America vs. Apple: the Argumentative Function of Metonyms

: Our study of public argumentation surrounding iPhone encryption addresses the argumentative function of the metonym. Metonyms accomplish general and specific argumentative purposes. Generally, metonyms help define and redefine the argumentative framework for a dispute. Within a controversy, metonyms operate as inference generators. We isolate and analyze several metonyms and elaborate their warrant-generating valences. Metonyms are inference generating tools capable of instantiating normative frameworks, invoking flexible and indeterminate senses of causality

Questions and Information: Contrasting Metaphors

The denotation of the current era as the ‘Information Age’ has emphasized the primacy of information and its relatives, data and knowledge, to modern society. How do people conceptualize information? The emergence of new information related fields and the pervasiveness of information issues in society suggest that for information and related phenomena, there is some conceptual coherence, what might be called an information paradigm

A Phenomenological Analysis of Media Transition: The Cases of Digital Photography and E-Mail

This paper examines the transition process that occurs when digital media appear that share functionality with established analog media. New concepts for how the new medium is represented and produced and its functionality and products may all have to be coined. A non-linear change process is presented which highlights the importance of old media metaphors for making sense of new media, processes and representations. Examples from digital photography and e-mail are presented to illustrate how new technology presents us with opportunities to examine our assumptions about artifacts and the processes that produce them and our relationship to our world

Kooperation in Organisationen

Most organizational theories argue that formal organizational tructures determine or at least influence individual behavior and herewith are crucial for the performance and survival capability of the organization. This thesis contributes to the research on cooperation in organizations by investigating the effects of basic elements of organizational structure within controlled laboratory experiments. It provides insight into the underlying processes that determine the team members’ responses to feedback information and to formal structures of the decision environment. The organizational dilemma that arises from team production - as a conflict between individual and collective interests - provides the framework for the experiments presented in this thesis. The results show that unconfined information that is available to every member of a team might have detrimental effects on cooperation over time while retained or exaggerated information can foster and stabilize cooperation.Eine Vielzahl von Organisationstheorien geht davon aus, dass die formale Struktur der Organisation das Verhalten der Organisationsmitglieder bestimmt oder zumindest beeinflusst und damit von großer Bedeutung für die Leistungs- und Überlebensfähigkeit der Organisation ist. Die vorliegende Arbeit leistet, durch die Untersuchung der grundlegenden Elemente dieser formalen Struktur in kontrollierten Laborexperimenten, einen Beitrag zum Verständnis von Kooperation in Organisationen. Die Ergebnisse erlauben einen Einblick in die zugrundeliegenden Prozesse, die die Reaktion der Teammitglieder auf Feedback-Informationen und formale Strukturelemente bestimmen. Es zeigt sich, dass die vollständige Information aller Teammitglieder negative Auswirkung auf den Kooperationsverlauf haben kann, während zurückgehaltene bzw. geschönte Informationen die Kooperation verstärken und stabilisieren