Interdependence Between Social Values and National Performance Indicators: The Case of the Enlarged European Union

Based on the desk research, the paper provides an empirical insight into correlations between some social values and five selected economic performance indicators for 20 European Union countries. We concentrated on Composite Trust. This is a one-dimensional representation of citizens’ trust on national level and is calculated from three different types of trust that van Oorschot and Arts (2005) derived from the European Values Study (2001). We confirmed correlations between trust and economic performance, but we have also noticed a very different pattern for the old and the new EU member states. The old EU member states show a positive correlation, on the other hand there is no such correlation for the new member states. A plausible hypothesis is that the same level of Composite Trust causes different effects in different societies and economies. We could also assume that social structures in the new EU member states are still distorted and are not in the equilibrium which characterizes EU countries with long democratic and market economy traditions. Economic performance in the new EU member states is based mainly on economic and not on social incentives. On the other hand, correlation between trust and innovativeness is strong in all studied countries. It confirms many studies which see trust as a fundamental social enabler and stimulator for innovativeness.trust, composite trust, social capital, social values, economic performance, innovativeness, European Union, new EU member states

Družbena odgovornost in profesionalna etika v managementu: nekaj empiričnih ugotovitev na ravni držav

In the presented exploratory study, we demonstrated some empirical evidences on relations between social responsibility of business, managerial ethics, and economic environment at county levels. We conducted desk research on 41 countries using different secondary information sources. We confirmed hypotheses, which associate higher social responsibility and ethics to openness and competitiveness of people and management, enhanced economic performance, higher economic freedom, and lower level of corruption. The rationale behind the research hypothesis is disputed question if socially responsible and ethically managed business is economically more successful and sustainable. Evidently, in the most developed countries unsocial and unethical business behavior is not generally acceptable. However, in less developed economies profit is so high on the priority list that social responsibility and ethics are academic questions.We hypothesize that companies consciously select where it is beneficial to be socially responsible and ethical, and where it is more profitable to make business ruthlessly. We also tested the hypothesis that social responsibility contributes to the resilience of economy. This hypothesis was partially confirmed and partially rejected. Finally, we addressed a question if our results are meaningful for individual organizations, as well.We could just say that more developed countries have a larger proportion of businesses that behave affirmatively regarding social and ethical issues, which means that they find it beneficial also at individual level

Management med racionalnostjo in iracionalnostjo

V prispevku poskušamo osvetliti management iz zornega kota racionalnosti in iracionalnosti v kontekstu tradicionalnih managerskih teorij kot tudi sodobnih teorij kompleksnosti. Opozarjamo na razliko med operativnim in srednjim managementom na eni strani ter vodilnim ali izvršilnim managementom na drugi strani. Racionalnost, ki je osnova vseh managerskih teorij, je pripisana predvsem srednjemu managementu, vodilni management pa pogosto deluje na način, ki je iz zornega kota teh teorij iracionalen. Za del omenjene iracionalnosti ne moremo kriviti managementa, saj je ta vgrajena v delovanje kompleksnih dinamičnih sistemov, kot so vse človeške organizacije. Drugi del iracionalnosti pa izvira predvsem iz partikularnih ciljev managementa, ki se je na mnogih področjih uspel iztrgati nadzoru lastnikov in tudi širše družbene skupnosti

On the creative climate and innovativeness at the country level

The paper presents an explorative study on creative climate and innovativeness at the county level in the EU27. We explored a possibility to extend the Ekvall’s concept of creative climate for innovativeness from the level of individual organization to the national level. The main research goal was to identify fragments of national creative climate and to prove its relation to innovativeness. As the measurement for national innovativeness we took the Summary Innovation Index. The fragments of national creative climate were identified by 25 questions and answers selected from different public opinion polls published in the Eurobarometers. Using hierarchical clustering we clustered all EU member states and compared them with the clusters that identify Innovation Leaders, Innovation Followers, Moderate Innovators, and Catching-up countries. We found membership of both sets of clusters similar, which means that two essentially different sets of variables arriving from two completely different sources led to comparable result. We also identify top ten variables that contributed the most to distingnishing between Creative climate clusters. Finally, we argued that understanding creative or innovative climate in the EU countries is an important national policy-making tool that could complement hard macro-economic indicators that are focused on innovative performance only, and not also on innovative socio-cultural environment. We wished-for a unified approach in the EU to develop an objective measurement for creative climate at country level. We also discussed some research challenges linked to this idea