Lack of information and difficulty of implementation as the obstacles to the adoption of performance measurement systems at Czech organisations

The paper focuses on the topical issue of adopting standardised tools for the measurement of performance, with the centre of attention being a lack of information and the difficulty of implementation. The empirical part presents insights into the perception of the above aspects by selected Czech organisations. An analysis of data collected through a quantitative survey among 331 entities, carried out by the Institute for Evaluations and Social Analyses (INESAN) in 2012, indicates that the current practice of performance measurement at organisations influences the perception of selected obstacles. Organisations that measure performance in selected areas and use selected procedures often claim they know which standardised tools are adequate for performance measurement, yet they also often perceive implementation as problematic. Conversely, the incidence of selected performance measurement issues at organisations is positively associated with the perception of both a lack of information and the perception of implementation as problematic.

The “Fall Wage Round”: Collective Bargaining as Temporary Organization

By investigating into collective bargaining in Austria, we show that bargaining - two opposing parties negotiating a deal - may take the form of a temporal organization and further, that outcomes of bargaining may significantly be affected by this. We specifically analyze the hierarchy, structure, membership, common goal and common identity of the bargaining organization, as well as its temporal and rhythmic nature. Together this establishes a temporal organization in contrast to bargaining between clearly separated parties. We discuss this as a possible explanation for the widely acknowledged success of the Austrian “Sozialpartnerschaft”.

Framing and Bias: A Literature Review of Recent Findings

Framing bias is an individual decision-making misconception caused by the fact that a person interprets the surrounding world according to a decision frame chosen by her or his subjective opinion. This article aims to review various kinds of factors that cause and affect framing or lead to debiasing, i.e. a decrease in the resulting framing bias. The objective of the study is carried out using a literature review that analyzes recent empirical studies. As a result, numerous factors are identified that according to the studies have an impact on framing. It transpires that four broader groups of these factors can be established – decision situation setup (amount of information, additional presentation of options), experience (knowledge, engagement), effort (attention, complexity, the amount of information to process) and demographics (gender, nationality).

Do gender and personality traits (BFI-10) influence trust? A replication

Trust as a concept found its way to business literature and it became a widely-used variable. Societal trust is systematically measured since 1960s. Later, it was discovered that two statements, which were used as opposite ends of dichotomous questions, are not truly opposite. The aim of this article is to investigate if gender and personality traits influence rating of these two statement. And if so, if it is possible to account for these factors and to create a robust trust indicator from these two statements after all. Big Five Inventory-10 is used to measure personality traits. Findings are that one measure of trust is significantly influenced by agreeableness, while the other is possibly influenced by neuroticism but the relationship is only borderline significant. With regards to the second goal, it is not possible to create a single trust indicator with reasonable properties even with adding personality traits into the equation. This article is a replication of a previous study. This study uses 1-5 Likert scales while the previous used 1-7 Likert scales, while all the questions/statements stayed the same. The difference is that both measures (not only the first measure) of trust were significantly influenced by agreeableness, while neuroticism had a borderline significant impact on the first, not the second measure of trust.

Potential of open data in the Czech Republic

The paper Potential of open data in the Czech Republic deals with the current situation of open data government and autonomous institutions in the Czech Republic in comparison with other European Union countries (Great Britain, France, Belgium, Austria, Estonia, ...) and defines the possibilities of open data economic development of the Czech Republic. Methodology of the paper includes a search resources dealing with the issue of open data in the Czech Republic and the European Union, comparing the obtained data, the analysis of obtained data and draft of recommendations for further development. The first part is an evaluation of the current situation and the situation compared with other EU countries. Further conditions for further development and evaluation of the potential of open data for the Czech Republic. The final section of the paper deals with evaluation of possibilities open application data management processes of companies in the Czech Republic in terms of strategic and innovation management. The result is an overview of the potential use of open data in the context of economic development and an estimate of the trend in applications open at the government level.

