Denn sie wissen was sie tun!

Information and communication technologies (IT) permeate both the business and the private world. They cause profound changes for companies in terms of structure, leadership, culture, education and the position of individuals within the context of the company. Established structures, decision making habits and methods of communication are being called into question. This means that communication is neither explicitly controllable nor in some cases even specified, but it also should not be viewed as arbitrary. Structures which are treated as contingent require meta-management, reflection and determination. Leaders are forced to act within a constellation of tensions between the reduction and the expansion of complexity as basic functions of structuring. Ideally this type of steering takes place consciously and with a view toward the future, taking into account the increasing complexity and dynamics of the environment and the corporate culture. Empirical studies of our four intervention research projects show that the situation for many companies is sobering. Companies cannot always entirely interpret the rapid development of communication technologies and the consequences it brings with it, nor can they completely make use of its potential advantages. Companies and individuals are forced to think actively within the networked economy. The demand for further education shifts between the company (expertise, employee loyalty) on the one hand and the responsibility of the individual for his or her own development on the other. Agreements are the key to bringing harmony and new solutions to the conflicts among the differing interests of individuals, subsystems and the company as a whole. Considering the complex requirements for companies and management caused by IT, this article shows that reflective observation of intervention research, guided by theory and with a focus on targeted change of management practice, is a process which provides new opportunities for action in both theory and practice. In this process, focusing (systemization) and reflection (enhancement of perspectives) are fundamental keys for dealing with complexity.     

Coaching für Habilitand/innen am Beispiel der LMU München

This practice report describes coachings for junior faculty members at LMU Munich. First, we describe the challenges junior faculty members are faced with at German universities and the HR development undertaken at LMU to help junior faculty cope with these challenges. In particular, we elaborate on coachings, i. e. we describe the process and topics most frequently mentioned therein. These include the sandwich position junior faculty members find themselves in, the oftentimes informal nature of their leadership position, and the requirement to react to conflicts. Finally, we present the various ways of responding to these challenges developed within the coaching process.     

Block and Basu bivariate lifetime distribution in the presence of cure fraction

This paper presents estimates for the parameters included in the Block and Basu bivariate lifetime distributions in the presence of covariates and cure fraction, applied to analyze survival data when some individuals may never experience the event of interest and two lifetimes are associated with each unit. A Bayesian procedure is used to get point and confidence intervals for the unknown parameters. Posterior summaries of interest are obtained using standard Markov Chain Monte Carlo methods in rjags package for R software. An illustration of the proposed methodology is given for a Diabetic Retinopathy Study data set.     

Structure,power, and discourses of development in Spanish NGOs

Because of its recent and rapid growth, the Spanish development apparatus provides an appropriate arena for studying nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). This article uses case studies of three NGOs—Manos Unidas, Intermón Oxfam, and Madre Coraje—to explore the tension between the internal and external dynamics that affect these organizations. Although powerful external forces promote structural isomorphism with its attendant bureaucratization and professionalization, several internal factors—youth, small size, certain ideologies, charismatic leaders, and privileging identification with the organization rather than expertise when recruiting participants—resist these homogenizing processes. DiMaggio and Powell's iron cage hypothesis (1983) therefore can be only partially confirmed. We suggest an intriguing, intimate connection between charisma and democracy.     

Looking for max-semistability: A new test for the extreme value condition

To test the extreme value condition, Cramér-Von Mises type tests were recently proposed by Drees et al. (2006) and Dietrich et al. (2002). Hüsler and Li (2006) presented a simulation study on the behavior of these tests and verified that they are not robust for models in the domain of attraction of a max-semistable distribution function. In this work we develop a test statistic that distinguishes quite well distribution functions which belong to a max-stable domain of attraction from those in a max-semistable one. The limit law is deduced and the results from a numerical simulation study are presented.     

Fertility Decline in Czechoslovakia During the Last Two Centuries

The decline of fertility in Czechoslovakia on the territory of the Czech Socialist Republic began with a rise in the age at marriage; the decline of marital fertility began only after 1860. On the territory of the Slovak Socialist Republic marital fertility began to decline after 1900 without previous significant changes in the age at marriage. The differences between the demographic behaviour in the two parts of Czechoslovakia have persisted, although they are now gradually disappearing. There are other significant regional differences in the fertility decline caused by the overall process of economic and social development. The end of the demographic transition in the Czech Socialist Republic came during the 1930's and in the Slovak Socialist Republic during the 1960's.     

Are Educational Mismatches Responsible for the ‘Inequality Increasing Effect’ of Education?

This paper asks whether educational mismatches can account for the positive association between education and wage inequality found in the data. We use two different data sources, the European Community Household Panel and the Portuguese Labour Force Survey, and consider several types of mismatch, including overqualification, underqualification and skills mismatch. We test our hypothesis using two different measurement methods, the ‘statistical’ and the ‘subjective’ approach. The results are robust to the different choices and unambiguously show that the positive effect of education on wage inequality is not due to the prevalence of educational mismatches in the labour market.     

Physical activity is inversely related to drug consumption in elderly patients with cardiovascular events

Elderly patients with cardiovascular events are characterized by high drug consumptions. Whether high drug consumptions are related to physical activity is not known. In order to examine whether physical activity is related to drug consumption in the elderly, patients older than 65 years (n?=?250) with a recent cardiovascular event were studied. Physical activity was analyzed according to the Physical Activity Scale for the Elderly (PASE) score and related to drug consumption. PASE score was 72.4?±?45.0 and drug consumption was 8.3?±?2.2. Elderly patients with greater comorbidity took more drugs (8.7?±?2.1) and are less active (PASE?=?64.4?±?50.6) than patients with Cumulative Illness Rating Scale severity score higher than 1.8 than those with a score lower than 1.8 (76.3?±?41.4, p?<?0.05, and 8.0?±?2.0, p?=?0.006, respectively). Multivariate analysis correlation confirmed that PASE score is negatively associated with drug consumption (β?=??0.149, p?=?0.031), independently of several variables including comorbidity. Thus, physical activity is inversely related to drug consumption in elderly patients with cardiovascular events. This inverse relationship may be attributable to the high degree of comorbidity observed in elderly patients in whom poor level of physical activity and high drug consumption are predominant.     

Testing the equality among distribution functions from independent and right censored samples via Cramér–von Mises criterion

The traditional Cramér–von Mises criterion is used in order to develop a test to compare the equality of the underlying lifetime distributions in the presence of independent censoring times. Its asymptotic distribution is proved and a resampling plan, which is valid for unbalanced data situations, is proposed. Its statistical power is studied and compared with commonly used linear rank tests by Monte Carlo simulations and a real data analysis is also considered. It is observed that the new test is clearly more powerful than the traditional ones when there exists no uniform dominance among involved distributions and in the presence of late differences. Its statistical power is also good in the other considered scenarios.     

Aggregating Political Dimensions: Of the Feasibility of Political Indicators

Political indicators are widely used in academic writing and decision making, but remain controversial. This paper discusses the problems related to the aggregation functions they use. Almost always, political indicators are aggregated by weighted averages or summations. The use of such functions is based on untenable assumptions (existence of homogeneous substitution rates, total compensation, and strict monotonicity). We show through concrete examples how these hidden assumptions are likely to produce results that are basically an artifact of ad hoc decisions, which additionally contradict very fundamental notions common to all credible political theories. We suggest, also through example, that some—necessarily partial—solutions are possible.