Wegweiser Internationale Jugendarbeit - ein Überblick für Kommunen

WEGWEISER INTERNATIONALE JUGENDARBEIT - EIN ÜBERBLICK FÜR KOMMUNEN Wegweiser Internationale Jugendarbeit - ein Überblick für Kommunen / Becker, Helle (Rights reserved) ( -

Zur Zukunft der Bereichsethiken – Herausforderungen durch die Ökonomisierung der Welt

Der vorliegende achte Band der Schriftenreihe des Zentrums für Technik- und Wirtschaftsethik am Karlsruher Institut für Technologie soll - wie die Schriftenreihe insgesamt - den überfachlichen Dialog fördern. Zu einem solchen Dialog gehört auch der Themenkomplex „Zur Zukunft der Bereichsethiken - Herausforderungen durch die Ökonomisierung der Welt“. Die vielfältigen, multidimensionalen Ökonomisierungsprozesse prägen und verändern zusammen mit Technik und Wissenschaft auf mannigfache Weise und in einem nie gekanntem Ausmaß unsere Welt. Gesellschaften, das Zusammenleben der Menschen und das Arbeitsleben in der Gegenwart und noch stärker in der Zukunft erfahren ständig sich beschleunigende Veränderungen. Die im Band versammelten Beiträge stellen Ansätze und Beispiele dar, die Herausforderungen der Ökonomisierung der Welt mithilfe ethischer Überlegungen anzugehen und damit auch einen Beitrag zur Zukunft(sfähigkeit) der Ethik bzw. der Bereichsethiken zu leisten. Der Band enthält hierzu sowohl stärker grundsätzlich orientierte als auch eher bereichsbezogene Aufsätze. Zu den behandelten Themen gehören u.a.: die Renaissance der Geisteswissenschaften im Anthropozän-Diskurs, die Ethik der Veränderung, die Ökonomisierung als Triebkraft zur Anwendung der Ethik, zur Zukunft der Technik-, Wirtschafts- und Wissenschaftsethik, die Ökonomisierung der gesellschaftlichen Arbeit, der Sozialen Arbeit, der Medien, der persönlichen Beziehungen, der Wasserversorgung, des Gesundheitswesens sowie des Sports

Unraveling the minds of survey participants: A respondent-centered approach to understanding response behavior in employee attitude surveys

In the context of organizational development, surveys are important tools for learning about employees’ experiences in the organization. Organizational practice is faced with two main challenges to the successful implementation of surveys. First, the increasing use of surveys may lead to survey fatigue potentially negatively impacting employees’ motivation to engage in surveys. Second, survey results serve as a basis for strategic decision-making in organizations and thus need to be adequate for linkage research or benchmarking practices. The presented research aims to address these two challenges by taking a respondent-centered approach focusing on motivational and cognitive aspects of employees’ experiences while taking surveys. First, it introduces the new construct of survey experience as a respondent- centered criterion of successful survey design (Paper 1). A short-scale is theoretically developed based on user experience theory (Hassenzahl, Platz, Burmester, & Lehner, 2000) and empirically tested and validated in two studies. It, therefore, contributes to the understanding of survey design influences on participant’s motivational processes of survey response. Additionally, the short-scale equips practitioners with a reliable and economic lever to counter possible effects of survey fatigue by creating enjoyable and usable surveys tailored to specific target groups. Second, the presented research addresses cognitive and motivational aspects of survey processing and potential implications for the comparability of results. It, specifically, examines item-wording effects on response behavior on the example of intensifiers in Likert-type item stems of employee attitude surveys (Papers 2 and 3). It, further, considers the role of the organizational setting in determining employees’ response behavior (Krosnick, 1991) in the response process (Tourangeau & Rasinski, 1988) of employee attitude surveys (Paper 3). It, thereby, contributes to the understanding of employees’ response processes in this particular setting and provides practical advice for item-wording practices in organizations. Overall, the three papers bridge the previous literature by considering the survey itself, participants’ motivational and cognitive processes of survey response, and the survey setting in the context of employee attitude surveys together. The results of the presented research highlight the need for a contextual approach to researching and designing surveys that considers interactions between the survey, the participants, and the setting. It, thereby, contributes starting points to enable a more sophisticated approach to understanding survey response in employee attitude surveys

KMU 2.0 – gestaltbare Technologien und Diversity im KMU-Kontext

Der vorliegende Artikel konzentriert sich auf die steigende Bedeutung von Diversity-Aspekten beim Einsatz von Web-2.0-Technologien im KMU-Kontext. Dabei wird der Frage nachgegangen, wie ein diversityorientiertes Personalmarketing auf der Basis von Web-2.0-Technologien aussehen kann. Um die Reichweite von Web-2.0-Technologien im KMU-Sektor einschätzen zu können, wird im ersten Abschnitt auf die Web-2.0-Entwicklung kurz eingegangen und die Idee des (diversity-orientierten) Personalmarketing im KMU-Bereich entfaltet. Der zweite Abschnitt fasst insbesondere die Befragung von Fachkräften zusammen. Die Ergebnisse dieser formativen Evaluation fl ießen direkt in die partizipative Portalentwicklung ein, die im dritten Abschnitt erläutert wird. In diesem Kontext sollen auch die Möglichkeiten aber auch Begrenzungen von Web-2.0-Technologien in partizipativ entwickelten Portalen im KMU-Sektor und die Bedeutung von Diversity-Strategien eruiert und entfaltet werden. (DIPF/Orig.

