Problems of Management in the 21st Century

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Authors: Editorial Board

Contents, Vol. 1, 2011, PMC

7-15

Authors: James Baba Abugre

Today, more and more businesses depend on communications for their success since a well-organized communication system is shown to be an important factor in stimulating worker satisfaction in organizations. The purpose of this paper is to assess organizational communication and its impact on worker satisfaction in organizational workplace. The paper examines three Ghanaian organizations in the formal sector using a quantitative survey of ninety respondents to gain information for the study. The chi-square test was used with cross-tabulation of the independent and dependent variables to test and answer the hypothesis and research questions formulated for the study. Findings show that there is a significant relationship between efficient organizational communication and employee satisfaction. Findings also show that organizational communication has a positive impact on employee performance. Analysis of the findings further reveals that workers prefer good leadership communication behavior because it has positive effects on workers in organizations. The study proposes that organizations in the formal sector will achieve their objectives if they pay proper attention to the communication processes through efficient organizational communication in the workplace.

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Authors: László Bóta

The increasingly competitive higher educational environment compels the management of universities and colleges to assign high priority to an overall maximisation of client services. Consequently, while academic leaders must become familiar with the aspects of on-line communication much favoured by today’s younger generation, the intensification and improvement of the quality of available on-line services cannot be imagined without reliable information on the Internet use habits and behaviour of clients. The managers and administrators of Hungarian college and university websites are mostly unfamiliar with the web-related conduct or habits of their customers as in case of long-running web-pages based on an unchanging structure only basic visitor statistics are available at best. Yet marketing communication decisions should be based on information reflecting real website-consumer traits acquired via a more professional analysis. Data mining is one such decision-making support mechanism. Data mining models are capable of revealing and predicting information hidden beneath the respective critical mass. Therefore inspired by the methodology of marketing science this type of research concentrates on the segmentation of on-line consumers via the elaboration of visitor clusters. The present article provides a scientific overview and analysis of the main difficulties related to cluster construction, especially the development of the relevant algorithmic forms. The successful application of the model provides much-needed reliable and vital support to the institutional decision making process. Thus pertinent data yielded by cluster research can facilitate more effective on-line service customized to the needs of the users.

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Authors: Csaba Hegedűs, Zsolt T. Kosztyán

In the field of operations management, most decisions are seen as being based on measurement results. However, every measurement has some uncertainty and therefore managerial decisions can be incorrect. Measurement uncertainty can cause particularly large losses in the case of maintenance decisions, where decision error can cause the breakdown of the entire production or service process. Taking measurement uncertainty into consideration the losses can be decreased. The standards, technical reports and guides dealing with measurement uncertainty use probability approach and focus on the metrology aspect. They do not support a risk based decision based on the forecast of the observed characteristics. In the proposed risk based model the realized (or lost) revenue is treated along with the occurred costs in order to maximize the profit with the help of analytic calculation and simulations. This paper suggests that by treating measurement results as a time series the time of probable failure can be predicted at a given confidence level, this can support the scheduling of maintenance tasks. The uncertainty of measurement and the uncertainty of forecasting can be treated in the same model.

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Authors: Zsolt Tibor Kosztyán, Judit Kiss

Network planning methods for project planning and scheduling have been applied for more than fifty years including CPM, PDM, PERT and GERT (Fondahl, 1961; Fulkerson, 1962; Kelley & Walker, 1959; PMI, 2006; Pritsker, 1966), which can be widely applied to project planning fromareas as diverse as construction and R&D. However, these network planning methods are not very appropriate in cases where IT, innovation or product development are involved. There are some shortcomings when using network planning methods for scheduling these kinds of projects, because these methods cannot handle the importance of the task realizations. They cannot solve the problem, when some tasks have to be left out from the project because of the constraints, or when the completion order of tasks can be different. In this paper new matrix-based project planning methods are introduced which illustrate how all possible solutions can be determined in two steps based on the Project Expert Matrix. Firstly those tasks are selected, which have to be or can be realized during the project. Afterwards the dependencies (the sequence of the chosen tasks) are determined taking the project constraints into account. The possible solutions can be ranked and the most probable solution can be chosen which can be realized within the given constraints. This method can be a useful tool for project managers as a part of an expert system.

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Authors: David K. Ruto

This research paper presents the principals’ practices in delegating responsibility to teachers in public secondary schools in Kenya. A random sample of 20 secondary schools was used where 120 teachers filled questionnaires, and 20 principals from the selected schools were interviwed. Both the questionnaire and interview guide were designed based on six research questions. The data were analyzed using both quantitative and qualitative methodology. The study revealed that responsibilities related to financial decisions were not delegated. Teachers needed to consult before making any decisions on delegated responsibilities. There was little preparation of teachers for delegated responsibility; had limited opportunity to attend seminars and staff development programmes; little support was given to them, and had little or no guidance from the principals. Lack of finances, inadequate training, understaffing, and lack of cooperation among the teachers constrained the process of delegation. It is suggested, among other recommendations, that schools should be adequately financed and staffed, while motivation and staff development programmes need to enhancement in order toimprove the effectiveness of the delegation process.

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Authors: Viara Slavianska

The paper presents results from a study, conducted in the beginning of the year, with the purpose to determine how the human resource management function is realized in Bulgarian tourist organizations and specifically to identify possible problems. The study includes fifty accidentally chosen organizations from the hotel keeping branch, of approximately equal size (from three to five star hotels with over 200 employees). Consecutively are presented the practices, connected with basic activities, composing the human resource management, as well as summary results from the analysis given as recommendations for the management. It has established as a general conclusion that the practices connected with HRM in the investigated hotels, have some positive sides, but dominate the negative aspects that need an elaboration. The taking of actions directed towards improvement of HRM in these organizations is a consequence from the awareness that: 1) the quality of the tourist product in the hotel keeping is in direct dependence on the quality of the human resource, i.е. the policy for its management and 2) in the conditions of a global economic and financial crisis, not only the survival of the organizations but their prosperity as well, are connected mostly with identification and preservation of the quality part of their personnel.

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Authors: Editorial Board

End page, Vol. 1, 2011, PMC