Vesna Čančer and Simona Šarotar Žižek
This paper aims to develop a multiple-criteria model for the assessment of human resource management (HRM), focusing on groups of organizations with respect to industry.
Abstract
Purpose
This paper aims to develop a multiple-criteria model for the assessment of human resource management (HRM), focusing on groups of organizations with respect to industry.
Design/methodology/approach
The approach presented in this paper follows the framework procedure for multiple-criteria decision-making based on the Quantified Dialectical Systems Theory. It considers the factor analysis results in structuring the problem. By considering several experts’ judgments already when measuring the importance of criteria, it enables respondents to omit those sets of criteria for which they are neither experts nor responsible.
Findings
The paper shows that the factor analysis results can also be used in structuring the multi-dimensional concept in multiple-criteria model for assessing HRM – a step forward to multi-methodology. The obtained aggregate values show human resource managers the key success and failure factors to adopt an integrated/requisitely holistic and innovated strategy related to HRM in organizations.
Research limitations/implications
The approach presented in this paper helps managers in developing and implementing a requisitely holistic model of HRM, adapted to several groups of organizations, such as with respect to their industry, in any country.
Practical implications
This paper provides recommendations for HRM in organizations.
Originality/value
This paper fills the gap in the research on multiple-criteria HRM assessment in organizations with respect to their industry by developing a multiple-criteria model for the assessment of HRM in groups of organizations, with application based on their industries.
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The main aim of the paper is to establish the effects of appropriately organized work as well as the effects of the employees' concerns related to work during the COVID-19…
Abstract
Purpose
The main aim of the paper is to establish the effects of appropriately organized work as well as the effects of the employees' concerns related to work during the COVID-19 pandemic on work efficiency and work satisfaction among employees working from home during this period. The empirical research includes 619 employees in Slovenia, who participated in the survey during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Design/methodology/approach
Structural equation modeling was used in exploring the effects between constructs.
Findings
Based on the results, the authors found that appropriately organized work during the COVID-19 pandemic has a positive effect not only on the work efficiency of employees who work from home during the COVID-19 pandemic in Slovenia but also on their work satisfaction. Also, based on the results, the authors found that the employees' concerns related to work during the COVID-19 pandemic have a negative effect on the work efficiency and on the work satisfaction of employees who work from home during this period in Slovenia.
Originality/value
The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically changed the way we live and work; therefore, this paper contributes to the creation of new working conditions and employee management during and also after the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Maja Rožman, Sonja Treven, Matjaž Mulej and Vesna Čančer
The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of a healthy working environment and approaches to establish a healthy working environment of older employees and their…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the importance of a healthy working environment and approaches to establish a healthy working environment of older employees and their impact on work engagement of older employees. The working environment that is not suitable and adapted for older employees presents a big challenge for Slovenian and other companies in which the work force is getting older. Hence, this paper develops a model of a healthy working environment for older employees, in which they could feel well because of its positive affect on their health.
Design/methodology/approach
The research method in this paper was the descriptive-correlative type. After a systematic review of literature, which relates to this topic, the authors used the compilation method. In addition to descriptive statistics, factor analysis and regression analysis were used in this paper.
Findings
Considering the demographic changes and active ageing in the workplace, age diversity of employees has to become a part of the general strategy of a company to ensure equality and diversity. Adequate working conditions, which should exist in every company, contribute to the improvement of healthy working environment for older employees and their work-engagement. This paper presents that approaches to establish a healthy working environment of older employees have a positive impact on work-engagement of older employees.
Practical implications
The stated findings will help companies to better understand and manage their older employees and the importance of establishing a healthy working environment for older employees with which the work-engagement of older employees can be improved. Socially responsible behavior benefits all in this way, too.
Originality/value
This paper is based on forming a research model for creating a healthy working environment for older employees as a part of social responsibility. The main objective of this paper is to examine the impact of establishment of a healthy working environment for older employees on the work engagement of older employees in Slovenia.
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The purpose of this paper is to present the adapted model per phases of the creative problem solving (CPS) process, where multi‐criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are used in…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present the adapted model per phases of the creative problem solving (CPS) process, where multi‐criteria decision making (MCDM) methods are used in the decision‐making phase. Also, to adapt and complete the steps of the six‐question technique, in order to establish the criteria's importance.
Design/methodology/approach
The framework procedure of MCDM, together with the Dialectical Systems Theory's guidelines when solving complex problems has already been introduced. The procedure was well‐verified in practice, but lacked the support of creative qualitative techniques in defining problems, and in generating and choosing alternatives. To eliminate this deficiency, in terms of prescriptive approach, the authors adapted the phases of the CPS process, where MCDM methods are used when choosing alternatives, and completed the steps of the six‐question technique to establish the criteria weights. The discrete Choquet integral was used to consider interactions among criteria.
