视觉现代化——现代艺术背后的人类视觉观念(1)

20世纪初所发生的“视觉现代化”(modernising vision)转向源于自19世纪以来传统的视觉概念所发生的深刻变化。它旨在将人们从过时的观看习惯中解放出来,视觉的本质不应主要被理解为给定可见世界的机械再现模式,而应该从根本上被理解为由文化构造的、具有历史多样性的感知数据的生产性过程。现代艺术试图通过艺术品本身来创造一种现代化的视觉形式,艺术作品被定义为实现视觉现代化的手段或工具,画家试图用艺术来表达一种新的视觉观——观看中充斥着时间的流动,而绝不仅是一个明确的视觉顺序的实现;观看不是一个视觉固定化过程,而是更加有意识地、集中地观察世界。从丢勒式的空间中心透视观到塞尚式的时间和空间相结合的多重透视观,后者更加强调了观者的参与和观看的过程,这种观看方式的变化也是人与世界关系的变化。视觉现代化的探讨在今天仍然具有重要的意义⁽²⁾。     

The fertility contribution of Mexican immigration to the United States

Crucial to the long-term contribution of immigration to a receiving country's population is the extent to which the immigrants reproduce themselves in subsequent, native-born generations. Using conventional projection methodologies, this fertility contribution may be poorly estimated primarily because of problems in projecting the number of immigrants who are at risk of childbearing. We propose an alternative method that obviates the need to project the number of immigrants by using the full sending-country birth cohort as the risk group to project their receiving-country childbearing. This "sending-country birth cohort" method is found to perform dramatically better than conventional methods when projecting to 1999 from base years both before and after the large increase in inflows of Mexican immigrants to the United States in the late 1980s. Projecting forward from 1999, we estimate a cumulative contribution of Mexican immigrant fertility from the 1980s to 2040 of 36 million births, including 25% to 50% more births after 1995 than are projected using conventional methods.     

One does not simply meme about organizations: Exploring the content creation strategies of user-generated memes on Imgur

This study explores how online publics are engaging with organizations by creating and sharing brand-related content online, outside corporate-controlled communication environments. This research employs a quantitative content analysis of memes shared on the social networking site Imgur to reveal how user-generated content conveys meaning about organizations. The analysis reveals brand-centric memes are generally classified as orphan memes, or memes that have distinct textual and visual characteristics separating them from established or emerging meme families. Memes about organizations are neither an overwhelming reflection of biting criticism or support, but rather a reflection of online public engagement with organizations that primarily use humor and textual brand features (or quiddities) to convey their commitment and satisfaction with the organization and unite meme families.     

The influence of top management corporate networks on CEO succession

We analyze empirically how supervisory board members with multiple directorships affect the decision to hire an inside or outside CEO successor. While a growing number of both theoretical and empirical studies analyze the influence of corporate performance and size or the ownership structure on this decision, the role of multiple board memberships within the CEO recruitment process has been widely neglected so far. The present study is based on panel data of the largest German companies covering the period from 1996 to 2008. Applying competing risk estimations we find a weak and positive association between the number of external directorships of the supervisory board members and internal CEO replacements. Distinguishing between different groups of external board positions, we find that external executives on the supervisory board increase the likelihood of external CEO replacements. In line with empirical findings for the US we argue that external executives improve the assessment of potential CEO successors leading to more outside CEO replacements. In contrast, we find evidence that external supervisory board mandates of the supervisory board members cause more internal CEO replacements. This finding indicates a substitution of external expertise of the executives by multiple supervisory board mandates but could also reflect a reduction of the monitoring intensity of the supervisory board.     

The value of acquisition price differentiation in reverse logistics

The quality of returned products may vary greatly, depending on their previous usage. Since the remanufacturing of products in good condition is more economically rewarding for the remanufacturer—and since even for non-remanufacturable products the value that can be extracted from their parts or materials may depend on the products’ quality—it seems logical to acquire used products of different quality levels at different prices. However, acquisition price differentiation requires the product quality to be revealed, i.e. the products are graded before their actual acquisition. We observe two different approaches in current practice. The first one is a decentralized system with several collection sites to which the customers can bring their used products. After a short grading procedure, they receive a specific acquisition price offer for their products, which they can accept or decline directly. The second setting is a reverse logistics system with a centralized grading facility. The final grading is conducted after shipping the used products to this specific facility. Motivated by these empirical observations, we compare the two strategies with the help of a continuous approximation model. We derive analytical expressions for the optimal pricing and network density decision and show that, in addition to the other factors discussed in the literature, acquisition price differentiation can be a reason for decentralizing the reverse logistics network, if the product quality is uncertain. Furthermore, we illustrate our results with a numerical example.     

Burnout and impaired cognitive functioning: The role of executive control in the performance of cognitive tasks

Abstract

Burnout patients often report deficits in cognitive control, and there is a need to understand the processes involved. Drawing on recent findings, we hypothesized that emotional exhaustion and task-related demands on executive control would interact in predicting performance in tasks requiring the updating and monitoring of working memory as well as the inhibition of prepotent (dominant or automatic) responses. In accordance with recent conceptualizations of burnout, we focused on emotional exhaustion as the core symptom of burnout. The sample comprised 81 employees recruited from nursing homes for elderly care in Germany, who participated in a laboratory study involving cognitive tasks. Based on a median split, participants were divided into two groups: those with high burnout and those with low burnout. In line with our hypotheses, the high exhaustion participants performed less well than those with low exhaustion only when tasks put high demands on their executive control. As predicted, high levels of emotional exhaustion were associated with more errors and longer reaction times when demands on executive control were high, whereas no performance differences were found when both tasks put low demands on executive control. The implications for practice are discussed.     

Manufacturing network configuration in supply chains with product recovery

Efficient implementation of product recovery requires appropriate network structures. In this paper, we study the network design problem of a firm that manufactures new products and remanufactures returned products in its facilities. We examine the capacity decisions and expected performance of two alternative manufacturing network configurations when demand and return flows are both uncertain.     

Die nur fast gelingende Schließung des Personalentwicklungszyklus

The nearly closed cycle of personnel development. The growing popularity of personnel development like training, coaching or supervision is usually justified by the new challenges impending on organizations. The author presents an alternative explanation: Basing on considerations about the operative consistency of organizations, he argues, that the popularity of personnel development is to explain by the boom of personnel diagnostics during the last two decades. Only by potential analysis, assessment center, 360-degree feedback, several trainings and especially person-centered counseling like coaching and supervision could increase their attractiveness. In organizations, cycles of personnel development emerge, and by this a sort of all-round cares of the organisation members.