Potenzial: Training

The article discusses opportunities for supporting the sustainable development of employees in a teaching and research institute by the use of management systems. Within this discussion, the areas of management, sustainability and human resources will be explicated and interlinked in a prototypical management system.

Considering the emerging lack of employees, the need for human resource planning is currently being rediscovered. Traditional practices with a linear-deductive logic fail to consider the dynamics of the market. Therefore, the market dynamics should be conceptually taken into account in the planning processes. In this respect human resource planning entails the accumulation and processing of requirements and the transformation into a new configuration of human resource assets and can be understood as a dynamic capability that generates a competitive advantage.

Industry and export are the engine of the German economy. Not least the financial crisis and the impact on the real economy showed that the general conditions of the industrial enterprises change increasingly faster and radically. Changes which have been observed for longer times are enforced by the aftermath of the financial crisis. Two category groups can be identified as main challenges for the German industry: encrusted structures and socio-technical change. In companies the classical management methods are widely spread whose effectivity relies on the entire knowledge of causal connections and influence factors. But against the background of the actual challenges this not the status quo. This article explains how the comparison with nature offers explanations and approaches for the described problem.

The concept enterprise 2.0 stands for the enabling of new forms of know-ledge management by utilizing internet technology. While web 2.0 focuses on tools for communication, relationship management and learning, i.e. weblogs, wikis, and social networking platforms, enterprise 2.0 also covers the strategy, structure, and culture of knowledge management, and thus encompasses the entire enterprise. The authors argue that the vision of a blended enterprise is superior to existing non-hybrid enterprise 2.0-visions in terms of both feasibility and performance.

German employers are increasingly burdened by the costs of their employees being absent from work due to illness. At the same time, the role of human capital and thus its health has become more and more fundamental for the competitiveness of a company. Nevertheless, projects in small and medium enterprises lack strategic focus and implementation. On the basis of a case study in the automotive industry, this article introduces an evidence-based framework for integrating workplace health into the corporate strategy. It also gives recommendations for implementation through project management methods.

According to the Austrian Working Hours Act there are several possibilities for flexible working time models, such as annual working time, flexitime, partial time, shift work or work on the weekend. The range of normal working hours on a daily basis can be expanded up to 10 hours and in addition on a weekly basis up to 50 hours. The number of extra hours permitted by law was raised in the more recent past. In contrast both the say of employees has been increasing and tougher sanctions have been imposed on offences against working hour regulations.

Due to decreasing product life cycles, enterprises are determined to continually reconsider production and technology sequences in order to maintain their competitiveness. Given the rapid shift in today’s working environments, especially concerning duties and required qualifications, enterprises face the challenge to meet new, technology-driven demands in the context of demographic change. This article presents an approach to the issue of reconciling the altering skills of ageing employees with future worlds of technology in a systematic way.

The rise of public discussions in the digital sphere is a steadily increasing phenomenon. Weblog-writers are the key drivers of this development. Companies begin to utilize the investigative power of these multiplyers: market and consumer insights are drawn out of these networks. The digital arena is becoming a trend laboratory and opinion market place as well as a field for competitive strategies. The innovative Social Network Analysis-method is able to identify relevant patterns and weak signals in these areas. Being formerly only applied within organizations, Social Network Analysis can therefore generate very valuable information out of the World Wide Web.

Unemployment constitutes a danger for the economic, political and social stability of a country. This paper presents the development of a model which can help to demonstrate the most important opportunities to influence unemployment at three levels: at the level of the general political framework, at a corporate level as well as at an individual level. Subsequently, empirical data is presented which provides a clear indication of the effect of economic clusters in promoting employment. On this basis, measures to support the formation of economic clusters are developed.

Expert knowledge is doubtlessly the basis of all industrial activities - but it is no longer sufficient for professional success. Capacity for teamwork, interdisciplinary thinking and purposefulness often have the same significance. Many entrants will experience this in industrial practice - graduates of Hanover University have the chance to learn this as part of their studies. This paper presents the interdisciplinary Cooperative Product Engineering Project (KPE) and features last year’s participants’ results and success stories.