The purpose of this thesis was to explore senior managers' perceptions of strategic management, with the specific context being the National Oil Corporation in Libya. As such it represents a ground-breaking study at PhD level. An extensive literature identified key themes and models of strategy formulation and strategic management, in particular Karami's model of strategic management (Karami, 2007) together with key factors influencing the processes involved. This led to a study of the Libyan NOC based on a two-stage research design, the first a survey involving two hundred and fifty two senior managers of whom seventy returned completed questionnaires and the second conducting twelve semi-structured follow up interviews to deepen the findings from the questionnaire with qualitative data. The findings of this thesis suggest that the Libyan NOC may have relied too heavily in the past on strategy formulation and strategic management as the preserve of a very few individuals at the very top of the organisation, as the role of the great majority of senior managers was limited to monitoring and high level supervision. It was found that although political directives set the strategy for the whole organisation, there was a gap in knowledge and understanding between the senior business managers and the political appointments to the Board. Recommendations for improving practice therefore concerned steps in the strategic management process and senior managers' effectiveness especially in the Board as a team. Recommendations for reflecting the Libyan NOC as an example of a state-owned enterprise in Karami's model were to include Board effectiveness as the first step, to add medium-term objectives and to include social responsibility in environmental scanning under external factors.

In recent times, public engagement has become an increasingly prominent feature of modern public service provision. Contemporary Public Engagement (CPE) has been characterized by the proliferation of new and innovative mechanisms with which to engage and involve the public in any process in which their input is either desired or legally required. This thesis takes a qualitative approach to exploring CPE within the context of local public services in Scotland, with the explicit aim of contribution to the development of conceptual understanding and theory. The design of this project was based on a case study of the Clackmannanshire Community Health Partnership (CHP). The key empirical instruments were semi-structured interviews, a focus group, analysis of key CHP documents and participant observation by the researcher at CHP Committee meetings. This study makes three main contributions to existing knowledge. They are: a Conceptual Framework for explaining CPE within Scottish local public service provision, a Conceptual Model which is based on the Conceptual Framework and presents it at a higher level of abstraction, and the generation of substantive theory rooted in the case study data. The thesis makes two main recommendations. The first is that further comparative research should be undertaken in order to further develop and confirm the validity of Conceptual Model and substantive theory. The second is that meta-analysis should be undertaken to assist in the development of the proposed formal theory of Public Sector Reform.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between eco-friendliness as part of University Social Responsibility (USR) and the impact it has on students and their attraction towards a university. Previous research have so far not investigated on such a connection due to a general focus on the private sector, companies and therefore Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). However, the literature is full of workable information, theories and conclusions through the acceptance of a specific model considering students as customers. It makes the assumptions being made within the private sector applicable to the public sector of the higher education. The latter is a driving force for any country’s economy by training and shaping a large number of future professionals and citizens. Yet, so far, barely any association has been made with another growing consideration of our developed economies: eco-friendliness and the protection of the environment. The present quantitative study seeks to find the existence of a positive impact of the implementation of eco-friendly measures by Linköping University on Swedish students, notably in terms of attractiveness. Our findings demonstrate that most of LiU Swedish students are attracted towards an eco-friendly university, around 44% of them consider eco-friendliness as a university choice factor and the performance of Linköping University (LiU) in this domain is largely appreciated. Therefore, LiU benefits from a positive public image through its eco-friendly profile. It thus enables and favors attractiveness among Swedish students, even if the latter is seen as improvable, notably through its advertisement since it is thought to be a possible competitive advantage.

Η παρούσα εργασία εστιάζεται στην εξέταση της υφιστάμενης κατάστασης στον Οργανισμό Λιμένος Πατρών υπό το πρίσμα της Δ.Α.Π. Πιο συγκεκριμένα επιχειρεί να διερευνήσει κατά πόσο εφαρμόζονται εκπαιδευτικά προγράμματα τα οποία συμβάλλουν στην αναβάθμιση και τον εκσυγχρονισμό του οργανισμού. / The Present Study examines the degree to which, the public organizations make use of the advantages of Human Training and Development Programs. Also tries to identify the essential factors for successful Human Training and Development.

