Role of Newcomers Supportive Strategies on Socio-Technical Performance of Open Source Projects

The success of open source software (OSS) projects have been studied in previous research. This paper focused on the effect of newcomers’ supportive strategies in OSS projects on the success level of the projects. Our research analyzes the socio-technical commitment to the project as a proxy for success. Data about 453 OSS projects from GitHub.com is collected and analyzed to empirically test the research model. We have applied a clustering technique to explore the dataset attributes. Results show the importance of newcomers’ supportive strategies on the different socio-technical aspects of OSS projects’ leading to success. Also, we have tested the effect of programming language diversity and project profile health on the success of projects. The outcome of this study has both managerial and practical implications

The Impact of Early Career Experiences on Youth’s Proactive Work Socialization Behavior

Little is known about the impact of individual characteristics, historical factors, and situational characteristics on youth\u27s proactive work socialization behavior (career planning, skill development, consultation, and networking). Data from a longitudinal cross-national study (Belgium, England, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands and Spain) on career starters from two occupational groups, are used to test the hypothesized impact of predictor sets. Results confirm the positive impact of early career experience on the skill development proactive behavior; the dominant impact of the broader socioeconomic political and cultural country context on all four aspects of proactive behavior; and the sporadic effect of occupation, gender, and educational history on some proactive behavior dimensions

Energy communities in different national settings – barriers, enablers and best practices

The NEWCOMERS project aims to explore how new clean energy communities (ECs) develop, under which polycentric settings ECs evolve and under what conditions such initiatives are suppressed. At a national level, the project will assess socio-economic, technical, institutional characteristics and actors supporting the emergence of new clean energy communities. In Deliverable 3.1. and 3.2. the national characteristics of the six NEWCOMERS countries (Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, and the United Kingdom) were described and compared. In this report, the six countries will be compared, with the aim to identify barriers and enablers for new clean energy communities to emerge in different national settings and to discuss the potentials for learning between different countries. The focus for the analysis lies on socio-economic conditions, the technical system, the institutional setting, and actors on the electricity market.Identified barriers are amongst others lack of knowledge, centralised energy production systems, too broad or too narrow definitions of ECs in regulations and policies, lack of tailormade policies for ECs and few dominating market actors. Identified enablers are for example trust, access to finance, a country’s fossil fuel dependency, a liberalised market, Feed-in Tariffs (FiTs), and umbrella organisations.Several best practices supportive for clean energy communities to emerge were identified in the different NEWCOMERS countries and these are meant to be used as inspiration for others. These are for example virtual power plants, virtual net metering, government strategy for ECs, tailormade regulations, and umbrella organisations. National settings supporting ECs to emerge were identified and included the existence of a definition of EC in a national strategy or the legal framework, high GDP/capita which lie grounds for households to join an EC, fossil fuel dependency, tailormade programmes and schemes for ECs, decentralised market with multiple of actors and decentralised production, and umbrella organisations to guide ECs. National settings inhibiting ECs to emerge were also identified. These were lack of a national definition of ECs, lack of trust in others and to the legal and political system, a fuel mix with a high share of renewables which makes a transition less urgent, a high share of individual ownership in for example PVs, centralised electricity market with few dominating actors and centralised production, and lack of umbrella organisations that can push the idea with ECs and facilitate for new actors to enter the market.The Clean Energy for all Europeans Package (CEP) has not been analysed per se but is anyway very present in the report. Collectively the CEP has the potential to become an important enabler for ECs to emerge. Nonetheless, Member States retain considerable flexibility in how the CEP is transposed and for that reason the impact of the CEP on the emergence of ECs in the NEWCOMERS countries will need to be assessed in future research

Integrated rural development - The concept and its operation

Our paper explores, on a theoretical level, the reason for frequent failures of rural development policies and identifies some potential improvements in rural policy making in Europe. Our approach to des/integration concerns actors, resources, institutions, knowledge, the fundamental logic of development, and the interplay between two distinct levels of rural development: the level of policies, or central intervention; and the level of local aspirations aimed at improving everyday rural life. Along these lines, two characteristic systems of rural development – the central bureaucratic and the local heuristic – can be clearly identified. Ideally, these should work in co-operation, complementing each other, forming an integrated development system, where rural policy serves to (i) channel resources, establish strategic aims and development models in a top-down mode, and (ii) convey information and mediate social, economic, political interests in a bottom-up mode. However, lack of integration and divergence of interest can lead to dysfunction, conflict and dissipation within the system. We argue that rural development policies tend to fail because the central bureaucratic system imposes top-down control and objectives throughout the development process, thus failing to sufficiently promote the reconfiguration of local resources, which is better achieved through bottom-up processes and the local heuristic system. In other words, the tendency to disjunction between the two basic socio-political systems of rural development is the main reason for the failure of rural development policy. The paper offers analytical models of integrated and non-integrated rural development systems and illustrates the argument through some examples taken from the community initiatives and the pre-accession policies of the European Union. The study is in two halves. The first half elaborates the concept of ‘integrated rural development’. based on international literature. The second part offers a few new conceptions, as a contribution to the ‘new rural development theory’ and simple models of integrated and non-integrated development.Rural development, local development, rural policy, European Union, LEADER Programme, centre-periphery, local governance

