Organizational culture and creative processes: Comparing German theater companies and scientific institutes

An open organizational culture (for example, enhancement of individual autonomy) is needed in order to promote organizational creativity. But such openness can lead to problems with coordination that may jeopardize the organization's success. For example, an open organizational culture is accompanied by parallel processes of closure (promoting orientation, consensus, and trust) that reduce the negative secondary effects of openness (Gebert and others, 2004). It is thereby understood that the creative process in a theater company requires a greater effort at coordination than in scientific institutes. This is why cultural openness in a theater company comes with risk. Empirical results from interviews with 28 research institutes (N = 113) and 13 theater companies (N = 88) show that an open culture in theaters as well as in scientific institutes, is significantly connected to closed culture processes that serve as buffers. Furthermore, openness in a theater company in terms of risk prevention is developed significantly less than in scientific institutes. Also openness when the buffering closure is missing is not significantly connected to success in scientific institutes, and in theater companies there is even a significant negative connection. The need for buffering is thus especially meaningful for the results in a theater company.     

Becoming an intercultural primary school teacher: Experiences from Bolivia

The article analyses various developments that took place within the context of a Technical Cooperation project, financed by the German Federal Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development, and implemented by GTZ (the German Technical Cooperation Agency) together with Bolivian Educational Ministry during 1997 and 1998. The project focused on teacher education, especially initial teacher education, in the course of national educational reform in Bolivia and concentrated on intercultural bilingual education in the Bolivian highlands.     

Dimensions of work-home culture and their relations with the use of work-home arrangements and work-home interaction

This study examined the associations of work-home culture with (a) demographic and organizational characteristics, (b) the use of work-home arrangements, and (c) negative and positive work-home interaction, among 1,179 employees from one public and two private organizations. Substantial support was found for a 2-factor structure of a work-home culture measure differentiating between “support” (employees' perceptions of organization's, supervisors', and colleagues' responsiveness to work-family issues and to the use of work-home arrangements) and “hindrance” (employees' perceptions of career consequences and time demands that may prevent them from using work-home arrangements). This 2-factor structure appeared to be invariant across organizations, gender, and parental status. Significant relationships with organizational characteristics, the use of work-home arrangements, and work-home interaction supported the validity of these two cultural dimensions. It is concluded that if employers want to minimize work-home interference, to optimize positive work-home interaction, and to boost the use of work-home arrangements, they should create a work-home culture that is characterized by high support and low hindrance.     

Towards a typology of work-home interaction

In this paper the relationship of various types of work-home interaction (i.e. negative and positive influence from work to home, and the other way around) with demographic, family, and (perceived) work characteristics as well as with experienced health was explored in a sample of 751 postal employees. By using cluster analysis, we tried to uncover whether specific combinations of the various dimensions of work-home interaction (WHI) were more prevalent than others. Our results showed that employees did not simply experience negative work-home interaction or not, but that participants should be classified in five distinct clusters: (1) 239 employees experienced no interaction at all; (2) 74 employees experienced primarily negative interaction between both domains; (3) 113 employees experienced primarily positive influence from work; (4) 195 employees experienced primarily positive influence from home; and (5) 122 employees experienced negative and positive interaction simultaneously. Results further showed that the emerging WHI-clusters appeared to have distinct profiles with respect to demographic and family characteristics, perceived working conditions, and reported health and well-being. It was convincingly shown that workers who experienced negative interaction between work and home, perceived their working conditions as least favourable and experienced most psychological health complaints, while those with primarily positive influence from work had the most favourable perceptions of their working conditions and experienced better health than the other clusters. Employees who experienced virtually no interaction between both domains did not seem to enjoy a better quality of life than the other clusters. Implications of this exploratory study are discussed. Dans cet article nous avons exploré, dans un échantillon constitué par 751 employés de la poste, la relation entre les différents types d'interaction entre le travail et la vie domestique d'un côté (c'est à dire l'influence positive et negative du travail sur la vie domestique comme l'effet inverse), et de l'autre coté, les caractéristiques démographiques, familiales et de travail (perçu), et l'expérience de la santé. En utilisant des analyses agglomérées nous avons essayé de comprendre si les combinaisons spécifiques des différentes dimensions de l'interaction travail-domicile prévalaient sur d'autres. Nos résultats démontrent que non seulement les employés faisaient l'expérience positive ou negative de l'interaction travail-domicile, mais que en plus les participants pouvaient etre classés selon cinq agglomérats différents: (1) 239 employés ne montraient aucune forme d'interaction; (2) 74 employés percevaient seulement de l'interactions négative entre les deux domaines; (3) 113 employés ressentaient principalement de l'influence positive de leur travail; (4) 195 employées percevaient seulement l'influence positive de leur vie domestique; et (5) 122 ressentaient de l'interaction positive et négative simultanément. En outre, les résultats montrent que ces cinq groupes disposaient de profils différents en ce qui concerne les caractéristiques démographiques et familiales comme leur experiences de santé et de bien-être. Nous avons démontré de façon convaincante que les travailleurs qui ressentaient une interaction négative entre travail et domicile percevaient leurs conditions de travail comme les moins favorables et reportaient le plus de plaintes de santé psychologique, tandis que ceux qui ressentaient principalement une influence positive de leur travail reportaient les perceptions de conditions de travail les plus favorables et percevaient leur santé comme meilleur que les autres groupes. Les employées qui ne ressentaient pratiquement pas d'interaction entre les deux domaines ne donnaient pas l'impression d'avoir une meilleur qualité de vie que les autres agglomérats. Les implications de cette étude exploratoire sont discutées.     

