Paths towards Family‐friendly Working Time Arrangements: Comparing Workplaces in Different Countries and Industries

Although studies have examined the distribution and conditions of employer‐provided work–family arrangements, we still lack a systematic investigation of how these vary for different countries and industries. Based on the European Working Conditions Survey 2010, this study examines the conditions under which firms provide family‐friendly working time arrangements and what the differences are across four countries (Austria, Denmark, Italy and the UK) and four industries. The impact of employee representatives, employee involvement, manager support and female managers varies across countries and industries because of the institutional environment (prevailing family model, industrial relations) and workforce composition (gender). The impact of employee representatives depends on their co‐determination rights, and the direction of their effect on the prevailing family model (e.g. negative in conservative countries such as Austria) and the gender composition of the workforce (negative in male‐dominated production, but positive in services). Employee involvement in the work organization is significantly positive in Austria and Denmark (both with co‐operative industrial relations), while manager support has the strongest effect in the UK (liberal regime). At the industry level, female supervisors are positively associated with family‐friendly working time arrangements only in the male‐dominated production industry. These findings suggest that the effects of agency variables and their direction vary depending on the institutional context.     

Die Organisation kollektiver Aktionen durch Beeinflussung der individuellen Teilnahmeentscheidung

Computer simulations allow a more optimal organization of collective action. For this purpose, the present study followed an actor-centered approach, in which the actor’s decision to participate in collective action is modeled on the basis of an expansion of the Theory of Planned Behavior. The variables used in the model of the individual’s decision to participate in a collective action are attitude, return, subjective social norm, and perceived behavior control with regard to participation. With these four variables, various social scientific theories are integrated (Elaboration Likelihood Model, Theory of Planned Behavior, Rational Choice Theory). These theories allow a conceptualization of interactions among individuals, and the effect of the active people, who seek to recruit others to participate in a collective action, can be studied. Simulations of a population of 10,000 individuals reveal the influence of the following factors on the effectiveness of collective action campaigns: different forms of recruitment by activators, the amount of contributions to the collective good of the participants, the size of the collective good, and the resources available to activators (training in persuasion methods, possibility to reward participants). Finally, simulation results are summarized in the form of recommendations for implementation when organizing collective action.     

Weshalb die Separierung von Produktivitätseffekten und Diskriminierung bei der studentischen Lehrveranstaltungsbewertung misslingt

In their article “Mein(schöner)Prof.de. The Physical Attractiveness of Academic Staff and Its Influence on Evaluations by Students”, Ulrich Rosar and Markus Klein try to show that attractive teachers don’t perform better in the classroom. There are three objections against their conclusion from the empirical analyses based on data from the online platform MeinProf.de: the high selectivity of the used sample, the missing control for relevant covariates as well as the choice of the modeling strategy and the interpretation of the statistical models. These arguments are also backed with data of “real” students’ evaluations of teaching at the LMU Munich. It is recommended to use such “real” students’ evaluations of teaching instead of selective samples from online platforms and to (consistently) include relevant confounding factors, which seem to be relevant from a theoretical and empirical perspective, such as the students’ prior interest in the topic of the course and the course type into the analyses. Furthermore, it is suggested to clearly separate statistical detectability of effects from their practical relevance.     

The effects of propensity score weighting on attrition biases in attitudinal,behavioral, and socio-demographic variables in a short-term web-based panel survey

Propensity score weighting often is used to correct for attrition biases in panel surveys. While methodological literature exists on the logic of propensity score weighting and its practical applications, an in-depth discussion is lacking on the effects of using this weighting to correct for attrition biases in attitudinal, behavioral, and socio-demographic variables. By applying a split panel design, we assessed the effects of weighting on attrition biases in 48 attitudinal, 38 behavioral, and 27 socio-demographic variables. Our findings suggest – while acknowledging the estimate-specific nature of bias – first, that biases vary across these types of variables and second, that the effects of propensity score weighting are not homogeneous across the types. Accordingly, a sole reliance on socio-demographics to evaluate attrition in the present panel survey would have resulted in an underestimation of the biases of attitudinal variables and an overestimation of the ability of weighting to cure the negative effects of attrition in behavioral variables.     

