Vol.46, No 6 (2013)

Marija Turnšek Mikačić

Fakulteta za organizacijske študije FOŠ Novo mesto

Marija Ovsenik

Institute for Management

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The narrow field of research is to develop a model for building of personal excellence using a career plan which is qualitatively and quantitatively empirically tested and confirmed. The purpose of this research is to determine the factors, which influence the feeling of personal excellence of participants of education regarding the writing of a career plan in relation to the other participants who were not educated in career planning. The qualitative analyses consists of basic experience data which was collected during the education process in 20 essays and the paradigmatic model with the final theory was elaborated, based on which we created a questionnaire. Quantitative analysis has been elaborated with 547 participants and non-participants of education. With the statistical analyses of data, we used the bivariate analysis to test the linear connection of individual pairs of variables. While searching for the differences between both groups we used t-test for independent samples. With factor analyses, we tried to find out weather the relations among the examined variables can be explained with the smaller number of indirectly examined variables. The final model consists of three elements: (1) relation to the career, (2) self-esteem and (3) perception of personal excellence. The management can use the results of this research in their management decision making. The increased success of every individual organization benefits the whole society. The research represents the original contribution and offers new approach, based on the paradigm of understanding of career and the importance of its planning as a motive of excellence.

Key words: career planning, research of career planning, personal excellence, employability, career break, qualitative analyses, quantitative analyses, neurolinguistic programming.

Shulagna Sarkar

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Training is a usual formula for organisations through which employees are introduced to learning, but the challenge lies in identifying the appropriate training needs of employees. The success of a training program depends primarily on the need assessment. The paper discusses the process of competency mapping and focuses on how competency mapping can be used for conducting training need assessment. The paper is an empirical research based on both public and private manufacturing units in India. Primary and secondary data was collected using number of techniques. Gap analysis has been performed for employees and it has also been aimed to verify the changes in competency gaps on applying need based training. On providing need based training, significant difference was measured in the level of competencies of employees. The paper shares a practical insight on the implementation of competency mapping for training need analysis. The research is focused on manufacturing units only, whereas there is a huge scope for it to be implemented in service industries also. The paper is an original piece of research where a model has been designed to resolve training issues of manufacturing industries.

Mitja Jeraj

Miha Marič

University of Maribor, Faculty of Organizational Sciences

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The main purpose of this paper is to present empirical analysis of the relation between entrepreneurial curiosity and entrepreneurial self-efficacy. A detailed literature review in a broad field of entrepreneurship, narrow field of entrepreneurship psychology, and organizational sciences revealed, at one hand different connections between determinants influencing entrepreneurs, and latest scientific research trends on the other hand. Although the significance of curiosity in motivating and learning has received expressive scholarly support, like also entrepreneurial self-efficacy as one of the most studied personal attributes among entrepreneurs, no study to our knowledge existed in relation to entrepreneurial curiosity connected with entrepreneurial self-efficacy. An online multi-country survey was conducted in Slovenia and USA among entrepreneurs and results of structural equation modeling showed that entrepreneurial curiosity and entrepreneurial self-efficacy are related. Entrepreneurial curiosity has a positive impact on entrepreneurial self-efficacy of running entrepreneurial tasks. The findings of this research have both theoretical and practical implications.

Riko Novak

DOBA Fakulteta

Anja Slatinšek

Gabrijel Devetak

Abstract

Background/Purpose: The article explores the importance of motivating factors for the international mobility of undergraduate students who participated in a mobility programme and completed part of their studies at selected higher education institutions. The empirical research was conducted on a population of 3,539 mobile undergraduate students, who took part in mobility programmes between 2006 and 2011 at three selected higher education institutions in three different European countries (1 – Germany: Duale Hochschule Baden‑Württemberg Karlsruhe, 2 – Norway: University of Tromsø, 3 – Slovenia: Faculty of Management). The purpose of this article is to present the underlying motivating factors in relation to the selected institution on a sample of 288 undergraduate students during the period studied. On the basis of these findings, we came to the conclusion that most of the students participated in students’ mobility programmes especially to gain international study and life experiences. Furthermore, we established a statistically significant difference in the duration of a mobility period in connection with gender and the satisfaction with the mobility programme.

Goparaju Purna Sudhakar

The ICFAI University Group, Plot #65, Nagarjuna Hills, Punjagutta, Hyderabad, India, 500082

Abstract

Background/Purpose: Offshore projectsuccess is very much important to both customer and the vendor. Based on veryless success rate of overall software projects globally, critical successfactors (CSFs) for offshore software projects is gaining much importance. Inthe current study based on literature review, a total of 75 success factors foroffshore software projects are identified. Further based on their appearance inliterature 20 critical success factors from 10 CSF categories are identified.Finally top six most critical success factors for offshore software projectssuch as trust, efficient communication,cultural understanding, relationshipbetween client and vendor, contract type and efficient knowledge transfer are identified. The CSFs categoriesare prioritized in the order of importance. The important CSF categories foroffshore projects identified are organizational factors (both client andvendor), project factors, cultural factors and environmental factors.