Compliance and Non-Compliance with a Superordinate Directive Document

We report a study of how a Norwegian regional health care agency directive document was complied with at the subordinate hospital level. We found tight coupling for the activity and budget requirements and loose coupling and decoupling for the other requirements in the document. Furthermore, rather than pursuing their own self- and group interests the hospital actors held an overall effectiveness logic.     

Work–Life,Diversity and Intersectionality: A Critical Review and Research Agenda

Work–life issues have important implications at both organizational and individual levels. This paper provides a critical review of the work–life literature from 1990 onwards through the lens of diversity, with a particular focus on disparities of power induced by methodological and conceptual framings of work and life. The review seeks to answer the following questions: What are the gaps and omissions in the work–life research? How may they be overcome? To answer these questions, the review scrutinizes blind spots in the treatment of life, diversity and power in work–life research in both positivist and critical scholarship. In order to transcend the blind spots in positivist and critical work–life research, the review argues the case for an intersectional approach which captures the changing realities of family and workforce through the lens of diversity and intersectionality. The theoretical contribution is threefold: first, the review demonstrates that contemporary framing of life in the work–life literature should be expanded to cover aspects of life beyond domestic life. Second, the review explains why and how other strands of diversity than gender also manifest as salient causes of difference in experiences of the work–life interface. Third, the review reveals that social and historical context has more explanatory power in work–life dynamics than the micro‐individual level of explanations. Work–life literature should capture the dynamism in these contexts. The paper also provides a set of useful recommendations to capture and operationalize methodological and theoretical changes required in the work–life literature.     

纯粹的卡里斯玛及其传导性:当代康区及果洛地区藏传佛教转世喇嘛的心景

本文旨在对当代康区及果洛地区藏传佛教在复兴背景下纯粹的卡里斯玛(genuine charisma)现象进行一种社会学的研讨,其关注的焦点是当代我国境内藏传佛教的转世喇嘛的内质及其集体功能.在理论层面上,这篇文章质疑了马克斯·韦伯(Max Weber)的观点,他仅将卡里斯玛看作个人人格魅力,并且认为它经历着一个日常化(routinization)及最终消亡(denuse)的过程.作者基于对藏族深具魅力的转世喇嘛及其与寺院制度共生关系的认识,提出了在藏文化情境中,纯粹的卡里斯玛不仅是以个体人格为中心的现象,更关键的,它还是古老宗教体系集体性的表现.这类佛教里的纯粹卡里斯玛,不仅其再生得到了藏传佛教寺院制度的支撑,甚至还可以在希望获得它的人们身上传导.     

Notwendigkeit,Ziele und Inhalte einer Ethik-Ausbildung in der Betriebswirtschaftslehre

Although business administration scholars in German-speaking countries increasingly engage in business ethics research, their business schools have so far not systematically included ethics related contents into their standard curricula. Based on an understanding of business administration as an applied discipline that should not shun the scientific discussion of normative statements, this article argues that our field needs to address ethical questions not only in research but also in teaching. The subsequent analysis addresses aims, contents, and methods of teaching business ethics in higher education. Rather than teaching students ‘moral truths’, the main aim of business ethics education is seen in providing students with a variety of theories, concepts, and tools that are able to support them in ethical decision processes, which they are likely to encounter in their management careers.     

Realisierung von Cross-Selling Potenzialen durch das Management von kundeninitiierten Kontakten

Existing research has not sufficiently addressed the question of how to cross-sell additional products and services to customers and what the behavioral consequences of cross-selling are. Moreover, these cross-selling-related questions have not been investigated in the context of customer-initiated contacts.The contribution of the paper is the empirical analysis of metrics which can be used to predict cross-selling success, e.g., in a call-center. The results show that two metrics, namely first contact resolution and reason for contact, significantly predict cross-selling success. Another contribution is the analysis of behavioral consequences. Here the results show that usage intensity significantly increases the time directly after the cross-selling took place but relapses to the original level within a few weeks.The results of the study can be used to derive managerial implications for managing and controlling cross-selling initiatives and for increasing and stabilizing cash-flows.     

Evidence maps: communicating risk assessments in societal controversies: the case of engineered nanoparticles

The transparent and fair characterization of scientific evidence for reporting the results of a hazard assessment is a demanding task. In this article, we present an approach for characterizing evidence--the evidence map approach. The theoretical starting point is to view evidence characterization as a form of argumentation. Thus, evidence maps are designed to depict the evidence base, the pro and con arguments, and the remaining uncertainties, which together lead experts to their conclusions when summarizing and evaluating the scientific evidence about a potential hazard. To illustrate its use, the evidence maps approach is applied to characterizing the health-relevant effects of engineered nanoparticles. Empirical data from an online survey suggests that the use of evidence maps improves the reporting of hazard assessments. Nonexperts prefer to receive the information included in an evidence map in order to come to an informed judgment. Furthermore, the benefits and limitations of evidence maps are discussed in the light of recent literature on risk communication. Finally, the article underlines the need for further research in order to increase quality of evidence reporting.     

