Strukturelle Kränkungen als Thema im Coaching

In this article hurts in the workplace are discussed, which are not aggressions of one person against another person. Rather they are effects of structural conditions in organizations or effects of legal processes in societies. The author presents three case studies with examples of such hurts and she postulates, that the Coach has to reflect political conditions in his work.     

Die Bedeutung der Zinsschranke

The German Corporate Tax Reform Act of 2008 requires an adjustment of classic valuation concepts because it limits interest deduction from taxable income depending on the operating performance of the company. By using time- and state-contingent discount rates in a risk-neutral valuation with predetermined debt levels, a theoretically sound valuation result is obtained. However, a modified APV-concept which assumes deterministic debt over the planning horizon and constant leverage in the terminal value phase also yields consistent valuation results when two types of tax shields with different levels of risk are distinguished.     

Coopetition in coworking-spaces: value creation and appropriation tensions in an entrepreneurial space

Coopetition has the potential to improve entrepreneurship and innovation. It will be prevalent in coworking-spaces building a growing field for individual and corporate entrepreneurship. The individuals’ physical closeness in the professional and social space of the coworking-space eases multifaceted transfers of explicit and implicit knowledge, stimulating creation, transfer, overhaul, and implementation of entrepreneurial ideas. While entrepreneurs in these coworking-spaces collaborate on sharing knowledge and resources and on finding creative ideas from which can breed new venture concepts, they simultaneously compete on the appropriation of values. Thus, entrepreneurs in coworking-spaces face coopetitive tensions of creating and appropriating the values. Based  on  interview data and secondary sources, this paper explains four different prototype institutions of coworking-spaces: the corporate coworking-space, the open corporate coworking-space, the consultancy coworking-space, and the independent coworking-space. Study explains different tensions of value creation and appropriation that occur within the coopetition in the different forms of coworking-spaces.     

Keeping in Touch with Context: Non-verbal Behavior as a Manifestation of Communality and Dominance

This research investigated the influence of observed touch on the perceptions of communality and dominance in dyadic interactions. We manipulated four key situational features of haptic behavior in two experiments: the initiation, reciprocity, the degree of formality of touch (Studies 1 and 2), and the context of the interaction (Study 2). The results showed that the default perception of touch, irrespective of whether it is initiated or reciprocated, is the communal intention of the toucher. Furthermore, the initiation of touch was seen as an act of dominance, particularly, when the contact between the actors was primed as being hierarchical. Reciprocation neutralized the perceived asymmetry in dominance, but such inferences seemed to hinge on the fit of the touch with the context: reciprocation of formal touch reduced the asymmetry in the hierarchical context, whereas reciprocation of informal touch reduced the asymmetry in the non-hierarchical context.     

Der Schichtgradient von Morbidität und Mortalität

As in many other European countries a contradictory development can be observed in Austria, too: On the one hand, life expectancy increases continuously while incidence and prevalence rates of many groups of diagnoses decrease. On the other hand, differences in morbidity and mortality between the social classes are widening at the same time. This article’s aim is to develop a comprehensive theoretical model of explanation of this social class gradient including the current state of discussion on “health inequalities”. Aspects of material inequality as well as the socially unequal distribution of working and living conditions will be taken into account. In addition, the importance of cultural capital and class-specific lifestyles will be described in detail. Last but not least psychosocial and biological preconditions and potential selection processes will also be taken into consideration.     

Working Poor

The study compares relative risks of working poor in the US and Germany. The risk of working poor is assumed to be a consequence of both the macro-structural change towards post-industrial service societies and the micro-structural change of private households. From this twofold perspective, the guiding hypotheses are developed and then tested with the German Socio-Economic Panel (GSOEP) and the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID). The risk of working poor has increased both in Germany and the United States. Both commonalities and marked differences appear: Whereas high numbers of children dominate risks in the US, the German risk-set is determined by the hurdle between part-time and fulltime households, which disadvantages young and lone parents particularly. A common development is the successive devaluation of fulltime employment by sector risks which are growing into the fulltime labour market even in Germany.     

Interkulturelles Training

With proceeding internationalization and globalization of society the demands of working life have changed in the last decades. To meet these demands executives and professionals cooperating with foreign partners abroad or in Germany need the central key qualification of intercultural competence. This important key qualification does not evolve automatically from intercultural experiences, but has to be acquired during an extensive learning process, which is mainly organized in intercultural trainings. This text first describes what intercultural competence is and how it is developed. Based on scientific findings on developmental stages of intercultural competence central aspects of intercultural trainings are covered in detail. Objectives and methods of various intercultural training formats are outlined to illustrate the conceptualization and outcomes of learning effective trainings. The text concludes with future developments of intercultural training in the light of expatriates facing increasing demands regarding the quality of their work. Trainee groups will become more culturally heterogeneous, more trainings will be needed that moderate acculturation processes while staying abroad, training contents and methods have to be adapted according to local customs, modern information technology will play a major role, and family members coming along have to be involved in the training process.     

Art, Nationalism and War: Political Futurism in Italy (1909–1944)

Futurism was launched as a revolutionary, iconoclastic movement encompassing the arts, politics and society. It rejected all ties with the past and preached with missionary zeal the advent of a new man and the total reconstruction of society. Despite its powerful impact on Italian politics, the importance of Futurism has scarcely been addressed in the social sciences. Yet, it continues to attract the interest of historians, literary critics and art historians. In fact, the major methodological hindrance for a more articulated research remains the latter's unchallenged hegemony, with their selective propensity to eulogistic accounts. The result is the neglect of Futurism's political dimension as a fully fledged nationalist movement. Aiming to redress this imbalance, the article analyzes Futurist politics through the movement's actions, proclaims and manifestos. It distinguishes early Futurism's anti-establishment ultra-nationalism (1909–1915) from the more institutionalized 'muscular' patriotism adopted after its merger with Fascism (1924–1944). In a global context of mounting nationalist state-building and spiralling inter-state rivalries, Italy's unitary, homogenizing nationalism provided a congenial matrix for the advent of war-mongering patriotism and irredentism. Here, Futurism found an ideal structure of political opportunities, in which it could articulate its unique repertoire of action. The futurists' peculiar talent in 'manufacturing consent' through the media was put to test in their marketing of war as adventurous boundary-building enterprise, a vision subsequently appropriated by Fascism.