The positive impact of agile retrospectives on the collaboration of distributed development teams – A practical approach on the example of Bosch engineering GmbH

To counteract competitive pressure, increasing customer requirements and growing product complexity successful distributed collaboration in product development is vital. Companies have to face new challenges, such as efficiency losses in communication. To overcome these challenges agile working practices, such as agile retrospectives, could be beneficial. The objective of this scientific work is to evaluate the benefit of agile working practices on the example of agile retrospectives, for the improvement of collaboration in distributed development teams. Based on literature analysis, qualitative and quantitative expert interviews following the DRM by Blessing and Chakrabarti, this scientific work shows that agile working practices have a high potential to improve distributed collaboration. To address this potential, several virtual agile retrospectives are developed and conducted within a distributed team at Bosch Engineering GmbH. The evaluation of this approach results in a high potential of agile retrospectives indicating an improvement tendency. Especially iteratively implemented virtual agile retrospectives have a positive impact on successful distributed collaboration

Am I the right candidate? Self-ascribed fit of women and men to a leadership position

Women are assumed to show a self-ascribed lack-of-fit to leadership positions compared to men (Heilman, 1983). The present study examined whether this gender difference would diminish when agency is accounted for and whether a stimulus person’s gender would alter women’s self-ascribed fit. German management students (91 women, 95 men) received a fictitious recruitment advertisement for a leadership position that portrayed a man, a woman, or both a man and a woman. Participants indicated their perceptions of agency and suitability to the advertised position. As predicted, women judged themselves as less suitable for the leadership position than men and participants’ self-reported agency mediated this effect. Furthermore, all participants felt most suitable if a male and a female stimulus person were portrayed

Physical Habitat and Fish Assemblage Relationships with Landscape Variables at Multiple Spatial Scales in Wadeable Iowa Streams

Landscapes in Iowa and other midwestern states have been profoundly altered by conversion of native prairies to agriculture. We analyzed landscape data collected at multiple spatial scales to explore relationships with reach-scale physical habitat and fish assemblage data from 93 randomly selected sites on second- through fifth-order wadeable Iowa streams. Ordination of sites by physical habitat showed significant gradients of channel shape, habitat complexity, substrate composition, and stream size. Several landscape variables were significantly associated with the physical habitat ordination. Row crop land use was associated with fine substrates and steep bank angles, whereas wetland land cover and greater sinuosity and catchment land area were associated with complex channel and bank morphology and greater residual pool volume, woody debris, and canopy cover. Thirteen landscape variables were significant predictors of physical habitat variables in multiple linear regressions, with adjusted R 2 values ranging from 0.07 to 0.74. Inclusion of landscape variables with physical habitat variables in multiple regression models predicting fish assemblage metrics and a fish index of biotic integrity resulted in negligible improvements over models based on only physical habitat variables. Physical habitat in wadeable Iowa streams is strongly associated with landscape characteristics. Results of this study and previous studies suggest that (1) landscape factors directly influence physical habitat, (2) physical habitat directly influences fish assemblages, and (3) the influence of landscape factors on fish assemblages is primarily indirect. Understanding how landscape factors, such as human land use, influence physical habitat and fish assemblages will help managers make more informed decisions for improving Iowa\u27s wadeable streams

Cross-cultural generalization: Using meta-analysis to test hypotheses about cultural variability

Researchers conducting multinational organizational studies face considerable challenges. They must not only understand psychological variables, but also translate measures across several languages and administer those measures across several countries and organizational settings. Furthermore, once the data are collected, the researchers must determine whether the measures operate in a similar statistical manner across cultures in terms of their factor structure, reliability, and predictive validity. The entire process can be daunting. This book presents accessible models and real-world examples of large-scale, multinational research within organizations. The contributors describe their own successful research projects, highlighting the challenges they have faced and how they have overcome them. Psychometric, ethical, and methodological concerns are explored, as well as the personal and professional rewards of conducting this type of research. This book will help organizational researchers ensure that their studies are both generalizable and relevant to today's global and diverse work force. It will also help consumers of multicultural research in organizations (e.g., managers, practitioners, and policymakers) obtain a multicultural perspective on important research problems. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2014 APA, all rights reserved

Bitterfeld/Wolfen als Beispiel fuer den Wandel einer Industrieregion in den neuen Bundeslaendern Untersuchung von Flaechennutzungsaenderungen der beiden Staedte und Umstrukturierungen ausgewaehlter Altindustriestandorte

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