Suchergebnisse

"Internationalization is now a necessity for American organizations. So what about the international workforce? How do non-Americans feel about working for Americans? To answer this question, the author directly surveyed nearly 600 Foreign Service Nationals working for the U.S. State Department. These State Department employees speak to the perceptions of non-Americans working in an overtly American environment. This unprecedented work offers insights that are enlightening, challenging, and occasionally shocking. Researchers, practitioners, students, and those interested in understanding America's place in the world can all consider what happens when those who are "exceptional" become those who are "the other.""--

Seit einigen Jahren ist in den Automobilunternehmen der westlichen Industrieländer ein auf breiter Front stattfindender Veränderungsprozeß im Produktionsbereich feststellbar, der zur allmählichen Verabschiedung bisher angewandter Produktionskonzepte und zur Entwicklung "Neuer Produktionskonzepte" (NPK) unter den Stichworten Aufgabenintegration, Selbstregulierung und Beteiligung geführt hat. Drei Strategien werden bei diesen Produktionsreformen unterschieden: (1) die Strategie der Automatisierung bis an die Grenzen des technisch und wirtschaftlich Möglichen; (2) die Strategie der dezentralen Selbstregulierung in teilautonomen Gruppen; (3) die Strategie einer Übertragung und Nachahmung der japanischen Produktivitätskonzepte. Am Beispiel der Länderprofile USA, Schweden, Japan und der BRD wird gezeigt, daß die NPK in hohem Maße nationalspezifisch geprägt sind, wobei das Bildungssystem, die Arbeitsmarktsituation und die industriellen Beziehungen eine zentrale Rolle spielen. Ausgehend davon, daß "Beteiligung" eine wesentliche Dimension der NPK darstellt, wird diese unter drei Aspekten genauer untersucht: (1) Beteiligung an welchen Entscheidungen; (2) Beteiligung mit welcher Kompetenz und Durchsetzungsfähigkeit; (3) Beteiligung mit welcher Abgrenzung zu den formellen Positionen der betrieblichen Hierarchie und der betrieblichen und gewerkschaftlichen Interessenvertretung. Die Analyse kommt zu dem Schluß, daß die NPK den Charakter der Arbeit, aber auch des Managements sowie das gesamte Ensemble arbeitspolitischer Institutionen einer Gesellschaft tiefgreifend verändern. (ICA)

This article offers an attempt to insert `friendship' into the reading of international relations, a conception which has so far remained outside the analytical focus of IR theorists. It suggests that a major reason for this omission is the common assumption of survival and the state as an autonomy-seeking entity, and it is argued that a conceptualisation of friendship as an intimate relationship must be rooted in an understanding of the human condition different from Hobbes. The article puts forward such an alternative through Heidegger's notion of anxiety and shows that the paradigm most sympathetic to this assumption, constructivism, has failed to account for the friend as the `significant other' capable of controlling anxiety. Against this backdrop, the argument is made that in their attempt to combine the desire for moral authenticity with the desire for belonging/recognition, individuals seek intimate relations. The importance of friendship is substantiated by drawing on Aristotle, highlighting equality and a unique logic of reciprocity as key features of friendship. The conceptual insights are applied to IR through a discussion suggesting that intimate relations are nevertheless political as they contain significant power potentials.

In the mid-1970s, the UN General Assembly adopted the Declaration for the New International Economic Order (NIEO), which proposed the establishment of an international welfare state. Three major arguments for the NIEO are examined & found wanting: (1) the cycle of poverty -- ie, that less-developed countries (LDCs) are too poor to save & invest -- ignores that all countries were once poor & exaggerates the role of capital; (2) the trade thesis -- ie, that prices for raw materials & natural resources fall while those of manufactured goods rise -- is contradicted by the data, whether commodity or factoral terms of trade are used; & (3) the widening gap -- ie, that the economies of developed countries are expanding faster than those of LDCs -- is found to be largely a statistical artifact. The NIEO proposes wealth transfers to the LDCs, which are unlikely to spur development since they will not be net additions to the capital stock of the LDCs but will only displace private investment. Moreover, given the inherent waste in such transfers, the result could be a slowing of growth. Also proposed are nationalizations; these will provide windfall gains for the nationalizing country but retard development in the long run by scaring off investors, both domestic & foreign. Finally, the NIEO proposes protectionist policies to stimulate industrialization. This confuses industrialization with development; protection may stimulate industrialization, but since this will result in a shift of resources from more to less productive uses, the result will be economic retardation. The conclusion is that the NIEO is unlikely to benefit the LDCs, & that the best development policy is one of free trade & protection of private property. Modified AA.

This study is based on an examination of prefaces or forewords to handbooks and other textbooks of public international law published in french, in the main since the second half of the nineteenth century. some authors are omitted because their works are (very) difficult to find today. nor are all the editions of a work accounted for, either for the same reason or because the additions or other alterations are not significant enough… even so the material runs to well over a hundred pages. that said, these lines are not the conclusions of an academic study ; they merely reflect the impressions of a wanderer after ambling through the prefaces.