Findings
The article shows that creative approaches are not limited to merely problem definitions and problem structuring. They can also be used in typically analytical steps in the framework procedure.
Research limitations/implications
The completed and adapted phases of the CPS process can allow the mutual assistance of creative and decision‐making methods when solving problems – a step forward to holism.
Practical implications
This article develops and introduces the use of the six‐question technique, in the establishment of criteria weights.
Originality/value
The innovative aspect of this article is that it adapts and completes the CPS process so that MCDM methods can be used when choosing alternatives. It extends the use of creative approaches to typically analytical steps of MCDM, where synergies and redundancies among criteria are considered.
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To complete the general multi‐criteria decision‐analysis process and extend it to the process of requisitely holistic generating ideas and developing them into innovations. Also…
Abstract
Purpose
To complete the general multi‐criteria decision‐analysis process and extend it to the process of requisitely holistic generating ideas and developing them into innovations. Also, in terms of dialectical systems thinking, to recommend the use of individual and group methods and software supporting this process.
Design/methodology/approach
In 1974, Mulej invented and introduced the “Dialectical System” concept (DS), and in 1998 Mulej and Kajzer fortified DS with “the Law of Requisite Holism.” The concept was well‐verified in practice, but lacked the support of quantitative versions of systems thinking. In this paper, we eliminate that deficiency: we complete and extend Belton and Stewart's general multi‐criteria decision‐analysis process to a process of generating ideas and developing them into innovations.
Findings
Methods and software supportive of creativity can help generate ideas. Multi‐criteria decision‐making (MCDM) methods can be used to complement intuition, verify ideas, and support their development into innovations. The point is in reaching the requisite holism with only a requisite effort by applied systems thinking and innovation.
Research limitations/implications
Quantitative methods are considered necessary and helpful, but are not sufficient conditions for innovations or for holism.
Practical implications
This paper demonstrates that the modern operations research methods can help strengthen innovation and holistic thinking capacity much more than traditional ones.
Originality/value
The innovative aspect of this paper is that it extends a general multiple criteria decision‐analysis process to the process of generating ideas and developing them into innovations. It combines the Dialectical Systems Theory and the MCDM methods, which provides an interesting new synergy.
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Magnus Ramage, Chris Bissell and David Chapman
The purpose of this paper is to present a vision for the future development of Kybernetes under a new editorship.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to present a vision for the future development of Kybernetes under a new editorship.
Design/methodology/approach
The new Editors are introduced, the strengths and history of the journal reviewed, and plans for its future development described.
Findings
The future of Kybernetes will build on its long and distinguished heritage, noting especially the strengths of interdisplinarity, internationality, and strong links with major cybernetic societies across the world. While maintaining these strengths, the new Editors will seek to develop further the conversations between diverse fields contributing to the journal and to bring a new emphasis to the interdisciplinary study of information, to studies of the social implications of cybernetics and related fields, and to profiles of thinkers in cybernetics, systems and management science.
Originality/value
This is only the second time that there has been a change of editor in the more than 40 years that Kybernetes has been published. The journal (and the whole field of cybernetics and systems) owes the past editors a great debt of thanks for their outstanding work, but the time has come for change. This paper starts to identify new directions under the new Editors.
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Dejana Zlatanović and Matjaž Mulej
Respecting the growing importance of interdependence of knowledge, values and social responsibility, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of knowledge-cum-values…
Abstract
Purpose
Respecting the growing importance of interdependence of knowledge, values and social responsibility, the purpose of this paper is to introduce the concept of knowledge-cum-values management and to show how some soft systems approaches can support interdependence of knowledge and human values resulting in socially responsible innovative behavior, hence in success.
Design/methodology/approach
The selected soft systems approaches are used to double-check the usefulness of the requisitely holistic approach to knowledge-cum-values management and innovation. The applied methodology for qualitative analysis is the Dialectical Systems Theory.
Findings
One-sidedness, unlike the requisite holism, causes oversights and hence disables innovations as a new users’ benefit. Requisitely holistic knowledge-cum-values management prevents one-sidedness and therefore many oversights; hence it is a valuable driver of innovation. It is supported by social responsibility (exposing the systemic behavior by suggesting interdependence and holistic approach to one’s responsibility for one’s influences on society). By including values and by enabling consideration of interdependence of human values and knowledge, some soft systems approaches support innovative behavior with social responsibility.
Research limitations/implications
Research is limited to theoretical findings resulting from authors’ previous empirical studies. The novel concept “knowledge-cum-values” erases the human dangerous one-sidedness resulting from the irrational rationalistic division of the two. Social responsibility supports informal use of some soft systems theories and diminishes this danger.
Practical implications
The practical application of the selected soft systems approaches and social responsibility offers great possibilities for managers to improve the holism of their innovation processes, driven by knowledge-cum-values management. Fewer oversights are possible and lead to fewer mistakes and more success in the invention-innovation-diffusion processes. No human is rational or emotional only, either as a creator or as a consumer, but this fact is disregarded in the management literature.
