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ORGANIZACJA I ZARZĄDZANIE

KWARTALNIK NAUKOWY

Nr 3(7)

WYDAWNICTWO POLITECHNIKI ŚLĄSKIEJ GLIWICE 2009

SPIS TREŚCI

1. Paolo CANONICO, Gianluigi MANGIA, Riccardo MERCURIO, Ernesto De NITO, Vincenza ESPOSITO – Zarządzanie projektem – mechanizmy biurokratyczne czy dźwignia zmian? ...................................................... 5

2. Chieh-Yu LIN, Yi-Hui HO – Badania empiryczne nad przyjmowaniem zielonych praktyk przez MŚP na Tajwanie ................................................................................... 17

3. Katarzyna DOHN – Analiza przepływów materiałów w procesie produkcyjnym w ujęciu logistycznym …….......................................................................................... 31

4. Kenneth Mølbjerg JØRGENSEN – Korupcja a analiza genealogiczna …............... 45

5. Peter ODRAKIEWICZ – Business English jako intelektualny pomost – zarządzanie metodą synkretyczną jako case study, organizacyjne zmiany w zarządzaniu edukacją oraz proces ”blended learning” dla studentów Business English i Zarządzania w interkulturowym środowisku ………………….................... 59

6. Agata PRADELA – Model strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem potrzeb rynku pracy ...................... 79

7. Adam RYSZKO – Zarządzanie środowiskowe w przedsiębiorstwach województwa śląskiego ....................................................................................................................... 93

8. Katarzyna SIENKIEWICZ-MAŁYJUREK – Funkcjonowanie systemów monitoringu wizyjnego na przykładzie województwa śląskiego ……………………….. 109

9. Agata STACHOWICZ-STANUSCH – Deklaracje antykorupcyjne największych polskich przedsiębiorstw – raport z badań ………........................................................ 119

10. Charles WANKEL – Wykorzystanie świata wirtualnego w edukacji biznesowej ..... 139

Ladies and Gentleman,

We are pleased to give to your hands, special english-language edition of our research

quarterly entitled “Organization and Management”, presenting research achievements of

authors from around the world.

I would like to thank you Professor Agata Stachowicz-Stanusch without which there

would be no such publication. The research cooperation of Mrs. Professor with domestic and

foreign institutes has resulted in this unique publication, which we hope will be a good

practice and will be published periodically.

On the pages of our quarterly showing since 2008, we share with you the outcomes of

research investigations. At the same time we make every effort to meet the highest substantive

and cognitive standards of our quarterly.

The quarterly became a place where we present the intellectual achievements both the

researchers of the Silesian University of Technology and researchers representing other

domestic and foreign universities. The theme of our scientific quarterly covers wider issues of

management understood from the perspective of economics, logistics, sociology or technical

sciences. We believe that this multidimensionality makes our quarterly valuable source of

knowledge.

The Chief Editor,

Rector of The Silesian University of Technology,

Prof. PhD. Eng. Andrzej Karbownik

Paolo CANONICO Gianluigi MANGIA Riccardo MERCURIO Università degli Studi di Napoli Federico II Ernesto De NITO Università degli Studi Magna Graecia di Catanzaro Vincenza ESPOSITO Università degli Studi del Sannio

INTERPRETING PROJECTS – BUREAUCRATICAL MECHANISMS OR LEVER FOR CHANGE?

Summary. There is a huge amount of research focused on the theme of project organization, stemming from the idea that project can be considered a tool to increase the degree of flexibility within bureaucratic and functional organizations, whereas in other few researches project management is supposed to stress the level of bureaucracy.1

The goal of this paper is studying the functioning of the project management within an Italian public organization, traditionally considered highly bureaucratised, in terms of effects produced on control mechanisms.

Keywords: project management, public management, bureaucratic mechanisms,

organizational changes

ZARZĄDZANIE PROJEKTEM – MECHANIZMY BIUROKRATYCZNE CZY DŹWIGNIA ZMIAN?

Streszczenie. Istnieje ogromna liczba badań, skoncentrowanych na tematyce organizacji projektowych, wynikająca z rozumienia projektu jako narzędzia, które podnosi poziom elastyczności w ramach organizacji biurokratycznych i funkcjonalnych,

1 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations. Journal of

Management Studies 2004, no 41, p. 4; Hodgson D.: Project Work: The Legacy of Bureaucratic Control in the Post-Bureaucratic Organization. Organization 2004, no 11(1), p. 81-100.

P. Canonico, G. Mangia, R. Mercurio, E. De Nito, V. Esposito 6

podczas gdy w niewielu badaniach zarządzanie projektem kładzie nacisk na poziom biurokracji.

Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza funkcjonowania zarządzania projektem we włoskich organizacjach publicznych, tradycyjnie postrzeganych jako podmioty wysoce zbiurokratyzowane, w kontekście efektów wywieranych na mechanizmy kontroli.

Słowa kluczowe: zarządzanie projektem, zarządzanie publiczne, mechanizmy

biurokratyczne, zmiany organizacyjne

1. Theoretical framework: The implementation of project management within bureaucratic organizations

With regard to the theoretical orientations to be found in the PM literature, it is possible to make reference to two macro-trends of research. The first that may be considered of a more institutional (mainstream) dimension, interprets projects as simple instruments of managerial intervention, and so the very idea of project management may be traced back to a set of models and techniques for the planning and control of complex systems of activity.2

This research trend starts out from the analysis of projects and management methodologies3 and analyzes the functioning characteristics of the project-based organizational structures.4 The idea of mainstream is associated with the prescriptive nature of the competences and the managerial skills indicated in a considerable number of contributions existing on Project Management. In these works, the themes connected with organizational projecting are systematically defined in order to be able to increase the organization members’ capacity to control particularly complex systems.

In the project management literature, a very big emphasis is directed to the relevance of planning activities, introducing, for instance, also “new” practical tools, like work breakdown structures. Gantt schedules, etc.., that are coherent with the rational view of project management.5

2 Archibald R.: Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects. New York 2003. 3 Archibald R.: op.cit.; Kerzner H.: Project Management. Wiley, New York 2003. 4 Sydow J., Lindkvist L., Defillippi R.: Project-Based Organizations, Em-beddedness and Repositories of

Knowledge: Editorial. Organization Studies 2004, no 25(9), p. 1475-1489. 5 Lindkvist L., Soderlund J., Tell F.: Managing Product Development Projects: on the significance of fountains

and deadlines. Organization Studiem 1998, no 19(6), p. 931-951; Lundin R.A., Söderholm J.: A theory of the temporary organization. Scandinavian Journal of Management 1995, no 11(4), p. 437-455.

Interpreting projects… 7

More recent evolutions in traditional PM literature include the idea of project management as temporary organization,6 as a dynamic way to conceive organizations that are able to adapt and change rapidly on the basis of the project’s characteristics.7

The contributions which can be included within this second macro-trend, sharing a critical view of Project Management, reveal certain peculiar features which go beyond the more traditional elements, aiming instead at a deeper understanding of projects.

In this perspective certain authors8 have questioned the usefulness of the traditional project instrumentation. In their view, the focus should move from efficiency measures to the nature of project understood as organizational form. A further criticism moved against the traditional view of project management is that it places a strong rationalistic emphasis on the deliberated action of the actors of the project, which in fact is not encountered in empirical reality.

1.1. The effect produced by project management on the control systems

According to Kirsch, it is possible to distinguish two main categories of control mechanisms: formal (behavioural based and outcome based) and informal (clan and self control).9

Formal mechanisms control are directly related with the possibility of managing information. In particular, the behavioural mechanisms are based on the control of the transformation processes, whose knowledge is the key variable. Ouchi states that only when you have a perfect knowledge of the process, you can implement a behavioural control. The output based control mechanisms can be used when it is possible to measure the organization’s results.10

Informal mechanisms are based on social and cultural values. Ouchi identifies the concept of clan as social mechanism to control organizational members. It is clear that, in this hypothesis, shared and common values play the main role, producing a sort of “isomorphism” in the members’ behaviour.

6 Packendorff J.: Inquiring into the Temporary Organization: New Directions for Project Management

Research. Scandinavian Journal of Management 1995, no 11(4), p. 319-334. 7 Andersen E., Jessen S.A.: Project Maturity in Organizations. International Journal of Project Management

2003, no. 21, p. 457-461. 8 Bresnen M., Edelman L., Newell S., Scarbrough H., Swan J.: Social practices and the management of

knowledge in project environments. International Journal of Project Management 2003, no 21, p. 157-166; Winter M., Smith C., Morris P., Cicmil S.: Directions for future research in project management: The main findings of a UK government-funded research network. International Journal of Project Management 2006, no 24, p. 638-649.

9 Kirsch L.J.: The Management of Complex Tasks in Organizations: Controlling the Systems Development Process. Organization Science 1996, no 7(1), p. 1-21.

10 Ouchi W.G.: A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms. Management Science 1979, no 25(9), p. 833-848.


The last typology is defined as self control and reminds the idea of self-management. Each single member behaves autonomously, setting up his own goals, monitoring his own work and rewarding and sanctioning himself if necessary.11

Following the idea of control within project management stated by Clegg and Courpasson, it is possible to identify 3 different typologies:12

– reputational; – calculative; – professional. Reputational control is composed by two different components: the first is hierarchical,

the second is a peer-based one. Reputational control, in which high reputation of members is used to maintain certain positions and marginalise those with lower reputation, is likely to work in large networks where there might not be shared values and beliefs.

The category of calculative control mechanisms include accounting systems that can be introduced to assess the performance gained by individuals within the project group. The calculative mechanisms can be focused both on behaviours and outputs. In other words, these mechanisms aim at checking if objectives (in terms of behaviours and outputs) have been effectively respected.

Sometimes, calculative mechanisms can be used and managed by people who do not belong to the team. In this sense, external calculative control mechanisms impact both on learning process and on internal dynamics. Clegg and Courpasson state: In project management the aim of external calculative control over the project is to ‘gain enough known-how to reduce the impact of a potential surprise.

The nature of professional control mechanisms can be understood by considering the fact that the functioning of a project group implies the introduction of a “reticular professional supervision”.13 Remarking the fact that the project leader observes each other behaviours, we think that the effect produced by the internal dynamics of project groups implies that each single member can exercise a sort of surveillance on the other members.

As Clegg and Courpasson14 claim, professional control can be considered as a supervisory tool: project leaders (but also each individual) can push or constrain the other participants to behave in the desired way.

The understanding of control mechanisms within project management can be improved applying this notion to different interpretations of the project team.15 In this view, it can be

11 Kirsch L.J.: op.cit. 12 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: op.cit. 13 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: op.cit., p. 539. 14 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: op.cit. 15 De Nito E., Canonico P., Mangia G.: The interpretation of the project group between collectivity of practice

and community of practice. Paper presented at Academy of Management Meeting, 3-8 August 2007.


interesting to deploy the analysis, by referring to the distinction between the concepts of Collectivity of Practice (CiP) and Community of Practice (CoP).16

According to Lindkvist,17 collectivities of practice are generally formed by individuals who have never met previously, who are to activate a rapid process of socialization within a very limited space of time, and who are specifically responsible for tasks within the constraints imposed by the project in terms of cost, time and quality.

Instead, the CiP represents a coordination modality used by functional specialists who have their own tasks which are linked to each other. The occasional nature of the meetings among the participants emphasis the idea of a form of collectivity of practice which does not aim at creating a shared interpretation, but responds to a need of integration.

The dual interpretation of project team can be related with the nature of control mechanisms, as defined by Clegg and Courpasson.18

In fact, in the CiP the weakness of the relational dimension impacts directly on the need of formalizing and standardising rules and procedures, in order to control participants’ behaviours. The relevance of calculative control mechanisms is strictly related with the opportunity to enhance the accountability of individuals and to develop actions of control.

In the CoP the presence of a mutual relationship between individuals favours the creation of a shared way of doing things and a common language.

It means that within a CoP, the professional control mechanisms are much more important because everyone knows what the others are able to do and what they actually do. In this way, the implicit coordination mechanisms become fundamental in order to explain internal dynamics.

The CoP functioning is coherent with the creation of a reticular professional supervision. According to Cohen and Sims, the idea of professional control mechanism can be related with the concept of clan expressed by Ouchi.19 As Kirsch states “to implement clan control, the organizational group cultivates common values, philosophy and approaches to problem solving within the clan”.20

16 Bragd A.: Knowing Management an Etnographic Study of Tinkering with a New Car. Paper presented at 17th

NFF conference, 14th-16th August 2003; Lindkvist L.: Knowledge Communities and Knowledge Collectivities: A Typology of Knowledge Work in Groups. Journal of Mangement Studies 2005, no 42(6), p. 1189-1210.

17 Lindkvist L.: op.cit., p. 1190. 18 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: op.cit. 19 Ouchi W.G.: op.cit. 20 Kirsch L.J.: op.cit., p. 3.


2. Methodology

The research unfolded considering a single case study, as this approach was considered useful in gaining in-depth, holistic understanding of the phenomenon studied, and in general is a preferred method when an organization finds itself in a new or peculiar situation, and special characteristics of this situation are to be studied.21

In order to investigate the relationship between PM and control mechanisms within the PA entity identified, we decided to adopt the participant observation method.

One of the authors participated in the development of POR Campania project as an officially and formally designed member. This means that there was constant participation in the meetings that will be described in the case study section, and full access to materials, documents, and figures.

By doing so, we had the opportunity to observe directly the internal dynamics of project management, relying on a stable social relationship with the other members who belonged to the PA entity. We have been carrying out the research since 2000.

During these years we made 21 interviews (3 for each “measure manager”) and 3 for the “head of unit”.

All the authors participated in this activity. In order to increase the degree of uniformity, we decided to conduct semi-structured interviews, standardising the most important questions, concerning 1) the role played by the project leader, 2) the use of different typologies of control mechanisms, 3) the specific characteristics of control mechanisms used.

3. Case Study: POR Campania Region Project

Regional Operational Programmes POR (Programma Operativo Regionale) set out regional priorities for delivering the funds. Although there is certain degree of flexibility, a region’s priorities must be consistent with their Member States’ decisions.

POR are multi-intervention programmes articulated in areas of investments defined as “Misure” (Measures). A Measure is a bunch of homogenous Regional investments that can be attributed to firms or public entities.

From an organisational point of view, the process of allocation of financial resources has been modified as a consequence of new EU regulations. Such constraints have determined:

– the introduction of the role of the Measure Manager (Responsabile di misura);

21 Yin R.: The Case Study Crisis: Some Answers. Administrative Science Quarterly 1981, no 26, p. 58-65; Yin

R.: Case study research. CA Sage, Beverly Hills 1984.


– the introduction of a clear formal separation between the role of technical instructor and administrative reference person involved in the management of each single project;

– the creation of an ad hoc control procedure, which include accounting and administrative issues, aimed at verifying and certifying all expenses;

Campania Regional offices are articulated in 20 divisional units; each one is specifically focused on a single area of interest (for instance, Infrastructures, Agriculture…).

Within the unit “Agricoltura” (Agriculture), the POR Programme has 18 Measures and funds 1260,67 Meuro to be spent within 2008. This unit is divided in 3 Sectors: in this paper we analyse the sector named “Interventi sul territorio”, that manages 7 measures related to interventions such as the construction of new roads and irrigation systems.

It is useful to underline that the project we investigate corresponds to the process of allocation of funding within the seven Measures.

In our case study, then, project activities can be distinguished in two categories: 1. the analysis of the investment choice, the technical evaluation and the resources

allocation duties; 2. the administrative management and the in itinere and final control execution. At this stage it is expedient to remark that there is a significance difference between the

formal organizational design and the actual way in which roles and responsibilities are attributed in practice.

Regarding technical activities, formally the Measure Manager (MM) was meant to be supported by a Measure Team made up of 6 people, which should have carried out activities which included a generic support to the management of the Measure. The activities that take place in the technical investigation of the project occur prior to allocation of financial resources to the single investment actions.

Such activities are managed by internal staff (mainly by the Measure Manager) or by consultants hired specifically for the project, that nevertheless collaborate with the Measure Manager on a stable basis.

With regard to the management of administrative issues and of control on project results, we assisted to some change during the time. In a first step the separation between Technical and Administrative units was just formal, in fact the MM managed directly the two phases. In a second step, the Administrative unit got the effective power to control the technical one and in particular the MM: between the two units (Technical and Administrative) there was a formal reciprocal control mechanism upon the regularity of their action and upon the ability to meet the time frames planned for each project.


Starting the POR Programme has determined in the Agriculture unit the development of a logic leaned towards the Project management idea, within a structure which used to work under a typical functional and bureaucratic way of organizing.

From a formal point of view, the POR Agriculture is characterised by a clear definition of economic and financial goals with reference to specific typologies of intervention, for which there is also a statement of the technical features of the interventions which are going to be funded.

Considering this aspect the Measure Manager 3 says: “at the beginning, in front of new goals, clearly defined, we felt locked. We need time to understand the real contribute given by the new set of rules. Finally, the management of POR represents for our managers (sincerely, for everybody!) a good opportunity to come out of the logic of improvisation”.

The Measure Manager is the formal reference person for all aspects connected with the management of funding interventions within its measure. He carries out all periodical reporting on results achieved, to the POR Manager.

The POR Agriculture project has been supported by the creation of typical managerial PM tools, such as accounting systems and scorecards, in order to plan, monitor and report on the results of each Measure.

Human resources management systems have also been modified in order to reinforce the attention to the management of the project. Specifically, the performance management system used to assess the managerial line has adopted the rule of considering and rewarding with a special emphasis the activities included in the POR.

The main formal coordination mechanism within the programme involve the POR Manager and the Measures Managers (COSAM coordination meetings). Within COSAM meetings, a critical aspect is represented by the ability of each Measure Manager to meet the expenditure objectives. Measure Manager 1 states: “our commitment has significantly increased. This depends, in my opinion, on two different aspects: first, the fact that we are afraid of the possibility of giving the funds back to the EU; second, the clear definition of goals and deadlines”.

The role of the project manager

The overlapping circumstances of the lack of management personnel and of the existence of a law which regulated the organization of the Regional offices which was not any longer coherent with the new tasks to be implemented, has created a “dyscrasia” between the logic of functioning of the POR and the formal organizational logic. In particular, such contrast has emerged in the definition of the role of Measure Manager.

“The MM role represents a very good solution in order to manage effectively projects, in coherence with formal constraints. Unfortunately, also nowadays we do not have enough


managerial staff to support this way of organizing activities: this aspect represents a serious problem for us” (Measure Manager 3).

Each MM is accountable for the results achieved in terms of expenditure, but still is not hierarchically superordinated to the human resources that make up his/her project group. In the specific case of the Agriculture unit, the MM is actually subordinated to the persons that he supervise, obviously having troubles in remarking his autonomy.

MM is in fact accountable for goals that are not negotiated with the POR Manager, and for which he cannot control or choose the human resources needed to implement them, neither is he in condition to obtain the managerial tools to be deployed in order to monitor the programme (to wit, he cannot even identify the most appropriate information systems).

As such, over time, the Measure manager has evolved towards a figure of “weak” coordinator of the project activities, that formally he manages jointly with the Divisional Unit Manager. The project team

During the typical phases of each investment project, the Measure Manager was supposed to coordinate a project team. Defining and structuring precise roles within the team is not really a way of working according to Project Management principles, as the belonging to a Measure Team, for its members, is above all a way of obtaining monetary incentives: such compensations are allocated only on the basis of participation to the project activities.

The head of unit says: “typically, the project team has been used as a tool to involve people belonging to the different departments and units, in order to share with everybody the incentives stemming from the POR”.

These people carry out essentially support activities, while the technical issues were managed by MM and the administrative ones by MM in a first phase and then by a specific unit. Just in a few measures, MM interacts with human resources that only partially belong to his team. This implies that it is not possible to define a real project team managing the project. It is the single MM that in a certain way operates to realize the project. Coordination and control mechanisms within the POR

The monitoring of the allocated investments, as well as the level of compliance of goals assigned to Measure Managers, is debated within a project group termed as COSAM (under the Italian acronym), that meet quarterly and to which POR Manager and the Measures Managers are called to participate.

Formalising the role of Measure Manager and structuring ad hoc coordinating and control mechanisms had as output the creation of COSAM, that may be identified as collectivity of practice, according to the previous sections of the paper.


The MM says: “the effectiveness of control mechanisms adopted has been significantly increased by the functioning of COSAM. In fact, it facilitates cooperative relationships”

COSAM is a group made up of persons with homogenous technical competences (Measures Managers), that play different and not mutually dependent roles, that have autonomous objectives, but still that work jointly to reach the overall goals of the POR. Given the high levels of tasks specialization and standardisation of the project activities, within COSAM the Measures Managers may meet periodically to present expenditure results obtained for each Measure, to analyse gaps from the initial forecast, and to design purpose-built actions to correct such gaps.

Measure Manager 3 says: “a real transparency (in terms of roles, responsibilities, goals, activities…) has really been achieved: in my opinion, this important result is due to the effectiveness of control mechanisms adopted”.

In order to this, COSAM utilise quantitative and qualitative data, and standardised planning tools derived from an information systems created on purpose.

Over the years, COSAM evolved towards being the organizational momentum in which Measures Managers used to meet and debate common initiatives to negotiate with the POR Manager, in order to protect themselves from the continuous attempts to increase the standardisation of activities and enforce more aggressive control mechanisms. In doing so, the most important contributions has come from those Measure Managers endowed with more financial resources in terms of budgeting expenditure.

4. Final consideration and discussion

We can sum up a few interesting research results. First, the overall logic of programming and measuring (a feature of the POR scheme), within the Agriculture Unit, resulted in the adoption and development of some typical project management tools.

POR ended up in developing organizational routines that have included over time also collateral activities, centred on the clear definition of goals, roles and responsibilities, on the periodical and formal control upon results achieved, and on the link between incentive schemes and POR general objectives.

The implementation of project management, nevertheless, showed some failures. In spite of an increase in the level of formalisation of objectives and planning and control

tools, we witnessed, within the Measure project groups, a higher level of standardisation and formalisation of activities, and a higher level of task specialisation (with reference to technical, administrative, support staff). As a consequence, even in the absence of a real project group, all Measure Managers and the whole POR programme could enjoy a full


success in reaching the initial objectives, due to the increase in the ability of controlling and coordinating activities that such standardisation brought about.

With regard to control issues, the standardisation of activities fostered the adoption of control mechanisms of the calculative kind,22 that can be traced within COSAM entity. In fact, COSAM represents an instantiation of a collectivity of practice, in which there are formal control mechanisms focused on the monitoring of achieved results and on the collective analysis of success and failure causes.

Within COSAM group we could also find elements of the reputational informal control typology. Behaviour of group members was self-regulated and tended to adhere to schemes and values which were established during the common experience of working in group. Even in the case of Measure Managers belonging to different hierarchical levels, the source of control was not given by hierarchy in itself, but instead used to come from the different amount of financial resources that Measure Managers could allocate, which in turn depended on the distribution of resources done by the POR Manager and on the success of the expenditure that each Measure Manager had achieved over time.

Bibliography

1. Andersen E., Jessen S.A.: Project Maturity in Organizations. International Journal of Project Management 2003, no. 21, p. 457-461.

2. Archibald R.: Managing High-Technology Programs and Projects. New York 2003. 3. Bragd A.: Knowing Management an Etnographic Study of Tinkering with a New Car.

Paper presented at 17th NFF conference, 14th-16th August 2003. 4. Bresnen M., Edelman L., Newell S., Scarbrough H., Swan J.: Social practices and the

management of knowledge in project environments. International Journal of Project Management 2003, no 21, p. 157-166.

5. Clegg S., Courpasson D.: Political Hybrids: Tocquevillean Views on Project Organizations. Journal of Management Studies 2004, no 41, p. 4.

6. De Nito E., Canonico P., Mangia G.: The interpretation of the project group between collectivity of practice and community of practice. Paper presented at Academy of Management Meeting, 3-8 August 2007.

7. Hodgson D.: Project Work: The Legacy of Bureaucratic Control in the Post-Bureaucratic Organization. Organization 2004, no 11(1), p. 81-100.

8. Kerzner H.: Project Management. Wiley, New York 2003.

22 Clegg S., Courpasson D.: op.cit.


9. Kirsch L.J.: The Management of Complex Tasks in Organizations: Controlling the Systems Development Process. Organization Science 1996, no 7(1), p. 1-21.

10. Lindkvist L.: Knowledge Communities and Knowledge Collectivities: A Typology of Knowledge Work in Groups. Journal of Mangement Studies 2005, no 42(6), p. 1189-1210.

11. Lindkvist L., Soderlund J., Tell F.: Managing Product Development Projects: on the significance of fountains and deadlines. Organization Studiem 1998, no 19(6), p. 931-951.

12. Lundin R.A., Söderholm J.: A theory of the temporary organization. Scandinavian Journal of Management 1995, no 11(4), p. 437-455.

13. Ouchi W.G.: A Conceptual Framework for the Design of Organizational Control Mechanisms. Management Science 1979, no 25(9), p. 833-848.

14. Packendorff J.: Inquiring into the Temporary Organization: New Directions for Project Management Research. Scandinavian Journal of Management 1995, no 11(4), p. 319-334.

15. Sydow J., Lindkvist L., Defillippi R.: Project-Based Organizations, Em-beddedness and Repositories of Knowledge: Editorial. Organization Studies 2004, no 25(9), p. 1475-1489.

16. Winter M., Smith C., Morris P., Cicmil S.: Directions for future research in project management: The main findings of a UK government-funded research network. International Journal of Project Management 2006, no 24, p. 638-649.

17. Yin R.: The Case Study Crisis: Some Answers. Administrative Science Quarterly 1981, no 26, p. 58-65.

18. Yin R.: Case study research. CA Sage, Beverly Hills 1984.

Reviewers: Prof. dr hab. inż. Jan Stachowicz Prof. zw. dr hab. Mariusz Bratnicki

Chieh-Yu LIN Yi-Hui HO Chang Jung Christian University Department of International Business

AN EMPIRICAL STUDY ON GREEN PRACTICE ADOPTION FOR SMES IN TAIWAN

Summary. This paper aims to analyze factors influencing the adoption of green practices for the small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan from the perspective of technical innovation. The determinant factors consist of technological and organizational. Data to test research hypotheses came from a questionnaire survey on 219 SMEs in Taiwan. Research findings reveal that compatibility and relative advantage of green practices, organizational support and quality of human resources have significantly positive influences on the adoption of green practices for SMEs while the complexity of technology reveals significantly negative effects. Implications and opportunities for future research are also discussed in the paper.

Keywords: green practice adoption; technical innovation; determinants of

nnovation; SMEs

BADANIA EMPIRYCZNE NAD PRZYJMOWANIEM ZIELONYCH PRAKTYK PRZEZ MŚP NA TAJWANIE

Streszczenie. Celem niniejszego artykułu jest analiza czynników, wpływających na proces przyjmowania zielonych praktyk przez małe i średnie przedsiębiorstwa (MŚP) na Tajwanie, z perspektywy innowacji technicznej. Na determinanty składają się czynniki technologiczne i organizacyjne. Dane, które służą weryfikacji hipotez pochodzą z badań ankietowych, przeprowadzonych w 219 MŚP na Tajwanie. Wyniki badań wskazują, iż zgodność i względna przewaga zielonych praktyk, poparcie organizacyjne i jakość zasobów ludzkich wywierają znaczący, pozytywny wpływ na przyjmowanie zielonych praktyk przez MŚP, podczas gdy złożoność technologii wskazuje na znaczące efekty negatywne. W artykule również zostały omówione implikacje i przyczynki do dalszych badań.

Słowa kluczowe: przyjmowanie zielonych praktyk, innowacja techniczna,

C.Y. Lin, Y.H. Ho 18

determinanty innowacji, MŚP

1. Introudction

While regarding commitment to the natural environment as an important variable within the business operation scenarios, an increasing number of companies all over the world are attentive to the concept of enhancing their competitiveness through improvements in the environmental performance, and mitigating the environmental impact of their production and service activities. This paper will focus on the green practice adoption of small and medium-size enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan. Due to the global trend of environmental protection, SMEs in Taiwan have begun to take environmental issues into consideration. Company size has been repeatedly taken as a relevant organizational characteristic influencing companies’ technical innovation1 as well as environmental activities.2 In general, large companies tend to adopt innovations and green practices more easily than small ones because they have sufficient resources and strong infrastructures. Small companies, in contrast, may suffer from the lack of financial resources and professionals, which results in difficulties in adopting green practices. Some researchers have analyzed the green behavior of SMEs.3 Much remains to be learned empirically about the factors influencing green practice adoption for SMEs.

Many researchers have proposed various explanations as to what factors influence firms’ adoption of green practices.4 Stakeholder pressure, environmental regulation, company size, managers’ characteristics, human resources and industry sector are relevant variables

1 Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: Organizational innovation adoption: a multi-level framework of determinants

and opportunities for future research. Journal of Business Research 2002, no 55, p. 163-176; Kimberly J.R., Evanisko M.J.: Organizational innovation: the influence of individual, organizational, and contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovations. Academy of Management Journal 1981, no 24, p. 689-713.

2 Del Brio J.A., Junquera B.: A review of the literature on environmental innovation management in SMEs: implications for public policies. Technovation 2003, no 23, p. 939-948; Etzion D.: Research on organizations and the natural environment, 1992-present: a review. Journal of Management 2007, no 33, p. 637-664; Gonzalez-Benito J., Gonzalez-Benito O.: A review of determinant factors of environmental proactivity. Business Strategy and the Environment 2006, no 15, p. 87-102.

3 Gadenne D.L., Kennedy J., McKeiver C.: An empirical study of environmental awareness and practices in SMEs. Journal of Business Ethics 2009, no 84, p. 45-63; Simpson M., Taylor N., Barker K.: Environmental responsibility in SMEs: Does it deliver competitive advantage? Business Strategy and the Environment 2004, no 13, p. 156-171.

4 Alvarez-Gil M.J., Berrone P., Husillos F.J., Lado N.: Reverse logistics, stakeholders’ influence, organizational slack, and managers’ posture. Journal of Business Research 2007, no 60, p. 463-473; Gadenne D.L., Kennedy J., McKeiver C.: An empirical study of environmental awareness and practices in SMEs. Journal of Business Ethics 2009, no 84, p. 45-63; Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance. Academy of Management Journal 1999, no 42, p. 87-99.

