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Background Immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) treatment is a breakthrough in managing metastatic solid tumours, but its use is associated with a high financial burden for public health care systems. Validated tools such as the European Society for Medical Oncology-Magnitude of Clinical Benefit Scale (ESMO-MCBS) are frameworks that might help to better assess the clinical benefit of these novel innovative cancer drugs. Methods Here, we systematically analysed the number of European Medicines Agency-approved ICIs labels with an ESMO-MCBS grade, Highlights • Most European Medicines Agency-approved ICIs have an ESMO-MCBS with significant clinical benefit. • In hard-to-treat types of cancer such as TNBC or SCLC, the ESMO-MCBS is

Background: Prolonged hospitalization after tonsillectomy up to three nights was implemented to decrease mortality due to post-tonsillectomy hemorrhage.Aims: To assess if extension of postoperative...

This study explores how refugees relocate, acquire, and convert cultural, social, and economic capital when entering the Austrian labor market. Drawing on Bourdieu's theory of practice, we conducted 35 semi-structured interviews with Afghan and Syrian refugee job seekers to investigate how the value of the capital forms changes when they move to a culturally distant field, and what strategies they use to develop their career capital portfolio. Findings reveal that (a) all capital forms are strongly devaluated; (b) refugees striving to use their cultural capital encounter unfamiliar labor market rules, occupational identity threats, and status loss; (c) acquisition and conversion of new capital require both the intricate interplay of capital forms and refugees' proactivity. The article concludes with a discussion of theoretical contributions and practical implications for refugee labor market integration.

Rationale, aims and objectives Defensive medical practice represents an increasing concern in European countries and is reported to account for rising health care expenditures. Malpractice liability, current jurisdiction and the increasing claim for accountability appear to result in additional diagnostic requests with marginal clinical benefit. Investigations that evaluate the national Austrian prevalence and contextual principles and consequences of defensive medicine are lacking so far. Method Orthopaedic and trauma surgeons as well as radiologists from public hospitals in Austria were invited to complete a study questionnaire retrieving personal estimation of the quantity of patient contacts and defensive requests in a typical month, subjective judgement of medico-legal climate, evolving defensive trends, working time usage for defensive considerations and prior confrontations with malpractice liability claims. Results The prevalence of defensive medicine was found to be 97.7%. The average orthopaedic or trauma surgeon requests 19.6 investigations per month for defensive reasons, which represents 28% of all diagnostic examinations. High-quality imaging modalities and short-term admissions yield increasing defensive significance. Participants are confronted with 1.4 liability claims per month. During the treatment of high-risk patients, 81% of doctors request additional diagnostic procedures for defensive considerations. Expenditure of time for defensive practice amounts to 9.2 hours/month in radiology and to 17 and 18% of total working time, respectively, in orthopaedic and trauma surgery. Conclusion Defensive medical practice represents a serious and common challenge in Austria. Our results indicate the urgent necessity for confrontation with and solution for the increasing effort of self-protection within the health care system.

Background Intrahospital patient transports (IHTs) in intensive care involve an appreciable risk of adverse events (AEs). Research on determinants of AE occurrence during IHT has hitherto focused on patient, transport, and intensive care unit (ICU) characteristics. By contrast, the role of "soft" factors, although arguably relevant for IHTs and a topic of interest in general health care settings, has not yet been explored. Purpose The study aims at examining the effect of safety climate and team processes on the occurrence of AE during IHT and whether team processes mediate the effect of safety climate. Methodology/approach Data stem from a noninterventional, observational multicenter study in 33 ICUs (from 12 European countries), with 858 transports overall recorded during 28 days. AEs include medication errors, dislodgments, equipment failures, and delays. Safety climate scales were taken from the "Patient Safety Climate in Healthcare Organizations" (short version), team processes scales from the "Leiden Operating Theatre and Intensive Care Safety" questionnaire. Patient condition was assessed with NEMS (Nine Equivalents of Nursing Manpower Use Score). All other variables could be directly observed. Hypothesis testing and assessment of effects rely on bivariate correlations and binomial logistic multilevel models (with ICU as random effect). Findings Both safety climate and team processes are comparatively important determinants of AE occurrence, also when controlling for transport-, staff-, and ICU-related variables. Team processes partially mediate the effect of safety climate. Patient condition and transport duration are consistently related with AE occurrence, too. Practice implications Unlike most patient, transport, and ICU characteristics, safety climate and team processes are basically amenable to managerial interventions. Coupled with their considerable effect on AE occurrence, this makes pertinent endeavors a potentially promising approach for improving patient safety during IHT. Although literature suggests that safety climate is slow and hard to change (also compared to team processes), efforts to improve safety climate should not be forgone.

