An Opinion about HR`s Mission in Rough Times

A culture preoccupied solely with money yields to a cynical behaviour and lack of interest for the individual’s problems and necessities. Capitalism, as we now see it, was driven by the lowest motivations: greed and individualism. Nothing good would ever grow having a negative motivation at its base. The survival capacity of a company is decisively enhanced by the quality of its moral standards. At this point the role of the human resources department could - and should - be of great substance. They must redefine themselves and their role, leading the way in pointing out the motivations that would drive to a more appropriate business culture. They are the conscience of the CEO, and they bear the responsibility of raising the whole game that business plays.human resource, business culture, social awareness of business.

Methods and Conditions for Achieving Continuous Improvement of Processes

In the early twentieth century, the Taylor model improved, in a spectacular maner the efficiency of the production processes. This allowed obtaining high productivity by low-skilled workers, but used in large number in the execution of production. Currently this model is questioned by experts and was replaced by the concept of "continuous improvement". The first signs of change date from the '80s, with the apparition of quality circles and groups of operators on quality issues, principles which are also found in other continuous improvement strategies like: TQM (Total Quality Management), TPM (Total Production Maintenance), Kaizen and Six-Sigma. All these strategies are based on an active participation of the workers. Within this framework, many companies organize autonomous teams of workers responsible for organizing their work and improve economic performances.continuous improvement; segment improvement; Kaizen; TQM; TPM; autonomous teams; Six Sigma.

THE STRATEGIC PERFORMANCE MANAGEMENT PROCESS

Contemporary trends in global competition, rapid technological developments and increased use of management information systems and the Internet, developments in planning and control and management thinking, and changing demographics are putting pressuresstrategy, performance management, strategic objectives, management.

THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONS' POTENTIAL OF COMPETITIVENESS ON THEIR CURRENT STRATEGIC AND TACTICAL MOVEMENTS

Organizations' competitiveness is an effect of their current strategic and tactical movements and also a cause, a driver of future performance. This paper aims to analyze competitiveness in dynamics, by taking into account the impact of organizations' potential of competitiveness on their current actions, which of course will lead to a higher or lower level of competitiveness in future.organizations, potential of competitiveness, sustained competitive advantage, strategy, management, dynamics

MODERN INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

Any significant management action can be assessed both in terms of success of immediate goals and as effect of the organization ability to embrace change. Market competition intensifies with the development of Romanian society and its needs. Companies that offer different products and services need to impose certain advantages and to increase their performances. The paper will present modern tools for measuring and evaluating organizational performance, namely: Balanced Scorecard, Deming model and Baldrige model. We also present an example for Balance Scorecard, of an organizations belonging to the cosmetics industry.management, performance, balance scorecard, performance measurement

Managerial Practices of Increasing Organizational Performances in a Competitive Environment

Excellence in management is a must in today's competitive business environment. Business has become complex and global. Traditional management practices like: strategy planning, personnel organization, budget setting and problem solving on a daily basis are still essential. Yet the emphasis is shifting. More and more significance is being placed on the organizations ability to survive and to achieve performance in these turbulent times. Management practices must evolve and change to continue to meet the need of an organization. This paper examines the management practices required in today's companies, necessary for achieving good results in organizational performances.management, managerial practices, organizational performance.

COMPETITIVENESS AND PERFORMANCE ON THE COSMETICS MARKET

Most organizations are going through massive changes. Their customers are changing, their competition is changing, their customerâ€(tm)s needs are changing and their resources availability is changing - the cosmetics companies are no different. Organizational survival and success depends on the ability of the managers to detect and adapt to critical changes in the environment, which may impact the company. \\r\\nThe paper has two main purposes. First to underline the importance performance measurement has in todayâ€(tm)s business and second to present a few key elements regarding the performance of the cosmetics sector in Romania. For this we have tried to answer the following question: Are the cosmetics companies competitive? \\r\\nThis paper is based on exploratory literature review of different approaches regarding organizational performances in organizations in general. \\r\\nDespite the global economic crisis and the general slowdown of many markets, the Romanian beauty and personal care market continued to grow in 2009. Consumer awareness and product knowledge is growing rapidly and the development of retailing chains and their widening product offer have also helped to further the development of the beauty and personal care market.\\r\\nThe paper also presents the results of section three of an online survey conducted at 10 cosmetic companies from Romania. The results have shown that multinationals have both the economic and managerial power to succeed in obtaining their goals. Even though the sample of 72 respondents was rather small, we managed to conclude from the received answers that the majority of companies focus on economic and managerial performance rather than on social and ecological performance indicators. \\r\\nThis paper aimed to contribute to the literature review development in the field of performance management. The results of this study can be of use for managers from the analyzed domain or for other researchers in the economic field. \\r\\nThe authors have contributed to the originality of this paper, by presenting pertinent conclusions about the cosmetics market from Romania, resulted from the literature review and from an empirical study. \\r\\nmanagement, performance, cosmetics market, competition

Approaches on the Operational Performance of Production Systems

The performance concept originated from the concept of firm management. The performance management of the firm involves improving its value-cost relationship, which means that the firm will be able to build a product or service, in terms of achieving cost and profitability targets, and compare the results with strategic forecasts. In addition, performance management also requires the firm's ability to develop a dynamic and continuous progress. In such conditions, its performance evaluation is not an objective in itself, but a means used by the organization to achieve progress. The paper will address issues which relate to improving performance and all the instruments used for this purpose.management, competitiveness, operational performance, performance management, production systems.

MODERN INSTRUMENTS FOR MEASURING ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE

The concept of performance Performance can be defined as "a state of competitiveness of the organization, reached through a level of efficiency and productivity which ensures a sustainable market presence" 658 . In our opinion performance needs both effectiveness and productivity simultaneous. Hence we conclude that a performing organization is efficient, competitive and productive. P. Druker considered that to be effective means "to do planned things well"; by efficiency he meant "the extent to which objectives were achieved ˝. T. Katarbinski defined effectiveness as precision in achieving targets. He suggested that efficiency is the action by which an organization achieves its goals in terms of minimal cost. Both management specialists come to reinforce the above statements on the concept of performance. The purpose of the paper is to find indicators and instruments that reflect as closely as possible the subtleties of how an organization is functioning. We started with the following questions. What indicators reflect best organizational performance? Profit level? Different rates of efficiency? Achieve planned results? The answer must take into account the multiplicity and diversity of factors that influence both individual and organizational behaviors. Performance measurement represents results quantification of activities undertaken within an organization over a period of time. For performance measurement we started from a series of questions: Is there a link between objectives, performance measurements and organization results? Are performance metrics relevant? To answer these questions we identified a series of modern management methods for measuring and assessing organizational performance. 658 M. Boulescu, M. GhiĠă, V. Mareú, ˝Auditul performanĠei˝, ed. Tribuna Economică, Bucureúti, pg. 13, 2002

Regional interplay of factors informing SMES’ density in Romania. A panel data analysis

The aim of this paper is to provide an understanding of several factors associated with the SMEs’ density distribution across Romania, and to discuss how some of the variables acknowledged in the international literature as determinants in SMEs’ dynamic are related to SMEs’ density in this case. We fitted four static panel models, one for each category of SMEs, and found a positive impact of both GDP per capita and FDI per capita on the SMEs’ density in each category, which may confirm our initial assumption that SMEs’ density can act as a signal for business opportunity. The density of employees in the research – development sector did not account for any significant contribution, while the percent of people in the 25 – 34 age group is statistically significant but holds an opposite sign to what was expected. Last, but not least, the crisis had an unexpected impact on our dependent variables