MANAGEMENT, KNOWLEDGE AND VALUE WITHIN THE ROMANIAN RESEARCH INSTITUTES FOR THE PAST 20 YEARS

Our action is intended towards emphasizing some of the most important issues in Romanian research area, especially with reference to the technical and agricultural research and this because it is important to understand how our research area has evolved iresearch – development institutes, management of the research – development organizations, knowledge-based management

Project Management Competencies: A Survey of Perspectives Form Project Managers in South East Queensland

The findings are presented of a competency survey of project managers in South East Queensland, Australia. This was designed to capture the ‘real world’ experiences and skills of current practicing project managers, and investigate the most important project management skills that a project manager must possess, and obtain any additional skills and/or issues that a project manager should possess and be aware of in the twenty-first century. In terms of project management skills, it was found that the ability to communicate, ability to meet project objectives and make decisions are the most important skills needed. In contrast, ability to use computer/project management software and ability to manage legal issues are the least important skills. In terms of current skills, the older managers, with the exception of the use of computer/project management software, have a greater degree of project management skills than their younger counterparts. The biggest gap between skills needed and skills possessed is in communication. The issues and skills that a project manager should be aware of and possess in the foreseeable future were found to comprise industrial relations, workplace health and safety, environmental issues, adaptability/innovative/flexibility, stakeholders management skill, coaching/transfer of knowledge skill, client related skill, networking skill and business skill

Knowledge management in a virtual organization

This article, which also has a nature of a review, presents issues of knowledge management in virtual organizations. The aim of the study was to identify and characterize the most important issues, i.e. the nature, subject, methods, tools, problems and benefits associated with the process of knowledge management in virtual organizations. The analysis of the literature included both Polish and foreign papers published in the twenty-first century, containing the latest theories and research results as well as classic approaches. The first part of the article describes the concept of virtual organizations, while the second contains the definitions, conditions and problems of knowledge management in this type of enterprises. The study shows the important role of knowledge and information technology, their relationships and the impact on virtualization of organization

Managing Knowledge Workers for Change Management Dimensions

The knowledge economy requires a different contribution from human capital (i.e. knowledge workers). Knowledge workers are challenge seekers, have high enthusiasm for learning and prefer freedom and flexibility, so it would be wise to suggest that knowledge management should consider all these issues and try to provide opportunities to fulfill the current needs of knowledge workers in particular and the company in general. This paper aims to focus on how Knowledge Management practices, to make useful to change management.  This study suggests that training was one of the most important factors for initiating knowledge management, together with support from the top management. Besides that, compensation and rewards, as expected, remain the preferred factors encouraging knowledge workers to share their knowledge and stay in the company. Therefore a more competitive compensation and rewards package should be offered specifically for workers, compensation packages that more fully appreciate knowledge workers’ knowledge and skills would be most welcomed. This may be become a key factor for change management adoption as one of the dimension. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Worker, Change Management, Leadership, Innovative Knowledg

Materiality Analysis for CSR Reporting in Spanish SMEs

Most corporate social responsibility (CSR) standards have not been designed to be implemented in small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs). Given that 99% of Spanish companies are SMEs, this study aims to propose a selection of basic CSR material issues that, because of their usefulness and significance, should be adapted to Spanish SMEs and their stakeholders. This study provides a CSR model for SMEs that includes the most important social, environmental, and corporate governance issues. This model, which is based on expert knowledge, is useful for integrating sustainability in the management of SMEs and enhancing the management of stakeholders

Knowledge leaders' critical issues : an international Delphi study

Nowadays, an increasing number of organizations hire knowledge leaders to create and maintain a knowledge management environment. However, the critical issues these individuals face are very poorly defined in today's academic literature. Using a web-based Delphi method, this study is the first to reach a worldwide consensus on knowledge leaders' critical issues. These issues include knowledge leaders' roles, skills, perceived knowledge management benefits and obstacles, as well as the technologies and tools they use for implementing knowledge management initiatives. A stable level of agreement among 100 knowledge leaders has been reached on these issues. The results indicate that their most important role is to foster a knowledge sharing culture in their organization in order to overcome the most important obstacle: organizational culture. They also suggest that the key abilities a knowledge leader should possess are those of strong interpersonal and leadership skills. In addition, portals and information retrieval engines are found to be the most widely used technologies and tools to develop and/or implement knowledge management initiatives. Finally, an increase in internal knowledge sharing was judged to be the most significant of all perceived knowledge management benefits

THE MANAGEMENT OF KNOWLEDGE WORKERS – KEY FACTOR OF SUCCES

The traditional companies are built on familiar bedrock of buildings, plants, and inventories. Competitive advantage is viewed in terms of scale and volume stemming from high-capacity use of machine-based factories. Such an approach fails to recognize how the leverage of knowledge is becoming a key to long-term success. Nowadays, organizations must recognize that power resides in the minds of their best people, who are diffused throughout the business and the organizations are becoming more dependent on people than ever before. The recruitment and the employment of knowledge workers are becoming very important issues from Romanian managers. The competitiveness is the only chance to deal with a very challenging market, especially after European integration. In this paper we present the results of a survey of the opinions of Romanian managers about the most effective strategies for recruitment, motivation and retention the knowledge workers. The study investigated two groups of managers: the first group included the managers who never were involved in activities related to human resources, and the second, the managers who have been involved. The managers from the first group chose theoretical the strategies they considered most effective; the managers for the second group indicated the strategies they applied.knowledge management, human resources management

Knowledge and perceptions in participatory policy processes: lessons from the delta-region in the Netherlands

Water resources management issues tend to affect a variety of uses and users. Therefore, they often exhibit complex and unstructured problems. The complex, unstructured nature of these problems originates from uncertain knowledge and from the existence of divergent perceptions among various actors. Consequently, dealing with these problems is not just a knowledge problem; it is a problem of ambiguity too. This paper focuses on a complex, unstructured water resources management issue, the sustainable development—for ecology, economy and society—of the Delta-region of the Netherlands. In several areas in this region the ecological quality decreased due to hydraulic constructions for storm water safety, the Delta Works. To improve the ecological quality, the Dutch government regards the re-establishment of estuarine dynamics in the area as the most important solution. However, re-establishment of estuarine dynamics will affect other uses and other users. Among the affected users are farmers in the surrounding areas, who use freshwater from a lake for agricultural purposes. This problem has been addressed in a participatory decision-making process, which is used as a case study in this paper. We investigate how the dynamics in actors’ perceptions and the knowledge base contribute to the development of agreed upon and valid knowledge about the problem–solution combination, using our conceptual framework for problem structuring. We found that different knowledge sources—expert and practical knowledge—should be integrated to create a context-specific knowledge base, which is scientifically valid and socially robust. Furthermore, we conclude that for the convergence of actors’ perceptions, it is essential that actors learn about the content of the process (cognitive learning) and about the network in which they are involved (strategic learning). Our findings form a plea for practitioners in water resources management to adopt a problem structuring approach in order to deal explicitly with uncertainty and ambiguity