Phytochemical investigations of the neotropical ginger species Renealmia alpinia and Renealmia cernua led to the isolation of two hitherto unknown diarylheptanoids, named renealpin ( 1 ) and renecernin ( 2 ). Furthermore, five known diarylheptanoids ( 3 – 7 ), one chalcone ( 9 ), two flavonoids ( 10 , 11 ) and [2]-gingerol ( 8 ) were isolated. The organ specific accumulation patterns and chemosystematic significance of these compounds are discussed.

Behandlungsfehler in Krankenhausern ziehen hohe Mortalitatsraten und Folgekosten nach sich. Wahrend die fehlerreduzierende Wirkung einer positiven Sicherheitskultur empirisch gut belegt ist, fehlen bis dato Langsschnittstudien zur Frage, ob und wie diese verbessert werden kann. Basierend auf dem organisationstheoretischen Modell der Wissenskonversion wird ein Konzept zur Beschreibung und Messung der lernenden Sicherheitskultur entwickelt. Anhand der Unterscheidung zwischen explizitem und implizitem Lernen wird der Einfluss eines anonymen Fehlermeldesystems (CIRS) auf die Veranderung der Sicherheitskultur und weiters die Fehlerhaufigkeit untersucht. Die Daten wurden an vier Krankenhausabteilungen mit insgesamt 276 MedizinerInnen und Pflegekraften in einem quasi-experimentellen Design erhoben und mittels Korrelationen und eines Pfadmodells analysiert. CIRS reduziert demnach direkt und indirekt die Fehlerhaufigkeit und verbessert das explizite, aber nicht das implizite Lernen. Letzteres wirkt sich wiederum starker auf die Fehlerhaufigkeit aus als explizites Lernen.

A highly influential meta-analysis by Ng, Eby, Sorensen, and Feldman (2005) examined the prediction of objective and subjective career outcomes by a host of human capital, organizational sponsorshi...

This paper investigates the effect of executive leadership behaviors on the organizational commitment (OC) of subordinate managers and the influence of the latter on measures of company performance. Based on pertinent research and the main leadership dimensions identified in the GLOBE project, we formulate hypotheses concerning the relationship between perceived leadership behaviors and subordinates’ OC, as well as the assumption that this organizational commitment is beneficial to performance ratings on a corporate level. Data stem from a sample of 78 companies from the Germanic cultural area. Our results suggest that desirable leadership behavior is positively related to subordinates’ OC, and that OC contributes to company performance, even when analyzed in conjunction with crucial contextual variables.

Even though there is a rich diversity of empirical research and theory building about particular aspects of international careers, more comprehensive theoretical models are rare. This paper contributes to career theory by outlining major elements of a comprehensive theoretical frame for describing and explaining international careers. It proposes a field and habitus perspective of careers based on the work of French sociologist Pierre Bourdieu. Such a perspective enhances the insight into the structure-agency problem of international careers, offers an opportunity to exceed single personality factors through the concept of career habitus, and supports a differentiated view of the international career arena.

