The Managerial Turn in Higher Education? On the Interplay of Organizational and Occupational Change in German Academia

The managerial turn in academia is currently broadly discussed. Based on empirical data gathered from a sample that includes all German universities, we can give a broad and fine-grained account of this turn. What we can clearly see is that whole new categories of administrative management positions have been created over the last years. Furthermore, within the non-academic staff we can see a profound restructuration. Lower-level positions like those for clerical work decreased, while higher-level positions in the administration increased. However, and in contrast to studies of countries, we do not observe a general shift from academic to non-academic positions. In addition to the statistical analysis of survey data and personnel data, we conducted seventy in-depth interviews with heads of administrative management units, in particular those being created over the last two decades, for example, on quality control, technology transfer, and career service. Although we clearly see important changes indicating a managerial turn in higher education, core characteristics of a professional organization whose basic processes are ultimately controlled by academics and not by administrators or managers have been retained. These findings call for further cross-national research.     

The effects of realism in learning with dynamic visualizations

Two experiments are reported that investigated the relative effectiveness of a realistic dynamic visualization as opposed to a schematic visualization for learning about cell replication (mitosis). In Experiment 1, 37 university students watched either realistic or schematic visualizations. Students' subjective task demands ratings as well as their performance in a multiple-choice test and a pictorial test clearly demonstrated the superiority of the schematic dynamic visualization. In Experiment 2, 83 students were given the two visualizations in four different orders of presentation. Students showed the same performance irrespective of whether they watched the schematic visualization twice, first saw the schematic and then the realistic visualization or vice versa. Only students, who watched the realistic visualization twice, had far lower learning outcomes. Contrary to our expectations, for both experiments, students' prior knowledge did not moderate the results.     

Origins of individual differences in imitation: links with language, pretend play, and socially insightful behavior in two-year-old twins

Imitation, vocabulary, pretend play, and socially insightful behavior were investigated in 5,206 same- and opposite-sex 2-year-old twin pairs in the United Kingdom. Individual differences in imitative ability were due to modest heritability (30%), while environmental factors shared between twins (42%) and unique to each twin (28%) also made significant contributions to the variance. Imitation correlated significantly, although modestly, with vocabulary, pretend play, and socially insightful behavior, and the strongest relationship was with vocabulary. A model that represented the covariance between the variables as being due to correlated latent genetic and environmental factors fitted the data well, with shared environmental factors influencing most of the covariance. Parents who encourage imitation may also tend to foster the development of language, pretence, and socially insightful behavior.     

Navigating with inner knowing and awakened presence: an approach to leading in a complex world

What are our options if we have to let go of the idea of controllability in our ever more complex world? What tools do we have to navigate in a territory that we can’t ‘manage’ anymore, where the old instruments of command and control have lost their grip? What makes us ‘know’ when intellectual knowing capitulates in the face of complexity? This paper presents an action learning approach in four phases that explores how intuition or other forms of inner knowing can be used as a resource in leadership and organisational change. It looks at what helps us access ways of inner knowing in complex situations and how a learning process could take place in the corporate context. The endeavour aims at exploring and actualising dormant potential to navigate the volatility, uncertainty and complexity of our business environment whilst embodying and radiating our purpose and vision.     

Analysis of anticipation by 3D motion capturing – a new method presented in karate kumite

Anticipation is an important performance factor in karate kumite. A new approach analysing anticipation in realistic combat situations by motion capturing with a high temporal resolution is presented. The advantage of this approach is that both karate athletes interacting sports specific can be recorded synchronously; thus, the presented method has the potential to analyse visual information pickup due to coordination pattern of interaction between real athletes. The aim is to demonstrate the usability of the current method for anticipation research and to investigate if the distance between two athletes and their attacking technique play a role in the reaction of the defending athlete. Furthermore, relevant cues lying within each attacking technique and little individual differences are shown. Four male karate athletes took part in this study. Logistic regression indicated that both factors (distance × attacking technique) play a significant role in reaction. However, a correlation between these factors shows that only the attacking technique is a good predictor for reaction. Results show that the attacking technique jabbing punch (jap. Kizami-Zuki) was easier to anticipate than the attacking techniques reverse punch (jap. Gyaku-Zuki) and the round kick (jap. Mawashi-Geri).     

Other Mothers’ Milk: From Wet Nursing to Human Milk Banking in England, 1900-1950

ABSTRACT

This article investigates the continuities between wet nursing and the emergence of human milk banking in England in the first half of the twentieth century. It revisits the assumption that wet nursing had disappeared in England at the beginning of the twentieth century, and focuses attention on a continuing, albeit diminished, practice of private wet nursing after 1900 and the re-emergence of the institutional employment of lactating mothers in the interwar period. The article explores how changes in infant welfare preoccupations, medical views of breastfeeding and breast milk, and conceptualisations of the lactating body were embedded in the development from wet nursing to human milk banking.     

Longitudinal Continuity in Understanding and Production of Giving-Related Behavior From Infancy to Childhood

Infants have an early understanding of giving (the transfer of an item by one agent to another), but little is known about individual differences in these abilities or their developmental outcomes. Here, 9-month-olds (N = 59) showing clearer neural processing (Event-related potential, ERP) of a give-me gesture also evidenced a stronger reaction (pupil dilation) to an inappropriate response to a give-me gesture, and at 2 years were more likely to give in response to a give-me gesture. None of the differences in understanding and production of giving-related behaviors were associated with other sociocognitive variables investigated: language, gaze-following, and nongiving helping. The early developmental continuity in understanding and production of giving behavior is consistent with the great importance of giving for humans throughout the life span.     

Betriebliche Mitarbeitervorsorge/Abfertigung für UniversitätsmitarbeiterInnen (Teil 2)

Ebenso wie die Anspruchsgrundlagen für Abfertigungen von Universit?tsmitarbeiterInnen sind die Bestimmungen zur Rückforderung in hohem Ma?e inhomogen. Auch mit In-Kraft-Treten des Universit?ten-Kollektivvertrages hat sich die Situation nur unwesentlich ge?ndert. Vor allem bei den Schnittstellen zu neuen Arbeitsverh?ltnissen mit der Universit?t kommt es zu unterschiedlicher Berücksichtigung alter Abfertigungsanwartschaften.     

Betriebliche Mitarbeitervorsorge/Abfertigung für UniversitätsmitarbeiterInnen (Teil 1)

Im Universitätspersonalrecht findet sich eine Reihe von zeitlichen und systemischen Schnittstellen hinsichtlich des Anspruchs auf Abfertigung. Als mögliche Rechtsgrundlagen für die Abfertigung kommen das AngG, das BMSVG, das VBG, das BDG, das UniAbgG und der Universitäten-Kollektivvertrag in Frage. Diese Anspruchsgrundlagen wechseln nicht nur entsprechend der Art des Arbeitsverhältnisses, sondern stehen auch in Relation zum In-Kraft-Treten des UG und des Universitäten-KV. In Summe ergibt dies eine Fülle von Problemlagen, die der Gesetzgeber keiner eindeutigen Lösung zugeführt hat.