Integration of business process management and knowledge management: state of the art,current research and future prospects

The integration of business process management (BPM) and knowledge management (KM) helps companies to improve temporal, qualitative and cost aspects of the provision of goods and services and to increase their innovative capacities. There are numerous publications in German and English that deal with the integration of both of these management approaches. By means of a comprehensive examination of this literature, the present article evaluates the state of knowledge and identifies additional research needs. More specifically, the volume of the publications examined is evaluated and classified by means of appropriate and carefully defined criteria. Moreover, the contents of the classes thus defined will be elucidated and then critically discussed. Finally, this article provides a general review of current approaches and their specific merits, and it will demonstrate the current deficits and spheres of activity in relation to the integration of BPM and KM.     

Parental constructions of masculinity at the transition to parenthood: the division of parental leave among Austrian couples

Men and masculinity are considered a key factor in changing gender inequality at the transition to parenthood. Prior research on gendered division of parental leave concentrated on fathers’ perspectives. This paper includes perspectives of fathers and mothers who make use of parental leave in different ways and asks how masculinity is jointly constructed, how these constructions are linked to the use of parental leave, and if and how they are oriented towards hegemonic masculinity. The analysis is based on 44 qualitative interviews with 11 Austrian couples before and after birth when decisions concerning parental leave were made. Our case reconstructions reveal that parents considered parental leave a central element of masculinity as long as it suited fathers’ needs and circumstances permitted. The decisions for sharing parental leave were father-centred as both partners valued father’s leave higher than mother’s.     

„Wir kommunizieren,also sind wir“

Whereas psychotherapy, counselling and other forms of professional communication have received considerable linguistic attention over the last years, the specific communicative interaction in coaching has been largely ignored. The author calls for a linguistic analysis of the communication between coach and client. The chosen linguistic approach should shed an applied, holistic, pragmatic and interdisciplinary light on the specific communicative interaction found in coaching in order to come up with valuable insights for both, linguists and professional coaches as well as their clients. Linguistic insights could for example be used in the development of quality standards for coaching or in the conceptualisation of future coaching trainings.     

Breadwinning as care? The meaning of paid work in mothers’ and fathers’ constructions of parenting

As some scholars have argued for a distinct conceptualisation of breadwinning and for understanding breadwinning as a form of care, this study addresses parents’ constructions of breadwinning and its connections to care. It is based on an in-depth interpretive analysis of multiple-perspective, qualitative longitudinal interviews with 22 Austrian mothers and fathers from three points in time during their transition to parenthood. The analysis revealed four different types of breadwinning concepts by considering the jointly constructed meaning of mothers’ and fathers’ paid work within a parental couple and further relied on Tronto’s [(1993). Moral boundaries. A political argument for an ethic of care. New York, NY: Routledge] conceptualisation of care as a four-step process. The results indicate that respondents construct a clear difference between earning money and breadwinning. Additionally, a difference is made between breadwinning and taking care of the family’s subsistence, predominantly so for mothers. In conclusion, breadwinning can definitely be considered a form of care and thus a form of involvement in parenting, but it cannot be regarded a form of involvement in caregiving. The holistic picture of parents’ joint constructions enabled us to contribute to the existing conceptualisations of breadwinning and of parental involvement, thus providing a novel perspective on matters of gender equality.     

ViSC Social Competence Program

The ViSC Social Competence Program has been implemented in Austrian schools within the scope of a national strategy plan, Together Against Violence. The program is a primary preventive program designed for grades 5 to 8. The prevention of aggression and bullying is defined as a school development task, and the initial implementation of the program lasts one school year. The program consists of universal and specific actions that are implemented through in-school teacher training and a class project for students. The program was evaluated with a randomized intervention control group design. Data were collected from teachers and students. Results suggest that the program reduces aggression in schools.     

Coaching- und Beratungsanliegen von Hochschullehrenden

In the last few years, there has been an increase in coaching and training for teaching staff at institutions of higher education??universities and colleges??to provide them with the skills to develop their roles and meet professional demands upon them. These services are usually provided by the institution??s own human resource department or external higher education institutions with teaching services. This article focuses on the typical concerns of the target group of lecturers teaching at academic institutions about teaching and the higher education system. It has been structured chronologically, to provide a frame of reference for coaching and guidance counseling services and serves as a guideline for such services in general.     

Tagungsbericht der Veranstalter

Tagungsbericht

Tagungsbericht der Veranstalter     

Qualitativ-diskursanalytische Erforschung von Coaching-Gesprächen

“What is happening in coaching?”—this question is given two readings in the current article: Coaching is understood as consulting business and as consulting interaction. With respect to the first reading, i.e. the coaching market, the trans- and interdisciplinary research group LOCCS (The Linguistics of Coaching, Consulting and Supervision) is introduced, dedicated to qualitative-linguistic analysis of coaching and other consulting interactions. With respect to the second reading, i.e. the coaching interaction itself, the special contribution of such qualitative-linguistic analysis will be outlined. With the help of concrete examples, we will illustrate this method and its benefits.