An empirical study on green practice adoption… 19

frequently appeared in related research.5 However, only a few studies analyze the green practice adoption behavior from the perspective of technical innovation. Applying environmental criteria into corporate operations requires exploring new resource combinations and deploying existing resources in new ways.6 Green practice adoption involves implementing new or modified processes, techniques and systems to reduce environmental harms. As innovation is the use of new technical and administrative knowledge, the adoption of green practices can be regarded as an innovation process.

Del Brio and Junquera7 have summarized some factors that influence green innovation management in SMEs, including financial resources, management style, human resources, manufacturing activity, technological approach, innovative capacity, and external cooperation. Rothenberg and Zyglidopoulos,8 in a study of the printing industry, found that the adoption of green innovations was positively associated with the dynamism of the company’s task environment. Henriques and Sadorsky9 found that total quality management and external stakeholder pressure would increase the likelihood that Canadian manufacturing companies implement cleaner technical innovations. Most of them provide an insight into the influences of certain organizational and environmental factors on green innovation. However, scarce attention has been paid to how technological and organizational factors influence the adoption of green practices. Literature on technical innovation suggests that the nature of technology, and the capabilities of the organization are two general characteristics affecting the adoption of new technologies.10 Characteristics of a new technology such as compatibility, complexity, and relative advantage may affect its adoption.11

To fill the research gap, the main purpose of this paper is to study the influences of technological and organizational factors on the adoption of green practices for SMEs. The next section formulates research hypotheses, and the third section describes the research methods. The fourth section discusses the research results, and the final section gives research conclusions and implications.

5 Etzion D.: op.cit.; Gonzalez-Benito J., Gonzalez-Benito O.: op.cit. 6 Hart S.L.: A natural resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Review 1995, no 20, p. 986-

1014. 7 Del Brio J.A., Junquera B.: op.cit. 8 Rothenberg S., Zyglidopoulos S.C.: Determinants of environmental innovation adoption in the printing

industry: the importance of task environment. Business Strategy and the Environment 2007, no 16, p. 39-49. 9 Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: Environmental technical and administrative innovations in the Canadian

Manufacturing Industry. Business Strategy and the Environment 2007, no 16, p. 119-132. 10 Chau P.Y.K., Tam K.Y.: Factors affecting the adoption of open systems: an exploratory study. MIS Quarterly

1997, no 21, p. 1-24; Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: op.cit.; Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: The Process of Technological Innovation. Lexington Books, Lexington, MA 1990.

11 Jeyaraj A., Rottman J.W., Lacity M.C.: A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research. Journal of Information Technology 2006, no 21, p. 1-23; Rogers E.M.: Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, New York 2003; Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: Innovation characteristics and innovation adoption-implementation: a meta-analysis of findings. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 1982, no 29, p. 28-45.


2. Research hypotheses

Technical innovation pertains to products, services, and production technologies that are new to organizations.12 It is related to basic activities and concerned with either product or process. Adopting green practices can be seen as a technical innovation process. A number of explanations as to what factors influence technical innovation can be found in the literature. Frambach and Schillewaert13 suggest that the determinants influencing organizational adoption of innovations include perceived innovation characteristics and adopter’s organizational characteristics. In general, the adoption of technical innovations will be affected by technological and organizational factors.14

2.1. Technological factors

The perceived technological characteristics of an innovation can be considered as cognitive beliefs reflected in an attitude towards the innovation. Several technological characteristics of an innovation can affect its adoption, including complexity, compatibility, relative advantage, triability, observability, ease of use, perceived usefulness, information intensity, uncertainty, and so on.15 This study focuses mainly on complexity, compatibility and relative advantage because these three characteristics have consistently been found to be more important in influencing adoption behavior than the other characteristics.16

Complexity is the degree to which a technical innovation is perceived to be difficult to understand and use. It will increase the difficulty in knowledge transfer and innovation diffusion17, and is usually hypothesized to be negatively related to innovation adoption.18 Green practices incorporate both tacit and explicit knowledge. The tacit knowledge may be inherent in identifying sources of pollution, reacting quickly to accidental spills, and proposing preventive solutions.19 A technology with high complexity contains a lot of tacit knowledge that requires laborious efforts to learn and diffuse.20 Efficient knowledge sharing

12 Kimberly J.R., Evanisko M.J.: op.cit.; Damanpour F.: Organizational innovation: a meta-analysis of effects of

determinants and moderators. Academy of Management Journal 1991, no 34, p. 555-590. 13 Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: op.cit. 14 Scupola A.: The adoption of Internet commerce by SMEs in the South of Italy: an environmental,

technological and organizational perspective. Journal of Global Information Technology Management 2003, no 6, p. 52-71; Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: op.cit.

15 Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: op.cit.; Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: op.cit. 16 Rogers E.M.: op.cit.; Sia C-L., Teo H-H., Tan B.C.Y., Wei K-K.: Effects of environmental uncertainty on

organizational intention to adopt distributed work arrangements. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 2004, no 51, p. 253-267; Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: op.cit.

17 Rogers E.M.: op.cit. 18 Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: op.cit. 19 Boiral O.: Tacit knowledge and environmental management. Long Range Planning 2002, no 35, p. 291-317. 20 Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: op.cit.


can lead to better innovative capabilities in terms of higher order learning, and consequently can improve organizational performance including environmental management effectiveness.21 The difficulty in learning and sharing tacit knowledge makes it relatively difficult to adopt a complex technology. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H1: A negative association exists between the green practices’ complexity and the adoption of green practices for SMEs.

Compatibility is the degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with the existing values, experiences, and needs of the firms.22 To lessen possible objection against the diffusion of a new technology, a company will be more likely to adopt the new technology that is more compatible with the company’s current operational knowledge.23 Compatibility is also relevant to green practice adoption. Because several green practices are additions to companies’ current technologies, adoption of green practices is not a single event but can be described as a process of knowledge accumulation and integration. Green practices that are more compatible to a company’s current technologies will be more easily to be diffused within the organization. Fit between previous experiences and environmental actions may generate a greater environmental effectiveness.24 Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H2: A positive association exists between the green practices’ compatibility and the adoption of green practices for SMEs.

Relative advantage is the perception that an innovation is more advantageous than its substitute idea. The perceived benefits may be measured in economic and social terms like convenience and satisfaction. Companies are more likely to adopt a technology which is able to provide better performance and higher economic gains than the other technologies. Relative advantage is positively related to the adoption of innovation.25 Potential organizational benefits of green practices include reduced energy and natural resource consumption, reduced waste and pollutant emission, improved environmental and financial performance, and greater responsiveness to social environmental expectation.26 The perceived net benefits that the green practice offers will serve as motivations for companies to adopt the technology. Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H3: A positive association exists between the green practices’ relative advantage and the adoption of green practices for SMEs.

21 Etzion D.: op.cit. 22 Rogers E.M.: op.cit. 23 Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: op.cit. 24 Etzion D.: op.cit. 25 Rogers E.M.: op.cit.; Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: op.cit. 26 Etzion D.: op.cit.; Hart S.L.: op.cit.


2.2. Organizational factors

Several studies have discussed the influences of a variety of organizational factors such as quality of human resources, top management’s leadership skills, organizational support, organizational culture and organizational size on technical innovation and environmental strategy. This study focuses mainly on the quality of human resources and organizational support because they are organizational resource-related variables widely analyzed in research on technical innovation and environmental management.27

The quality of human resources is an essential factor influencing technical innovation.28 Qualified human resources are helpful to adopt innovations because of their competent learning and innovative capabilities. Adopting green practices is a complex process requiring cross-disciplinary coordination and significant changes in the existing operation process.29 It is intensive in human resources and depends on the development and training of tacit skills through the employees’ involvement.30 Employees with competent learning capabilities will be apt to increase their absorptive capacity through training programs that can advance green practice adoption. Also, companies will have higher innovative capacity because of employees’ improved innovative and learning capabilities. As the degree to which an organization is receptive to new ideas will influence its propensity to adopt new technologies,31 a company with higher innovative capacity will be more likely to successfully implement an advanced environmental strategy.32 Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H4: A positive association exists between the quality of human resources and the adoption of green practices for SMEs.

Organizational support is the extent to which a company helps employees using a particular technology or system. Providing incentive for innovation adoption and ensuring the availability of financial and technical resources for innovation have positive effects on the adoption of technical innovation.33 For the development of environmental management,

27 Alvarez-Gil M.J., Berrone P., Husillos F.J., Lado N.: op.cit.; Damanpour F.: op.cit.; Jeyaraj A., Rottman J.W.,

Lacity M.C.: op.cit.; Lee H.Y., Lee Y-K., Kwon D.: The intention to use computerized reservation systems: the moderating effects of organizational support and supplier incentive. Journal of Business Research 2005, no 58, p. 1552-1561.

28 Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: op.cit. 29 Russo M.V., Fouts P.A.: A resource-based perspective on corporate environmental performance and

profitability. Academy of Management Journal 1997, no 40, p. 534-559. 30 Hart S.L.: op.cit.; Del Brio J.A., Junquera B.: op.cit. 31 Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: op.cit. 32 Christmann P.: Effects of “best practices” of environmental management on cost advantage: the role of

complementary assets. Academy of Management Journal 2000, no 43, p. 663-680; Judge W.Q., Elenkov D.: Organizational capacity for change and environmental performance: an empirical assessment of Bulgarian firms. Journal of Business Research 2005, no 58, p. 893-901.

33 Jeyaraj A., Rottman J.W., Lacity M.C.: op.cit.; Lee H.Y., Lee Y-K., Kwon D.: The intention to use computerized reservation systems: the moderating effects of organizational support and supplier incentive. Journal of Business Research 2005, no 58, p. 1552-1561.


organizational support is essential because the employees will be motivated to implement green behavior and the resources required for adopting green practices will be more easily available. Also, the top management plays an essential role in organizational support. Many green practices require the collaboration and coordination of different departments and divisions during adoption. To ensure successful adoption, the central task of top management is to obtain resources and assemble them into organizational capabilities so that the company is able to adopt green practices to achieve environmental competitive advantage.34 Therefore, the following hypothesis is proposed:

H5: A positive association exists between the organizational support and the adoption of green practices for SMEs.

3. Research methods

3.1. Sample and data collection

The data to test the proposed research hypotheses were collected by means of mailing questionnaires to SMEs in Taiwan. The questionnaire was developed in a two-stage process. First, an initial questionnaire was designed based on a review of studies analyzing similar theoretical constructs and a discussion with two experts in environmental management. Second, the initial questionnaire was modified by accommodating ten SME managers’ suggestions to ensure that each item is interpreted as expected. Afterward the final version of the questionnaire was administered to sampled SMEs.

One thousand samples were randomly drawn from a list of SMEs in Taiwan. These companies were contacted via telephone to confirm the names of respondents and their mailing addresses. Questionnaires were mailed to these sampled companies’ owners or senior managers who are familiar with the company’s environmental activities. Two weeks after the questionnaires were mailed, a follow-up to the sampled companies was conducted to remind them of the importance of their responses. In total, 231 completed questionnaires were returned. Of these respondents, twelve unusable questionnaires were excluded, and 219 respondents were analyzed in the study. The overall response rate is 21.9 percent.

34 Judge W.Q., Elenkov D.: op.cit.; Zhu Q., Sarkis J., Cordeiro J.J., Lai K.: Firm-level correlates of emergent

green supply chain management practices in the Chinese context. Omega: The International Journal of Management Science 2008, no 36, p. 577-591.


3.2. Measures

Green practice adoption refers to the decision of a company to use the green practices to respond to environmental issues. The green practices commonly used include consolidating shipments, disposing waste responsibly, purchasing ecological products, reducing energy consumption, reducing solid/water waste and emissions, using cleaner production methods, and using recyclable packaging/containers. Each sampled company was asked to score the degree of adoption of the green practices according to a seven-point scale anchored by “not at all” and “to a great extent”.

All the determinant factors were measured using 7-point Likert scales anchored by “strongly disagree” and “strongly agree”. Table 1 shows the measurement items of each factor. Complexity was measured by whether the green practices would be learned and used easily.35 Compatibility was measured based on the degrees of perceived fitness between the green practice and the company’s existing technologies and processes.36 Relative advantage was measured by whether the green practice could increase environmental and economic performance.37 The quality of human resources was measured according to employees’ learning and innovative capabilities.38 Organizational support was measured according to the degrees of the company’s resource supports and leaders’ attitudes toward environment issues.39

The measurement items were submitted to factor analysis. Factors with eigenvalues greater than 1.0 are also summarized in Table 1. The result of factor analysis confirms the construct validity of this study. According to the reliability coefficients, the smallest value of Cronbach’s alpha for this study is 0.8536, which implies that the sampling results are reliable.40

35 Rogers E.M.: op.cit.; Sia C-L., Teo H-H., Tan B.C.Y., Wei K-K.: op.cit. 36 Rogers E.M.: op.cit.; Sia C-L., Teo H-H., Tan B.C.Y., Wei K-K.: op.cit.; Chau P.Y.K., Tam K.Y.: op.cit. 37 Rogers E.M.: op.cit.; Sia C-L., Teo H-H., Tan B.C.Y., Wei K-K.: op.cit. 38 Scupola A.: op.cit.; Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: op.cit. 39 Lee H.Y., Lee Y-K., Kwon D.: op.cit.; Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: op.cit. 40 Nunnally J.C.: Psychometric Theory. McGraw-Hill, New York 1978.


Table 1 Measurement Items for Determinant Factors

Determinant Factors Factor Loading Cronbach’s α Technological Factors 0.8764 Complexity of technology Learning the green practice is difficult. 0.847 Understanding the green practice is difficult. 0.816 Sharing the knowledge of the green practice is difficult. 0.735 Using the green practice needs many experiences. 0.691 0.8901

Compatibility of technology The green practice is compatible with our existing operations. 0.807 Integrating the green practice with company’s existing system is easy. 0.744 The green practice is consistent with our company’s values. 0.692 0.8536

Relative advantage of technology The green practice can provide better environmental performance. 0.806 The green practice can provide higher economic benefits. 0.759 The green practice can enhance our company’s reputation. 0.713 0.8804

Organizational Factors 0.9097 Quality of human resources Employees can share knowledge with each others. 0.813 Employees can learn new technologies easily. 0.767 Employees can easily use new technologies to solve problems. 0.724 Employees can provide new ideas for our company. 0.651 0.9104

Organizational support Top management encourages employees to learn green practices. 0.842 Our company provides resources for employees to learn green practices. 0.816

Our Company provides rewards for employees’ green behavior. 0.714 Top management can help employees when they face green problems. 0.683 0.9048

Total Cronbach’s α = 0.8706

4. Results and discussions

The regression analysis was used to determine whether SMEs’ green practice adoption is influenced by the proposed technological and organizational factors. Table 2 shows the standardized results of regression analysis. The significant results suggest that all the hypotheses are supported. The complexity, compatibility and relative advantage of green practices, quality of human resources, and organizational support exhibit significantly influences on the adoption of green practices for SMEs.


Table 2 Standardized Regression Results for the Adoption of Green Practices

Dependent variables: Adoption of Green Practices Predictors Standardized Coefficient β t

Technological factors CoCoRe

OQuOr

mplexity of technology -0.127 -2.109*

mpatibility of technology 0.185 3.193**

lative advantage of technology 0.193 4.035**

rganizational factors ality of human resources 0.176 2.984**

ganizational support 0.212 4.219**

R2 0.417 adj R2 0.394

F 30.47**

* p<0.05 ** p<0.01

SMEs will be more likely to adopt a green practice when they perceive that the practice is

less complicated, easier to learn and use, more compatible to their existing business operations, and helpful for improving environmental and economic performance. To reduce the complexity of green practices, green practice providers can increase the explicitness of green practices that is helpful for the transfer and learning of related knowledge within an organization. Increasing the explicitness of knowledge can also help companies appreciating the compatibility of the green practices. As a result, SMEs are able to select a green practice that is more consistent with their existing system. Companies will be capable of reducing perceived complexity and increasing perceived compatibility through accumulating more environmental knowledge. During the process of accumulating environmental knowledge, companies will not only have more related experiences that are helpful for reducing the perceived complexity of green practices, but also adjust their values and operations towards environmental-friendly that advance the compatibility between companies’ existing systems and new green practices. The relative advantage is a relevant technological factor influencing green practice adoption. The perceived net benefits, including improved environmental and economic performance, and better reputation, that the green practice offers will serve as motivations for companies to adopt the green practices. Del Rio Gonzalez,41 in a study of the Spanish pulp and paper industry, also suggests that economic and financial advantages are important technological characteristics that influence the adoption of clean technologies. Therefore, to advance green practice adoption, green practice providers should put more effort to make their customers appreciate the relative advantage of the practices.

For the organizational factors, qualified human resources and organizational support will


affect SMEs’ green practice adoption behavior. Employees’ learning capabilities and the availability of resources are relevant for the adoption of green practices. Use of green practices may add complexity to production or delivery processes and require an amount of learning and training programs. To improve organizational learning capabilities, companies should recruit qualified employees, provide educating programs, and build knowledge management systems. On the other hand, the process of adopting green practices can build within a firm the resources of organizational commitment and learning, cross-functional integration, and increased employee skills and participation, which are emerging as prime resources in a competitive environment.42 The present result provides further evidence on the importance of organizational support, especially top management support, in green innovation. Organizational support gives employees motivation and resources to adopt environmental practices.

5. Conclusions

Based on a survey on SMEs in Taiwan, this study concludes that complexity, compatibility and relative advantage of green practices, quality of human resources, and organizational support exhibit significantly influences on the adoption of green practices for SMEs. To advance green practice adoption, companies can attempt to increase the explicitness of green practices, improve their organizational learning capabilities, and make organizational resources easily available for their employees.

A major contribution of this study is to propose a new model analyzing the factors influencing green practice adoption for SMEs. Over the past decades, a growing literature stream focuses on understanding organizational adoption of green practices. So far, little research analyzes the determinants of adopting green practices from the perspective of technical innovation. Most studies have focused exclusively on organizational and factors and stakeholder pressure, and ignored the influences of technological characteristics of green practices. This study empirically evidences the significant influences of technological characteristics on green practice adoption. Thus, future research on environmental issues can take technological characteristics into account. Other possible technological and organizational factors can also be taken into considerations in future studies.

Regarding the limitations, this study may suffer from the respondent bias owing to the use of questionnaire survey. In addition, because this paper studies the green practice adoption of SMEs in Taiwan, the research findings may be limited in their generalizability. Different

41 Del Rio Gonzalez P.: op.cit. 42 Russo M.V., Fouts P.A.: op.cit.


countries may lead to conclusions different from the present study. Future studies can use the proposed model in other countries.

Bibliography

1. Alvarez-Gil M.J., Berrone P., Husillos F.J., Lado N.: Reverse logistics, stakeholders’ influence, organizational slack, and managers’ posture. Journal of Business Research 2007, no 60, p. 463-473.

2. Boiral O.: Tacit knowledge and environmental management. Long Range Planning 2002, no 35, p. 291-317.

3. Chau P.Y.K., Tam K.Y.: Factors affecting the adoption of open systems: an exploratory study. MIS Quarterly 1997, no 21, p. 1-24.

4. Christmann P.: Effects of “best practices” of environmental management on cost advantage: the role of complementary assets. Academy of Management Journal 2000, no 43, p. 663-680.

5. Damanpour F.: Organizational innovation: a meta-analysis of effects of determinants and moderators. Academy of Management Journal 1991, no 34, p. 555-590.

6. Del Brio J.A., Junquera B.: A review of the literature on environmental innovation management in SMEs: implications for public policies. Technovation 2003, no 23, p. 939-948.

7. Del Rio Gonzalez P.: Analysing the factors influencing clean technology adoption: a study of the Spanish pulp and paper industry. Business Strategy and the Environment 2005, no 14, p. 20-37.

8. Etzion D.: Research on organizations and the natural environment, 1992-present: a review. Journal of Management 2007, no 33, p. 637-664.

9. Frambach R.T., Schillewaert N.: Organizational innovation adoption: a multi-level framework of determinants and opportunities for future research. Journal of Business Research 2002, no 55, p. 163-176.

10. Gadenne D.L., Kennedy J., McKeiver C.: An empirical study of environmental awareness and practices in SMEs. Journal of Business Ethics 2009, no 84, p. 45-63.

11. Gonzalez-Benito J., Gonzalez-Benito O.: A review of determinant factors of environmental proactivity. Business Strategy and the Environment 2006, no 15, p. 87-102.

12. Hart S.L.: A natural resource-based view of the firm. Academy of Management Review 1995, no 20, p. 986-1014.

13. Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: The relationship between environmental commitment and


managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance. Academy of Management Journal 1999, no 42, p. 87-99.

14. Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: Environmental technical and administrative innovations in the Canadian Manufacturing Industry. Business Strategy and the Environment 2007, no 16, p. 119-132.

15. Jeyaraj A., Rottman J.W., Lacity M.C.: A review of the predictors, linkages, and biases in IT innovation adoption research. Journal of Information Technology 2006, no 21, p. 1-23.

16. Judge W.Q., Elenkov D.: Organizational capacity for change and environmental performance: an empirical assessment of Bulgarian firms. Journal of Business Research 2005, no 58, p. 893-901.

17. Kimberly J.R., Evanisko M.J.: Organizational innovation: the influence of individual, organizational, and contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovations. Academy of Management Journal 1981, no 24, p. 689-713.

18. Lee H.Y., Lee Y-K., Kwon D.: The intention to use computerized reservation systems: the moderating effects of organizational support and supplier incentive. Journal of Business Research 2005, no 58, p. 1552-1561.

19. Nunnally J.C.: Psychometric Theory. McGraw-Hill, New York 1978. 20. Rogers E.M.: Diffusion of Innovations. Free Press, New York 2003. 21. Rothenberg S., Zyglidopoulos S.C.: Determinants of environmental innovation adoption

in the printing industry: the importance of task environment. Business Strategy and the Environment 2007, no 16, p. 39-49.

22. Russo M.V., Fouts P.A.: A resource-based perspective on corporate environmental performance and profitability. Academy of Management Journal 1997, no 40, p. 534-559.

23. Scupola A.: The adoption of Internet commerce by SMEs in the South of Italy: an environmental, technological and organizational perspective. Journal of Global Information Technology Management 2003, no 6, p. 52-71.

24. Sia C-L., Teo H-H., Tan B.C.Y., Wei K-K.: Effects of environmental uncertainty on organizational intention to adopt distributed work arrangements. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 2004, no 51, p. 253-267.

25. Simpson M., Taylor N., Barker K.: Environmental responsibility in SMEs: Does it deliver competitive advantage? Business Strategy and the Environment 2004, no 13, p. 156-171.

26. Tornatzky L.G., Fleischer M.: The Process of Technological Innovation. Lexington Books, Lexington, MA 1990.

27. Tornatzky L.G., Klein K.J.: Innovation characteristics and innovation adoption-


implementation: a meta-analysis of findings. IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management 1982, no 29, p. 28-45.

28. Zhu Q., Sarkis J., Cordeiro J.J., Lai K.: Firm-level correlates of emergent green supply chain management practices in the Chinese context. Omega: The International Journal of Management Science 2008, no 36, p. 577-591.

Reviewers: Dr hab. Agata Stachowicz-Stanusch, Prof. nzw. w Pol. Śl. Prof. dr hab. Wojciech Dyduch

Katarzyna DOHN Technical University of Silesia Faculty of Organization and Management Institute of Management and Administration

LOGISTICS ASPECTS OF MATERIALS FLOW IN PRODUCTION PROCESS

Summary. The aim of the article is to present the research methodology for the analysis of material flows in the manufacturing process. The methodology involves first selecting characteristics for implementation flows in the production process, which analysis allows the identification of potential sites where the stocks are in progress. Research methodology was reviewed in a case study in the chosen field of machine manufacturing company.

ANALIZA PRZEPŁYWÓW MATERIAŁÓW W PROCESIE PRODUKCYJNYM W UJĘCIU LOGISTYCZNYM

Streszczenie. Celem artykułu jest przedstawienie metodyki badawczej na potrzeby analizy przepływów materiałowych w procesie produkcyjnym. Metodyka w pierwszej kolejności obejmuje wyodrębnienie cech charakterystycznych dla realizacji przepływów w procesie produkcyjnym, których analiza pozwala na wyodrębnienie potencjalnych miejsc występowania zapasów produkcji w toku. Metodyka badawcza została zweryfikowana w ramach studium przypadku w wybranym przedsiębiorstwie produkcyjnym branży maszynowej.

1. Introduction

Logistics in production deals with the organization of the production system and its nearest surroundings warehouse and transport. Thus1, the subject of logistics in the production are:

1 Bendkowski J.: Practical aspects of logistics in production. Unpublished.

K. Dohn 32

1. Planning, organizing and controlling the flow of raw materials, components and intermediates during production,

2. Material flows through: – Supply storages, – Indirect storages – sockets, positions, faculties, – Finished products storages.

It is known that the processes of movement and storage are accompanied by streams of information, which primary objective is to enable control of these flows. One of the areas of business including production logistics issues are inventories of raw materials and intermediates required for the implementation of production processes in the company.

Economic changes, which were followed in recent years indicate an increasing trend to reduce supplies in industrial companies. However, despite the diametrically improvement in the area of supply, many companies still remained high material supplies forced uncertainty as to the needs of production, or rather unpredictable demand for the products. Despite the variety of organizational solutions, application of increasingly sophisticated information systems that support flows of materials, still too high of stocks is one of the fundamental problems faced by contemporaries managers. Store is an example of a conflict resulting from the ratio between the size of the backlog, customer service levels and costs associated with its maintenance. The greater level of uplift, the higher level of customer service but at the same time higher costs of its maintenance. Therefore, the dispute settlement skills are necessary for the proper functioning of the enterprise on the market today. The diversity of modern systems, methods and approaches to control inventory makes this issue is closely linked with other areas of business management, thus creating one controlled complex “organism”. Many methods of inventory flow control requires close integration, or individual cells, the production departments, or downstream in the supply chain. The aim of the article is developing the methodology for analysis of materials, with identifying the inventory places, to determine their structure and generated by costs above the selected manufacturing process.

2. Research methodology

Material flows in production processes are multidimensional. The conditions of these flows are affected by factors that can be included in the following groups:

− technical and technological factors, taking into account the methods and techniques of manufacture, the technical level of production equipment,

− organizational factors, including primarily the management and organization, types, forms and varieties of the manufacturing process, material and information flows,

Logistics aspects of materials flow in production process 33

− economic factors that are associated primarily with the measurement of performance by the company using the performance metrics, utilization, productivity and efficiency,

− social factors, which are related to personnel participating in the implementation of the manufacturing process.

The proposed research methodology in the examination of material flows in the manufacturing process used for concept consisting of a sequence of steps. In the first stage of this study was to identify the specific object under badAnia by specifying certain characteristics of the object (important for the investigator and relevant to the research). The next steps are to transform the system - building on the overall picture of the formation and identification of constraints places formation associated with the implementation of the flow in the production process, using the method: the process mapping, the Big Picture analysis with the companies documentation analysis.

Production plan analysis

Phases analysis of the production

process

Analysis of working time provisions in the investigation process

The identification of the stock emergence

Causes of stocks or their shortcomings

Characteristics analysis of the material flow implementation

Identification of relationships

occurring in the process

Identification of sites where the stocks are in

progress

Fig. 1. Researches process methodology of production process flows Rys. 1. Metodyka badawcza przy badaniu przepływów w procesie produkcyjnym

K. Dohn 34

3. Characteristics analysis of material flow implementation in production process

Studies in the enterprise for data collection, or a shortage of stocks, require an analysis of the existing situation. The main subject of study in the article is the Department of Production, comprising the Faculty Assembly, Mechanical Faculty and Magazines Group. Analysis of the processes of both departments and the stores will issue a preliminary determination on the part of practice.

Examined company exists on the market for many years. Although the trend in the contemporary economy shows a marked decrease in the quantity of the stocks, and eliminating the storage area, the company furthers has in store over stocks of materials and finished products2, the level is set on the basis of any inventory control system. The main direction has recently changed the approach of management and organization of the company, through the gradual implementation of the concept of Lean Management3, which so far is the result of the implementation the principle rules of 5S4.

3.1. Explanation of the production plan in terms of material flows

Analysis of the production plan in terms of material flows was carried out in production company, specializing in the production of centrifugal pumps, which are applicable in particular in the energy industry, heating, the mining of zinc, salt, coal and brown coal and other raw materials and metallurgy. Analyzed the production plan gives an overview as to the quantities and types of products produced in the period considered.

In the examined company a production plan is created in the Office of Production Preparation by independent expert of the production planning. Creation of a new settlement plan is accompanied by the previous billing period. Employee of the this Office deleted from the created plan those lines which are already done and implemented the production lines based on new contracts or agreements with customers and new orders received from a prototype implementation of the leading constructor, creates a production plan for a month following available.

Order production included in the plan ends when all activities are carried out relating to the manufacture of the device and associated with the settlement between counterparties. The production plan consisted of five parts:

2 Kisperska-Moroń D.: Logistics System of Polish Economy. Karol Adamiecki University of Economics in

Katowice, Katowice 1996, p. 66. 3 Origins of Lean Management is related to the production system used in the Japanese Toyota Company. 4 One of the elements of the Lean concept, referring to the five Japanese words that describe the standardization

of maintaining order in the workplace.


1. Production plan of final products, 2. Production plan of parts for submersible pumps, 3. Production plan of parts for pumps fixed, 4. Production plan of the aggregate supply, 5. Production plan of services.

The company's production plan in the initial period of research assumed to produce: 1. submersible pumps in the amount of 193 units, 2. fixed number of pumps in 31 pieces, 3. aggregates supply in quantity 2 pieces, 4. framework for installation of pumps in the quantity of 8 units.

In addition, the plan included the creation of a number of parts, components and assemblies, ordered by a specific customer or executed in the storage5.

3.2. Storage of materials in different phases of the manufacturing process

Warehouses in the examined company compensate for the temporary provisions implemented on various production departments including the Department of Foundry. Waiting for the production of goods or their deficiency is associated with different categoriesand costs.

The company has 4 stores, which collected the material, or parts and components at various stages of the manufacturing process:

1. Sales magazine - these are the parts and components purchased in warehouses, 2. Casts magazine - gathered here casts from foundry, 3. Steel magazine - stored material purchased in the mills and warehouses (drawn bars,

sheet metal etc.), 4. Finished goods magazine - collects the finished products. The whole production process is divided into phases, which will use the materials, parts

and components, taken from the respective magazines. These phases in terms of collection and storage of materials for storage is shown in Figure 1.