At risk of exclusion? Degrees of ICT access and literacy among senior citizens

Drawing on data derived from a nationwide postal survey (n?=?1264) with a simple random sample of Swedes between ages 65 and 85 (response rate: 63%), the article analyses the general patterns of: (a) degrees of information and communication (ICT) access and (b) ICT-literacy among Swedish senior citizens. The overall patterns of access and literacy are analysed in light of senior citizens’ assets – conceptualized as material, discursive and social resources – and their age and gender. The analysis reveals a positive correlation between levels of material (e.g., income), discursive (e.g., English skills) and social (e.g., social networks) resources and access to ICT. With greater resources, the average number of devices increases. The analysis also reveals a positive correlation between discursive and social resources and ICT-literacy. Gender has no bearing on access to devices, but might have some effect on ICT-literacy. The correlation between age, access and literacy is negative. With increasing age, both access and literacy decreases. In this respect, the study reveals a generational effect. However, since all three resources tend to decrease over the life cycle, the results are also discussed in terms of an age effect. These data and our analyses are contextualized by a critical discussion that reflects on the implications of these general patterns: What do they mean for senior citizens’ abilities to be included and participate in a continuously digitalizing society?     

Wie ist Globalisierung m?glich? Zur Entstehung globaler Vergleichshorizonte am Beispiel von Wissenschaft und Sport

The article conceives of globalization as a highly improbable phenomenon. In contrast to the mainstream of the globalization literature, we ask under which conditions the globalization of societal fields can potentially become an empirical reality. We proceed in three steps: The second part presents an explanatory model that identifies the conditions under which global horizons of comparison may emerge. Our model is predicated on the assumption that the globalization of societal fields is enabled not only by relational linkages (??ties??) but by public comparative discourses (??cultural linkages??) too. In the third part, we apply this model on the development of modern science and competitive sports, proving the explanatory power of our model and showing that in both cases global horizons of comparison first consolidated in the late 19^th century. The final part concludes with reflections on commonalities and differences between the two cases, on the applicability of the model to other social fields (e.g, economy) and on its implications for the analysis of globalization processes.     

Irregularly observed time series – some asymptotics and the block bootstrap

We consider time series being observed at random time points. In addition to Parzen's classical modelling by amplitude modulating sequences, we state another modelling using an integer-valued sequence as the observation times. Limiting results are presented for the sample mean and are generalized to the class of functions of smooth means. Motivated by the complicated limiting behaviour, (moving) block bootstrap possibilities are investigated. Conditional on the used modelling for the irregular spacings, one is lead to different interpretations for the block length and hence bootstrap approaches. The block length either can be interpreted as the time (resulting in an observation string of fixed length containing a random number of observations) or as the number of observations (resulting in an observation string of variable length containing a fixed number of values). Both bootstrap approaches are shown to be asymptotically valid for the sample mean. Numerical examples and an application to real-world ozone data conclude the study.     

Modelling of a thermomechanically coupled forming process based on functional outputs from a finite element analysis and from experimental measurements

In this paper, measurements from experiments and results of a finite element analysis (FEA) are combined in order to compute accurate empirical models for the temperature distribution before a thermomechanically coupled forming process. To accomplish this, Design and Analysis of Computer Experiments (DACE) is used to separately compute models for the measurements and the functional output of the FEA. Based on a hierarchical approach, a combined model of the process is computed. In this combined modelling approach, the model for the FEA is corrected by taking into account the systematic deviations from the experimental measurements. The large number of observations based on the functional output hinders the direct computation of the DACE models due to the internal inversion of the correlation matrix. Thus, different techniques for identifying a relevant subset of the observations are proposed. The application of the resulting procedure is presented, and a statistical validation of the empirical models is performed.