Regional Formation and Development Studies

The application of Project Management (PM) tools and techniques in public sector is gradually becoming an important issue indeveloping economies, especially in a new development country like Latvia where projects of different size and structures are undertaken.The paper examined the application of the project management practice in public sector in Latvia. Public sector projectmanagement in Latvia become popular in recent years as there is different type of public funding sources available. The paperdescribes the public sector project management practice in Latvia. Study shows that public sector project maturity level is low andshould be improved. Research period covers the time period from January 2013 – March 2013.

Emocinis intelektas (EI) yra vienas svarbių veiksmingo valdymo veiksniųtuose šios veiklos aspektuose, kurie tiesiogiai susiję su tarpasmeniniaissantykiais. EI svarbos analizė ypač aktuali lyderystės reiškinio požiūriu.Įvairių valdymo funkcijų vykdymo veiksmingumas daug kuo susijęs su lyderiopotencialo realizavimu. Emocinis vadovo intelektas, šios srities mokslininkųnuomone, yra vienas svarbiausių jo lyderystės profilio aspektų. Šių gebėjimųugdymas gali gerokai pagerinti specialistų profesinės veiklos veiksmingumąvaldymo srityje. Tyrimu, atlikusvadovų EI esmės ir jo struktūrinių elementų raiškos analizę, siekta nustatyti organizacijų vadovųEI ugdymo galimybes, suformuoti projektinius vadovų EI ugdymo sprendimus ir jųįgyvendinimo priemones. Siekiantnustatyto tikslo teoriniame lygmenyje atliekama mokslinės literatūros šaltinių analizė, apibendrinimas ir palyginimas.Empiriniam organizacijų vadovų EI ugdymo galimybių bei projektiniųsprendimų nustatymo tyrimui atlikti taikomi kokybiniai ir kiekybiniai tyrimobei duomenų apdorojimo metodai. Vadovų EI ugdymo programos įgyvendinimo ir organizavimo etapams numatyti taikomasgrafinis vaizdavimas. Remiantisatliktu tyrimu suformuluoti vadovų emocinio intelekto ugdymo sprendimai siekiant padidinti organizacijųveiklos efektyvumą, pateikiama vadovų emocinio intelekto ugdymo programa bei apibrėžiamos jos įgyvendinimo procedūros.

The system of local governments financing, which is used in Estonia is based on personal income tax and supports paid by the state. A system of that kind creates enormous inequality between the local governments. The continuing decrease of income taxes and the increase of tax-free minimum arises the role of state supports. Central government reduced essentially the part of income taxes assigned for local governments and supports in 2007–2010. That’s why the municipalities met a difficult economic situation. The greatest costs for municipalities is education. Government has taken a course to abolishing rural schools. As the analyses demonstrate the schools are enormous source of incomes for municipalities. Therefore the abolishment of schools would made the financial situation of municipalities worse even more. A special method wasn’t created for the analysis. The classical economic means – tables, indexes and marginal analyses were used.

Educational institutions create certain environmental impacts in their operation – these impacts can be grouped into the sectors of waste, water, energy, transport and others. There is a need for educational institutions to adopt effective environmental management systems in order to reduce these impacts, as well as those of the whole municipality. The Eco-Schools programme is one of the most comprehensive and popular models of environmental education and management in the world. In recent years, the Eco-Schools programme has proved its effectiveness in numerous evaluations in several countries. The programme aims to raise awareness about environmental issues. Therefore, this programme encourages environmentally responsible behaviour involving not only members of specific schools but also reaching out to the local community. The aim of the present study was to evaluate an environmental management model of the Eco-Schools programme in Latvia. Moreover, the author assessed the country’s potential to develop environmental management systems in schools, improve environmental education and create pro-environmental attitudes and values. For research, qualitative and quantitative research methods were used: analysis of documents and a survey. The conducted survey helped to evaluate the experience of the Eco-Schools programme and prepare recommendations for policy proposals about the Eco-Schools programme as an environmental management instrument in Latvia. Also, the role of the Eco-Schools programme in promoting sustainable development was assessed. As a result, the benefits and drawbacks of the programme were identified to plan further development and, therefore, to promote efficient environmental management in educational institutions and local communities.

Nowadays, in times of socio-economic and especially information technology development, the issue of human relations becomes more and more important. The aim of the article was to analyse the role of social media in shaping relations between universities and students. Given that aim the authors carried out research where in the framework of international cooperation prepared a research tool and conducted pilot studies. Students of selected universities, including Polish and Lithuanian ones, were a target group of the study. The conducted research clearly indicated the dominant role of Facebook as a communication portal used by students within universities. It appeared to be the most recognised primary tool for both rapid information flow and relationship building. The findings may be of interest to universities and public institutions or private actors, and, in particular, to social network operators.

Patyčias profesionaliame sporte nagrinėjančioje mokslinėje literatūroje pastaraisiais metais nemažai dėmesio skiriama šio reiškinio

The subject of this study is leadership styles in educational establishments. Our tasks were as follows: to analyse leadership styles and to carry out an expert study aiming at the evaluation of leadership styles in educational establishments. The methods of investigation consisted in the analysis of scientific literature, systemisation, application of the principles of logical analysis and synthesis, generalisation, induction and deduction.

In this paper the author has developed place marketing strategy model for Latgale region that could be used as the base for working out programs of social and economic development. The author defines essence and specific of the marketing places conception, analyses Latgale region as marketing object based on segmentation and research of target markets. Interrogatory methods were used to investigate target audience of the region. The results of analysis of Latgale region and the results of the research of its target markets became empirical base for Latgale region place marketing strategy model. The developed place marketing strategy for Latgale region is based on regular and systematic investigation of the condition of the territory and its development tendencies in order to take rational decisions and to choose the priority development directions in the conditions of limited resources in accordance with real or potential demand of the target markets and to allocate the existing resources for its satisfaction.

Tourism is a sophisticated activity of any national economy. The originality of regional tourism impacts the application of special mix of means concerning insufficient professional knowledge and competences of enterpreneurs in the frame of providence of high quality services, hence, the regional tourism development interferens with specific problems. By current driven factors in regional tourism, such as high entrepreneurship, investments, variety of serviness, warrant a new era of local economy and serve for the strategic tourism development as tools and specific scenario. Sustainable tourism sector accesses new stock of acitivities concerning competitiveness amplification and popularization or implication of new resources. The current task of research is to identify the impacts of sustainable tourism development in the frame of amplification of new tourism resources concerning business range and sustainability of regional development.

The following article is devoted to determine what the main tendencies are concerning the Environmental Management Systems’ certification in the accordance with ISO 14001 and EMAS’ registrations in the years 1999–2013 from a different countries’ perspective. Giving examples of representative quantitative data, the author presents dynamics of the growth of environmental management systems and also absolute positional qualifications (describing numbers of certificates and registrations), as well as relative qualifications (presenting numbers of certificates and registrations per million residents) in various European countries. The quantitative analyses that have been conducted show a general increasing tendency regarding the number of certificates and registrations. Looking from a perspective of different European countries, Italy and Spain have gained highest evaluation concerning the certification of environmental management systems according ISO 14001 and registration in EMAS.