Employee Engagement in Corporate Greening: A Study of Front-Line Managers in Belarusian Companies

The study investigates how front-line managers in a post-Soviet context facilitate learning for corporate greening in their organisations. The topic is addressed by applying situated learning theory, using two concepts – community of practice and boundary objects. Belarus was selected as the country of study because it is a representative example of a post-Soviet transition economy. Using a multiple case study approach, 52 semi-structured interviews among front-line managers, meeting observations and photographs were collected in three chemical plants in Belarus. Template analysis was used to analyse the data. The findings of this study reveal ‘corporate greening’ as a boundary maker in the learning environment which produces three possible boundaries across values, agendas and priorities alignment. In their boundary work, Belarussian front-line managers employ three boundary objects – visionary, structural and market-related – constructed by post-Soviet socio-historical influences to facilitate learning by encouraging an affinity to the national identity and environment, developing shared infrastructure for discussion, but also facilitating a transition from a Soviet type of thinking to a post-Soviet mindset regarding recognising business opportunities for ‘green’ business practices. These include the practices for: working with other departments; constructing an image of themselves as educators; and ensuring that ‘green’ activities are sufficiently aligned with both the organisation's and the governmental view. This study contributes to situated learning by showing that front-line managers use opportunities in the boundaries for further community growth by ‘re-purposing’ existing practices inherited from the Soviet Union, or creating new facilitation practices, to maintain ‘conversations’ around corporate greening. These findings also contribute to a better understanding of the practical challenges of front-line managers as facilitators of learning for corporate greening in the complex and interrelated socio-historical learning environment. In addition, the results of the study are valuable for managers who are looking to increase employee engagement in corporate greening

Organisaation toiminnot ja prosessit taloushallinnon näkökulmasta : Prosessiohjeen laatiminen

