Manager profile in organizations providing social services: Evidence from the Czech Republic

A profile of manager represents characteristics of a person performing a managerial position, i.e., it includes qualities such as knowledge, skills, and competencies within a specific specialty that provides the ability to carry out managerial duties and responsibilities successfully. The reason for obtaining this information is to build a profile of managers in organizations providing social care, as this area has not been elaborated in detail in the Czech Republic.This study aims to identify and describe the profiles of managers in organizations providing social services in the South Bohemian Region. The study was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 24 managers of selected organizations providing social services in the South Bohemian Region until the information obtained was sufficient. Data were processed using open, selective, and axial coding. Managers were asked about their job descriptions, their skills and education, and the specifics of their duties and responsibilities within their organizations. The results show that manager profiles are influenced by the type of organization and the organization’s funding. The results of the study showed that specific managerial duties and responsibilities are based on the type of social service provided. These duties and responsibilities are also based on the clients of services and the frequency of services provided. AcknowledgmentThis study was financially supported by the project “Selected aspects of social work management”, registration number GAJU 052/2019/S (Grant Agency of the University of South Bohemia in České Budějovice).

Assessment of bankruptcy risks in Czech companies using regression analysis

Bankruptcy is an important topic in academic research and practice. It is a burning issue worldwide in the current COVID-19 situation. The aim of this study is to examine the financial risks of Czech companies. By employing the stepwise regression technique to estimate the financial risks, the p-values of all selected 15 financial ratios (explanatory variables) were calculated. If the p-value of the variable is more than the level of significance, the particular variable is removed from the model and another regression model is calculated. The findings from the stepwise regression revealed that return on capital, current ratio, net working capital turnover rate, and current assets turnover rate have a positive influence on company’s financial health. On the contrary, return on capital employed, asset turnover rate, inventory turnover rate, fixed assets turnover rate, and debt to equity ratio negatively impact the company’s financial health. The findings of this study will be fruitful for managers, policymakers, and investors of the companies to estimate and assess financial risks. AcknowledgmentsThis study is supported by the Internal Grant Agency (IGA) in Tomas Bata University in Zlin, the Czech Republic, under the projects No IGA/FAME/2021/008 and IGA/FAME/2021/014.

DEVELOPMENT OF HEALTH-PROMOTING BEHAVIOUR OF A CHILD AS AN EDUCATIONAL GOAL IN FAMILIES OF HANDICAPPED MOTHERS WITH MENTAL HEALTH DISORDERS

The mental health of adult women is an important attribute of their motherhood. Weakening of mental health poses a threat to activities in the field of self-care and healthy development of their children. Even under these conditions of health disadvantage, women-mothers remain as the main mediators of health-promoting habits for their children, thus they become theirs first educators. The health literacy of these women also plays a role in this regard. For this reason, it is crucial to provide these women with sufficient special education that takes their individual needs into account. This research project is focused on finding connections between the mental health disorder of mothers, their health literacy with manifestations in the field of health-promoting behaviour, and with the need for support in the relevant area of childcare by professionals and close family members. The author will present an overview of research focused on this issue as well as her own proposal for a research solution, which received the support of the Charles University Grant Agency for the years 2021-2022.

Rainfall simulation experiments in vineyards comparing two different plot scales

<p>Vineyards are vulnerable to soill loss due to the several inherent factors highly discussed in the literature. A lot of research is being carried out on this topic and hundreds of experiments were conducted around the world in past decades. The use of rainfall simulators is very extensive with prominent results; however, the use of different scales is scarce in exact places but using different plot sizes. Small (1-4 m<sup>2</sup>) and big plots (>4 m<sup>2</sup>) can detect the initiation of specific processes such as surface runoff and initial of soill particle detachment. However, mechanisms such as connectivity, sedimentation or linear erosion differ among plot sizes. Also, the size, high water consumption and time-consuming of the big rainfall simulator makes its use something scarce. Therefore, the main goal of this research was to compare the big and small rainfall simulators and the obtained results considering the continuous development of various rainfall simulators on the CTU’s Department of Landscape Water Management (Prague, Czech Republic). The small rainfall simulator with 1x1 m plot and the big one covering two experimental plots of 8x1 m size were used next to each other in a conventional vineyard in the viticultural region of Moravia. The results showed different processes both of them key to understand from a holistic point of view the inititaion of soil erosion processes in vineyards.</p><p>This study has been supported by the Grant Agency of the Czech Technical University in Prague, grant No. SGS20/156/OHK1/3T/11 and the Project QK1910029.</p>

