Germany’s Next Top Manager: Does Personality explain the Gender Career Gap?

The female share in management positions is quite low in Germany. The higher the hierarchical level, the fewer women there are in such positions. Men have numerous role models to follow whereas women lack this opportunity. Many studies have focused on the influence of human capital and other "objective" factors on career opportunities. In our study, we go a step further by also looking at the impact of self-reported personality traits on gender differences in career chances. We compare managers and other white-collar employees in Germany’s private sector. While bivariate results based on data from the German Socio-Economic Panel (SOEP) in 2007 show that there are significant gender differences in personality traits, multivariate estimations and the decomposition of the gender career gap clearly indicate that these differences cannot account for gender differences in career opportunities. The decomposition (according to Fairlie, 2003) shows that only 8.6 percent of the inequality of career chances between women and can be explained by differences in personality. Nevertheless, personality traits might indeed play a role, albeit more indirectly: Some of the stronger career effects, such as long working hours, and labour market segregation, can also reflect differences in personality traits. These might have been influenced at an early stage by a gender-biased environment. Our results strongly stress the need for a gender-neutral environment outside and inside companies in order to enforce equal career opportunities for women and men.personality, gender, career, leadership

Complex Surface Displacements above the Storage Cavern Field at Epe, NW-Germany, Observed by Multi-Temporal SAR-Interferometry

The storage cavern field at Epe has been brined out of a salt deposit belonging to the lower Rhine salt flat, which extends under the surface of the North German lowlands and part of the Netherlands. Cavern convergence and operational pressure changes cause surface displacements that have been studied for this work with the help of SAR interferometry (InSAR) using distributed and persistent scatterers. Vertical and East-West movements have been determined based on Sentinel-1 data from ascending and descending orbit. Simple geophysical modeling is used to support InSAR processing and helps to interpret the observations. In particular, an approach is presented that allows to relate the deposit pressures with the observed surface displacements. Seasonal movements occurring over a fen situated over the western part of the storage site further complicate the analysis. Findings are validated with ground truth from levelling and groundwater level measurements

Persönlichkeit und Karriere: She's Got What it Takes

In Deutschland sind Frauen in Führungspositionen unterrepräsentiert. Je höher die Hierarchiestufe desto geringer ist ihr Anteil unter den Führungskräften. Nur 2,5 Prozent der Vorstandsmitglieder der Top-200 Wirtschaftsunternehmen in Deutschland sind weiblich. Zahlreiche Studien untersuchen Einflussfaktoren auf die Karriere in Abhängigkeit z.B. von Humankapital und anderen "objektiven" Faktoren. Unsere Untersuchung geht darüber hinaus und bezieht auch Persönlichkeitseigenschaften mit ein. Die Studie basiert auf dem Sozio-oekonomischen Panel (SOEP), einer repräsentativen Wiederholungsbefragung von mehr als 20.000 Personen. Verglichen werden Führungskräfte mit anderen Angestellten in der Privatwirtschaft. Die bivariate Betrachtung der als Big Five bekannten fünf Persönlichkeitsmerkmale und der Risikobereitschaft bei der eigenen beruflichen Karriere bestätigen zunächst, dass sich Führungskräfte in ihrer Selbsteinschätzung deutlich von sonstigen Angestellten unterscheiden und auch zwischen Frauen und Männern zum Teil signifikante Differenzen bestehen.Werden jedoch weitere Einflussgrößen, wie Humankapitalausstattung, soziale Herkunft sowie das individuelle Lebens- und Arbeitsumfeld zur Erklärung des Einnehmens einer Führungsposition in das Schätzmodell mit einbezogen, lassen sich zwischen Frauen und Männern keine statistisch signifikanten Unterschiede im Effekt der Persönlichkeitsdimensionen mehr nachweisen. Die geringeren Karrierechancen für Frauen gehen vielmehr auf Unterschiede in der Bedeutung der Berufserfahrung (Entwertung durch Unterbrechungen), der geleisteten Überstunden und hinsichtlich des ausgeübten Berufs (Segregation am Arbeitsmarkt) zurück. Dennoch mögen Persönlichkeitseigenschaften durchaus eine Rolle spielen, aber eher indirekt - reflektiert durch Unterschiede in den entscheidenden Einflussfaktoren auf die Karriere wie Berufserfahrung, lange Wochenarbeitszeiten und Berufswahl (Segregation am Arbeitsmarkt).Personality, gender, career, leadership

Impedance and Instability Studies in LEIR with Xenon

In 2017, the LEIR accelerator has been operated with Xe39+ beam for fixed target experiments in the SPS North Area. The different ion species, with respect to the standard Pb54+, allowed for additional comparative measurements of tune shift versus intensity at injection energy both in coasting and bunched beams. The fast transverse instability observed for high accumulated intensities has been as well characterized and additional observations relevant to impedance have been collected from longitudinal Schottky signal and BTF measurements. The results of these measurements are summarised and compared to the currently developed machine impedance model

Probing the causal involvement of dlPFC in directed forgetting using rTMS-A replication study

