Developments in Hungary in Staffing Practices - Results of Two Consecutive Cranet Surveys

Management of human resources, the same as other fields of management, has altered significantly in Hungary since the democratic transformation and in many respects it is still changing. This paper – while describing the specific Hungarian staffing practice and its alterations – makes a comparison of the characteristics of the Hungarian samples of two Cranet surveys. Based on these, we outline the ratio of similarity between the Hungarian and the global (or that of the 32 countries participating in the network) HR practice and the features of HR practices of (6 network member) countries from the Central and Eastern European (CEE) region.Human Resource Management, staffing, Hungary, Cranet

Trends and Tendencies in the Field of Improving the HR-Systems of Hungarian Public Universities

In recent years it has become accepted that, besides traditional success factors, human resource management (HRM/HR) plays an increasingly important role in organizational success and in retaining and improving domestic and international competitiveness (Gordon-Whitchurch, 2007). In the countries of the developed world – especially in the case of anglo-saxon “pioneers” – the public sphere (including universities) has left the normative “bureaucratic-administrative Taylorian” system, that is based on formal regulation, far behind (Farkas et al, 2003). These efforts provided models and experience that were applicable in the transforming countries of Europe, including Hungary. In view of the above, we intended to make a non-exhaustive overview – based on the sources of literature and the practices of 11 Hungarian universities – of the change of the situation of HR and the possibilities of its modernization in this field.higher education; Hungary; New Public Management; HRM; knowledge.

Human Resource Management in the Countries of the Former Yugoslavia

Human Resource Management (HR/HRM) is closely connected to the social and economic environment in which a given organization or company operates. On this basis it may be interesting for foreign potential investors to understand both the differences and similarities in the application of HRM methods in a group of countries which had lived for a long period of time in a federation which had finally disintegrated. Such investors usually come from different environments and backgrounds and have previous experience in the application of specific forms of HRM practice. In this paper the authors try to present the development and changes in the theories and practice of Human Resource Management in most of the countries established on the territory of the former Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Macedonia, Serbia and Slovenia.human resource management; economic environment; practices change; former Yugoslavia.

Oxidative Stress Induces Transient O‐GlcNAc Elevation and Tau Dephosphorylation in SH‐SY5Y Cells

O‐linked β‐N‐acetlyglucosamine or O‐GlcNAc modification is a dynamic post‐translational modification occurring on the Ser/Thr residues of many intracellular proteins. The chronic imbalance between phosphorylation and O‐GlcNAc on tau protein is considered as one of the main hallmarks of Alzheimer\u27s disease. In recent years, many studies also showed that O‐GlcNAc levels can elevate upon acute stress and suggested that this might facilitate cell survival. However, many consider chronic stress, including oxidative damage as a major risk factor in the development of the disease. In this study, using the neuronal cell line SH‐SY5Y we investigated the dynamic nature of O‐GlcNAc after treatment with 0.5 mM H2O2 for 30 min. to induce oxidative stress. We found that overall O‐GlcNAc quickly increased and reached peak level at around 2 hrs post‐stress, then returned to baseline levels after about 24 hrs. Interestingly, we also found that tau protein phosphorylation at site S262 showed parallel, whereas at S199 and PHF1 sites showed inverse dynamic to O‐Glycosylation. In conclusion, our results show that temporary elevation in O‐GlcNAc modification after H2O2‐induced oxidative stress is detectable in cells of neuronal origin. Furthermore, oxidative stress changes the dynamic balance between O‐GlcNAc and phosphorylation on tau proteins

Scale Characteristics of Intercultural Competence Measures and the Effects of Intercultural Competence on Prejudice

