Digital Administration and Approval of Home Office Work Rules

The article discusses issues related to digital administration and the adoption of rules for working in a home office. Following the announcement of the COVID-19 pandemic worldwide, the issue of working in a home office has become increasingly important. This issue in the Republic of Bulgaria was regulated in 2011 in the Labor Code. It turns out that at the moment the regulations for working remotely in a home office are outdated and inapplicable in today’s dynamic times of development and globalization. In order to compensate for this gap in the legislation and to meet modern requirements, it is necessary for the heads of each digital administration to approve rules for work in the home office, which will specify and fill the missing niches in the legislation, to the current moment, until the implementation of the legislative change.

Female Entrepreneurship: Basic Characteristics, Equality, Support

The publication examines the main aspects of female entrepreneurship in Bulgaria. Key issues on the entrepreneurial profile of women starting and running their own business, as well as gender equality in this field are explored. The strengths and the need for specific support for women who create and develop entrepreneurial activities are discussed. In total, 178 women entrepreneurs with different education and age have been surveyed. Their companies also differ in size and activity. Bulgarian women entrepreneurs are mainly with higher education – economic or technical. About half of their companies have been established before 2008, operating mainly in services and trade. According to the results of the study, women believe that they have equal chances with men for success in starting and developing a business. The support they prefer mainly includes providing access to financial resources, promoting successful examples of women entrepreneurs and entrepreneurship training. Their most powerful weapons in business include: communication, intuition, adaptability.

Role and Applicability of the Constructs “Readiness for Change” and “Capacity for Change”

Readiness for change is amongst the major factors influencing the success of change initiatives in organizations. The construct is multifaceted and usually refers to the commitment (of employees) and belief (shared by the group, organization) in their collective capability to implement a specific change initiative. Applying the dynamic capabilities and organizational ambidexterity lens, some researchers suggest a different construct – organizational capacity for change. The capacity for change refers to the successful implementation of multiple, often overlapping change initiatives, and thus allows organizations to simultaneously achieve short-term, operational tasks and long-term, strategic goals. The capacity for change describes the appropriate organizational context, leadership, organizational learning and takes into account previous experience with changes and the extent to which these are considered fair and personally beneficial by employees. Readiness and capacity for change are not always clearly distinguishable and, in some cases, appear as interchangeable terms denoting similar phenomena. This conceptual article explores the two constructs based on a theoretical study of conceptual and empirical studies. The research conclusions support the proposition that the two constructs share similarities but also differences, which justify their distinct roles in deepening our understanding of change in organizations and how to manage and successfully implement it.

Evolution in Public Governance Models: From Administrative Management to the Hybrid and Normative Concept of Good Governance (Part II)

Bulgaria adopts the principles of good governance along with its EU membership. That occurred with harmonization of public policies. The study makes a review on the application of the following principles of good governance: sustainability and long-term orientation in development, effectiveness and efficiency, accountability and transparency and the adoption of these principles at local level. The general evaluation: Bulgaria follows and applies in great extent the principles of good governance, but in the reality, there are numerous deviations, delays and negligence, which lead to their partial implementation. The country needs more political commitment, regulatory changes and institutional efforts to reach better levels of good governance.

Selected Warehousing Practices in Bulgarian Trade and Manufacturing Enterprises

Warehousing is an essential logistics activity that has a particularly strong impact on the movement of material flows in the supply chain. That is why in modern business concepts warehouses are an important part of efficient logistics systems. Warehousing management is a complex problem that requires economics and technical knowledge. Based on this, a number of related specifics for the management of these systems could be found in theory and practice. The article presents the results of a survey focused on Bulgarian trade and manufacturing enterprises and reveals some of the warehousing management practices. The scope of the study does not include logistics service providers. Several problems that have an important role in warehousing management are considered as an article focus, such as the characteristics of material flows, main challenges for warehousing systems, degree of integration of warehousing processes, application of quality management and controlling practices, human resources management, sustainable storage practices and usage of information systems and technologies in warehousing. Based on the research data, several conclusions are defined about the practices in warehousing in Bulgaria.

Vulnerability and Risks of Undeclared Work through the Eyes of Employees from Bulgarian Economy

The article presents recent empirical data from a national representative survey amongst Bulgarian employees, conducted within the framework of a project implementation by BICA studying undeclared work and the risks of its occurrence in enterprises. The study focuses on establishing, explaining and analyzing the relationships between the nature of employment and its duration and the propensity of undeclared work emergence, taking into account the growing spread of atypical forms of employment coupled with accelerated digitalization. The risks of inclusion in undeclared work practices of different categories of people, according to their basic characteristics, such as educational status, qualification and professional and specific experience in employment, have also been studied. The article presents new empirical data, which is valuable for allowing, based on their analysis, the formulation of relevant policies and measures for reducing and preventing undeclared work.

Vaccines against COVID-19 through the Eyes of Bulgarian Citizens

The main purpose of the article is to reveal the attitude and behavior of Bulgarian citizens to vaccines and vaccination against COVID-19. To achieve this goal, answers are given to the following questions: 1. What is the state of morbidity of COVID-19 in our country? 2. How are vaccines perceived – reasons “for” and “against”? 3. What is happening with the process of vaccination and what lies ahead? Data from an author’s empirical study “Attitudes of Bulgarian citizens to vaccines and vaccination against COVID-19”, conducted in 2021, have been used.

Research on the Status and Development of Administrative Services in Local Administration in Bulgaria

The article presents some of the results of a study of the state of administrative services in local administration in Bulgaria. The research is conducted within the framework of research contract № NID NI-2/2019 of UNWE on the topic: Integrated model for administrative services at the local executive administration. The research is of a practical and applied nature and covers the two programming periods of Bulgaria’s membership in the European Union. The results of two independent studies are presented: a study of implemented municipal projects for improvement of administrative services; a survey for establishment of the current state of administrative services at local level. The main problems and challenges for the administrative service in the municipal administration are summarized.

Turnover of Civil Servants in the Executive Power Administration

Based on an actual and objective observation of the processes in Bulgarian administrations, it is possible to summarize the assumption that the relatively high number of civil servants leaving the executive power administration and the relatively short period of time they work in, are due to several factors: In the first place, a lack of substantial and clear perspective of professional development and career path planning for each civil servant. Second, the relatively poor atmosphere (micro-climate) in several divisions and departments in the administration. Third, the lack of sense of belonging / esprit de corps (strong organizational culture) to the government’s executive power administrations. It is not prestigious to work for the administration. Fourth, the work overload of certain civil servants compensating for others. This in turn increases the risks of errors and mistakes by the former. The relatively lower salaries in comparison to the private sector are only in fifth place.

Evolution in Public Governance Models: From Administrative Management to the Hybrid and Normative Concept of Good Governance (Part I)

The administrative-bureaucratic system developed by M. Weber dominated for many years in public governance. Serious criticisms of its inefficiency led to the emergence of an alternative concept called new public management in the 1980s. The new model introduced market-oriented solutions, as well as corporate management tools and approaches such as strategic and business planning. As a result, the new public management increased the efficiency of public governance. However, it created public discontent due to ignoring the criteria of social justice. With globalization and technological change, new views and paradigms emerged, which have been derived from the practices of many countries and crystalize in the concept of good governance. It is a hybrid concept because new socially significant principles such as openness, transparency and digital communication have been added to accepted principles like rule of law, efficiency and effectiveness. It is also a normative concept because the principles are treated as guiding rules, which countries have to follow in their public governance.