[ResearchData] Does “very” make a difference? Effects of intensifiers in item stems of employee attitude surveys on response behavior

Employee attitude surveys are important tools for organizational development. To gain insights into employees’ attitudes, surveys most often use Likert-type items. Measures assessing these attitudes frequently use intensifiers (e.g., extremely, very) in item stems. To date little is known about the effects of intensifiers in the item stem on response behavior. They are frequently used inconsistently, which potentially has implications for the comparability of results in the context of benchmarking. Also, results often suffer from left-skewed distributions limiting data quality for which the use of intensifiers potentially offers a remedy. Therefore, we systematically examine the effects of intensifiers’ on response behavior in employee attitude surveys and their potential to remedy the issue of left-skewed distributions. In three studies, we assess effects on level, skewness and nomological structure. Study 1 examines the effects of intensifier strength in the item stem, while Studies 2 and 3 assess whether intensifier salience would increase these effects further. Interestingly, results did not show systematic effects. Future research ideas in regards to item design and processing as well as practical implications for the design of employee attitude surveys are discussed. Key Words: employee attitude survey, survey design, intensifier, item stem, ceiling effect, left-skewed distribution, intensifier salience, intensifier strengt

Ecosystem service assessments within the EU Water Framework Directive: marine mussel cultivation as a controversial measure

To combat the persistent eutrophication in coastal waters, sustainable sea-based measures are recommended. Yet, they are the subject of controversial stakeholder discussion, which hampers the implementation and planning process. The aim of this study is to evaluate if a participatory mapping (PM) approach and ecosystem service assessments (ESA) can be suitable tools within Water Framework Directive (WFD) implementation to support the communication with different target groups to improve and accelerate the planning and realization of new sea-based mitigation measures. We conducted three stakeholder-based PMs to visualize the perception of sea-based mitigation measures in coastal waters and seven different ESAs to investigate the perceptions of different mussel cultivation scenarios as mitigation measures. The PMs showed that ecological measures were preferred. The ESA approach showed that, while experts rated mussel cultivation scenarios positively overall, non-expert stakeholders still seemed skeptical and preferred alternative measures like floating wetlands. The methodological results indicate that PM can be a cost-effective tool to visualize stakeholders’ perceptions, but it needs to be applied with an ESA to be beneficial for the WFD implementation process. A web-based ESA improves the discussion with stakeholders and can reveal potential misperceptions and concerns faster and lead to a more focused discussion

Retrospective analysis of insulin responses to standard dosed oral glucose tests (OGTs) via naso-gastric tubing towards definition of an objective cut-off value

Abstract Background Insulin dysregulation (ID) with basal or postprandial hyperinsulinemia is one of the key findings in horses and ponies suffering from the equine metabolic syndrome (EMS). Assessment of ID can easily be performed in clinical settings by the use of oral glucose challenge tests. Oral glucose test (OGT) performed with 1 g/kg bodyweight (BW) glucose administered via naso-gastric tube allows the exact administration of a defined glucose dosage in a short time. However, reliable cut-off values have not been available so far. Therefore, the aim of the study was to describe variations in insulin response to OGT via naso-gastric tubing and to provide a clinical useful cut-off value for ID when using the insulin quantification performed with an equine-optimized insulin enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay. Results Data visualization revealed no clear separation in the serum insulin concentration of insulin sensitive and insulin dysregulated horses during OGT. Therefore, a model based clustering method was used to circumvent the use of an arbitrary limit for categorization. This method considered all data-points for the classification, taking into account the individual insulin trajectory during the OGT. With this method two clusters were differentiated, one with low and one with high insulin responses during OGT. The cluster of individuals with low insulin response was consistently detected, independently of the initialization parameters of the algorithm. In this cluster the 97.5% quantile of insulin is 110 µLU/mL at 120 min. We suggest using this insulin concentration of 110 µLU/mL as a cut-off value for samples obtained at 120 min in OGT. Conclusion OGT performed with 1 g/kg BW glucose and administration via naso-gastric tubing can easily be performed under clinical settings. Application of the cut-off value of 110 µLU/mL at 120 min allows assessment of ID in horses

Ecological-social-economic assessment of zebra-mussel cultivation scenarios for the Oder (Szczecin) Lagoon

The Systems Approach Framework with an integrated Ecological-Social-Economic assessment was applied to address the issue of zebra mussel (Dreissena polymorpha) farming in the large Oder (Szczecin) Lagoon, southern Baltic Sea. Heavy eutrophication hampers the use of the lagoon and zebra mussel farming is considered as new use and potential measure to improve water quality. Three alternative scenarios were developed in interaction with local stakeholders: 1) the production of mussels as fresh feed and meal on a commercial basis seemed not profitable, because of a limited market for fresh mussels (zoos, aquaculture) and low prices for organic feed. 2) Mussel cultivation to improve transparency and attractiveness of bathing waters near beaches had only a limited potential (0.2 m improvement of Secchi depth). A higher mussel biomass would increase the risk of temporary hypoxia. 3) Mussels farms for improving the environmental status (according to EU Water Framework Directive) by supporting macrophyte restoration were considered as the most promising scenario. Our model simulations suggested that as soon as a compensation for nutrient removal is considered, all mussel farm scenarios could cover the costs. Experiments and literature confirm that the conditions for an environmental friendly farming approach in the lagoon are suitable. Steps towards and problems associated with an implementation, e.g. invasion of Dreissena bugensis (quagga mussel), are discussed. Each step of the Ecological-Social-Economic assessment and major lessons learnt are documented in detail. Altogether, the approach turned out to be very suitable for this issue