5 Products for the store are described as “saleable”, which means that there are the speculated of a quick sale.

K. Dohn 36

Finished goods magazine

Storing place of goods

Casts magazine

Steel magazine

I II III

Sales magazine

Direction of materials flow

Production process phases

Fig. 2. The phases of production process in terms of drawing and storing materials

in warehouses Rys. 2. Fazy procesu produkcyjnego z punktu widzenia poboru i składowania materiałów

na magazynach Source: develop their own on the basis of [5] Storage of materials found in the following phases of the production process:

I. Implementation of a casting element at the Department of Foundry, and placing it in the warehouse and the delivery of the finished casting material to the warehouse and metallurgical products in timee needs - store mall.

II. Consumption item in the warehouse or cast steel products, working at the Department of Mechanical and placing it in the warehouse of finished products.

III. Consumption items from store of steel products and sales magazines, assembling a finished product at the Faculty Assembly and putting it in storing place, where will be delivered to the customer.

The presented scheme provides a picture of the materials flow in the production process by individual stores. Waiting time as described in storage material for further processing depends on the type of product and for standard product is defined in the further part of the article (Figure 2). The ideal situation would be the time zero (the omission of intermediate storage), who first implied by the lack of downtime in a production cycle of products (no stocks) and, secondly, reducing customer service time, and therefore the production cycle.


3.3. Analysis of the reserves until the processes carried out at the Faculty Assembly and Faculty of Mechanical Engineering in the examined company

The study showed that the investigated company faces the problem of uneven distribution of work and its coordination with other ongoing processes between the various production departments. This is best illustrated situation in which the company manufactures finished product as a complete, ready-to-use product. Proper coordination between departments should be realized in such a way that all the necessary elements for the device and components hit the stores, or working positions when the need for further operations, or even enters the store, and once for another office. Such measures would result led to a significant shortening and the execution time of the production process and streamline the production volume of stocks during the process that cause or do not cause downtime in production due to their absence.

In practice, however, the time reserve reveal themselves through too late or too early to provide specific components and assemblies to finished goods for storage or work stations. The vast majority of components arises on mechanics department. Processing is performed on different machines by different workers, according to the workshop guides (Card Technology). Next to each operation contained in the Guide appear workshop times: preparatory and ending time (TPz) and unit time (tj), informing the operator how long the operation should continue. The sum of all times of technological operations in the Guide gives the time required to implement all of the elements. It is necessary to planning and coordinating works inside faculties and should be monitored in order to coordinate the work outside the faculties. But in order to effectively coordinate the work of the departments it should be eliminated (or monitor) work-stoppages that prolong the process of goods manufacturing and cause the accumulation of inventories in progress. The consequences are much more far reaching, because the duration of the production process affects the prices of products and the overall customer service time, which in turn affects their satisfaction and company reputation. Relationship between the various activities and processes undertaken in the company are undeniable. Inadequate functioning of some element it brings further significant problems.

3.4. Identification and analysis of the stockbuilding positions

From the standpoint of production processes carried out in examined production company stocks are stored in warehouses:

– finished goods magazine - there goes the elements worked in the manufacturing process at the department of mechanical engineering. These are the parts for further assembly or for sale;

K. Dohn 38

– sales magazine - these are parts and components, which are the subject of cooperation with selected partners. Inventories are stored in the warehouse primarily due to the belief the company with lower cost of inventory, increasedconnected with price discounts for purchasing larger batches of materials;

– casts magazine - stores here products made by the foundry. Often, foundry casting carries more than is required in the contracts. This is due to material savings policy in the company. Furnaces, which do have some limitations casts, among other things, the minimum amount of feedstock needed for the correctness of their operation. Typically, it exceeds the needs demand a subsidiary company, hence, abs not to waste the surplus material are cast larger quantities of an item that goes into the store;

– steel magazine - there are metallurgical material for the manufacture of various products. It is the largest magazine and its action policy is similar to a sales magazine. Stocks deposited here are the results of minimizing the purchase costs,

as well as inventory in progress collected directly at the working positions.

3.5. Causes or lack of supplies

The analysis of the production process in the examined company allowed to determine the structure of the stocks held by the company. It was estimated that in the sphere of physical supply is collected in about 55% of all stocks, in the sphere of production - 13%, while in the field of physical distribution of approximately 32% stocks. Studies have shown that the causes of excessive accumulation or lack of inventory are the following factors:

1. Uneven activities arrangement between production segments. 2. Inadequate organization of parts and goods supply processes. 3. Inadequate organization of the production system 4. Lack of control over work stoppages, due to lack of materials to production process. 5. Failure to meet deadlines for product. 6. Inappropriate timing of delivery of materials by the suppliers. 7. Production shortages 8. No using of controlling inventories methods. Research has shown that the company does not maintain a regular stock in the form of

security, a minimum, the orders. This means that there is a need to control their level. All material contracts executed are "constantly". This is due, inter alia, with easy access to many materials which can be delivered in a very short time, concerns include commercial and metallurgical materials.


4. Relationship identification between production cells in the examined company

In order to determine the relationship between the cells in the company it was used the relationship map, which illustrates the main entities involved in business process and their interrelationship in the form of materials, information and money flows6.

Figure 2 illustrates how lopsided is a block of stores by the bands flow. The analysis showed that magazines play an important role in the functioning of the company7.

Fig. 3. The map of relation in Researches Company Rys. 3. Mapa relacji badanego przedsiębiorstwa Source: develop their own on the basis of [5]

6 Bozarth C., Handfield R.B.: Introduction to operations management and supply chain. ONE Press, 2007, p. 84. 7 In fact, this is contrary to the policy pursued by the examined company for non-production stocks control

level.

K. Dohn 40

5. Materials flow in production process

In the examined company the production process is not planned so as to minimize the actions involving the movement of materials. Document that indicates the sequence of individual processing elements and machinery and equipment involving in the production process is a workshop guide (Card Technology). For a detailed analysis it was selected the production process of the sleeve spacers, mounted in a standard product of the company and presented it in the form of the process maps (Fig. 3 to 7). Production process map of the standard device shows the individual steps necessary to achieve the finished product and the position of production on which these acts are performed. Particular attention was given to downtime of material between workstations.

Displacement of material in the heavy pump manufacture

Cut

ting

Posi

tion

Mec

hani

cal

Dep

artm

ent

Dpa

rtmen

t of

Har

deni

ngFi

tting

D

epar

tmen

tM

agaz

ines

Download the magazine rolled

rod Φ70

Awaiting further action 1-4 hours

Material cutting on a given dimension

Working on a lathe fixture

Waiting for treatment 0-3

hours

Waiting for hardening 5 - 10

hrs.

self-control

Hardening and Tempering

Hole grinding Waiting for

treatment of 0 - 5 hrs.

Improvment ability?

No

TAK

YesNIE

Fig. 4. The process map of materials flow in production process (1) Rys. 4. Mapa procesu przepływu materiału w wybranym procesie produkcyjnym (1) Source: develop their own on the basis of [5]



Displacement of material in the heavy pump manufacture

Cut

ting

Posi

tions

Mac

hani

cal

Dep

artm

ent

Dep

artm

ent o

f H

arde

ning

TAK

Fitti

ng

Dep

artm

ent

Mag

azin

es

Waiting for treatment 2-5 hrs. Grinding Self-control Improvement

ability?

Awaiting installation of 0 -

48 hrs.

No

Yes

Yes

NoElement marking

Assembly on a heavy pump

position


K. Dohn 42




6. The location of inventory in progress

The location of inventory in progress is refer to the Faculty Assembly of the enterprise. The Faculty has eight workstations, dealing with various assembly processes. On the basis of the production process map and research conducted at the Department, identified the places of excessive inventory in progress, namely:

– heavy pump assembly position, – rotor assemblies position, – light pump assembly position. In the company has identified both intracellular and intercellular stocks in progress. It was

also found the presence of downtime due to lack of interop components for the goods production. The production cycle length of the standard product is approximated about 19 days. This period also includes the downtime material during the manufacturing process, resulting in the formation of stocks and work-stoppage during production process. On the process maps it was included the time intervals of material expectations for further processing, for various reasons. Aggregating the value of the minimum and maximum down time of material in the production process it was specified maximum and the minimum sum value of waiting for treatment. The maximum period of downtime in the manufacturing process is 78 hours (12 days and 6 hours.), a minimum period is about 8 hours.

7. Conclusions

1. The proposed research methodology in the article is an attempt to respond to determine the type and availability of information to study the flows in the production process and the occurrence of stock-in-progress, which is one of the most important logistics problems in manufacturing.

2. The proposed methodology of the research does not exhaust the scope of such information, but for the purposes of identifying the type and distribution of the stock-in-progress, as demonstrated by research, is sufficient.

3. Researches company does not use any inventory control system. In stores and between the production positions accumulates unplanned stocks, which extend the production cycle and generate costs. Nor adversely affects only for the functioning of the production sphere, but also the overall operation of the business.

4. The analysis showed that it is necessary to implement certain improvements to allow for a reduction to the minimum value of the final products, which will, inter alia, to shorten the execution time and eliminate stocks work in progress, thereby reducing the cost of the firm.

K. Dohn 44

Bibliography

1. Bendkowski J.: Practical aspects of logistics in production. Unpublished. 2. Bendkowski J.: Economical information in the company. Technical University of Silesia

Publisher, Gliwice 1993. 3. Bozarth C., Handfield R.B.: Introduction to operations management and supply chain. ONE

Press, 2007. 4. Kisperska-Moroń D.: Logistics System of Polish Economy. Karol Adamiecki University of

Economics in Katowice, Katowice 1996. 5. Companies source materials used and included in the work of D. Behrendt. Tecnical

University of Silesia. Faculty of Organization and Management. September 2008.

Reviewers: Prof. dr hab. inż. Józef Bendkowski Prof. dr hab. inż. Lech Bukowski

Kenneth Mølbjerg JØRGENSEN Aalborg University, Denmark Department of Education, Learning and Philosophy

CORRUPTION AND GENEALOGICAL ANALYSIS

Summary. In modern societies we need a complex understanding of relations of power in terms of understanding the subtleties of these phenomena at work in everyday life. This is no less true for corruption. Since it is difficult to precisely define corruption, I suggest taking another approach to corruption; that it is always a possibility and potential threat to democracy. For this reason I suggest Foucault’s critical analysis of power, the genealogy as a means of exploring organizational and societal relations. Genealogy is relevant because it is systematically suspicious and critical towards the truth and morality claims of any statement. It is a critical writing of history characterized by seeking a democratization of voices in terms of representing the marginalized and suppressed voices on a more equal footing with dominating ones. Since relations of power, whether based on corruption or not, seek to harness language, this critical inquiry is necessary in terms of developing democracy and protecting us from corruption.

Keywords: corruption, foucault, relations of power, genealogical analysis

KORUPCJA A ANALIZA GENEALOGICZNA

Streszczenie. We współczesnych społeczeństwach istnieje konieczność złożonego rozumienia relacji władzy w kontekście rozumienia subtelności tych zjawisk w codziennym środowisku pracy. To samo można powiedzieć o korupcji. Ponieważ trudno jest precyzyjnie zdefiniować korupcję, zasugerowano przyjęcie innego podejścia do korupcji, jako zjawiska, które stanowi zawsze możliwość i potencjalne zagrożenie dla demokracji. Z tego powodu autor sugeruje krytyczną analizę władzy Foucaulta, genealogię, jako środka, który służy do badania relacji organizacyjnych i społecznych. Genealogia wydaje się być odpowiednim podejściem, ponieważ jest systematycznie podejrzliwa i krytyczna wobec deklarowanej prawdy i moralności. Krytyczne pisanie historii charakteryzuje się demokratyzacją, w kontekście reprezentowania zmarginalizowanych i tłumionych głosów na równi z głosami dominującymi. Ponieważ relacje władzy, które oparte są albo na korupcji albo nie,

K.M. Jørgensen 46

starają się wykorzystać język, zatem niniejszy wgląd krytyczny jest niezbędny dla rozwoju demokracji i chronienia nas przed korupcją.

Słowa kluczowe: korupcja, Foucault, relacje władzy, analiza genealogiczna

1. Introduction

The paper is grounded on the presumption that the usual definition of corruption as the dysfunction of a political system or institution in which government officials, political officials or employees seek illegitimate personal gain through actions such as bribery, extortion, cronyism, nepotism, patronage, graft, and embezzlement is not very useful in complex modern democratic societies.

I suggest that corruption – or whatever we call corruption – works in much more subtle and almost invisible ways behind the scenes and, among others, seeks to harness the language of the world. The problem in the traditional definition of corruption is that it resembles traditional perspectives of power too much and thus that they have a rather narrow and simplified perspective on power and subsequently also on corruption.

I propose a more complex understanding. This understanding should be seen in the context of MacDonald’s argument that Western societies rest on the idea of the sovereign ego oriented towards the rational meaning of being, and where human relations are governed by a refusal of any expenditure without return.1 This idea also governs networks of power and is embedded in the mutuality, trust, expectations, norms and standards which work to favor particular actors, groups, institutions and viewpoints.

It follows that modern societies to a high degree actually work from the idea of mutual benefit and this tendency has actually been increasing over the past two to three decades. We have increasingly moved towards a postmodern condition characterized by strong relationships between political life, social life, business life and even scientific life, where scientific knowledge is increasingly commercialized.2

We would ordinarily not characterize all such relationships as “corruption” because this would basically mean that corruption is everywhere in modern societies. But there is a rather thin line between what is considered legitimate mutual relationships and alliances and what is considered corruption. Further, where the line is drawn varies from context to context.

1 MacDonald M.J.: Losing Spirit: Hegel, Levinas, and the Limits of Narrative. Narrative 2005, no 13(2), p. 184. 2 Lyotard J.F.: The Postmodern Condition - A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press, Manchester

1984.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bribery

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Extortion

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cronyism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepotism

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patronage

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graft

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Embezzlement

Corruption and genealogical analysis 47

This means that I will not try to draw the line between what is corruption and what is not corruption. I suggest taking another approach to corruption; namely that it is always a possibility and a potential threat to the development of democracy.

I propose Foucault’s critical analysis of power, the genealogy, as one of the guardians of democracy. This is because genealogy is based on the meticulous exploration of how relations of power work and is systematically suspicious of any statement. Since corruption - like other relations of power - seeks to harness, influence and frame language, this kind of analysis is critically important in terms of exposing the relations of power behind the statement.

Genealogy thus seeks to construct a high degree of transparency in terms of how social life works. The key point is that this transparency gives us the possibility to assess, evaluate and judge whether particular relations are legitimate or not by providing us with a more nuanced and varied understanding of the ways in which organizational and institutional decisions are made and implemented.

The paper is organized in three steps. Firstly, I describe Foucault’s conception of power and how it can be used in relation to corruption. Secondly, I describe main ideas of genealogical analysis as a means of power analysis. Thirdly, I refer to a number of case studies on power in organizations and describe key principles of genealogy. Finally, I draw the conclusions of the paper.

2. Networks of power

Foucault’s conception of power has emerged as a new powerful paradigm for the study of power in organizations.3 It offers a new complex understanding of power, which makes it distinct from other perspectives on power. Hardy and Leiba-O’Sullyvan4 identify four points where Foucault’s conception of power is different.

First, it challenges the presumption that power is something that individuals or groups of individuals have or possess. This is the presumption behind the other dimensions of power identified in Lukes’ (1974) seminal work. Power is rather a network of relations which captures the advantaged as well as the disadvantaged in its web.

Secondly, the assumption of a single autonomous individual is abandoned. Instead, Foucault draws attention to how individuals are socially produced by the power relations

3 Hardy C., Clegg S.R.: Some Dare Call It Power, [in:] Clegg S.R., Hardy C., Nord W.R. (eds.): Handbook of Organization Studies, Sage, London 1996, p. 622-641.

4 Hardy C., Leiba-O'Sullyvan S.: The Power Behind Empowerment: Implications for Research and Practice. Human Relations 1998, no 51(4), p. 458-460.

K.M. Jørgensen 48

surrounding them. In this respect, the individual is a socially constructed category of analysis with multiple fragmented identities.

Thirdly, the status of the researcher is challenged. Instead of viewing researchers as all knowing and objective, they too are subjected to specific power relations. Finally, power produces identity and values thus enabling individuals with a sense of what it is to be worthy and competent. Power penetrates what individuals are passionate about, what they intend to do, what they wish, what they like and dislike.

One of the unique aspects of Foucault’s conception of power is its social constructionist orientation. This means that moral conceptions of what is true and just cannot be defined once and for all. Such conceptions are socially produced categories and cannot thereby be separated from actors, interests and intentions.

As such, Foucault’s conception of power has expanded the field of power analysis. The term is no longer only applicable in terms of describing power as a negative imposing force, where some people get some other people to do what they would otherwise not have done.5 This is just the ultimate form that power takes.6 Rather, “Power produces; it produces reality, it produces domains and objects and rituals of truth”.7 In this sense, power is positive.8

This means that Foucault attempts to capture the creative and productive sense of power rather then merely the repressive sense. Further, power is not primarily an external force outside of our language, traditions and identities: “Power is everywhere; not because it embraces everything, but because it comes from everywhere”.9

Power emerges from the struggles between many different force relations at work immanently in economic and productive processes to the relations in the smallest elements in society – the family, the school room, the group, the organization etc. We are both the target and instrument of power. Power is inscribed in “…social institutions, in economic inequalities, in language, in the bodies themselves of each and everyone of us”.10

Power is in other words culturally embedded and embodied. It is largely unquestioned and unreflected. It is in every act, in every perception, in every feeling. It is embedded and embodied in contextual rules-of-the-game by which we do and say whatever we do and say.11

5 Clegg S.R.: Frameworks of Power. Sage, London 1989. 6 Foucault M.: Excerpts from The History of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction, [in:] Natoli J., Hutcheon L.

(eds.): A postmodern reader. State University of New York Press, New York 1993, p. 333. 7 Foucault M.: Discipline and Punish - the Birth of the Prison. Penguin, Harmondsworth 1979, p. 194. 8 Haugaard M.: The Constitution of Power. A Theoretical Analysis of Power, Knowledge and Structure.

Manchester University Press, Manchester 1997; Elden S.: Mapping the Present: Heidegger, Foucault and the Project of Spatial History. Continuum, London 2001, p. 106.

9 Foucault M.: Excerpts…, op.cit., p. 334 10 Foucault M.: Two lectures, [in:] Gordon C. (ed.): Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings

1972-1977 by Michel Foucault. Pantheon Books, New York 1980, p. 90. 11 Hardy C., Clegg S.R.: Some…, op.cit., p. 631-634.


In this sense, power is about the politics of everyday life.12 It is about politics as exercised from within the social body.13

As such power is better understood simply as a political game. We are part of this political game; as individuals who are trained to talk and understand things in a particular manner, as individuals who are expected and obliged to speak and behave according to our positions in these games, and as individuals who – depending on our positions – have different possibilities for influencing the processes and outcomes of these games.

…. Power is not an institution, and not a structure; neither is it a certain strength we are

endowed with, it is the name that one attributes to a complex strategical situation in a particular society”.14

Power must be understood as more or less loose and shifting networks and alliances,15

which creates domains and rituals of truth and morality.16 Power analysis in organization studies is to illuminate how these shifting networks and alliances are created, what kinds of truth and morality they proclaim, and on what grounds they proclaim these kinds of truth and morality.

There are many different ways in which power analysis can contribute to the analysis of corruption – or rather act as a guardian of democracy against corruption. First of all, Foucault’s conception of power focus on how relations of power become embedded and embodied in statements, in concepts, in institutions, in structures, architectures, and systems. Power is everywhere in the network of relations and embraces everything.

The fact that power is so pervasive is a danger to all democratic societies because our social construction of reality relies on relations of power. Language and narratives are thus framed by relations of power and at the same time they try to legitimize these relations of power.17 In other words, reality become framed in particular ways but these realities are the results of language, which favour particular groups, institutions and view points, while others are marginalized and displaced from the scene.

This way of working is also the case for relations of power in which corruption plays a more or less significant part. This means that corruption may pervade language to a considerable degree and that may pervade what we become to consider as evident, as truthful

12 Clegg S.R.: op.cit., p. 149. 13 Clegg S.R.: op.cit., p. 155. 14 Foucault M.: Excerpts…, op.cit., p. 334. 15 Clegg S.R.: op.cit., p. 154. 16 Foucault M.: Two…, op.cit. 17 Jørgensen K.M.: Power without Glory - A Genealogy of a Management Decision. Copenhagen Business

School Press, Copenhagen 2007.

K.M. Jørgensen 50

and legitimate. This is obvious for example, when corruption pervades the media, archives, records and the ways in which stories and narratives are told. The analysis of corruption must take this possibility into consideration and this is viewd here as one of the strengths of Foucault’s power analysis.

Secondly, Foucault’s conception of power opens up for us a complex understanding of the subtle ways in which power works including the techniques of power, the many points in which power may work and the many faces of power. This is, in my view, one of the main advantages of Foucault’s conception of power; that it is not linked to one perspective, to one group, to one particular way of power but instead recognizes that there are multiple ways in which power may work in complex societies.

Similarly, corruption may also work in multiple ways. Especially in complex Western democratic societies it is relatively rare to find corruption exercised in a direct visible sense. It is much more subtle, working in multiple ways at many points of interest – often on the boundaries of what we call corruption and what we simply label as alliances or networks. Sometimes this boundary is crossed, sometimes not.

But anyway there are multiple ways and multiple spaces in which corruption may show its face. Foucault’s power analysis thus opens up for a much more nuanced and varied understanding of corruption but also opens up for the understanding of complexities and issues involved whenever we judge something as corruption or as being legitimate relationships.

This for me is what Foucault’s power analysis can contribute to our understanding of corruption. In any case, it is difficult in societies in which economic gain plays such a major role to define a clear-cut boundary of what is corruption and what is not corruption. In theory, it may be clear-cut. In practice however, the distinction may be blurred and fuzzy. Corruption, like any other illegitimate use of power, is a threat to democracy in that it favours particular groups and particular voices in society and thus it suppresses and marginalizes other voices. And this is in my view the reason why we need Foucault’s conception of power and Foucault’s power analysis.

This aspect will become clearer when I describe the principles of power analysis, the genealogy, which is addressed in the following sections of the paper.

3. Genealogy

When doing power analysis, Foucault proposes genealogy or genealogical analysis. The practice of power analysis is thus a special kind of historical analysis where Foucault seeks to


construct an alternative memory that is different, more nuanced and varied than the memory embedded in present day narratives and language.

Foucault’s genealogy is here inspired by Nietzsche,18 who developed genealogy as a way of going beyond our everyday conceptions of what is good, true, just, evil etc. In other words, genealogy was developed to question our moral conceptions embedded in everyday life and which has been taught to us as the right and appropriate way to conceive things (Nietzsche 1992)19

Writing history by means of genealogical analysis is Nietzsche’s way of ridding ourselves of the chains – the power – of history. Nietzsche’s aim is to perform a novel critique of morality. He wants to show that morality has a history, that there have been different types of moralities and thus that morality “needs to be understood as an invention of a particular human type”.20

In other words, Nietzsche considered morality as a construction with a long history of accidents, reversals, discontinuities, etc. By writing the history of morality he wanted to create the conditions for a more reflexive relationship to what we have come to take for granted, and what we have been taught as right and just – hence the construction of an alternative memory. He calls this a revaluation of values on which culture is founded.21

Thus, when applied in organizational research, power analysis is conducted with the purpose of revaluating the values on which organizations, or phenomena or events in them, are founded.22 Fairclough has noted that this kind of power analysis is the first step towards emancipation because it makes us more conscious of where our conceptions of truth and justice come from.

History is the weapon by which we can “free” ourselves from the power of the present. This should not be understood as freeing ourselves from the language of the present because we have no other language. It is freeing ourselves in the sense of being more reflexive of our language and thus our values of truth, morality and justice.

It is this radical writing of history which is also interesting in relation to corruption. This relies on the presumption that corruption, like any other dominating relations of power, will pervade language and thus how we come to interpret reality. In such cases, genealogy battles corruption by creating an alternative, more varied and critical memory of the present.

18 Foucault M.: Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, [in:] Rabinow P. (ed.): The Foucault Reader. Pantheon, New York 1984.

19 Nietzsche F.: On the Genealogy of Morals, [in:] Kaufmann W. (ed.): Basic Writings of Nietzsche. The Modern Library, New York 1992, p. 437-600.

20 Ansell-Pearson K. (ed.): Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1994.

21 Nietzsche F.: On…, op.cit., p. 456 22 Jørgensen K.M.: op.cit.

K.M. Jørgensen 52

Genealogy is cynical and seeks to bring forward the darker sides of history; that is those voices which were not heard, those who were left behind, suppressed and marginalized from the scene.

In this way, genealogy is systematically suspicious of any statement, of any argument, of any narrative because it looks at such actions as framed by relations of power at work in everyday organizational life. Genealogy is open for worst cases to occur23 including cases of violence, fraud, tyranny, corruption etc. As such genealogy doesn’t presume that people are necessarily polite, civilized, noble, pragmatic or reasonable. People can be evil, immoral, obnoxious, selfish and capable of doing whatever it takes to promote their own intentions or interests.

Genealogy would for example reveal that the concept of liberty is an invention of the ruling classes and not necessarily the basic condition of man.24 It reveals that rationality was born in an altogether reasonable fashion – from chance.25 Power should also be understood in a more mundane manner. Power does not derive from the king. The constitution of social life is, on the contrary, derived from “…a complex set of petty and ignoble power relations”.26

To write a genealogy is to write what Foucault terms the history of the present.27 Genealogy is not about the past, it is about the present. This includes why we think, act and interact in the ways that we think, act and interact. It is to try to see how history influences our daily practices because our ways of thinking, acting and judging are descended from history, but not a manifestation of history.

As Hardy and Clegg28 put it, power is “…embedded in the fibre and fabric of everyday life”. Power is as such strong, relevant and concrete in that genealogy always supposes that power is an indispensable part of historical development and change. This means that the interpretation of the historical text in a genealogical sense is not the uncovering of hidden meaning. Looked through the lens of the genealogist, there is nothing there to interpret – because underneath everything said and done there is already interpretation.29 In other words, there is no hidden essence of truth in the text, because this text is only an interpretation of other texts, which are interpretations of other texts and so forth.

Writing a history of the present, involves this kind of historical spirit where everything said and done needs to judged and evaluated according to the context in which it is said and

23 Flyvbjerg B.: Making Social Science Matter – Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can Succeed Again. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, p. 95

24 Foucault M.: Discipline…, op.cit., p. 78-79. 25 Foucault M.: Nietzsche…, op.cit., p. 78. 26 Haugaard M. : The Constitution…, op.cit., p. 43. 27 Foucault M.: Discipline…, op.cit., p. 31. 28 Hardy C., Clegg S.R.: Some…, op.cit., p. 631. 29 Rabinow P. (ed.): The Foucault Reader. Pantheon, New York 1982, p. 107.


done. An organization’s history is not a straight line but the result of chains of utterances in which a plurality of different voices and circumstances have made their influence in unpredictable ways.30

The problem in traditional writing of history is that the multilayered and plural history is often represented in simple linear narratives with a clear, beginning, middle and end.31 In this linearization, we lose the historical spirit; we lose the actors in the process. Genealogy seeks on the other hand to reconstruct historical development by bringing attention to who, where and when in a way which is aligned with marginalized voices.

Next I will refer to some studies which I consider as genealogical. This is followed by an identification of key principles of genealogical analysis.

4. Principles of genealogical analysis: descent and emergence

Genealogical analysis is based on the detailed and meticulous exploration of texts as well as their interrelations. As such Foucault follows Nietzsche in arguing that genealogy “… is gray, meticulous and patiently documentary”.32 In other words we need the source material which may provide rich accounts of the complex course of events that leads to the emergence of organizational decisions and actions.

These are accounts that ideally should make it possible to follow history as it progresses, develops and changes through interactions and negotiations among actors in different positions and with different intentions. In organization and management studies, I would include O’Connor’s case study of the emergence of The Harvard Business School and The Human Relations School33 as an instance of genealogical analysis.

Through the detailed exploration of historical texts, O’Connor describes the complex historical circumstances behind the emergence of these famous institutions in management thought. They were the results of an alliance behind powerful business men such as John D. Rockefeller and others, as a reaction to the prevailing fear of Marxism and the labor movement. This was a kind of a “new deal” in management thought, and it emerged in a series of small actions and decisions on the part of a variety of people under the influence of specific political circumstances. A new strategy of management though was born.

30 Arendt H.: The Human Condition. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1998. 31 Boje D.M., Durant R.A.: Free Stories! Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry 2006, no 5(3), p. 19-

37; Jørgensen K.M., Boje D.M.: Genealogies of Becoming - Antenarrative Inquiry in Organizations. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry 2009, no 8(1), p. 32-47.

32 Foucault M.: Nietzsche…, op.cit., p. 76. 33 O'Connor E.: The Politics of Management Thought: A Case Study of the Harvard Business School and the

Human Relations School. Academy of Management Review 1999, no 24(1), p. 117-131.

K.M. Jørgensen 54

In our language, this study is the deconstruction of a solid and unshakable truth in management thought as the sudden and surprising scientific discovery of the impact on human relations on worker behavior and productivity, which came out from the famous Hawthorne investigations. The point is that O’Connor through the exploration of historical texts tells a different story of the emergence of what has become a myth in management thought thereby questioning the foundations of this paradigm in management thought.

Flyvbjerg’s case study of city planning in Aalborg34 is another example in which the emergence of political decisions were subjected to historical scrutiny in order to analyze complex relationships between actors and how it influenced political decisions about traffic and public transportation infrastructure, architecture, environmental concerns and so forth. The story includes mayors, politicians, business life, planners, other interest groups and broader political and societal circumstances.

Among others, it tells the story of how seemingly rational decision making is twisted and corrupted in favor of particular actors and interests groups. It tells how major decisions are made before serious investigations of impact and alternatives have been carried out, and how these decisions are rationalized afterwards to make them appear legitimate in the public eye. Interestingly and ironically, the project that these controversial decision making processes were part of, received a price for “good and careful planning” for more than ten years in a row.35

Jørgensen’s study of organizational change in a bank36 explores the emergence of a particular management decision of implementing a new functional and geographical division of labor in its historical context in order to create an alternative memory of these actions and events that diverge from official and dominant narratives and accounts of the present. The story questions these narratives and accounts by revealing among others how controversial relationships among actors and past failures of managing change influenced the decision. Relationships and failures that were however not part of the organization’s legitimate vocabulary and memory.