Project leader's dual socialization and its impact on team learning and performance: A diagnostic study

One of the important challenges for leadership in project teams is the ability to manage the knowledge, communication and coordination related activities of team. In cross-team collaboration, different boundaries contribute to the situated nature of knowledge and hamper the flow of knowledge and prevent shared understanding with those on the other side of the boundary. While existing research on the issue has focused on 'what' is needed to overcome these boundaries, there is very little research on 'how' leaders can be equipped to deal with the challenges of cross-boundary work. We propose a new construct: 'dual socialization' of the project leader, as an important means of surmounting challenges of knowledge sharing and collaboration across boundaries. We argue that dual socialization enables a leader to gain a deep contextual understanding of collaborating teams in a manner that is not easily available through other means of learning. This understanding then is invaluable for the knowledge transfer process as well as for achieving project goals. A model of dual socialization, knowledge transfer and project team outcomes (team performance & inter-team coordination) is proposed and tested using data from project teams in a leading global IT consulting firm. We focus on the inter-organizational boundary encountered by the consultants when dealing with the client. The thesis is based on the consulting team's point of view. The data is collected from client-consultant dyads in an engaged in an outsourcing relationship. The results support the importance of dual socialization as a construct for understanding and enhancing leadership capabilities needed in inter-organizational project teams. An important finding of this dissertation is that socialization to home and socialization to client don't always influence outcomes in a similar manner. They act in competing or complementary ways depending on the dependent variable and moderators under consideration. Also socialization to home/client may enhance or detract team performance based on project contingencies. Additionally, we found that prior knowledge of the team enhances the acquisition of knowledge, but detracts from the performance capability of the team. This finding has important implications for issues of team composition and design, as well as utilization of expertise

The Glass Ceiling and Persons With Disabilities

Glass Ceiling ReportGlassCeilingBackground2PersonsWithDisabilities.pdf: 8336 downloads, before Oct. 1, 2020

Exiled lives on the stage:Support networks and programs for artists at risk from Turkey in Germany

This article analyses the support and self-care strategies of artists from Turkey who have left their country from considerable risk regarding their country’s political and economic instability since 2013 and have relocated to Germany. It maps the support networks, programs and institutions as well as consider questions of sustainability and risk (self-) assessment. The study is based on interviews with Turkish and Kurdish artists in Germany and an analysis of the activities by the Maxim Gorki Theater, Apartment Projekt, bi’bak, Hafiza Merkezi Berlin, as well as support systems like artistic research fellowships, art residencies, artist networks and supportive theatres. The guiding questions of this study examine the longer-term orientation of the support of artists at risk.The findings show three deficiencies. Despite the variety of available support systems, artists who left Turkey experience difficulties integrating in the artistic labour market. The output-oriented, meritocratic basis on which programs select candidates often fail to help artists in a holistic way. The intergenerational disparity in the migrant communities create the infrastructures, solidarity discourses and networks for newly arriving artists, but also creates ideological tensions which limits inter-communitarian solidarity. Specific self-organized programs extend the solidarity to artists from other affected regions, which limits chances to support artists at risk from Turkey. There are generational disadvantages of newcomers in an overburdened, professionalized independent art scene that has struggled to break free from the social work and socio-cultural stigmas. The latter masks artists with a non-German background from positive discrimination initiatives.The study proposes improvement in support systems through a coordinated effort, encourages to relieve programs from a need for identity representation as an expectation or requirement, and advises a shift in support systems from output orientation towards enhancement of individuals through self-care, for greater autonomy and self-development in their art practices and new life

Urban agriculture and the livelihoods of the poor in Southern Africa: Case studies from Cape Town and Pretoria, South Africa and Harare, Zimbabwe

This paper focuses on three dimensions of the social, institutional and planning context of urban agriculture. Firstly, an analysis of the contribution of urban agriculture to the livelihoods of urban and peri-urban residents; secondly, factors affecting the outcomes of urban agriculture projects, and thirdly, the linkages between households, communities and the planning authorities. The paper is based on research carried out since November 1998 in informal settlements in South Africa (Cape Town and Pretoria) and Zimbabwe (three sites in Harare, one peri-urban setting with strong market linkage to the central food market, a resettlement area and a high density township). The purpose of the research project was to develop methodologies and criteria for improved resource management in order to promote income generating vegetable growing in urban and peri urban areas and to provide guidance for policy formulation