Social implications
Social responsibility shall be considered as an important novel soft-system approach and part of organizational innovative behavior aimed to replace the one-sided approaches prevailing so far and causing crises: the overseen attributes do not cease, but they still impact life and are out of control.
Originality/value
The contribution introduces the new, still insufficiently researched concept of knowledge-cum-values management; it highlights new ways of attaining the requisitely holistic knowledge-cum-values management that enhances enterprise’s innovation capacity by requisite holism, supported by social responsibility.
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Mitja Kovac and Ann-Sophie Vandenberghe
This chapter provides comments and suggestions to the lawmaker, and especially to economic policy-makers in the field of the optimal regulatory framework and implementation of…
Abstract
This chapter provides comments and suggestions to the lawmaker, and especially to economic policy-makers in the field of the optimal regulatory framework and implementation of sustainable practices. The main findings are as follows: (1) degradation of the rule of law in several European Union (EU) Member States and constant political undermining of the legal institutions represent the main threat for the implementation of sustainable practices and development; (2) the golden regulatory rule of thumb provides that regulatory intervention is suggested merely in cases of market failures under the condition that the costs of such intervention do not exceed the benefits; (3) over-regulation might impede implementation of sustainable practices, distort the operation of the market, undermine productivity, diminish growth and social wealth and consequently also sustainability; (4) efficiency and wealth maximization should be the lawmaker’s leading normative principle in designing the legal framework that will enable effective implementation of sustainable practices; (5) the efficient level of harmonization or subsidiarity of decision-making in the EU urges for a rigorous investigation of costs and benefits of the EU top-down harmonization policies which should lead to a better, efficient vertical allocation of sustainability agenda between EU and the Member States; and (6) The Reflection Paper on Sustainable Development Goals – “Towards a Sustainable Europe in 2030” – represents an effective institutional framework in pursue of the overall sustainability targets.
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Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects…
Abstract
Examines the fourteenth published year of the ITCRR. Runs the whole gamut of textile innovation, research and testing, some of which investigates hitherto untouched aspects. Subjects discussed include cotton fabric processing, asbestos substitutes, textile adjuncts to cardiovascular surgery, wet textile processes, hand evaluation, nanotechnology, thermoplastic composites, robotic ironing, protective clothing (agricultural and industrial), ecological aspects of fibre properties – to name but a few! There would appear to be no limit to the future potential for textile applications.
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The purpose of this paper was to determine and compare nutritional composition of different parts of citrus fruits, namely, Citrus aurantium (peel: albedo, flavedo and pulp…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper was to determine and compare nutritional composition of different parts of citrus fruits, namely, Citrus aurantium (peel: albedo, flavedo and pulp: juice, pomace) . This study was conducted through three stages of fruit maturity (green, yellow and orange). Total polyphenols, flavonoids, β-carotene, total chlorophyll, ascorbic acid, acidity, total soluble solid and the minerals (Ca, Mg, Zn, Na, K, Fe, Mn Cu) were evaluated. Moreover, the relationship between the total polyphenol, flavonoids and the antioxidant activity was determined.
Design/methodology/approach
Total polyphenols were determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Flavonoids were assessed by the aluminum chloride colorimetric method. Ca, Mg, Zn, Fe, Mn and Cu were measured using an atomic absorption spectrophotometer. K and Na contents were determined by using a flame photometer. Other nutritional composition was determined by volumetric method.
Findings
The result showed that the concentrations of antioxidants, total polyphenols, flavonoids, vitamin C, total chlorophyll, total acidity and antioxidant activity (DPPH%) decreased during the maturity of fruit while the value of pH and β-carotene increases. In addition, the concentrations of the most minerals decreased through the maturation of fruit except Na. Anova statistical analysis of all the studied chemical variables was shown significant differences between all the samples. The pH, total soluble solids, β-caroteniod: orange juice had the highest average while green juice had the lowest. Ascorbic acid, total acidity, total chlorophyll: green juice had the highest average while orange juice has the lowest. Total phenol, K, Mg, Fe, Cu, Mn: green flavedo had the highest average while orange juice had the lowest. Flavonoid, antioxidant activity (DPPH%), Ca, Zn: green albedo had the highest average while orange juice had the lowest. Na: orange flavedo had the highest average while green juice had the lowest. The correlations between total polyphenol, flavonoid and antioxidant capacity were significantly higher (R = 0.935 and 0.960, respectively).
Originality/value
The stage of maturity affects nutritional composition in Citrus aurantium fruits (C. aurantium) peel and pulp, where some minerals of composition increased and others decreased, according to the results. This is the first study on comparing the nutritional composition of pulp: juice, pomace and peel: albedo, flavedo of Citrus aurantium L. during maturity in Syria, and it was also not found in previous works.