Background: Safety climate (SC) and more recently patient engagement (PE) have been identified as potential determinants of patient safety, but conceptual and empirical studies combining both are lacking. Purposes: On the basis of extant theories and concepts in safety research, this study investigates the effect of PE in conjunction with SC on perceived error occurrence (pEO) in hospitals, controlling for various staff-, patient-, and hospital-related variables as well as the amount of stress and (lack of) organizational support experienced by staff. Besides the main effects of PE and SC on error occurrence, their interaction is examined, too. Methodology/Approach: In 66 hospital units, 4,345 patients assessed the degree of PE, and 811 staff assessed SC and pEO. PE was measured with a new instrument, capturing its core elements according to a recent literature review: Information Provision (both active and passive) and Activation and Collaboration. SC and pEO were measured with validated German-language questionnaires. Besides standard regression and correlational analyses, partial least squares analysis was employed to model the main and interaction effects of PE and SC on pEO, also controlling for stress and (lack of) support perceived by staff, various staff and patient attributes, and potential single-source bias. Findings: Both PE and SC are associated with lower pEO, to a similar extent. The joint effect of these predictors suggests a substitution rather than mutually reinforcing interaction. Accounting for control variables and/or potential single-source bias slightly attenuates some effects without altering the results. Practice Implications: Ignoring PE potentially amounts to forgoing a potential source of additional safety. On the other hand, despite the abovementioned substitution effect and conjectures of SC being inert, PE should not be considered as a replacement for SC.

This paper examines cultural and leadership variables associated with corporate social responsibility values that managers apply to their decision-making. In this longitudinal study, we analyze data from 561 firms located in 15 countries on five continents to illustrate how the cultural dimensions of institutional collectivism and power distance predict social responsibility values on the part of top management team members. CEO visionary leadership and integrity were also uniquely predictive of such values. Journal of International Business Studies (2006) 37, 823–837. doi:10.1057/palgrave.jibs.8400230

Based on empirical studies in Romania, Estonia, Germany, and Austria within the GLOBE project, the authors try to answer the question of cultural embeddedness of leadership patterns in an environment of more and more globalised management. Special emphasis is put on the match/mismatch of the observed styles of leadership behaviour of CEOs with regional and global expectations, on the differences and similarities between the examined countries, the influence of transformational settings in the CEE countries, and the prospective changes due to a new generation of managers. Auf der Basis empirischer Studien in Rumanien, Estland, Deutschland und Osterreich im Rahmen des GLOBE - Projektes, gehen die Autoren der Frage nach der kulturellen Einbindung von Fuhrungsmustern unter Bedingungen eines zunehmend globalisierten Managements nach. Im Zentrum stehen dabei der Vergleich der beobachteten Fuhrungsstilmuster von Geschaftsfuhrern mit den regionalen und globalen Erwartungen der Nachgeordneten, die Unterschiede und Ahnlichkeiten zwischen den untersuchten Landern, der Einfluss der Transformationsbedingungen in den MOE-Staaten sowie die erwarteten Veranderungen durch einen Generationswechsel im Management.

Defensive medical practice represents an increasing concern in European countries and is reported to account for rising health care expenditures. Malpractice liability, current jurisdiction and the increasing claim for accountability appear to result in additional diagnostic requests with marginal clinical benefit. Investigations that evaluate the national Austrian prevalence and contextual principles and consequences of defensive medicine are lacking so far.Orthopaedic and trauma surgeons as well as radiologists from public hospitals in Austria were invited to complete a study questionnaire retrieving personal estimation of the quantity of patient contacts and defensive requests in a typical month, subjective judgement of medico-legal climate, evolving defensive trends, working time usage for defensive considerations and prior confrontations with malpractice liability claims.The prevalence of defensive medicine was found to be 97.7%. The average orthopaedic or trauma surgeon requests 19.6 investigations per month for defensive reasons, which represents 28% of all diagnostic examinations. High-quality imaging modalities and short-term admissions yield increasing defensive significance. Participants are confronted with 1.4 liability claims per month. During the treatment of high-risk patients, 81% of doctors request additional diagnostic procedures for defensive considerations. Expenditure of time for defensive practice amounts to 9.2 hours/month in radiology and to 17 and 18% of total working time, respectively, in orthopaedic and trauma surgery.Defensive medical practice represents a serious and common challenge in Austria. Our results indicate the urgent necessity for confrontation with and solution for the increasing effort of self-protection within the health care system.

