Volume 8 (2016): Edizione 1 (January 2016)

This research examined potential sex differences in work experiences and work outcomes in a sample of Egyptian managers and professionals. Relatively little research has been undertaken on potential sex differences in human resource management in Egyptian organizations and even less during and following the Arab spring. Data were collected from 121 managerial and professional employees, 77 males and 44 females, using anonymously completed questionnaires. Respondents were relatively young, had university educations, had short job and organizational tenures, and held lower level -management jobs. All measures employed here had been used and validated previously by other researchers. Work experiences included supervisor empowerment behaviors and levels of personal empowerment. Work and well-being outcomes included job satisfaction, organizational commitment, work engagement, exhibiting voice behaviors, workplace learning opportunities, intent to quit and employee health symptoms. Significant sex differences were present on most personal demographic and work situation characteristics: men were at higher organizational levels, earned more money, were older and had longer organizational tenures, among others. There were fewer significant sex differences on work experiences and work outcomes. When differences were observed here, women indicated less positive responses.

In this article the author attempts to present an idea that entrepreneurship understood as abilities and skills, which shape new organizational reality, flexibility and risk tolerance are the essential factors that create a leadership relationship. It is assumed that there is a relationship between entrepreneurship and organizational leadership. A leader is not an obedient performer of tasks but a creator of new activities and relationships. Entrepreneurship is treated in the accepted sense as learned skills and abilities in the process of cultural inheritance of attitudes and behavior patterns existing in family, neighborhood, places in society and environment. Hence, in the article the author attempts to outline the path from entrepreneurial attitudes and behavior observed in childhood to act in the same manner in adulthood, including influencing the actions of associates in the workplace which exist in the Polish society.

The governance of businesses tends to vary depending on the ownership, i.e., the private sector vs. the public sector, or the industry, for example, banking vs. non-banking, and many more. This paper aims to develop an analytical model in explaining the governance of family owned businesses more specifically. It argues that because of the family ownership and the family management, family businesses require a particular attention. Also, because family businesses appear to set non-financial goals in addition to financial goals the governance of family businesses cannot be equally treated as those of other firms in the private sector. Given the less developed nature of the capital markets in the developing countries such as Sri Lanka, family businesses play a significant role in the economic development of such countries. Nevertheless, family businesses face significant survival challenges, as they are likely to promote those who have family ties into management positions than the professional managers. By reviewing the existing literature critically, this paper identifies the variables, namely family power (i.e., ownership and management), experience and cultural factors, which influence the accomplishment of financial and non-financial goals of family owned businesses, and develops an analytical model to explain their governance.

Living in the contemporary world the man adapts his knowledge and capabilities to various technological forms which are imposed on him as a result of technological progress and development. Younger and younger generations use technological innovations more and more smoothly, living with them almost round-the-clock. The topic of this paper is media consumption by the students. The paper describes surveys of the consumption of TV, internet and other media (e.g. mobile telephony) by the Polish and Russian students and analyses the purpose of their use in their private lives and in student work. In young generations the borderlines between real and virtual worlds tend to become more and more blurred because of growing consumption of spare time. Media consumption has its numerous advantages and disadvantages. The technological development is made at the expense of addictions of young people and lower labour efficiency. This issue is addressed by more and more European countries. On the other hand, smooth consumption of new media creates a lot of interesting opportunities and allows to tap hidden potential of the worker to the benefit of the company he works for. It turns out that Poland and Russia have a lot in common. The surveys show that a lot of similarities are in media consumption, since both Polish and Russian students tend to spend more of their spare time with the media. Some differences are driven by various degrees of individual media consumption and by their popularity.

In recent years sustainability has become an important issue in business in a variety of industries. Those companies that succeed to integrate a fair balance between economic interests and the concerns about environment and social equity have had to integrate a core of sustainability values that guide their behavior in the way to do business. The leaders of the organizations have to design strategies not just to add value to their products or services, but to match the new frame of ethical and moral values of the company. This new way to do business is having a deep impact in the competitiveness of organizations as a result of the savings in the supply chain and in the way they are perceived by consumers and society. The postmodern vision of the business organization has incorporated new and far-reaching modifications to the traditional view of leadership resulting in a new type called “sustainability leadership”. This work uses a case study mixed method research will focus on determining and analyzing the characteristics of this new kind of leadership and its relationship with competitiveness in a very traditional and influencing hotel of Mazatlán, an important tourist destination of Mexico, which has been successful in reaching sustainability certifications for a number of years. The study will show the perception of key informants about the leadership and its degree of success regarding the business competitiveness and sustainability issues. It will also show the degree of fulfillment of sustainability according to an instrument designed for this purpose.

The purpose of this paper is to ascertain whether national culture has an impact on the level of innovation. The results of the analysis of data by means of statistical tools confirm that cultural factors play a big role in creating innovations. On the basis of the research, it can be assumed that the thesis formulated by Shane (1993) assuming the correlation of low power distance and strong individualism with innovation seems to be correct if we do not refer it to the Far East Asian countries. These countries seem to be very different culturally from the rest of the analyzed cultures. Low power distance and low uncertainty avoidance countries are in most cases more innovative in European countries. Impact of individualism versus collectivism is more debatable but generally in Europe more individualistic countries achieve better innovative results.