| Paper deals with the theme of leadership and organizational culture, viewed from the perspective of creativity, and searches the interrelations between these elements. The research was conducted in the state theaters of Latvia, as those are the theaters that take up significantly the largest part of theater market share (82% of the market) and also provide the biggest number and range of customers with the specific service. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used – Organizational culture assessment instrument (OCAI), developed and advanced by K. Cameron and R. Quinn was used to identify organizational culture and leadership dimensions. Structured interviews with experts were used for validation of the results and applicability of main findings. Research identifies existing organizational culture and leadership profile and preferred organizational culture and leadership profile in two subcultures – management and performing actors. Research confirms the functionalism approach which concurrently approves the role of leadership in creating organizational culture, as well as the influence of culture on leadership. Performing actors prefer clan culture values instead of dominant hierarchy culture values, while management prefers to keep status quo – maintain the existing level of the hierarchy. |
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The cooperation between companies is very important in these days. It brings many benefits as increased competitiveness, cost savings, stronger bonds, etc. From this point, we argue that creating cooperative relationships brings companies concrete benefits and synergies. The aim of the paper is to focus on the most common join and strategic elements of manage cooperative relations. The effectiveness of strategic decision relies on these elements. The importance of cooperation strategy plays a significant role in the systematic approach to cooperative management and deepening cooperative relations.
The paper presents the results of research on cooperation in the Slovak business environment. Strategic management of cooperative ventures consisted in revealing the primary areas of a company where strategic management of cooperative relationships already exists or can be improved. The fundamental areas that stand out as important for businesses, but not implemented are: common goals, and regular two-way communication, access partner, jointly set terms and conditions, culture and business confidence. Through these areas, cooperating businesses can achieve results and maintain competitiveness. Strategic management of cooperative organizational forms needs to achieve the full potential of cooperation which means not only achieving the goals but also creating synergies that maintain strong cooperative relationships and bring new benefits. |
| The public interest of politicians, scientists, media representatives of different countries in issues of multiculturalism is growing significantly. One of the reasons thereof lies in the global processes of economic, social, environmental, etc. nature, which often encourage people to voluntarily or involuntarily cross the borders of other countries and seek to settle for a new life in somewhat familiar or even unfamiliar cultural environment. Movement of foreigners to other countries at the same time poses a serious challenge for the host country’s local communities. The constantly expanding international migration transferred the topic of multiculturalism into a global phenomenon. Numerous speeches and publications reveal that this phenomenon has not only defenders, but also sharp critics, or even opponents. Studies of the authors of the article showed that the origins of multiculturalism are found in ancient civilizations, therefore without perception of the historic transformation of this process, most researches, speeches and publications reflect the current situation only partially and as such do not reach their goals. This article first focuses more closely on the historical context of the multiculturalism process and seeks to establish its ties with the present. The article presents the experience of the ancient world (Macedonian/Greek, Germanic, the Roman Empire, etc.) and the modern Canada, Australia, Britain and Lithuania. Researches on this topic in Lithuania, as in many other post-communist countries, have been conducted quite sporadically and mostly deal only with individual issues of public multiculturalism. The article discusses the existing reserves of improving the conditions for integration of foreigners into the Lithuanian society. The topic of multiculturalism is the research object of several areas of science; therefore, the genre of the topic under consideration demanded a different kind of scientific discourse with the emphasis on the importance of perception of this phenomenon in the contemporary society. It is likely that the subject discussed in the article will stimulate new research, so that it could provide comprehensive insights that would contribute to the formation of positive public opinion about the arriving foreigners. |
| The purpose of this paper is to identify a gap in knowledge and understanding of the need to motivate employees for creative and pro-innovation activities in the organization. Another aim is to provide an overview of innovation in one of the low-tech industries – in the food industry. The concept of innovation and creativity is presented. The characteristics of the concept of creativity have been briefly described. Then examples of ways how food companies are dealing with current trends in the area of innovation in the world are briefly described. Among these trends, the focus on radical innovations has been highlighted, more tightly aligned firm innovation and business strategies, better insight into customers’ needs and increased collaboration with other entities. Analyses based on the desk research techinque were performed with the inclusion of literature regarding the examples of implementation of innovations in the food sector companies. The conducted analyses allowed us to confirm that exemplary food companies are actively engaged in improving their competitive position, by introducing creative solutions in their products or by new ways of organizing different processes. It has been shown that creativity should be used as the primary source of innovation in the food industry. |
