Klaipėdos universitetas

The author of the article, by way of applying theoretical analysis and using empirical evidence, as well as by analysing international documents ratified by the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania, the laws in force, and the resolutions of the Government, argues that a prerequisite for the success in building a well fare state is sustainable development of society. The aspiration of sustainable development is a challenge not only to the interaction of the economic, ecological, and social systems, but also to the interaction of sub-systems within said systems. The deficit of sustainable development in the social system destroys the structure of the society, creates prerequisites for the discrimination of some social groups, for the marginalisation of social groups, and for the rise of social exclusion. The increasing level of social exclusion poses a threat to national stability and security, therefore, it is important to timely identify the causes of the rise of social exclusion and, by removing them, to eliminate the preconditions for the formation of crisis situations.

Straipsnyje siekiama pagrįsti komunikacinės kompetencijos aktualumą socialinio darbo profesiniotapsmo procese. Atsižvelgiama į sąvokos socialinis sąsajas su ekonomikos, politikos kryptimis ir prioritetais, socialinio darbo pokyčiais praktikoje, pabrėžiant komunikaciją kaip veiklos bei patirtinio mokymosi galimybę ir šaltinį. Remiantis teorinės ir empirinės analizės rezultatais analizuojamas pagalbos šeimai procesas, akcentuojant galimybę plėtoti komunikacinę kompetenciją individualios intervencijos procese ar grupėje. Straipsnyje laikomasi mokymosi paradigmos ir socialinio įgalinimo metodologinių nuostatų, išryškinančių aktyvaus ir atsakingo veikėjo poziciją, bendradarbiavimo reikšmę, lemiančias profesinės veiklos sėkmę. Straipsnio pradžioje aptariamas dinamiškas ir nuolat kintantis socialinio darbo kontekstas, lemiantis tarpasmeninės komunikacijos trukdžius ir problemas, pagrindžiama komunikacinės kompetencijos plėtotės būtinybė. Analizuojant mokymosi konstruotiįgalinantį santykį su šeima teorines galimybes, aptariamas patirtinio mokymosi procesas, apibūdinama jo struktūra, dalyvių tarpusavio komunikacija, lemianti turinio konstravimą, naujų žinių kūrimą. Remiantis J. Eidukevičiūtės (2013) disertacinio tyrimo rezultatais, išryškinamos empirinės profesinioidentiteto formavimosi prielaidos, atskleidusios „pasilikimą“ pirminėje profesionalizacijos procesofazėje. Aktualizuojant komunikacinės kompetencijos plėtotę pagalbos šeimai procese, išryškinamiesminiai profesionalizacijos nuostatų realizavimo trukdžiai, nulemti socialinių darbuotojų ir šeimos, kaip kliento, komunikacijos problemų. Atskleidžiama eksperto praktiko arba supervizoriaus palydėjimo būtinybė patirtinio mokymosi procese, formuluojama įžvalga, kad toks palydėjimasįgalina praktiką pasitelkus refleksiją plėtoti savo, kaip socialinio darbuotojo, profesionalumą.

By means of analysing the peculiarities of cognitive authorities utilized in election programs of the candidates of Lithuanian presidential election campaign 2014, the article aims at the identification of the manifestations of evidence based policy employed to support the candidates’ proposals on the state government related issues. Analysis of the texts produced by the participants of the political campaign is based on the concept of evidence based policy. Authors of this article interpret the term of evidence based policy from the perspective of library and information science where the focus is on the use of information sources. Analysis of the manifestations of evidence based policy in the case of presidential election campaign in the Republic of Lithuania is based on the methodology framed by Kimmo Tuominen and Timo Turja. In the article the concept of cognitive authorities is interpreted on the basis of Patrick Wilson’s insights. This is the first research of the type in Lithuania which helped disclose that participants of the election campaign subjected to analysis cannot be attributed to the representatives of evidence based policy.

The paper focuses on the currently rather intensive process of the social work professionalisation and proposes to place a greater emphasis on the human dimension, i.e. social worker’s personality as a guarantee of professional success. The occupational burnout syndrome is discussed as a negative subjective circumstance of the profession of social work. The principal traits of the occupational burnout syndrome are revealed, and the dimensions of the occupational burnout syndrome are identified and characterised. On the basis of the works of Lithuanian and foreign researchers on the said subject, the discourse of the occupational burnout syndrome in social work is presented, and the factors that influence the emergence of the phenomenon (both individual and job-related / organisational) in professional activity are discussed. The empirical research by means of the so far the most popular Maslach’s Burnout Inventory (MBI) reveals the effects of the occupational burnout on social worker’s personality, practical activity, and the status of the profession of social work in the society.

