The Aspects of Linguistic Competence among Police Officers in Lithuania and Slovakia

A linguistic competence is considered to be a measure of functional knowledge of the language. The authors have an opinion that any kind of communicative activity should be treated as a part of a wider approach towards linguistic competence. It means that linguistic competence is determined by the quality of regular language as well as by the speaker’s internal culture. The concept of competence is described as a combination of the following elements: knowledge, skills, values and personal qualities. The purpose of this study is to reveal the characteristics of linguistic competence of the police officers, and their linguistic competence experience. The objectives of this article were to analyse the role of language in the human communication process, linguistic competence and its expression in police work, as well as to compare linguistic competences of the Lithuanian and Slovak police officers. The role of language in communication process has been reviewed by analysing the concept of communication, the main component of communicative competence – language (linguistic) competence. The analysis part of the article involves presentation of the methodology and results of the survey on the Lithuanian and Slovak police officers’ approach towards the linguistic competence. Based on the analysis of the survey, confidence and positive evaluation of the police officers’ language knowledge have been defined. Police officers were found to be interested in a regular and ethical language and its use. Police officers recognized that familiar, impolite and irregular communication affects the public image of the police. The results showed that respondents possessed a positive approach towards their existing linguistic competence. Furthermore, the survey revealed that police officers appreciate knowledge and skills of communication in foreign languages

Effective management of a learning organization: creating opportunities for informal learning

Changes in innovation and technology, globalization processes, increasing competition determine changes in the activities of learning organizations (educational institutions). Effective management helps manage these changes and meet emerging challenges. The concept of learning organizations is closely related to future perspectives, perceptions of an institution that is constantly evolving and changing. Those changes affect not only the institution itself but also its employees who need to change, improve, and meet the challenges that arise with it. In order to overcome such changes, not only the purposeful lifelong learning is important, but also the self-directed learning. In both cases, this can only be achieved with innovative and focused leadership that facilitates a variety of forms of employee learning. The essence of effective management in learning organizations is related to the goals pursued jointly both by the organization itself and its employees because otherwise it will be difficult to improve and change. With this in mind, the aim of the article is to identify effective management solutions that help to improve the self-learning of employees in this case the teachers. To achieve the goal, the tasks are formulated to discuss the concepts of effective management and learning organization, to describe the theoretical aspects of self-learning; to reveal the self-learning strategies of the learning organization which is the school. Thus, the research highlighted the opportunities provided by the effective management of learning organizations, reflected in self-learning, for the development of employees so that their skills and knowledge are constantly updated. Emphasized self-learning strategies - practical work, observation, communication and collaboration, reflection, reading - are preliminary guidelines for creating a suitable learning environment within the organization

Peculiarities of the police officer's profession image in their attitude

Aspects of choosing a profession and career planning are closely related to the description of the features of the image of the profession, otherwise known as the image of the profession. The choice of profession is an essential part of life, which has a significant influence upon the person and their further occupation. Furthermore, the choice of profession and job is related to the satisfaction of financial, social and personal needs. Therefore, it is very important that the choice of profession is as accurate as possible and that the profession evokes a strong feeling of vocation. A career develops accordingly, if a person is satisfied with the job and one’s current expectations meet the current situation, then the career development is successful and thrives as individually sought. For a career to follow a successful developing process it is vital to meticulously systematize the characteristics of a particular profession that would help to decide whether one wants to choose it not. Due to these reasons whilst researching the police officer’s image it is crucial to assess the point of view of current police officers in regard to the officer’s image. Correspondingly, the purpose of the article is evoked - to reveal the perception of police officers of the image of their profession. To achieve it, the concept of choosing a profession is discussed, emphasizing the importance of vocation and the path of professional development - career; the change in the attitude of police officers about the image of their profession and its factors are determined. The hypotheses are confirmed disparately. After an empirical study, the first hypothesis - the average of the respondents' assessment of the current attitude towards the characteristics of the police officer profession is statistically significantly different from the attitude before choosing this profession - was confirmed. The second hypothesis was only partly confirmed. It was revealed that the average assessment of the characteristics of the police profession for both men and women decreases depending on the degree of the police officer