Leadership Challenges In Today’s Academia

Starting from the anecdotic hypothesis that “leading academics is like trying to herd cats”, the paper reviews the main challenges and barriers to present academic leadership. The context is that of the on-going Bologna transformation of the university, and of the renewed quest for competitiveness. The method employed is that of the individual case-study, with a single-embedded design. The case study is exploratory, as we don’t know from sure which the effects of leadership in the university are, and to what degree are they alike, across sub-units of study. The case study is also intrinsic, as its main outcome is not theory-building, but understanding the particularities of a phenomenon strongly tied to its context. Our unit of study is the largest business university in the country, with its faculties and departments. The main data sources are short structured interviews with members of the academic staff. The analysis implies both explanation-building and cross-case synthesis. The results of the study give insights on the context of leadership, enablers and barriers, as well as on the content of leadership, in the particular setting of the academia. Conclusions connect our research with similar endeavours, outlining the particularities and patterns of educational transition in a transition country.academic leadership, structural equation model of academic leadership, Romanian academia

Mapping of organizational models in Portuguese companies

Researchers have focused on the influence of organizational models in the actions, and subsequent outcomes of organizations and the results support the view that there is indeed an association between certain features of organizational models and organizational performance outcomes. The purpose of this paper is to map the organizational models used by Portuguese companies to identify possible dominant patterns and search for differences across several dimensions (sector, size, number of customers; internal/external market). The results show a level of organizational hybridism with several models applied simultaneously and with smaller firms showing a higher emphasis on dialogue, flexibility, and response capability. There is also a general preference among Portuguese companies for the bureaucratic organizational model. The results also indicate that organizations that adopt the bureaucratic model seem to be able to implement systematic processes innovation making compatible the rules and procedures with the ability to learn and adapt.The authors would like to thank BS15 Fifth International Conference on Business Sustainability 2015. Management, Technology and Learning for Individuals, Organisations and Society in Turbulent Environments, Editors, Professors Goran Ptunik and Paula Ávila, for their continuous and highly valuable support in this research field.info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Leadership Challenges In Today’s Academia

Starting from the anecdotic hypothesis that “leading academics is like trying to herd cats”, the paper reviews the main challenges and barriers to present academic leadership. The context is that of the on-going Bologna transformation of the university, and of the renewed quest for competitiveness. The method employed is that of the individual case-study, with a single-embedded design. The case study is exploratory, as we don’t know from sure which the effects of leadership in the university are, and to what degree are they alike, across sub-units of study. The case study is also intrinsic, as its main outcome is not theory-building, but understanding the particularities of a phenomenon strongly tied to its context. Our unit of study is the largest business university in the country, with its faculties and departments. The main data sources are short structured interviews with members of the academic staff. The analysis implies both explanation-building and cross-case synthesis. The results of the study give insights on the context of leadership, enablers and barriers, as well as on the content of leadership, in the particular setting of the academia. Conclusions connect our research with similar endeavours, outlining the particularities and patterns of educational transition in a transition country

Leadership Challenges In Today’s Academia

Starting from the anecdotic hypothesis that “leading academics is like trying to herd cats”, the paper reviews the main challenges and barriers to present academic leadership. The context is that of the on-going Bologna transformation of the university, and of the renewed quest for competitiveness. The method employed is that of the individual case-study, with a single-embedded design. The case study is exploratory, as we don’t know from sure which the effects of leadership in the university are, and to what degree are they alike, across sub-units of study. The case study is also intrinsic, as its main outcome is not theory-building, but understanding the particularities of a phenomenon strongly tied to its context. Our unit of study is the largest business university in the country, with its faculties and departments. The main data sources are short structured interviews with members of the academic staff. The analysis implies both explanation-building and cross-case synthesis. The results of the study give insights on the context of leadership, enablers and barriers, as well as on the content of leadership, in the particular setting of the academia. Conclusions connect our research with similar endeavours, outlining the particularities and patterns of educational transition in a transition country

FEED - Modeling the relationship between education and food waste

As formed by humans, which are living creatures full of contradictions, our society is characterized as well by lots of paradoxes. One could say that it has never been so wealthy and educated, while others would declare themselves as being grateful for a simple glass of water or a slice of bread, as the world wide abundance of goods and opportunities is counterpointed by deep scarcity, sometimes not too far from the sources of waste. Therefore, quite large amounts of edible food that could have been consumed end up in landfills, thus contributing to environmental pollution and social disparities. Despite many studies conducted in order to better understand the causes of this phenomenon, and although at the EU and UN level some actions were taken in order to reduce consumer food waste, the topic still remains open and it lacks a clear and impactful approach. In this light, we made use of the results of previous studies, and we built the causal model, FEED, based on system dynamics, with the aim to explore the impact of the evolution of educational attainment on the aggregate of household food waste. We then translated the model into the tenet of the dynamic simulation software, TRUE. There was no reinforcing loop displayed by FEED causal loop version, fact aligned with the evolution of our goal-variable when the simulation of the model was run, a result that make us to suspect the possibility of reducing food waste in the foreseeable future

HR specialists’ perceptions of the desirability of psychopathic traits in job candidates

The study of psychopathy in organizational settings is still in its incipient stage, but scholars have already proven that the prevalence of psychopathic features in the corporate environment, especially in senior positions, is higher than in the general population (3% compared with 1% in general population) and that employees with psychopathic tendencies have a negative impact on the sustainability of organizations. It has been argued that human resources specialists have to become astute at identifying employees with psychopathic features in order to be able to manage their careers in a way that would not affect the organization’s wellbeing. However, research has also proved that there are several psychopathic traits which make job candidates likelier to obtain a job, due to the positive impression that they create during the job interview. The study tested the desirability of psychopathic traits in job candidates from the perspective of human resources specialists and, based on a survey of a sample of 68 Romanian human resources specialists, found that candidates displaying an ability to remain calm under pressure, self-confidence and persuasiveness are more likely to be hired. Moreover, the study concluded that Romanian human resources professionals are somewhat aware of the threat posed by psychopathic employees and that most of the employers they represent use selection methods able to filter out potential psychopaths. The findings open up new avenues of research on the ways in which selection strategies can be employed in order to enable human resources specialists to effectively identify candidates with psychopathic tendencies

Excellence Model for Sustainable Convergence in the EU Higher Education

The present paper is constituted around the idea of EU sustainable convergence in higher education in the context of Bologna process. Considering the Systems Theory and by using causal loops diagrams, it is brought forth an excellence model whose implementation facilitates the sustainable convergence achievement. The model represents the result of mapping and modelling a possible dynamics of the higher education system. Used in corroboration with a differentiation strategy, it can yield an efficient tool for solving the funding problem, of achieving excellence (within higher education institutions) and also of obtaining sustainable convergence (at the EU level). The implementation of the model provides each higher education institution the possibility of customizing strategic measures conjointly with the freedom of focusing on the core of its competitive advantage. The strength of the differentiation strategy – model dyad consists in fostering the cultural-economic diversity and the enabling of authentic excellence. Reaching sustainable alignment and convergence in EU higher education takes time and concerted efforts. Achieving excellence within each and every higher education unit takes also strategic thinking at their very own level

A Model of Academic Social Responsability

<p>This paper develops the idea of academic social responsibility derived from the corporate social responsibility, presents the main achievements of the Romanian higher education system from the perspective of social responsibility and proposes a model of social responsibility in universities based on six dimensions determined by extensive literature review and content analysis.</p