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During the COVID-19 pandemic, working from home (WFH) has become the norm for many employees and their families in Germany. Although WFH has been suggested as a form of flexible work to foster work–life integration (especially for workers with greater care responsibilities), studies have also pointed to its risks when the boundaries between these two life spheres become blurred. To help disentangle these inconsistent findings in relation to work–family conflict, this study focuses on two main concerns: the relevance of additional forms of flexibility for those who work from home (i.e., temporal flexibility, job autonomy, fixed rules about availability) and the implications of WFH for employees’ social relationships with co-workers and supervisors. Based on linked employer–employee data collected in the spring of 2021, the study examined work-to-family conflict (WFC) and family-to-work conflict (FWC) among a sample of 885 employees who worked from home. The results indicate that three factors – temporal flexibility, job autonomy, and fixed rules about availability as a way to set boundaries between work and family life – are important predictors of fewer work–family conflict. This equally applies to employees with caring obligations who overall experience more work–family conflicts while WFH. For those who cared for relatives, autonomy contributed even to fewer work–family conflicts. Supportive relationships with supervisors and co-workers are certainly directly beneficial when it comes to avoiding conflict, but they also reinforce the positive implications of flexible work, whereas poor relationships counteract the benefits of such flexibility. Thus, employers need to provide additional forms of flexibility to employees who work from home and should pay attention to social relationships among their employees as a way to support families and other individuals.

Due to the environmental conditions, the detection and identification of hazardous situations in coal mines is a challenge. The purpose of this research is to focus on the underground fire detection, especially of smoldering fires, which are characterized by the outgassing of CO and C2H4.

The study developed a system based on a single semiconductor gas sensor and sensors for relative humidity and temperature. With a high‐dynamic‐range hardware control and data acquisition platform a commercial semiconductor gas sensor is operated with an application‐optimized temperature cycle to improve stability and selectivity.

A hierarchical evaluation strategy not only allows identification of smoldering fires signified by CO and C2H4 with a ratio of 100:1, but is also suitable for separating or quantifying typical interfering compounds such as CH4, CO, NOX or H2 thus helping to avoid costly false alarms. After promising laboratory pre‐tests, a system was built for field tests including test gases and re‐calibration algorithms. Currently the authors are working on a self‐monitoring strategy based on redundant data from impedance spectroscopy to improve the stability of the system.

This approach allows detection of C2H4 at sub‐ppm concentrations even in the presence of CH4 at levels up to 1 percent with only a single gas sensor. The system achieves classification reproducibility as well as robustness allowing the development of a cost‐efficient under‐ground fire detection system. The novel self‐monitoring strategy will further improve the reliability of the system.

The purpose of this paper is to argue for the need to develop pre-service teachers’ problem solving ability, in particular, in the context of real-world complex problems.

To argue for the need to develop pre-service teachers’ problem solving skills, the authors describe a web-based problem representation system that is embedded with levels of scaffolding to support the claim.

The authors’ conceptualisation of this cloud-based environment is also very much aligned with the development of pre-service teachers’ systems thinking. Teacher learning itself is a complex system that involves many processes, mechanisms and interactions of elements, and the outcomes may be highly unpredictable (Opfer and Pedder, 2011). As a result of the complex nature of teacher learning, it would be meaningful to frame teacher learning as a complex system. An approach to enable pre-service teachers to be aware of this complexity is to situate them in a systems thinking context.

This paper discusses a system which was developed for problem solving. The levels of adaptive scaffoldings embedded within the system is an innovation which is not found in other similar research projects.

Although numerous studies have explored gamification, its effects on student intrinsic motivation and behavioral engagement remain ambiguous. This study aims to address this gap by investigating the impacts of exogenous and endogenous fantasies on students’ intrinsic motivation, behaviors and perception of learning in gamified, fully online courses.

Using a quasi-experimental design and mixed methods, this study involved two groups of postgraduate students: exogenous fantasy group (N = 23) and endogenous fantasy group (N = 23). Intrinsic motivation was assessed through surveys, while behavioral engagement was tracked over 10 weeks using online trace data. Semi-structured interviews gathered student insights on learning perceptions. The patterns of behavioral engagement in both fantasy groups were analyzed using epistemic network analysis.

