Suchergebnisse

This article gives the overview of the implementation of strategic planning system in Lithuania and identifiesthe problems that were posed while implementing the mentioned system.The reforms were practically implemented in 2000 when the Strategic Planning Manual was adopted by theGovernment of Lithuania. The Manual provides instructions for the preparation of strategic plans. In 2000 for thefirst time ministries' and Government agencies' strategic plans were prepared following the budget formation cyclefor the year 2001. Following the Manual the ministries and Government agencies pointed out expected results theywanted to achieve. In this way the activity transformed from process oriented into result oriented. Monitoring andreporting is a fundamental part of a good planning process and in 2002 for the first time ministries and Governmentagencies have reported on the results achieved against their planning targets.This article also includes analysis of experience as well as suggestions for future improvement. Progress isrequired at two levels: first, the political level (the Prime Minister and Ministers) needs to be more actively involvedin the deliberations on priority setting. Second, the administrative level needs to improve decision–making process.

The recently published Journal de l'Occupation (1995), written by Jean Giono from September 1943 to September 1944, allows a privileged view of the French author who was subsequently blacklisted for collaboration. Contemporary critics generally consider Giono guilty of literary collaboration. In this article, I inquire into the legitimacy of these claims through a close reading of his occupation diary and other publications of the occupation period. In the end, I reject this commonly held notion in favour of the portrait that the diary provides: that of a disillusioned French author and French citizen, who is unwilling to take sides in the civil conflict beyond his local allegiances, and thus refuses to submit his vision to an overarching political project. Moreover, his total belief in an individual's freedom of conscience makes him subversive in his refusal to submit to one doctrine or another.

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This article argues that Michel Houellebecq is an écrivain médiatique, and it examines how and why he engages in an authorial strategy that relies on more than the text and presents the author as a visible, multimedia, and culturally relevant figure. From an epistemological need to reassess authorship in the digital age, this article defines media authorship before analysing Houellebecq through a critical framework including Meizoz's concept of posturing (2007), Saint-Gelais's transmediality (2011) and Angenot's social discourse (1989). It addresses how Houellebecq attempts to situate and justify his media-focused and author-centric strategy, showing how this reflects the challenges of the cultural domination of mass media and new technologies of the digital age, and indicates that the autonomy of the literary field is diminishing. This article shows how a superficially transgressive engagement with the media and multimedia in fact reflects consent to the dynamics of the contemporary socio-cultural context.

In today's world, growing cultural integration has a direct impact on the development of tourism, which is important from the economic as well as the social, political or ecological perspective. Given the rapid expansion of tourism on the global market and the ever-increasing competitiveness of the tourism sector, it is important to assess the state of the tourism sector in Lithuania and determine the potential for its development. The results of the qualitative research have demonstrated that the policy options that could allow for the smooth development of Lithuanian tourism have eluded clear identification owing to the less than appropriate regulation of this area and the absence of effective tourism management. It has been discovered that the legal framework so far remains underdeveloped. In addition, when it comes to tourism policy management, the relevant functions tend to not be performed properly. Moreover, there is a lack of cooperation among the institutions responsible for tourism coordination or otherwise indirectly connected to the area, whereas cooperation between the local and the national level is minimal. This shows that a number of areas may require improvement in order for the country's tourism development policy to become more effective. However, if the country manages to perform a targeted elimination of the problematic areas and makes proper use of its strengths and existing potential in the tourism sector, such as the favorable geographical location, a well-developed sector of tourism-related services, rich recreational resources, or an attractive ratio between the quality and price of tourism products, the effective development of tourism in Lithuania will become possible in the long term.

The healthcare system forms premises to carry out citizen's health protection, provide health care services to the customer – the patient. The health system, its financing, structure, the peculiarity of interaction between its elements are defined by the health protection policy carried out by the country, which is determined by the countries regime, traditions, moral values, economical, political, demographical and other factors. The health protection policy forms strategic aims and the priority directions of action in the questions of health protection. Many of the economic and management law are applicable in the health protection sector. The growth of the healthcare market of European Union is caused by the technical medicine progress, the more diverse choice of healthcare services, the expectations of patients, and the development of information and communication technologies. Acquired pharmaceutical and medicine technology innovations allow offering patients a large variety of choices to improve health. Although, health protection is one of the sectors, where specific distortions arise because of the market, so government participation and resource distribution is necessary. Discussions arise both in the society and different institutions, about the range of government intervention that will bring the optimal benefit, how to not create preconditions for unnaturally high demand for medical treatment services and medicaments, still guaranteeing free health protection. This way, during the formation of the health protection policy the choice between innovations and economic growth promotion, expenses control and cost reduction, searching for the benefit and effectiveness ratio. Also, the democratic society principles and the mutual respect between the services provider and consumer should be implemented in the health protection domain. Judging from the above regulations, we can assume that the question of health insurance is one of the most important health protection policy questions in the European Union.The ...