These examples are characteristic of genealogical analysis in that they scrutinize concrete historical events in terms of actors (and their interrelationships), chronology and context thus exposing dominant accounts to mockery and laugher. They are relevant for the analysis of corruption in the sense that they seek to dig in behind the scenes and visualize the complex political network of relationship at work in regard to major organizational decisions and events.

34 Flyvbjerg B.: og Magt - Et case-baseret studie af planlægning, politik og modernitet. Akademisk Forlag, København 1991.

35 Flyvbjerg B.: Rationalitet…, op.cit., p. 23. 36 Jørgensen K.M.: op.cit.


As such genealogical analysis seeks to tell a more varied and complex story of why particular decisions were made and implemented and why the legitimacy of these events was represented the way it was. In telling such stories, Foucault recommends two principles inspired by Nietzsche.; “Herkunft” (descent) and “Entstehung” (emergence).

The English word for Herkunft is descent. It emphasizes the historicity of words and actions. History influences, limits and makes possible. But it is not history, which repeats itself. Events are not reflections or manifestations of history. Instead, the analysis of descent is the analysis of “numberless beginnings ...(which)... permits the dissociation of the self”.37 The “self” – and the values linked to it – is in other words a historical construction, which has numberless beginnings. Thus, the self is not a unity but is fragmented, differentiated and shaped by accidents.

In genealogical analyses, descent is inscribed in the body, in nervous systems, temperament, systems of digestion and so on - “its task is to expose a body totally imprinted by history and process of history’s destruction of the body”.38

The English word for Entstehung is emergence. In the same way as descent is not to be considered as an undisturbed continuity, neither is emergence the final part of historical development. It is only an episode in a series of “subjugations”.39 The descriptions of emergence in many ways resemble Foucault’s descriptions of power.

Genealogy, for example, “…seeks to re-establish the various systems of subjection: not the anticipatory power of meaning, but the hazardous play of dominations”.40 Emergence is also linked with force. The purpose of an analysis of emergence is to delineate the interaction between different forces. Emergence is the scene on which different forces meet face-to-face.41

While descent describes the character of the instinct and its inscription in the body, emergence is “…a place of confrontation”.42 Emergence is the result of a relation between forces. As a consequence, no one is responsible for emergence; “…no one can glory in it, since it always occurs in the interstice”.43

To reiterate, emergence is always a relation between forces and no one is responsible for it. The actions of people have to be viewed in interaction with particular material circumstances and other actors. As a consequence, emergence is never finished or complete. It moves through new relations and new confrontations, which carry with them new objects

37 Foucault M.: Nietzsche…, op.cit., p. 81. 38 Ibidem, p. 82-83. 39 Ibidem, p. 83. 40 Ibidem, p. 83. 41 Ibidem, p. 84. 42 Ibidem, p. 84. 43 Ibidem, p. 85.

K.M. Jørgensen 56

and new ways of speaking. According to Foucault, this means that there is only one drama, namely “…the endlessly repeated play of dominations”.44

This endless play of dominations is fixed, through history, in rituals, in procedures, in norms and rules, which prescribe truth and justice. To suggest that civilized societies are equal to the rejection of violence and war would be very naïve. Violence, war, and the bloody confrontations are rather installed in the rule- and norm systems, which go from dominance to dominance45 and produce inequality and difference in the possibilities of constructing what is to be considered true and just.

The analysis of descent and emergence – and the relationship between them – have thus certain presumptions about the nature of power and thus also on relations of power in which corruption plays a significant part. First of all, it presumes that such relationships are deeply embedded in everyday life. Corruption as such may be inscribed in the body, in language and in the practices of life. Further, it will describe how such relationships become embedded in norms, rituals, rules, procedures and traditions which prescribe truth and justice.

The key problem here is that emergence is not the result of an interaction between equals. It is produced by different people with different intentions and with different opportunities to produce such emergence. In other words, when corruption pervades language, it also becomes embedded in the writing of history, the creation of history for the future and thus in the control and disciplining of what we come to think as true and just.

Genealogy is explicitly directed against this problem. Emergence produces inequality, difference, domination and control, which in turn produce emergence. The writing of history depends on relations of power. The winners write history. Contesting arguments, viewpoints, meanings and actions are lost and forgotten. The writing of history - whether it is in books, in stories, in narratives, in techniques, in procedures, in rules, in concepts, in sentences and so on contains a specific version of what is true and what is just.

This is for example when phenomena, which we thought had a great history and the result of sacred figures, are exposed as something with a very controversial history of illegitimate relations of power; of systematic injustice against certain groups in society performed by our heroes, kings, business entrepreneurs etc. The whole spectrum of human characteristics is instead represented in genealogical analysis: Nobility, generosity, heroic deeds, reason and vision – but also war, massacres, blood, conflicts, violence, exploitation, corruption and so forth.

44 Ibidem, p. 85. 45 Ibidem, p. 85.


5. Conclusions

I have argued that instead of defining corruption, we should take another approach to corruption; namely that it is always a possibility and potential threat to the development of democracy. I have argued that power analysis can act as a guardian of democracy and to immunity of corruption by trying to make the work of organizations and institutions more transparent through the meticulous historical unravelling of organizational decisions in terms of who, where and when, and by which everyday conceptions in present day language are confronted with alternative stories of becoming.

Power analysis is highly relevant, since illegitimate relationships that influence decisions and outcomes often work in subtle and invisible ways behind the scenes and also seek to harness language and narratives. Foucault’s conception of power and subsequently power analysis thus opens up for a complex understanding of the multiple ways in which corruption works but it also opens up for an understanding of the complexities and issues involved whenever we judge something as corruption or as legitimate relationships.

Bibliography

1. Arendt H.: The Human Condition. The University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1998. 2. Boje D.M.: Narrative Methods for Organizational and Communication Research. Sage,

London 2001. 3. Boje D.M., Durant R.A.: Free Stories! Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry

2006, no 5(3). 4. Clegg S.R., Courpasson D., Phillips N.: Power and Organizations - Foundations for

Organizational Science. Sage, London 2006. 5. Clegg S.R.: Frameworks of Power. Sage, London 1989. 6. Elden S.: Mapping the Present: Heidegger, Foucault and the Project of Spatial History.

Continuum, London 2001. 7. Fairclough N.: Language and Power – Language in Social Life. Pearson ESL, London

2001. 8. Flyvbjerg B.: Making Social Science Matter – Why Social Inquiry Fails and How It Can

Succeed Again. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001. 9. Flyvbjerg B.: Rationalitet og Magt - Et case-baseret studie af planlægning, politik og

modernitet. Akademisk Forlag, København 1991.

K.M. Jørgensen 58

10. Foucault M.: Excerpts from The History of Sexuality: Volume 1: An Introduction, [in:] Natoli J., Hutcheon L. (eds.): A postmodern reader. State University of New York Press, New York 1993.

11. Foucault M.: Nietzsche, Genealogy, History, [in:] Rabinow P. (ed.): The Foucault Reader. Pantheon, New York 1984.

12. Foucault M.: Two lectures, [in:] Gordon C. (ed.): Power/Knowledge: Selected Interviews and Other Writings 1972-1977 by Michel Foucault. Pantheon Books, New York 1980.

13. Foucault M.: Discipline and Punish - the Birth of the Prison. Penguin, Harmondsworth 1979.

14. Hardy C., Leiba-O'Sullyvan S.: The Power Behind Empowerment: Implications for Research and Practice. Human Relations 1998, no 51(4).

15. Hardy C., Clegg S.R.: Some Dare Call It Power, [in:] Clegg S.R., Hardy C., Nord W.R. (eds.): Handbook of Organization Studies. Sage, London 1996.

16. Haugaard M.: The Constitution of Power. A Theoretical Analysis of Power, Knowledge and Structure. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1997.

17. Jørgensen K.M.: Power without Glory - A Genealogy of a Management Decision. Copenhagen Business School Press, Copenhagen 2007.

18. Jørgensen K.M., Boje D.M.: Genealogies of Becoming - Antenarrative Inquiry in Organizations. Tamara Journal for Critical Organization Inquiry 2009, no 8(1).

19. Lyotard J.F.: The Postmodern Condition - A Report on Knowledge. Manchester University Press, Manchester 1984.

20. MacDonald M.J.: Losing Spirit: Hegel, Levinas, and the Limits of Narrative. Narrative 2005, no 13(2).

21. Nietzsche F.: On the Genealogy of Morality, [in:] Ansell-Pearson K. (ed.): Cambridge Texts in the History of Political Thought. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge1994.

22. Nietzsche F.: On the Genealogy of Morals, [in:] Kaufmann W (ed.): Basic Writings of Nietzsche. The Modern Library, New York 1992.

23. O'Connor E.: The Politics of Management Thought: A Case Study of the Harvard Business School and the Human Relations School. Academy of Management Review 1999, no 24(1).


Peter ODRAKIEWICZ Poznan University College of Business and Foreign Languages

BUSINESS ENGLISH AS AN INTELLECTUAL BRIDGE – MANAGEMENT OF THE SYNCRETIC CASE STUDY METHOD, ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES IN EDUCATION MANAGEMENT AND BLENDED LEARNING FOR NON-NATIVE BUSINESS ENGLISH AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES STUDENTS IN AN INTERCULTURAL ENVIRONMENT

Summary. Business English can be viewed as a core cross-cultural competence in today’s globalized village. It is also an intellectual bridge for better understanding. This paper is based on my own teaching and education management experience of more than fifteen years in the United States, Canada and Poland where I have taught Business English and management. Instructors of Business English as a second language (ESL) and management sciences could greatly enhance their students’ learning by employing the case-study method and e-learning in tandem. I outline the characteristics of what I call the syncretic case study method which is a blend of two case study approaches, the Western Ontario University and Harvard methods. Business English as a central component of curriculum must take into act the interconnected and multicultural world

Keywords: syncretic case study innovation, organizational change in education

management, Business English, intellectual bridge, management teaching methods, cross cultural competences

BUSINESS ENGLISH JAKO INTELEKTUALNY POMOST –ZARZĄDZANIE METODĄ SYNKRETYCZNĄ JAKO CASE STUDY, ORGANIZACYJNE ZMIANY W ZARZĄDZANIU EDUKACJĄ ORAZ PROCES ”BLENDED LEARNING” DLA STUDENTÓW BUSINESS ENGLISH I ZARZĄDZANIA W INTERKULTUROWYM ŚRODOWISKU

Streszczenie. Business English może być postrzegany jako kluczowa kompetencja w globalnej wiosce. Jest on również intelektualnym pomostem lepszej

P. Odrakiewicz 60

komunikacji w biznesie. Poniższy artykuł jest podsumowaniem mojego ponad 15-letniego doświadczenia w nauczaniu i zarządzaniu edukacją w Kanadzie, USA i Polsce. Artykuł przedstawia zalety zastosowanie metody synkretycznej, będącej wypadkową metod nauczania za pomoca case studies przez uniwersytety Harvarda i Western Ontario. Business English jako centralna część programu komunikacji w organizacji musi brać pod uwagę powiązany i multikulturowy świat.

Słowa kluczowe: Metoda synkretyczna innowacja, zmiany organizacyjne

w zarządzaniu edukacją, Business English, intelektualny pomost, zarządzanie – metody nauczania, kompetencje interkulturowe w zarządzaniu

1. Acquisition of business english communication competence

In the context of a growing globalization paradigm and the increasing importance of English as a global language, communication skills in, and knowledge of Business English and communication management skills is self-evident. A task for instructors of Business English and communication in management lecturers is to discover and develop more efficient and effective instructional programs and methodologies. The acquisition of English as a second language and managerial communication competencies requires on-going analysis and debate. I have concluded that the case study method in an e-learning arena may be one of the most efficient tools for conducting, organizing and managing Business English and communication in organization education. Furthermore, it can lead to the practical acquisition of Business English cross-cultural competences and abilities. Cultural, ethnic, racial, social and linguistic diversity are present in most international business dealings. Even in countries where only minor cultural and racial differences exist, Business English and management teaching as a subject must take into account the interconnected and multicultural world.

The case study method, supported by e-learning, can be a very powerful tool for acquiring communication skills in business and in the sphere of the interpersonal. The challenges are multi-dimensional. The instructor must find suitable cases that can assist the student to centralize and solidify previous knowledge and at the same time provide a rich educational, cross-cultural and linguistic component. Additionally, these cases should focus on the student's acquisition of broad managerial skills, and assist Business English college and university instructors to adapt to their new roles as facilitators of learning in a traditional setting that is supported by e-learning. Sławek Magala of the Rotterdam School of Management has stated that, “Managers are paying lip service to cultural issues; they say that

Business english as an intellectual bridge… 61

culture and communication are important, but do little to improve either”.1 The education of students of Business English, management and the social sciences has often failed to effectively address cross-cultural communication issues and challenges.

In this context, this paper seeks to answer the question of what sort of Business English and management communication skills might be required for global intercultural and cross-cultural competence. Also, I pose further questions regarding which business communication skills are being taught, acquired and fostered in management and Business English courses in colleges and universities where English is taught as a second language, or used for teaching in a non English-speaking country such as Poland. How best to teach so our students so they can acquire Business English and managerial communication skills for cross-cultural and communication competence, both personal and professional, in a globalized world?

2. English as a global language

According to Carmela Briguglio of the Curtin Business School, Curtin University of Technology, Perth, Australia, quoting other researchers in the field, “There would seem little doubt that English is, increasingly, a global language. Even those who decry this fact acknowledge it.”2 Although it is difficult to obtain precise data in this area, Crystal3 estimates that nearly one quarter of the world’s population, or between 1.2 and 1.5 billion people, are already fluent or competent in English. And ironically, while the number of ‘native speakers’ or ‘first language speakers’ of English may be declining. Furthermore, Crystal4 estimates the number of first language speakers of English in some 56 countries to be around 337 million while the number of second language speakers continues to grow.5

Is this enough to make English a ‘global’ language? According to Crystal6 English not only has a large number of first language (L1) speakers in a number of countries, but it has also been made the official language in a number of others (e.g. Ghana, Nigeria and Singapore) and a priority foreign language in many more. Kachru7 describes the spread of English as three concentric circles. The countries where there are most L1 speakers of English (e.g. UK & USA) represent the inner circle; the countries which were formerly colonized and where English is now the official language (e.g. India & Singapore) form the

1 Magala S.J.: Interface-Magazine of the RSM Erasmus University. Vol. 23, Issue 4, April 2007. 2 Phillipson R., Skutnabb-Kangas T.: Englishisation: One dimension of globalization, [in:] Graddol D., Meinhof

U.H. (eds.): English in a changing world, AILA Review 1999, no 13. 3 Crystal D.: English as a global language. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1997. 4 Ibidem. 5 Graddol D., Meinhof U.H. (eds.): English in a changing world. AILA Review 1999, no 13. 6 Crystal D.: op.cit. 7 Ibidem.

P. Odrakiewicz 62

middle circle; and those where English is increasingly being taught as a foreign language (e.g. China, Greece & Poland) are in the expanding outer circle. The growth of English speakers coupled with economic developments on a global scale, new communications technologies, the explosion in international marketing and advertising, as well as mass entertainment have supported the continued expansion of English as a global ‘lingua franca.’ “There has never been a time when so many nations were needing to talk to each other so much. There has never been a time when so many people wished to travel to so many places (….) never has there been a more urgent need for a global language”.8

The importance of English as a global language is likely to continue to grow in the foreseeable future9 and in the field of business, arguably even more so than in other areas. We need to keep in mind that many, if not most, future business interactions in the global arena will take place between English speakers from different national/cultural backgrounds, only some of whom will be L1 speakers of English. In this scenario, ‘native speakers’ will not necessarily be advantaged. Indeed they might well be disadvantaged, lured into a false sense of security by the belief that “everyone speaks English,” and no extra effort is necessary. This false sense of security can develop in students and professionals in the expanding outer circle countries such as Poland, including international students studying in Poland, many of whom speak English as a second language.

3. The challenge

As stated earlier, our challenge is to better prepare the business graduate with Business English communication skills which will enable him or her to successfully negotiate through a web of multicultural complexities. Our goal is to manage Business English education and the acquisition of Business English managerial competencies to reflect the cultural, racial, social and linguistic diversity present in both globalized trade and in the world economy. The final product is a well-educated business graduate who is not only able to communicate in English, but is well aware of the existing diversity and challenges which he or she will face in the future. In my opinion, the present strategies and methods of managing Business English education do not provide complete answers to the above dilemma. Today's methods largely focus on acquiring either ESP (English for specific purposes), or on independent BET (Business English teaching). Additionally, most Business English courses focus on developing general communication skills. Our curriculum inheritance is characterized as follows:

8 Ibidem; Briguglio C.: Focus group interviews with CBS international students. Unpublished manuscript.

Curtin University of Technology, Perth 2001. 9 Crystal D.: op.cit.


– Historically, Business English teaching and management methods were mainly adaptations to course books.

– The original assumption which was the foundations of the courses, that is, the grammar/vocabulary dichotomy, is invalid. This dichotomy produced ineffective and time consuming methods.

– Grammar as an element was subordinate to lexis. Peter Daly from the EDHEC Business School (Lille - Nice, France) has also observed

case studies available to language learners and teachers and elaborates on a methodology of how these case studies can be exploited to maximize student-talking time in the language classroom. He has stated, “Not all case studies are the same and with different levels of difficulty and skills trained the choice of case study is tantamount to the success of your class”.10

The most important consideration case study preparation and teaching is thorough case review and appropriate Internet-based support provided to each group commensurate with their level. The use of e-learning resources support business, intercultural management communication and managerial skills acquisition in addition to language skills. My method differs from Daly’s method, in which the principal goal is language acquisition with secondary attention given to the general business managerial communication skills required for one to become competent in today’s intercultural world village. According to Daly, “Case studies are extremely rich in content and can provide the learner with the potential to consolidate already acquired knowledge and train specific language and managerial skills. Language teachers inexperienced in the use of the case study method may be inhibited by the content-based nature of the case study and therefore shy away from using case studies in class. This teaching methodology should help teachers plan their classroom to ensure effective execution of a case study”.11 Daly supports the notion of using suitable case studies which are not too content-led and do not presuppose an in-depth knowledge of a specific subject matter. This is, I believe, a viable alternative. “While there are various publications on the market which respond to the language teachers’ needs, there are some books that offer simulations with prescribed roles”,12 while others integrate mini-cases at the end of each chapter dealing with a specific topic such as international marketing or finance.13

10 Daly P.: Methodology for Using Case Studies in the Business English Language Classroom. The Internet

TESL Journal 2002, no 8(11). Retrieved in May 2006 from http://iteslj.org/Techniques/Daly-CaseStudies/. 11 Ibidem. 12 Crowther-Alwyn J.: Business roles. 12 simulations for business English. CUP, Cambridge 1997; Crowther-

Alwyn J.: Business roles. 12 simulations for business English. CUP, Cambridge 1999. 13 Cotton D., Falvey D., Kent S.: Market leader. Intermediate Business English. Pearson Education Limited,

Longman 2000; Cotton D., Falvey D. Kent S.: Market leader. Upper-Intermediate Business English, Pearson Education Limited, Longman 2001.

P. Odrakiewicz 64

4. Why the case study method?

At this point, I will address some obstacles that instructors discover in utilizing case study methods. Some of the factors which contribute to instructor “discomfort” are as follows:

– they do not feel confident; – they have never used cases in the past; – Business English books come with CD’s, and tests, and teacher support materials; – the case study process is too loosely structured to some instructors who are inured to

regimentation and predictability of textbooks; – reaction to each case is unpredictable; – Business English books usually carry reputable names and are recommended; – case teaching may initially require more intensive preparation; – e-learning support requires the possession of suitable technology and a good grasp of

this technology. Instructors who are accustomed to a transmission style of teaching may feel that teaching

is not really happening if they use simulations or case studies.14 However, the advantages of case studies are numerous. Some of them are set out below adapted from Daly:

It is possible to inspire critical thinking and reflective learning in the learner. – Change within a learning mode is a fresh approach. – It is possible to train managerial communication skills, such as holding a meeting,

negotiating a contract, or giving a presentation. Case studies force students into real-life situations that require them to get involved in managerial communication.

– The research often elevates the students’ knowledge of the complexities of the interconnected human environment. I believe this makes them better world citizens.

– Case studies foster collaborative learning and team-working skills in the language learner. Extensive research done by my colleague Magdelena Wyrwicka of the Poznan University College of Business and Foreign Languages indicates the following interpersonal skills needed for work success: • the ability to make contacts and communication; • friendliness and cooperation; • ability to adjust; • auto-reflection abilities; • openness to criticism; • ability to compromise15

14 Daly P.: op.cit. 15 Wyrwicka M.K.: Zeszyty Naukowe Politechniki Poznańskiej. Seria humanistyka i nauki społeczne 2000, nr 50.


– Improvement of the student’s organizational skills can be substantial as case studies are sometimes very dense in information. The key is to condense this information into logical sections and organize them so that a clear picture of the problem/issue emerges.

– Case studies can be used to improve the student’s written and oral communication. Non-verbal communication skills are also practiced by using case studies as students work together in close-knit groups.

– An instructor without a business background may be trained to effectively facilitate group of students who are studying a case.

It is very important to explain the case to students and in some cases read the case with them to explain what is expected. One can never assume that providing a student with an Internet link to a case, along with a brief explanation of the case, will suffice. I have often found that many advanced non-natives or native speakers do not possess adequate Business English vocabularies. Native speakers in the business community do need to study Business English, as it is a specialized ability and a skill that must be acquired.

5. Blended learning support for case studies

It is the role of the teacher to prepare learning support for the case using the e-learning arena, while adjusting his or her explanations according to the needs of learners. In this way, the teacher is both a facilitator of learning and students acquire both Business English, but also managerial and intercultural management skills which complement the English language competence.

Daly notes, “As far as interactive case studies go, two distinct types of case studies can be identified: those that provide the learner with targeted content input to practice a specific skill such as negotiating, interviewing, problem-solving or decision-making,16 and those which are more free to interpretation and call on the teacher to choose the preferred methodology and classroom strategy.”17 I advocate methods of case utilization that are based on a combination of analytical review of available options and the discussion of pros and cons of the proposed solutions. The teacher should present business challenges and reference them to current events. The on-line e-learning must be monitored by the instructor to ensure the sources and sites are at a level appropriate for the linguistic level of the participants. The presented problems should accommodate the dialectics of the of Harvard case exploration that is flexible and allows for team and self-directed change. Also, the presentation of each case

16 Castle K., Palmer D.: Business assignments. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1989. 17 Witte A.E. (ed.): Interactive cases for business English. Ellipses, Paris 1999.

P. Odrakiewicz 66

should accommodate adult learning theory: in other words, the material is meaningful and relevant to each student; the differing levels of case study difficulty that are available respect the fact that different adults learn at different speeds; parallels may be drawn between the students' own language and culture and those of English during the learning process; presentation respects the unique learning needs of adults such as cultural sensitivity and grammar acquisition difficulties; and finally, explanations of difficult concepts may be made in the students’ native language.

6. The syncretic case study method

I propose a new paradigm for the instruction and management of Business English and communication in management teaching. The new paradigm includes the following points:

– Intensive teacher business management and postgraduate training in case study utilization, supported in an blended learning arena, before attempting utilization of case studies in the business English to enhance managerial and intercultural management communication competence acquisition.

– The language teacher should use original articles on business topics from the press, such as (Newsweek, The Economist, the business section of daily papers from the US, Canada, Australia and the UK, which are available on the internet daily), as well as government websites in English, websites from organizations including the OECD (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development), the EU (European Union), UN (United Nations), and those from the World Bank, the World Trade Organization (WTO), and various non-governmental organizations (NGO’s).

– Steve McKenna, of the University of Otago in Dunedin, New Zealand, has correctly observed, as I see it, that the highly analytical Western Ontario case study method and the dialectical Harvard case study method are not mutually exclusive.18 The synergy of these two methods is in detailed orchestration and modification of both methods. I call this new paradigm the syncretic case study method.

6.1. Formulation of the Syncretic Case Study Method

At present, the use of case studies in Business English as a means of acquiring managerial and intercultural communication competence for second language learners is rare in undergraduate studies where Business ESL and communication in management is taught. Case studies, however, are more often part of the curriculum in graduate, postgraduate and


executive Business English and communication in organization education courses. In most cases these courses lack the blended learning intensive support and intercultural communication management component that is needed for the successful implementation of this method.

McKenna observes, “We should expect, however, that the material in and substance of cases, and their interpretation, will vary constantly as they are used with different groups, of different ages, genders and cultures. In addition, we should also expect that the ways in which cases are used in learning will be different.” McKenna makes a distinction between two ways of using cases. He states, “Firstly, there is the so-called Western Ontario analytical approach. It is argued that this approach offers a framework for analysis and management decision and has a number of characteristics:19

– the case is carefully read; – the problems are defined; – the information is summarized; – the information is analyzed; – the problem definition is re-examined; – a number of alternatives dealing with the problem are generated; – each alternative is assessed according to its advantages and disadvantages; – the alternatives are then evaluated. In the interest of achieving competency in both Business English as a second language

and acquiring managerial competence, the following adjustments to the “University of Western Ontario” method should be made:

– The case should be carefully read; and difficult vocabulary, idioms, etc., are to be explained using monolingual means while utilizing e-learning support.

– When the problems should be defined, the main problem is highlighted by a Business English instructor. The secondary case challenge should only be discussed with advanced groups.

– The information should be summarized and explained using simple sentences. Clarity in communication is emphasized.

– The information should be analyzed using graphs and a monolingual dictionary with a thesaurus.

– The problem definition is re-examined using a secondary dictionary and an encyclopedia on-line only if needed for clarity communication acquisition competence

18 McKenna S.: Organisational learning: “Live” case studies and the consulting process journal. Team

Performance Management 1999, no 5(4). 19 Gilbertson D., Gilbertson D.: op.cit.

P. Odrakiewicz 68

– A number of alternatives to dealing with the problem are generated; this can only be accomplished at intermediate to advanced levels.

– Each alternative is assessed according to its advantages and disadvantages. – The alternatives are then evaluated by the students, but only at upper intermediate to

advanced levels. – Whenever possible the facilitator of learning (a qualified instructor) should relate the

case situation to local and regional socio-economic developments, cross-cultural, business and management trends that are eloquent of the global situation and how this situation meaningfully impacts the individual, his family, friends, business, communication competences, intercultural management and society.

– Students recommend an alternative and a strategy for implementation (for intermediate level and above).

– Students recommend an implementation plan, including the parameters of monitoring and control (for upper intermediate levels and up).

– Students present the plan in a formal presentation (for intermediate levels and up) while the teacher acts as a guide; the instructor is available for consultation, for explanation of difficult concepts, for assistance in assignment of roles to team members, and for clarification and confirmation of established goals.

The second method of using cases is the “Harvard” method. This method is more Socratic in style. McKenna states, “The case is explored through dialectic, “Where truth is relative, where reality is probabilistic, and where structural relationships are contingent” (Clough, cited in Barnes et al., 1994). It is an approach, which is premised on enabling “students to discover and develop their own unique framework for approaching, understanding, and dealing with business problems” (Clough, cited in Barnes et al., 1994). This approach mixed with an above “Western Ontario” is particularly appropriate to advanced learners of English, but can be modified for groups at lower levels. Related to the syncretic case method, McKenna suggests, “It could be argued that the “logic of enquiry” captured in the “Western” approach and the “process of discovery” represented in the “Harvard” method are complementary rather than mutually exclusive. We apply creative and imaginative discovery processes, for example, to the “problems” involved in a case and then apply the logic of enquiry to move towards a solution and recommendations. In fact, it might be said that we fit the two styles together, as some writers have done, to provide another approach: the consultancy method.20 However, such an argument oversimplifies the essentially contradictory nature of the rigid and analytical “Western” approach which focuses on the outcome, and the dialectical “Harvard” approach, which focuses on the process. Furthermore, whereas the “Western” approach is concerned with

20 Ibidem.


“doing something”, as indeed is the consultancy method, after the application of a template of enquiry to a problem(s), the “Harvard” approach is more free-flowing in its discussion of case issues.21

6.2. Implementing the Syncretic Method in Class

The syncretic case study method is designed specifically for the acquisition of Business English and management skills as an intercultural communication competence. The present target student population at the Poznan University College of Business and Foreign Languages and Global Partnership Management Institute are our Business ESL and management students and groups of managing executives throughout Wielkopolska province/ongoing research 2007-present/. I have somewhat modified Daly’s case study classroom method based on his approach. Daly has divided this section into three parts:

– case study introduction which deals with the preparation of the case study and the introduction of a problem solving analysis;

– case study class work; here the class is divided into sections which include meetings, presentations of findings and discussion of recommendations;

– debriefing the class; this is when the instructor gives feedback on language mistakes, managerial skills and the meeting documents and support materials used.22

It is extremely important that the case studies are well prepared in advance so that each student knows what his or her role is. It is not sufficient to simply give the case study to the student and hope that they will understand how to use it. This is a mistake made by many instructors unfamiliar with the case study method. There are many ways for an instructor to introduce the case study to his student. The implementation of the syncretic method as I describe in the following paragraphs pertains especially to pre-intermediate and intermediate Business ESL and management sciences students:

The first step in using the case study method is to read the case study thoroughly with your students. Here you can address lexical and grammatical difficulties. Having your student groups each display the background information in a visual form is helpful to discussions of the groups. Use of the blackboard, whiteboard or flipchart to get a clear picture of the company background. As you can see in this example, the main information has been extracted from the case study, which is used later for further analysis.

21 McKenna S.: op.cit. 22 Daly P.: op.cit.

P. Odrakiewicz 70

Company Name ABC Turnover $20 m Profit in 2009 $52500, 000 Number of Employees 1,400 Head Office London, Ontario, Canada Product Range Biomedical equipment Technology innovation

6.3. An Example of Visual Representation of Background Information in a Case Study

The instructor guides students in the research on the company which is the object of the case study. I often have students finding a company webpage, if possible. On-line literature can be of rich source of background data on the company, including such things as stock exchange data, the rank of the company in the industry, its market competence and the company’s perceived role in the business world and society. This research and background reading helps a student acquire Business English competence, and contributes to the development of critical evaluation skills, so essential as both a business professional and as a private citizen. I recommend extracting only two or three key points to maintain clarity and cogency of communication.

After the case study has been initially examined, provide the students with some input on how they should analyze the case study. The problem solving analysis below is an example of how to get the students to analyze the case critically. During the case exploration phase, the main focus must be on analyzing, synthesizing, emphatic management, and critical evaluation of options. I have found students application of Waldemar Karwowski’s method of applying conceptualized management to a case to anticipate variables and reach solutions to be most effective (Karwowski W, Lectures in Poznan Uuniversity College of Business and Foreign Languages 2006 on conceptualized management).

