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This paper aims to contribute to exploring the design possibilities of robots for use in human-robot interaction. In an experiment, we investigate the influence of the human's personality and the robot's design, especially its humanization, on its acceptance. We use the Almere model, the Big 5 personality traits, and the anthropomorphic gestalt variants to build the foundation for our investigation. The assumption that an anthropomorphized robot variant would, in principle, be preferred to the standard variant when a natural choice is enforced could not be evidenced in our experiment. This allows for the interpretation that anthropomorphism does not necessarily lead to intentional perception and, consequently, does not guarantee that it can automatically generate acceptance.
Accountability is one of the most widely discussed concepts of public administration research and teaching in the last decade. But why is this case? Obviously accountability is, like its counterpart transparency, a “magic concept”, and an indispensable part of the prominent and omnipresent discourse on “good governance” as well as a significant element in debates about public sector reform. The same holds true for performance, which has been a magic and contested concept ever since New Public Management (NPM) entered the discourse about “modern” processes and structures of the public sector. But the third term in the title of this paper, legitimacy, even though it is one of the basic concepts of political science and democracy and is at the heart of Max Weber's theory of bureaucracy, has been surprisingly absent from current debates about the challenges of modern public administration, and for that sake also about the future of the welfare state. This chapter argues that different concepts of legitimacy lie at the heart of most debates about accountability and performance (input, output and throughput legitimacy), and that a better understanding of the relationships between accountability, performance and legitimacy can clarify some of the puzzles of contemporary research.
Purpose
This chapter is aimed at contributing to the question of how institutional reforms affect multi-level governance (MLG) capacities and thus the performance of public task fulfillment with a particular focus on the local level of government in England, France, and Germany.
Methodology/approach
Drawing on concepts of institutional evaluation, we analytically distinguish six dimensions of impact assessment: vertical coordination; horizontal coordination; efficiency/savings; effectiveness/quality; political accountability/democratic control; equity of service standards. Methodologically, we rely on document analysis and expert judgments that could be gleaned from case studies in the three countries and a comprehensive evaluation of the available secondary data in the respective national and local contexts.
Findings
Institutional reforms in the intergovernmental setting have exerted a significant influence on task fulfillment and the performance of service delivery. Irrespective of whether MLG practice corresponds to type I or type II, task devolution (decentralization/de-concentration) furthers the interlocal variation and makes the equity of service delivery shrink. There is a general tendency of improved horizontal/MLG type I coordination capacities, especially after political decentralization, less in the case of administrative decentralization. However, decentralization often entails considerable additional costs which sometimes overload local governments.
Research implications
The distinction between multi-purpose territorial organization/MLG I and single-purpose functional organization/MLG II provides a suitable analytical frame for institutional evaluation and impact assessment of reforms in the intergovernmental setting. Furthermore, comparative research into the relationship between MLG and institutional reforms is needed to reveal the explanatory power of intervening factors, such as the local budgetary and staff situation, local policy preferences, and political interests in conjunction with the salience of the transferred tasks.
Practical implications
The findings provide evidence on the causal relationship between specific types of (vertical) institutional reforms, performance, and task-related characteristics. Policy-makers and government actors may use this information when drafting institutional reform programs and determining the allocation of public tasks in the intergovernmental setting.
Social implications
In general, the euphoric expectations placed upon decentralization strategies in modern societies cannot straightforwardly be justified. Our findings show that any type of task transfer to lower levels of government exacerbates existing disparities or creates new ones. However, the integration of tasks within multi-functional, politically accountable local governments may help to improve MLG type I coordination in favor of local communities and territorially based societal actors, while the opposite may be said with regard to de-concentration and the strengthening of MLG type II coordination.
Originality/value
The chapter addresses a missing linkage in the existing MLG literature which has hitherto predominantly been focused on the political decision-making and on the implementation of reforms in the intergovernmental settings of European countries, whereas the impact of such reforms and of their consequences for MLG has remained largely ignored.
