Author: Paul Marinescu

Management dilemmas in the XXI century

Personal actions don’t always lead to the goals that we wanted to reach. The restrictions of a budge are lowering the posibilities of achiving organisational performances. The most important quality of a manager is to orientate through a complex system of restrictions, finding the liberty to be open-minded. The performance is mostly influenced by the skills of the employees. This is why any manager should be very atentive to any factors that influence the evolution of the eployees and their personal needs. Ethical norms and principles influence the actions and desicions of the managers. Relationships and moral issues which appear within organizations between managers and all categories of stakeholders can affect the economical performances and social performances of the company. The dilemmas of the manager are highlited by the way he solves the problems consistent with the responsabilities to the shareholders, employees, customers and comunity. Artificial intelligence and the risks that people take in using it are another dilemma of current management. In a world where resources are dwindling, conflicts may arise over their division. Here we can talk about a dilemma of negotiation capacity. Cultural differences and the tendency of global decision makers to standardize everything is another dilemma. And last but not least, the dilemma is an argument which is consisting in presenting two inevitable alternatives, having the same result anyway.

Companies and future challenges
The new wave of companies proving themselves on the innovative goods market will mark a new era: the era of creativity. The fight for supremacy will not be held, firstly, on the efficiency level, but at the innovationnlevel and the ability to satisfy the needs of consumers. It is ovvious that companies are living if they are effiecient and peformant. Beyond traditional needs, there is a fundamental need for human beings: on the contrary, maybe just a fee weeks or months. Novelty is becoming the catalyst of the global economy. Originality leads towards an evolutional process that can mean optimized versions of the same product. In fact, there is a shift from mass production towards an individualized production, a personalized one. Creativity is a non-linear product that imposes a new learning curve. Thus, a strong pressure will be put on the depreciation of existing production line and that is why defining a culture based on creativity an innovation will impose a new value chain and a new way of thinking connected to production flows. In the future we can talk about a diffetent management of creativity and innovagion that is beyond technical elements. In fact, future companies must define a new type of organizational culture in which some essential ingredients for cosistency and the components of the reward management system.

Introduction. The essential information relating to the work that the authorities regulating competition carries out in an economic sector, particularly when talking about the protection of economic actors against anti-competitive behaviours and making sure that they, as well as the consumers can benefit from a fully open internal market facilitate the collaboration of national competition authorities that become vectors of market development policies. In the context of a market-oriented policy, it is very important to strengthen the position of manufacturers in the product supply chain. We must highlight how legislation in the analysed field and in competition law is compatible with a view to achieving fairer and more efficient results for both producers and consumers. The superior satisfaction of consumers’ interests aims to develop a market for products or services that offer facilities to both manufacturers and consumers. The approach in terms of competitive cooperation specific to the theory of games, emphasizes the benefits of companies that are actively involved in influencing the market, in creating an environment where the end result contributes to increasing profitability of the economic operators and in achieving certain benefits for consumers.

Aim of the study. The paper briefly presents several theoretical aspects specific to the concept of competitive cooperation accompanied by relevant examples.
Keywords: cooperation, competition, business development, added value.

Introduction. The twenty-first-century business world requires a new leadership paradigm based on elements such as vision, extra effort, commitment and pro-action. Consequently, the leaders should be not only visionary and positive, but also charismatic and transformational. The theorization of charismatic leadership has become a challenging subject in the literature in the last decades.

Aim of the study. The goals of the paper are to define the concept of charismatic leadership and to exemplify it in the case of Jack Ma, a famous Chinese entrepreneur. The methodology was based on a quantitative research method and a case study. The paper underlines the existence of a strong relationship between the charismatic leader and his followers. Also, it identifies some of the key characteristics of a charismatic leader by analysing the case of Jack Ma.
Keywords: charismatic leadership, leader, Jack Ma, Alibaba
JEL Classification: M1, M19

Manager or leader
Risk, avoiding it or looking for it
Employee’s motivation is the main subject, which makes the difference between a leader and a manger. Starting from here, we find out, that we are dealing with different ways of action. It is obvious that there are people that can have both leadership and managerial skills. We cannot simplify the classification of people in the two categories because in reality, an individual can have different behaviors determined by his own perception. For a manager we talk about different styles: authoritarian, transactional, focused on professional work, the need for safety. For leaders, there are also characteristic styles: charismatic, transformative, focused on people, risk exploration.

Introduction. Volunteering is one of the ways to optimize social cohesion, sustainable integration into the labor market, through the creation of the necessary framework for acquiring specific skills and competencies. It will prepare the citizens to face and adapt smoothly to the dynamic changes from the socio-economic environment. The European Union sustain the volunteers by promoting cross-border volunteering and their mobility, in order to develop a European identity, intercultural learning and creativity, by using efficient and effective the limited resources.

Aim of the study. The aim of the paper is to briefly analyze the ways in which volunteering, education and innovation contribute to achieve the European Union objective related to the employment rate. The authors achieved the objective of the paper by using a quantitative method. In the last decades, in Europe, the demand for highly skilled jobs has increased, also directly proportional the employment rate for the people with a high degree of education, endowed with the necessary abilities and competencies for the knowledge society. The paper highlights that volunteering represents an opportunity to gain new competencies and skills, by enabling the transformation of this knowledge into economic and social innovation which leads to productivity and creation of highly qualified jobs.
Keywords: volunteering, employment rate, innovation, education
JEL Classification: O35, A13, J21

Introduction. The global economic crisis changed the competition game in any marketplace. Faced with increasing competition, declining margins or decreasing demand due to crisis, the firms are looking for new ways to compete at global level. Considering Peter Drucker’s argument that the reason the firms exist is to satisfy the customer, they are trying to differentiate themselves by moving their focus from simple stand-alone products and/or services and instead developing customer solutions. They are defined in the extant literature as a combination of goods and services designed to satisfy a customer’s business needs and therefore they are difficult to imitate and thus they have the potential to be used as a source of sustainable competitive advantage. Much more, firms are facing a demand change from their customers as a response to address new business requirements imposed by the economic crisis. But the shift towards developing, selling and implementing customer solutions is not an easy journey. The firms have to transform many aspects of their business. The question that arises is what are the major challenges firms are facing in creating effective customer solutions to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and how they could address these challenges.

Aim of the study. The firms have to transform many aspects of their business. The question that arises is what are the major challenges firms are facing in creating effective customer solutions to achieve sustainable competitive advantage and how they could address these challenges.
Keywords: customer solutions, competitive advantage, value co-creation
JEL Classification: L10, D40, M10

Strategic management between ideal and reality
When it comes about formulating the organisation vision, mission, goals and strategic objectives or the roles and responsibilities of the management team, we must bear in mind that a thorough analysis of the organisational contexts, of its internal and external environment, as well as of its existing or potential resources is necessary, this involving the identification and use of specific methods and techniques. Too often, managers ignore the huge difference between fiction and reality. We must always relate our decisions to the characteristics of reality and to the sometimes surprising circumstances that the economic environment might generate.