During all phases of the case study process the fusing of the Western Ontario and Harvard case study methods are implemented. The syncretic case method is identical to the Western Ontario method structurally, as outlined below:

– read the case several times; – define the main issues/problems; – set out the firm’s objectives;


– identify options open to the firm; – draw up some criteria to evaluate the options chosen; – select the best option; – decide on how the option should be implemented; – draw up an action plan to implement the solution chosen. Despite the method being focused on outcome, as in the Western Ontario method, the

students are to implement the dialectic process of the Harvard method in all phases. That is to say, the creative and imaginative process through dialectic argumentation (Harvard) is required of the group during each phase. Assuming a case study group of six students, the students will rotate into at least one of the three key positions which help facilitate the Socratic approach. During each phase, for example, the three pivotal positions are: group leader, visionary, and Devil’s Advocate. The group leader maintains the work and the related discussions; the visionary, is responsible for creating a range of possible explanations, and scenarios with subsequent branches and sequels; the Devil’s Advocate plays the eternal critic and nay-sayer regarding proposals and decisions. My observation is that the Western Ontario method gives a sense of form and order to the case study process, which for most students is comfortable. The Harvard method is programmed into all the phases and becomes highly ritualized. Nonetheless, the participants internalize a very important skill: the capacity for self and group scrutiny and skepticism of individual and group decision-making. The well-known pitfalls of cognitive dissonance and Group Think theories should serve as cautionary signposts to both students and instructors. During all phases, the instructor serves as a facilitator to ensure the balance between the two methodological currents.

Importantly, the instructor must pre-teach the language required to discuss the case study. There are many publications on the market for teaching meeting, presentation or negotiation skills. It is important to select the skill you would like to focus on and teach the specific language. If we take meetings as an example, instructors could do some of the following:

– refer students to web sites to read up on the skill being practiced; a web search will reveal any number of interesting sites;

– if students have access to libraries, then they can read up on meeting skills in one of the many communication books on the market;

– brainstorm some key concepts of meetings, such as the type of meetings, the people at a meeting, verbs, etc.;

– move on to the language of meetings: provide the students with useful language input for both the chairperson and the participants, such as the language of contradicting and disagreeing, interrupting, taking the floor etc.;

– familiarize the students with the documents of the meeting - the form and content of

P. Odrakiewicz 72

agendas, minutes and memos; this should provide the student with more language input such as matters arising out of the last meeting, absentees, etc.;

– divide the class into small groups; you can either ask them to form the groups themselves, or you can form the groups based on your class lists.

A case study is best discussed in small groups of four to six students. However, it is possible to divide 36 students in a seminar class into six groups of six and have them work on the same case. Students should be reminded it is the nature of business to expect the unknown (many elements of the case may never be known) and take managed risks to reach conclusions.

7. Discussion and conclusions

In my intellectual exploration of the possibilities regarding the instruction of Business ESL and management teaching a quote from Professor Ronald H. Coase, a Nobel memorial prize winner in economics in 1991 for his pioneering work The Nature of the Firm. Advancing the Knowledge, has remained as source of guidance for me. Professor Coase stated, “We should begin by taking a walk into the street and studying the real problems of the economic system” and continue, but it’s no good starting off with your techniques and then looking around for a problem to use them on”.23

It has become clear to me that further research and funding is needed to more accurately discern which specific skills, and at what level, are essential and how should they be taught, fostered and developed in business students to equip them for successful interaction in a multicultural intertwined context. Successful communication and interactions in the future will require:

– an intermediate or higher level of competence with English; – sensitivity to other cultures and intercultural awareness; – sensitivity and receptivity to other ‘Englishes’; – and, most importantly, competence in cross-cultural and intercultural communication. I recommend using case studies to supplement present Business English and

management teaching programs in colleges and universities. I estimate that increasing the use of case studies to 25-35% of course content at the pre-intermediate and intermediate levels, and 40-60% of instruction based on case studies at the upper-intermediate to advanced levels. My experience tells me that the study of grammar, syntax, semantics and structures can largely be done using case as an example of the text before or after discussion of the case.

23 Parkin M., Bade R.: Economics. University of Western Ontario Canada, Addisson-Wessley LTD, 2000.


In the writing of this article I often confronted my own notions of what is really important for our students. It is a source of my professional meaning. I think that the most valuable skill that may be acquired from case studies are the abilities involved in dealing with the unknown. This is a crucial skill for a future manager, engineer, business graduate economist or social scientist. The current era is punctuated by accelerating change, and the unknown is ubiquitous. In our own way I hope our efforts continue to provide bridges over which those who come after us will travel.

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Reviewers: Dr hab. Agata Stachowicz-Stanusch, Prof. nzw. w Pol. Śl. Prof. zw. dr hab. Mariusz Bratnicki

Agata PRADELA Politechnika Śląska w Gliwicach Wydział Organizacji i Zarządzania Katedra Podstaw Systemów Technicznych

MODEL OF EDUCATIONAL STRATEGY ON THE LEVEL ABOVE SCHOOLS IN CONJUNCTION WITH LABOR MARKET

Summary. The paper presents researches on the ways of preparing pupils to enter the labor market. On the basis of conclusions of those researches there was built the model of educational management strategy on the level above schools. The paper highlights three elements of the model: model of building strategy, model of management system and model of control system.

Keywords: educational management, public management, labor market needs,

model of information system

MODEL STRATEGII ZARZĄDZANIA OŚWIATĄ NA POZIOMIE PONADSZKOLNYM ZE SZCZEGÓLNYM UWZGLĘDNIENIEM POTRZEB RYNKU PRACY

Streszczenie. Artykuł przedstawia wyniki badań nad sposobami przygotowania młodzieży do wejścia na rynek pracy. Wnioski z tych badań stanowiły podstawę opracowania trójelementowego modelu strategii zarządzania oświatą w jednostkach samorządu terytorialnego. W treści artykułu przedstawiono założenia i poszczególne elementy modelu: model formułowania strategii, model systemu wspomagającego realizację strategii oraz sposób kontroli strategicznej.

Słowa kluczowe: zarządzanie oświatą, zarządzanie publiczne, potrzeby rynku

pracy, model systemu informacyjnego

A. Pradela 80

1. Introduction

Changes in recent years (being a consequences of educational system reform and reform of public administration) decided that local governments are responsible of education in their region. They are responsible for creation and managing most of schools and educational entities.

Commonly education system means schools, educational entities, a lot of pedagogical supervisory organs (for example Ministry of education). Local government became a new element of education system, implementing educational assignments. They are not exactly connected with education process, but are necessary to create the efficient educational system.

Belong to them planning, organizing in schools, human resources management, fulfill didactical support and equipment.

Educational management in local governments is interesting and not very popular researcher’s scope. Up till now in scientific researches of educational management were concentrated on analysis of educational system and management of schools.1

Problems of strategy are only mentioned in publications about educations.2 However creating the strategies (as well in educational area) in local governments are more and more common. That comes from necessity of make of system of long term tasks, which are very general and exchange them on operational tasks. It comes also from formal rules. Local governments can Apple for European Union financing, while have created strategy.

The strategies concentrated on many problems, for ex ample strategies on social problems. It is obligatory to create such strategy. There are also strategies created for solving particular problem or problems. Local governments create more strategies and are reckon that is necessary for efficient management.

Among many problems in education, the author, has chosen the problem of prepare Young people to join the labor market.

This research problem belongs to two areas: education and labor market. Educational system elements and labor market organizations see the problem and want to solve it. According to researches the author can say that there is lack ideas basing on cooperation and communications between these two group of organizations. In the paper educational management on the level above schools means educational management in local governments.

1 Homplewicz J.: Zarządzanie oświatowe. Zarys problematyki oświatowej teorii organizacji. WSiP, Warszawa

1982; Olejniczak T., Pielachowski J.: Nadzór pedagogiczny i organizacyjny nad szkołami i placówkami oświatowymi. Wydawnictwo eMPi2, Poznań 2005; Pielachowski J.: Organizacja i zarządzanie oświatą i szkołą. Wydawnictwo eMPi2, Poznań 1999; Pomykało W.: Encyklopedia Pedagogiczna. Fundacja Innowacja, Warszawa 1993.

2 Olejniczak T., Pielachowski J.: Nadzór pedagogiczny i organizacyjny nad szkołami i placówkami oświatowymi. Wydawnictwo eMPi2, Poznań 2005; Pomykało W.: Encyklopedia Pedagogiczna. Fundacja Innowacja, Warszawa 1993.

Model of educational strategy… 81

2. Conclusion of researches

There were made researches to solve scientific problem. They were divided into various tasks. The conclusions presented below are consequence of:

– Identified solutions described in publications. – Identification and analysis of documents describing aims and ways of development in

education area and in its environment, and precise analysis 21 of them.3 – Practical experience of the author in the processes of creating educational strategy.. – Researches in educational and labor market institutions. – Surveys made in 15 schools (3 schools of each type), it was collected 748 surveys.4 The problem how to prepare Young people to Get the labor market is described in many

publications,5 and ideas of solving the problem comes from both education and labor market institutions. Analysis of documentations of aims and ways of development education and in its environment proved that aims have the ways of realizing very rarely. Many interesting ideas cannot be implemented because there is lack of precise solutions.

There was made a precise analysis of conceptions of solutions the mentioned problem on example in Gliwice city. Examples of solutions are described in Educational strategy for Gliwice6 and in Strategy on social problems in Gliwice.7 On the basis of researches, the author tried to define, what “preparation to join to labor market and to continua education” means. This is graduates’ ability to make rational decisions. This is making conscious choices of schools according of criteria import ant for particular person.

Graduate well prepared to join labor market should be independent and active in looping for a Job, school and able to look for information necessary to make national decision. Labor market is very competitive, there are few vacancies and young people from demographic boom entering the labour market. That is why, in the author’s opinion employers will prefer a flexible employee with good general educational background, able to learn and retrain to meet new labour market needs.

3 Pradela A.: Analiza dokumentacji celów i kierunków rozwoju oświaty i w otoczeniu systemu oświaty.

Nowoczesność przemysłu i usług. Nowe wyzwania. Praca zbiorowa (pod red.): J. Pyki. TNOiK, Katowice 2004.

4 Pradela A.: Badanie procesu podejmowania decyzji przez abiturientów szkół ponadgimnazjalnych dotyczących wyboru dalszej ścieżki kariery. Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsiębiorstwa 2005, nr 7, Zuberec 2005.

5 Kwiatkowski S.: Edukacja zawodowa wobec rynku pracy i integracji europejskiej. Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych, Warszawa 2001; Serkowska-Mąka J.: Edukacja zawodowa kluczem do jednoczącej się Europy. Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2002; Golinowska S.: Edukacja i rynek pracy. Centrum Analiz Społeczno-Ekonomicznych, Warszawa 1999; Adamczyk E., Gęsicki J., Matczak E.: Samorządowy model oświaty. Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych, Warszawa 2001.

6 Załącznik do Uchwały Nr XXIX/768/2005 Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach z 23 marca 2005 roku w sprawie przyjęcia do realizacji Strategii edukacyjnej miasta Gliwice.

7 Załącznik do Uchwały nr XLIV/1134/2006 Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach z dnia 26 lipca 2006 r. W sprawie zatwierdzenia Strategii rozwiązywania problemów społecznych miasta Gliwice na lata 2006-2015.

A. Pradela 82

In all analyzed documents the conceptions of solving the problem to prepare young people to join the labor market are prepared for or students or graduates (usually unemployed).

There are no ideas not connected with one group of institutions. Education system forgets about its students-graduates, it does not monitor graduates ways of career. Whereas labor market institutions, especially recruitment offices taking young people with their skills, identified shortcomings.

Educational system institutions do not try to find the answer why graduates’ qualifications does not meet labor market needs. The problem cannot be solved only in educational institutions or only in labor market institutions. Cooperation and creation of joined effords can help to solve the problem.

Such important decisions should be made after precise analysing of local market requirements, demographic conditions and prognoses concerning graduates migrations from region. Cooperation between local self-government, labour market institutions and educational establishments will help local self-government authorities to make decisions.

3. Conception of rationalisation strategy and structures in educational management on the level above schools

Conception of strategy is based on cooperation of all educational management entities. This system will help to make decisions connected with planning of school development. Every entity of educational management system has its own assignments and organization control is separated from pedagogical control. There is necessity to rationalize local governments assignments to prepare graduates to join labor market. To solve the problem there was crated model of integrated, educational management strategy on the level above schools. The model describes the sequence of tasks to create such strategy.

The model is divided into three elements: model of creating the strategy, model of supporting strategy realization and the ways of strategy control (fig. 1).

model of creating

model of supporting strategy realization

ways of strategy control

Fig. 1. Elements of educational strategy on the level above schools


4. Model of creating integrated, educational management strategy on the level above schools

Model of creating integrated, educational management strategy on the level above schools (fig. 2) presents the sequence of the assignments from diagnose of need of creation strategy till the strategy is accepted by local government.

Local governments are represented by president and office workers responsible for education tasks. Schools are represented by director, students, their parents and teachers. Environment institutions are represented by Office Workers from: kuratorium oświaty, recriutment office, employers.

Educational strategy is created in local government, because of responsibility for education assignments. To find the latest version of strategy is connested with consultations with schools’ representatives, environment institutions. There is necessity to verify the strategy by local governments. According to researches, all groups engaged in education are billing to create strategy and to find a compromise.

In the strategy there is used balanced scorecard. Balanced scorecard help to translate mission and aims into precise measurements. That helps to concentrate the discussion merit tasks and eliminate emotional discussion – where student’s needs are forgotten.

7. The model can be the frame to make strategy not connected with education and can be helpful in creating other strategies in non-profit organizations.

6. The solutions are not addressed for students at universities.

5. In model of integrated, educational management strategy on the level above schools there are assignments from diagnose of need of creation strategy till the strategy is accepted by local government.

4. Local governments are responsible for creation the strategy.

3. In process of creating and realization the strategy are engaged educational system institutions and labor market institutions. The main aim of integration (in assignments and information) is to get the best knowledge to make educational decisions.

2. Presented procedure can be used in creating education strategies in conjunction with labor market.

1. Strategy, that can be created on the basis on presented model is concentrated on preparing young people to join the labor market.

Rys. 1. Elementy modelu strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym Realization of strategy need to change the information-deciding the structures. Model of

integrated, educational management strategy on the level above schools and model of supporting the realization of strategy was created on the basis on following assumptions:

84

A. Pradela

Fig. 2a. Process map of implementation the educational strategy on the level above schools in conjunction with labor market Rys. 2a. Mapa procesu wdrażania strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem

potrzeb rynku pracy

Model of educational strategy…

85

Fig. 2b. Process map of implementation the educational strategy on the level above schools in conjunction with labor market Rys. 2b. Mapa procesu wdrażania strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem

potrzeb rynku pracy

86

A. Pradela

Fig. 2c. Process map of implementation the educational strategy on the level above schools in conjunction with labor market Rys. 2c. Mapa procesu wdrażania strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym ze szczególnym uwzględnieniem

potrzeb rynku pracy


5. Model of supporting strategy realization

A new strategy needs new structures. Organization structure of educational system is very formal and not flexible. We can say that organization structure does not change, is constant. Information and decisions structures changes a lot. The are created individually in every local government. Local governments decide if strategy will or will not be implemented.

Model of supporting strategy realization was created on the basis on Yourdon method:8

– Model has to present model information flow between education institutions and environment institutions.

– Model has to present decision’s processes, being a consequence of strategy. To create the model of supporting strategy system the author has to: – Create environment an model (context diagram – fig. 3 and list of events – tab. 1). – Create a group of DFD diagrams, as a fragment of behavior model.

Recruitment

Kuratoriuoświaty

employers

Labor market institutions

Directors,

Students/parent

Local governmen

model ofsupporting

strategy realization

Vocational advisories

Fig. 3. Contexts diagram of aided system of strategy Rys. 3. Diagram kontekstowy dla systemu wspomagającego realizację strategii

8 Yourdon E.: Współczesna analiza strukturalna. WNT, Warszawa 1996.

A. Pradela 88

For each event from list of events and processes it was made separate process. Its name is the answer of system for this process. Creating entrances and ways out and magazines of information there was created data flow diagram.

This DFD diagram was reorganized, processed are grouped. The diagram of the highest level has 5 processes (fig. 4).

Table 1

Fragment of lists of events and processes of describing answers for those events

Event 1 Labor matket institution informs aboue about structure of unemployed graduades

Process 1 Change the information about unemployd graduades

Event 2 Labor matket institution, employers and Rother labor market institutions inform about graduades’ lacks in knowlwdge and behaviors willing on labor market

Process 2 Update information about knowlwdge and behaviors willing on labor market

Event 3 Graduades inform about their careers

Process 3 Make a raport of graduades’ careers

Event 4 Labor matket institution inform about prezent ways of stimulation enemployed graduades

Process 4 Make the raport about stimulation unemployd graduades


Inf. about unemployed graduades

Graduades

2Manage the changes in schools’ net

Prognose of ways of education

Inf. about knowlwdge and behaviors willing on labor market

Inf. o bieżących sposobach aktywizacji bezrobotnych absolwentów +

inf. o strukturze absolwentów korzystających z tej oferty

raport about graduades’ structure

3Manage the labor

market needs

job offers

Labor market

Structure of schools’ net

Schools

Educationalneeds

Inf. about education’s quatity

Structure of vocational guidance

Vocational guidance

Inf. About of use the offer of vocational guidance

Inf. About graduades’ careers

4Manage the strategy

raport about realising the strategy

5Manage the prosesses of

vocational guidance

Educational needs an the area of vocational guidance

Process 1: Change the information about unemployd graduadesProcess 2: Update information about knowlwdge and behaviors willing on labor market

Proces 4: Make the raport about stimulation unemployd graduades

Proces 3: Make a raport of graduades’ careers

1Manage the inf.

about graduades

P2

P3

P1P4

P3

P1

P2

P4

Fig. 4. Diagram 0 – the highest level of data flow diagram Rys. 4. Diagram 0 – diagram przepływu danych najwyższego poziomu

A. Pradela 90

6. The ways of strategy control

Strategy is monitored every year. During meetings all institutions engaged in creating strategy discuss and adapt the strategy for changes and environment.

Elements of strategy that are evaluated are as follow: – Knowledge about documentations of aims and ways of development in education and

environment area. – Conclusions from strategic analysis and ways of development – Particular aims and indicators.

7. Conclusion

Educational management on the level above schools means making decisions according to formal information comes from various sources.

Model presents information-deciding processes, realizing in formal structures of educational system and labor market. It also highlights ways of communication between those institutions.

Algorithms created to build, realize and control strategy help to create useful strategy. Information-deciding processes defined in model are represented in the tool of realizing

strategy – balanced scorecard. The strategy can be an efficient tool of long term management of education on the level

above schools. Balanced scorecard can be used as supporting tool for ma king decisions in local governments.

Bibliography

1. Homplewicz J.: Zarządzanie oświatowe. Zarys problematyki oświatowej teorii organizacji. WSiP, Warszawa 1982.

2. Olejniczak T., Pielachowski J.: Nadzór pedagogiczny i organizacyjny nad szkołami i placówkami oświatowymi. Wydawnictwo eMPi2, Poznań 2005.

3. Pielachowski J.: Organizacja i zarządzanie oświatą i szkołą. Wydawnictwo eMPi2, Poznań 1999.

4. Pomykało W.: Encyklopedia Pedagogiczna. Fundacja Innowacja, Warszawa 1993.


5. Pradela A.: Analiza dokumentacji celów i kierunków rozwoju oświaty i w otoczeniu systemu oświaty. Nowoczesność przemysłu i usług. Nowe wyzwania. Praca zbiorowa (pod red.): J. Pyki. TNOiK, Katowice 2004.

6. Pradela A.: Badanie procesu podejmowania decyzji przez abiturientów szkół ponadgimnazjalnych dotyczących wyboru dalszej ścieżki kariery. Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsiębiorstwa 2005, nr 7, Zuberec 2005.

7. Kwiatkowski S.: Edukacja zawodowa wobec rynku pracy i integracji europejskiej. Instytut Pracy i Spraw Socjalnych, Warszawa 2001.

8. Serkowska-Mąka J.: Edukacja zawodowa kluczem do jednoczącej się Europy. Wydawnictwo Adam Marszałek, Toruń 2002.

9. Golinowska S.: Edukacja i rynek pracy. Centrum Analiz Społeczno-Ekonomicznych, Warszawa 1999.

10. Adamczyk E., Gęsicki J., Matczak E.: Samorządowy model oświaty. Instytut Badań Edukacyjnych, Warszawa 2001.

11. Załącznik do Uchwały Nr XXIX/768/2005 Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach z 23 marca 2005 r. w sprawie przyjęcia do realizacji Strategii edukacyjnej miasta Gliwice.

12. Załącznik do Uchwały nr XLIV/1134/2006 Rady Miejskiej w Gliwicach z dnia 26 lipca 2006 r. W sprawie zatwierdzenia Strategii rozwiązywania problemów społecznych miasta Gliwice na lata 2006-2015.

13. Pradela A.: Model procesu formułowania zintegrowanej strategii zarządzania oświatą na poziomie ponadszkolnym. Ekonomika i Organizacja Przedsiębiorstwa 2006, nr 7.

14. Yourdon E.: Współczesna analiza strukturalna. WNT, Warszawa 1996.

Reviewers: Prof. dr hab. inż. Małgorzata Gableta Prof. dr hab. Małgorzata Baron-Wiaterek, prof. Nzw. Pol. Śl.

Adam RYSZKO Silesian University of Technology Department of Environmental and Safety Management

ENVIRONMENTAL MANAGEMENT IN THE SILESIAN VOIVODSHIP ENTERPRISES

Summary. The article presents problems related with environmental management

in enterprises. On the basis of literature research and exploratory data analysis carried out on a sample of silesian enterprises, attributes and dimensions of proactivity in environmental management were indentified. The common existing views and empiric research outcomes within the scope of the influence of proactive approach to environmental management on enterprises operations and business performance have been also presented.

Keywords: environmental activity, environmental management, corporate

approaches to environmental management

ZARZĄDZANIE ŚRODOWISKOWE W PRZEDSIĘBIORSTWACH WOJEWÓDZTWA ŚLĄSKIEGO

Streszczenie. W artykule zaprezentowano problematykę zarządzania środowiskowego w przedsiębiorstwach. Na podstawie studium literatury przedmiotu oraz eksploracyjnych badań empirycznych, przeprowadzonych w przedsiębiorstwach województwa śląskiego określono atrybuty i wymiary oceny proaktywności w zarządzaniu środowiskowym. Ponadto, zaprezentowano istniejące poglądy oraz wyniki badań wpływu proaktywnego podejścia do zarządzania środowiskowego na funkcjonowanie i osiągnięcia biznesowe przedsiębiorstw.

Słowa kluczowe: działalność proekologiczna, zarządzanie środowiskowe,

podejścia przedsiębiorstw do zarządzania środowiskowego

A. Ryszko 94

1. Introduction

Growing environmental problems, countless regulations concerning environmental protection, pressure on improvement in condition of the natural environment and increasing customers’ demands for environmentally friendly products and services, are the main reasons for implementation of effective and efficient environmental management in enterprises.

The development of environmental management in enterprises, which began in highly developed countries in the 80’s of the 20th century, has brought the formulation of codes of practice dealing with the integration of environmental issues into the company’s management system. The guidelines formulated within them have formed the basis for the elaboration and development of environmental management tools. Nowadays they evolved into a set of standards and legal requirements voluntary implemented by enterprises. Simultaneously to these activities, terms such as ecocentric management paradigm1 or corporate environmentalism2 started appearing and concentrate on management of all elements of the company which have any influence on the natural environment, what is manifested in “greening” of corporate goals, strategies and business functions.

Business activity consistent with ecocentric management paradigm can be observed extremely rare. With respect to environmental protection demands, companies respond in a variety of ways adopting wide range of attitudes – from attitude characterised by environmental ignorance (reactive approach) to behaviour manifesting itself in enthusiastic support for environmental activities (proactive approach). Taking into account the requirements of sustainable development, proactive approach should be the subject of particular interest.

Proactive environmental management, integrated with the general system of company management on the strategic, functional and operational level is connected with comprehensive activities that include the development of products and processes of their production, introduction on the market, exploitation and utilisation. These activities are to head for the minimalisation of their environmental impact, simultaneously enabling compliance with all stakeholders needs on the field of environmental protection. Proactive environmental management thus means taking into consideration all environmental aspects in company’s vision and mission, in its goals, strategies, particular functional fields, value chain creation etc.

1 Shrivastava P.: Ecocentric management for a risk society. Academy of Management Review 1995, no 1, vol. 20. 2 Banerjee S.B.: Corporate environmentalism. The construct and its measurement. Journal of Business Research

2002, no 55.

Environmental management in the silesian voivodship enterprises 95

The considerations that are being taken in this article, are concentrated on identification of manifestations of proactive environmental management, and especially on identification of influence of proactive environmental management on operations and business performance of companies.

2. Manifestations of proactive environmental management – literature review

In the literature of the subject there are various classifications and typology of corporate approaches to environmental management. In spite of differences existing between them, there is one feature they have in common that consists in their separation, continuum from reactive attitudes to proactive ones. According to such assumption, conceptual works of the researchers as N. Roome, C.B. Hunt and E.R. Auster or P. Winsemius and U. Guntram establish a number of progressive stages to proactivity assuming linear path that companies follow when developing and raising the level of their engagement in environmental activity.

The question arises, what manifestations are specific to proactive environmental management and what indicators should be used to assess this kind of approach? In the exploratory researches concerning above mentioned subject we can find various sets of attributes. Their intensity is being used to recognise the level of proactivity in environmental management.

In order to evaluate proactivity level in environmental management S. Sharma and H. Vredenburg examined principles used by the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES). They assumed that companies should be considered proactive only if they exhibited a consistent pattern of environmental practices, across all principles relevant to their range of activities, not required to be undertaken in fulfilment of environmental regulations or in response to isomorphic pressures within the industry as standard business practices.3 According to I. Henriques and P. Sadorsky proactivity in environmental management can be described by six environmental commitment practices, which include having an environmental plan, having a written document describing environmental plan, communicating environmental plan to shareholders or stakeholders, communicating environmental plan to employees, having environment, health and safety unit and having management committed.4 Drawing on resource-based view (RBV) of a company, empirical analysis of environmental strategy profiles was performed by K. Buysse and A. Verbeke. 3 Sharma S., Vredenburg H.: Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the development of competitively

valuable organizational capabilities. Strategic Management Journal 1998, no 19(8), p. 743-750.

A. Ryszko 96

These profiles were identified on the basis of investments in conventional green competences, investments in employee skills, investments in organisational competencies, investments in formal, routine-based management systems and procedures and efforts to reconfigure the strategic planning process.5 Having identified corporate approaches to environmental management J.A. Aragón-Correa distinguished three dimensions including environmental training and information, traditional/regulated correction methods as well as modern voluntary and preventive improvements.6 In the exploratory research conducted by J. González-Benito and Ó. González-Benito there was used a set of attributes that refers both to the assessment of environmental management, within the corporation, and what is more to the strategic business’ units and to the functional and operational level of company. Measurement of proactivity in environmental management was conducted in four dimensions. These dimensions reflected activities related to planning and organisation, product design, logistics processes and internal production management.7

3. Dimensions of proactivity in environmental management – results of exploratory research

The literature research can hardly provide us with a consensus on how and through the use of which attributes is it possible to evaluate the level of proactivity in environmental management. Therefore, an attempt to draw up proposals in this regard was carried out. The basis for the analysis has been formed by the conclusions drawn from the literature research, consultations with experts, interviews conducted in a variety of enterprises and the experience gained during the implementation of research and development projects concerning the introduction and improvement of environmental management systems. A set of a total of 52 attributes has been devised, which are to evaluate the level of proactivity in environmental management. Subsequently exploratory data analysis was performed based on data collected through surveys conducted in a total of 182 enterprises in the Silesian Voivodship.8 Surveys included the results of self-assessment within above mentioned

4 Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions

of stakeholder importance. Academy of Management Journal 1999, no1, vol. 42, p. 88-93. 5 Buysse K., Verbeke A.: Proactive environmental strategies: A stakeholder management perspective. Strategic

Management Journal 2003, no 24, p. 454-465. 6 Aragón-Correa J.A.: Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment, Academy of

Management Journal 1998, no 5, vol. 41, p. 556-564. 7 González-Benito J., González-Benito Ó.: Environmental proactivity and business performance: an empirical

analysis. Omega. The International Journal of Management Science 2005, no 33, p. 1-15. 8 Detailed results of the research can be found in: Ryszko A.: Determinants and manifestations of proactive

environmental management in enterprises. Doctoral thesis (in Polish). The University of Economics in Katowice. Katowice 2006.


enterprises based on the classification of the replies given to the statements concerning particular attributes on 1-to-7 Likert rating scale. Due to the large number of the analysed attributes, a decision was taken to reduce their number. To reach this goal, a factor analysis was conducted applying a method of principal components.

The analysis indicated a set of 7 dimensions characterising proactivity in environmental management:

– PEM 1 – planning and organisation of environmental management (characterised by 7 attributes),

– PEM 2 – organisational structure of environmental management (3 attributes), – PEM 3 – environmentally friendly product development and environmentally friendly

supply and distribution (8 attributes), – PEM 4 - environmentally friendly production management (6 attributes), – PEM 5 – extent of recycling and waste minimisation (3 attributes), – PEM 6 – elements of environmental marketing and communication and cooperation

with stakeholders on environmental management (6 attributes), – PEM 7 – environmental performance assessment and improvement (9 attributes). The attributes describing achieved dimensions have been presented in table 1. The set of

scales used in the evaluation of proactivity level proved to be reliable and internal consistent, which was evident in high levels of the Cronbach’s alpha coefficients.

