Search

The study "Acute uncomplicated urinary tract infections - current resistance data support guideline-compliant therapy" examines the effects of a multimodal intervention on the prescription of antibiotics in women with acute uncomplicated urinary tract infections. The results show that the intervention has reduced the prescription of second-line antibiotics and overall. The resistance rates for the recommended antibiotics are favorable, supporting the use of antibiotics recommended in the guidelines. The article also addresses financial and non-financial conflicts of interest in medical research, such as employment relationships, research funding, and paid advisory activities. Further information is available on the website www.springermedizin.de/schreiben. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of HeilberufeSCIENCE is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

An introduction is presented to the June 2010 issue, whose articles deal with such topics as labor relations, societal change, and changes in family structure.

Copyright of Journal of Business Economics / Zeitschrift für Betriebswirtschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Leviathan: Zeitschrift für Sozialwissenschaft (Springer Science & Business Media B.V.) is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the question of whether the observable renaissance of occupational unions leads to an increase of their empirical impact and whether they have a lasting impact on the stability of industrial relations. The first part analyses their conditions to act and to organize (recruitment of members, aggregation and reconciliation of interests, representation versus external actors). The second part focuses on the medium-term and long term goals of these unions, especially their safeguarding of existence and legitimacy by means of concluding autonomous collective contracts; then, the options of industrial unions and employers are indicated. The third part analyses the consequences of their actions and distinguishes explicitly between direct consequences for the involved unions and indirect ones for non-involved groups of consumers and producers. Some preliminary remarks on the frequency and empirical consequences of the existence of competing unions on the future of industrial relations conclude the paper. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Zeitschrift für Vergleichende Politikwissenschaft is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The automotive industry is one of the industries reflecting most clearly the process of globalization and its effects on national labour relations and labour standards, in a comparison of four countries - Germany, Italy, Spain and Hungary, we try to analyse the changes of labour relations and standards in the industry. The analysis reveals that in the age of globalization trade unions as supporters of collective social standards are on the defensive. However, the different national paths of this process also show that states and trade unions are more than mere victims of the pressures of globalization. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Österreichische Zeitschrift für Soziologie is the property of Springer Nature and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The article focuses on the official merger of five individual unions in Germany to the "conglomerate" union ver.di. The phase after the merger proves, in contrast to conventional assumptions, to be of basic importance for the long term success of the project. The author explores problems and perspectives of the substantially expanded internal as well as of the drastically changed external relations of the new organization. The final part of the text discusses various perspectives on ver.di. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Free collective bargaining, i. e. the right of the two sides of industry to autonomously regulate the terms of employment without any state interference, is one of the core elements of many industrial democracies. The continuous existence of this institution, which, in Austria, avoids or reduces industrial action to an absolute minimum, can be explained by a mutual interest of both, labour and capital representatives, in macroeconomic and political stability. Trade unions usually achieve the internal legitimacy of their rank-and-file and effectiveness of the bargaining system as a whole through substantive improvements of the living and working conditions of their members. Against the background of an economic recession and decreasing membership, trade unions are forced to provide other sources of legitimacy to prevent sanctions by their members. The key question of this paper therefore focuses on how unions are able to equally maintain effectiveness and legitimacy of the collective bargaining institution. In the paper, this question will be dealt with by the example of collective bargaining in an exposed branch of the Austrian industry. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this article we set out to examine how the potential for transitional labour markets could be developed through the use of flexible working time practices in a range of European countries. First, we examine the trends in the regulation and distribution of working time since the mid 1980s, and the role of the social partners in this process. We identify three distinct types which we label: negotiated flexibility, statist flexibility, and externally constrained voluntarism. To interpret and explain these changes we draw on earlier cross-national comparative research from industrial relations and social policy. By focussing on particular labour market characteristics and household structures we illustrate the incentives and obstacles to making transitions between different employment statuses. The article concludes with a short discussion of the type of policies that influence labour market transitions and the potential for transitional labour markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the course of the Labour-Process Debate the concept of consent was added to the control paradigm. This has increased the importance of action theory in the field of industrial sociology. However an important aspect in studying labour relations is still missing: the concept of control does not consider employees as active participants in shaping organizational structures. This paper aims (a) to introduce a theory of reciprocal power relations into the discussion and (b) to replace the objectivist concept of exploitation with an intersubjectivist approach. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Industrial sociology faces a Europe undergoing massive political and economical changes. This article surveys new books to take on this challenge. A foremost characteristic of Europe's systems of industrial relations is its diversity. This diversity is unlikely to vanish with European integration and increased global competition. There are, however, real dangers to Western Europe's social standards that come with decentralization and flexibility of the industrial organization and the work force. Innovative approaches that cope with these changes can add to sociology as a whole. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The attractiveness of labor policies is quite a bit the result of the attempt to transfer themes and categories from the political system to the area of work. This is indicated by the fact that the current debate is centered mostly on such topics as power and control. The contribution tries to show that power and control have no determining influence on work and organizational structures. The design of organizations is primarily the result of the attempts to absorb uncertainties, whose sources are not the "gaps" within labor contracts. While the debate focuses for the most part on the area of manufacturing, the contribution centers on the area of administration and services. It is shown that the volume of tasks within an organization cannot be treated as given but as an outcome of organizational policies. As such, they are the result of decisions concerning functional equivalences: i. e. they can be made or bought. The organizational problematic of 'make' or 'buy' is Illustrated in the area of data processing. If tasks and works can be externalized then major problems emerge for any labor policy as there exist no simple recipes within the given systems of industrial relations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper summarizes the causes and genesis of the first collective agreement on employment security against rationalization in Austria. This agreement concerns the implementation of computerized technologies in daily and weekly newspaper production (Kollektivvertrag über die Einführung integrierter Texterfassungssysteme bei Tages- und Wochenzeitungen). Owing to the new, computerized technologies, old craft groups - especially the compositors - could either be dispersed or disappear behind the computer monitor. In order to prevent dismissals of their members, the three trade unions involved - the printing union, which represents workers, the white collar union and the journalists' union sought negotiations with the association of newspaper publishers and the printing industry association. Divergent interests turned out not only to exist between entrepreneurs' associations and trade unions, but also within the different groups. The new technology also threatened the membership area of trade unions: a skilled worker disappearing behind the computer monitor suddenly does the same work as a secretary always did. The collective agreement came into force In May, 1981 and expires in 1989 and contains e. g. a 10 year employment security for skilled workers (2 years for employees and Journalists). Compared with Germany and Great Britain the Austrian agreement is the most favorable to workers, a result which is due to the different organizational framework in these countries. Highly centralized and concentrated trade unions have better chances to protect workers' interests when the power of protest of the latter is weakened by a new technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the policy strategies of unions and government in the face of a long-standing economic downturn in Germany. A research case study on modernization in the steel industry highlighted the polarities of a liberal versus a state interventionist modernizing strategy and a renunciation of cooperation by the unions versus continuance of cooperation in the framework of a "corporatist regulation cartel."

The article discusses the inroads of technology into the workplace and labor force. The author poses the question of whether that trend affirms Marx's claim of capital's subsuming of labor via this mechanization and automation of labor. The potential internal contradictions of the claim are discussed through citations from Marx and the writings on revolutionary theory of Stefan Breuer.

The article discusses the interlock among economic organizations of employers and employees and state administration in Austria. The overlap of government and interest group representatives in commissions, advisory boards, and other bodies make for an entangled power structure. This social partnership is said to be a foundation for a democracy of consensus.