<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Leadership plays a vital role in building the process, structures, and climate for an organisation to become innovative and to motivate team expectations toward innovations. This study explores the leadership styles that engineers regard as significant for innovation in the public sector. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to identify the principal leadership styles influencing innovation in the Australian Public Service (APS), using survey data extracted from the 2014 APS employee census comprising 3 125 engineering professionals in Commonwealth of Australia departments. EFA returned a two-factor structure explaining 77.6% of the variance of the leadership for innovation construct. In this study, the results from the EFA provided a clear estimation of the factor structure of the measures for leadership for innovation. From the results, the two factors extracted were transformational leadership and consideration leadership. In transformational leadership, a leader values organisational objectives, inspires subordinates to perform, and motivates followers beyond expected levels of work standards. Consideration leadership refers to the degree to which a leader shows concern and expressions of support for subordinates, takes care of their welfare, treats members as equals, and displays warmth and approachability. These findings highlight the role of leadership as the most critical predictor when considering the degree to which subordinates strive for creativity and innovation. Both transformational and consideration leadership styles are recommended to be incorporated into management training and development programs. This study also recommends that Commonwealth departments recruit supervisors who have both of these leadership styles before implementing innovative projects.</abstract>

Exploring leadership styles for innovation: an exploratory factor analysis

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The main purpose of this work is to identify the factors that influence the process of technology management in the sector of small- and medium-sized enterprises of the metal processing industry, considering the shape and course required to achieve modern operation conditions by enterprises in the market.The research process used the case study method, which was preceded by study visits to manufacturing enterprises, direct interviews with representatives of the management and employees of enterprises, and observations of the processing conditions.The result of the research was the identification of technologies available and used in the analysed enterprises. It defines the process of technology management as well as the internal and external factors influencing this process and defines the timeline for the process of technology management.The obtained results are the effect of the preliminary research, whose outcome will result in the development of issues related to technology management. They will be used to create a model of technology management, the assumptions of which will respond to modern needs and possibilities of manufacturing enterprises of the metal processing industry. The model can be used for practical application aimed at the provision of enterprises with innovation and competitiveness in the domestic and foreign markets.</abstract>

Process of technology management in SMEs of the metal processing industry – the case study investigation

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The main purpose of the paper is to present the relations between the different cost factors of the inventory management systems, and the context between the order quantities and the cost level. The theoretical approach of the model assumes a deterministic operational environment with planned shortages. We make the examination of the contexts by applying the ceteris paribus principle; we change only one cost factor from among the initial conditions at once and examine its effect on the cost level.By using the economic order quantity with the planned shortage model, we can define the optimal order quantity, along which our stock management can be guaranteed by the most favourable cost level. The optimisation of the inventory level and the inventory management expenses together means an important factor in the competitiveness of the company. During the definition of the optimal inventory level of purchased parts, the purchasing and stock holding costs, and also the consequence of shortages play an important role. The presentation of the specific expense factors in each other’s function, and the representation of the onetime order expenses show their proportion compared to each other and the effect of their change on the total cost, and define the opportunities of the optimisation. The significance of the model is that it represents the level line of costs, the movement of the different cost factors in relation to others and their operating mechanism. Thus, it facilitates the representation of costs and the definition of the direction of optimisation.</abstract>

József Hatvany Doctoral School for Information Science

Context of the inventory management expenses in the case of planned shortages

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The aim of the study is a critical analysis of literature concerning the evaluation of courier service quality and verification if client expectations towards courier service quality change in time considering the perspective of future 5–10 years. Research methods include the theoretical analysis of scientific literature, CAWI survey and statistical analysis of obtained data.The literature overview has shown the lack of clearly defined evaluation constructs of courier service quality together with the criteria and weight, one universal commonly used measuring scale for evaluation of the service quality, diversification of methods and measurement tools for the various groups of stakeholders of courier service. Moreover, it can be concluded that the research concerning the courier service quality has not considered the problem of aging of quality indicators. Research results by the author have proved that the expectations of clients using courier service change in time, some of them are exposed to the aging process (price) while others become more important (for example tele-technologies, modern packaging, and technical facilities). Moreover, the survey results have shown that the customer opinions can be the source of interesting and innovative ideas for the development of courier service in future.The analysis of domestic and foreign literature allowed presenting the academia with an output concerning the evaluation of quality in the field of courier service. As a result, the theoretical and methodological gaps were revealed to expose potential fields for further research. The research results concerning different methods of service quality evaluation can be useful mainly for managers in courier enterprises. Moreover, the knowledge about changing expectations of clients allows adjusting courier proposals to customer needs to gain a competitive advantage in the global market.</abstract>

