Suchergebnisse

The aim of the paper is to compare civil servants' motivation in countries having different civil servicemodel. The article starts with a short introduction of factors motivating civil servants. Later on differences betweencareer-based and post models are explored, paying special attention towards motivational factors. Datafrom civil servant's motivational survey conducted in Lithuania 2007 allows the comparison with data formother countries. Comparative analysis proves that civil servants despite different level of economical developmentand civil service model are motivated and demotivated by rather similar factors. Among the motivatorsare salary, job security and social guarantees. Too much rules and regulations, bad leadership, political pressureshave a negative impact on their motivation.

Current models of human resource development (HRD) suggest that expectations about a line managerrole in HRD are changing as organizations are striving to make the HRD function leaner and morestrategic. In this context, line managers are increasingly held responsible and accountable for human resourcedevelopment. Thus, this paper investigates the themes and implications, concerning the role of theline managers in human resource development. It also seeks to explore current developmental roles of linemanagers in Lithuanian government institutions and to define and discuss the factors inhibiting theirgreater involvement in HRD. The results of the research have revealed that line managers in governmentinstitutions of Lithuania have not assumed the responsibility for HRD. It was confirmed that it is difficultto fulfill this role, either because of their work load or lack of skills and management tradition in this area.It has been also concluded that substantial investments in capacity development of the line managers andHRD specialists are needed to make sure that line managers and HRD specialists are capable of carryingout their new roles.

The purpose of the paper is to analyze and compare social guarantees for public servants in several Europeancountries. Three groups of countries had been chosen for the comparison: 1) Germany and Belgium as an example ofcareer model civil service, 2) United Kingdom and Denmark as a case illustrating post model, 3) Estonia and Lithuaniaas an example of new democracies. The comparison was based on three dimensions: the scope of social guarantees,the legal regulation and functions and place of those guarantees in general motivation system. Author concludesthat there is no universally accepted definition of social guaranties, but the analysis of states' legislation provides theframework for the clarification of the concept. Often social guarantees compound of certain social rights, variousholidays and leaves, medical insurance, a range of benefits, compensation and other supportive means for civilservants Different centralization / decentralization tendencies, some practises used in the private sector are observedin the above mentioned countries.

This article analyses the assumption for establishing senior civil service in Lithuania in the course ofreforms of civil service system directing much attention to the conceptualizations of senior civil service incontemporary strategic human resource management theory and research where the need for establishingsenior civil service is grounded by stressing the differentiated approach to human resources. A specialattention is paid to highly valued and unique human resources, capable of leading the institutions and thesector as a whole. The data of the empirical research indicate that the idea of establishment of the seniorcivil service in Lithuanian is accepted ambiguously within the system of civil service. The authors, notinghighly contextual nature of the issue, conclude that the decisions on the concrete design of senior civil servicein Lithuania should be based on consideration of noticeable tendencies of developments of senior civilservices in the democracies of the world.

This paper aims to answer the question "What does a concept of the e-Citizen consists of in Kaunas region and why?" Generally the concept of the e-Citizen is directly related to the vision of eEurope, i.e. with all to the development of eEurope directed actions, which are highly attended of European Union in recent years. Analyzing the e-Citizen's subject, it is essential to examine the issue of e-service, because the e-Citizen's vision is shaped by using e-service concept, which aims to involve every citizen, family, school, enterprise and administration in the digital era. The research problem includes e-Citizen's concept and the initiatives in Kaunas region, thus highlighting the interaction between dimensions of e-Services and e-Citizen, also both why those initiatives are required and what is an outlook in this range for Kaunas region.The main task is to answer the question concerning e-Citizen's concept by analyzing the e-Initiatives in Lithuania and Kaunas region. These e-Initiatives are underlying goals of eEurope and i2010. The aim of the research is to module the picture of Kaunas e-Citizen and show a value of mentioned initiatives for the inhabitants of Kaunas region by analyzing the implemented and continuing e-Region's projects.

One of the main characteristics of modern day economic activity is the increasing number of companies withemployees, producible goods and services provided that are constantly crossing national borders. The internationalizationof activity of organizations over the past 15 years is concurrent with the globalization of managementprocesses. Companies with fewer than 20 employees are becoming increasingly active in this process and theirinfluence on the economic and social results of nations are at a constant growth. In this respect, it can justifiably besaid that an organization's successful practice is mostly predicated by their managers' preparation to get involvedin the processes of the times, when one of the main aspects of their activity becomes the ability to involve humanresources in the changes that time has wrought and to effectively organize the activity of their employees. This is ofprime significance to Lithuanian organizations, because studies conducted in the field of human resources illustratethat most organization leaders have insufficient competence to involve their personnel in change while alsoactively integrating in the processes of current times themselves. Remarks made by European Union (EU) expertsthat Lithuania should pay more attention to investment to immaterial assets, remain relevant to this day.The first section of the article outlines the viewpoint of Lithuanian and foreign management professionals onmanagement theories and characteristics of practice in an environment of new challenges, and the portrait of amanager in the world of the present. K Adams (1996) notes that managers operating in an international environmenthave little to do with manager activity solely based on the national characteristics of their country. It isacknowledged in the article that globalization of management necessitates pursuit of reconciliation of internal andexternal environments and demands for constant changes within its organizations. Accordingly, managers have toinitiate change and pursue managing the ...