Opinnäytetyö käsittelee organisaation toimintoja ja prosesseja taloushallinnon näkökulmasta. Työ on luonteeltaan projektityyppinen ja sen lopputuote on toimeksiantajayritykselle laadittu prosessiohje, joka antaa tiiviin ja kokonaisvaltaisen kuvan yrityksen toiminnasta prosessiverkkona. Aiheen valintaan ovat vaikuttaneet työn työelämälähtöisyys, tärkeys toimeksiantajalle ja ajankohtaisuus niin kansainvälisen talouskehityksen näkökulmasta kuin toimeksiantajayrityksenkin kannalta. Toimeksiantajayrityksen on ollut määrä laatia prosessiohje maaliskuun 2010 loppuun mennessä. Projekti käynnistettiin syksyllä 2009 ja saatiin loppuun maaliskuun alussa 2010, hieman etuajassa. Opinnäytetyössä organisaatiokäsitteen käsittely on rajattu organisaation rationaalisiin tekijöihin, kuten tavoitteisiin, rakenteisiin ja prosesseihin. Organisaatiokäsitteeseen kuuluvat kulttuuriulottavuus ja ryhmien käyttäytyminen jäivät tämän työn ulkopuolelle. Teoreettisessa viitekehyksessä käsitellään organisaatio-käsitettä, prosessihallintaa ja siihen liittyviä organisaatioteorioita sekä prosessijohtamista, strategista johtamista ja talousjohtamista. Lisäksi työssä käsitellään sisäistä ja ulkoista valvontaa. Prosessiohjeen käyttöä arvioidaan ensisijaisesti näistä näkökulmista. Projektin toteutuksessa tietolähteinä on käytetty teoreettisia lähteitä, toimeksiantajayrityksen ohjeita, yrityksen käytäntöjä ja tapoja sekä empiirisiä tietoja, jotka on saatu prosessien seurannasta ja konsultaatioista. Prosessien seuranta ja konsultaatiot toteutettiin sillä tavalla, että ne antoivat mahdollisimman totuudenmukaisen kuvan toimeksiantajayrityksen työrutiineista. Tietolähteiden perusteella saatiin vastaukset kysymyksiin prosessiohjeen tavoitteista, sen käyttötarkoituksista, rakenteesta ja sisällöstä. Projektin tuloksena prosessiohje on laadittu toimivaksi työkaluksi toimeksiantajayritykselle, yrityksen tarpeet huomioon ottaen. Toimeksiantajayritys on hyödyntänyt projektin tuloksia jo ennen prosessiohjeen käyttöön ottamista. Prosessien läpikäynnin yhteydessä on havaittu ja korjattu sisäisen valvonnan puutteita. Seuraavaksi prosessiohje otetaan käyttöön konsernin sisäisen valvonnan vaatimusten mukaisesti ja sen on määrä toimia ohjekirjana kaikille työntekijöille. Opinnäytetyö myös sisältää yhteenvedon huomautuksista ja suosituksista toimeksiantajayritykselle prosessien hallinnan parantamiseksi sekä yhteenvedon yleisistä suosituksista prosessiohjeen laatimiseksi.The thesis deals with the organization's functions and processes from the perspective of fi-nancial management. This is a project-type thesis and its final product is a procedures manual which gives a concise and comprehensive picture of the company's operations as a network of business processes. The subject of the thesis was chosen because of its work-oriented character, the importance for the company and because it was very topical from the perspective of both international economic development and the company. The company was supposed to draw up the proce-dures manual by the end of March 2010 at the latest. The project was launched in September 2009 and completed in early March 2010, slightly ahead of schedule. The concept of organization is limited to the treatment of rational organizational factors, such as the objectives, structures and processes. The term also includes cultural dimension and group behaviour but they were excluded from this work. The theoretical framework deals with the concept of organization, process management and related organizational theories, as well as strategic and economic management. The work also discusses internal and external control. The role of procedures manual is analyzed based on these aspects. There were several different theoretical sources used in the project, such as the company's guidance, practices and policies and empirical data obtained by the monitoring of business processes and consultations. The monitoring of business processes and consultations were carried out in a way that gave the most realistic picture of the company's daily routines. The main questions of the project were the objectives of the procedures manual, its use, func-tional structure and content. The answers were obtained based on the used sources of infor-mation. The result of the project is the functional procedures manual, keeping the company's needs in mind. The company has taken advantage of the results even before the implementation of the pro-cedures manual was started. During the monitoring of the processes some faults in the inter-nal control were found and corrected. The procedures manual will be used as an instruction manual for all employees according to the Group's internal control requirements. The thesis also contains a summary of the observations and recommendations to the case company to improve the process management as well as a summary of general recommendations to pre-pare the procedures manual

REPRESENTATION OF «WAR» CONCEPT BY PHRASEOLOGICAL MEANS OF RUSSIAN LANGUAGE

Abstract.The concept as the representation of the world fragment is a mental formation, has a national-cultural specificity and is implemented by various linguistic ways and means. Phraseology is a connecting whole, which combines concepts, mythology, symbols and national mentality. The national cultural connotation of phraseological units makes it possible to define the place of the concept of "war" in the national consciousness of Russian language native speakers. The authors attempt to reveal the essential characteristics of the universal concept of "war" in Russian linguistic culture on the basis of the phraseological means of Russian language. The phraseological implementation of the conceptual, value and figurative components of the concept under study makes it possible to identify its cognitivefeatures, as well as to characterize the features of its interpretation field. The analysis of "war" concept verbalization via the studied phraseological units allows us to conclude that the subject-shaped concretization of its abstract features plays a significant role. Phraseological units enter the socio-cultural zone of concept interpretation and verbalize information about war participants and their participation in hostilities. The lexical and semantic-cognitive analysis of the concept "war" on the basis of phraseological material allows us to reveal the anthropocentric character of the concept, the predominance of the value component in its structure at the phraseological level, and also its socio-cultural nature.Key words: linguoculturology, concept, phraseology, the concept components, the value componen

Teaching Foreign Oral Speech to Language University's Students on the Basis of Creolized Text