The article discusses questions of growing need of cross-cultural management and ethics in business. Globalization and migration are the main causes of growing number of multicultural enterprises. Globalization is affecting the environment in which managers must function. Fast developments of technologies, growing competition, networks of enterprises are consequences of globalization. Multicultural business environment conditions different problems. Different aspects of culture are affected by technological and economic change. Effective solutions are needed for enterprises. Cross-cultural management and ethics helps to make preventive actions and solve the existing problems. Global managers are concerned with legal and political characteristics of countries, which are derived from their history and culture. The main task of cross-cultural management and ethics in business is to propose effective and mostly adapted to situations decisions of problems. There are different cross-cultural problems such as standards, practice, laws, ethics, culture, customs, management system, and socioeconomic system. Managers of multicultural enterprises use different techniques useful to their situation. International managers face a variety of decisions every day. Resources must be allocated, employees selected, and the attractiveness of joint venture partners evaluated. All must be done in a highly complex international environment. Work in virtual teams, difference in time zones, understanding and values in different cultures makes difficulties for managers. Appropriate solutions of cross-cultural problems may be effective knowledge management, effective management of human resources, virtual teams, and bicultural skills. Especially is important effective work with human resources in the enterprises. Positive view to different attitudes and values help prevent problematic situations and possible conflicts. Here helps organizational culture also. As empirical research results show the most important cross-cultural barriers are ...

The article examines public participation and mechanisms of citizens'involvement in the governance of the electrical energy sector. Three aspects of publicengagement are analysed: 1) the participants of this process; 2) the level ofengagement; 3) the phase of the governance process during which the public isinvolved. To provide a comprehensive review of the main characteristics of thegovernance of the Lithuanian electrical energy sector, a semi-structured interview ofexperts was carried out. Institutions that formulate and implement governancepolicies are reviewed, the possibilities of public participation and the potential toolsof engagement are analysed. Finally, the mechanisms that create proper conditionsfor citizens' involvement in the governance of the electrical energy sector (asconsumers and active electricity sector participants) are discussed.

The basic idea of the article is that in the era of information society development notonly the functions of the state in information sphere change, but also there are newopportunities and threats. To understand how information functions of the state change,the concept and features of an information society are considered, positive and negativeconsequences of information society are defined. As a result of this consideration theconclusion on new opportunities and threats for the state and the government is made. "Egovernment"is considered as a new opportunity, which allows essentially raising thequality of state services, and as a new threat – distribution of virtual communities capableunder certain conditions to harm to the state and society.

Lisbon strategy of the European Union (EU) and the respective goal for sustainable EU development provides for economically and socially agreed and equal support for the entire society, including everyone individually in the economic, political and social processes through consolidating, integrating and developing the society as well as it is possible. The labour market of Latvia has changed fast over the last five years and the employment opportunities have increased. Statistics over this period prove that the unemployment level has reduced and the employment has increased. In recent months Latvia and other countries have been experiencing changes in the economic life. Statistical data in the labour market over the previous quarter prove it. In contrast to the above described, the unemployment level has started to grow but the employment - to reduce. There is a general understanding in the country that labour costs should be reduced. That means not only lowering salaries but also lowering other labour costs. The employers try to reduce labour costs by using part-time employment, split employment or distance employment, e.g. costs related to arranging an office.In general, when considering employment problems in the country, in their research the authors single out a risk group – people after the maternity leave. Taking into account the current complicated economic conditions, this risk group should be specially protected. When analyzing employee motivation, it can be concluded that salary increase is not always a motivator for this risk group. When analyzing the labour market research, it can be concluded that one of the motivation factors is social guarantees and flexible work hours, especially for that risk group that returns to the labour market after the maternity leave.The unemployment situation, which has especially intensified recently in the country, attests to the employment problems. Therefore in their research the authors study one of the potential factors promoting the labour market for people after the ...

Aiming to identify the trends of county and regional governance transformation after the Parliamentaryelections of 2008, the article analyses the guidelines of the following documents: the election programmesof different political parties, the agreement of the ruling coalition, and the Government Programme. Thediscussion regarding the future of the counties is finalized in the Government Programme, which statesthat counties have to be dissolved. It is stated that the Government speaks up for the assignment of thecounty functions to municipalities; it is planned to give self-government rights to regions; institutions ofthe regions should be formed on the principle of delegation. A two tier territorial self-government systemshould be formed in Lithuania. The article shows that a detailed plan of implementation of the county andregional governance reform does not yet exist.

Under the conditions of globalisation countries can not function sequestered and be unaffected by the various processes in the world. The global crisis made the remarkable impact on the countries' economic and social spheres. The situation in European Union (EU) countries' labour markets became unstable. Under the pressure of global economic recession in all EU erected one of the biggest social and economic problems – unemployment, which is understood as misbalance of demand and supply of labour force. Increase of unemployment is entailed by many social, demographic, psychological problems.During last year unemployment rate in EU countries inceased very significant. According to the International Labour Organization (ILO) developed economies and the European Union saw the largest increase in the regional unemployment rate – about 3.5 million people lost their jobs in this region this year. For this reason this period is called "Global Job Crisis".From 2002 years Lithuanian economy has grown faster than in any period and there were seen positive development trends - GDP was rising, investments were growing up. Furthermore the labour market in Lithuania has in the recent past been characterised also by positive changes - the unemployment was falling, wages were growing up. Fast developing market was causing specific requirements for the human resources, especially for the universities' graduates. Furthermore, the business sector forms new and specific requirements for the human resources. At that time in politicians' and scientists' discussions the main problem was how to solve the lack of labour force which is the main brake for the development of country's economy. The shortage of qualified labour force was felt especially in the sectors which need highly qualified employees. In the end of 2008 the economic recession affected Lithuanian labour market. The companies started to respond to the challenges which were rising under the influence of economic downturn. Some of the companies were looking for the possible ways ...