Courier service quality from the clients’ perspective

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Uncertainty is one of the most important features of many areas of social and economic life, especially in the forward-looking context. On the one hand, the degree of uncertainty is associated with the objective essence of randomness of the phenomenon, and on the other, with the subjective perspective of a man. Future-oriented perception of human activities is laden with an incomplete specificity of the analysed phenomena, their volatility, and lack of continuity. A man is unable to determine, with complete certainty, the further course of these phenomena. According to the author of this article, in order to significantly reduce the uncertainty while making strategic decisions in a complex environment, we should focus our actions on the future through systemic research of foresight. This article attempts to answer the following research questions: 1) What is the relationship between foresight studies in the system perspective to studies of the uncertainty? 2) What classes of foresight methods enable the research of uncertainty in the process of system inquiry of the future? This study conducted deductive reasoning based on the results of the analysis methods and criticism of literature.</abstract>

Concept of uncertainty in relation to the foresight research

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The purpose of this article is to analyse and present some techniques that support the design of a value proposition in the context of the outcome-economy. The proposed techniques are intended to support traditional companies in the design of innovative solutions. Also, the discussed techniques were compared to identify the most effective. The study was conducted based on the information available in the literature on the impact of the Industrial Internet of Things on the economy and creation of a value proposition.</abstract>

Techniques for designing value propositions applicable to the concept of outcome-economy

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">The authors aim to provide a set of tools to facilitate the main stages of the competitive bidding process for construction contractors. These involve 1) deciding whether to bid, 2) calculating the total price, and 3) breaking down the total price into the items of the bill of quantities or the schedule of payments to optimise contractor cash flows. To define factors that affect the decision to bid, the authors rely upon literature on the subject and put forward that multi-criteria methods are applied to calculate a single measure of contract attractiveness (utility value). An attractive contract implies that the contractor is likely to offer a lower price to increase chances of winning the competition. The total bid price is thus to be interpolated between the lowest acceptable and the highest justifiable price based on the contract attractiveness. With the total bid price established, the next step is to split it between the items of the schedule of payments. A linear programming model is proposed for this purpose. The application of the models is illustrated with a numerical example.The model produces an economically justified bid price together with its breakdown, maintaining the logical proportion between unit prices of particular items of the schedule of payment. Contrary to most methods presented in the literature, the method does not focus on the trade-off between probability of winning and the price but is solely devoted to defining the most reasonable price under project-specific circumstances.The approach proposed in the paper promotes a systematic approach to real-life bidding problems. It integrates practices observed in operation of construction enterprises and uses directly available input. It may facilitate establishing the contractor’s in-house procedures and managerial decision support systems for the pricing process.</abstract>

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Department of Construction Methods and Management

Faculty of Civil Engineering and Architecture, Dpt. of Construction Methods and Management

Modelling contractor’s bidding decision

<abstract xmlns="http://www.w3.org/1999/xhtml">Quality is currently a key element in the process of the rivalry where the customer is at stake. Contemporary enterprises undertake several actions aimed at its creation and more effective quality management. This is as well required by the market with enterprises of various character that frequently demand specific solutions. The scientific environment eagerly develops this concept in response to such a prevailing need.The issue of quality management, despite its long history, remains a dynamically developing research discipline and a scientific consideration. Subsequently, this is a very extensive field which encompasses many issues. Thus, this work mainly focuses on identifying research threads undertaken within quality management in selected periodicals. The article describes the undertaken overview and indicates research threads entailed within the analysed subject matter. Moreover, the resultant list of threads was presented in the form of a knowledge map reflecting their coexistence in specific articles. The methods used while preparing this article constitute an overview of the literature and a network analysis.The research threads highlighted in the paper indicate, which topics are of interest among researchers in terms of issues related to quality management, while their presentation in the form of a network enables fast and unambiguous access to knowledge within this area. The results of analyses described in the publication may attract the interest of mainly those who scientifically deal with the development of the concept of quality management, as well as enterprises that would wish to get acquainted with current trends in this field.</abstract>

Research issues undertaken within quality management – the overview of selected literature

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