Problems of Management in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Cover page, Vol. 2, PMC, 2011

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Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

In recent years attention to quality of studies is not decreasing. Lots of different level and type articles have been written, books and other literature have been published. On the other hand, over the last few years different national, regional and international science conferences and symposiums took place. Some of them can be mentioned. In November, 2000, “International Conference on Quality Assurance in Higher Education: Standards, Mechanisms and Mutual Recognition” took place in Thailand. One of the main accents in this conference was the question on how to establish new mechanisms of quality assurance and quality improvement (Harman, 2000). In October, 2010, an international conference took place on Quality Assurance in Higher Education in Africa: Setting a Sustainable Agenda for a New Decade (http://www.unesco-bamako.org/conferences/). In February, 2001, 10th International Research Conference on Quality, Innovation & Knowledge Management (http://www.buseco.monash.edu.au/mgt/qik-conference/) took place in Malaysia. There’s no purpose in mentioning all conferences that were held. All of them were significant in their own way. After all, different events on university study quality questions are regularly organised by international organisations such as, for example, European University association (http://www.eua.be/Home.aspx). One of the mottos of EUA organisation is – strong universities for Europe. So, it is obvious, that the concern in the university study quality is really huge. However, the essence of the matter lies somewhere deeper. The main goals, formulated in Bologna declaration, had to be implemented by 2010. However, now it becomes clear, that some of the vitally important things were not realised and there are more and more doubts if they will, on the whole, be carried through. The Bologna process itself is not sought to be analysed. What interests us firstly, is the quality of studies’ management question. Various researches reveal that the university study quality in some countries has significantly decreased even measuring according to the most minimal criteria. First of all, this is because most universities are oriented into providing service. It is known, that service University is not capable to ensure the proper quality of the studies and of provided education at the same time. Mass universities meant for mass usage. University education is more and more “Mc.Donaldized” (Lamanauskas, 2011a).

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Authors: Hanna Astner, Ingrid Stigzelius, Hans Andersson, Cecilia Mark-Herbert

Consumers have limited options to choose food with added values in the catering market. Management challenges include making informed product portfolio decisions of what to offer the consumers. These decisions are based on procedures for procuremen. The public procurement process is inluenced by political objectives and a different set of laws compared to private procurement. This research project explores the management of procurement conditions for food products with added values; with a particular interest in beef in public and private restaurants. The results show that personal values of professional purchasers play a key role in the procurement decision. In the commercial sector, marketing of food with added values can provide opportunities for differentiation. In public procurement, opportunities for food with added values are influenced by politics and legislation. Main management obstacles perceived by catering units purchasing beef with added values are associated with lack of volumes, ineffective distribution and higher prices.

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Authors: Jana Ďurišová

Knowledge management (KM) is attracting considerable attention as many organizations realize that they compete in a knowledge economy. Therefore, a key source of sustainable competitive advantage relies on managing knowledge. The vast majority of the existing frameworks in KM efforts focus on knowledge processes that takes place during the so-called “knowledge life-cycle” (KLC). Analysis of knowledge flow should always cover the entire life cycle of knowledge, from its formation, through saving and using, to its end. Companies that want to develop and use knowledge most effectively and profitably should begin to treat it differently according to the stages of the knowledge life-cycle. The purpose of this paper is to compare main concepts of the knowledge life cycle and to introduce a possibility of analyzing knowledge flow in practice, particularly in the automotive industry. The first section introduces knowledge management in organizations. Thereafter, a list of main concepts of knowledge life cycle is presented. Most of the concepts are similar and describe KLC as a process that consists of several stages in hierarchical order. Authors usually add particular steps that differ from others, such as individual and group learning from knowledge, obtaining value from knowledge, or knowledge disposal at the end of the process. Although KLC models have already been usefully developed as a tool for thinking about products and technology, a case study presenting knowledge flow during all stages of life cycle in automobile industry is missing. Therefore, the potential of analyzing knowledge flow in automotive industry is outlined as this field is the subject of author’s research. The final section summarizes important contributions and insights for future research.

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Authors: Barbora Jetmarová

A review of benchmarking literature exposed that due to the development there are different types of benchmarking and different benchmarking models. There are universal models, but also models uniquely developed for particular benchmarking types. Each model varies in terms of the number of phases involved, number of steps involved, application, etc. The research focuses on one of the most popular benchmarking types: best practice benchmarking. Best practice benchmarking describes the comparison of performance data obtained by studying similar processes or activities and identifying, adapting, as well as implementing the practices that revealed the best results. The research intends to propose best practice benchmarking model after reviewing existing benchmarking models in literature. Implementing successful benchmarking project requires more than abidance to the step-wise models. Factors, which have an impact on the adoption of best practices benchmarking models will be highlighted, because many companies are involved in benchmarking, but adoption of best practices is not as height as might be expected.

