German Banking Sector Research Articles

In pursuit of selective liberalization: single market competition and its limits

Within Europe's single market, private sector firms and business associations have sought to use EC competition rules to broaden competition in a range of public sector activities. Has capital's ability to pursue its interests at multiple levels within the European polity rendered national governments less able to define the timing, scope, and extent of economic liberalization? When and how can governments exercise political regulation of markets in the face of potent liberalizing forces? The article draws on evidence from three areas in which European Community institutions have articulated a clear logic of liberalization and private sector actors have appealed to single market competition rules to broaden market access. In each area - the procurement of goods and services by public authorities, the German banking sector, and postal services - private sector actors have succeeded in legal proceedings against government practices that restrict competition. However, the study finds that the parameters of liberalization ultimately depend on the selective incentives faced by private sector actors, the needs of domestic political institutions, and the intensity of government preferences.

Design of Working Tasks in the Office: The Use of Skill Based Requirements Analysis

A Human centred approach to the requirements analysis phase of system design is discussed. The concept presents a procedure for designing new task structures, their software support and qualifying steps. It helps to show the implications of design decisions and support the communication process between system designers and users during certain points in the design Phase. For both, designers and users, a prospective evaluation of design decisions becomes possible. The need for corrective measures after introducing a system into a work organization could be reduced this way.An instrument from the field of work psychology, based on the theory of action regulation, is adapted for the analysis of task- and user-related issues. With this analytical instrument newly designed task structures can be valued at their implications for the categories of decision-making latitudes and skills.A case study shows the, prospective redesign of a task structure assuming an information system is introduced. Task analysis and design proposal are based on data obtained from workplaces in the German banking sector. The study makes evident that the skill based concept could help to avoid the former Tayloristic path in job design. But it also show that the use of design scopes is depending on social factors and the work relations as well as of design tools.