Using the basic distinction between organisational and post-organisational career orientation, this article examines preferences of business school graduates for different types of career fields and systematic differences between people with different career orientations in terms of behavioural characteristics as well as personality traits. The results show that business school graduates clearly distinguish between organisational and post-organisational career fields. Graduates with post-organisational career aspirations display attributes of high flexibility, leadership motivation, selfpromotion/self-assertion, self-monitoring, networking and less self-consciousness. For individuals preferring an organisational career pattern, inverse relationships apply. Some implications of the findings for HR practice are discussed.

New forms of organising and new forms of individuals private and professional life concepts have affected organisations as well as careers. The resulting new forms of careers are characterised by two major elements: organisations are no longer the primary arena for professional careers and the diversity of careers and career paths is sharply increasing. At the level of global careers similar developments can be observed. In addition, two specifics can be mentioned: a number of additional forms of working internationally supplement expatriation in its classic sense and there seems to be an increasing pressure on the speed and diversity of international assignments. There is comparatively little theoretical insight into these developments. Departing from a sociological perspective and using the theoretical framework of late French Sociologist Pierre Bourdieu, this paper takes a career field and habitus perspective of careers. Based on that, it tries to identify areas of contribution for the global career discussion that can emerge from such an approach.

Der Beitrag hat zum Ziel, organisationale- „und, interpersonale” Einflussfaktoren auf Managementkarrieren in post-organisationalen Kontexten zu diskutieren. Nach einer Spezifikation relevanter Termini wird anhand der Dimensionen Kopplung und Konfiguration eine Typologie neuer Karrierefelder entwickelt, die eine Fokussierung auf zentrale Bestimmungsmerkmale neuer Karriereformen ermöglicht. Im Anschluss daran werden Indikatoren vorstellt, die auf Tendenzen einer Substitution unselbständiger Erwerbstätigkeit in Richtung von Beschäftigungsformen in den neuen Karrierefeldern verweisen. Schließlich werden im Sinne eines, State of the Art „Forschungsbefunde zu zentralen organisationalen und interpersonalen Einflussfaktoren auf Karrieren aufgearbeitet. Im abschließenden Teil kommt es zur Formulierung und Diskussion von Thesen darüber, wie sich aufgrund der geänderter Kontextbedingungen die Relevanz einzelner Einflussfaktoren verschieben könnte.

Diese empirische Studie untersucht die Beziehung zwischen transformationaler und transaktionaler Führung und deren langfristige bzw. kurzfristige Erfolgswirksamkeit. Das Führungsverhalten wird anhand des Multifactor Leadership Questionnaires (MLQ) gemessen, dessen psychometrische Qualität überprüft wird. Wir verwenden objektive Erfolgsindikatoren von Bankbetrieben, bei deren Herleitung situative Einflußfaktoren berücksichtigt werden. Wir finden Unterstützung dafür, daß die Erfolgswirksamkeit transformationaler über jene transaktionaler Führung hinausgeht. Transformationale Führung in Form eines freundlichen, individuell wertschätzenden Führungsverhaltens ist positiv mit kurzfristigem und negativ mit langfristigem Erfolg assoziiert.

The following contribution attempts to develop a charisma model in the context of business organizations, based on a social-cognitive information processing approach in the perception of leadership. It tries to operationalize charisma, departing from prototypical attributes that are inherent in the cognitive category of leadership. In contrast to the 'New Leadership Approach', we depart from a 'polymorphous phenotype' of charisma. This position is derived from the concept of charisma as Max Weber understands it. Based on the concept of 'archetypes' of leadership, four different phenotypes are then defined: the hero ('heroic charisma'), the father ('paternalistic charisma'), the saviour ('missionary charisma') and the king ('majestic charisma'). The main idea of this model is the correlation that is brought out clearly between charisma and stigma, and thus also the idea that both 'hyper-representativity' and 'anti-representativity' as well as 'social dramatization' and 'social reversion' can occasion the allocation of charisma.

