Würdigung

Nachrichten und Mitteilungen

Würdigung     

Success on European Labor Markets: A Cross‐national Comparison of Attainment between Immigrant and Majority Populations1

Typical labor market outcomes vary considerably between majority and migrant populations. Drawing on scholarship from across the social sciences, we assess competing micro‐ and macro‐level explanations of differential occupational attainment among immigrant groups across 28 countries. The analyses of occupational attainment are run separately for first‐ and second‐generation migrants as well as children of mixed marriage and take into account their wider social and cultural background. Results from four rounds of the European Social Survey show that people with a migration background do not necessarily achieve a lower labor market success than the majority. However, human capital, social mobility, and cultural background explain these outcomes to different degrees, suggesting tailored pathways to labor market success for each group of migrants. We also find that occupational attainment varies considerably across countries, although this is hardly attributable to immigration policies. These and other findings are discussed in the light of previous studies on immigrant incorporation.     

The Governance of International Nongovernmental Organizations: How Funding and Volunteer Involvement Affect Board Nomination Modes and Stakeholder Representation in International Nongovernmental Organizations

The governance of civil society organizations (CSOs) is a crucial determinant of organizational legitimacy, accountability, and performance. International nongovernmental organizations (INGOs) are a subtype of CSOs and have received a lot of attention as actors in global governance. Research suggests that INGOs can follow a membership model, where the board is elected by the membership, or a board-managed model, where the board is appointed to represent major stakeholders. Following resource dependency theory, we argue that the choice between these two models depends on the INGOs different sources of funding and the degree of volunteer involvement: As donors and volunteers provide important resources, they are in turn granted the right to nominate board members or to sit on the board. In our quantitative study we show that individual members, regional member organizations, and governmental donors hold a stronger position in the governance of INGOs than philanthropists, foundations and volunteers. Our results inform research on CSO governance by highlighting the relevance of board nomination modes and by showing how CSOs can incorporate stakeholders into their governance mechanisms.     

Ambivalenzen und Widersprüche als Herausforderungen für Change-Manager

Contradictions and ambivalences are some of the phenomena that accompany change processes but are exhausting for those who experience them and have to deal with them. Drawing on surveys held during workshops, this article summarizes which contradictions are typical of change processes. As a possibility for effectively countering such contradictions, the two-stage concept from Müller-Christ and Weßling for tolerating contradictions is introduced based on this. Finally, information and ideas for conducting workshops on the topic of contradiction tolerance are presented.     

Partnersuche im Internet

The aim of this study is to analyze the role of educational qualification in the process of partner choice in “digital marriage markets”. Using unique interaction data of individuals participating in an online dating site, we are able to reconstruct early processes of partner choices of men and women. Our results show that there is a clear tendency towards educational homophily. Individuals therefore have a strong preference for partners with the same educational level. This is particularly true for women. Our results also support the exchange theoretical hypothesis that educational homophily is stronger the higher the level of education is. If we analyze heterophile contact behavior, it is obvious that women are still reluctant to contact men with lower educational degrees. They clearly prefer men with higher educational qualification. For men it is still quite usual to contact women with lower educational degrees. Our findings therefore underline that partner choice today is still dominated by quite traditional gender preferences. Overall, our results show that digital marriage markets do not reduce social distances between social groups. Rather, the high level of homophily seems to close relationships between social groups.     

Determinants of Work-life Balance: Shortcomings in the Contemporary Measurement of WLB in Large-scale Surveys

Research on work-life balance (WLB) has presented important insights into the problems of combining family aspirations with paid work in relation to policy relevant agendas. Using the ESS II (2004/2005), we examine work-related and household/family-related causes of WLB. We can corroborate other research findings that show that work-related aspects explain by far the largest part of the variation in WLB. However, we illustrate that the measurement of WLB is partly problematic. Because WLB scales conceptualize the work component more specifically than the life component, what ‘life’ means remains rather intangible apart from general references to the ‘home’, ‘housework’ and ‘family responsibilities’. This largely neglects different emic dimensions to WLB common to specific subgroups and renders the measurement rather abstract. Second, the wordings of WLB indicators already include their most probable explanations. There is the danger of a circular argument here and many explanations seem tautological. This makes it difficult to conclude on the effects of other than work-related aspects on WLB, which are, arguably, also important aspects of WLB. Finally, WLB scales hardly correlate with relevant external criteria, for instance subjective well-being. Following from these findings, we discuss what these WLB scales could really measure and propose to broaden quantitative empirical approaches to it.

Technology's Four Roles in Understanding Individuals' Conservation of Natural Resources

An overview is presented of four ways in which human beings and technology interact with respect to the conservation of natural resources. The four roles technology plays are: (1) as intermediary, (2) as amplifier, (3) as determinant, and (4) as promoter of environmentally significant behavior. A review of pertinent literature supports the conclusion that behavioral scientists can contribute considerably to reducing overall environmental impact by analyzing human behavior and technology in concert. Problems and opportunities for interventions aimed to enhance resource conservation are discussed, such as rebound effects, allocation of control, and communication with users through technological-environmental and sensory inputs. A major conclusion is that well-designed technical environments, systems, and products have a great potential for supporting environmentally sustainable behavior.     

Which Inequality Makes People Dissatisfied with Their Lives? Evidence of the Link Between Life Satisfaction and Inequalities

This paper aims at establishing a clear link between different types of inequality and life satisfaction in Europe. We analyse the relationship between life satisfaction and both income inequality and inequality of opportunity using seven waves of the European Social Survey. The results show that in Europe both income inequality and inequality of opportunity reduce people’s life satisfaction. Our main results suggest that all socio-economic groups are dissatisfied with income inequality, whereas primarily low socio-economic individuals worry about inequality of opportunity. We find that expected mobility is very important in explaining the link between inequality and life satisfaction for all socio-economic groups in Europe. We advance the hypothesis that life satisfaction is conditioned by a mix of normative arguments against inequality and by the fear/possibility to lose/gain a good social position. This result complements findings on the mediating role of social mobility in the relationship with subjective well-being.