This paper aims to investigate the possibility to include aspects of forgetting into business process modeling. To date, there is no possibility to model forgotten or to-be- forgotten elements beyond the mere deletion. On a first attempt, we focus on the individual level and model knowledge transformation within a single person. Using the Knowledge Model Description Language, we propose ways to include different forms of forgetting into the realm of modeling tools. Using data from an experimental setting within an assembly line production environment, the usability of those new modeling tools is tested. So far, the applicability of modeling features for forgetting on the individual level is mostly restricted to a research context. However, clear requirements to transfer the tools onto the team- and organizational level are set out.
The present article offers a mixed-method perspective on the
investigation of determinants of effectiveness in quality assurance
at higher education institutions. We collected survey data from
German higher education institutions to analyse the degree to
which quality managers perceive their approaches to quality
assurance as effective. Based on this data, we develop an ordinary
least squares regression model which explains perceived
effectiveness through structural variables and certain quality
assurance-related activities of quality managers. The results show
that support by higher education institutions’ higher management
and cooperation with other education institutions are relevant
preconditions for larger perceived degrees of quality assurance
effectiveness. Moreover, quality managers’ role as promoters of
quality assurance exhibits significant correlations with perceived
effectiveness. In contrast, sanctions and the perception of quality
assurance as another administrative burden reveal negative
correlations.
The article analyses the type of bicameralism we find in Australia as
a distinct executive-legislative system – a hybrid between
parliamentary and presidential government – which we call ‘semi-
parliamentary government’. We argue that this hybrid presents an
important and underappreciated alternative to pure parliamentary
government as well as presidential forms of the power-separation,
and that it can achieve a certain balance between competing
models or visions of democracy. We specify theoretically how the
semi-parliamentary separation of powers contributes to the
balancing of democratic visions and propose a conceptual
framework for comparing democratic visions. We use this
framework to locate the Australian Commonwealth, all Australian
states and 22 advanced democratic nation-states on a two-
dimensional empirical map of democratic patterns for the period
from 1995 to 2015.
The UN sustainable development goals contain environmental, economic, and social objectives. They may only be reached, or at least it would be easier to reach them, if instead of a trade-off between these objectives that implies a need for balancing them, there are synergies to be reaped. This paper discusses how the structures of economic models typically used in policy analysis influence whether win-win strategies for the environment and the economy can be conceptualised and analysed. With a focus on climate policy modelling, the paper points out how, by construction, commonly used model structures find mitigation costs rather than benefits. This paper describes mechanisms that, when added to these model structures, can bring win- win options into a model's solution horizon, and which provide a spectrum of alternative modelling approaches that allow for the identification of such options.
Balancing the Moods
(2018)
Quality management (QM) has spread around the world and reached higher education in Europe in the early 1990s (Mendel, 2006, 137; Kernegger and Vettori, 2013, 1). However, researchers were rather more interested in national quality assurance policies (macro-level) and accreditation systems (meso-level) than in intra-organizational perspectives about the day-to-day implementation of quality assurance policies by various actors (micro-level). Undoubtedly, organizational change is a challenging endeavor for all kinds of groups. On the one hand, it provides the opportunity of further development and innovation, but on the other hand, it exposes organizations and actors to the risk of losing established structures and accepted routines.