Table 1

Dimensions and attributes characterising proactivity level in environmental management

Wymiar oceny Opis atrybutu

Environmental issues are high priorities in our organisation’s objectives and strategy Top management establishes, documents, communicates, implements and maintains the organisation’s environmental policy Environmental policy includes a commitment to comply with applicable legal requirements, continual improvement and pollution prevention Measurable environmental objectives and targets consistent with environmental policy and company’s strategy are established and implemented Documentation and records necessary to ensure efficient environmental management are established, controlled, legible identifiable and traceable Roles and responsibilities related with environmental management are defined, documented and communicated Pl

anni

ng a

nd o

rgan

isat

ion

of

env

iron

men

tal m

anag

emen

t

Top management reviews the organisation’s environmental system to ensure its effectiveness and continual improvement

A. Ryszko 98

con. tab. 1 Organisational structure includes management representative responsible entirely for environmental issues Management representative responsible for environmental issues is a member of top management and actively participates in formulation of organisation’s objectives and strategy

Org

anis

atio

nal

stru

ctur

e of

en

viro

nmen

tal

man

agem

ent

Working group dealing with environmental management issues is established and held regular meetings to discuss environmental activities Ecological preferences of our customers and their comments on environmental issues are taken into account during introduction new and modification of existing products and processes Environmental impact assessments of our products are conducted with regard to all stages of their life cycle (from raw material extraction to disposal phase) Reduction of environmental impact of our products related with their manufacturing is taken into account during their design and development processReduction of environmental impact of our products caused by their consumption and disposal are taken into account during their design and development processEcological characteristics of products and materials are taken into account during their supply selectionWe require our suppliers and subcontractors to introduce and improve environmental activities and verify these efforts Ecological criteria are considered during selection of mode of transport and distribution channels

Env

iron

men

tally

frie

ndly

pro

duct

dev

elop

men

t an

d en

viro

nmen

tally

frie

ndly

su

pply

and

dis

trib

utio

n

We keep our customers informed about the impact of our products on the environment and the manner of their use and disposal to minimise environmental impactIn our company hazardous substances and wastes are transported and stored in a responsible and safe meanWe eliminate and reduce the use and storage of hazardous substances and waste, replacing them with less harmful to the environment Before starting a new venture or investment we make an environmental impact assessment of such activityOne of the planning and production control priorities is to reduce resource and energy consumption and pollution generationWe take into account reduction of raw materials and energy consumption and pollution related with operation of our facilities

Env

iron

men

tally

frie

ndly

pr

oduc

tion

man

agem

ent

Our activities related with products and processes quality improvement include reduction of environmental impactOur products contain recycled materials, it is easier to dismantle them and re-use or recycle after consumptionWe reduce the size of packages and their environmental nuisance (e.g. through the use of biodegradable packaging or recycled materials)

Ext

ent o

f re

cycl

ing

an

d w

aste

m

inim

isat

ion

We use the recycling, waste segregation and recovery and we have closed technological circuits

We emphasize ecological features of our products in marketing activities (including packaging characteristics)

We emphasize our commitment to environmental protection in marketing activities

We regularly prepare and publish environmental reports and we present information about environmental performance in the annual reportsWe keep an active dialogue and inform community and neighbor entities about actual and potential environmental impacts of our activityWe actively participate in social environmental initiatives and we sponsor ecological campaigns

Ele

men

ts o

f env

iron

men

tal

mar

ketin

g an

d co

mm

unic

atio

n an

d co

oper

atio

n w

ith

stak

ehol

ders

on

envi

ronm

enta

l m

anag

emen

t

We have contribution to the environmentally friendly technological transfer and environmental management practices in the industry and public sector

A. Ryszko 100

con. tab. 1 We carry out periodic updates and evaluation of environmental aspects and compliance with environmental protection legal requirements We have a system of identification, measurement and monitoring of key environmental operations, parameters and performance We use an indicative assessment of the eco-efficiency and we apply environmental benchmarkingWe account environmental costs and we incorporate economic indicators when assessing environmental performance Measures to identify, prevent and respond to failures are established, agreed with the required services, implemented and maintained

We conduct periodic internal audits to verify the effectiveness of environmental management

Proceedings with nonconformities and corrective and preventive actions are established and implemented We carry out research and development in the area of environmental protection and regularly introduce environmentally friendly innovations of products and process

Env

iron

men

tal p

erfo

rman

ce

asse

ssm

ent a

nd im

prov

emen

t

We actively cooperate with suppliers, contractors and other entities to identify and improve environmental standards for products and processes

The appointed dimensions, together with their descriptive attributes, may either be used

for the purpose of conducting review and assessment of environmental management or determination of the goals and targets related with development and continual improvement environmental performance.

On the basis of the research conducted in 182 enterprises in the Silesian Voivodship it was revealed that level of proactivity in environmental management is very low. The most activity was observed in the dimension of environmentally friendly production management. On the other hand definitely the smallest intensification of each attribute was experienced in the dimension of elements of environmental marketing and communication and cooperation with stakeholders on environmental management as well as organisational structure of environmental management. One-way analysis of variance indicated significant variation of the proactivity level in groups of enterprises classified according to the criterion of their size (small, medium and large enterprises) in all dimensions. The biggest differences between groups of small, medium and large enterprises were observed in dimensions of environmental performance assessment and improvement, planning and organisation of environmental management as well as organisational structure of environmental management. Type of activity (manufacturing, service and trading enterprises) had a significant impact on differentiation of proactivity levels with respect to most dimensions – significance of such an influence was not observed only for environmentally friendly product development and environmentally friendly supply and distribution as well as extent of recycling and waste minimization. The largest variation occurred in the dimensions of environmental performance assessment and improvement and environmentally friendly production management.


It must be emphasized that the differences in the intensification of appointed dimensions and relevant attributes between groups of enterprises classified according to the criterion of their size are significantly larger than the discrepancies which appeared between groups of enterprises classified according to type of activity. Figure 1 shows a visual representation of the achieved results for attributes describing the level of environmental proactivity in dimensions where the group to which the enterprise belongs (based on the size as well as the type of activity) has significant influence.

Small enterprises Medium enterprises Large enterprises2,00

2,50

3,00

3,50

4,00

4,50

5,00

5,50

6,00

6,50

PEM 01 PEM 02 PEM 03 PEM 04 PEM 05 PEM 06 PEM 07

Manufacturing enterprisesService enterprises

Trading enterprises2,00

2,50

3,00

3,50

4,00

4,50

5,00

5,50

6,00

6,50

PEM 01 PEM 02 PEM 04 PEM 06 PEM 07

Fig. 1. Average values achieved for appointed dimensions of proactivity in environmental

management evaluation in groups of enterprises classified according to the criterion of their size and type of activity

Rys. 1. Średnie wartości uzyskane dla wyznaczonych wymiarów oceny proaktywności w zarządzaniu środowiskowym w grupach przedsiębiorstw wyodrębnionych na podstawie kryterium ich wielkości oraz rodzaju prowadzonej działalności

4. Influence of proactive environmental management on business performance – from sceptic to optimistic views

The undertaking of environmental activities is not costless. It applies in particular to proactive approach to environmental management because it results from incurring the necessary expenses. The spectrum of undertaken actions affects significantly how company performs, possibility of development and lastly its economic outcomes. The research concerning influence of environmental activities on business performance can hardly provide us with clear results and the discussion whether the relation is positive or negative is still open.

A. Ryszko 102

Some researchers postulate to hold only the compliance with regulations related to environmental protection, because they have the negative influence on economic outcome of companies. According to N. Walley and B. Whitehead environmental activities benefits only in the initial stages of their introduction whereas in the long term and on account of the substitution between the economic and ecological outcomes in most cases they contribute to situation that companies suffer losses.9 Even more radical in their opinion are T. Newton and G. Harte who criticised the literature of the subject for being rhetorical in green evangelism and which is based on the ideas that might be easily challenged. Moreover they underlined the lack of reliable evidence that decisions made on the field of environmental protection ultimately lead to economic success of companies.10 According to other research, all expenses for achieving the compliance with environmental regulations have negative effect on economic outcome, because companies response by changing their operations and processes and it makes them less efficient and simultaneously less competitive.11

Without reference to above mentioned opinions, empirical researches which were made during last years showed positive connections between activities initiated within environmental management and business performance of companies. R. Welford shows some examples how a company may gain the competitive advantage on the basis of proactive approach to environmental management in various strategies: competition on the field of cost leadership, products differentiation and cost focus or differentiation focus.12 On the basis of financial event methodology R.D. Klassen and C.P. McLaughlin show a very strong positive linkage between achieved effects of environmental activities and financial performance of companies.13 They analysed data, that had been collected for several years, which studied the connection between companies’ ecological achievements or negative ecological incidents and the changes in these companies’ market valuation calculated according to weighted index of relevant securities on the stock exchange. It appeared that the market rewards the announced ecological achievements of the companies (above all the investments in new products and processes mitigating environmental impact characteristic for proactive environmental management), while it negatively reacts to crisis in ecological situation. Particularly the environmental achievements of companies from less-polluting industries were rewarded because their initiatives are assumed to be carried out voluntary, without external pressure

9 Walley N., Whitehead B.: It’s not easy being green, Harvard Business Review. May-June 1994, p. 46-52. 10 Newton T., Harte G.: Green Business: Technicist Kitsch? Journal of Management Studies 1997, no 1, vol. 34,

p. 75-98. 11 Jaffe A., Peterson S., Portney P., Stavin R.: Environmental regulation and the competitiveness of U.S.

manufacturing: What does the evidence tell us? Journal of Economic Literature 1995, no 33, p. 132-163. 12 Welford R.: Corporate Environmental Management. Systems and Strategies. Earthscan Publications Ltd.

London 1998, p. 24-27. 13 Klassen R.D., McLaughlin C.P.: The Impact of Environmental Management on Firm Performance,

Management Science 1996, no 8, vol. 42, p. 1199-1214.


such typical for companies originated from highly-polluting industries. S.L. Hart and G. Ahuja prove that companies mitigating their pollution achieve better financial results (in compliance to assumption that the pollution means loss) but at the same time they turned out that such relations are much stronger with reference to companies from industries significantly polluting the environment.14 Ch. Nehrt proves that there is a positive connection between the time of investments in innovative environmental technologies and financial outcomes achieved by companies. The intensity of investments in environmental technologies has the positive influence on these results as well, but important matter here is that they should be undertaken soon enough enabling first mover advantages. Nehrt proves in his research that environmental first movers get a competitive advantage resulting from the time compression diseconomies and learning curve, but first of all due to possessed organisational and human resources, because knowledge and capabilities connected with complex pollution-reducing technologies, which are gained by employees, are valuable and rare and are the subject to slow process of diffusion.15 On the basis of the resource-based view of a company M.V. Russo and P.A. Fouts verified the positive correlation between the progress in environmental activity and economic outcomes achieved by company. Russo and Fouts state in their research that this correlation is particularly strong in companies from sectors with high economic growth, where there is a favourable climate for undertaking an investment risk and process of innovation and where there are flexible and unbureaucratic organisational structures and intangible assets are of great value. According to these researchers the proactive approach to environmental management allows a company to gain competitive advantage because its implementation requires the development of specific physical assets, human resources, organisational capabilities and intangible resources which are valuable and hard to imitate (because they are socially complex, causally ambiguous and path dependent).16

S. Sharma and H. Vredenburg prove thesis that proactive approach to environmental management influences the development of valuable organisational capabilities which are the source of competitive advantage. It applies in particular to:17

– capability for stakeholders integration involving ability to collaborate with stakeholders to find solution to environmental problems, ability to communicate with

14 Hart S.L., Ahuja G.: Does it pay to be green? An empirical examination of the relationship between emission

reduction and firm performance. Business Strategy and the Environment 1996, no 5, p. 30-37. 15 Nehrt Ch.: Timing and intensity effects of environmental investment, Strategic Management Journal 1996,

vol. 17, p. 535-547. 16 Russo M.V., Fouts P.A.: A Resource-Based Perspective on Corporate Environmental Performance and

Profitability, Academy of Management Journal 1997, no 3, vol. 40, p. 534-559. 17 Sharma S., Vredenburg H.: Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the development of competitively

valuable organizational capabilities, Strategic Management Journal 1998, no 19(8), p. 735-743.

A. Ryszko 104

stakeholders in the environmental domain and ability to steer new developments effectively through public consultation processes,

– capability for continuous higher-order learning involving line-staff cooperation and integration around environmental information exchange, continuous expansion of knowledge about the business/environment interface and ability to look for creative solutions to environmental problems,

– capability for continuous innovation involving ability to experiment on the business/environment domain, ability to balance environmental objectives with economic goals, ability to spot opportunities amidst changes in social expectations and environmental regulations and ability to innovate and continuously improve operations while reducing environmental impact.

The analysis of the literature shows that not for every company the proactive approach to environmental management is a source of competitive advantage. P. Christmann, applying the resource-based view of a company, tries to explain why environmental activities are a source of competitive advantage only for some companies. Results of her empirical research show that the best practices of environmental management generally do not lead to cost advantage for all companies. However such advantage could be gained by introduction of innovations within this area and their early timing. Results also indicate that the higher level of complementary assets of capabilities for general process innovation and implementation in a company the better cost advantage resulting from application of pollution prevention technologies and processes.18 We may say thus that gaining the competitive advantage from proactive environmental management implementation considerably depends on possessed complementary resources, developed within general company’s strategy. Therefore it is seen how important is to adapt certain environmental activities to heterogeneous resources of the company and their integration with its strategy.

S. Schaltegger and T. Synnestvedt persuade that positive or negative linkage between environmental activity and corporate economic performance arises from approach to environmental management and its adaptation to existing external and internal conditions. It means that in researches on the nature of this relation, the question that should appear is not “if” but “when” and ”in what circumstances” it is positive.19 Taking into account such an assumption this postulated relation between the scope of environmental activities and corporate economic performance is illustrated in the figure 2. In the case of reactive approach to environmental management all activities related to environmental protection (generally

18 Christmann P.: Effects of „best practices” of environmental management on cost advantage: The role of

complementary assets, Academy of Management Journal 2000, no 4, vol. 43, p. 663-679. 19 Schaltegger S., Synnestvedt T.: The link between “green” and economic success: environmental management

as the crucial trigger between environmental and economic performance, Journal of Environmental Management 2002, vol. 65, p. 339-346.


concerning application of end-of-pipe solutions) have influence on worsening of economic situation of a company. After exceeding the scope of environmental activity SEA3 (point F) company becomes to make losses. In the case of proactive approach to environmental management, environmental activities which are undertaken (generally involving cleaner technologies and introduction of environmentally friendly products) improve economic performance of a company. However this approach in a certain point (point B corresponding with the scope of environmental activity SEA1) marginal costs of consecutive environmental protection activities become to exceed marginal profits, which results in worsening of economic performance of a company and for longer period of time that may even cause the loss of the profitability (point D). It should be mentioned that some factors changing environmental management conditions (for example development of environmental technologies, new environmentally conscious customers, environmental innovations in processes and products) may lead to a shift of the curve characterising the relation between the scope of environmental activity and economic performance (dashed line in figure 2).

SEA2

A

B

C

0

Reactive environmental management

Proactive environmental management

EPmax

EP1

EP2

SEA1 SEA3 SEA4

DF

Change of environmental management conditions

E

Economic performance

Fig. 2. Relation between the scope of environmental activities within the framework

of different approaches to environmental management and corporate economic performance

Rys. 2. Zależności między zakresem działalności proekologicznej w ramach różnych podejść do zarządzania środowiskowego a wynikami ekonomicznymi przedsiębiorstw

Source: Elaboration on the basis of Schaltegger S., Synnestvedt T.: The link between…, op.cit., p.339-346.

It is also worth mentioning, that depending of the accepted environmental management approach, the same level of engagement in environmental activity may variously affect the

A. Ryszko 106

economic results of a company (point B on the level EPmax and point E on the level EP2). Similarly, with the same economic results achieved by a company on the level EP1 we may have the ecological ignorance (point A) or relatively high level of environmental engagement (point C corresponding with the scope of environmental activity SEA2).

The basic conclusion of presented considerations shows that it is very important for the companies to adopt proper approach to environmental management and optimal extent of undertaken environmental activities. The activities properly adapted to the specific nature of external and internal conditions may allow achieving significant ecological effects simultaneously with economic success and gaining and sustaining competitive advantage.

5. Influence of proactive environmental management on business performance – conclusions from the research conducted in Silesian Voivodship enterprises

As has been proven hereafter, environmental activity, including a proactive approach to environmental management, can have an extensive and significantly diverse influence on the functioning of the enterprises and their business performance.

As part of the research conducted in the Silesian Voivodship enterprises, the subject of the analysis was the relation between proactive environmental management and indicated business performance. For this purpose, an aggregated variable describing the level of proactivity in environmental management had been elaborated. This was formed on the basis of the Euclidean distance (a geometric distance in a multi-dimensional space) determined by average values achieved within the seven appointed dimensions of proactivity evaluation.

This variable took on the following form for “k” enterprise:

( )∑=

=7

1i

2kik PEMAPEM

where: APEMk – aggregated variable describing the level of proactivity in environmental

management achieved for “k” enterprise, PEMki – average value achieved by “k” company in the “i” dimension of proactivity level

evaluation.

Subsequently, correlations (measured by Spearman's rank correlation coefficients – Rs) between enterprises’ business achievements and aggregated variables describing the level of their proactivity in environmental management were indicated. The following achievements


have been taken into account: reputation and corporate image improvement, improvement of relations with stakeholders, owners and top management satisfaction, satisfaction and employee morale improvement, organisational employees learning, product and process innovation, product quality improvement, process efficiency improvement, increase of sales, increase of current market, gaining of new markets and customers, short and long-term costs reduction, preferential access to grants for environmental investments, preferable insurance conditions.

Studies have shown that the main benefits achieved by the introduction of a proactive approach (by obtained the greatest value of Spearman's rank correlation coefficients) are as follows: top management satisfaction (Rs = 0,71), organisational employees learning (Rs = 0,68), reputation and corporate image improvement (Rs = 0,66), process innovation (Rs = 0,64), satisfaction and employee morale improvement (Rs = 0,63) and product innovation (Rs = 0,55). However, as emerged from the research, in the opinion of enterprises representatives, both environmental activities, as well as a proactive approach to environmental management have relatively small direct contribution to gaining of new customers/markets, increase of sales or increase of share in the current market.20

6. Conclusions

The subject of this article were problems related with environmental management, especially those concerning proactive approach in this area. The author has concentrated on issues concerning the manifestations of this approach, as also on the identification of its influence on the functioning of the enterprises and their business performance.

In the literature of the subject there are various classifications and typology of corporate approaches to environmental management. In spite of differences existing between them, there is one feature they have in common that consists in their separation, continuum from reactive attitudes to proactive ones. For the purpose of their identification and description a number of sets of attributes had been used, the intensity of which serves as a indication of the level of proactivity in environmental management. The study results presented here suggest that the issue should be analysed in a multi-dimensional manner. The author’s proposal in this area provides a total of seven dimensions that have been appointed for the evaluation of proactivity in environmental management. The measurement of proactivity based on defining the intensification of given attributes characterising specific dimensions,

20 More details in: Ryszko A.: Proactivity of enterprises in environmental management (in Polish). The Silesian

University of Technology Publishing House. Gliwice 2007, p. 175-180.

A. Ryszko 108

may take on the form of a self-assessment within the enterprise, as well as taking the form of a series of reviews conducted by external experts.

The considerations presented in the article also include the results of research concerning influence of proactive environmental management on the functioning of the enterprises and their business performance. The common existing views and empiric research outcomes within this scope can hardly provide us with clear results and the discussion whether the relation is positive or negative is still open. However, it was proved that the most important for the companies is to adopt proper approach (proactive one) to environmental management and optimal extent of undertaken environmental activities. The activities properly adapted to the specific nature of external and internal conditions may allow achieving significant ecological effects simultaneously with economic success and gaining and sustaining competitive advantage

Bibliography

1. Aragón-Correa J.A.: Strategic proactivity and firm approach to the natural environment. Academy of Management Journal 1998, no 5, vol. 41.

2. Banerjee S.B.: Corporate environmentalism. The construct and its measurement. Journal of Business Research 2002, no 55.

3. Buysse K., Verbeke A.: Proactive environmental strategies: A stakeholder management perspective. Strategic Management Journal 2003, no 24.

4. Christmann P.: Effects of „best practices” of environmental management on cost advantage: The role of complementary assets. Academy of Management Journal 2000, no 4, vol. 43.

5. González-Benito J., González-Benito Ó.: Environmental proactivity and business performance: an empirical analysis. Omega. The International Journal of Management Science 2005, no 33.

6. Hart S.L., Ahuja G.: Does it pay to be green? An empirical examination of the relationship between emission reduction and firm performance. Business Strategy and the Environment 1996, no 5.

7. Henriques I., Sadorsky P.: The relationship between environmental commitment and managerial perceptions of stakeholder importance. Academy of Management Journal 1999, no 1, vol. 42.

8. Jaffe A., Peterson S., Portney P., Stavin R.: Environmental regulation and the competitiveness of U.S. manufacturing: What does the evidence tell us? Journal of Economic Literature 1995, no 33.


9. Klassen R.D., McLaughlin C.P.: The Impact of Environmental Management on Firm Performance. Management Science 1996, no 8, vol. 42.

10. Nehrt Ch.: Timing and intensity effects of environmental investment. Strategic Management Journal 1996, vol. 17.

11. Newton T., Harte G.: Green Business: Technicist Kitsch? Journal of Management Studies 1997, no 1, vol. 34.

12. Russo M.V., Fouts P.A.: A Resource-Based Perspective on Corporate Environmental Performance and Profitability. Academy of Management Journal 1997, no 3, vol. 40.

13. Ryszko A.: Determinants and manifestations of proactive environmental management in enterprises. Doctoral thesis (in Polish). The University of Economics in Katowice. Katowice 2006.

14. Ryszko A.: Proactivity of enterprises in environmental management (in Polish). The Silesian University of Technology Publishing House. Gliwice 2007.

15. Schaltegger S., Synnestvedt T.: The link between “green” and economic success: environmental management as the crucial trigger between environmental and economic performance. Journal of Environmental Management 2002, vol. 65.

16. Sharma S., Vredenburg H.: Proactive corporate environmental strategy and the development of competitively valuable organizational capabilities. Strategic Management Journal 1998, no 19(8).

17. Shrivastava P.: Ecocentric management for a risk society. Academy of Management Review 1995, no 1, vol. 20.

18. Walley N., Whitehead B.: It’s not easy being green. Harvard Business Review. May-June 1994.

19. Welford R.: Corporate Environmental Management. Systems and Strategies. Earthscan Publications Ltd., London 1998.

Reviewers: Dr hab. inż. Jan Kałuski, Prof. nzw. w Pol. Śl. Prof. dr hab. Józefa Famielec

Katarzyna SIENKIEWICZ-MAŁYJUREK Silesian University of Technology Faculty of Organisation and Management Department of Environment and Safety Management

FUNCTIONING OF VIDEO SURVEILLANCE SYSTEMS ON EXAMPLE OF THE SILESIAN REGION

Summary. The article presents results of the research including the effectiveness of the video surveillance systems and their influence on public safety level. The methods of organisation and the correlation between organisational factors and negative estimation of the video surveillance systems were analysed. Crime level on supervised area in relation to crime level in all city before and after the system implementation was presented. The Person’s Ckor rate, Pareto-Lorenz’ diagram and index of dynamics were used. The research were conducted in the Silesian Region, particularly in the Katowice.

Keywords: public safety, video surveillance system, crime, threat

FUNKCJONOWANIE SYSTEMÓW MONITORINGU WIZYJNEGO NA PRZYKŁADZIE WOJEWÓDZTWA ŚLĄSKIEGO

Streszczenie. W artykule przedstawiono wyniki badań, dotyczących efektywności systemów monitoringu wizyjnego i ich wpływu na poziom bezpieczeństwa publicznego. Zanalizowano metody ich organizowania oraz zbadano siłę zależności pomiędzy poszczególnymi czynnikami organizacyjnymi a negatywną oceną tych systemów. Zaprezentowano również jak kształtowała się liczba przestępstw na obszarze monitorowanym, w odniesieniu do liczby przestępstw na terenie całego miasta przed i po uruchomieniu systemu. W analizach wykorzystano współczynnik kontyngencji Ckor Pearsona, diagram Pareto-Lorenza oraz indeksy dynamiki. Badania objęły miasta województwa śląskiego, a szczegółowe analizy przeprowadzono w Katowicach.

Kluczowe słowa: bezpieczeństwo publiczne, system monitoringu wizyjnego,

przestępczość, zagrożenie

K. Sienkiewicz-Małyjurek 110

1. Introduction

”Order, peace, and safety are the elements, which characterise a certain state, which enables an organised society to coexist and develop in an undisturbed way”.1 Public safety as one of the factors, which shape the quality of life, lies at the basis of each society’s development. This safety includes both the real degree of danger and the factors, which influence perception of a given place by each person. Such factors include for example vandalism, littered and inadequately illuminated areas, and violating of social standards. The real degree of danger in turn is created by crime and social phenomena of a criminogenic potential.

According to T. Cielecki, crime is concentrated mainly in the area of municipal agglomerations.2 In the cities these actions are concentrated primarily in places which are attractive taking into account the target, where opportunities favouring the occurrence of crime come into being. Such areas in the city are especially the downtown districts. Crime is a negative side effect of urbanization, which has an impact on weakening social control, increase of conformism, anonymousness, and relaxation of interpersonal relations. “The main features, which characterize a city are: size, density and diversity of its population. [...] These are those aspects of the city, which by impacting the social life have a significant effect on the form and effectiveness of social control and as a consequence on the opportunity to commit crimes”.3 Assuming that the criminal’s motivation results mainly from the attractiveness of the target and opportunity, preventing crime should focus on such shaping of the environment of life in the city as to create a barrier for criminal behaviours. One of such actions is the implementation of video surveillance systems.

The systems of video surveillance are elements of electronic technical security. They constitute a complex of devices which enable observation of areas and recording of occurred events. They decrease the risk of the occurrence of danger or events which disrupt safety in public places. They can have an effect on the decrease of the number of crimes as well as increase the subjectively perceived level of safety. The mechanisms which explain the way how the video surveillance systems work are the following:4

1 Zaborowski J.: Prawne środki zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa i porządku publicznego. Departament Szkolenia

i Doskonalenia Zawodowego Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych, Warszawa 1977, p. 7. 2 Cielecki T.: Koordynacja systemu przeciwdziałania patologii społecznej, [w:] Czapska J., Widawki J.:

Bezpieczeństwo lokalne. Wydawnictwo Instytutu Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2000. 3 Bałandynowicz A.: Zapobieganie przestępczości: studium prawno-porównawcze z zakresu polityki kryminalnej,

Primum, Warszawa 1998, p. 27. 4 Tilley N.: Understanding Car Parks, Crime and CCTV: Evaluation Lessons From Safer Cities, Crime

Prevention Unit, no. 42, HMSO, London 1993.

Functioning of video surveillance systems… 111

– Catching during an event (the scaring off function) – the video surveillance system may have an effect on the decrease of crime by means of an increase of probability that a potential criminal will be seen, detained, and punished.

– Possibility of registration in the system (archiving function) – the video surveillance system may have an effect on the decrease of crime by scaring off potential criminals who are aware of the fact that they are being watched and therefore may be registered in the system.

– “Inquisitiveness” – a decrease of crime may occur as a natural protection by the increase of usefulness of supervised areas.

– Effective use – video surveillance systems may facilitate the work of security guards, police and city guard officers by indicating where intervention is necessary.

– Duration of crime – the video surveillance system has the biggest influence on crimes which require time.

– Support for potential victims – persons who are aware of being in the field of video supervision feel more confident.

The implementation and exploitation of video surveillance systems requires incurring of large financial outlays for technical means and employment of staff to operate them. In addition, they raise many controversies in relation to the effectiveness of functioning since events are often overlooked. The doubts related to exceeding the limits of privacy and limitation of civil liberties of persons staying within the reach of cameras are also problematic. Despite these controversies, an intensive increase of the numbers of video surveillance systems is observed in Poland. Moreover, despite a lack of analysis of their effectiveness and precise information on the obtained results, positive opinions on their effectiveness are predominant among people who use these systems.

The aim of this elaboration is presenting chosen results of research related to the effectiveness of video surveillance systems, conducted in the scope of preparation of a Doctor’s thesis entitled “Methods of Organizing a Surveillance System in Managing Public Safety in a City”. This research was conducted based on the EN 50132 standard: Alarm systems. CCTV surveillance systems used in security.

2. Organization of video surveillance systems

Research related to organisation and functioning of video surveillance systems was carried out in the Province of Silesia between 2004 and 2006. In this period 16 Silesian cities had a video surveillance system (fig. 1). The first one of those was launched in 1997 and 50% were handed in for use in 2001. They included from 3 to 53 cameras both revolving with an


optical zoom and stationary ones. 11 out of 16 video surveillance systems were covered by the research. Gliwice, Radlin, Ustroń, Koszęcin, and Imielin were not covered.

Fig. 1. Cities of the Silesian Region, where the video surveillance systems are used Rys. 1. Miasta województwa śląskiego wykorzystujące systemy monitoringu wizyjnego Source: own elaboration.

The results of the conducted research show that the most common goal of implementing video surveillance systems are:

– decreasing of the number of crimes and other illegal acts – 42%, – observation of events and areas – 30%, – observation of pedestrian and vehicle traffic – 20%, – improvement of the feeling of public safety (preventive function) – 8%. When organising city surveillance systems it is necessary to follow the instructions

specified in the PN-EN 50132-7 standard: Alarm systems, CCTV surveillance systems used in security. Instructions for use. Among the discussed systems only in four cases the recommendations of this standard were followed. However, in all the analysed systems the instructions specified in the standard were fulfilled in 79%. A list of the principal groups of recommendations specified in the standard and their inclusion in the realization of the video surveillance systems being researched in the Province of Silesia is presented in figure 2.


89,6

77,3

59,7

57,6

80,8

87,5

0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100

requirements related todesigning and operation

functional requirements

functional criteria

system documentation

surveillance centreconfiguration

launching and handingover of the system

Req

uire

men

ts o

f the

PN

-EN

501

32-7

sta

ndar

d

Fulfilment of the requirements, %

Fig. 2. Fulfillment of the PN-EN 50132-7 standards requirements in the video surveillance systems in the Silesian Region

Rys. 2. Realizacja wytycznych zawartych w normie PN-EN 50132-7 w systemach monitoringu wizyjnego, w województwie śląskim

Source: own elaboration. In the examined surveillance systems only in five cases the surveillance centre was used

exclusively for image observation. In the remaining systems the images were observed most commonly on an ad hoc basis in the Police and City Guard guardrooms. In case of seven systems the personnel conducting surveillance underwent periodical training. In four self-governments that had a surveillance centre at their disposal special intervention forces were appointed to react to events registered in the surveillance system. These are mainly two additional patrols composed of Police and City Guard officers. In the other seven cases, interventions are carried out by patrols on duty, the main function of which is to carry out statutory tasks.