Problem. With the Swedish public sectors problem with efficiency in mind, several reforms have beeninitiated during the last decades. These reforms go, in academic contexts, under the name“New public management”. The reforms have resulted in, among other things, an increasedcompetition, privatization and goal-orientation in the public sector. These new conditionshave changed the public leadership challenge and demand an increased focus on innovation todecrease costs and increase value as a central aspect of the Swedish public leadership. Purpose. The purpose for this research has been to examine the conditions for innovation in a publicorganization and how the leadership can improve the organizational innovativeness. Method. This research does not aim to measure the innovativeness in a public organization, instead itfocuses on understanding the condition for innovation and how the leadership can affect theorganizational innovativeness. Hence, it is motivated that I use a qualitative approach in theresearch process. Semi structured interviews and precedent research are being used as afoundation for the results and recommendations given. Conclusion. The leadership’s opportunities to improve the organizational innovativeness depend on anumber of independent organizational variables and the adaption of the variables to oneanother and the system as a whole. Leadership includes both the formal boss and the coworkerin a relationship that ought to be characterizing by reciprocity and cooperation. Bothmanagement and leadership are vital competences for the formal boss as both structure andculture must support each other. The conditions for organizational innovativeness improve ifthe organization has a structure and a culture that enhances: transboundary cooperation, spaceand energy for creative activities, a common context that contributes to an organizationalidentity and motivation and competence and organizational learning. The examinedorganization needs to decentralize the right to make decisions, improve the openness of theculture, and strengthen the organizational identity and audit structures in purpose to facilitatetransboundary cooperation.

Magistro baigiamajame darbe analizuojame personalo vadybos procesų – personalo poreikio planavimo, verbavimo, atrankos, veiklos vertinimo, mokymo ir kvalifikacijos kėlimo, motyvavimo ir atleidimo – vykdymą Lietuvos savivaldybėse (Ukmergės rajono savivaldybės atvejis). Atlikdami kokybinį tyrimą, siekiame įvertinti personalo vadybos situaciją savivaldybėje, nustatyti esmines problemas. Darbe siūlome galimus personalo vadybos problemų savivaldybėse sprendimo būdus. / Staff management in Lithuania's municipalities is a department which has been given little attention. There are a lot of literary sources and treatises about staff management in business management department; however it is hard to find both theoretical and practical analysis about the peculiarities of staff administration in municipalities. The tradition of staff management has not yet been established. The goal of this thesis is to explore the staff management situation in Lithuania's municipalities (as in the case of Municipality of Ukmerge District), to define main problems and to suggest trends of development. To reach this goal a qualitative research has been applied – half structured interview with the employees of Ukmerge District Municipality and with experts of the public sector. The results of the research suggest that the most problematic staff management issues in municipalities are motivation, planning of staff demand, and evaluation of official duties. Staff training and raising qualification are the best organized staff management elements in municipalities. The most effective means of staff recruitment is within the organization. Applying recruitment in higher educational institutions is a method least used in staff management in municipalities practice. Career opportunities, objective results evaluation of competence and official duties are the main motives stimulating municipalities' employees to raise qualifications; however individual employees'... [to full text]

Darbuotojų motyvacijos klausimas yra aktualus ne tik privačiojo, bet ir viešojo sektoriaus organizacijoms. Vis dažniau akcentuojamas valstybinių įstaigų darbuotojų motyvacijos trūkumas, kas sąlygoja mažesnį veiklos efektyvumą, o tuo pačiu ir viso sektoriaus efektyvumą. Darbo tikslas – pateikti sprendimus Kauno apskrities viršininko administracijos darbuotojų motyvacijai gerinti. Darbą sudaro trys pagrindinės dalys. Pirmojoje darbo dalyje atskleidžiama darbuotojų motyvacijos samprata, reikšmė, apžvelgiamos pagrindinės motyvacijos teorijos bei pagrindinės valstybinių organizacijų darbuotojų motyvavimo priemonės. Antrojoje darbo dalyje atlikta Kauno apskrities viršininko administracijos darbuotojų motyvacijos analizė bei organizacijos darbuotojų motyvacijos tyrimas. Tyrimui iškelta hipotezė - Kauno apskrities viršininko administracija susiduria su silpnos darbuotojų motyvacijos problema - buvo patvirtinta. Trečiojoje darbo dalyje remiantis antroje darbo dalyje atliktos analizės rezultatais, formuojami motyvacijos problemų sprendimai. / The problem of the research: attempt to improve activities of public institutions depends on ability successfully and rightly to motivate public service workers. The public institutions must find the methods to improve employees’ motivation, because only motivated employees can reach the aims of organization and improve the quality of public service offering. The main aim of this work is to analyse and to estimate motivation system in Kaunas County Governor’s administration, to appraise the possibilities of improvement of employee motivation ant to present the possible solutions of actual motivation problems in this organization. The overview on the motivation conception sources, analysis of importance of motivation is made in the first part of this work. Seeking for a better understanding, the main classical motivation theories’ features are overviewed. Kaunas County Governor’s Administration’s employee’s motivation is analysed in the second part of this work. A questionnaire research showed, that the main motivators are payment, social guarantees, good relationship with manager and colleagues, the right estimation process, possibilities of career in organization, the possibilities to raise qualification. A tested hypothesis is the following: the existing personnel motivation is weak in Kaunas County Governor’s Administration. This hypothesis was confirmed. In the third part the suggestions and the ways of solving employees’ motivation problems in this organization are... [to full text]