Like in many other organizations, actors may not necessarily perceive change as a promoter of innovation and development. Instead, they may consider change as a threat to the existing status quo or, as March points out, as an “interplay between rationality and foolishness” (March, 1981, 563). Consequently, change provokes either affective or behavioral actions (Armenakis and Bedeian, 1999, 308–310), such as, for example, resistance. Anderson (2006, 2008) and Lucas (2014) have shown, for example, that academic resistance is an important issue. However, Piderit characterizes resistance as a multidimensional construct (Piderit, 2000, 786–787) subject to a wide variety of issues related to quality and QM. Although QM has been described as a “fashion” (Stensaker, 2007, 101) in the higher education sector that provokes many different reactions, its implementation in higher education institutions (HEIs) is still a rather unexplored field. Thus, the evidence provided by Anderson (2006, 2008) and others (Newton, 2000, 2002; McInnis et al., 1995; Fredman and Doughney, 2012; Lucas, 2014; etc.) needs to be expanded, because they only consider the perspective of academia. In particular, the view of other actors during the implementation of quality assurance policies is a missing piece in this empirical puzzle. Nearly nothing is known about how quality managers deal with reactions to organizational change like resistance and obstruction. Until now, only a few studies have focused on intra-organizational dynamics (see, for example: Csizmadia et al., 2008; Lipnicka, 2016).
Besides the lack of research on the implementation of quality assurance policies in HEIs, quality managers seem to be an interesting subject for further investigations because they are “endogenous” to institutional processes. On the one hand, quality managers are the result of quality assurance policies, and on the other hand, they influence the implementation of quality assurance policies, which affect other actors (like academics, administrative staff, etc.). Here, quality managers, as members of an emerging higher education profession, are involved in various conflict lines between QM, HEI management and departments, which need further research (Seyfried and Pohlenz, 2018, 9).
Therefore, the aim of our paper is twofold: firstly, to answer the question of how quality managers perceive resistance, and secondly, which measures they take in situations of perceived resistance. We offer a new research perspective and argue that resistance is not merely provoked by organizational change; it also provokes counter-reactions by actors who are confronted with resistance. Thus, resistance seems to be rather endogenous.
To theorize our argument, we apply parts of the work of Christine Oliver (1991), which provides theoretical insights into strategic responses to institutional processes, ranging from acquiescence to manipulation (Oliver, 1991, 152). We, therefore, investigate the introduction of QM in teaching and learning, and the emergence of quality managers as higher education professionals as one of the results of quality assurance policies. Consequently, the introduction of QM may be considered as an institutional process provoking reactions and counter-reactions of various organizational units within HEIs. These circumstances are constitutive for how quality managers deal with resistance and other reactions toward organizational change. We use this theoretical framework to analyze the German higher education sector, because this particular case can be considered as a latecomer in New Public Management reforms (Schimank, 2005, 369) and Germany is a country where academic self-governance plays a very important role, and strongly influences academics’ behavior when it comes to organizational change (Wolter, 2004).
Our empirical results are based on a mixed-methods research design and integrate half-structured interviews and a nationwide survey at the central level in German HEIs, which excludes faculty members of QM (decentral level). They reveal that quality managers take different types of action when resistance occurs during the implementation of quality assurance policies. Furthermore, quality managers mainly react with different tactics. These tactics seem to be relevant for convincing academics and for the enhancement of their commitment to improve the quality of teaching and learning, instead of provoking further resistance or avoidance practices.
This article proceeds as follows: the next sections describe the context and explain our main theoretical concepts referring to the work of Oliver (1991) and others. After that, we present our case selection and the methodological framework, including the data sources and the operationalization of selected variables. Finally, we provide our empirical results about quality managers’ perceptions on resistance and we draw conclusions.
The social stratification systems of major cities are transforming all around the globe. International research has been discussing this trend and focus on changing occupational classes. However, the precise effects on urban households, taking social welfare and different family arrangements into account, as well as the precise effects on people with a migration background, remain unclear. Using the example of Vienna, this article examines immigration as a key dimension for social stratification. Although household income structures in Austria have remained comparatively stable over the past two decades, the middle-income share in Vienna (as the sole metropolis in Austria) has dramatically decreased. This predominantly affects people from migrant backgrounds. Using a comprehensive dataset (two waves, N = 16,700 participants, including N = 4,500 migrants), we systematically examine the role of (a) migration-specific and (b) education- and employment-related factors to explain the decline of middle-income migrants. The results of multinomial logistic regression and decomposition analyses suggest that transformations in the labour market is the main driving force. Changing migrant characteristics have counteracted this process. If today's migrants displayed similar showed characteristics (e.g., origin and educational levels) to those prevalent in the past decade, the ethnic stratification disparities would have been even stronger.
