Workplace Mobbing

Mobbing odnosno zlostavljanje na radnome mjestu predstavlja neprijateljsku i neetičnu komunikaciju, koja je sustavno usmjerena od jednoga ili više pojedinaca prema, uglavnom, jednom pojedincu, koji je zbog mobbinga gurnut u poziciju u kojoj je bespomoćan ili se ne može obraniti te držan u njoj s pomoću stalnih zlostavljačkih (mobinških) aktivnosti. U članku je obrađeno nekoliko bitnih značajki zlostavljanja: ponašanja karakteristična za zlostavljača, organizacijski uzroci pojave, konflikt u poduzeću kao njegov povod, žrtva, izvanorganizacijski čimbenici njegova razvoja te posljedice zlostavljanja. Suvremeni poslovni svijet je kompleksan, dinamičan i promjenljiv te zahtijeva sve veću umješnost i sposobnost prilagodbe. Sukobi su dakako neizbježan dio svake organizacije, ali ih je menadžment dužan pravodobno prepoznati i njima upravljati radi sprječavanja štetnih posljedica za produktivnost i troškove poduzeća, radi zaštite zaposlenika te suzbijanja psihičkih i tjelesnih poremećaja koji nastaju psihičkim nasiljem i iskrivljenim oblikom ponašanja kakav je mobbing. On je problem suvremenog društva, nov i u nas nedostatno istražen oblik kršenja ljudskih prava. Zbiva se uglavnom na psihološkoj razini, negativno utječe na zdravlje i život, kvalitetu rada, proizvodnju i pružanje usluga, produktivnost i profitabilnost te značajno utječe na ekonomske gubitke u zajednici. Zlostavljanje na radnome mjestu treba rješavati multidisciplinarno: inicirajući zajedničke aktivnosti zaposlenika i uprave, uključujući medicinske stručnjake, pravnike, pa i društvenu zajednicu u cjelini. Što se u organizaciji više teži izvrsnosti koja se temelji na povjerenju i radnoj etici, to je veća vjerojatnost njegovog sprječavanja i rješavanja.Workplace mobbing is a hostile and unethical communication, systematically aimed from one or more individuals towards mostly one individual, who are forced into a helpless position and are held in it by constant bullying. This article describes some of the most important characteristics of mobbing: offensive behaviour, organizational and non-organizational causes of this behaviour, the victim, and the consequences. Modern business environment is complex, dynamic, volatile, and requires better ability to adjust. Constant changes are a part of organizational reality, but they also produce an ideal environment for all kinds of conflicts. Conflicts are inevitable in every organization, but the task of its management is to identify them and resolve before they affect the workforce, productivity, and costs. The idea is to avert psychological abuse and aberrant behaviour such as mobbing that may cause physical and mental disorders. Mobbing is a problem of the modern society; as a violation of human rights it is relatively new and unrecognised in Croatia. Abuse is mostly psychological; it affects the victim’s health and life, quality of work, productivity, profitability, and may lead to significant economic losses in the community. Mobbing can be averted by joint forces that would involve employees and management, medical and legal professionals, and even community as a whole. The more an organization pursues excellence based on trust and business ethics, the higher the probability that mobbing will be averted or stopped

Azo Dyes, Their Environmental Effects, and Defining a Strategy for Their Biodegradation and Detoxification

Intenzivan industrijski razvoj popraćen je sve većom kompleksnošću sastava otpadnih voda, što u smislu učinkovite zaštite okoliša i održivog razvoja nalaže potrebu pospješivanja kvalitete postojećih te uvođenjem novih postupaka obrade otpadnih voda, kao iznimno važnog čimbenika u interakciji čovjeka i okoliša. Posebnu znanstveno-tehnološku pozornost zahtijevaju novosintetizirani ksenobiotici, poput azo-boja, koji su u prirodi veoma teško razgradivi. Azo-boje podložne su bioakumulaciji, a zbog alergijskih, kancerogenih, mutagenih i teratogenih svojstava nerijetko su prijetnja zdravlju ljudi i očuvanju okoliša. Primjenu fi zikalnokemijskih metoda za uklanjanje azo-boja iz otpadnih voda često ograničavaju visoke cijene, potrebe za odlaganjem nastalog štetnog mulja ili nastanak toksičnih sastojaka razgradnje. Biotehnološki postupci su, zbog mogućnosti ekonomične provedbe i postizanja potpune biorazgradnje, a time i detoksifi kacije, sve zastupljeniji u obradi svih vrsta otpadnih voda, pa tako i onih koje sadržavaju azo-boje.Intense industrial development has been accompanied by the production of wastewaters of very complex content, which pose a serious hazard to the environment, put at risk sustainable development, and call for new treatment technologies that would more effectively address the issue. One particular challenge in terms of science and technology is how to biodegrade xenobiotics such as azo dyes, which practically do not degrade under natural environmental conditions. These compounds tend to bioaccumulate in the environment, and have allergenic, carcinogenic, mutagenic, and teratogenic properties for humans. Removal of azo dyes from effl uents is mostly based on physical-chemical methods. These methods are often very costly and limited, as they accumulate concentrated sludge, which also poses a significant secondary disposal problem, or produce toxic end-products. Biotechnological approach may offer alternative, lowcost biological treatment systems that can completely biodegrade and detoxify even the hard-to-biodegrade azo dyes

The Strange Case of Yugoslav Feminism: Feminism and Socialism in ‘the East’

The text counters the prevailing idea that there was no feminism in the socialist Eastern bloc, carefully presenting a peculiar case of Yugoslav feminism which grew out of socialist political and cultural framework. Yugoslavia was the country where the organization of the singular feminist event in the Eastern world, the conference “Comrade Woman – The New Approach?” (1978), took place. The text traces the ideas on emancipation and liberation which appeared in Yugoslav scientific and literary journals, immediately after the “Comrade Woman” and until the late 1980s, before the proclaimed fall of the Iron Curtain. The written material is grouped into three sections, according to how the so called woman’s question was elaborated. By re-reading this material, the text examines if feminism was legitimized within the dominant socialist discourse, or whether it was purely translated as something externally Western. The aim of the text is to describe how scholars and activists portrayed emancipation and liberation at that very time: to see if they negotiated or failed to negotiate Western definitions and Eastern realities. In that sense, given material is not used to simply reinforce or refute the claim that feminism was an imported Western (i.e. capitalist) product that had no place interfering with the development. of socialism. It also urges us to re-consider the common knowledges we have, in order to see how they become situated as commo

Ratings of usability of didactic models: a comparative case study in Croatia and Germany

The study refers to the unfavourable reputation and status of general didactics as well as its decreasing importance in teacher education. This is a result of poor performance achieved in international tests by students. They score low on knowledge and arguments, and empirical studies indicate that didactic models are useless. In view of the above problem, the aim of this article is to examine the validity of the argument that didactic models are useless. It is necessary to examine if general didactics are being in an unfavourable position along with its possible successors in the international context. In order to achieve that, we conducted an empirical study into the usability of didactic models for lesson planning in Croatia and compared it with the results obtained in previous research in Germany. The term usability means the advantages of theory in practice. On the basis of the results of the empirical study, we concluded that didactic models are not generally unusable. Additionally, they are different according to their usability. These results open a path for further research on this topic in the international context