada and white-fronted geese, respectively) lower than for conspecifics without neckbands. Changes in estimates of survival probability in neckbanded birds appeared to attenuate more recently, particularly in Canada Geese, a result that we suspect was related to lower retention rates of neckbands. We urge extreme caution in use of neckbands for estimation of certain population parameters, and discourage their use for estimation of unbiased survival probability in these two species.