Cross-cultural virtual teams are on the rise, but can they communicate effectively?

Cultural differences can create barriers to communication; the lack of physical interaction can make it worse, writes Marion Festin

Use of a multistrain assay could improve the NTP carcinogenesis bioassay.

There are often large strain differences in the response of laboratory animals to toxic chemicals and carcinogens, with some strains being totally resistant to dose levels that cause acute toxicity and/or cancer in other strains. The current National Toxicology Program carcinogenesis bioassay (NTP-CB) uses only a single isogenic strain of mice and rats and may therefore miss some carcinogens. New short-term tests to predict mutagenesis and possible carcinogenesis are validated using data from the NTP-CB. If the animal data are inaccurate, it may hinder this validation. The accuracy of the NTP-CB could be improved by using two or more strains of each species without increasing the total number of animals. It would be possible to continue to use sample sizes of 48-50 animals, but subdivide these into groups of 12 animals of 4 different strains (48 animals total) per dose/sex group, for example, instead of 48 identical animals. This would quadruple the number of genotypes without any substantial increase in cost. Such a multistrain "factorial" design would, on average, be statistically more powerful then the present design and should increase the chance of detecting carcinogens that currently may give equivocal results or go undetected because the test animal strains happen to be specifically resistant. When strains differ in response, studies of differences in metabolism, pharmacokinetics, DNA damage/repair, cellular responses, and in some cases identification of genetic loci governing sensitivity may provide biological information on toxic mechanisms that would help in assessing human risk and setting permissible exposure limits. The NTP may have made the world a safer place for F344 rats and B6C3F1 mice.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS

Introduction to genetic monitoring

Why should we do genetic monitoring?There is a long history of both documented and anecdotal reports of genetic contamination of strains of laboratory animals. In all cases the results of contamination have resulted in serious damage to research projects. There have been reports of commercial breeders attempting to hide known cases of genetic contamination

Personenorientierte Koordination internationaler Aktivitäten in Entwicklungs-NGOs: Fallstudienanalyse und Entwicklung eines Bezugsrahmens

Das (Personal-) Management und die Organisation von internationalen Entwicklungs- NGOs sind bisher wenig erforscht. Ziel dieses Beitrags ist es, Aufschluss darüber zu gewinnen, wie diese Organisationen ihre internationalen Aktivitäten koordinieren und welche Einflussfaktoren hier eine Rolle spielen. Im Fokus stehen dabei die personenorientierten Koordinationsinstrumente. Der vorliegende Beitrag liefert Ergebnisse einer qualitativen empirischen Untersuchung in fünf deutschen international tätigen Entwicklungs- NGOs. Im Ergebnis zeigt sich in diesem Sample erstens die hohe Bedeutung von Entsendungen und persönlicher Interaktionen als Koordinationsmechanismen sowie zweitens, dass die Wahl der personenorientierten Koordinationsmechanismen insbesondere mit den Projektspezifika variiert, während die Aufgabenspezifika nur einen indirekten und die Organisationsspezifika kaum einen Einfluss besitzen. Hieraus ergeben sich Implikationen sowohl für die Praxis als auch für die weitere Forschung.Research on (human resource) management and organizational issues in international development NGOs is scarce. The aim of this paper is to describe and explain how international development NGOs coordinate their international activities and how this depends upon the internal context of the NGOs. The focus is on person-oriented coordination mechanisms. The empirical analysis consists of five case studies which are based on interviews conducted in Germany and Kenya, as well as on documents. The results of this sample show the importance of expatriation and face-to-face interaction as person-oriented coordination mechanisms. Secondly, the usage of person-oriented coordination devices mainly varies with the specifics of the project. Task-related characteristics have only an indirect influence and organization features seem to matter only with respect to size. From these results implications for future research as well as practice in international development NGOs are drawn

Vertikale Arbeitsmarktsegmentation nach dem Geschlecht - ein neoinstitutionalistischer Erklärungsversuch am Beispiel Deutschlands und Schwedens