Pythagorean Women Philosophers

Modern scholarly accounts of Greek philosophical history usually exclude women. And yet, from Dixaearchus of Messana to Diogenes Laertius, classical writers record the names of women philosophers from various schools. What is more, pseudonymous treatises and letters (likely dating after the first century CE) articulate the teachings of Pythagorean women. How can this literature inform our understanding of Greek intellectual history? To take these texts at face value would be naïve; to reject them, narrow-minded. This book is a deep examination of the literary tradition surrounding female Pythagoreans; it envisions the tradition as a network of texts that does not represent female philosophers but enacts their role in Greek culture. Part I, “Portraits,” assembles and contextualizes excerpts from historical accounts and wisdom literature. Part II, “Impersonations,” analyzes pseudonymous treatises and letters. Texts are approached with a mixture of suspicion and belief, inspired by Paul Ricoeur’s hermeneutics. Suspicion serves to disclose the misogyny of the epistemic regimes that produced the texts about and by women philosophers. Belief takes us beyond the circumstances of the texts’ production to possible worlds of diverse readers, institutions, and practices that grant agency to the female knower. In the process, the book uncovers traces of a fascinating dialogue about the gender of philosophical knowledge, which includes female voices.

Program for Lagging Districts as a Framework for Innovative Approaches within the State Regional Development Policies in Slovakia

This paper analyses new approaches in Slovak regional policy based on the law that frames the paradigm shift by introducing a new scheme of state support for lagging districts. This law created the frame for integrated actions in the districts with high unemployment rates and caused wide-reaching structural changes in their peripheral locations. The key difference lies in shifting from the sectoral policy approach to integrated and integrative policies that have so far been absent. The main goal of this policy has been to restart the social and economic development and increase the availability of work opportunities in lagging districts, which has been defined by their monthly unemployment rate over the past years. The concurrence of this government initiative with the Maria Currie project RegPol2 focused on socio-economic and political responses to regional polarization in Central and Eastern Europe, and engagement of academics in the preparation and implementation of the program that has been developed in accordance with this law; this has allowed the use of the latest knowledge and innovative solutions to build on a comprehensive understanding of the problems of decline, using integrative and integrated territorial strategies that capitalize on the scientific achievements in higher efficiency of public intervention efforts. The evaluation of this new approach occurs within the VEGA 1/0789/18 project granted by the Scientific Grant Agency of the Slovak Republic. The paper analyses the applied strategies as tools framed by the new paradigm within the law on supporting lagging districts and discusses the implications in improving the situation in other EU countries. Positive experience as well as identified problems from the program realization have created the base for the definition of a new development strategy for the Slovak Republic 2030 as the main implementation tool of the Agenda 2030 in Slovakia; this is a new act on integrated development that replaces the previous set of less coordinated norms on regional development and cohesion policy.

Impact of Industry 4.0 on labor productivity in the Slovak Republic

The Fourth Industrial Revolution bears major technological, demographic, and socio-economic changes affecting nearly every area in business. Within the human resources area, both a surplus of labor and the creation of brand new professions are to be expected. Industry 4.0 concept significantly affects labor productivity in individual countries and does not miss the Slovak Republic either. All segments of the labor market, not just industrial enterprises, will be affected. The present study aims to analyze the possible development of labor productivity in Slovak companies and determine its development in the next period, considering the decreasing number of working-age populations in terms of the fallouts on creation and termination of jobs and occupations. The questionnaire carried out in 319 enterprises in the Slovak Republic with a received response of 228 was a key research tool used to analyze the results of the survey. The findings show that although the labor force within the Slovak labor market will not increase, the labor force will decrease due to unfavorable demographic development. The overall productivity in Slovak companies will increase due to the new technologies implementation. The results have proved that the Industry 4.0 concept will significantly affect labor productivity in the world economy and the Slovak Republic. In particular, the recommendations aim to draw attention to changes in job structure and the need to reform the education system because of Industry 4.0 requirements. Acknowledgments This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific grant agency VEGA: “The impact of Industry 4.0 on jobs structure changes”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0430/18]. This paper was supported by the Slovak Ministry of Education’s Scientific grant agency VEGA: “Assessment changes in the qualitative structure of international economic relations under the influence of Industry 4.0 with implications for the EU and Slovak economic policies”. Project registration number: [Reg. No.: 1/0462/20].

