Die Evaluation von betrieblichen Weiterbildungsma?nahmen

Although there is a sharp increase of job training measures in firms we have scarce knowledge if and how the management check the quality of those programs by assigning evaluation instruments. This is especially crucial for training measures which are provided by firm-external trainers. In this paper we focus on the assignment of evaluation procedures which can be analyzed as a result of rational decision making as well as a process driven by institutional determinants. Based on the Swiss Organization Survey on Job Training we test some hypotheses derived from both theoretical frameworks. The results show that the assignment of evaluation instruments varies in respect to the type of job training or the characteristics of the department??s managers. We conclude that the decisions on evaluation measures are driven by cost-benefit analysis as well as imitation of other firms.     

Chemical Spill Exposure Assessment

POSSM, the PCB On-Site Spill Model, is a contaminant transport model developed to predict environmental concentrations associated with a chemical spill. The model predicts daily changes in chemical concentrations on a spill site (e.g., in soil and on vegetation) and losses of chemical due to volatilization, surface runoff/soil erosion, and leaching to groundwater. Spill areas consisting of soil/vegetation and/or an impervious surface (e.g., asphalt and concrete) can be analyzed, as can different spill cleanup practices. POSSM is used to analyze exposure levels associated with a hypothetical capacitor spill. While the model was developed for PCB spills, it is generally applicable to a number of organic compounds.     

Simplest strategies method for manufacturing workcell restoration

We consider the production process of a manufacturing workcell. Production items obtained from an outside supplier are not processed adequately as far as their quality is concerned. Production items meeting the required quality depend on the workcell state, which degrades according to the number of produced items. The workcell is completely restored by some restoring operations leading to its as-new condition. The method of deriving the restoration period, which leads to the maximum probability that produced items meet the required quality, is introduced. It is based on the nontraditional approach, i.e. on the simplest strategies method for the formulation of the problem presented here. The implementation of this optimization approach is illustrated with an example.     

Exploring turnover intentions among three professional groups of employees

Abstract

Although considerable research effort has been devoted to understanding work attitudes, behaviours and outcomes regarding turnover intentions, little has been done to explore it across different professions. This study takes a step in this direction and examines the effect of affective commitment, job satisfaction and job performance on turnover intentions across three professions. To this end, we surveyed three professional groups of employees and managers: financial officers and social workers employed in the public sector and lawyers employed in the private sector. The results of these three studies show that turnover intentions vary across these professions. Social workers exhibit lower turnover intentions than financial officers and lawyers, who tend to exhibit high turnover intentions. In addition, we found that job satisfaction and affective commitment are negatively associated with turnover intentions, while no significant relationship was found to exist between job performance and turnover intentions. The implications of this study suggest that both researchers and practitioners should take into consideration not only the organizational context, but also the occupational context while exploring the process of voluntary turnover.     

How top management team behavioral integration and behavioral complexity enable organizational ambidexterity: The moderating role of contextual ambidexterity

Little is known about how top management teams (TMTs) make balanced strategic decisions (exploration and exploitation) and spearhead organizational ambidexterity. To address the theoretical call to explore how TMTs can help create ambidexterity, we propose a theoretical model where TMT behavioral integration cultivates behavioral complexity in a TMT that can build organizational ambidexterity. Further, we argue that the relationship between TMT behavioral complexity and organizational ambidexterity is moderated by contextual ambidexterity. Drawing on research in the areas of leadership, TMT, organizational context and ambidexterity, we explore implications for future research.     

Voting power: an information theory approach

In recent years, there has been increasing awareness of the importance of formal measures of voting power and of the relevance of such measures to real life political issues. Nevertheless, existing measures have been criticized, especially because of their dependence on the unrealistic assumption that different coalitions have equal probabilities. In this paper we show that the classical problem of measuring voting power can be naturally embedded in information theory. This perspective on voting power allows us to extend measures of voting power to cases in which there are dependencies among voters. In doing so, we distinguish between two different notions of a given voter’s power—‘control’ and ‘informativeness’—corresponding, respectively, to the average uncertainty regarding the outcome of a vote that remains when all others have voted and the average uncertainty that is eliminated when only the given voter has voted. This distinction settles a number of well-known paradoxes and enables the study of voting power on the basis of actual political behavior at all levels.     

Isolation as a Form of Marital Violence: The South Asian Immigrant Experience

Isolation is an important factor in marital abuse among South Asian immigrant families. It lends itself to the invisibility immigrant women experience based on their ethno-gender status in the United States. Drawn from unstructured interviews with abused South Asian immigrant women, three different levels of isolation are explained. The first level involves the quality of a woman's relationship with her spouse; the second is related to the frequency and quality of social interaction with friends, relatives, and coworkers; and the third is explained in terms of the level of access to and participation in the ethnic community and other formal institutions.