Auf dem deutschen Arbeitsmarkt lassen sich trotz gestiegener Erwerbsneigung und erhöhtem Bildungsniveau von Frauen nach wie vor vertikale Segmentationsmuster nach dem Geschlecht beobachten. Dies ist in anderen Ländern wie beispielsweise Schweden nur in einem geringeren Ausmaß der Fall. Der vorliegende Beitrag verdeutlicht die Situation anhand vergleichender empirischer Untersuchungen im deutschen und skandinavischen Bankensektor. Um den Ursachen der festgestellten länderspezifischen Unterschiede nachzugehen, wird als theoretische Basis der Neoinstitutionalismus mit seinem Fokus auf die jeweiligen institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen und deren Einfluss auf Unternehmen herangezogen. Beispielhaft erfolgt ein Vergleich der für geschlechtsspezifische Segmentationsmuster relevanten gesetzlichen Rahmenbedingungen und deren mögliche Auswirkungen in Deutschland und Schweden. Im Ergebnis lässt sich ein Zusammenhang zwischen den analysierten institutionellen Rahmenbedingungen und dem länderspezifisch unterschiedlichen Umgang der Unternehmen mit geschlechtsspezifischer Arbeitsmarktsegmentation postulieren. Dies hat Implikationen für die Wissenschaft und Praxis.Despite the increased female labour participation and the rising level of women's education, vertical gender-based labour market segmentation can still be observed in Germany. This phenomenon does not occur to the same extent in countries such as Sweden. This paper takes the example of the banking sector and compares the results of empirical studies conducted in German and Scandinavian banks. Based on the perspective of new institutionalism, the country-specific variations in vertical labour market segmentation are explained as resulting from the different institutional settings in Germany and Sweden. Taking the relevant governmental regulations as an example, the paper analyses the mechanisms of adaptation processes of organisations. The analysis confirms the suggested relationship between the respective institutional settings in the relevant organisational fields and different country-specific adaptation mechanisms leading to differences in gender-based vertical labour market segmentation in the two countries of investigation. This has implications for future research as well as for practice

Determinants of share-based compensation plans in Central and Eastern European public companies: An institutional analysis

This paper discusses the adoption of share-based compensation plans among Central and Eastern European (CEE) public companies composing major national stock exchange indices in Poland (WIG 20), the Czech Republic (PX) and Hungary (BUX). The analysis shows that the spread of such pay practices depends on the characteristics of major shareholders of the company, the state and foreign parent companies being the most prominent influencing factors. The results are discussed in the light of the legal environment in respective countries.Im Zentrum des vorliegenden Artikels stehen aktienbasierte Vergütungspläne in mittel- und osteuropäischen (MOE) Aktiengesellschaften, die in den nationalen Leitindizes in Polen (WIG 20), der Tschechischen Republik (PX) und Ungarn (BUX) vertreten sind. Die Analyse zeigt, dass die Verbreitung dieser Praktiken wesentlich von den Charakteristika der Hauptaktionäre der Unternehmen abhängt. Hier stellen der Staat und die ausländischen Unternehmen die wichtigsten Einflussfaktoren dar. Die Ergebnisse der Studie werden vor dem Hintergrund des regulativen Kontextes in den jeweiligen Ländern diskutiert

How cultural norms and values shaped national responses to the COVID-19 pandemic

Global turmoil, local responses. Citizens in Asian countries spontaneously put on protective masks, Europeans were forced to stay home but protested lockdown (though enforcement was often lax) and the Swedes just carried on with their lives. Across the world, countries tackled the COVID-19 epidemic in very different ways. Why? Cultural norms and values strongly shaped behaviours, argue researchers Marion Festing, Tobias Schumacher and Yong-Yueh Lee

Survey of the quality of experimental design, statistical analysis and reporting of research using animals

For scientific, ethical and economic reasons, experiments involving animals should be appropriately designed, correctly analysed and transparently reported. This increases the scientific validity of the results, and maximises the knowledge gained from each experiment. A minimum amount of relevant information must be included in scientific publications to ensure that the methods and results of a study can be reviewed, analysed and repeated. Omitting essential information can raise scientific and ethical concerns. We report the findings of a systematic survey of reporting, experimental design and statistical analysis in published biomedical research using laboratory animals. Medline and EMBASE were searched for studies reporting research on live rats, mice and non-human primates carried out in UK and US publicly funded research establishments. Detailed information was collected from 271 publications, about the objective or hypothesis of the study, the number, sex, age and/or weight of animals used, and experimental and statistical methods. Only 59% of the studies stated the hypothesis or objective of the study and the number and characteristics of the animals used. Appropriate and efficient experimental design is a critical component of high-quality science. Most of the papers surveyed did not use randomisation (87%) or blinding (86%), to reduce bias in animal selection and outcome assessment. Only 70% of the publications that used statistical methods described their methods and presented the results with a measure of error or variability. This survey has identified a number of issues that need to be addressed in order to improve experimental design and reporting in publications describing research using animals. Scientific publication is a powerful and important source of information; the authors of scientific publications therefore have a responsibility to describe their methods and results comprehensively, accurately and transparently, and peer reviewers and journal editors share the responsibility to ensure that published studies fulfil these criteria

Global management programmes can help win the escalating ‘talent war’

As global talent is a key success factor for multinational corporations, investments made to attract and retain talent are large. Domitille Bonneton, Stephanie Katja Schworm, Marion Festing and Maral Muratbekova-Touron show how talent management practices can help retain high performers and high potential, who like other commodities have become even more scarce in these times of economic crisis