Synergistic effect of social support and self-efficacy on physical exercise in older adults

The purpose of the current study was to examine whether the effects of social support on physical exercise in older adults depend on individual perceptions of self-efficacy. Three hundred nine older German adults (age 65-85) were assessed at 3 points in time (3 months apart). In hierarchical-regression analyses, support received from friends and exercise self-efficacy were specified as predictors of exercise frequency while baseline exercise, sex, age, and physical functioning were controlled for. Besides main effects of self-efficacy and social support, an interaction between social support and self-efficacy emerged. People with low self-efficacy were less likely to be active in spite of having social support. People with low support were less likely to be active even if they were high in self-efficacy. This points to the importance of both social support and self-efficacy and implies that these resources could be targets of interventions to increase older adults' exercise.     

Empowerment von chirurgischen PatientInnen — Modelle, Interventionen, Effekte, Erfolgsbedingungen

Empowerment of patients is an important strategy in Health Promotion. Recent discussions within this context stress the relevance of the improvement of health literacy and health behaviour of patients for the improvement of health status. Communication between patients and professionals is emphasised as a main tool and quality factor. In the framework of a model project subsidised by the Austrian Federal Ministry of Social Security and Generations three Austrian Hospitals implemented and evaluated interventions to improve the quality of communication between hospital staff and patients for the improvement of patient information and co-production of health in the care process. Effects of interventions were evaluated in a before-and-after study (baseline n = 257 patients: 113 general surgery, 100 cardiac surgery, 44 thorax surgery; evaluation n = 208 patients: 63 general surgery, 99 cardiac surgery, 46 thorax surgery) with data from a patient questionnaire (satisfaction with care and communication, self reported health status) and documentation of post-surgical health outcome (complications, length of stay in hospital) and by measuring self reported improvement of health literacy and health behaviour of patients after the intervention. Results show that improvement of communication has effects on patient satisfaction as well as on postsurgical health outcome. Especially in cardiac surgery, where communication with patients was improved by interventions covering the whole inpatient care process from admission to discharge, a considerable increase of patient satisfaction and a decrease of postsurgical complications can be reported.     

Epistemological problems and the personality and social system in social psychology

If we understand social psychology to be an area where sociology and psychology overlap, or more precisely where we try to explain interaction on the basis of psychological and sociological propositions and concepts, we have singled out a field that should be quite challenging not only in theory and method but in the fundamental questions it raises for both sociology and psychology. Actually, the discipline is not that well integrated and is constituted by such disparate approaches as reinforcement theory, field theory, role theory, small group theory, game theory and psychoanalysis. Many sociologists have abandoned the field altogether. Nor have the proponents of these sub-fields made much effort to consolidate, integrate or reconcile their methodologies. Epistemological questions have been notably absent and only now have arguments from the philosophy of science point of view reemerged to revive the critical and potentially fruitful methodological discussions of earlier theorists (F. Allport; Lewin; Mead; Simmel) and their more recent followers (Homans; Malewski). After considering epistemological problems dealing with the generality of theory and explanation, behavioristic vs. action approaches, operational and model structural implications, we want to argue for a better understanding of social system variables besides those of the personality system and of system theory in general. In our discussion we use examples from the area of sport because it composes a complex system, that is not too difficult to observe at the same time that it shows in relative clarity all of the different levels of an action system. It has, furthermore, many features of an almost experimental design in a natural field. In so far it is a model area to allow due consideration for our demand that social psychology rediscover the method of field studies. This will help to reverse the trend characterized by a general neglect of theory that has resulted from behavioral dogmatism and the expedience of research pragmatism based mostly on two-variable linear models. This is not to say that we disfavor rigorous research design and data analysis - to the contrary. We just want it to be done in the context of broader theoretical concerns and in clear recognition of the pitfalls of operationalism and the merits of action theory.     

Analyzing disaster risks and plans: An avian flu example

Narrative approaches to analyzing risks seek to identify the variables critical to creating and controlling a risk, then to instantiate them in terms of coherent themes (e.g., organizational failure, strategic surprise). Computational approaches to analyzing risks seek to identify the same critical variables, then to instantiate them in terms of their probability. Disaster risk analysis faces complex, novel processes that strain the capabilities of both approaches. We propose an approach that integrates elements of each, relying on what we call structured scenarios and computable models. It is illustrated by framing the analysis of plans for a possible avian flu pandemic.