Dans cette recherche, on analyse les relations existant entre les leaderships de transaction et de transformation et des indices de performance de vingt banques, cela a partir d'un echantillon de quelques 1500 observations. Le comportement de leadership est mesure grâce au Questionnaire Multifactoriel de Leadership (MLQ) qui est applique ici pour la premiere fois a des germanophones. La valeur psychometrique du MLQ allemand a ete analysee et jugee pas satisfaisante. Nous avons mis au point et contre-valide un MLQ modifiea quatre facteurs. Il s'agit de la premiere etude empirique qui rapporte le leadership a des indices objectifs de performance, echappant a toute influence qualitative ou subjective. Les mesures objectives de performance prennent en consideration les characteristiques des clients et du marche local et indiquent si des objectifs raisonnables ne sont pas atteints ou au contraire depasses. A partir des evaluations du modele de Lisrel, nous confirmons l'hypothese selon laquelle le leadership de transformation favorise davantage la performance que le leadership de transaction. La distinction entre performance a long terme et performance a court-terme est une autre nouveaute de cette etude. II apparait que les dimensions centrales du leadership de transformation sont plus fortement correlees avec la performance a long terme. La consideration portee a l'individue presente une correlation positive avec la performance a court-terme, mais est negativement correlee avec la performance a long terme. This investigation examines the relations between transformational/ transactional leadership and performance indicators of 20 different banks, using a sample of some 1500 observations. Leadership behaviour is measured by the Multifactor Leadership Questionnaire (MLQ), which is used for the first time in the German-speaking area. The psychometric quality of the German MLQ is analysed and found to be inadequate. We therefore derive and cross-validate a modified four-factor MLQ. This is the first empirical study that relates leadership behaviour to objective performance indicators without any qualitative or subjective influence. Objective performance measures take into account customer features and local market conditions, and show whether reasonable targets are over- or underperformed. Based on LISREL model estimates we find support for the hypothesis that transformational leadership affects performance over and above transactional leadership. Another new aspect of this study is the distinction between long-term and short-term performance. We find that core dimensions of transformational leadership are more strongly related to long-term than to short-term performance. Individualised Consideration is positively related to short-term but negatively related to long-term performance.

Background: Hospitals face an increasing pressure towards efficiency and cost reduction while ensuring patient safety. This warrants a closer examination of the trade-off between production and protection posited in the literature for a high-risk hospital setting (intensive care). Purposes: Based on extant literature and concepts on both safety management and organizational/safety culture, this study investigates to which extent production pressure (i.e., increased staff workload and capacity utilization) and safety culture (consisting of safety climate among staff and safety tools implemented by management) influence the occurrence of medical errors and if/how safety climate and safety tools interact. Methodology / Approach: A prospective, observational, 48-hour cross-sectional study was conducted in 57 intensive care units. The dependent variable is the incidence of errors affecting those 378 patients treated throughout the entire observation period. Capacity utilization and workload were measured by indicators such as unit occupancy, nurse-/physician-to-patient ratios, levels of care, or NEMS scores. The safety tools considered include Critical Incidence Reporting Systems, audits, training, mission statements, SOPs/checklists and the use of barcodes. Safety climate was assessed using a psychometrically validated four-dimensional questionnaire. Linear regression was employed to identify the effects of the predictor variables on error rate, as well as interaction effects between safety tools and safety climate. Findings: Higher workload has a detrimental effect on safety while safety climate - unlike the examined safety tools - has a virtually equal opposite effect. Correlations between safety tools and safety climate as well as their interaction effects on error rate are mostly nonsignificant. Practice Implications: Increased workload and capacity utilization increase the occurrence of medical error; an effect that can be offset by a positive safety climate but not by formally implemented safety procedures and policies.