Viešojo sektoriaus kultūros įstaigos pastarąjį dešimtmetį tapo aktyvios kultūros produktų rinkos dalimi. Juntama konkurencija su privačiu sektoriumi skatina didinti veiklos efektyvumą. Aktuali tampa kultūros sektoriaus modernizavimo, tinklo optimizavimo tema. Įstaigų vadovai kelia darbuotojams aukštesnius kokybės tikslus nepaisant to, jog valstybės lėšų kultūros sektoriui skiriama nepakankamai. Lietuvos kultūros sektoriaus institucijų vadybos procesai, vertinant iš visuotinės kokybės vadybos pozicijų, tebėra tradiciniai – trūksta orientacijos į galutinį vartotoją, išlieka nepagrįstai dideli ir produkcijos kokybei neadekvatūs įstaigų administravimo kaštai, neaiškūs tikslai, atliekamos funkcijos neapibrėžtos kokybės kriterijais. Kultūros įstaigos turi motyvacijos valdyti veiklos kokybę, tačiau joms trūksta žinių, metodinių gairių. Plačiai nagrinėjama kultūros produkto kokybės (meninės vertės) tema, bet kultūros įstaigų valdymo klausimais tebėra mažai tyrinėti. Nepavyko rasti įrodymų apie kokybės vadybos metodų taikymo inicaityvas Lietuvos viešojo sektoriaus kultūros įstaigose. Šio darbo tikslas atskleisti kokybės vadybos metodų taikymo galimybes ir poreikį siekiant gerinti viešojo sektoriaus kultūros įstaigų veiklą. Iškeltos dvi susijusios hipotezės, jog viešojo sektoriaus kultūros įstaigų vadyba vadovaujasi kokybės vadybos principais, metodais, priemonėmis (1), o kokybės vadybos metodai gali būti taikomi siekiant gerinti viešojo sektoriaus kultūros įstaigų veiklą (... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Public sector cultural institutions became active members of the cultural production market in the last decade. The competition they experience with the private sector prompts them to improve efficiency. As such, the issue of the sector‘s modernization and network optimization become topical. In view of the inadequate resourses state management has at its disposal, this sets high quality objectives to their staff. From the viewpoint of Quality Management the way in which cultural institutions are currently managed, appears traditional in the sense that there is still lack of customer focus, unreasonable demand on administration assets, uncertain objectives, goals and criteria to assess them. Cultural institutions are highly motivated to operate the quality of their main activities, but they need theoretical and methodical support. There are many publications dealing with the quality of cultural productions as far as the artistic value is concerned. However, governance issues seem to be uncommon to examine. An extensive search showed that there are today no public reports on initiatives to apply the Quality Management approach to public sector cultural institutions in Lithuania. So, the main aim of this work is to demonstrate the possibility to apply the Quality Management approach to public sector institutions in order to improve their activities. With reference to the findings of this work, public sector cultural institutions are encouraged to apply the Common Assessment... [to full text]