The internal logic and contradictions of migration control: An excursion into theory and practice in relation to east‐west migration

The migration problem has acquired a new dimension with the breakdown of State‐Communism which has induced new and variable waves of migration out of Eastern Europe. The response of the West to these waves, as well as to the ever‐increasing likelihood of emigration from countries of the Third World has been one of mounting regulation. The present article critically juxtaposes the underlying, albeit short‐term, logic of regulation with that of East‐West migration — itself a highly variated and differentiated process — in an attempt to demarcate a more comprehensive approach to the East‐West migration subject.     

Trust in Risky Messages: The Role of Prior Attitudes

Risk perception researchers have observed a "negativity bias" for hazard-related information. Messages indicating the presence of risk seem to be trusted more than messages indicating the absence of risk, and risk perceptions seem more affected by negative than positive information. Two experiments were conducted to examine alternative explanations of this finding within the area of food additives. Study 1 (N = 235) extended earlier work by (a) unconfounding message valence (positive or negative) from message extremity (definite or null finding) and (b) exploring the role of prior attitudes. Results suggested that negative/risky messages were indeed trusted more even when extremity was taken into account. However, prior attitudes significantly moderated the effect of message valence on trust. Positive messages were distrusted only by those with negative prior attitudes. Study 2 (N = 252), further explored the role of prior attitudes and extended the work by examining reactions to risky messages about a positively viewed additive--a vitamin. The results again found a moderating effect of prior attitudes on message valence. Participants had greater confidence in messages that were more congruent with their prior attitudes, irrespective of valence. Furthermore, positive messages had a greater impact on risk perception than negative messages. These findings suggest that greater trust in negative messages about hazards may be a product of a "confirmatory" rather than a "negativity" bias.     

When Injustice Gets Old: A Systematic Review of Trans Aging

A lack of knowledge regarding the needs and experiences of trans and gender-nonconforming older adults contributes to and perpetuates the experiences of marginalization associated with being trans. Mitigating the conditions of marginalization—including those that are compounded by age—requires the production of trans aging knowledge. It was with the intent to produce such knowledge that this systematic review was undertaken. In so doing, five medical databases, eight social science databases, and two gray literature databases were searched. These included the following: CINAHL (1942–), Medline (1942–), Health Services/Technology Assessment Texts, Web of Science, EMBASE (1947–), Sociological Abstracts (1952), Social Services Abstracts (1806–), Gender Studies Database (1972–), LGBT Life with Full Text, Ageline (1978–), PsycINFO (1806–), Scopus, ERIC, The New York Academy of Medicine Grey Literature Report, and Dissertations & Theses: Full Text. A total of 436 titles and abstracts were independently reviewed. Of these, 106 full-text articles were retrieved; 34 met the inclusion criteria and were reviewed. The following themes were identified: 1. the methodological challenges associated with conducting research with trans and gender nonconforming older adults;

2. violence and abuse among trans and gender nonconforming older adults;

3. discriminatory policies and practices in health and mental health care;

4. the lack of appropriate HIV/AIDS education, prevention, and treatment strategies for trans and gender nonconforming older adults;

5. obstacles in education, employment, government systems, and housing; and

6. the lack of adequate social support networks.

Gaps in the literature, recommendations for future research, and implications for policy and practice were also identified.