The impact of the European Union on Social Security is quite complex and enigmatic. At the starting point, there is a genuine paradox: whereas the construction of a large and unique market supposes, among many others prerequisites, the harmonization of social security systems, this harmonization is left to the good will of the member States since Social security is not truly within the competence of the Union. In these conditions, it is quite obvious that a thought and organized harmonization is absolutely unreachable. Beyond the threat of systems of social protection in the European Union contracting, the issue arises of their restructuring and alignment. Given the common challenges they all face (ageing populations, family instability, unemployment, social exclusion and job insecurity), the priority for the reform debate is the redefi nition of fundamental rights and the need to draw a distinction between conditional and universal rights.Through a brief review of EU social policy development and role in European integration theory, this article will argue that, despite its expansion, EU social policy lacks vital fi nancial and political muscle to signifi cantly affect national welfare regimes and create a European welfare state. Moreover, its broad guidelines and fl exible implementation may even encourage national social policy diversifi cation rather than harmonization.

Facing the worldwide economic recession, the public research and development (R&D) policy undergo the increasing pressure to economize and improve research performance levels in this way complying with public accountability. Thus the design of R&D policy has to integrate an appropriate set of research performance criteria together with the balanced choice of relevant indicators for the allocation of scarce funds for the very purpose of pursuing scientific advancement in the frames of international rivalry.During several last decades the discourse of the EU politicians expanded with the term of "research excellence", which became conceptual background for further EU R&D policy development. Often excellence in research is used as synonym of "research quality". Nevertheless, rivalry for the highest evaluation of research performance has not yet provided with a single and fixed definition of "research excellence". This paper aims to outline the content of excellence in research and, investigating the existing Lithuanian experience to measure it, discuss the R&D policy intervention impacts on the process and the results of pursuing high level research. The methods of research used are grounded on the investigation of Lithuanian legal acts, valid in the field of R&D and conditioning the performance of public R&D institutions. Two levels of policy intervention: institution and individual are taken into consideration. Also, in the light of research excellence measurement R&D output assessment methodology used by the Government as a basic institutional funding instrument is analyzed. The conclusions mark that due to the conditions of ambiguous definition of "research excellence" the need for the methods to recognize and identify excellence in research are vital. However, its pro-active state-level management practices should contain an umbrella of flexible, well-balanced and situation receptive procedures. Therewith, the research excellence encouragement instruments within the framework of the ...

The paper deals with the problems of tax harmonization and competition in the Eropean Union (EU). It is discussed from the tax theory point of view as well as from the view of the tax practice. Several attitudes to tax competition and tax harmonization are discussed, including the tax competition theories. The paper presents several successes which have been achieved in the area of direct tax harmonization and indirect tax harmonization. Harmonization failures are mentioned and discussed as well for they are the integral part of the harmonization process in the European Union.On New Year's Day 1993 a period of accelerated European integration has began. The physical border controls were eliminated and the last political obstacles to free migration of capital and labor were removed. The liberalization was expected to improve the allocation of resources significantly and to boost European economy. The removal of trade barriers was not free from problems. It may exacerbate existing distortions resulting from non-harmonized tax systems and even create new distortions. Capital flight into low tax countries and changes in patterns of international trade caused by different value added tax (VAT) rates are among the consequences that may occur. To avoid such consequences, fiscal harmonization must follow the fall of barriers. It was preferable to allocate Europe's scarce resources according to the principle of tax minimization. Tax harmonization does not necessarily require centrally coordinated actions by the European governments. The competition of tax systems might also be via process of iterative adjustment, bring about requires harmonization. The European Union (EU) also illustrates the role of tax competition. The barriers to free movement of capital and people were reduced close to nonexistence. Some countries (e.g. Republic of Ireland) utilized their low levels of corporate tax to attract large amounts of foreign investment while paying for the necessary infrastructure (roads, telecommunication) from EU funds. The ...

The aim of this paper is to analyze the performance audit as specific and sufficiently new institute inthe history of auditing. This paper argues that performance audit growth parallels the evolution of politicsand public administration from one-dimensional focus on control of inputs toward broader attention toaccountability for outputs and outcomes. As our survey has demonstrated, the causal relation betweenmanagement reforms and the developments in performance auditing may theoretically go in two directions:reform causes new audit practices or new audit practices cause the reform. Empirically, the relationshipis mainly one directional: management reforms trigger adoption of audit practices. At the auditsides, new public management has influenced development of the audit. This evolution of auditing representsboth a means by which audit can continue to be relevant and a move toward fulfilling accountabilityrole in governance.Basically the survey is based on the experience of Western countries and INTOSAI standards.

