Problems of Management in the 21st Century

59

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 10, No. 2, 2015, PMC

62–76

Authors: Rafał Drewniak

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is becoming an increasingly popular area of activity of companies which are interested in not only the managers or owners, but also customers, suppliers, NGOs, administrative and other stakeholders groups. The analysis aim is to present CSR initiatives as part of deliberate strategy of the company, which is one of the key sources of competitive advantage in the market. The findings concern the scope of cooperation between companies and NGOs in the field of socially responsible activities. The analysis indicates that the expected form of cooperation of NGOs with small businesses is to provide financial assistance to social organizations. However, in the case of medium-sized enterprises, these expectations also apply to material support. Moreover, in the case of medium-sized enterprises a key determinant of cooperation with social organization is realization of the social objective, while small businesses are more guided by "goodness of the heart". Considerations based on the identification of scope of CSR, are pointing to the key aspects of this activity to the company, the environment and customers. Discussions were extended to the characteristics of the benefits, barriers and forms of the cooperation, as well as, there were presented the results of research in the field of forms and determinants of such cooperation. Considerations are based on secondary sources, from national and international journals, books, magazines and specialist reports.

88–99

Authors: Stephen N. M Nzuve, Mwangi Pauline Njambi

Performance is associated with quantity of output, quality of output, timeliness of output, presence or attendance on the job, efficiency of the work completed and effectiveness of work completed (Mathis et al., 2009). In an organization, committed employees are regarded as being willing to build and maintain long-lasting relationships with their employer (Argyris, 1998). Effective management teams need to recognize that positive employee attitudes are often vital to achieving organizational goals and this will be achieved when the employees are satisfied. The objective of the study was to determine the factors perceived to influence employees’ performance at Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission. The research design adopted was descriptive research design. The population of the study comprised of all the 175 employees in the commission head office. The study used primary data that was collected through self-administered questionnaires. The data was analyzed using the Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS) software and presented using tables and figures. The study found out that the employees of the commission perceived their performance to be influenced by rewards, job design and training and development opportunity. Management style was found to have hindered performance of employees. The employees were satisfied with wages and salaries paid, retirement benefit scheme, job security, performance appraisals were satisfactory hence encouraging the employees to work in the commission and improve their performance.

110–120

Authors: Christopher R. Schmidt

The types of whistleblowing claims made against institutions of higher education are not well understood nor are the various mechanisms used to solicit, investigate, and learn from such claims at the institutional and state levels. This research obtained and analyzed whistleblower claims made against institutions of higher education and explores and facilitates a discussion around the value of learning opportunities that come from whistleblowing claims. Aggregate claims data and detail workpapers for claims made against the 45 publicly funded colleges and universities in the state of Ohio, in the midwestern United States was analyzed to identify patterns and areas of focus which could improve institutional processes and internal controls. Four areas resulted from the analysis: hiring and pay practices, prevention of the theft of institutional assets, prevention of the theft of student funds, and an institutional accreditation issue. All claims that were reported reflected real concerns on topics of strategic importance to institutions and their management practices, although not all were substantiated or corroborated. One quarter of the claims resulted in proven cases for recovery and prosecution. At the state level, completeness of investigation and administrative learning were sometimes not pursued due to the code enforcement nature of the governing bodies whose mandate was limited to the identification and prosecution of crimes, although improvement opportunities clearly existed. The case of Ohio demonstrates that open government and public information request processes can provide sufficient information to allow insight into the nature of the claims and to identify improvement opportunities for both the institution and state level administration.

3

Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2015, PMC

6-17

Authors: Peter Bóna, Robert Lippert

What makes a company successful? What kind of instruments may it use to achieve outstanding results? Instruments necessary for effective operation depend remarkably on the current age and the environment surrounding the organisation. Various ages have had their different keys to success. This key has become more and more complex and complicated due to the continuous acceleration of world economy and the fact that distances have become negligible. The aim of this study is to explore, whether companies having an interest in the processing industry use hard or soft success factors as a key to achieve success. In order to do that, the research will identify the possible success factors first. Henceforward it will reveal the effect of the resulting factors on success by logistic regression, which will be examined via the balance scorecard by complementing the four classic aspects – as one of the pioneers – with a fifth one, i.e. sustainability. Thus it will become visible, to what extent strategic, structural, cultural and leadership success factors influence the performance of a company to reach excellence in accordance with the expectations of the owners, the customers, the employees and the social sphere. The results of the research will thereby show the unravelled correlations between the successful operation of a company and the instruments indicating hard and soft success affecting it.

26-36

Authors: Diāna Līduma, Aija Kairēna, Māris Priedens

There are 10 operating ports in Latvia and 3 of them – Liepaja, Ventspils and Riga ports are regarded as the leading commercial ports. Role of port operation in the economics of region and country is essential from the point of view of employment and entrepreneurship. This is based with data on investment of operation of Latvian ports in GDP, on average it is assessed to be 5-7% annually. In the context of employment, Liepaja Port gives work to 6.9% of human resources of the city. However, concern about the competitiveness of Liepaja Port influenced by the proximity of more developed competitive ports, technical possibilities of the port and dynamics of freight turnover has occurred in recent years. Therewith in framework of this article in the context of such criteria as location of ports and their technical parameters, volumes of freight, specialization and costs of ports, the operation of leading ports of Latvia is intercompared and analyzed by clarifying whether Liepaja Port is competitive among other ports of Latvia. Opinions of port experts on perspectives of port development and statistical data of ports from 2011-2013 are analyzed within the framework of the article. The aim of the research is to clarify the comparative advantages of ports of Latvia. The research revealed that the provision of competitiveness of Liepaja Port is to be related with application of the available free territories, advantages of location in relation to the Scandinavian market, and the necessity to develop the cooperation among ports of Latvia to offer joint freight acquisition, distributions and unified logistics solution and strengthen the position of ports in the circumstances of international competition.

49

Authors: Vincentas Lamanauskas

On behalf of the organizing committee, we are delighted to welcome you to Šiauliai, Lithuania, for the II International Baltic Symposium on Science and Technology Education, BalticSTE 2017. The Symposium will be held in Šiauliai (Lithuania) in June 2017 during days 12-15. We cordially encourage you to attend and contribute to one of the major events of 2017 on the field of science and technology education. We are confident that you will appreciate the scientific program and the city of Šiauliai. We look forward to seeing you in 2017 in Lithuania.

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Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 10, No. 1, 2015, PMC