In the 1990s, scientists succeeded in demonstrating the highly positive effects of transformational and charismatic leadership on performance effectiveness, based on a large number of empirical findings. Bass (1985) predicted that this type of leadership would be related to “performance beyond expectations”. This has proved to be true to a very large extent. The so-called “new leadership approach “, however, has not yet succeeded in a close analysis of the interaction and influencing processes between charismatic leaders and their followers. This paper provides such an analysis. After pointing out the main problems with prior theoretical work, we offer an alternative model to help explain the emergence of charisma using social-cognitive and psycho-dynamic theories. Basically, we start from the premise that a focal person may be categorized as a charismatic leader on the basis of evaluative borderline attributes assigned to him or her, which are closely related to characteristics stigmatized by society. These attributes are exhibited consciously or unconsciously by the leader, either by means of social dramatization or by means of social reversion. We then propose a model of charismatic leadership relationships, which deal with both intra-personal and inter-personal feedback processes, based on recent theories of narcissistic behavior. Our overall intent is to help explain and clarify the processes between leadership behavior and the attribution of charisma.

Background: Older patients (≧65 years) are exposed to more harm resulting from adverse events in hospitals than younger patients. Theoretical considerations and empirical findings suggest that safety culture is the key to improving the quality of health care. Objective: To describe the development of a German-language instrument for assessing patient safety culture (PSC) and its reliability and validity; to verify criterion validity by means of a cross-sectional analysis of the impact of PSC on clinical quality that compares acute geriatric units with a sample from intensive care, surgery and trauma surgery departments, and to report variations in the PSC profile between these groups. Methodology: Using a review of existing safety culture surveys, multidimensional scaling procedures and expert interviews, we tested the content and convergent validity of a 158-item questionnaire completed by 508 physicians and nurses from 31 acute geriatric units and 7 comparison departments. Criterion validity was verified by various regression models with a self-reported measure of adverse events. Differences in PSC profiles were analyzed using a one-factorial ANOVA and regression models. Results: We identified 7 constructs of PSC and demonstrated substantial convergent and criterion validity. In the acute geriatric units, higher levels of ‘management commitment to patient safety’ and lower levels of ‘error fatalism’ were associated with a reduced incidence of medical errors. In the comparison group, only the variable ‘active learning from mistakes’ was relevant for safety performance. Our results also indicate that acute geriatric units display higher standards than the comparison group in all the aspects of patient safety examined. Conclusion: It is possible to measure salient features of PSC using a valid and reliable survey. Some aspects of PSC are more closely related to safety events than others. In acute geriatric units, patient safety appears to be influenced mainly by management’s determination of how things are done whereas improvement of the system itself in a more incremental manner is required in the other high-risk ward types.

Rund jeder tausendste Krankenhauspatient stirbt aufgrund vermeidbarer unerwünschter Ereignisse. Empirische Studien zeigen Zusammenhänge zwischen der Sicherheitskultur in Krankenhäusern und der Fehlerhäufigkeit. Die bisherige Forschung weist allerdings Theoriedefizite auf. Unter Heranziehung des Konzeptes der Wissenskonversion nach Nonaka und Takeuchi (1995) wird versucht, einen theoretischen Bezugsrahmen für das Lernen aus Fehlern zu erarbeiten. Auf empirischer Basis wird eine Skala entwickelt, die unterschiedliche Profile der Wissenskonversion im Umgang mit Fehlern misst. Anhand einer 420 Probanden umfassenden Stichprobe aus 11 Abteilungen von sieben Krankenhäusern gelingt der Nachweis, dass eine lernende Sicherheitskultur die Fehlerhäufigkeit zu reduzieren imstande ist. Zudem zeigt sich, dass dem Prozess der Internalisierung der höchste Stellenwert zukommt. Approximately one in every thousand hospital patients dies because of preventable adverse events. Empirical findings show that safety culture is essential for improving the quality of health care. However, the research so far has theoretical deficits. Using Nonaka and Takeuchi's (1995) concept of knowledge conversion, our paper develops a theoretical and empirical framework to show how people can learn from mistakes. On the basis of results of 420 probands from 11 departments in seven hospitals it was possible to prove that a learning safety culture does indeed reduce the frequency of errors. In addition, it reveals that the process of internalisation contributes most to this reduction.

