SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT - MANAGERS' AWARENESS, INFLUENCE ON FUNCTIONING SMALL AND MEDIUM-SIZED ENTERPRISES IN POLAND

The negative impact of economic development led to the emergence of a new concept, which has been termed sustainable development. It has significantly influenced the way of thinking about relations occurring in the social, economic, and environmental areas. There are many definitions of this concept in literature. Effective implementation of the principles of this concept requires understanding and building environmental awareness. Implementation of the concept at the enterprise level requires managers to have a certain amount of knowledge and skills and at the same time the ability to perceive and look at the issue of sustainable development from the perspective of benefits. The paper presents the results of a study conducted in 2021 among 216 managers of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland. The research aimed to assess the awareness of the idea of sustainability among the management staff of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland and its impact on their functioning. The results of the research were compared to the results of research conducted by the author in 2008. The research has shown a significant increase in the awareness of the idea of sustainable development. This applies both to the everyday behaviors of respondents and declared actions carried out in enterprises they manage. The main factor motivating the surveyed companies to undertake pro-environmental actions is the conviction that it is necessary to care for the environment and not to avoid paying fines and fees. The respondents see specific benefits from such activities.

Automation of Detection and Fault Management Response of Common Last-Mile Loss-Of-Connectivity Outages Within the Access Network

The article to assesses whether it may be possible to recommend a solution to enable automation of the process of detection and fault management of common conclusive loss-of-connectivity last-mile outages, within the access network. To ascertain the utility of the research, UK based MPLS VPN managed service providers, their fault management staff and their business customers, were surveyed using online questionnaires for their views. UK public Internet users were additionally surveyed via five UK Internet forums. UK communication providers offering MPLS VPN solutions were characterised. Access network connectivity technologies and fault management functions were compared, contrasted and analysed. An aspiration for the solution to be beneficial to the largest potential population, meant that current non-proprietary Internet Standard technologies were selected, justified and identified which could be recommended for use. It was found that of the participating survey respondents, two-thirds were in favour of automation. Many current communication provider processes were found to be mostly automated. The article concludes with recommendations of how an automated solution could potentially be enabled. This involves further use of business-to-business interfacing between communication providers, automation of their Fault Management Systems and introducing Bi-Directional forwarding for detection between last-mile active network elements.

The Impact of the VUCA Environment on the Digital Competences of Managers in the Power Industry

The article presents the scope of issues related to the impact of the VUCA (volatility, uncertainty, complexity, ambiguity) environment on digital competences of management staff in power companies. Each company has to deal with its own individual and personalized VUCA world typical for the power industry. Unfortunately, some organizations are not aware of its existence, and therefore they do not identify the signals coming from the external environment while still working according to the developed patterns. The VUCA approach requires changing the competency model in enterprises and focusing on its strengths. On this basis, the research problem regarding power enterprises was formulated. The problem discussed in the article below concerns the undefined and undefined influence of the VUCA environment on the emerging digital competences of managers. In connection with the identification of the research problem in this area, an attempt was made to define the aim of the study, which is to determine the impact of the connections of the VUCA world with digital competences of managers in the energy sector. To solve the research problem, quantitative research was carried out on a randomly selected sample of managers. It has been shown that leaders are more or less aware of the existence of the VUCA world. As key competences, they mention the ability to develop and adapt digital technologies to the needs of the organization or the ability to flexibly switch thinking between various problems. The novelty of the work is the identification of the connections between the VUCA world and competences and the provision also through the prism of artificial intelligence. The existence of links between the VUCA environment and digital competences was indicated, and the use of VUCA as a determinant of the impact on changing the perception of employees was analyzed.

The impact of marketing agility on crisis management stages at five and four-star hotels in Jordan

This paper aims to examine the impact of marketing agility on decision-making during crisis management stages in five-star and four-star hotels in Jordan. The study included 71 top management staff members from Jordan’s five- and four-star hotels. A questionnaire was designed and utilized to collect the data on marketing agility and crisis management at four and five-star hotels in Jordan. A total of 213 questionnaires were distributed, and 187 useable responses were returned, which resulted in an 86% response rate. Results show that marketing agility plays a significant role in decision-making during crisis management stages. The analysis revealed that marketing agility affected the five stages of crisis management with mixed levels. The findings show that accessibility, decisiveness, swiftness, and flexibility have an immense impact on crisis management stages, while the alertness dimension result shows a weak impact on crisis management stages except for containment. Hotel managers are recommended to emphasize enhancing coordination and integration internally with different managerial levels and units and with external partners to boost information exchange. In addition, it will help promote learning orientation amongst hotel staff to handle the fast-changing environment.

Eco-friendly accommodation facilities in Mladá Boleslav, Czechia: a case study

The purpose of this article is to evaluate the application of various green management measures in selected accommodation facilities in Czechia, namely in the town of Mladá Boleslav and its surroundings. This study was carried out using mixed research methods including semi-structured interviews with accommodation facility management staff. The interviews were complemented with a questionnaire survey which focused on the application of eco-friendly solutions in accommodation facilities. The total sample of participating facilities represented 39.6% of those in the town and its surroundings. In the data analysis stage, correspondence analysis was used. The results suggest that the higher the category, the stronger the trend to use eco-friendly methods in running accommodation facilities.