Cities to the rescue?
(2017)
Despite the proliferation and promise of subnational climate initiatives, the institutional architecture of transnational municipal networks (TMNs) is not well understood. With a view to close this research gap, the article empirically assesses the assumption that TMNs are a viable substitute for ambitious international action under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC). It addresses the aggregate phenomenon in terms of geographical distribution, central players, mitigation ambition and monitoring provisions. Examining thirteen networks, it finds that membership in TMNs is skewed toward Europe and North America while countries from the Global South are underrepresented; that only a minority of networks commit to quantified emission reductions and that these are not more ambitious than Parties to the UNFCCC; and finally that the monitoring provisions are fairly limited. In sum, the article shows that transnational municipal networks are not (yet) the representative, ambitious and transparent player they are thought to be.
Conclusion : Tensions, Challenges, and Future "Flags" of Local Public Sector Reforms and Comparative
(2016)
Consciousness for fair consumption : conceptualization, scale development and empirical validation
(2013)
Sustainable consumption means that consumers act in an environmentally and socially responsible manner. Compared with the vast amount of studies concerning environmentally conscious consumer behaviour, relatively little is known about socially conscious consumption. The present paper focuses on fair consumption as an important aspect of social consumption. In our study, consciousness for fair consumption (CFC) is defined as a latent disposition of consumers to prefer products that are produced and traded in compliance with fair labour and business practices. A scale to measure CFC was conceptualized and tested in three independent empirical studies. Two studies were conducted at European universities (2010 and 2012) and used 352 and 362 undergraduate business students respectively. The third study, conducted in 2011, used 141 employees at a European university. The results confirmed the reliability and validity of the new CFC scale across samples. While being moderately related to other aspects of sustainable consumption such as ecological concern and moral reasoning, CFC was significantly distinct from those concepts. Most importantly, it was established that the CFC, as measured by the new CFC scale, is a strong determinant of consumption of fair trade products that has been neglected in existing research.
The “triple bottom line” concept (planet, people, and profit) represents an important guideline for the sustainable, hence future-oriented, development of societies and for the behaviors of all societal members. For institutions promoting societal change, as well as for companies being confronted with growing expectations regarding compelling contributions to sustainable changes, it is of great importance to know if, and to what extent, consumers have already internalized the idea of sustainability. Against the background of existing research gaps regarding a comprehensive measurement of the consciousness for sustainable consumption (CSC), the authors present the result of a scale development. Consciousness was operationalized by weighting personal beliefs with the importance attached by consumers to sustainability dimensions. Four separate tests of the CSC scale indicated an appropriate psychometric quality of the scale and provided support for this new measurement approach that incorporates the environmental, social and economic dimensions of sustainability.
Consumer education
(2021)
Coping, taming or solving
(2017)
One of the truisms of policy analysis is that policy problems are
rarely solved. As an ever-increasing number of policy issues are
identified as an inherently ill-structured and intractable type of
wicked problem, the question of what policy analysis sets out
to accomplish has emerged as more central than ever. If solving
wicked problems is beyond reach, research on wicked problems
needs to provide a clearer understanding of the alternatives.
The article identifies and explicates three distinguishable
strategies of problem governance: coping, taming and solving.
It shows that their intellectual premises and practical
implications clearly contrast in core respects. The article argues
that none of the identified strategies of problem governance is
invariably more suitable for dealing with wicked problems.
Rather than advocate for some universally applicable approach
to the governance of wicked problems, the article asks under
what conditions different ways of governing wicked problems
are analytically reasonable and normatively justified. It
concludes that a more systematic assessment of alternative
approaches of problem governance requires a reorientation of
the debate away from the conception of wicked problems as a
singular type toward the more focused analysis of different
dimensions of problem wickedness.
