EMPLOYEE PERCEPTIONS ABOUT THE EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL IN MEGA SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS

The EFQM Excellence Model, which is a scale based on the rules of total quality management, is applied to companies, both in the private and public sectors, with the aim of better satisfying both consumers and employees (Foncera, Amaral and Oliveira, 2021). The purpose of the present paper was to record employees' perceptions of the EFQM Excellence Model in mega sports organizations. It was hypothesized that the average of the five criteria namely Leadership, Human Resources, Strategy and Policy, Suppliers / Sponsors / Resources, and Procedures that they constitute the enablers, would not differ significantly from the average of the four results criteria namely Results for customers, Results of Human Resources, Results for society and Performance Results that they constitute the results. Ninety-nine employees of Peace and Friendship Stadium, who agreed to take part in the study completed the questionnaire of the Administrative Excellence of Greek Sports Organizations (Karastathis, Afthinos, Gargalianos, 2014), which was modified accordingly for the purpose of the study. The reliability check produced a Cronbach's α index of 0.88, while the corresponding indices for the 9 criteria ranged from 0.77 to 0.90. After the analysis of the data carried out with descriptive statistics and the Wilcoxon test, it was founded that there was a statistically significant difference between the five and four model’s criteria (3.77±0.35 vs. 3.30±0.34, z=-8.391, p<0.001). It is concluded that the perceptions of the employees of the Peace and Friendship stadium are positive for the criteria of the conditions of the European model of business excellence and less positive for its results.  Article visualizations

Human and divine responsibility in archaic Greek poetry

The purpose of my thesis is to examine the relation between the human and the divine in the Homeric poems, and define thereupon the limits of human and divine responsibility. To this end I particularly focus on the Homeric concepts of fate and divine justice, as these are expressed mainly by the terms and . Nonetheless, since the Greek terms do not always coincide in their semantics with the respective terms of any modern language, it is regarded as necessary that the field of each term be defined prior to the examination of the concepts themselves. Similarly, issues such as morality and Homeric ethics have to be raised, since they form the basis upon which any discussion of Homeric thought can rely. The Iliad and the Odyssey employ the two basic ideas of fate and divine justice each in a discrete manner, and this requires that each poem be examined separately. A comparison between the two works, necessary for a more overall idea of the Homeric world and the Homeric compositions, is incorporated in the chapter on the Odyssey

EVALUATION OF THE EFQM EXCELLENCE MODEL IN MEGA SPORTS ORGANIZATIONS

The application of the EFQM excellence model and the adoption of its principles enables sports organizations to achieve significant results, that will satisfy both customers and employees. Although many companies and organizations apply the EFQM excellence model, few mega sports organizations have adopted its application. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess if employees of mega sports organizations applied the processes of the EFQM excellence model and if there are differences between sexes. One hundred and forty-six employees at the Olympic Athletic Center of Athens "Spiros Louis", who agreed to take part in the study were asked to rate the nine criteria (Leadership, Human resources, Strategy and Policy, Suppliers/Sponsors/Resources, Processes, People outcomes, Customer outcomes, Results for the Society and Key performance results), of the "Administrative Excellence of Greek Sports Organizations" questionnaire (Karastathis, Afthinos, Gargalianos, 2014). The statistical tests used to analyze the data were: a) descriptive statistics, b) the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (for the normality of the dependent variables), c) the Cronbach reliability coefficient "a" (for the reliability of the scale) and d) the Kruskal-Wallis (to compare the average values of men and women). After the analysis of the data, the following were found: a) the internal consistency of the scale was 0.90, b) the Leadership criterion (4.23±0.70) had the lowest score and the Key performance results (2.83±0.95) had the highest score, c) it was observed a statistically significant difference between men and women only in criterion 5 Procedures (chi square=5.14, p<0.023). It is concluded that according to the estimates of the employees (men and women) at the Athens Olympic Sports Center "Spiros Louis" there is an attempt to apply some principles of the EFQM excellence model. Also, women had a more positive assessment than men in the Procedure criterion.  Article visualizations