Faculty of Business and Management

As populations age, extending the working life appears to be widely accepted and promoted by governments (OECD 2006; 2017). Without exception, all countries with modern economies have responded in one way or another to the financial challenges arising from increased life expectancy and ageing populations. Policies to extend working life are ubiquitous, each based on the premise that unsustainable pension systems must be reformed, and public spending reduced. Although there are diverse perspectives on extended working life, gender and health consistently prevail as key dimensions. To date, policies extending working life have not taken sufficiently into account these two dimensions. A clear example in the case of gender concerns the shift towards equality in retirement ages between men and women. In this presentation, we set the stage by presenting the empirical and policy landscapes across 34 countries that characterise the trend of extended working life from gender and health persp...

The purpose of this study was to examine the structure of national identity among young adolescents of Bulgarian and Czech origin. University students (N=161) completed the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure-Revised (MEIM-R) (Phinney & Ong, 2007), four measures of psychological well-being and a measure of salience of ethnicity. Factor analyses of data for the two national groups yielded a two-factor structure that corresponded to two theoretical approaches to ethnic identity, as hypothesised. Similar patterns in magnitude of loadings were observed across groups, indicating that the MEIM-R could be used as a global composite index of national identity. National identity was related positively to measures of psychological well-being such as mastery, self-esteem and optimism, and negatively to measure of loneliness. MEIM-R scores were also moderately correlated with salience (the importance of a person’s own national background in his or her life), across national groups.

The study aims to determine whether the criteria for measuring the satisfaction of students with the quality of universities are identical in the following five selected countries of Central Europe – Czech Republic, Germany, Poland, Austria, and Slovakia. A focus group technique was carried out at the first stage to identify possible factors (criteria) for measuring the quality of the services offered by university as perceived by students. Next, a questionnaire was designed to determine the key factors and their relevance for measuring the satisfaction of students. The result of the analysis of variance implies that the set of criteria is perceived in much the same manner in the countries in question. It is, therefore, possible to unify the application of the set of criteria in the countries to measure student satisfaction with the quality of universities. Further research after this study will focus on creating a methodology for measuring student satisfaction with the quality of u...

This paper deals with historical and contemporary aspects of engineering education in Russia. The authors assess cooperation among Russian universities and industrial enterprises, using the aerospace industry as an example. They present the results of close cooperation between leading Russian aerospace companies during the national economic crisis of the past few years. Examples of positive results from international cooperation within the framework of the Russian–British International Aerospace School are analysed from the point of view of current and future international aerospace projects.

Majority of developed countries exhibit changing transition towards older population structure. This explains why nowadays, the so–called active ageing – a policy focus to help people remain in charge of their own lives as they age and to promote their continuing contribution to the economy and society – is so frequently discussed. In the context of active ageing, active work participation of elderly is one of the prospective policy objectives, along with the identification of the motives of elderly to stay on the job market. Existing literature indicates that a large number of factors influence this decision, including income and living conditions, whether the person lives alone or not, health condition, social contacts, place of residence, but also varied interventions based on local or national government policies. Empirical results however remain scarce. This article provides insights into what influences the decision of the elderly to remain on the job market in the Czech Repub...

This article deals with employee engagement in SMEs when the employee’s years of service are taken into consideration. The aim of the paper is to show if seniority influences engagement and if there are further factors that have major impact on employee engagement. To fulfill the aim quantitative methodology was applied. It is based on the analysis of data that derives from an engagement survey that was conducted in 2017 with 70 SMEs globally that belong to the mechanical engineering industry. The sample consists of 5,078 employees that participated in the engagement survey. The survey was standardized based on the engagement model from Aon Hewitt and consisted of 74 questions. The organizational structure of the different legal entities is similar due to the common industry and types of employees who are mainly Service and Sales representatives. This also leads to a similar HR strategy and allows to compare the results. The data from the engagement survey was analyzed with IBM SPSS...

We estimate the influence of various factors on life satisfaction of Czech seniors in a large survey sample. We find that good health, more education and awareness of voluntary work participation, employee satisfaction and being currently employed are the main factors that contribute to being satisfied with the current quality of life in the group of Czech seniors. Surprisingly enough, increasing selfreported financial sufficiency is negatively associated with the quality of life. The main factors contributing to the life dissatisfaction are associated with being socially separated. The worst outcomes are recorded for those living in social homes and living alone. Any reported expectations of expected life changes (both positive and negative expectations) are associated with lower probability of life satisfaction.

Foreign-owned firms enter foreign markets for traditional reasons (market acquisition, securing resources, and diversification), but lately they have also been seeking better economies of scale and a more rational allocation of expenditures, via shifting processes and activities to lower-cost countries. The aim of this paper is to analyse the major foreign direct investments (FDI) and impacts on Human Resource Management through seven case studies in Austria, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia. Multinational Corporations are considered the driving force behind the internationalization of business. The shift from a domestic to a global business perspective also has a profound impact on corporate human resources management activities. The analysis confirms the general viewpoint in literature that HR work in subsidiaries of MNCs has shifted from an administrative role to a strategic contributor role. The strategic impact is especially big when it comes to fields which need to be “cul...