Due to proceeding globalization processes, involving a rise in mobility and international interdependencies, the frequency and relevance of intercultural contact situations increases. Consequently, the ability to deal effectively with intercultural situations is gaining in importance. However, the majority of studies on measures of intercultural competence focuses on Western Europe and the United States or cultures of the Far East. For the present study, previously understudied Eastern European (former communist) cultures were included, by sampling in Hungary, Serbia, and the Czech Republic, in addition to (the Central or Western European country) Germany. Thus, this study enabled comparisons of scale characteristics of the cultural intelligence scale (CQS), the multicultural personality questionnaire (MPQ), as well as the blatant and subtle prejudice scales, across samples from different cultures. It was also examined how the CQS and MPQ dimensions are associated with prejudice. To analyse scale characteristics, the factor structures and measurement invariances of the used instruments were analyzed. There were violations of configural measurement invariance observed for all of these scales, indicating that the comparability across samples is limited. Therefore, each of the samples was analyzed separately when examining how the CQS and MPQ dimensions are related to prejudice. It was revealed that, in particular, the motivational aspect of the CQS was statistically predicting lower prejudice. Less consistently, the MPQ dimensions of open-mindedness and flexibility were statistically predicting lower prejudice in some of the analyses. However, the violations of measurement invariance indicate differences in the constructs' meanings across the samples from different cultures. It is consequently argued that cross-cultural equivalence should not be taken for granted when comparing Eastern and Western European cultures

Professional Occupations, Knowledge-Driven Firms, And Entrepreneurship: A National And Regional Analysis

The worldwide dominance of Western nations in commercial knowledge-intensive services has declined between 1995 and 2010, but the slippage in revenue was only from 88 to 79 percent. The European Union and North America remain the two largest regions in consumption and in exporting. Four professional service sectors—accounting, law, engineering, and management consultancy—have shown stability or even growth in the past decade. Entry and expansion requirements in these fields, at home and abroad, constitute barriers for both individual professionals and companies. Entrepreneurship is evident in these sectors, as small and medium size enterprises have maintained their viability against large firms. Only accountancy shows a high degree of concentration, but competition in this sector, too, is expected from the emerging economies, especially China. Professional service firms of the West have forged strong linkages with both domestic and foreign clients via relationship marketing. Technology is an important factor via automation. Although each of the four sectors is facing both external and internal challenges, they continue to grow and appear to be meeting the challenges in part by more innovation and transparency

INTEGRATING ENVIRONMENT ECONOMY TO PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Environmental sustainability is a horizontal issue that appears at all level of economic activities and private life. Due to the increasing complexity of regulations, particularly in case of EU funded developments, all the projects need to meet a lot of criteria on environment protection issues. These activities include the conduction of environmental studies, data collection, future emission estimations, improving social attitude, acquiring necessary permissions and environment friendly equipment and finally all the administrative activities to monitor everything mentioned previousThe project management organization increasingly needs a special expertise to meet all the requirements no matter what is the original scope of the project. The study collects different type of knowledge and expertise to manage environment economic issues during project management on four different categories, such as legal, technical, financial or human. The summary of the different type of knowledge provides logical conclusion on how the project management organization should meet the challenges of climate change in terms of daily work and organizational operations

The Global Management Consulting Sector

While other practices or professions trace their roots back several centuries, management consulting is less than 150 years old. However, this sector has made giant strides in the West, especially in the United States, from the 1930s to the present and in Western Europe since the 1950s. Waves of internationalization occurred on both sides of the Atlantic. Expansion got a further boost when Central Europe opened the gates in 1990. With that opening and the World Wide Web, both local and big multinational management consultants stepped up their efforts. Further strides are being made now in the booming Asia-Pacific region. We first explore historical highlights and the key drivers of growth; then briefly analyze service offerings, enduse markets, available statistics, and company profiles. Finally, we probe emerging trends and the contours in this field, a sector that is an amalgam of management practice and a professional service. Our investigation is based on archives, theses, research databanks, association and company data, and our own primary work.Business Economics (2008) 43, 59–68; doi:10.2145/20080408

Critical issues of human resource planning, performance evaluation and long-term development on the central region and non-central areas

In human resource management practices of various nations, companies have to adapt to the local specifics. This claim is strongly supported by the results of the international Central and Eastern European International Research Team research. Based on the instances of research conducted in various countries, we can clearly see that only the ‘best practice’ is not enough when used exclusively, and a ‘best fit’ perspective has to support it, which optimizes the usage of resources to the local economical–social environment. Our notes revealed that non-central areas have many more employees per human resource (HR) specialist, which may result in excess tasks. In the case of companies from Central Hungary (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics 2 region), one HR professional usually deals with 55 employees, while in non-central regions, this number may reach up to 112 workers. This means that in non-central areas, HR employees have double the work. Also, their daily operative work may bring in a huge overload, which concerns all functions of HR. Critical issues are HR planning, training, development and keeping talented individuals (talent management), which mean serious questions and problems for companies that are not in the Central Hungarian region