Shrinking reserves of fossil fuels and growing anxiety over future energy security have boosted investments in renewable energy worldwide. Alarming climate change scenarios have also increased the focus on creating sustainable energy economies. The solar industry is growing incredibly fast and technology is developing at high speed. Soon the retail price of solar generated electricity will be competitive with that of electricity generated in conventional power plants. The current solar boom is largely the result of market incentives introduced by governments. Critics question the potential of solar energy and note that it currently contributes a meagre 0.1% to worldwide energy consumption. But worldwide volumes for solar energy, the fastest-growing power generation technology, rose at an average annual rate of 56% over the last five years. The Solar Europe Initiative (SEI), a joint initiative of the European Photovoltaic Industry Association (EPIA) and the EU PV Technology Platform, is currently reviewing a preliminary estimate which indicated that the contribution from photovoltaic (PV) systems may be as high as 6-12% of the total EU electricity consumption by 2020.

The purpose of the article is to analyse the regulation of concessions in Lithuania through the managerialand political approaches of public administration and within the context of the New Public Managementtheory. The article considers the problem of the regulation of concessions within the context of suchdisciplines as Public Administration and Law. Since the EU law is a constituent part of the legal system ofthe Republic of Lithuania, the paper also discusses the Community legislative framework with regard tothe regulation of concessions. Further, it provides an overview of the regulation of concessions laid out inthe Law on Concessions of the Republic of Lithuania. The goal is to determine which approach – managerialor political – has been dominating in the regulation of concessions in Lithuania and which approachwould be more effective. Preliminary findings are in favour of the managerial approach with regard toregulation of concessions in Lithuania.

The entrepreneurship policy to promote economic growth and competitiveness is heavily focused on the supplyof entrepreneurs. However, as it was stressed by Baumol (1990), the neglected factor is allocation between productiveand unproductive entrepreneurial activities. While some EU countries, such as Czech Republic, Poland, and Portugaldemonstrate high rates of entrepreneurial activities, they rank low in terms of competitiveness. This paper argues thatin order to explain such phenomenon, we have to rethink the existing approaches from the perspective of economicsociology. Coming back to Baumol (1990), we should acknowledge a rather trivial but often neglected fact that entrepreneursare persons who primarily seek to enhance their own wealth. The case study of Land Use Administrationin Lithuania shows how entrepreneurial activities are embedded in the informal network of public officers and landdealers. The paper also argues that "land use" entrepreneurship activities are path-dependent. It is implicitly assumedthat entrepreneurship is an exogenous variable, that entrepreneurs should be "bred" at universities and businessschools. However, entrepreneurial activities, such as blat and unofficial economy, also existed in planned economy.Moreover, the legacy of Soviet entrepreneurship affects the current situation in Lithuania. In the case of "land usebusiness" the entrepreneur does not collaborate with public sector, but in contrary – they view the state as a hostilecountry, like it was in Soviet times.

Over recent decades the discourse of sustainable development has loomed large in the agendas of nationaland international policies alike. This article analyzes the history of the term and its conceptual underpinningsto find that there are fundamental contradictions concerning the present mechanism of implementationof the policy concerned. At present policy is formulated on an international level with theUnited Nations at the fore. However, the implementation is the responsibility of the nation states. In theprocess their sovereignty is not challenged and no mechanism of accountability exists. This is worsenedby the absence of an institutional framework within nation states to implement such policies. This is demonstratedby the analysis of the Lithuanian Constitution and the Long Term Development Strategy of theState. However, there are good historical reasons for the current international setup. The idea of a singleall-integrating global policy is going against the very spirit of the concept of sustainable development,thereby making the policy itself "unsustainable", if not unfeasible. The author suggests an alternativeapproach to implementing a policy of sustainable development by changing the principle of how it isformed. Rather than formulating and attempting to implement a policy from "top down", the policiesshould be formed in as low level of policy as possible, by deinstitutionalizing and moving the discourse ofsustainable development from the realm of politics to the realm scientific debate and by promoting goodgovernance. In the end it is the sum of decisions made on the local and even individual level which makesour lifestyle sustainable or not and these decisions must be informed rather than coerced.

Public sector organizations carry out their activities in a constantly, incrementallychanging environment of global society.In modern society, public sector organizations have been encouraged to changetheir role from the provider of services to the monitoring of other organizations thatactually deliver those services. This is particularly true of local authorities who areencouraged by central government to deliver services through the voluntary or privatesector. The evolution of New Public Management into new public governancemeans that public sector managers are acquiring the role of monitoring and controlover other kinds of organizations and developing skills in managing contracts. Suchan arrangement is blurring the boundary between the public and other sectors, betweenpolicy and administration. A major feature of the reforms and changes in thepublic sector is that we can see an evolution from new public management to newpublic governance in the start of the twenty-first century.