In the context of globalization and international integration, the requirements for knowledge of a foreign language, as an essential component of the professional competence of a modern competitive specialist, have substantially changed. Thus, the purpose of language education in modern conditions is the formation of a secondary linguistic personality, capable of intercultural communication, owning a fluent, clear and logically constructed foreign language speech. This goal leads to the search for creative approaches to professionally oriented teaching of foreign languages, the effectiveness of which is associated with the creation of problematic situations that contribute to unlocking the creative potential of students. Solving problematic problems contributes to the development of critical thinking, creative activity, interest and motivation to learn a foreign language, analytical skills and spontaneous speech of students. In the conditions of information oversaturation in the modern world, creolized texts occupy has a significant place in the communicative space in professional life. It requires a representative of a modern society to have the ability to decode, interpret information. In this study, the authors consider the informational and linguodidactic potential of foreign-language creolized texts, which can be used as the basis for the development of unprepared speech and discussion skills of students in the framework of organizing a creative educational process. Finally, the authors propose a pedagogical algorithm for the formation of communicative skills of students in the context of the development of spontaneous speech based on creolized texts

Multi-criteria comparative evaluation of spallation reaction models

This paper presents an approach to a comparative evaluation of the predictive ability of spallation reaction models based on widely used, well-proven multiple-criteria decision analysis methods (MAVT/MAUT, AHP, TOPSIS, PROMETHEE) and the results of such a comparison for 17 spallation reaction models in the presence of the interaction of high-energy protons with natPb

Одиннадцатая международная научно-практическая конференция «Электронный век культуры

The article represents a thematic review of the conference devoted to the digital resources of culture in global information world. The reports at the conference represent a wide range of the problems and innovative projects in the sphere of development of information and technical potential of the Russian libraries, museums and other institutions of culture, in the sphere of creation of digital libraries and systems within the framework of current legislation and also in the sphere of digitization and preservation of collections.Статья представляет собой тематический обзор конференции, посвященной электронным ресурсам культуры в глобальном информационном пространстве. В докладах представлен широкий спектр задач и инновационных проектов в области развития информационно-технического потенциала российских библиотек, музеев и других учреждений культуры; создания электронных библиотек и систем в условиях существующего законодательства; оцифровки и сохранности фондов и другие актуальные вопросы

Societal marketing: integration of European experiences into business practices in Belarus

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to analyse whether the concept of societal marketing being practised in developed countries can be directly applied to countries in transition, such as Belarus, and what adjustments would be beneficial to achieve this. The paper takes a comprehensive view of the complex linkages between the implementation of corporate social responsibility (CSR) principles by examining elements of societal marketing in the European Union (EU) countries and in Belarus. Design/methodology/approach – Data are provided by the web sites of European best practice companies and data from the Global Compact that identifies socially-responsible companies in the EU and Belarus. The results for Belarus are combined with the insights from capacity building activities on societal marketing organised by the Local Network Global Compact (LNGC) Belarus, for private and public enterprises. Findings – The research presents two groups of companies in Belarus: Start-up companies see their CSR activities as philanthropic actions; and On-the-way companies integrate elements of societal marketing such as vision and stakeholder management into their practices. The European societal marketing experience can act as a mechanism for further integrating CSR principles into business practices in Belarus. This depends on the aptitude of the companies for social innovation, the level of stakeholder involvement and the governmental support for CSR policy creation. Research limitations/implications – The scope of the research should be broadened out to other industries and tested with a larger sample, including small-and medium-sized firms. It is also necessary to analyse other key drivers of the CSR in Belarus, which can impact on further use of societal marketing components. Practical implications – This research has implications for practitioners, specifically the groups of stakeholders involved in CSR programmes in Belarus. The results suggest how stakeholders can apply societal marketing and differentiate themselves from competitors in the EU and in Belarus. Originality/value – The paper proposes a framework on societal marketing that considers the factors that influence CSR development and provides recommendations for businesses operating in Belarus on how to achieve a competitive advantage in a country in transition