Die Forschungsleistung der Soziologie an zehn deutschen Universitäten

Der Artikel stellt eine Methodik zur Bildung von bibliometrischen Ma?zahlen vor, mit denen sich die Forschungsleistung von Autoren, Institutionen, F?chern und F?chergruppen darstellen l?sst. Basierend auf den im SSCI erfassten wissenschaftlichen Artikeln, den Impaktfaktoren der Zeitschriften, in denen sie erschienen sind, sowie der H?ufigkeit, mit der die Artikel innerhalb der Zeitschriften des SSCI zitiert werden, beschreiben absolute und relative Publikations- und Zitationsma?e anschlie?end die Publikationsleistung der soziologischen Institute im Vergleich zu den anderen gro?en wirtschafts- und sozial-wissenschaftlichen F?chern Politologie, Betriebswirtschaftslehre und Volkswirtschaftslehre. An insgesamt zehn deutschen Hochschulen liegt die Soziologie bei der absoluten Zahl der Ver?ffentlichungen und Zitationen zwischen 1993 und 2002 weit hinter der Volkswirtschaftslehre, holt unter Berücksichtigung des eingesetzten Personals jedoch auf. Eine zweite Analyse vergleicht die Forschungsleistung der Institute für Soziologie an den zehn Standorten. Bei allen absoluten Ma?zahlen liegt die Universit?t Mannheim vorn. Unter Berücksichtigung der eingesetzten Mittel zeigt sich, dass die Soziologen der LMU München und der Universit?t zu K?ln qualitativ und quantitativ am produktivsten forschen und auch kleine Institute unter Effizienzgesichtspunkten wettbewerbsf?hig sind.     

Work motivation,organisational identification,and well-being in call centre work

Abstract

Previous work has not considered the interplay of motivational forces linked to the task with those linked to the social identity of employees. The aim of the present study is to combine these approaches. Two studies with call centre agents (N=211, N=161) were conducted in which the relationships of objective working conditions (e.g., inbound vs. outbound work), subjective measures of motivating potential of work, and organisational identification were analysed. Job satisfaction, turnover intentions, organisational citizenship behavior (OCB), health complaints, and burnout were assessed as indicators of the agents’ work motivation and well-being. In both studies it was found that objective working conditions substantially correlated with subjective measures of work motivation. Moreover, employees experiencing a high motivating potential at work reported more OCB, higher job satisfaction, and less turnover intentions. As hypothesized, organisational identification was a further independent predictor of job satisfaction, turnover intentions, OCB, and well-being. Highly organisationally identified employees report higher work motivation and more well-being. Additionally, interactions between the motivating potential and organisational identification were found. However, all the results indicate that interventions seeking to enhance work motivation and well-being in call centres should improve both the motivating potential of the job and organisational identification. These two factors combined in an additive way across both studies.     

Robust inequality comparisons

This paper is concerned with the problem of ranking Lorenz curves in situations where the Lorenz curves intersect and no unambiguous ranking can be attained without introducing weaker ranking criteria than first-degree Lorenz dominance. To deal with such situations, Aaberge (Soc Choice Welf 33:235–259, 2009) introduced two alternative sequences of nested dominance criteria for Lorenz curves, which proved to characterize two separate systems of nested subfamilies of inequality measures. This paper uses the obtained characterization results to arrange the members of two different generalized Gini families of inequality measures into subfamilies according to their relationship to Lorenz dominance of various degrees. Since the various criteria of higher degree Lorenz dominance provide convenient computational methods, these results can be used to identify the largest subfamily of the generalized Gini families, and thus the least restrictive social preferences, required to reach unambiguous ranking of a set of Lorenz curves. We further show that the weight-functions of the members of the generalized Gini families offer intuitive interpretations of higher degree Lorenz dominance, which generally has been viewed as difficult to interpret because they involve assumptions about third and higher derivatives. To demonstrate the usefulness of these methods for empirical applications, we examine the time trend in income and earnings inequality of Norwegian males during the period 1967–2005.     

Design considerations for a theory-driven exergame-based rehabilitation program to improve walking of persons with stroke

Virtual rehabilitation approaches for promoting motor recovery has attracted considerable attention in recent years. It appears to be a useful tool to provide beneficial and motivational rehabilitation conditions. Following a stroke, hemiparesis is one of the most disabling impairments and, therefore, many affected people often show substantial deficits in walking abilities. Hence, one of the major goals of stroke rehabilitation is to improve patients' gait characteristics and hence to regain their highest possible level of walking ability. Because previous studies indicate a relationship between walking and balance ability, this article proposes a stroke rehabilitation program that targets balance impairments to improve walking in stroke survivors. Most currently, available stroke rehabilitation programs lack a theory-driven, feasible template consistent with widely accepted motor learning principles and theories in rehabilitation. To address this hiatus, we explore the potential of a set of virtual reality games specifically developed for stroke rehabilitation and ordered according to an established two-dimensional motor skill classification taxonomy. We argue that the ensuing “exergame”-based rehabilitation program warrants individually tailored balance progression in a learning environment that allows variable practice and hence optimizes the recovery of walking ability.