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Authors: Muhammad Nauman Khan, Fawad Khan

Researchers have been trying to find out whether ownership makes any difference to a firm’s performance. The purpose of this article is to analyse whether family or non-family firms perform better. It focuses on comparison only and does not indulge in finding out reasons of the results. A sample of 100 randomly selected firms from Karachi Stock Exchange (KSE), Pakistan were examined for six years (2004-2009). Ownership variable is taken as a dummy variable besides two other independent variables: age and size. Return on Asset (ROA), Return on Equity (ROE) and Tobin’s Q are used to measure firm performance. Fixed Effect Model along with statistical analysis were used to examine the effects of the variables. The statistical analysis showed that non-family firms had greater mean values for performance variables. Correlation matrix showed that the size of a firm will be small in case a family is running it. The correlation coefficient between family ownership and age is also negative. Family ownership had a negative β in every regression. Log of asset and log of age had positive βs in every model. The results thus obtained from empirical data of firms listed on KSE clearly reflect that non-family firms outperform family firms with every performance variable included in the study. This can serve as a guideline in determinig ownership structure for firms in Pakistan.

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Authors: Peterson Obara Magutu, Nixon Onchara Muganda, Gladys Monchari Ondimu

The recent developments in the Information Communication Technology (ICT) have been received with great interest in research and practice by the banking community the world over. There began to appear theoretical arguments regarding the role of information technology (IT) in creating the value chain at firms and this opened up new lines of inquiry. This paper was a survey on the business value of information communication technologies in the financial departments of commercial banks in Kenya. In recognizing the significance of ICT in economic stability and growth of a country, it should not be lost on the consumers of the technologies that risks abound in every opportunity. It has also been noted that the pace of legislating the sector much of the time is overtaken by technological advancements that are directly linked to the banking sector. The research findings and recommendations are therefore expected to assist in building into the ICT and business value at departmental level, as a body of knowledge. Data was collected from a population that comprised of forty-four commercial banks incorporated and, or licensed to operate in Kenya by 2007. It was found that the two commonly used technological tools in cash management in the finance department are the financial software and e-banking. Also, the five key economic benefits of the information communications technology and innovations that have accrued to the commercial banks in Kenya at their finance departments include: ICT use has ensured proper management of account balances at value dates; ICT has helped in the monitoring and optimization of the sales-cash circuit; ICT has led to system responsiveness to changing user needs; and ICT has helped in the coverage of exchange-rate risk.

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Authors: Mirko Pečarič

Article researches the capacity of national and supranational levels for the governing and managing of global problems. Consumerism and profit per se have brought the world into the collision with nature and people’s ability to cooperate with each other, disregarding their selfish and personal interests. Today’s inability to rule the world is shown in national interests: states still manage their affairs regardless of the interests of other states. Global problems are beyond that; better sooner than latter, one has to respond to Nietzsche’s question of managing the whole world with the formal proposition to strengthen the United Nations that is better than an arbitrary coalition of powerful states, other global power structures, or corporation elites. We should not wait for the new world war to bring more effective ways for solving global problems, because their current negative effects speak themselves in favour for the new global order. Paper is based on thoughts of great thinkers and favours the path to global constitution and federation of states, which could be possible to achieve if the UN will put democratic elements in most of its operations at first in its institutions.

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Authors: Péter Volf, Zoltán Kovács, István Szalkai

Regarding to the conveyance of materials the assignment of stock-keeping units (SKUs) is one of the most important tasks in a warehouse. The units in the interest of their easier handling can be sorted into groups. To classifying SKUs the most frequently used method is the ABC analysis. The traditional approach implements a simplified scheme, which is mostly based on annual dollar usage. Classifying units according to one characteristic can lead to rushed result, because the assignment of stock-keeping units might be influenced by other factors, like number of orders, weight or lead time. In recent years a number of decision models have been developed in order to make it possible to consider more than one criterion in the same time. In general, in the case of representing a model the introduction of the algorithm is more preferable than the visualization of data. However the visualization of results can relieve the comprehension of the given problem and the way, how the model works, even in relation to sorting problems. The aim of this research is to introduce a plotting method which visualizes the results coming from the Case-based distance model developed by Chen, Kilgour and Hipel. This method strengthens the classification by providing separating nonlinear surfaces.