Diese Studie Untersucht, inwieweit Vorstande bzw. Geschaftsfuhrer und Entrepreneure in Deutschland und Osterreich den in den GLOBE-Studien ermittelten Fuhrungsidealen entsprechen. Weiters werden Auswirkungen des Fuhrungsverhaltens bzw. von Diskrepanzen zwischen Erwartungen und perzipiertem Verhalten auf das organisationale Commitment der Mitarbeiter analysiert, sowie Zusammenhange zwischen organisationalem Commitment und Unternehmenserfolg. Insgesamt ist nur eine masige Ubereinstimmung zwischen Real- und Idealbild der Fuhrung festzustellen. Sowohl eine hohe Auspragung der Fuhrungsideale als auch eine hohe Kongruenz zwischen Real- und Idealbild (auser bei Partizipation) haben positive Auswirkungen auf das organisationale Commitment. Dieses wiederum zeigt positive Zusammenhange mit der Umsatz- und Ertragsentwicklung von Unternehmen, auch nach Berucksichtigung relevanter Kontextvariablen, wie Marktanteil, Marktwachstum und Wettbewerbsintensitat.

The paper examines trends in the effect of social origin and personality on objective career success. Drawing on several research streams, we hypothesize that in the first career decade, the effect...

Politische Prozesse in Unternehmen werden von der traditionellen betriebswirtschaftlichen Theorie ublicherweise im Zusammenhang mit der strategischen Ausrichtung einer Unternehmung diskutiert. Derartige Ansatze erkennen in betrieblichen Entscheidungen stets rationale Handlungsweisen und vertreten damit eine auserst verkurzte Sichtweise uber den Charakter und das Zustandekommen betrieblicher Handlungen. Sozialwissenschaftlich orientierte betriebswirtschaftliche Ansatze sehen hingegen in betrieblichen Entscheidungen das Resultat von Aushandlungsprozessen, in welche die Interessen der jeweils Beteiligten einfliesen und integrieren damit die Dimension des “Politischen” in ihr Selbstverstandnis. In ihrem Kern handelt es sich bei diesen Theoriekonzepten um mikrodimensionale Sichtweisen, die jeweils die aktuellen Interessen der Akteure eines spezifischen sozialen Systems in den Brennpunkt der Betrachtungen rucken. Ausgeblendet bleiben in dieser Orientierung die soziookonomischen Kontextfaktoren, die den gesamtgesellschaftlichen Rahmen reflektieren, unter dem die einzelnen Akteure einer spezifischen Unternehmung ihre Interessen zu verwirklichen trachten.

Die vorliegende Arbeit versucht, den aktuellen Forschungsstand der deutschsprachigen Literatur zum Themenbereich “Unternehmensberatung” im Sinne eines “state of the field” sowohl auf theoretischer als auch auf empirischer Ebene aufzuarbeiten. Dabei werden den verschiedenen Entwicklungstendenzen nachgegangen, Forschungsdefizite herausgearbeitet bzw. offen gebliebene Fragestellungen aufgeworfen. Im Rahmen tabellarischer Darstellungen finden sich die wichtigsten Publikationen seit 1970 inhaltlich beschrieben, um die facettenreiche Diskussion in gut fasbarer Form zu veranschaulichen. Da der aktuelle Diskussionsstand zu verschiedenen theoretischen Themen von anderen Autoren in diesem Buch aufgearbeitet wird, beschrankt sich der Theorieteil in erster Linie auf die verschiedenen Explikationsversuche des Objektbereiches und die funktionalen Beitrage der Unternehmensberatung. Im Anschlus daran wird allerdings ein Modell zentraler Betrachtungsebenen fur eine gesamthafte Theorie der Unternehmensberatung skizziert. Der Abschnitt uber die empirischen Forschungsarbeiten referiert schlusendlich bedeutsame Forschungsergebnisse zu angebots- und nachfrageorientierten Aspekten des Beratungsgeschehens und nimmt eine kritische Bewertung des vorliegenden Erkenntnisstandes vor.