Geschlechtsspezifische berufliche Segregation in Ostdeutschland zwischen Persistenz, Verdrängung und Angleichung : ein Vergleich mit Westdeutschland für die Jahre 1991-2000 (Gender-specific occupational segregation in eastern Germany between persistence, displacement and alignment : a comparison with western Germany for the years 1991-2000)

"The gender-specific occupational structures in eastern and western Germany are still a long way from coming into line with each other even ten years after unification. Both segregation curves and various segregation indices unanimously prove a clearly stronger gender-specific segregation in eastern Germany for the 1990s compared with western Germany. In research discussion there is disagreement about the right way to measure gender-specific segregation. That is why the contents-related explanations are first preceded by methodical considerations, which discuss classical and more recent measures of segregation in addition to the concept of the segregation curve. The starting point for the theoretical considerations is the question as to whether the level of gender-specific segregation differs in the two parts of Germany in view of the different occupation-structure conditions and basic social conditions in the GDR and the different employment developments in eastern and western Germany after unification. In order to answer this question, hypotheses of persistence, displacement and alignment are developed which are the subject of the empirical analyses. The study for the period 1991 to 2000, which was conducted on the basis of the microcensus, shows different trends of gender-specific segregation in eastern and western Germany. A constant level of gender-specific segregation in western Germany is opposed by an increase in segregation until 1996 followed by the start of a decrease in eastern Germany. In addition to indications of the persistence and alignment hypotheses, the empirical findings substantiate the displacement hypothesis most clearly. What supports this is the fact that the increase in gender-specific segregation between 1991 and 1996 corresponded with a clear decline of the proportion of women in the workforce. A detailed examination shows that the displacement of women in numerous occupations occurred by male-dominated occupations being closed for women and female-dominated occupations being opened up for men. In addition to this quantitative displacement process there is evidence of a qualitative displacement process which manifests itself in the fact that women were not able to gain a foothold in qualified service occupations in the same way as men." (Author's abstract, IAB-Doku) ((en))Berufsstrukturwandel, Berufsgruppe, Geschlechterverteilung, Frauenberufe, Männerberufe, regionaler Vergleich, Segregation, Ostdeutschland, Westdeutschland, Bundesrepublik Deutschland

Can hearing puter activate pupil? Phonological competition and the processing of reduced spoken words in spontaneous conversations

In listeners' daily communicative exchanges, they most often hear casual speech, in which words are often produced with fewer segments, rather than the careful speech used in most psycholinguistic experiments. Three experiments examined phonological competition during the recognition of reduced forms such as [pjutər] for computer using a target-absent variant of the visual world paradigm. Listeners' eye movements were tracked upon hearing canonical and reduced forms as they looked at displays of four printed words. One of the words was phonologically similar to the canonical pronunciation of the target word, one word was similar to the reduced pronunciation, and two words served as unrelated distractors. When spoken targets were presented in isolation (Experiment 1) and in sentential contexts (Experiment 2), competition was modulated as a function of the target word form. When reduced targets were presented in sentential contexts, listeners were probabilistically more likely to first fixate reduced-form competitors before shifting their eye gaze to canonical-form competitors. Experiment 3, in which the original /p/ from [pjutər] was replaced with a “real” onset /p/, showed an effect of cross-splicing in the late time window. We conjecture that these results fit best with the notion that speech reductions initially activate competitors that are similar to the phonological surface form of the reduction, but that listeners nevertheless can exploit fine phonetic detail to reconstruct strongly reduced forms to their canonical counterparts.peer-reviewe

WHAT BENEFITS DO THEY BRING? A CASE STUDY ANALYSIS ON ENTERPRISE SOCIAL NETWORKS

Over the last years, Enterprise Social Networks (ESN) have gained increasing attention both in academia and practice, resulting in a large number of publications dealing with ESN. Among them is a large number of case studies describing the benefits of ESN in each individual case. Based on the different research objects they focus, various benefits are described. However, an overview of the bene-fits achieved by using ESN is missing and will, thus, be elaborated in this article (research question 1). Further, we cluster the identified benefits to more generic categories and finally classify them to the capabilities of traditional IT as presented by Davenport and Short (1990) to determine if new capabilities of IT arise using ESN (research question 2). To address our research questions, we perform a qualitative content analysis on 37 ESN case studies. As a result, we identify 99 individual benefits, classify them to the capabilities of traditional IT, and define a new IT capability named Social Capital. Our results can, e.g., be used to align and expand current ESN success measurement approaches

BPM ADOPTION IN SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED COMPANIES IN BAVARIA