THE SOCIOECONOMIC CONSEQUENCES OF INDUSTRIAL DEVELOPMENT

Current rapid structural changes in economy have huge consequences for the socioeconomic environment as a whole. The article analyses these changes at macroeconomic level and their relationship to industry, employment, social systems behaviour and performance of businesses connected with human capital development, but also to the (microeconomic) position of individual subjects. The solutions that are rooted in the acquisition, maintaining and utilizing of human capital will be discussed. We will discuss new incentives for social investment and providing productive services, identify barriers of economic growth in current socioeconomic system and show selected obstacles that prevent productive utilization of human capital. Although these issues are controversial by nature, have deep systemic causes and they cannot be resolved immediately or by simple measures, we take a scientific effort to search for opportunities that support adaptive processes, utilize the human potential that is available and can be improved further when decreasing our dependency on material conditions of existence.

DOES QUALITY OF BUSINESS ENVIRONMENT INFLUENCE FOREIGN DIRECT INVESTMENT INFLOWS? A CASE OF CENTRAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.

This paper investigates the effect of selected business environment indicators on FDI inflows in case of Visegrad countries for the period of 2005-2015. Based on correlation and regression analysis, it is concluded that the business environment matters significantly for FDI inflows, however the direction and strength of dependence differs according to analysed factors. On one hand we found that the better global competitiveness of the country the higher volume of inward FDI the country receives. On the other hand, economically more free country, which is more globalized, with better rating does not attract more FDI inflows, but rather the opposite. As expected, corruption of country is discouraging foreign investors from investing in Visegrad countries.

Selected Characteristics of Business Environment in Visegrad Region

Business environment is considered to be an important factor that affects the competitiveness of the country or region. The assessment of business environment is subject to analysis realized by many national as well as internationally accepted institutions, whose outputs have usually form of composite indices reflecting the quality of the business environment. The aim of the article is to investigate the relationship between different indices of the quality of business environment on one side and selected macroeconomic indicators and country's credit rating on the other side. The analysis concentrates on the countries of Visegrad four region (V4) – Slovakia, Czech Republic, Hungary and Poland. The following indices are analyzed: Ease of Doing Business created by the World Bank Group , Global Competitiveness Index, Index of Economic Freedom, rating from The World Competitiveness Yearbook and Fragile State Index. We use the real gross domestic product, unemployment rate and inflation rate as the macroeconomic indicators and the results of the country's credit rating evaluated by Moody's, Standard & Poor's and Fitch Ratings. The analysis is based on the country level data for the 2005 – 2014 period derived from the official statistical reports of World Bank, World Economic Forum, Institute for Management Development, The Heritage Foundation, Fund for Peace and Eurostat. The analysis is performed through correlation analysis using Pearson as well as Spearman correlation coefficients. The results of our analysis indicate that relationship between different indices of the quality of business environment and selected macroeconomic indicators or country's credit rating is country specific.

Hierarchy of Eustress and Distress: Rasch Calibration of the Valencia Eustress-Distress Appraisal Scale

The purpose of the study was to uncover the hierarchy of eustress and distress appraisal and calibrate the Valencia Eustress Distress Appraisal Scale (VEDAS, Rodríguez, Kozusznik, & Peiró, 2013) using the Rasch Analysis (RA). A cross-sectional study was conducted on sample of 603 Spanish social service professionals. The VEDAS included four subscales addressing work demands that can be appraised as sources of eustress and distress. RA was carried out for eustress and distress appraisal scales. A graduation of stressful situations appraised as distress and/or as eustress was revealed. One of the greatest sources of distress and one of the lesser sources of eustress was “switching off at home”. Situations involving personal accountability were considered both most severe sources of distress and the most important source of eustress. Work-life interactions involving other persons outside work were considered least severe sources of distress and least important sources of eustress. The results empirically support previous theoretical considerations of the coexistence of eustress and distress appraisals of the same demands applying advances in measurement. Implications of the calibration of stress appraisal for theory and organizational practice as well as the benefits of applying RA in occupational psychology research are discussed.

The elimination of selected barriers in the decision making process

The article presents the partial conclusions of the research Solving Unstructured Decision-Making Problems in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. The research was conducted in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic in the form of a questionnaire survey and semi-structured interviews. The respondents were employees of the ministry working at all managerial levels. The subject of research was the issue of effective problem-solving in the Ministry of Defence. The aim of this article is to identify the key barriers to effective decision- making and to propose general principles to eliminate these barriers.