Zeitschrift fur Arbeitswissenschaft最新文献

Effective knowledge sharing is a key process for the success of virtual teams. Several specific challenges like the information technology used, the geographical distribution and the lack of personal contact between team members make it difficult to share knowledge.Current studies on influencing factors of effective knowledge sharing in virtual teams focus either mainly on technical or social factors. In contrast, little attention has been paid to the role of social presence as an interdisciplinary construct. Social presence means the individual or joint experience of a sense of togetherness despite physical distance, which arises in the interaction between the team members while using the existing technology.The present study examines to what extent the experience of social presence influences the success of knowledge sharing in virtual teams.Based on the Critical Incident Technique 26 interviews were conducted with members of virtual teams. The participants described situations in which the virtual knowledge exchange was successful or unsuccessful. The evaluation showed that social presence occurred more frequently in successful situations and emphasized its significance for a successful exchange of knowledge.Practical relevance: Social presence can be positively influenced by media richness and support social processes and relationships in virtual teams. The results can be used to derive implications for virtual collaboration with the aim of optimizing knowledge sharing processes.

The e‑commerce sector is experiencing a continuous boom in logistics due to digitization. Along with mostly manual activities, people remain a decisive resource in the warehouse, which must be retained and integrated with a particular view to demographic change. In the article, the survey results of a field study with focus on the area of order picking, which was conducted at a large mail-order company, are described as an example and compared with survey results from other companies. Based on the job demand resources model, stressors, challenges and resources are examined in addition to the target variables of work ability, job satisfaction and health. The results indicate that stressors and work resources roughly keep the balance, even if, for example, job satisfaction and health are only at a medium level. Above all, there is still a need of action regarding autonomy of employees. The digital transformation is seen as an opportunity to expand the scope for action and decision-making.Practical Relevance: Due to the manual nature of the activities and the predefined processes, operational logistics involves a large number of work demands that can lead to mental strain and, in the long term, to disorders or illnesses. The expansion of work-related resources is necessary to compensate for the stressors. Digitization is seen as an opportunity to expand these resources.

The devastating working conditions in the meat industry have not only been known since the Corona pandemic, but this spring slaughterhouses in particular proved to be hotspots of the Sars-CoV-2 spread. In the summer of this year, the Federal Government presented a draft for an occupational health and safety control law. Among other things, the bill provides for a ban on the use of contracts to produce a work (Werkverträge) and temporary agency work in the core area of the meat industry from 1 January and 1 April 2021 respectively.This article traces the omissions of recent years and shows why, in third-party employment constellations, the important inter-company cooperation in occupational health and safety cannot represent a model for success in the meat industry, since in the meat industry the contracting companies are neither able nor willing to assert themselves with regard to occupational health and safety. The article highlights why the proprietor's organisational obligations are crucial for compliance with national and EU occupational health and safety law as well as food hygiene regulations, and must ultimately be monitored by the occupational health and safety inspectorates. The contribution supports the objectives of the bill, but at the time of the editorial deadline (16.11.2020) it is still uncertain whether the Bundestag will pass the law without substantial deterioration.

This paper follows the question to what extent the compatibility of work and family life and gender inequalities in the domestic division of labour change when working with digital technologies in a flexible manner in terms of time and place. It is based on the results of the research project "Changing gender relations through digital transformation" (Hans Böckler Foundation). Various effects have been observed: For example, mobile working and home office enable part-time workers to increase their contractual working hours; flexible digital work provides emotional and time relief in the event of spontaneous emergencies such as child illness; however, the extent of invisible and unpaid overtime is also increasing. In most cases, this does not lead to a reorganisation or redistribution of unpaid domestic and care work. Nevertheless, there are signs of shifts in the domestic division of labour. This article presents the central results of the project and discusses them with regard to their implications for gender inequality.Practical Relevance: The text provides information on current experiences with flexible working times and places from a gender perspective. It provides indications of conducive and obstructive conditions for reducing inequalities in the responsibility for care work and in domestic division of labour. The results can be used for the design of conditions and regulations for flexible work in terms of time and place in companies.