During the research it was observed that the video surveillance systems operate for the whole day, however taking into consideration insufficient number of personnel the images were only observed in specific situations. Observation was carried out by the Police and City Guard officers. It was the only duty of the observer or one of his/her duties.

Results show that the effects of video surveillance system functioning cover the following:

– increase in crime detectability by 10% on average,


– decrease in crime by 43% on average, – shortening up to 50% of the time of reaction in case of noticing an event in the video

surveillance system. According to 91% of users, the video surveillance systems did not fully meet the set

goals. In order for further analysis the force of dependence between each organisational factors and the negative evaluation of these systems was evaluated. In order to accomplish this, Pearson’s Ckor contingency coefficient was used. Based on the determined correlation forces the Pareto-Lorenz’ diagram was prepared. The organizational factors were lined up according to the force of their impact, the percent share of each factor and cumulated directed number. The diagram obtained on this basis is presented in figure 3.

20

11,6 9,3 8,4 7,3 7,11,2

15,120

10098,891,7

84,4

76

66,7

54,1

40

20

0

20

40

60

80

100

perception ofthe system as

part of thecrime

preventionstrategy

social support continuity ofobservation

capabilities ofthe personneloperating the

system

specification ofthe goals of

systemapplication

appointment ofspecial

interventiongroups to workin the system

procedures ofcooperation

betweenoperators andintervention

patrols

information onsystem

existence

adapting thesystem to

spatialconditions

Fact

or s

hare

, %

Organisational factor

PARETO diagram

LORENZ curve

Fig. 3. The Pareto-Lorenz’ diagram of the correlation between organisational factors

and negative estimation of the video surveillance systems Rys. 3. Wykres Pareto-Lorenza zależności między czynnikami organizacyjnymi a negatywną

oceną systemów monitoringu wizyjnego Source: own elaboration.

As a result of Pareto-Lorenz’ diagram result analysis a group of factors was obtained that

had the biggest influence on the negative evaluation of video surveillance systems. The first three factors from the left – perception of the system as part of the crime prevention strategy social support, continuity of observation – decided about the causes of negative evaluation in 55%.


3. The influence of video surveillance systems on the level of public safety in Katowice – case study

In Katowice the video surveillance system was implemented in places with the greatest danger of crime in two stages – in 2001 and 2005. The analysis of the share of crimes in the supervised area in relation to crimes in the territory of the whole city shows their constant decrease. This tendency is presented in figure 4.

0,0

2,0

4,0

6,0

8,0

10,0

12,0

14,0

2001-01-01

2001-02-01

2001-03-01

2001-04-01

2001-05-01

2001-06-01

2001-07-01

2001-08-01

2001-09-01

2001-10-01

2001-11-01

2001-12-01

2002-01-01

2002-02-01

2002-03-01

2002-04-01

2002-05-01

2002-06-01

2002-07-01

2002-08-01

2002-09-01

2002-10-01

2002-11-01

2002-12-01

2003-01-01

2003-02-01

2003-03-01

2003-04-01

2003-05-01

Period

Crim

e, %

before system implementation

system implementation

system initiation

system launch system exploitation

Fig. 4. Crime level on supervised area in relation to crime level in all city before and after

the system implementation Rys. 4. Udział liczby przestępstw na obszarze monitorowanym w odniesieniu do liczby

przestępstw na terenie całego miasta przed i po uruchomieniu systemu Source: own elaboration.

The analysis of the examined video surveillance system functionality enables to state that

the decrease of the number of crimes in the supervised area was almost 50% after one year of its functioning. The greatest decline was shown in the number of sex related crimes, terrorism, and crimes related to drug addiction, burglary, and car thefts. In January 2001 in the region which still had not been included in the surveillance system, this number constituted almost 12% of crimes in the whole city. In May 2003 the number of events disrupting public safety and order in this part of the city was already less by a half compared to the moment when the system was implemented. The analysis of the dynamics of changes in the crime level in Katowice was illustrated in figure 5.


-4,5

11,6-3,0 11,8

31,0

-19,4

-45,9-63,1 -65,9 -60,2

107,3

76,265,5

-4,3

29,2

2,2

-5,5 6,5-6,4

13,4

-120,0

-100,0-80,0

-60,0-40,0

-20,0

0,020,0

40,060,0

80,0

100,0120,0

2001 2002 2003 2004 2005year

inde

x of

cha

nges

in c

rime

rate

crime rate in the area of the whole towncrime rate in the monitored areascrime rate in the rest areas of the city centrecrime rate in the neighbourhood areas of the city centre

Fig. 5. Index of the analysis of changes dynamics of crime in the Katowice (2001-2005) Rys. 5. Indeks dynamiki zmian liczby przestępstw w określonych rejonach Katowic i w

całym mieście w latach 2001-2005 Source: own elaboration.

The index of the dynamics of changes in the number of crimes in the whole city shows its

constant increase in the years 2001-2005, by 9.4% annually on average. The index of the dynamics of changes in crime in the districts bordering the supervised area is similar. In the supervised area, in the first three years of the system’s functioning, there was a decline of criminal phenomena by over 60% compared to the year before the examined system was implemented. Three years after the launch of the system the number of crimes stabilised and it is at the level achieved in 2003. The analysis of the results related to the increase of crime in the unsupervised areas of a partly video supervised district at its concurrent decrease in areas covered by the system proves that criminal phenomena were transferred to uncontrolled zones. This transfer is a result of a comparable target attractiveness of these areas, smaller risk of being captured, and no possibility of recording in the surveillance system.

4. Conclusions

Video surveillance systems do not always enable preventing dangers, however – when property used and when archiving is possible – they generally enable a reconstruction of events and determination of the perpetrators. Every day effective systems supply a great deal of evidence of all types of crimes and transgressions. A positive example of their application


is the identification of the perpetrators of murder at the station in Brussels on 12th April 2006 or the persons taking part in the bomb attack in London on 7th July 2005.

In the video surveillance systems the significance of organisational factors is equally important as their technical parameters, as without a competent organisation, even the most modern system will not be effective. These systems are not a panacea for the increase in crime, but they are an element of integrated public safety management systems.

The results of the conducted research enabled the formulation of the following conclusions:

1. Effective operations of video surveillance systems requires cooperation of specialized territorial self-government units. This forces to develop clear operation procedures and define the limits of authority.

2. The principal action in video surveillance system management is ensuring an adequate number of persons for their operation and separation of the function of detecting crimes from the intervention function. Only a clear division of competences and responsibility may ensure effective functioning of video surveillance systems.

3. The negative effect of the functioning of video surveillance systems is the possibility of transfer ring a part of the crimes to directly bordering areas, which are comparably attractive to potential criminals.

4. The beneficial effects achieved in the initial phase of the systems’ existence may deteriorate after a few years from their launching, which may be the effect of organisational mistakes, a decline of the initial enthusiasm of the users, routine in the work of the operators, as well as the criminals’ “getting used to” the existence of surveillance systems.

5. In the areas covered by video surveillance, a slight decrease or even increase in the number of events in Police statistics of crimes may be a result of increased detectability. The preventive effect of surveillance systems may have an influence on the increase in detectability, and thus on the number of recorded crimes, although the general crime decreases and the increase in public safety takes place.

6. The positive effects of video surveillance systems’ functioning are not only a result of the operation of the system alone, which is a complement of undertaken endeavours and prevention strategy. However, its positive effect on the level of crime and the fulfilment of the preventive function cannot be denied.


Bibliography

1. Bałandynowicz A.: Zapobieganie przestępczości: studium prawno-porównawcze z zakresu polityki kryminalnej, Primum, Warszawa 1998.

2. Cielecki T.: Koordynacja systemu przeciwdziałania patologii społecznej, [w:] Czapska J., Widawki J.: Bezpieczeństwo lokalne. Wydawnictwo Instytutu Spraw Publicznych, Warszawa 2000.

3. Tilley N.: Understanding Car Parks, Crime and CCTV: Evaluation Lessons From Safer Cities, Crime Prevention Unit, no. 42, HMSO, London 1993.

4. Zaborowski J.: Prawne środki zapewnienia bezpieczeństwa i porządku publicznego. Departament Szkolenia i Doskonalenia Zawodowego Ministerstwa Spraw Wewnętrznych, Warszawa 1977.

Reviewers: Prof. dr hab. inż. Jan Kaźmierczak Prof. dr hab. Krystyna Lisiecka

Agata STACHOWICZ-STANUSCH The Silesian University of Technology Faculty of Organization and Management Management and Marketing Department

ANTI-CORRUPTION DECLARATIONS IN POLISH BIGGEST ENTERPRISES – RESEARCH REPORT

Summary. The paper concerns the problem of corruption and visibility of anticorrupt policies of enterprises in Poland. There are presented research results which focused on anticorrupt declarations of Polish companies from different sectors. The research process was conducted in accordance with the methodology based on OECD elaboration. Presented examples of anticorrupt statements reveal various approaches towards anticorrupt policies.

Keywords: corruption, anti-corruption declarations, anti-corruption policy,

reporting anti-corruption practices

DEKLARACJE ANTYKORUPCYJNE NAJWIĘKSZYCH POLSKICH PRZEDSIĘBIORSTW – RAPORT Z BADAŃ

Streszczenie. Artykuł podejmuje problem korupcji i widoczności polityk antykorupcyjnych przedsiębiorstw w Polsce. Zaprezentowano wyniki badań, które dotyczyły antykorupcyjnych deklaracji polskich firm z różnych sektorów. Proces badawczy został przeprowadzony zgodnie z metodologią opartą na opracowaniu OECD. Zaprezentowane przykłady oświadczeń antykorupcyjnych ujawniają różnorodne podejścia do polityk antykorupcyjnych.

Słowa kluczowe: korupcja, deklaracje antykorupcyjne, polityka antykorupcyjna,

raportowanie praktyk antykorupcyjnych

A. Stachowicz-Stanusch 120

1. Introduction

Over the last few years the issue of corruption has attracted renewed interest both among academics and policymakers. Today corruption is acknowledged to be a key factor in preventing development in large areas of the world, and accordingly a vast array of projects and tools have been developed to fight effectively against and to build a strong organizational system of immunity to corruption. The study of corruption on its effect in the workplace has become one of the 21st centuries’ most exciting and burgeoning field of research.

The public statement of anti-corruption policies and reporting practices are one of the crucial steps in a company’s anti-corruption activities. Open declarations of this kind encourage the development of management systems which help companies to “walk the talk”. The foundations of any anti-corruption policy is its visibility both inside and outside organization. Hence, the main purpose of this paper is to look at anti-corruption materials published on the websites of the biggest companies in Poland.

2. Research problems & studied companies

On days 23.03.2009-06.04.2009 there were analysed materials1 included on websites of the top 50 largest enterprises in Poland, that were identified on the base of Rating of top 500 the largest enterprises in Poland in 2007 (published by “Tygodnik Polityka”2). Those materials are available for public audience, do not require to log in or to use a password, moreover, they were not collected as a result of correspondence with any representative of examined enterprises. The part of information was collected as separate files included on analysed websites. Studied enterprises represent sectors such as heavy industry (enterprises of coal mining industry – 2, metalworking industry – 3, coke industry – 1), oil industry – 6, power industry – 6, chemical industry – 2, telecommunication – 4, trade – 9, automotive industry – 4, brewery and alcoholic beverages industry (incl. brewery – 2, alcoholic beverages – 1), pharmaceutical industry – 2, and others (cable production – 1, material processing industry – 1, engineering and construction industry – 1, lighting industry – 1, electroninc and hosehold appliances industry – 1, rail sector – 1, postal services – 1, forest management – 1).

1 In research participated MSc Eng. Anna Sworowska. 2 Ranking 500, „Polityka”, No. 18 (2652), 3rd May 2008, p. 6-7. The test group was selected on the basis of selection of special-purpose (50 top positions in the rating), so it

represents the most lucrative industries. Thus, an attempt does not reflect the general trends in Poland, but only gives a picture of the situation observed in some of the most profitable sectors of the economy.

Anti-corruption declarations… 121

I wanted to answer for the following research questions: 1. How many of the largest enterprises in Poland make public statements on corruption

on their websites? 2. What kinds of anti-corruption commitments do these statements contain? Is a shared

view emerging on the kinds of business practices that are acceptable and on the management tools that are effective?

3. How do companies manage the fight against corruption? 4. Do companies report on their performance in this area?

Methodology & resultsThe methodology was based largely on the development of the OECD3. In these studies,

however, the number of criteria used for the analysis has been narrowed to the thirteen categories listed in Table 1. Table 1 presents the number of indications of the categories in the test sample and represented industries.

Table 1

Statements on corruption of the top 50 largest enterprises in Poland

CATEGORY DESCRIPTION NUMBER OF COMPANIES INDUSTRY

1

CORRUPTION

statements that indicate company's anti-corrupt policies; statements mentioning only integrity or ethical conduct, without further elaboration and mention of bribery and/or corruption, have not been included

15 see: Figure 2

2

BRIBERY

statements that indicate the prohibition of offering and receiving "gifts", "services", "entertainment", and other "benefits" as well as materials that explain how those terms are understood by the company

7

oil (3) alcoholic beverages (1) engineering and construction (1) brewery (2)

3 POLITICAL ACTIVITY

company's approach to the political activity of the enterprise as well as of its employees 6

oil (4) telecommunication (1) trade (1)

4

DECISION MAKING PROCESS

statements that indicate situations when a particular behavior seems to influence of decision making 6

oil (3) coal mining (1) alcoholic beverages (1) engineering and construction (1)

5 VIOLATION OF LAWS

statements that indicate activities and behaviors against the law and possible legal sanctions

4 oil (3) engineering and construction (1)

3 OECD: Business Approaches to Combating Corrupt Practices, Working Papers on International Investement,

Number 2003/2, June 2003, http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/57/2638716.pdf.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/57/2638716.pdf


con. tab. 1 6

REPUTATION/ IMAGE

statements including information about activities and behaviors of company and its employees that might influence negatively the company's reputation or image as well as the reputation and image of a third party

2 oil (2)

7

STAKEHOLDERS

statements that indicate the necessity of following the same ethical principles by company's subsidiaries, agents, co-operants and the other stakeholders

2 oil (2)

8 REPORTING statements that indicate the rules of reporting, including financial reporting 3 oil (2)

brewery (1) 9

BOARD OF DIRECTORS, EXECUTIVE MANAGERS

statements including the role of Board of Directors in implementing the anti-corrupt policy beyond just the acceptance of Code of Conduct; statements including nominating the team, member of Board of Directors or the another person responsible for implementing the anti-corrupt policy; statements including managers' commitments to implementing, monitoring and conducting periodical reviews on anti-corrupt activity in company

2 oil (2)

10 THE TEAM/MEMBER OF

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

statements including commitments of team, member of Board of Directors or the another person responsible for company's anti-corrupt policy realization

2 oil (2)

11 TRAINING statements that indicates the necessity of including anti-corrupt issues in trainings 2 oil (1)

trade (1) 12

WHISTLEBLOWING

statements that indicate corporate ombudsman, contact persons or supervisors, other managers, telephone hotline, compliance officer or committee, an off-site ethics post office box, and/or a dedicated email account as the information channel for possible or observed violations of the company’s anti-corrupt commitment; statements that indicate providing the protection for whistleblowers

5

oil (2) alcoholic beverages (1) trade (1) engineering and construction (1)

13 DISCIPLINARY

ACTIONS

statements indicating that company will take disciplinary action in the case of non-compliance with the company’s anti-corrupt commitments

2 oil (2)

Source: Author’s study based on OECD: Business Approaches to Combating Corrupt Practices, Working Papers on International Investement, Number 2003/2, June 2003 and conducted analysis

The category of „corruption” was directly mentioned only in 30% of studied companies,

moreover, those statements included such expressions as „corruption”, „bribery”, „fraud” and synonymous, such as:


CEDC implemented Code of Conduct that sets out in detail what rights and obligations (except for this included in law) has a CEDC employee and the situations that are considered to be unethical or contrary to the interests of the company. According to that document, as well as in accordance with accepted principles and daily practice, CEDC employees shall avoid conflicts of interest, influence on business decisions by external actors, transmitting or receiving gifts with a value exceeding the nominal value of determining the boundaries, do not practice nepotism, do not discriminate against nor favor collaborators as well as other situations to avoid unethical behavior in dealing with superiors and colleagues.

Source: http://www.cedc.com.pl/about1.html Shell Company makes a special emphasis on the principles of honesty and fair play in all

aspects of it business and expect this approach from all with whom it lead interests. The direct or indirect offer, transfer, acquisition and acceptance of bribes in any form is unacceptable.

Source: http://www.shell.com/home/content/pl-pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html

The fact that actions consistent with the idea of social responsibility, sustainable

development of firms are actually relevant to the company PGNiG Capital Group, has been shown by the accession of Pomorski System Dystrybucyjny in February 2008 to the Global Compact. Global Compact is an initiative (...) which calls for businesses to conduct their activities in accordance with the ten basic principles relating to human rights, labor rights, environmental protection and anti-corruption.

Source: Annual Report 2007 GK PGNiG SA Some of the statements (five cases) relating to corruption is very similar to the last one of

those presented above and is an adoption of rules of Global Compact. In such cases they are not developed and do not include statement within the other categories.

Statements directly relating to the corruption are usually included in separate files such as codes of ethics, codes of conduct, reports on social responsibility or reports on companies performance (as an element of investor relation websites). Furthermmore, materials about anti-corrupt policy were available under headings such as Company’s Values, Company’s Activity, Press Information as well as Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). A large number of studies companies (15) do not mention corruption directly but they recognize the need of ethical conduct4:

4 Among the 15 identified companies, which in its policies take into account the ethical issues of the case, were

not included companies involved in CSR activities in the field of environment only.

http://www.cedc.com.pl/about1.html

http://www.shell.com/home/content/pl-pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html



Vision - Mission - Values: Polkomtel SA as a customer-oriented company, with the highest ethical standards, innovative, efficient and socially responsible.

Source: http://www.polkomtel.com.pl/polkomtel_sa/Default.aspx Our commitment to the community means acting in a fair and responsible way and being

a good neighbor. Source: http://www.tesco.pl/o-nas/csr_1-NaszePodejscie.php

The above general recognition of ethical issues, although that does not relate directly to

the application of the anti-corruption policy, may take it into account. Figure 1 shows the number of statements relating directly to corruption as well as to overall ethical conduct in relation to the industries represented by the analysed companies.

Statements relating to corruption of the largest enteprises in Poland(by sector)

0123456789

10

heavy

indu

stry

oil in

dustr

y

power in

dustr

y

chem

ical in

dustry

telecommunic

ation tra

de

autom

otive in

dustr

y

brewery

and al

coho

lic be

verag

es ind

ustry

pharm

aceutic

al ind

ustry

others

sector

num

ber o

f com

pani

es

NO (does not relates to any ethical issues)

NO (relates to issues of ethical conduct)

YES (relates to issues of corruption)

Fig. 1. Statements relating to corruption of the largest enterprises in Poland (by sector) Rys. 1. Oświadczenia odnoszące się do korupcji największych przedsiębiorstw w Polsce

(wg branży) Source: author’s stude based on conducted analysis

Industries that are represented by companies all of which relate to the issues of corruption

or at least take into account the ethical issues in their activities are the oil industry as well as the brewery and alcoholic beverages ones. Representatives of these sectors on their websites include the information that reflects the most comprehensive enterprise approach to the issue of corruption. For example:

http://www.polkomtel.com.pl/polkomtel_sa/Default.aspx

http://www.tesco.pl/o-nas/csr_1-NaszePodejscie.php


– Code of Ethics of PKN Orlen SA includes all of the 13 categories used in analysis, – BP Code of Conduct (directly adopted from foreign branches of corporation) includes

12 categories (with the exception for „training”), – Principles of business ethics of Grupa Żywiec SA take into account 3 criteria

(„corruption”, „bribery” and „reporting”), – The Values of Grupa Kapitałowa CECD include 4 criteria („corruption”, „bibery”,

„decision making process” and „whistleblowing”), – Grupa Shell Polska, within the information about its activity relates to 5 categories

(„corruption”, „bribery”, „political activity”, „decision making process”, „violation of laws”).

Beyond the industries mentioned above, only two representatives relate to more than 2 categories used in the analysis, namely:

– Grupa Carrefour Polska in its brochure „Grupa Carrefour – the creator of responsible exchange. Our reply for the challenges of contemporary society” relates to “corruption”. “training” and “whistleblowing” (3 categories),

– Grupa Polimex-Mostostal (engineering and construction industry) in its Code of Ethics takes into accounts such issues as „corruption”, „bribery”, „decision making process” and „whistleblowing” (4 categories).

Some of the analysed companies incorporate in their work on ethical issues so strongly that they are a strategic partner of the Responsible Business Forum (Forum Odpowiedzialnego Biznesu) - the first non-governmental organization in Poland which deals with issues relating to socially responsible business. It reflects the long-term approach to ethical issues in policies by those companies. In addition, several of the studied companies were included in the Responsible Business Report 2008 in Poland as examples of GOOD PRACTICES.

Analysed enterprises included the other detailed cathegories of their understanding of corruption and indicate methods of their fight with this phenomenon (corruptive processes) to the limited extend. In most cases enterprises focus on bribery (7 cases), political activity (6 cases), decision making process (6 cases) or the violation of laws (4 cases), what shows how these companies understand corruption.

Bribery, which was indicated in most cases, was named directly, as it follows: The direct or indirect offer, transfer, acquisition and acceptance of bribes in any form is

unacceptable. Source: http://www.shell.com/home/content/pl-

pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html




Anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws: (...) forbid making, offering or promising to make a payment or transfer anything of value, including the provision of any service, gift or entertainment, to government personnel and other officials for the purpose of improperly obtaining or retaining business, or for any other improper purpose or business advantage (...).

Bribery means giving or receiving an undue reward to influence the behaviour of someone in government or business to obtain commercial advantage.

Source: BP Code of Conduct „Bribes” are named as „gifts” (sometimes even concerning its specific value), as

“entertainment” or as “advantage”: (...) Grupa Żywiec considers that giving or accepting gifts can not go beyond the

customary form and cause a situation which could be regarded as an attempt to pressure or persuade the recipient to conduct contrary to his/her obligations and the Group's internal regulations.

(...) Grupa Żywiec Group strongly condemns offering, transferring or giving, directly or

indirectly a material or personal advantage to persons holding the public office or business decision makers in other companies that go beyond the customary form in order to create favorable decisions and other behaviors. (...)

Source: http://www.grupazywiec.pl/grupa/odpowiedzialnosc_spoleczna/zasady_etyki_biznesowej/ CEDC employees avoid (...) transferring or accepting gifts exceeding customary symbolic

value (...). Source: Nasze wartości http://www.cedc.com.pl/about1.html.

The exchange of gifts and entertainment can build goodwill in business relationships, but

some gifts and entertainment can create improper influence (or the appearance of improper influence). Some can even be seen as bribes (…).

(…) Bribery of government officials is a serious matter, but bribery of those working in the

private sector is also often illegal and always against BP’s own standards of business conduct.

Source: BP Code of Conduct In one case a company mentions about the specific form of bribery such as „facilitation

payments”:

http://www.grupazywiec.pl/grupa/odpowiedzialnosc_spoleczna/zasady_etyki_biznesowej/



BP policy does not permit so-called ‘facilitation’* or ‘grease’ payments to be made to government officials, even if such payments are nominal in amount.

(*‘Facilitation payments’ are payments made to secure or speed up routine legal government actions, such as issuing permits or releasing goods held in customs.)

Source: BP Code of Conduct Enterprises have different approach towards political activity. They usually declare

political neutrality and their avoidance to finance political parties: PKN ORLEN declares to be uninvolved in politics. The company refrains from engaging

in political activities in the belief that this would conflict with the long-term interests of the Company and its shareholders.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA The ethical principles of TP assume full apolitical organization. Telekomunikacja Polska

and its subsidiaries believe in the principle of political neutrality and do not financially support any political party. The Group’s Code of Ethics (common to the whole France Teecom Group) requires "refraining from financing political parties or organizations whose primary purpose is political objectives."

Source: http://www.tp.pl/prt/pl/o_nas/o_firmie/raport_spol/ Ethical principles adopted by Grupa LOTOS SA assume political neutrality of the group

that does not support political parties in any way. Source: Social Responsibility Report 2006-2007 of Grupa Lotos S.A.: Principles,

procedures and mechanisms concerning political lobbying and suport for political parties BP’s approach on corporate political participation is very simple and applies everywhere

we do business: • The company will not participate directly in party political activity. • The company will make no political contributions, whether in cash or in kind, anywhere

in the world. Source: BP Code of Conduct

Shell companies do not make payments to political parties, organizations or their

representatives. Shell companies do not take part in party politics. Source: http://www.shell.com/home/content/pl-

pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html

http://www.tp.pl/prt/pl/o_nas/o_firmie/raport_spol/




On the other hand, enterprises express their right to lobby, provide politic dialogue or to

make their position on political matters that directly affect them: METRO Group maintains a continuous dialogue with decisions makers from the realm of

politics, economy and public opinion. Source: http://www.metrogroup.pl/servlet/PB/menu/1215900_l2_ePRJ-METRODE-

MAINPAGE/index.html Although BP will not directly participate in party politics, the company will continue to

engage in policy debate on subjects of legitimate concern to the group, its staff and the communities in which it operates, by processes such as lobbying.

Source: BP Code of Conduct When dealing with governments, Shell companies have the right and the responsibility to

make our position known on any matters which affect us, our employees, our customers, our shareholders or local communities in a manner which is in accordance with our values and the Business Principles.


Moreover, companies makes regulations on enganging In political activity of their

employees (they usually gives them right to conduct freely to some extent): BP recognizes employees’ rights to participate as individuals in the political process, in

ways that are appropriate to each country. However, you must be careful to make clear that you do not represent the company as you participate in the political process

Source: BP Code of Conduct Where individuals wish to engage in activities in thecommunity, including standing for

election to publico ffice, they will be given the opportunity to do so where this is appropriate in the light of localcircumstances.


PKN ORLEN’s employees: – engage in political activities as private individuals not as representatives of PKN

ORLEN;

http://www.metrogroup.pl/servlet/PB/menu/1021951_l10/index.html







– may not use the Company’s property (equipment, premises, a company car, telephone, etc.) or their working hours, during which they are supposed to perform tasks for PKN ORLEN, for the purposes of their political activities;

– are not allowed to run an election campaign or any other political activity at the Company’s premises;

– must not exert any pressure on their subordinates or co-workers as part of their political activities.

Political activities of our employees are confined to the private sphere of their lives, however due to the possible conflict of interest, while making particularly important decisions (e.g. standing for a political office, holding a position in the party leadership) superiors should be informed therefore (...).

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Some of analysed companies focus on the necessity of the approriate decission making

process as it should be impartial as well as it should not imply the conflict of interest: PKN ORLEN shall not tolerate any actions which might affect the ability to make

unbiased business decisions. (...) Employees of PKN ORLEN and their next of kin cannot engage in competing business

activities which might be harmful to the Company’s interests or result in conflicts of interest. A conflict of interest occurs when an employee’s private interests may have an impact on decision making.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA (…) When an employee’s personal, social, financial or political activities interfere or

have the potential of interfering with the employee’s loyalty and objectivity toward the group, a ‘conflict of interest’ may exist that must be satisfactorily resolved. Actual conflicts must be avoided, but even the appearance of a conflict of interest can be harmful, too.

(…) Employees and their close relatives need to be careful that their investments do not

create conflicts of interest, impairing the employee’s ability to make objective decisions on behalf of BP.

Source: BP Code of Conduct Employees must avoid conflicts of interest between their private activities and their part

in the conduct of company business.



They employees pursue the principle of loyalty towards the Company, they do not

undertake any activities which might result in a conflict of interests between them and the Company; in particular, they do not undertake activities competitive towards Polimex-Mostostal.

Source: Polimex-Mostostal Ethical Code In one case a company limited that issue to the award procedures (citing the Public

Procurement Law): Persons performing actions in connection with the conduct of award procedures shall be

subject to exclusion, if: 1) they are competing for a contract; 2) remain in matrimony, consanguinity or affinity (...) with economic operator, his legal

deputy or members of managing or supervisory bodies of economic operators competing for a contract;

3) during the three years prior to the date of the start of the contract award procedure they remained in a relationship of employment or service with the economic operator or were members of managing or supervisory bodies of economic operators competing for a contract;

4) remain in such legal or actual relationship with the economic operator, which may raise justified doubts as to their impartiality;

5) have been legally sentenced for an offence committed in connection with contract award procedures, bribery, offence against economic turnover or any other offence committed with the aim of gaining financial profit.

Source: Regulations on conduct of award procedures in Kompania Węglowa S.A. In four cases the enterprises mentioned legal issues and/or legal sanctions connected with

corruptive activity: PKN ORLEN obeys the laws of the countries in which it operates. All employees acting

on behalf of the Company are obliged to respect the legal framework of a given country. (...) Every employee of PKN ORLEN is obliged to immediately report a breach or a suspected

breach of the law and the provisions of the Code of Ethics so that preventive or corrective measures can be taken.




(...) PKN ORLEN declares that: – the employees and business partners who report a violation of the law or the Code of

Ethics will be protected from any consequences which might result from their decision to disclose such misconduct;

– persons who infringe upon personal rights of the Company’s employees and their business partners shall be subject to sanction in accordance with the law and the provisions of the Code of Ethics.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Most countries have laws that prohibit corruption. In addition, an increasing number of

countries are adopting laws to prohibit bribery even when it is committed outside these countries’ own borders – i.e. paid to a foreign governmental official. A breach of any of these laws is a serious offence which can result in fines for companies and imprisonment for individuals.

Source: BP Code of Conduct Shell companies act in a socially responsible manner within the laws of the countries in

which we operate in pursuit of our legitimate commercial objectives. Source: http://www.shell.com/home/content/pl-

pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html The employees are obliged to observe the law, decency, procedures and regulations

applicable within the Company, immediately react to any discerned attempts to break the law.

Source: Polimex-Mostostal Ethical Code Understanding of corruption in relation to the reputation or image of the company

(negative as the result of corruptive activity) may be notices just in two analysed enterprises:




Conduct outside of working hours is a private matter of every employee unless it has a negative impact on workplace safety, his ability to perform duties or the reputation of PKN ORLEN. Each case of improper conduct shall be reviewed individually so as to determine its impact on the interests and reputation of the Company and take appropriate disciplinary action.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Even the appearance of a breach of anti-bribery or anti-corruption laws could do

incalculable damage to BP’s reputation. Source: BP Code of Conduct

Similarly, the stakeholders were indicated in two cases only (the same cases as

previously): The principles contained in this Code of Ethics also apply to consultants, associates,

contracting parties, agents and all other persons acting on behalf of PKN ORLEN. Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA

Anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws: (...) forbid making improper payments through

third parties – BP personnel must therefore be diligent in selecting and monitoring contractors, agents and partners.