Manajemen Pengelolaan Makanan Sehat dan Bergizi di PAUD Plus Darussalam Bojonegoro

The management of healthy and nutritious food at PAUD Plus Darussalam has been going well. The stages of healthy food management at PAUD Plus Darussalam consist of planning, organizing, implementing, and supervising. Planning, consisting of budget planning and preparation of various menus for lunch and cakes, changing the food menu once a month with the menus that students like the most. Organizing, consisting of healthy food management personnel at PAUD Plus Darussalam. The workforce is divided into three groups, namely: the management staff group, the implementing staff group, and the implementing assistant staff group. Implementation consists of purchasing food ingredients, processing food ingredients, and distributing food. The purchase of food ingredients is the responsibility of the implementing assistant. Food processing is carried out by the implementing staff. The distribution of food is carried out by the implementing staff and the students themselves according to the picket pick-up schedule. Supervision, carried out by school principals and cooks. This type of research is field research, with a qualitative research approach. Data collection techniques using observation techniques, interviews and documentation. data analysis using Miles and Huberman models. The analytical steps carried out by the researchers include: reducing data, presenting data and drawing conclusions

Challenges of Digital Commons: A Qualitative Study of an Automated Dispensing Cabinet in a Paediatric Intensive Care Unit

Missed medication doses can affect patient safety in hospitals. The use of automated dispensing cabinets (ADC) in clinical areas may reduce the occurrence of medications being unavailable at the time of need by alerting pharmacy to replenish stock. However, workarounds in ADC use can affect this capability. We studied nurses’ use of an ADC in a paediatric intensive care unit with 54 hours of observation, semi-structure interviews (19 nurses; 4 pharmacy/management staff) and review of reported incidents. We found running out of medication a recurrent problem despite the ADC. Contributing factors affecting data entry in the ADC, and therefore replenishment alerts to pharmacy, included: the organisation of medication activities in the ward, nurses’ information needs, patients’ medication needs, and ADC design. Running out of medications was a ‘tragedy of the commons’. Effective solutions may require going beyond user training and directives for accurate data entry, to work process redesign.

MEDIATING EFFECTS OF INNOVATION SERVICES ON MARKET ORIENTATION AND PRIVATE SCHOOLS PERFORMANCE IN SOUTH-WEST GEOPOLITICAL ZONE IN NIGERIA

The study examined the mediating effect of innovative services on the relationship between market orientation and private schools' performance. The study is exploratory correlation research. The population of this study consists of 12,098 private schools in the South-West Geopolitical Zone in Nigeria. Yaro Yamane's formula was used to select a sample of 1104 private schools across the six states in the South-West Geopolitical Zone while proportionate sampling was used to send the questionnaire across these states. Data were collected from 879 private schools’ through administered questionnaires completed by management staff. The collected data were analyzed using correlation and regression analysis. The finding shows that although MO is necessary for schools' performance, it requires the mediating effects of innovative services to achieve greater performance. The study, therefore, suggests that private schools should be market-orientated to achieve high performance.

Knowledge Management and Competitive Advantage of Listed Consumer Goods Manufacturing Companies in Nigeria

The study investigated the effect of knowledge management on the competitive advantage of Nigerian consumer goods businesses. A survey research design was used for the study. The management staff of six major consumer goods firms were included in the study’s population: Flour Mills Nigeria Plc., Cadbury Nigeria Plc., Guinness Nigeria Plc., Nestle Nigeria Plc., Honeywell Flour Mills and PZ Cussons Nigeria from which a sample of 384 was drawn using power analysis. A structured questionnaire was used to collect information from the respondents. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive statistics of frequency counts and simple percentages. In addition, covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) was used to achieve the study’s objectives. The findings from the study revealed that knowledge acquisition (β = 0.541; p = 0.001), knowledge sharing (β = 0.672; p = 0.001), knowledge creation (β = 0.774; p = 0.001), knowledge codification (β = 0.450; p = 0.001) and knowledge retention (β = 0.853; p = 0.001) had a significant positive effect on consumer goods company’s competitive advantage. The study concluded that knowledge management played an important role in enhancing competitive advantage when adequately managed. It was recommended that the authorities in charge of the consumer goods companies ensure management staff quickly get any information needed within their working environment and ensure a horizontal information flow. In addition, the management should constantly develop new knowledge and ideas as well as providing appropriate communication and information technology (IT) gadgets to boost competitive advantage.

Design of a Spatial Data Model for the Sustainability of Population Sheltering Processes in the Czech Republic

This article is focused on the creation of a data model of an information system to support the processes of population sheltering (PoS). PoS processes have undergone significant changes in the Czech Republic. The PoS system was transformed for the use of improvised shelters. For sustainable PoS, it is necessary to standardize the approach of crisis management staff. Key research hypotheses: the data model must respect the methodological framework of planning and implementation of the PoS, especially when used for the design and implementation of the improvised shelters; the standardization of residential buildings can be used to facilitate and streamline the sustainable process of planning of the PoS; the unified data model of the PoS can be considered suitable for standardization and development in the field of sustainable planning and implementation of the PoS. Softwares such as SW QGIS desktop 2.6.0, OpenStreetMap (OSM) spatial database, ESRI shapefile format, and S-JTSK/Krovak East North 5514 coordinate system were used for the verification of the spatial data model, and ASP.NET MVC 4.7.2 Microsoft SQL Server Express 2019, jQuery 3.3.1, Bootstrap 3.4.1, Kendo UI 2019.1.220, and virtual Windows Server 2016 were used for the implementation of the physical data model. The physical data model substantiates the benefits.