Knowledge Management as a Driver of Continuous Change Management Improvement in Academic Institutions

Globalization processes have brought significant changes in society in general, on the market, in economy, and especially in academic institutions. The changes taking place through the Bologna process continually present new challenges to Croatian academic institutions. Programs such as Erasmus, Socrates, and others permanently support learning and research, as well as improvements in teaching in order to achieve higher levels of knowledge and competitiveness for teachers, researchers, and students. The trends in higher education show an increase in the following demands towards academic institutions: - to organize higher education in the context of lifelong learning, - to internationalize the education process and research, - to cooperate and create an interactive partnership between university and business, - to reorganize knowledge, - to provide mobility and flexibility for “knowledge-producing” jobs, - to continuously promote new knowledge and new expectations. Knowledge based on an economic, i.e. business premise is marked by information production, transfer and dissemination – for universities in general, as well as for individual processes in academic institutions. The conclusion of different European (academic) commissions is that more should be invested in modernization and quality of university and other higher education teaching. The aim is to create a direct impact on the quality of education, to better implement new positive trends in university development, as well as to provide better facilities and equipment for all students, teachers and researchers.knowledge, higher education, university, academic institutions, change management, knowledge management

Modelling the role of inter-cultural contact in the motivation of learning English as a foreign language.

The research reported in this paper explores the effect of direct and indirect cross-cultural contact on Hungarian school children's attitudes and motivated behaviour by means of structural equation modelling. Our data are based on a national representative survey of 1,777 13/14-year-old learners of English and German in Hungary; 237 of the students learning English with the highest level of inter-cultural contact were selected for analysis. Our model indicates that for our participants, motivated behaviour is determined not only by language-related attitudes but also by the views the students hold about the perceived importance of contact with foreigners. The results of our study also reveal that the perceived importance of contact was not related to students’ direct contact experiences with target language speakers but was influenced by the students’ milieu and indirect contact. Among the contact variables, it was only contact through media products that had an important position in our model, whereas direct contact with L2 speakers played an insignificant role in affecting motivated behaviour and attitudes

We Can't Argue Forever

We analyze time-costly decision-making in committees by privately informed individuals, such as juries, panels, boards, etc. In the spirit of the Coase Conjecture, we show that the decision is "almost instantaneous" when individuals entertain identical objectives. Delay can only be understood as the outcome of conflicting (biased) objectives.

'Great Expectations': The motivational profile of Hungarian English language students.

In this article we investigate what characterizes the language learning motivation of Hungarian English language students in terms of Dörnyei and Ottó's process model of motivation (Motivation in Action, 1998). We used a mixed-method research design, in which qualitative interviews conducted with 20 students were supplemented with questionnaire data gained from 100 participants in order to have a better understanding of the apparent discrepancy between students' and society's expectations of teaching English Language at tertiary level and the present educational system in Hungary. The ambivalent nature of English language students' motivational profile was found to reflect this situation. The interview data revealed that the respondents had very favourable motivational characteristics but they did not invest sufficient energy in maintaining and improving their language competence. This is explained with reference to a low level of learner autonomy primarily caused by teacher-centered instruction

Edible films in the food industry

Jestivi filmovi nalaze se u uporabi već niz godina (želatina, kapsule, ovitci za kobasice, prevlake od čokolade, šećera i od voska). Od suvremenih zaštitnih fi lmova zahtijeva se: (i) dobra barijera prema vlazi; (ii) dobra barijera na kisik; i (iii) dobra mehanička i organoleptička svojstva. Aditivi hrane poput antimikotičnih tvari ili antioksidansi također se mogu dodati u jestive filmove u cilju poboljšanja njihovih zaštitnih svojstava koji ipak imaju slabija svojstva u odnosu na nejestive materijale. Primjena jestivih filmova je ogromna: pojedinačna zaštita proizvoda (npr. bombona, suhog voća, sireva, ribe, dijelova mesa, smrznute hrane itd.), kontrola unutarnje vlage ili transporta sokova, npr. kod proizvoda poput pita, pizza (smrznutih ili svježih proizvoda). Svrha jestivih filmova nije u zamjeni za nejestive-sintetičke ambalažne materijale. Njihova primjena očituje se u tome da djeluju na sveukupno poboljšanje kvalitete hrane, povećaju njenu trajnost i/ili smanje udio upotrijebljene ambalaže.Edible food films have been used for many years (gelatine, capsules, sausage casings, chocolate or sugar coatings, wax coatings). Modern edible protective fi lms require: (i) good moisture barrier properties; (ii) good oxygen barrier properties; and (iii) good mechanical and organoleptic properties. Food additives such as antimycotic agents or antioxygen agents could be added to these films, to improve their protective effect which is generally poor compared to that of non-edible materials. Potential applications of edible films are numerous: individual protection (ex. candies, dry fruits, cheeses, fi sh, meat pieces, frozen foods etc.) control of internal moisture or solute transfers in products such as pies, cakes, pizzas (frozen or fresh). Food companies are looking to edible films and coatings to add value to their products, increase shelf-life and/or reduce packaging