(…) Choose suppliers carefully, based on merit, and with the expectation that our suppliers

will act consistently with our compliance and ethics requirements. Source: BP Code of Conduct

A tool for the fight against corruption that is mentioned most often is whistleblowing

(5 cases), which is usually realised by the employees. Communication channels are such as: supervisor, appropriate officer, as well as phine, mailbox or e-mail:

In the event of a breach of the provisions of the Code of Ethics, an employee should

contact his superior who is obliged to listen to him and take action to investigate the reported irregularity.

If an employee does not trust his superior, he should do one of the following: – personally inform the Ethics Compliance Officer about the problem or his suspicions; – sent an email to an mailbox that guarantees anonymity to the sender; – call the integrity helpline.


As part of the Company’s “Open Door” policy, an employee may also request an appointment with the President of the Managing Board of PKN ORLEN. An employee reporting a violation of the law can count on anonymity to protect them. The process of investigating a report will be carried out without disclosing the identity of the source of information.

Any person outside of the Company, who becomes aware of an act of misconduct on the part of our employees or any issue concerning the integrity of the Company, may report it to the Ethics Compliance Officer either personally or by email at [email protected], or by phone.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA You must report any breaches or potential breaches of BP’s compliance and ethics

commitments of which you become aware – whether these relate to yourself, direct reports or others.

(...) Never ‘shrug off’ or fail to report any indication of improper payments. (...) Your line management is usually a good place to start with a legal or business conduct

issue. You may also get help or advice from: your HR representative, BP legal, Group compliance & ethics.

(...) If you feel uncomfortable about reporting something directly to line management, you

can seek advice from OpenTalk. Source: BP Code of Conduct

[Employees] react to any attempts of corruption and dishonesty. (…) [Employees] immediately react to any discerned attempts to break the law.

Source: Polimex-Mostostal Ethical Code In one case, there was emphasised a policy on protection against retaliation: BP will not tolerate retaliation against person [who in good faith seeks advice, raises a

concern or reports misconduct]. Source: BP Code of Conduct

The other methods of prevention and fight against corruption are not commonly declared.

Reporting, especially financial reporting, are mentioned by few analysed companies:


PKN ORLEN declares full information transparency which enables all the concerned

parties to make a detailed assessment of the Company’s standing, operating procedures and plans, while at the same time ensuring protection of the Company’s confidential information (...).

PKN ORLEN shall keep the accounting books and records of invoices and payments in a clear and accurate manner so that they provide a true and detailed representation of transactions and appropriation of funds.

It is strictly forbidden to make accounting entries which intentionally conceal or disguise the true nature of any transaction. It is prohibited to provide undisclosed or unregistered funds or financial means for any purpose, make false payments or issue fictitious invoices, make false bookkeeping entries or produce dishonest reports.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Anti-bribery and anti-corruption laws: (...) require that companies keep accurate books

and records so that payments are honestly described and company funds are not used for unlawful purposes.

Source: BP Code of Conduct Also disciplinary activities are rarely indicated tools (2 cases), such as misconduct or

dismissal: PKN ORLEN declares that (…) persons who infringe upon personal rights of the

Company’s employees and their business partners shall be subject to sanction in accordance with the law and the provisions of the Code of Ethics (...).

Any violation of the Code of Ethics (...) may result in the discontinuance of business cooperation and termination of the existing agreements [with consultants, associates, contracting parties, agents and all other persons acting on behalf of PKN ORLEN].

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Failure to disclose a conflict [of onterest] may lead to disciplinary action. (...) Anyone responsible for reprisals against individuals who report suspected misconduct or

other risks to the business will be subject to disciplinary action up to and including dismissal. Source: BP Code of Conduct

Training, which may be treated as precaution, was mentioned just by two enterprises:


The primary tasks of the Ethics Compliance Officer include: education and promotion of exemplary conduct and building corporate culture based on the highest ethical standards.

Additionally the Ethics Compliance Officer: (...) initiates actions aimed at promotion of the Code of Ethics and ethical conduct; organises trainings, information meetings, supports managers in the process of communication, publishes articles, etc. (…).

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA Examples of activities of Carrefour Group: Activities in order to sensitise and educate in

particular caountries. Source: Carrefour Group – responsible exchange provider. Our response to the challenges

of contemporary society Moreover, special posts and departments established in order to fight against corruption

as well as specified role of the Board of Directors management staff may be considered as the another tool of anti-corrupt policy. In both cases those cathegories were mentioned just by two companies. In both cases the responsibilities of ethics officers are quite similar:

The primary tasks of the Ethics Compliance Officer include: education and promotion of

exemplary conduct and building corporate culture based on the highest ethical standards. Additionally the Ethics Compliance Officer: – in cooperation with the Business Conduct team develops an action strategy in the

field of corporate culture and the Company’s ethical policy; – monitors compliance with the ethical principles; – carries out intervention activities as regards persons who violate the provisions of the

Code of Ethics; – initiates actions aimed at promotion of the Code of Ethics and ethical conduct;

organises trainings, information meetings, supports managers in the process of communication, publishes articles, etc.;

– maintains close contact with employees, keeps track of current problems of the Company.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA


Group compliance & ethics: – Seeks to prevent unlawful or unethical business conduct and to detect it if it occurs. – Continuously assesses compliance risks and ensures that internal controls are

responsive to these risks. – Provides support to help employees comply with the code of conduct and applicable

laws. – Provides and oversees compliance training and communications. – Oversees internal investigation processes. – Reviews and promotes consistent disciplinary procedures for breaches of the code

and the incorporation of compliance and ethics into performance appraisal processes.

– Provides independent reports on compliance performance to the group chief executive and board committees.

Source: BP Code of Conduct However, the differences between responsibilities of management staff are visible: As part of the Company’s “Open Door” policy, an employee may also request an

appointment with the President of the Managing Board of PKN ORLEN. (…) The Ethics Compliance Officer ensures compliance with the provisions of the Code of

Ethics. He is a person of trust, elected for a three-year term and approved by the Company’s Management Board.

Source: Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA BP has established an independent function to administer and oversee the compliance

and ethics programme under the direction of the group compliance & ethics officer. (...) Those who supervise others have additional responsibilities under the code. They must: – Promote compliance and ethics by example – in other words, show by their behaviour

what it means to act with integrity. – Make sure that those who report to them understand the code’s requirements and

have the resources to meet them. – Monitor compliance and ethics of the people they supervise. – Use reasonable care to monitor third parties acting on behalf of BP to ensure that

they work in a manner consistent with the code. – Enforce the code consistently.


– Support employees who, in good faith, raise questions or concerns. Source: BP Code of Conduct

It is easy to note that widely on corruption on their websites publish the oil companies. In

addition, they have their own codes of conduct (code of ethics, code of conduct), which specifically relate to the criteria used in this analysis as well as to the same to various situations encountered in everyday life companies. Those enterprises use a large range of anti-corruption measures, but this is a marginal phenomenon among the studied companies (4% of surveyed companies).

Only 3 companies focus on reporting records on their websites, but these are general statements. Furthermore, none of the companies have declared the preparation of the report on corruption in the company.

Conducted research also do not allow to evaluate effectiveness of the declared anti-corruption activities.

Although analysed statements are available in public, it does not fully shows the extent to

which the company applies anti-corruption policy. A large part of companies, may regulate the corruption by its internal documents (rules of work, code of ethics, code of conduct) available only to employees and stakeholders that meet particular requirements (e.g. strategic investors). Thus, internet research on public statement should be continued as a more in-depth analysis of internal documentation.

Bibliography

1. Ranking 500. Polityka, No. 18 (2652), 3rd May 2008. 2. OECD: Business Approaches to Combating Corrupt Practices, Working Papers on

International Investement 2003, no 2, www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/57/2638716.pdf. 3. BP Code of Conduct. 4. Grupa Carrefour Polska: Grupa Carrefour – the creator of responsible exchange. Our

reply for the challenges of contemporary society (brochure). 5. Annual Report 2007 GK PGNiG SA. 6. Social Responsibility Report 2006-2007 of Grupa Lotos S.A.: Principles, procedures and

mechanisms concerning political lobbying and suport for political parties. 7. Regulations on conduct of award procedures in Kompania Węglowa S.A. 8. Polimex-Mostostal Ethical Code. 9. Code of Ethics PKN Orlen SA.

http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/63/57/2638716.pdf


10. www.cedc.com.pl/about1.html. 11. www.shell.com/home/content/pl/about_shell/how_we_work/jak_dzialamy_04112003.html

. 12. www.polkomtel.com.pl/polkomtel_sa/Default.aspx. 13. www.tesco.pl/o-nas/csr_1-NaszePodejscie.php. 14. www.grupazywiec.pl/grupa/odpowiedzialnosc_spoleczna/zasady_etyki_biznesowej/. 15. www.cedc.com.pl/about1.html. 16. www.tp.pl/prt/pl/o_nas/o_firmie/raport_spol/. 17. www.metrogroup.pl/servlet/PB/menu/1215900_l2_ePRJ-METRODE-MAINPAGE/

index.html.

Reviewers: Prof. zw. dr hab. Mariusz Bratnicki Prof. dr hab. Ewa Bojar



http://www.polkomtel.com.pl/polkomtel_sa/Default.aspx

http://www.tesco.pl/o-nas/csr_1-NaszePodejscie.php

http://www.grupazywiec.pl/grupa/odpowiedzialnosc_spoleczna/zasady_etyki_biznesowej/


http://www.tp.pl/prt/pl/o_nas/o_firmie/raport_spol/



Charles WANKEL St. John’s University, New York

USING A VIRTUAL WORLD INTERFACE IN BUSINESS EDUCATION

Summary. Contemporary business students are adept in digital media and social networking technologies. Indeed, they are digital natives who will be doing business through new collaborative media in the near future. This article discusses some of the approaches and issues associated with using virtual world interfaces in business education.

Keywords: Social Media, Collaboration, Business Education, Virtual Worlds,

Second Life

WYKORZYSTANIE ŚWIATA WIRTUALNEGO W EDUKACJI BIZNESOWEJ

Streszczenie. Współcześni studenci biznesu są mistrzami w świecie mediów cyfrowych i społecznych technologiach sieciowych. Są oni „cyfrowymi tubylcami”, którzy będą w niedalekiej przyszłości prowadzić interesy przez nowe media współpracy. Niniejszy artykuł omawia kilka podejść i kwestii, związanych z wykorzystaniem interfejsu świata wirtualnego w edukacji biznesowej.

Słowa kluczowe: media społeczne, współpraca, edukacja biznesowa, Second Life

C. Wankel 140

1. Introduction

Current students are digital natives,1 who grew up with online virtual worlds and simulations, such as Everquest. That is, they are already comfortable interacting through three-dimensional virtual reality interfaces. Access and participation in such virtual worlds is largely free. This article will provide an overview of issues that business instructors in higher education should be cognizant of when using virtual worlds in support of their courses.

2. Virtual Worlds: The Example of Second Life

The University of Texas announced on September 15, 2009 that it was creating an archipelago of forty-five islands in the Second Life virtual world to provide cost effective, ecologically sustainable, very collaborative, and exciting learning platform, for use by its 15 campuses. Second Life was seen as a way to help students and faculty to cost effectively collaborate with their peers in far-flung places.2

The most widely used virtual world among educators is Second Life.3 It includes advanced visual, audio, and kinesthetic elements in its interface and allows the use of the Google translation utility to foster international collaborations. Learners are represented by avatars that they create using menu driven utilities. These avatars are characters that may look something like they do, or may look like a wildly imagined creature.4 Several Polish cities have replicas of their old towns with cafes and other attractions in Second Life. What is important is that the Second Life interface is an attractive one for current students,5 who want to have open-ended media that is collaborative, unpredictable, international, and interactive in stimulating ways.

In Second Life, instructors and students create avatars, which are sort of like puppets that may or may not reflect their actual visages. It is quite possible for avatars to change appearances, even drastically, during a conversation So at one point a learner might appear to be a peasant girl, while the next she might appear as Smok the Wawel Dragon.

1 Tapscott D.: Grown up digital: How the net generation is changing your world. McGraw-Hill, New York 2009; Palfrey J.G., Gasser U.: Born digital: Understanding the first generation of digital natives. Basic Books, New York 2008.

2 Wagner M.: University Of Texas Moving Into Second Life. InformationWeek. Government Blogs, 2009 September 21. Accessed October 8, 2009 from www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/09/ university_of_t.html.

3 Warburton S.: Second Life in higher education: Assessing the potential for and the barriers to deploying virtual worlds in learning and teaching. British Journal of Educational Technology 2009, no 40(3), p. 414-426.

4 Ibidem.

Using a virtual world interface… 141

Many educational institutions and instructors have their own places in Second Life. This instructor has his own educational island named Emgeetee in Second Life. This is helpful in providing a private place for his students and visitors to meet. However, there are many beautiful and wonderful gardens and public areas where instructors might meet with students. That is, it is possible to conduct educational activities in Second Life without spending any money to lease property etc.

In Second Life learners can have team meetings, share documents, view PowerPoints and videos, or have natural voice or text chat discussions. Learners can visit existing businesses, in areas where Polish is the lingua franca, for example, and ask to speak to the owner to inquire about their business model. In interviews students might inquire about marketing, customer relations, new product development, etc. Teams of students might be assigned to create businesses in a virtual world. A forthcoming textbook Management through Collaboration: Teaming in a Networked World 6 will have many student assignments to be completed in Second Life. In the longer term the development of a resort where learners from many nations will recruit travelers to participate in parties and water sports.

One of the benefits of higher education in Second Life is that learners can be motivated by the opportunity to personally express their persona through the creation of an avatar and the selection of clothing etc. Some instructors create competitions for learners associated with the content of the course. For example, one accounting professor presents students with different types of accounting items and requires them to jump up if it is an asset or spin around if one is a liability.7 Some instructors have students work in teams creating objects and buildings in Second Life from basic building blocks called prims. However, in the opinion of this author the time spent can be inordinate given the value of the skill. Also, the benefits to learners seem elusive. Intercultural Interactions

Second Life has many areas where people from nations around the world congregate and speak their own languages. For example, there are virtual Japanese and Korean areas. This author has visited a virtual Poznań, Poland, where Polish students were gathering in cafes for pleasant banter. It is possible to converse in natural language in Second Life, though sometimes interlingual exchanges are best in chat. It is possible for instructors to arrange group trips for classes to foreign sites in Second Life together to experience and discuss them together.

5 Jarmon L., Traphagan T., Mayrath M.: Understanding project-based learning in Second Life with a pedagogy, training, and assessment trio. Educational Media International 2008, no 45(3), p. 157-176.

6 Wankel C., and global team: Management through Collaboration: Teaming in a Networked World. Routledge, New York 2010.

C. Wankel 142

One assignment might be for students to create several different avatars with a diversity of core characteristics such as race, ethnicity, gender, disabled status, or age. They can be directed to write reports on how the reaction of others differed for these various avatars.8

Launching learners into a virtual world

It is important to provide significant support for learners to help them with any technical issues that might derail them and to have them integrate with the rest of the learning community in Second Life. This author launches teams of learners on projects in Second Life to assure that they have peer support. This has worked out rather well and is providing valuable virtual team leadership, mentoring, and peer facilitation experience. Other instructors have learners take on individual projects in Second Life and report their findings back to their classes. This has the advantage of curtailing free-riders. Students can be requested to blog their Second Life experiences replete with many snapshots which are readily taken in Second Life. Also, their reflections on their work in the virtual world and their suggestions for improving the assignments for future classes ought to be solicited.

Sanchez,9 of the University of Texas, designs activities to orient his students to operating in Second Life centered on creativity and play. The two venues he accomplishes this in are a carnival and a beach resort. He presents the newcomers with a wide range of involving games and activities through which students can win virtual prizes. One purpose is to avoid being overly directive but rather have each student lead themselves. It has been reported that students using Second Life are more expansive and willing to experiment in their education.10

A popular way to transition students into virtual world-based learning is by providing them with a virtual university campus where they can relax in a seemingly familiar venue.11 A number of universities have developed classrooms and auditoriums in Second Life for traditional style class sessions; for example, St. John’s University and the University of Cincinnati.12

7 Oishi L.: Surfing Second Life: What does Second Life have to do with real-life learning? Tech & Learning, 2007, no 27(11), p. 54.

8 MacLeod D.: Second Life lessons: For some, the virtual world's learning opportunities start with the basics. Guardian. 2008 November 11, Accessed October 8, 2009 from www.guardian.co.uk/education/2008/nov/11/ highereducation-secondlife.

9 Sanchez J.: Pedagogical applications of Second Life. Library Technology Reports 2009, no 45(2), p. 21-28. 10 Frauenheim E.: IBM Learning Programs Get A “Second Life”. Workforce Management 2006, no 85(23), p.

6. 11 Haycock K., Kemp J.W.: Immersive learning environments in parallel universes: Learning through Second

Life. School Libraries Worldwide 2008, no 14(2), p. 89-97. 12 Haines I.: Second Life is powerful teaching tool. News Record, University of Cincinnati, 2007 October 31,

Accessed October 8, 2009 from www.newsrecord.org/2.7230/second-life-is-powerful-teaching-tool-1.764307#4.


Course Support and Librarian Interface One of the services that in some ways improved starkly in Second Life is that of reference

libraries. That is because most universities have moved most of their material onto the web already, such as journal subscriptions and databases. So, the situation is that students are accessing these from their homes or dorms while the reference librarian is seated in the dusty library. Having reference librarians do assistance and training in a virtual world interface for students is very useful. St. John’s University in New York has an eBrarian, Charles Livermore, who assists learners in any aspect of getting going in Second Life and is available in face-to-face traditional mode in the university library, via telephone, via Skype, via email, and at his Second Life office on Emgeetee Island. He holds workshops there on such topics as using the Baldrige Award criteria as an analytic tool for assessing company strategic options. He augments his presentations in Second Life with a variety of media including PowerPoint slides. In addition to office hours in Second Life, he has made himself available for meetings at a wide variety of times, thus aligning with the schedules of students living in Europe while taking online courses offered by professors living in New York. One benefit for St. John’s students has been that those located in semester abroad situations have been able to have personal one-on-one reference librarian support from one of the university’s most knowledgeable and respected reference librarians.

There are email-based discussion lists where communities of those involved in teaching in virtual words share information and support each other. A leading one is called the Second Life Educators Discussion, or SLED.13 This group has more than 5,000 participants. Additionally SLED and other such associations have groups and pages in other social media. For example, SLED has an active LinkedIn presence.

Examples of higher education in Second Life

Sometimes helpfully and sometimes not, education in Second Life often mimics education in real life. Students in Second Life can be required to go to a virtual classroom and hear a lecture, perhaps with PowerPoint slide, and raise their hands and be called upon and comment on the comments of other students. This author sees the opportunity for readily combining projects and meetings with instructors and learners at far-flung universities to be a more tantalizing option. Some activities in real life have to be radically rethought and redesigned, such as service learning in Second Life. Certainly, just as some learners do much

13 Second Life Educators: The SLED List. Accessed October 8, 2009. https://lists.secondlife.com/cgi-bin/mailman/ listinfo/educators.

C. Wankel 144

more than is required in brick and mortar classrooms, some learners in Second Life perform incredibly beyond what is required or expected. Similarly, students can be absent unprepared and unmotivated in either situation. One activity that some instructors in Second Life undertake is to have learners visit Second Life sites related to the topic of their courses. So, for example, some information science instructors take their learners on tours of Second Life library sites.14 Another type of student project in Second Life is digital storytelling where students create an experience or display which others can walk through and be told their stories. Such stories might be about their careers or about their grappling with a particular project in the course. Some instructors might require students to provide them with progress updates on the development of a story display or experience as they proceed through a series of steps. Some instructors might require that learners provide an outline of the story or experience they have been working on to be approved before they create it. Students might be assigned to discuss with companies that have representations of their products in Second Life about how such virtual showrooms translate into sales in the real world. As is the case in real world courses, instructors should solicit ideas on improving the course and its assignments as the course proceeds.15

The United States Air Force (USAF) has developed an important simulation of its operations through its MyBase set of regents in the Second Life virtual world. These commenced in December, 2008. Visitors to the site can begin their tour with a set of immersive exhibits including the history of the United States Air Force. Also, those interested in learning more about opportunities and services provided by the Air Force can find much of it there. Many of the exhibits are activated by having a visiting avatar click on them. One of the experiences enabled at MyBase is flying a replica of a P-51 Mustang, the aircraft used by the Tuskegee airmen in WWII. Another activity is to traverse a challenge course. Additionally a shooting range is available. Entertainment for the airmen includes a theater showing major studio films. There is also a club where airmen can dance to the US Air Force band. Prospective recruits can visit replicas of US military living quarters, dining halls, etc. The Air Force realizes that incoming personnel have social media skills and is intent on utilizing them. The comfort levels of the current generation with technology surpasses that of past cohorts of new airmen, enabling the Air Force to assume much more general and higher comfort levels with new technology than was possible in the past. It is simple for anyone to visit MyBase in Second Life. You you’re your avatar enter Second Life

14 Sanchez J.: Barriers to student learning in Second Life. Library Technology Reports 2009, no 45(2), p. 29-34. 15 Ibidem.


and then type MyBase into the search box.16 The Air Force is developing certification and degree programs to be earned at MyBase. In the future the Air Force and other military units will be creating secure sites for operational training. For example, prior to deployment to an airbase in Afghanistan, airmen might use MyBase to train at realistic replicas of actual US bases there. Airmen might engage in simulated activities of a wide range. So that when they arrive in Afghanistan things are more familiar than they might have been in the past for new arrivals. Similarly, the US Navy has a naval undersea warfare center in Second Life used for operational testing, training, collaboration, product development, and design work.17

Games, Role Plays, Simulations, and Virtual Internships

University and corporate simulations, and indeed computer based simulations, have a long history. However, three-dimensional immersive simulations are particularly useful where becoming comfortable with a contextualized crisis situation is important. For example, a simulated meltdown at a nuclear power station can go beyond reacting to lights and gauges on a panel to reacting to the emotions and interpersonal dynamics of such a crisis situation. In 2009, an emergency landing of a commercial airliner in New York City was necessitated by a flock of geese disabling both engines of the plane. The pilot had to decide whether to attempt to land at a small private airport, return to the large international airport, or to land in one of the many waterways in that harbor city. The pilot elected to bring the plane down in the Hudson River having, as you can imagine, no experience of such a landing. Also, passengers had to be herded onto the wings of the craft and dispatched into life rafts and a welter of small boats, ferries, and larger crafts that happened to be nearby in the metropolis’s harbor. Rather than on the job learning, it might have been immensely helpful for the pilot to have had a background with a simulated experience addressing issues such as how long would it take a ferry in dock at the side of the river to reach the middle to assist the sinking aircraft. Certainly such a simulation might be administered to the entire crew including flight attendants. Also, air traffic controllers might be included, as might airline management at their headquarters and in the region. The actual incident went on to involve handling the cold and bedraggled survivors as they arrived on the opposite shores, tracking their whereabouts as some went to hospitals to be checked, others to hotels, and others back to the airport to resume their flights. In this actual incident of Flight 1549, the airline went on to tow the plane to a pier, load it on a barge, haul it up to be transported to a salvage center,

16 O'Hara C.: Virtual learning gets second wind from Second Life: 3-D worlds and other tools provide new ways to accomplish old goals. Federal Computer Week 2009, no 26(5). Accessed on October 8, 2009, http://fcw.com/ articles/2009/05/04/feature-virtual-learning.aspx.

17 Ibidem.

C. Wankel 146

and extracted 36,000 passenger belongings to be cleaned and returned.18 Certainly, a virtual world simulation of all of this to sensitize airline personnel and management to the kinds of decisions and actions that such a unique event might bring about could be useful. Other obvious virtual world simulations might be for situations with hazardous materials or other expensive or dangerous aspects. Virtual workplaces can be created where students or trainees can be oriented to the values and norms of a particular company. This might provide a modicum of legal protection if it clearly articulated rules which related to appropriate behavior and the consequences of inappropriate behavior. Perhaps, they might be provided with an overview of the activities of a financial service firm. Or, they may be shown the many tasks completed in running a supermarket in Gdańsk. Another area that might be useful for simulation would be student internships where they might be able to try out working in a much greater number and variety of firms.

IBM and other companies have orientations for new hires in virtual worlds.19 Similarly, foreign student offices at universities might prepare students for experiences abroad with some simulated situations based on reports of prior years’ participants. Course instructors might utilize virtual world meetings a few weeks before the course is scheduled to begin to answer questions and provide an overview of the course to enable students who might have different expectations to drop the course and for others to start their preparations and course materials acquisitions earlier.

Beyond academic activities Second Life can be the site of extracurricular ones. For example, St. John’s University in New York hosted the first virtual world debate with the University of Vermont. The moderator was located in Slovenia.

Interviewing Second Life Business People

Millions of dollars of business are completed in Second Life. This writer has developed exercises in the Second Life virtual world for students in management courses to study business models of entrepreneurs there. For example, a student can go into a clothing store and ask to speak to the owner(s) and interview them about their revenue model, marketing approaches, recruitment compensation, production, outsourcing, and other business activities. Then they can be assigned the task of developing their own virtual world business plans.

Organizational Culture

18 James E.H., Wooten L.P.: Leading Teams in Crisis Situations: From Chaos to Extraordinary Performance, special issue “Building High Performance Teams.” Effective Executive Magazine, April 2009. Accessed October 25, 2009 from http://files.e2ma.net/1405/assets/docs/leading_teams_erika_hayes_james.pdf.

19 Frauenheim E.: op.cit.


Second Life has its own sets of norms and etiquette. However, online interaction has its own argot and ways of proceeding. So for example, since one mode of interaction in Second Life is typed chat, terms such as “lol” appear profusely. What is important is that students realize that university classes and activities conducted in whatever medium must maintain the decorum of the university. Certainly, actions with overtly sexual dimensions or language laced with profanity are not acceptable for many reasons. Also, there are the special culture of a business school and the micro-cultures of project teams for instructors to attend to alert students of required comportment. Also how the bouillabaisse of all of these cultural elements comes together is something to be checked by the instructor. Every problem is an opportunity. Students might be assigned to write on all of these various cultures and their recommendations for tweaking them. Academic institutions have expectations for proper attire for students. These vary across different types of events.20 So university sponsored virtual world events should be monitored for the expected conformance of clothing to the standards. In a virtual world avatars might be representations of strange creatures. Some companies might not appreciate the lack of control attendant with people avatars not looking like them. However, I find it is a very positive element that fosters creativity and involvement in class sessions.

Community Building

Virtual worlds provide, to a large extent, masks for participant. That is, everyone can be beautiful, anyone can have an ideal physique, and everyone can have great clothing. Also, issues of race, religion, gender, etc. can dissipate when groups include purple people. In Second Life athletes and geeks can appear the same. That is, social boundaries can be dissolved in helpful ways. This in turn might lower social anxiety.21

Meetings

Meetings in Second Life can be accomplished even when team members are at different campuses or even different countries. This lends it to distance learning applications.

Service Learning

An exciting application of Second Life is virtual service learning. So for example, a university class might develop a facility for students in a poor community to utilize. Central

20 Semuels A.: Real Work Grows in Virtual World; Corporate America is learning to embrace Second Life. Seattle Times 2008, June 2, Accessed October 8, 2009 from http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/ 2004451820_virtualbiz02.html.

21 Jarmon L., Traphagan T., Mayrath M.: Understanding project-based learning in Second Life with a pedagogy, training, and assessment trio. Educational Media International 2008, no 45(3), p. 157-176.

C. Wankel 148

Michigan University students teamed up with the United Nations Organization on a joint online education project in which they were assigned the task of brainstorming ways a not-for-profit organization could raise real money in a virtual world.22 The American Cancer Society raised more than $115,000 in 2007 through a footrace for Second Life avatars. At the University of Texas, Joe Sanchez had a student team create a three-dimensional virtual world environment where the usefulness of mosquito nets was provided as an immersive experience of malaria prevention in Sub-Saharan Africa. The students worked with a not-for-profit called Nothing but Nets.23

Downsides

Since it is possible for people to encounter inappropriate things in Second Life it is prudent for instructors to have warnings about this and offer alternative assignments for students who might become upset about that. This author’s perspective is that real life has inappropriate behavior too and the difference is not so gaping between education places in Second Life and educational places in the real world. It is wise to have students warned in the information on the course outline about assignments in Second Life that they might encounter something inappropriate.24 Alternatively, university islands and other places in Second Life can be restricted to approved university members thus excluding the possibility of outsiders coming and running amok. In contrast to dangerous situations in a real context at a university anything unpleasant might be sidestepped by simply exiting the program or moving to a different venue in the virtual world.

It might be recommended that students maintain one staid virtual world persona for academic and professional activities and a “Mr. Hyde” alter ego avatar for other less decorous doings.25

One downside of Second Life is the seeming large amount of time that students must spend to get acclimated in it.26 An interesting forecast is that by the University of Leicester that students will find learning in Second Life as normal as any face-to-face classes by 2013.27 Reactions of students to the value of Second Life classes and activities to a certain

22 Hansen M.: UNO students learn about communication by using “Second Life”. World-Herald, Omaha, 2008 March 12, Accessed October 8, 2009 from www.acidcre.biz/bbs/ bbs/board.php?bo_table=slnews&wr_id=100 &sfl=&stx=&sst=wr_hit&sod=desc&sop=and&page=5.

23 Sanchez J.: Barriers …, op.cit. 24 Berger M.W.: Manon of Second Life: Teaching in the virtual world. Technology and Culture 2008, no 49(2),

p. 430-441. 25 Semuels A.: op.cit. 26 Sanchez J.: Barriers …, op.cit. 27 Western Daily Press: Students learn in Second Life. Western Daily Press 2008, September 22. Accessed

October 8, 2009 from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/ coms2/summary_0286-35262828_ITM.


extent are a function of the quality of the learning exercises developed for them by the instructor. This corresponds to learning activities in the real world.28

3. Conclusion

Students currently entering business education are digital natives29 with extensive experience in using virtual worlds through gaming etc. New platforms will lessen the divide between physical and virtual reality.

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Acknowledgements

I greatly appreciate the highly professional research assistance of Matthew Marovich and Kevin Heater.


http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2009/09/university_of_t.html

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