| The aim of the paper is to discuss and analyse the social competence of students in the light of the results of a questionnaire survey on their social capital. The survey was carried out among students starting education at the Faculty of Economics and Management, University of Szczecin, Poland, of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration University in Vigo (Spain) in 2013, of the Faculty of Politics and Management at the Mykolas Romeris University in Vilnius, Lithuania in 2014 and of the Faculty of Economics University at the Matej Bel in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia in 2015. The paper is theoretical and empirical. The first part of the paper is intended to review the literature on the subject of social competence. The methodology and characteristics of the respondents are presented in the second part of the paper. The aim of the next part is to present the results of the research on the social competences of the studied students. The basic research method is survey research and basic descriptive statistics methods such as chain indexes or correlation coefficients. The findings of the analysis suggest they have not developed a high level of social competence, which may stem from the limited scope of social networks which they belong to, a lack of generalized trust and trust in institutions as well as, despite their enormous potential, unwillingness to adopt civic approach and civil awareness. |
| This paper presents evaluation of human resources management in hospital with taking into consideration Kaizen and West approach to the quality. It was stated that there are many advantages of Japanese culture: economic effects, development of knowledge and qualifications of personnel, improving employee morale, identification of employees with the company and its problems, improved communication between employees, increased teamwork and teamwork problem solving. But there are also some problems with using Kaizen philosophy. There are connected with the need to change the mentality of employees at all levels, activation of employees to undertake improvement actions, enforce the use of solutions developed by the team. This kind of problems should be solved by trainings at hospital. It was showed that hospital should take some experience from Japanese approach to solve problems especially connected with personnel morale, motivation and effectiveness. Superior should trust its personnel in hospital and shouldn’t be so official in contact with them. Data analysis emphasizes that in the hospital should be the management of human resources, it is important to show respect to employees, which is a condition for the success of the organization. |
| Shaping and constant improving of education quality constitute one of the most significant tasks of the contemporary higher education. The aim of the following article is to show the role which internal stakeholders, such as students or university employees, and external stakeholders or authorities have in shaping the concept of quality in higher education. As based on literature and own research, the role of each group of stakeholders in quality assurance in the sphere of education was presented. The research was conducted through survey and interview among both, students and employees of the Faculty of Management at Technical University of Czestochowa. As far as external stakeholders are concerned, graduates, potential employers from the area of Czestochowa, city authorities, and the local Employment Office were surveyed. The results show the importance of feedback, especially the one that comes from a job market, in pro-quality undertakings in the area of education service. |
| Different generations’ attitudes towards work and management is relevant to modern companies, their managers, human resource management professionals as well as to the employees of the organisations. Currently three different generations – Baby Boom, X and Y are prevailing in the labour market. Many scientists, who analyse attitudes of different generations, notice that they have different point of view towards relationship with managers, due to which different motivational tools and communication methods need to be applied to them. The purpose of the research was to analyse different generations’ approach to work and management in the context of the Lithuanian business organizations in order to find proper ways for contemporary organisations to adapt to and overcome generational differences constructively. The article analyses prevailing theoretical concepts relating to generations at work and introduces the results of empirical study, which help to explain the causes determining differing attitudes of the representatives of different generations. The data of the research indicate that Baby Boom, X and Y generations in the Lithuanian organizations are significantly different in self-assigned personal characteristics, evaluations of optimal length of employment relations with one organization, motivating factors in the organizational environment and preferred leadership. These aspects rise challengers for managers and HR specialists – they need to find individual approach to the representatives of different generations in order to ensure achievement of organizational goals. |