The inverse 1-maxian problem with edge length modification

We consider the problem of modifying the lengths of the edges of a graph at minimum cost such that a prespecified vertex becomes a 1-maxian with respect to the new edge lengths. The inverse 1-maxian problem with edge length modification is shown to be strongly -hard and remains weakly -hard even on series-parallel graphs. Moreover, a transformation of the inverse 1-maxian problem with edge length modification on a tree to a minimum cost circulation problem is given which solves the original problem in . This research has been supported by the Austrian Science Fund (FWF) Project P18918-N18.     

A “maximum node clustering” problem

In this note we introduce a graph problem, called Maximum Node Clustering (MNC). We prove that the problem (which is easily shown to be strongly NP-complete) can be approximated in polynomial time within a ratio arbitrarily close to 2. For the special case where the graph is a tree, the problem is NP-complete in the ordinary sense; for this case we present a pseudopolynomial algorithm based on dynamic programming, and a related Fully Polynomial Time Approximation Scheme (FPTAS). Also, the tree case is shown to be exactly solvable in time, where n is the number of nodes.     

Complexity and practical knowledge in the social sciences: a comment on Stehr and Grundmann

This paper takes issue with Stehr and Grundmann's argument in this journal that sociology's poor record of contribution to practical knowledge results from sociologists' misguided attachment to the idea that social phenomena are peculiarly complex, and so peculiarly resistant to efforts at practical knowledge formation. Stehr and Grundmann develop their thesis by contrasting sociology to economics, claiming the latter's superior methods and disciplinary cultures enable it to contribute more successfully to solving practical problems. We argue that Stehr and Grundmann's comparison of the relative success of economics and sociology as policy sciences underestimates the extent to which the complexity argument has been destructive of economics' capacity to contribute practical knowledge, and overestimates the importance of disciplinary methods and cultures in explaining the use of economics in policy making. Further, we argue that the 'complexity argument' can contribute to better policy making, by virtue of its capacity to highlight the dangers of simplistic or fundamentalist solutions to social problems with complex causes.     

A note on penalized minimum distance estimation in nonparametric regression

The authors introduce a penalized minimum distance regression estimator. They show the estimator to balance, among a sequence of nested models of increasing complexity, the L¹ ‐approximation error of each model class and a penalty term which reflects the richness of each model and serves as a upper bound for the estimation error.     

Fragments and Links: Organizational Actor‐World of the Harry Potter Phenomenon

The article seeks to develop an Actor‐Network Theory perspective on the relationship between organization and literature by focusing on the Harry Potter phenomenon. The latter is seen as an example of how contemporary popular literature does not stop at itself, but rather supersedes itself by spinning its own truly impressive organizational actor‐network. This industrious industrial entanglement challenges what may be called the ‘disembodied’ conceptualization of literature—the conceptualization that is centred on the contents of works of fiction alone. When the contents of the literary texts are decentred in that they are taken as but one (however important) actor of the actor‐world that comes to be known by their name, other actors become more visible that help to conceptualize Harry Potter as an organizational, as much as a literary, phenomenon.     

Global speed: a time view on transnationality

One of the most challenging aspects of the current processes of globalization is the accelerating pace with which communication, technological information, people and goods are ‘spinning’ around the world. With the growth of our spatial scope to a global level, we have become used to acceleration in a highly competitive world, which results in a feeling of real‐time experience, or instantaneity. The ways in which we deal with acceleration are determined by a specific understanding of the relationship between time and organization: from a Western perspective, managerial practices are based on the ratio‐economic, and therefore limited, idea of clock time. From a transcultural perspective, however, other modes of time interfere with the rigidity and linearity of clock‐time‐based organization. Moreover, on a global level a more encompassing, holistic understanding of time can be important to analyse tensions and contradictions in current managerial practices. It therefore seems important to introduce a perspective of time plurality into debates on transnational organization. How does a view of time complexity affect the management of cohesion and loyalty in the current practices of managers who deal with transnational networks?     

After Beslan: childhood, complexity and risk

This paper addresses the events at Beslan as a crisis point at which the postmodern celebration of difference spills into unbearable chaos. However this chaos turns out to show specific, dynamic or complex, self-organizing structures. Such dynamics, instead of obeying 'normal' ranges exhibit widely different scales of magnitude and intensity. Central to these interactions is the formation, however loose or opportunistic, of identities that also produce others: the formation of micro-ethnicities that state how the 'other' or out-group can be treated, mistreated or 'deconstructed'. At Beslan, this reaches a point of crisis which is both localized and universally challenging: it poses the problem of intolerability to a notion of democratic community and an epistemology premised on, and promising, pluralistic tolerance. The outcome is a realignment of sociology and the sociology of childhood along the axes of a model of human ecology.     

Conserving complexity: A complex systems paradigm and framework to study public relations’ contribution to grand challenges

Sustainable development poses a grand challenge for society, addressed by organisations through their public relations activities. Grand challenges are complex by nature and call for nontrivial solutions whose effects show at the level of society. That is why studying public relations’ contribution to grand challenges requires a macro perspective that accounts for the dynamic interaction between individual, organisational, and system levels in a digital communication environment. This paper offers a new paradigm to analyse organisations’ significant and at times undue impact on grand challenges through public relations. It develops a framework inspired by complex adaptive systems thinking and adopts its ten properties for public relations: emergence, adaptivity, heterogeneous actors, nonlinear effects, feedback mechanisms, self-organisation, phase transitions, networks, scaling, and cooperation. The paper applies the framework to the example of sustainable development. It shows why research on grand challenges requires a holistic perspective and how it can help study digitally born communication phenomena. The proposed complex systems paradigm provides space for critical, social scientific, and interpretative research lines in public relations. Inquiries start from the grand challenge and study the communicative interactions between organisations and other actors from existing theory while accounting for the ten properties of complex adaptive systems. The paper outlines how future research can enrich the study of public relations and discusses its limits.     

Bringing the cognitive revolution forward: What can team cognition contribute to our understanding of leadership?

Cognition is a central element of organizational behavior and leaders are seen as key shapers of organizational cognition. Leaders’ influence over organizations often occurs through their influence on the collectives or teams they are leading. Hence, leaders influence organizational outcomes by modeling team cognition. Despite the importance of this relationship for organizational outcomes, there is little integration currently between the leadership and team cognition literatures. To address this gap, we conduct an integrative review. First, we develop a model for leader and team influence based on organizational emergence and leadership complexity theories. Our model makes a distinction between the source of influence over cognition (leader → team, team → leader, reciprocal) and form of cognition emergence (variance reduction, variance enhancement); constraints that shape cognitions that vary in levels (within and between-level, contextual) and focus (individual, interindividual, collective); and leader behaviors (administrative, adaptive, enabling). We apply this model to review and analyze ninety-nine studies in the current literature and then discuss the limitations and future directions drawing on our findings and theoretical model. We contribute a unifying framework of leadership and team emergence that can be expanded and applied to other settings.