The forgetting of previously remembered information has, for a long time, been explained by purely passive processes. This viewpoint has been challenged by the finding that humans show worse memory for specific items that they have been instructed to forget. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has, through imaging, lesion and brain stimulation studies, been implied in controlling such active forgetting processes. In this study, we attempted to solidify evidence for such a causal role of the dlPFC in directed forgetting by replicating an existing rTMS study (Hanslmayr S, 2012) in a preregistered within-participant design. We stimulated participants at the dlPFC (BA9) or vertex using 45s of 1Hz rTMS after instructions to forget previously remembered words in a list-method directed forgetting paradigm and tested for effects on the amount of forgotten information. Contrary to the study we were attempting to replicate, no significant increase in forgetting under dlPFC stimulation was found in our participants. However, when combining our results with the study we were attempting to replicate, dlPFC stimulation led to significantly increased directed forgetting in both studies combined. We further explored if the rTMS parameters used here and in earlier work (Hanslmayr S, 2012) influenced inhibitory processing at their time of delivery or in a more persistent manner. Unaltered incongruency and negative priming effects in a Stroop task conducted directly after stimulation suggests that our rTMS stimulation did not continue to influence inhibitory processing after the time of stimulation. As the combined evidence for increased directed forgetting due to rTMS dlPFC stimulation is still quite weak, additional replications are necessary to show that directed forgetting is indeed causally driven by an active prefrontal process

Episodic memory retrieval functionally relies on very rapid reactivation of sensory information

Episodic memory retrieval is assumed to rely on the rapid reactivation of sensory information that was present during encoding, a process termed “ecphory.” We investigated the functional relevance of this scarcely understood process in two experiments in human participants. We presented stimuli to the left or right of fixation at encoding, followed by an episodic memory test with centrally presented retrieval cues. This allowed us to track the reactivation of lateralized sensory memory traces during retrieval. Successful episodic retrieval led to a very early (∼100–200 ms) reactivation of lateralized alpha/beta (10–25 Hz) electroencephalographic (EEG) power decreases in the visual cortex contralateral to the visual field at encoding. Applying rhythmic transcranial magnetic stimulation to interfere with early retrieval processing in the visual cortex led to decreased episodic memory performance specifically for items encoded in the visual field contralateral to the site of stimulation. These results demonstrate, for the first time, that episodic memory functionally relies on very rapid reactivation of sensory information

Unions in the postal services of the future. A global survey on labor uni on representatives' assessment of digitalization in the post and logistics sector

This study is an explorative analysis of labor union representatives' assessment of digital transformation in the postal and logistics sector and the consequences for union activities in different regions of the world. It consists of two parts: Part I is a review of existing research on the topic of digitalization and labor relations in the postal and logistics sector. Part II represents the core of the study, consisting of a qualitative survey of union representatives from that sector regarding their stance towards digitalization and respective union strategies. The sample consists of 29 detailed written statements of union representatives from all continents, answering to a set of open questions. The study shows that in almost all of the regions, digital technologies are the basic technological infrastructure that enables postal work. There is a set of specific technology bundles which are consistently used in all of these regions. The surveyed union representatives consistently report a net job loss as a consequence of digitalization, although it also has created some new jobs. They also indicate an increase in precarious forms of employment, such as subcontracting, temporary work or bogus self-employment. In terms of working conditions, respondents refer to work facilitation through automation and digital assistance. However, they also underline that especially algorithmic work control leads to increased surveillance and work intensification. This intensification of work is perceived in turn as a factor in increased stress and thus as a risk for workers' health. Yet, respondents also see the potential for digital systems to prevent accidents. Overall, the surveyed union representatives see digitalization as inevitable. Yet, they consistently argue that new regulations are needed because older standards often times do not address the specific problems of digitalized work

Probing the causal involvement of dlPFC in directed forgetting using rTMS—A replication study

The forgetting of previously remembered information has, for a long time, been explained by purely passive processes. This viewpoint has been challenged by the finding that humans show worse memory for specific items that they have been instructed to forget. The dorsolateral prefrontal cortex has, through imaging, lesion and brain stimulation studies, been implied in controlling such active forgetting processes. In this study, we attempted to solidify evidence for such a causal role of the dlPFC in directed forgetting by replicating an existing rTMS study (Hanslmayr S, 2012) in a preregistered within-participant design. We stimulated participants at the dlPFC (BA9) or vertex using 45s of 1Hz rTMS after instructions to forget previously remembered words in a list-method directed forgetting paradigm and tested for effects on the amount of forgotten information. Contrary to the study we were attempting to replicate, no significant increase in forgetting under dlPFC stimulation was found in our participants. However, when combining our results with the study we were attempting to replicate, dlPFC stimulation led to significantly increased directed forgetting in both studies combined. We further explored if the rTMS parameters used here and in earlier work (Hanslmayr S, 2012) influenced inhibitory processing at their time of delivery or in a more persistent manner. Unaltered incongruency and negative priming effects in a Stroop task conducted directly after stimulation suggests that our rTMS stimulation did not continue to influence inhibitory processing after the time of stimulation. As the combined evidence for increased directed forgetting due to rTMS dlPFC stimulation is still quite weak, additional replications are necessary to show that directed forgetting is indeed causally driven by an active prefrontal process