Process analysis usually focuses only on single and selected processes. It is either existent processes that are recorded and analysed or reference processes that are implemented. So far no evident effort has been put into generalising specific process aspects into patterns and comparing those patterns with regard to their efficiency and effectiveness. This article focuses on the combination of dynamic and holistic analytical elements in enterprise architectures. Our goal is to outline an approach to analyse the development of business processes in a cyclical matter and demonstrate this approach based on an existent modelling language. We want to show that organisational learning can derive from the systematic analysis of past and existent processes from which patterns of successful problem solving can be deducted.
This study aims to compare online vs. offline flirting and dating behavior using the example of the location-based real-time dating (LBRTD) app Tinder, a popular dating platform. We focus on persons' self-descriptions like self-esteem, social desirability, state social anxiety, and adjustment behavior on Tinder and the perceived data privacy of the app. Data was gathered using a survey approach with Tinder users reporting their behavior in offline and online settings. The comparison between offline and online behavior was made using Response Surface Analysis. The results suggest that the different conditions of the natural and digital worlds do not influence the individual's behavior and emotional perception. The results are analyzed and discuss gender, age, motivation to use the app, and the user's relationship status.
In the last 10 years, the governments of most of the German Lander initiated administrative reforms. All of these ventures included the municipalization of substantial sets of tasks. As elsewhere, governments argue that service delivery by communes is more cost-efficient, effective and responsive. Empirical evidence to back these claims is inconsistent at best: a considerable number of case studies cast doubt on unconditionally positive appraisals. Decentralization effects seem to vary depending on the performance dimension and task considered. However, questions of generalizability arise as these findings have not yet been backed by more 'objective' archival data. We provide empirical evidence on decentralization effects for two different policy fields based on two studies. Thereby, the article presents alternative avenues for research on decentralization effects and matches the theoretical expectations on decentralization effects with more robust results. The analysis confirms that overly positive assertions concerning decentralization effects are only partially warranted. As previous case studies suggested, effects have to be looked at in a much more differentiated way, including starting conditions and distinguishing between the various relevant performance dimensions and policy fields.
Although the low-wage employment sector has enlarged over the past 20 years in the context of pronounced flexibility in restructured labor markets, gender differences in low-wage employment have declined in Germany, Austria and Switzerland. In this article, the authors examine reasons for declining gender inequalities, and most notably concentrate on explanations for the closing gender gap in low-wage employment risks. In addition, they identify differences and similarities among the German-speaking countries. Based on regression techniques and decomposition analyses (1996-2016), the authors find significantly decreasing labor market risks for the female workforce. Detailed analysis reveals that (1) the concrete positioning in the labor market shows greater importance in explaining declining gender differences compared to personal characteristics. (2) The changed composition of the labor markets has prevented the low-wage sector from increasing even more in general and works in favor of the female workforce and their low-wage employment risks in particular.
Digitalisation Labs
(2021)
The federal system has long been seen as one of the biggest obstacles to the digital transformation of the German state. With the enactment of the Online Access Act (OZG), a law that obliges all federal levels to offer their administrative services digitally in a joint portal network by the end of 2022, a new arena for multilevel collaboration has developed in Germany; the so-called digitalisation labs. The labs are intended to bring together representatives of all federal levels, external actors and citizens to promote problem-oriented policy design and the development of innovative policy solutions. Following a neo-institutionalist perspective and using the analytical concepts of multilevel governance and problem-solving, this paper investigates how the institutional settings, internal dynamics and actors’ composition influence policy design processes in the labs. The empirical analysis is built on a qualitative case study of two digitalisation labs in the policy field ‘Immigration and Emigration', and based on ten expert interviews as well as an extensive document analysis. The paper concludes that, by promoting problem-solving, the institutional settings as well as the organisational design and actors’ constellations have influenced the policy design process in several ways.