Zeit und Mediation

The idea to go into the relationship between time and mediation comes from practical experience. (Mediation in industry, commerce and trade ist dealt with here.) As I am a mediator in medium-sized and large companies, I have to trace the often hidden reasons for conflicts and confront the conflicting parties with them. They can then try to overcome them through their own resources expressed in a long-lasting consensus. Both, the process of conflict counselling through mediation as a whole and the causes which create and escalate conflicts in the world of work, depend on and are determined by the time factor in my experience. However, when causes and solutions dealing with the conflict process, mainly, but not only, depend on the time constellation. This being the case then the opposite can apply. Thus, time-management in production and personnel leadership which is based on the human principles of mediation serves to prevent conflict from developing. Furthermore, it operates prophylactically where conflict is pre-programmed when the way people cooperate is sometimes at odds with successful management geared to market conditions not primarily concerned with the human needs of people working in these structure.     

A Bayesian Approach to Quantify the Contribution of Animal-Food Sources to Human Salmonellosis

Based on the data from the integrated Danish Salmonella surveillance in 1999, we developed a mathematical model for quantifying the contribution of each of the major animal-food sources to human salmonellosis. The model was set up to calculate the number of domestic and sporadic cases caused by different Salmonella sero and phage types as a function of the prevalence of these Salmonella types in the animal-food sources and the amount of food source consumed. A multiparameter prior accounting for the presumed but unknown differences between serotypes and food sources with respect to causing human salmonellosis was also included. The joint posterior distribution was estimated by fitting the model to the reported number of domestic and sporadic cases per Salmonella type in a Bayesian framework using Markov Chain Monte Carlo simulation. The number of domestic and sporadic cases was obtained by subtracting the estimated number of travel- and outbreak-associated cases from the total number of reported cases, i.e., the observed data. The most important food sources were found to be table eggs and domestically produced pork comprising 47.1% (95% credibility interval, CI: 43.3-50.8%) and 9% (95% CI: 7.8-10.4%) of the cases, respectively. Taken together, imported foods were estimated to account for 11.8% (95% CI: 5.0-19.0%) of the cases. Other food sources considered had only a minor impact, whereas 25% of the cases could not be associated with any source. This approach of quantifying the contribution of the various sources to human salmonellosis has proved to be a valuable tool in risk management in Denmark and provides an example of how to integrate quantitative risk assessment and zoonotic disease surveillance.     

Négociation et performance: une analyse exhaustive et précise de l'effet de différents systèmes de négociation sur la productivité des entreprises

S'appuyant sur des données représentatives au niveau des entreprises, disponibles pour l'ensemble de l'UE, les auteurs analysent la relation entre les processus et structures institutionnelles de négociation collective et l'évolution de la productivité du travail. Ils montrent que la nature du système de négociation a une influence marquée: certaines caractéristiques sont associées à une baisse de performance (notamment la présence d'un système de négociation sectorielle non coordonné), d'autres à une amélioration (systèmes sectoriels coordonnés). Plus que le caractère individuel ou collectif de la négociation, c'est donc bien la nature des processus et structures dans lesquels elle s'inscrit qui importe en la matière.     

The performance effects of collective and individual bargaining: A comprehensive and granular analysis of the effects of different bargaining systems on company productivity

Using representative company‐level data for all Member States of the European Union, the authors analyse the relationship between different processes and institutional structures of collective bargaining and the development of company labour productivity. Their results clearly show that these differences have wide‐ranging effects. While some processes and structures of collective bargaining – specifically sectorally uncoordinated systems – appear to be detrimental to company performance, the opposite can be said about sectorally coordinated systems. Thus, what matters are the processes and institutional structures in which collective bargaining is embedded and not whether bargaining should be conducted collectively or individually.     

Macht ökonomische Bildung die Marktwirtschaft sozialer?

Market economy is normatively ambivalent. It justifies individual self-interest; however it also provides an at least partly respectable level of satisfaction of needs. Economics education plays an interesting role concerning this ambivalence as it changes the relation between these two sides. An increase in economic competences seems to cause a shift from intentionalistic to systemic concepts and along with that a shift from deontological to consequentialist attitudes. In this respect it is important to notice that these shifts are caused by economic learning in educational context and not through every-day experience. With economic education thus increases the acceptance of market economy and the rejection of some deontological claims.