Small and medium sized (SMEs) companies are a pillar of the Bavarian economy. With business process management (BPM) providing an important competitive advantage in the globalized economy, the adap-tion of BPM by SMEs has societal relevance. However, the reasons why, or why not, SMEs implement BPM measures are still not fully understood. Previous research addressed this topic either breadthwise as surveys or in depth as case studies, and thus only has a limited perspective. Therefore, in our work, we carry out a mixed method analysis. We conduct 10 case studies to analyse the current state of adoption as well as the reasons for or against implementing further BPM measures. The insights gained guide the design of the subsequent survey. 114 results allow us to evaluate how widespread a particular reason may be. Lastly, the combined discussion of the results of both the case studies and surveys allow us to identify reasons that hinder or foster BPM adoption in SMEs, which are in-depth as well as generalizable. The study results are analyzed to derive propositions to research and practitioners alike that support SMEs to introduce further measures of BPM and improve their global competitiveness. For example, we could identify that BPM is in some cases enforced by customers, that stricter certifications are nec-essary, and that BPM trainings aligned to the needs of SMEs are desirable

Soziales Kapital als Wegweiser in der Studieneingangsphase internationaler Studierender

Internationale Studierende stehen bei Studienbeginn vor besonderen Herausforderungen. Zur Erleichterung des Studienstarts bieten viele Hochschulen in Deutschland fachliche und außerfachliche Angebote in der Studieneingangsphase an. Im Rahmen dieser Studie wird der Frage nachgegangen, von welchen Faktoren es abhängt, ob internationale Studierende diese Angebote in Anspruch nehmen. Die Analysen machen deutlich, dass das soziale Kapital der Studierenden, das über Lehrende in Schulen und Hochschulen und Personen aus studienrelevanten Berufen erworben wurde, die Wahrscheinlichkeit erhöht, an Studienvorbereitungskursen, wissenschaftlichen Unterstützungsangeboten und Tutorien teilzunehmen. Das schulische Leistungsniveau erwies sich nur bei der Teilnahme an wissenschaftlichen Unterstützungsangeboten als signifikant.

Evaluating Business Process Improvement Patterns by Simulation

Existing approaches for business process improvement often lack systematic guidelines to transform a business process into an enhanced state, which we refer to as the “act of improvement”. To close this gap, a pattern-based approach has been designed and developed in previous works. In this paper, the usefulness of “Business Process Improvement Patterns” (BPI-Patterns) as a means of improving business processes is analyzed. For this purpose, a simulation experiment is performed in which several BPI-Patterns are applied to evaluate whether their anticipated effects can be confirmed for real-life business processes. From the analysis of the simulation results, i.e. how the application of BPI-Patterns affects the business processes, we investigate enabling as well as hindering factors that influence the implementation of BPI-Patterns. These factors may serve as a means to further specify instances of BPI-Patterns and also contribute to the overall evaluation of the BPI-Pattern approach

Climate change and mixed forests: how do altered survival probabilities impact economically desirable species proportions of Norway spruce and European beech?

International audienceKey message Economic consequences of altered survival probabilities under climate change should be considered for regeneration planning in Southeast Germany. Findings suggest that species compositions of mixed stands obtained from continuous optimization may buffer but not completely mitigate economic consequences. Mixed stands of Norway spruce (Picea abiesL. Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvaticaL.) (considering biophysical interactions between tree species) were found to be more robust, against both perturbations in survival probabilities and economic input variables, compared to block mixtures (excluding biophysical interactions).ContextClimate change is expected to increase natural hazards in European forests. Uncertainty in expected tree mortality and resulting potential economic consequences complicate regeneration decisions.AimsThis study aims to analyze the economic consequences of altered survival probabilities for mixing Norway spruce (Picea abies L. Karst.) and European beech (Fagus sylvatica L.) under different climate change scenarios. We investigate whether management strategies such as species selection and type of mixture (mixed stands vs. block mixture) could mitigate adverse financial effects of climate change.MethodsThe bio-economic modelling approach combines a parametric survival model with modern portfolio theory. We estimate the economically optimal species mix under climate change, accounting for the biophysical and economic effects of tree mixtures. The approach is demonstrated using an example from Southeast Germany.ResultsThe optimal tree species mixtures under simulated climate change effects could buffer but not completely mitigate undesirable economic consequences. Even under optimally mixed forest stands, the risk-adjusted economic value decreased by 28%. Mixed stands economically outperform block mixtures for all climate scenarios.ConclusionOur results underline the importance of mixed stands to mitigate the economic consequences of climate change. Mechanistic bio-economic models help to understand consequences of uncertain input variables and to design purposeful adaptation strategies