Smith and Rawls share a room: stability and medians

We consider one-to-one, one-sided matching (roommate) problems in which agents can either be matched as pairs or remain single. We introduce a so-called bi-choice graph for each pair of stable matchings and characterize its structure. Exploiting this structure we obtain as a corollary the “lone wolf” theorem and a decomposability result. The latter result together with transitivity of blocking leads to an elementary proof of the so-called stable median matching theorem, showing how the often incompatible concepts of stability (represented by the political economist Adam Smith) and fairness (represented by the political philosopher John Rawls) can be reconciled for roommate problems. Finally, we extend our results to two-sided matching problems.     

Der einäugige Riese: „Lösungsorientiertes Coaching“ Vom Unsinn einer problematischen Fokussierung

Solution-orientated coaching. The nonsense of an one-sides focus The Author discusses the disadvantages of the solution-orientation approach in coaching. With respect to some prejudices in theories of psychology, the dangers of an one-sided solutionorientation are analyzed. Without an understanding of intrapsychic conflicts, solution-orientated interventions may reinfore dysfunctional coping mechanisms in the client. The unconscious attractiveness of these intervention techniques for people with bonding disorders is shown. In a case example, the difference between needs and avoidance as an alternative approach is discussed.     

Determinants of voluntary CSR disclosure: empirical evidence from Germany

Currently, companies spend a great deal of effort on Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) disclosures. CSR disclosure relates to the provision of information on companies’ environmental and social performance. From an economic perspective, companies might disclose this information to avoid or decrease potential political costs. We construct a CSR disclosure index based on the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines. Using content analysis, we analyze 130 listed German companies’ CSR disclosures (470 firm-year observations) to investigate the determinants of these voluntary disclosure activities. Our results show that, consistent with the political cost theory, German companies’ disclosures of all CSR issues are affected by their visibility, shareholder structure, and relationship with their US stakeholders. In addition, higher profitability is associated with more environmental disclosures. Finally, size and industry membership affect the amount of CSR disclosure.     

Sprach-Salto aus der Sackgasse

Metaphors are bridges between verbal expression and nonverbal imagination. Hence, they are of central importance for consulting contexts: to appropriately instruct the perceptive and mindful consultant, qua verbal and body language, about the inner experience, the “psychescape”, of the client. And, mediated by the same means vice versa, to enable interventions that support the client’s inner work towards reaching more desired states. This way, consulting is more than a mere “language game”. The paper offers multiple entry points to the interaction between left brain and right brain, cortex and limbic system, and opens a rich treasure and tool-box for consulting situations.     

Geschlecht und Schulerfolg: Ein soziales Stratifikationsmuster kehrt sich um

In this paper, we seek to identify factors that account for the declining school performance of boys and young men. After reviewing and analysing the international literature on gender and education, we integrate various explanatory approaches into a model that is rooted in the theory of socialisation. The model focuses on the developmental tasks which young men face during adolescence. Our central thesis is that the declining school performance of young men cannot be fully explained by their failure to cope with educational challenges, i.e., their problems with respect to the developmental task “qualification”. Rather, a comprehensive explanation requires the incorporation of three other central developmental tasks, “social attachments”, “regeneration”, and “participation”. In the last decades, it has become easier for young women to cope with these tasks than it is for young men. Thus a rare sociological incident has occurred: the reversal of centuries-old pattern of social stratification. Nowadays, young women and not young men acquire the privileged certificates offered by the educational system, and it is them who gain the more promising career prospects. Our thesis can be supported with data from a broad range of international studies. The crucial implication is that supporting young men at school will show only limited results. Rather, to improve the school performance of young men, it is also necessary to address their deficits in coping with the other aforementioned developmental tasks, all of which point to challenges that young people are expected to master in today's individualised, achievement-oriented society.     

Business groups' outward FDI: A managerial resources perspective

Outward FDI strategies are driven by firms' resource endowments, which in turn are conditioned by their home environment. In emerging economies, thus, the pattern of outward FDI is shaped by local firms' idiosyncratic contexts and the resources that these firms developed to fit the contexts. This includes business groups, a dominant organizational form in many emerging economies, competing with context-bound resources. When they wish to transcend their home context, they need internationally valuable resources, especially managerial resources, which may be quite different than the resources that enable domestic growth. This paper thus explores what resources drive this international growth in the case of Taiwanese business groups. Starting from Penrosian Theory, we focus on managerial resources that are shared across the member firms of a group, and thus shape the profile of the group. We find that international work experience favors internationalization while international education does not. Moreover, domestic institutional resources distract from internationalization, presumably because they are not transferable into other institutional contexts, and thus favor other types of growth.     

Solidarität

Which socio-psychological terms are connected with the term “solidarity”? Solidarity is understood as a specific attitude and quality of relationships between individuals in groups and organizations and on the level of society. A disturbed balance between “self-enhancement” and “self-transcendence” caused by socio-cultural developments diminishes solidarity. The questions that are considered and discussed, are the following: Under which conditions does solidarity arise, which conditions in groups allow individuals to learn about solidarity, do current organizational structures affect the well tried forms of organized solidarity and how does empowerment conflict with the balance of power in society?     

Consistency in one-sided assignment problems

One-sided assignment problems combine important features of two well-known matching models. First, as in roommate problems, any two agents can be matched and second, as in two-sided assignment problems, the division of payoffs to agents is flexible as part of the solution. We take a similar approach to one-sided assignment problems as Sasaki (Int J Game Theory 24:373–397, 1995) for two-sided assignment problems, and we analyze various desirable properties of solutions including consistency and weak pairwise-monotonicity. We show that for the class of solvable one-sided assignment problems (i.e., the subset of one-sided assignment problems with a non-empty core), if a subsolution of the core satisfies [Pareto indifference and consistency] or [invariance with respect to unmatching dummy pairs, continuity, and consistency], then it coincides with the core (Theorems 1 and 2). However, we also prove that on the class of all one-sided assignment problems (solvable or not), no solution satisfies consistency and coincides with the core whenever the core is non-empty (Theorem 4). Finally, we comment on the difficulty in obtaining further positive results for the class of solvable one-sided assignment problems in line with Sasaki’s (1995) characterizations of the core for two-sided assignment problems.