World financial and economic crisis encouraged government institutions to find ways for more efficient organization of public procurement. Therefore there is growing interest in public procurement centralization process. In the dissertation there are analyzed economic, management and law aspects of public procurement centralization. The aim of the dissertation is to create a model for evaluating state’s financial benefits from centralization of public procurement and to evaluate these benefits in the case of Lithuania. By generalizing scientific literature there are abstracted elements influencing formation of financial benefits from centralization of public procurement, also there are advantages and disadvantages of public procurement centralization being analyzed. By synthesizing scientific knowledge of purchasing management and auction theory, few hypotheses are raised to explain differences in prices between centralized and decentralized public procurement. Empirical research of public procurement centralization was conducted and based on research results evaluation of Lithuanian state financial benefits from public procurement centralization was carried out. Also causes of price differences between centralized and decentralized public procurement were defined. Generalization of research results enabled to do prediction of development for public procurement centralization. / Pasaulyje 2008 metais kilusi finansinė ir ekonominė krizė paskatino valdžios institucijas ieškoti būdų, kaip efektyviau naudoti valstybės biudžeto lėšas, skirtas viešiesiems pirkimams. Todėl susidomėjimas viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimu pastaruoju metu labai padidėjo. Disertacijoje nagrinėjami ekonominiai, vadybiniai ir teisiniai viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo aspektai. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – sukurti viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo finansinės naudos vertinimo modelį ir remiantis šiuo modeliu atlikti šios naudos vertinimo tyrimą viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo Lietuvoje atveju. Disertacijoje, apibendrinus mokslinę literatūrą, išskiriami veiksniai, lemiantys viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo finansinę naudą, taip pat analizuojami pirkimų centralizavimo pranašumai ir trūkumai. Sintetinant pirkimų valdymo dalyko ir aukcionų teorijos žinias, iškeliamos hipotezės paaiškinančios skirtumus tarp kainų centralizuotuose ir decentralizuotuose viešuosiuose pirkimuose. Darbe atlikti keli empiriniai viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo tyrimai, kurių pagrindu įvertinta viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo Lietuvoje finansinė nauda. Taip pat nustatytos kainų skirtumo centralizuotuose ir decentralizuotuose viešuosiuose pirkimuose susidarymo priežastys. Apibendrinti tyrimų rezultatai leido pateikti viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo plėtros prognozę.

Pasaulyje 2008 metais kilusi finansinė ir ekonominė krizė paskatino valdžios institucijas ieškoti būdų, kaip efektyviau naudoti valstybės biudžeto lėšas, skirtas viešiesiems pirkimams. Todėl susidomėjimas viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimu pastaruoju metu labai padidėjo. Disertacijoje nagrinėjami ekonominiai, vadybiniai ir teisiniai viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo aspektai. Pagrindinis darbo tikslas – sukurti viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo finansinės naudos vertinimo modelį ir remiantis šiuo modeliu atlikti šios naudos vertinimo tyrimą viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo Lietuvoje atveju. Disertacijoje, apibendrinus mokslinę literatūrą, išskiriami veiksniai, lemiantys viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo finansinę naudą, taip pat analizuojami pirkimų centralizavimo pranašumai ir trūkumai. Sintetinant pirkimų valdymo dalyko ir aukcionų teorijos žinias, iškeliamos hipotezės paaiškinančios skirtumus tarp kainų centralizuotuose ir decentralizuotuose viešuosiuose pirkimuose. Darbe atlikti keli empiriniai viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo tyrimai, kurių pagrindu įvertinta viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo Lietuvoje finansinė nauda. Taip pat nustatytos kainų skirtumo centralizuotuose ir decentralizuotuose viešuosiuose pirkimuose susidarymo priežastys. Apibendrinti tyrimų rezultatai leido pateikti viešųjų pirkimų centralizavimo plėtros prognozę. / World financial and economic crisis encouraged government institutions to find ways for more efficient organization of public procurement. Therefore there is growing interest in public procurement centralization process. In the dissertation there are analyzed economic, management and law aspects of public procurement centralization. The aim of the dissertation is to create a model for evaluating state’s financial benefits from centralization of public procurement and to evaluate these benefits in the case of Lithuania. By generalizing scientific literature there are abstracted elements influencing formation of financial benefits from centralization of public procurement, also there are advantages and disadvantages of public procurement centralization being analyzed. By synthesizing scientific knowledge of purchasing management and auction theory, few hypotheses are raised to explain differences in prices between centralized and decentralized public procurement. Empirical research of public procurement centralization was conducted and based on research results evaluation of Lithuanian state financial benefits from public procurement centralization was carried out. Also causes of price differences between centralized and decentralized public procurement were defined. Generalization of research results enabled to do prediction of development for public procurement centralization.