The impact of the board process on board and corporate performance: the case of Slovakia

Nowadays a great deal of attention is paid to corporate governance (CG). Frequent takeovers of ownership rights by management bodies led to a need for business owners to establish clear rules for business management and compliance monitoring. The aim of this paper is to examine the relationship between selected characteristics of the governance process and the ability of governing bodies to perform their core tasks, as well as to model and predict the impact of the selected characteristics of the governance process on the company’s financial performance, measured by the year-on-year change in return on equity. The respondent sample consists of members of randomly selected top management entities with their headquarters in Slovakia. A total of 132 subjects participated and answered questions in the survey, 54% of which were joint stock companies, 36% were limited liability companies and 10% were respondents from cooperatives. Data were personally collected by a questionnaire survey conducted during 2019. To verify the assumptions and success of the formulated model, correlation analysis, binary logistic regression and other relevant tests were used. The results show that each of the examined board process attributes significantly affects at least one board performance attribute. All significant correlations have a positive value. Independent variables in the ROE regression model increased the estimation rate of ROE change from 54.5% to 93.9%. The model is applicable in the CG practice and allows the prediction of changes in ROE with respect to ongoing governance processes. AcknowledgmentThis paper has been supported by the Scientific Grant Agency of Slovak Republic under the project VEGA No. 1/0749/18 “Research on the application of corporate governance principles in companies in Slovakia”. The authors would like to express their gratitude to the Scientific Grant Agency of The Ministry of Education, Science, Research and Sport of the Slovak Republic for financial support of this research and publication.

Appraisal of the factors contributing to European small and medium enterprises innovation performance

Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) play a vital role in driving job creation and Gross Domestic Product (GDP) growth in all economies worldwide. Their increasing importance also means that they must be innovative enough to survive and be sustainable, improve their productivity and competitiveness. It is pertinent for European SMEs to know the contributing factors driving their innovations, which will enable them to channel their limited resources to ensure they achieve their innovation goals. This paper examined the various factors that stimulate innovations within SMEs. Using the ordinary least squares regression analysis and data from the European Innovation Survey, the authors analyzed 296 European SMEs between 2011 and 2018. The results show that intellectual assets, financial support, firm investment, and human resources all significantly contribute to firm’s sales output across Europe. Conversely, it was found that financial support and innovation linkages were not significant predictors of firms’ innovations. The results are important for SMEs managers who are aiming to be innovative and improve their productivity. The study can serve as a practical guide on how SMEs can ameliorate their innovation potentials and activities. AcknowledgmentThe paper has been prepared with the support of the grant TBU No. IGA/FaME/2020/004 provided by the Internal Grant Agency of the Faculty of Management and Economics of Tomas Bata University in Zlín.

Comparative analysis of the accommodation capacities in selected European tourist destinations

This study aims to analyze the business view concerning the using the accommodation capacities in some central European countries, i.e. Austria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia in the NUTS-2 regional scope. The special attention is paid to Spain. The research is based on annual post-global economic crisis data. The authors apply a specific partial least squares (PLS) variant of multivariate methods, which relates many fundamental and derived tourism variables due to particular attention to using a weighting procedure. The authors determined that in order to encompass the territory predetermination for the best fit the changed conditions, the majority of significant cities have very good dynamics in capacity parameters and overnights for increasing the offers being greatly supplied by the annual changing number of visitors. However, Spain is substantially different from the other regions analyzed, forming ultimate conditions for mutual comparison. Moreover, the tracks of turning visitors into capital or significant cities, especially associated with the close natural attractions, are substantiated. The tourist’s resource potential specific only to the target region as well as relevant additional potential origins are examined on the sample of countries. Covering tourism as the world’s leading industry directly connected to accommodation tasks and a unique period examined, the results of this study can be used to formulate policy guidelines as well as to solve the tasks of attracting tourism and promote supply. AcknowledgmentThis research was funded by the Grant Agency of Academic Alliance under Grant Agreement number GA/13/2018.