Aesthetic leadership

We introduce aesthetic leadership as a promising approach in leadership studies. Two current movements in leadership research, the inclusion of followers in leadership models and the exploration of subjective leadership qualities, make taking an aesthetic perspective in leadership especially attractive and timely. Aesthetics relates to felt meaning generated from sensory perceptions, and involves subjective, tacit knowledge rooted in feeling and emotion. We believe the aesthetics of leadership is an important, but little understood, aspect of organizational life. For example, while we know followers must attribute leadership qualities such as charisma and authenticity to leaders to allow for social influence, we know little about how these processes operate. We propose that followers use their aesthetic senses in making these assessments. We relate aesthetic leadership to several current topics in leadership research, and outline the assumptions and methods of aesthetic leadership.     

Sensibilisierung gegenüber Fremdenfeindlichkeit und Rassismus — Ergebnisse einer wissenschaftlichen Begleitung des XENOS-Projektes „Konzeptwerkstatt gegen Rechts“

The focal point of this study is to investigate, on the basis of social psychological constructs, whether the Deutsche Angestellten-Akademie Südbayern’s (The German Employee Academy of Southern Bavaria) XENOS project “Konzeptwerkstatt gegen Rechts” (Concept Workshop Against Right Extremism), supported within the framework of the XENOS Program (01/01/2003 — 31/12/2005), achieved its goal to reduce the xenophobic attitudes of trainees. Applying a quasi-experimental “one-group pre-test/post-test plane” and various attitude/prejudice assessment methods, four hypotheses were tested. Although it was not possible to empirically confirm all the formulated hypotheses, the measures of the XENOS project “Konzeptwerkstatt gegen Rechts” (Concept Workshop Against Right Extremism), represent a successful approach to reduce students’ xenophobic attitudes, stereotypes and prejudices towards foreigners.     

The Micro Potential for Social Change: Emotion, Consciousness, and Social Movement Formation

Can one explain both the resilience of the status quo and the possibility for resistance from a subordinate position? This paper aims to resolve these seemingly incompatible perspectives. By extending Randall Collins's interaction ritual theory, and synthesizing it with Norbert Wiley's model of the self, this paper suggests how the emotional dynamics between people and within the self can explain social inertia as well as the possibility for resistance and change. Diverging from literature on the sociology of emotions that has been concerned with individual emotional processes, this paper considers the collective level in order to explore how movement action is motivated. The emotional dynamics of subordinate positioning that limit women's options in face-to-face interactions are examined, as are the social processes of developing feminist consciousness and a willingness to participate in resistance work. Pointing toward empirical applications, I conclude by suggesting conditions where resistance is likely.     

The Role of Contact and Information in Racial Attitude Change among White College Students*

While much research has been done on the determinants of change in prejudice among whites, relatively little is known about the process of change in contemporary racial attitudes, variously described as symbolic racism, laissez‐faire racism, or color‐blind racism. This article uses data from a sample of white college students to examine the impact of intergroup contact and exposure to information about racial issues on changes in contemporary racial attitudes and feelings toward blacks (a key component of prejudice), using Pettigrew's (1998) model of the process by which contact produces change in racial attitudes. Results provide support for Pettigrew's model, showing while contact is important in changing whites’ feelings about blacks, both contact and exposure to information about race are important predictors of changes in contemporary racial attitudes. A comparison of longitudinal and cross‐sectional models of contemporary racial attitudes suggests that contact, especially in setting with “friendship potential,” has an impact on attitudes both directly and indirectly, through providing avenues through which racial information can be obtained as well as by providing motivation to pay attention to it.     

Strategie- und Organisationsentwicklung in KMUs – von der Abstraktion zur Konkretisierung

Despite the importance of strategic measures for organizational development in small and medium sized companies, it often remains quite difficult to integrate such activities. Access to consultancy and continuing education on offer in this field is being impeded by lack of resources, such as time, personnel and finance, as well as by the abstract nature of the theme itself and the lack of familiarity with this learning and counseling situation. Three fields of tension are focused on: Teaching and learning as a management of contradictions, strategy between myth and reality, and the role that tools play in working with strategies. Against the backdrop of the experiences in a project that combined elements of research, counseling and continuing education the article points out challenges for institutions promoting economic development, for entrepreneurs, and for researchers or consultants in such a context.     

The role of exercise on the innate immunity of the elderly

The increased life span in human population has shown that some diseases, as infections, cancer and autoimmune phenomena, occur more frequently in the elderly than in the younger. We describe the ageing process involving the innate immune system and the improvement given by moderate physical activity. In addition, we discuss the altered neutrophil granulocytes function, the role of macrophages and natural killer cells, besides the influence of cytokines and secretory IgA. The acquired information help us to explain how these changes could favor the onset of diseases in the elderly and how they may boost their immune function.     

Parental Emotion Coaching and Dismissing in Family Interaction

We observed the positive emotion socialization practice of parental emotion coaching (EC) and the negative socialization practice of emotion dismissing (ED) during a family interaction task and examined their effects on children's emotion regulation and behavior problems in middle childhood. Participants were 87 sociodemographically diverse families (children aged 8–11 years; 46 girls). Outcome measures included mother, father and teacher reports of emotion regulation and behavior problems. ED was a risk factor, contributing to poorer emotion regulation and more behavioral problems. EC did not offer direct benefits for children's emotional and behavioral outcomes, but interacted with ED such that it protected children from the detrimental effects of ED. This protective effect was found for parents' coaching of negative but not positive emotions. Findings suggested that in family emotion conversation, EC and ED interact in complex ways as risk and protective dimensions of family process.     

Killing animals: sociology,species relations and institutionalized violence

Influential voices have argued for a sociology which acknowledges the way we are co‐constituted with a range of non‐human species as part of the condition of life on this planet. Despite this, sociology has generally retained a conception of the social that is centred on the human. This paper argues for the inclusion of non‐human animals in sociological agendas, focusing on the emerging field of the sociology of violence. It examines the institutions and processes through which non‐human animals are subjected to different forms of violence, most notably, mass killing. The practice of killing animals is routine, normative, institutionalized and globalized. The scale of killing is historically unprecedented and the numbers killed are enormous. The paper argues that this killing of non‐humans raises questions around inequalities and intersectionality, human relations with other species, the embedding of violence in everyday practices and links between micro and macro analyses. These are questions with which the new sociology of violence might engage.     

Academic mothers,professional identity and COVID-19: Feminist reflections on career cycles,progression and practice

Based on a collection of auto-ethnographic narratives that reflect our experiences as academic mothers at an Australian university, this paper seeks to illustrate the impact of COVID-19 on our career cycles in order to explore alternative feminist models of progression and practice in Higher Education. Collectively, we span multiple disciplines, parenting profiles, and racial/ethnic backgrounds. Our narratives (initiated in 2019) explicate four focal points in our careers as a foundation for analyzing self-definitions of professional identity: pre- and post-maternity career break; and pre- and post-COVID-19 career. We have modeled this research on a collective feminist research practice that is generative and empowering in terms of self-reflective models of collaborative research. Considering this practice and these narratives, we argue for a de-centering of masculinized career cycle patterns and progression pathways both now and beyond COVID-19. This represents both a challenge to neo-liberal norms of academic productivity, as well as a call to radically enhance institutional gender equality policies and practice.