Observed behavioral data indicated a significantly higher level of intrinsic motivation in the endogenous fantasy setting. The endogenous group was more engaged in pre-task analysis and post-task reflection, while the exogenous group focused more on quiz work and post-task reflection. Participants in the endogenous fantasy setting also reported increased cognitive engagement and a strong identification with their fictional characters.

Integrating endogenous fantasy into the curriculum can boost students’ intrinsic motivation, behavioral engagement and self-identification. Adopting a first-person perspective that allows students to embody the role of a virtual character is highly recommended. The use of interactive multimedia can greatly enrich the fantasy environment, resulting in a more immersive and engaging learning experience.

The study provides valuable insights into the impact of endogenous and exogenous fantasies on intrinsic motivation and behavioral engagement. It also stands out for its use of epistemic network analysis to assess and compare complex networks of learning task participation in two fantasy settings. Through analyzing these engagement patterns, researchers can obtain a more profound understanding of how each fantasy environment influences student engagement.

This article is a conceptual framework and literature review on strategic thinking. It examines some of the more recent definitions and identifies a number of key elements involved. Further analysis determines a number of situations that can improve strategic thinking capability in individuals and considers whether organizations can successfully adopt its conclusions to develop their managers and improve the business. The article briefly discusses the relationship between strategic thinking, strategic planning and emergent strategy and suggests that strategic thinking needs to precede both and is essential in making them more appropriate and effective. The authors believe that the greater the sum total of strategic thinking and thinkers in the organization the more readily and effectively it can respond to and take advantage of the vast array of changes occurring in today’s business environment. However, despite the significant levels of delayering and flattening of structures that has taken place in the last decade or so, some organizational barriers continue to stifle opportunities for strategic thinking by limiting the flow of experiences and insights to relevant corners of the firm. The authors suggest that knowledge management can have a significant role in increasing and improving strategic thinking by drawing such experiences and insights from all parts of the organization and making them available to points of strategic decision and action.

Increasingly, managers are harried by rapidly accelerating technological changes, globalization, and new competitors. How can they cope with the mercurial environments their firms are facing today? Should they stop wasting precious time thinking strategically and instead concentrate on action? Should they forget about careful pre‐planning and use their energy to try enough different approaches so some will surely succeed? Has strategizing as we know it become obsolete in today's chaotic environment?

First Prize: This winner of our annual contest, in association with the Foundation for Administrative Research (FAR), describes an innovative strategy‐refinement process that uses four “filters” (tests) for picking high potential business initiatives.

The aim of this chapter is to investigate the context dependence of the implications of telework for work–family conflict. It examines whether and how the implications of telework for strain-based and time-based work–family conflict depend on work–family-supportive and high-demand workplace cultures. Based on a sample of 4,898 employees derived from a unique linked employer–employee study involving large organizations in different industries in Germany, multilevel fixed-effects regressions were estimated.

The results show that telework is associated with perceived higher levels of both time-based and strain-based work–family conflict, and that this is partly related to overtime work involved in telework. However, teleworkers experience higher levels of work–family conflict if they perceive their workplace culture to be highly demanding, and lower levels if supervisor work–family support is readily available.

Future research is required to investigate how the conclusions from this research vary between heterogonous employees and how work–family-supportive and high-demand workplace cultures interrelate in their implications on the use of telework for work–family conflict.

The findings show how important it is to implement telework in a way that not only accommodates employers’ interest in flexibilization, but that it also makes it possible to reconcile work with a family life that involves high levels of responsibility.

This is the first study which examines whether telework is either a resource that reduces or a demand that promotes work–family conflict by focusing on whether this depends on perceived workplace culture.

The 1990 International Conference of The Planning Forum held in Washington, D. C. set a new attendance record. Some 1300 senior executives exchanged war stories, business theories, and points of view while attending three days of presentations by major company CEOs, consultants to leading corporations, noted academics, and practitioners of strategic management. Many of the star presenters had the discerning Bernard C. Reimann, chairman of the Department of Management at Cleveland State University, in their audience busily taking notes. Professor Reimann regularly reports on major strategic management conferences for Planning Review.