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This study examines how cross-border barriers to the implementation of Employee Financial Participation (EFP) schemes in the EU may be alleviated. It is argued that an optional regime would represent the most appropriate policy-option to this challenge. Finally, a blue-print for such a Common European Regime on EFP is developed drawing upon the results of a comprehensive comparison of the legal regulations on EFP in all EU Member States.
(1) The study sheds light on the potential of optional regimes in the context of European civil law. (2) It provides a systematic overview of the incidence and political implications of EFP in the EU. Following this, (3) it discusses the barriers to cross-border EFP schemes in the EU as an infringement to the Right of Establishment of European companies. The study then (4) makes a point for an optional regime as the most appropriate instrument to overcome these barriers in comparison to traditional legal instruments in the EU. After that (5) a blue-print for a Common European Regime on EFP is developed. Finally, (6) the study takes a look beyond and discusses additional policy-meassures to promote EFP on the EU level.
In recent decades, workspace design, as an enabling factor for creativity and innovation, has become the focus of organizational efforts in many firms and among practitioners who are showing a growing interest in the design of creative work environments. This research developed from the observation that firms can design creative workspaces to foster everyday creativity in work-related settings (action – substantive role) and/or to strengthen the company´s corporate image in order to appear as creative to the eyes of a targeted audience (talk- symbolic role).
This study explored and assessed the relations existing between creative workspaces and everyday creativity and corporate image respectively. The substantive and symbolic roles and effects of creative workspaces were addressed through qualitative interviews with nineteen informants working for sixteen selected organizations. Data collected was triangulated with additional material gathered through field notes, on-site observations in 32 German companies, written as well as photographic documentation.
The results led to a comprehensive, scientific definition of the creative workspace. Empirical findings informed the process of creation and the spatial characteristics of creative workspaces fostering or hindering everyday creativity in work-related settings. Not only, companies were categorized according to the roles, aimed effects and spatial configurations of their creative workspaces and four aspects were identified as been conducive to everyday creativity together with workspace design. As for the symbolic side, six different plausible roles of creative workspaces were proven to have an impact on corporate image. This study confirmed that creative workspaces designed for symbolic purposes can affect and provoke the reactions of external, targeted groups of stakeholders. A three-layer model of engagement informing and guiding companies´ communication strategy in relation to creative workspaces was also suggested.
Understanding the substantive and symbolic roles and effects of creative workspaces in relation to creative performances (action) and perceptions (talk) is meant to provide academic knowledge and clearance on the strategic intents and objectives guiding organizations in relation to the design of their physical environments. The increased knowledge and awareness gained in relation to creative workspaces will also allow practitioners and organizations to make more conscious and informed decisions by taking into account a broader spectrum of stakeholders, spanning from the internal focus on individuals at work to external stakeholders such as investors and young talents.
Despite increasing globalization and decreasing transportation costs, distance remains an essential element of international management. This work discusses different concepts of distance with a focus on individual level psychic distance. The inconsistency of previous psychic distance concepts, and therefore their operationalization, leads to a new framework to differentiate between levels of analysis of distance origins and objects. Possible individual level antecedents of psychic distance can be inert, trained, or experiential, while country level distance antecedents tend to be more stable. This work employs a quantitative study with a quasi-experiment, where respondents gave answers to distance perceptions and different possible antecedents at the beginning and end of a stay abroad. Results derived from different regression models show almost no effects of individual level variables on psychic distance, while country level distances have a strong influence on individual level psychic distance. Implications for research are a more concise concept of distance in international management and a thorough discussion of different kinds of distance antecedents. Empirical findings show counterintuitive effects for cultural backgrounds of respondents, which point to an affective and cognitive element of psychic distance. For management practice, distance should be considered as not only concerning the different levels of analysis and the possible different meanings of distance, but also in regards to how an organization can influence distance perceptions. Since experience and training have hardly any effect, the inert antecedents show that employment policies need to take a more active role.