Welfare in its narrow understanding means the state’s material help given to the members of society. It also may be understood as the whole of the state’s activities aimed at multi-level support for various social groups. The aim of this paper is to show different elements of material help given to society by the state which help society to meet social security. Also, the findings based on some examples of the current Polish history show how this kind of state’s support may help politicians to gain success in elections. The author argues that the same reality, i.e., social help, may be used for people’s welfare, however, it may be also used to obtain political goals. It must be noticed that using welfare for political goals often happens the situation when electoral promises are not necessary implemented after a particular party wins the election. To achieve the main purpose of this research the method of analysis was applied. Today, welfare can be used in both ways – as a form of ensuring the social safety of society and as an effective and successful tool in election campaigns.

Japanese family firms are distinguished by various interesting yet different characteristics from their counterparts in other countries. Among these characteristics are the governing structure of the ‘ie’ system, the influencing role of ‘codes of merchants’, the adoption of non-blood sons to succeed to the business, and the long-lived phenomenon of century-old family firms. Despite numerous important studies explaining these characteristics, our essential knowledge about the rational logic behind them remains limited. Thus, to further aid our understanding of these characteristics and the logical essence, this article reviews a range of literature on institutional embeddedness, including socio-political history, cultural values, and religious influence on Japanese family firms. The article also proposes a research direction to comprehend better the institutional logics behind Japanese family firms and their behaviour.

The article builds on the author’ comparative analysis of advantages and disadvantages of regional dimensions (both towards the European Union and the CIS region) of Belarusian foreign policy in framework of multilateralism. The lack of political cooperation since 1997 didn’t affect a lot the dynamic of economic bilateral cooperation between the EU countries and Belarus (since 1995 the EU is the second trade partner for Belarus after Russian Federation). Contrary, it is growing tendency in the CIS region in certain shift from bilateralism to multilateralism in pursuing national security, political and economic interests. Multilateral regional structures, from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU) between Armenia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russian Federation (with membership of post-soviet countries) to Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) with membership of Russia and China and observer status of India, Pakistan, Iran and Mongolia and status of dialogue partner for Belarus, Turkey and Shri-Lanka are gaining the power as the essential modes of regional governance, though being still different in integration priorities of member states and fragile in institutions. Existing difficulties should not overshadow gains within those organizations, nor regional dynamism in general by assuming that regional approach towards multilateral cooperation are thought to be more efficient when dealing with local, subregional and regional challenges and problems.

Innovation development process in companies is described by several challenges. One major problem is that there is much confusion about what it takes to develop innovations and what factors affect the innovation development process. The paper focuses on innovation process’ affecting factors in Latvian market. The paper’s goal is to identify main factors that affect the innovation process the Latvian companies. After surveying 128 companies, authors concludes that many factors affects innovation process and none of them should be ignored. Following factors affect innovation process the most and therefore should be analysed more deeply: 1) The company’s own resources; 2) High employees knowledge, competencies, skills and experience; 3) Investors’ attraction opportunities. Research also emphasises importance of company’s human resource, therefore authors suggest companies to look at their employees from different paradigm and approach them as the most valuable company’s asset.

The ability to measure public sector performance is a necessity for policymakers as well as academics and citizens of a country. This article aims to identify ways of measuring public sector performance using the measurement applicable to all countries and outlining opportunities for comparability among them. Thus, the authors highlight opportunities for performance measurement and public sector efficiency using various methods of non-parametric and parametric analysis. The starting point of the analysis considers the concept of performance, encompasses the proposed terms of productivity, efficiency and effectiveness; therefore, the measurement of public sector performance requires an exhaustive analysis in multidimensional terms, covering all core areas of a country. Moreover, understanding and developing robust international comparison possibilities will give in practice a structural framework for measuring the performance of particular relevance. Study findings indicate that performance measurement and implicitly public sector efficiency is a complex and difficult task that goes beyond simply measuring of productivity and efficiency, and requires aggregation of several key areas related to the results of a state. In summary, the analysis framework of the performance and efficiency of public sector is outlined both in terms of relevance of indicators and the methodology used. It demonstrates that methods of non-parametric analysis work at their best when all aspects of the production process can be captured in a limited number of input and output dimensions.

In the last ten years the evident changes of settlement patterns through suburban growth near to capital city of Latvia occurred. Increase of distance between home and routine activity places as well as changes of public transport and rapid increase of car ownership initiated significant changes in commuting patterns of inhabitants living outside of Riga. Although the commuting from suburban area to Riga is recently broadly studied, however these researches focused primarily on able-bodied population leaving behind school-age children and young people. The aim of this study is to analyse commuting patterns of young people aged 12 to 17 moving from outskirts of Riga to school located in Riga. This study reveal commuting patterns in Riga agglomeration through wide analysis of spatial patterns of youth commuting, examination of motives and factors affecting transportation mode choice for school trips and commuting times. Findings of the research show existing correlation between location of young people’s place of residence in terms of distance from core city and proportion of them commuting to Riga. Likewise several socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of young people have influence on school trip transportation mode choice.