The Whole Is More Than the Sum of Its Parts - Or Is It? A Review of the Empirical Literature on Complementarities in Organizations

The concept of complementarity and its role in the design of organizations has enjoyed increasing attention over the past twenty years. We provide a systematic review of the empirical studies on complementarities in leading journals in management, economics and related disciplines that considers the nature of the factors among which complementarities are found to exist, and the effects of complementarities in organizations. Our findings suggest that complementarities result from the skilful matching of heterogeneous resources which generate positive returns above and beyond the effect of each resource generated on its own. In contrast, the empirical evidence on complementarities between individual organizational and HR practices in firms provides mixed conclusions. We show that complementarities are likely to materialize in complex systems of multiple design elements. Therefore, future research should aim at uncovering complementary effects among multiple elements that capture organizational systems better than a few selected elements only do.Complementarities; Organizational Design

Graptemys pearlensis

Number of Pages: 4Integrative BiologyGeological Science

The evaluation of welfare state performance: modelling a counterfactual world

'Die sogenannten Hartz-Reformen haben wahrscheinlich zu den wichtigsten und weitreichenden Änderungen auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt in der Geschichte der Bundesrepublik geführt. Die anhaltend hohe Arbeitslosigkeit trotz hoher Ausgaben für aktive und passive Arbeitsmarktmarktpolitik hat Fragen nach den Wirkungen von Sozialpolitik aufgeworfen. Anhand der Hartz Reformen versucht dieser Artikel zu verdeutlichen, wie schwierig es ist den Sozialstaat und seine Elemente im Bezug auf seine Effektivität und Effizienz zu evaluieren. Außerdem werden bekannte Evaluationstechniken und deren funktionsweise verdeutlicht.' (Autorenreferat)'The evaluation of welfare state performance is an important issue in times of tight government budgets, high unemployment and growing inequality. Policymakers and taxpayers want to know if a specific programme has led to the intended effect, and with no excessive waste of resources. For such evaluations to be thorough and robust, appropriate methods and the right counterfactuals are important. It is difficult to say what would have happened if a certain policy had not been implemented or implemented differently. This holds even more for the impact on a single individual than for aggregate results. This paper will highlight some examples and possibilities of how to deal with counterfactual questions in the context of the Hartz reforms, probably the most far-reaching welfare state and labour market changes in the history of the Federal Republic of Germany. Furthermore this reform was the first big attempt of systematic welfare state evaluation in Germany.' (author's abstract

Conservation Genetics and Systematics of Several Turtles Species in the Southeastern United States

Chelonians (i.e., turtles) are an imperiled group of reptiles with about 66% of the recognized species listed as threatened by the IUCN. Most chelonian species have a unique set of life history traits (i.e., longevity, delayed sexual maturity, and low juvenile survivorship), which makes their populations exceedingly sensitive to increases in adult and juvenile moralities. With numerous anthropogenic effects (e.g., habitat alteration, exploitation, and over harvesting) negatively influencing mortality rates, chelonians have experienced global precipitous declines and extinctions. This dissertation focuses on species within two chelonian genera, Gopherus and Graptemys. Although these two genera are vastly different ecologically, they are exposed to similar threats and possess similar conservation requirements. Within the genus Graptemys this dissertation focuses on the conservation genetics and systematics of three species (i.e., G. gibbonsi, G. oculifera, and G. flavimaculata) with distributions restricted to the Pearl River of Louisiana and the Pascagoula River of Mississippi. Since the taxonomic status of these species is still unresolved, I used molecular (i.e., mitochondrial) and morphological (only for the G. oculifera and G flavimaculata comparison) data to assess the degree of differentiation and divergence between these species. The last two chapters focus on the conservation genetics of Gopherus polyphemus. In particular, I examined the level of genetic diversity within several western populations experiencing aberrantly low hatching success using microsatellites, and conducted a range-wide phylogeographical study in an attempt to relate patterns of genetic structure with current management units for the species

A Performance Guide to Michael Patterson\u27s People of the Land for Baritone and Piano

The purpose of this document is to supply a comprehensive performer’s guide to Iowa composer, Dr. Michael Patterson’s, People of the Land, an eight song, song cycle for baritone and piano, set to poetry by Iowa poet James Hearst. This song cycle was personally commissioned to fulfill a need in the American song cycle literature on the topic of farming and more specifically Iowa farmers. The poetry of James Hearst, farmer and poet, has never been previously set in a song cycle. People of the Land tells the story of an Iowa farmer from the beginning to end of his career while living through World War II. The text is collected and arranged numerically from editor Scott Cawelti’s book, The Complete Poetry of James Hearst. The eight poems were personally selected by me, and composer, Dr. Michael Patterson to tell the story of a rural Iowa farmer during WWII. The song cycle intends to offer the images and sounds of the Iowa farmer as he matures throughout his career. The baritone voice acts as the community, speaker, and the farmer himself, comments and reacts to events of hardship and prosperity on the farm. The accompaniment creates the emotion and atmosphere of rural Iowa through use of original hymnody and authentic American folk song style

Zooplankton biomass in the ice-covered Weddell Sea, Antarctica

Zooplankton was sampled by a Rectangular Midwater Trawl (RMT 1 + 8) in Weddell Sea surface waters (0 to 300 m) between 66 and 78°S during austral summer (February – March 1983). Sixty-nine taxa including different developmental stages were considered and divided into 16 size classes between 39.5 mm length. Biomass was determined by taxon and size class for three different meso- and macroplankton communities in the oceanic region, on the northeastern shelf and on the southern shelf of the Weddell Sea. The highest biomass of 11.2 mg DW m−3 (3.4 g DW m−2) was found in the northeastern shelf community (70 to 74°S), where juvenile and adultEuphausia crystallorophias accounted for 3.7 mg DW m−3 (1.1 g DW m−2). Although not quantitatively sampled, early copepodite stages (CI to CIII) ofCalanoides acutus andCalanus propinquus ranked second with 2.7 mg DW m−3 (0.8 g DW m−2). Biomass in the northeastern shelf community was concentrated in the size ranges 1 to 4 mm and 19.5 to 39.5 mm. The oceanic community of the central Weddell Sea was dominated by copepods smaller than 5 mm, which made up half of the total oceanic biomass. The tunicateSalpa thompsoni (7.0 to 8.5 mm) was the dominant single species with 1.6 mg DW m−3 (0.5 g DW m−2). Euphausiids, mainly juvenile and adult krillEuphausia superba, comprised 1.2 mg DW m−3 (0.4 g DW m−2). Total standing stock in the oceanic community was 9.4 mg DWm−3 (2.8 g DW m−2). Lowest biomass values were found in the southern shelf community (south of 75°S) with 4.0 mg DW m−3 (1.2 g DW m−2), concentrated in the 1 to 4 mm and 14.5 to 34.5 mm size classes. Abundant species were the pteropodLimacina helicina (1 to 2 mm; 0.7 mg DW m−3; 0.2 g DW m−2) andE. crystallorophias (24.5 to 39.5 mm; 0.9 mg DW m−3; 0.3 g DW m−2). The data reveal that it is essential to distinguish among subsystems in the Southern Ocean. This leads to a better understanding of the structure and function of those pelagic food webs which represent alternatives to the paradigmatic krill-centered system