Business and Society

The world has been changing drastically since the beginning of the twenty-first century. Globalization, technological progress, socio-economic, and environmental changes have been reshaping the social, economic and political contexts of national and regional economies within which new business models have been emerging. The emerging business-related issues create new managerial and leadership challenges, which require developing new knowledge, skills and attitudes, and the corporate world is now seeking new strategic responses to address all of these changes.

Today’s business environment is changing at an ever-increasing pace. This creates an atmosphere of volatility, uncertainty, complexity and ambiguity that businesses are struggling against in their effort to survive and grow. Like many companies in the world, those in Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) and South Africa face a lot of challenges of the same nature in this dynamic environment; a few of them, however, are unique to their country’s particular situation. Challenges include political and economic uncertainty, increasing competition due to globalization, changing workforce dynamics, and changing customer wants and needs. In order to address these challenges, companies are recognizing that they have certain developmental needs and the necessity to determine how to meet these needs in the most efficient and effective way possible. One of the most complex developmental needs that companies anticipate is the need to change their culture and mindset. Companies have to be more flexible, agile, and willing to think more strategically. Companies also recognize that they have to develop their workforce and include more education for competencies in entrepreneurship, customer service, soft skills (e.g. communication, negotiation), and leadership.

Croatia is the youngest member of the European Union, having joined in 2013. Since 2008, it has experienced a significant slowdown in the economy due to the worldwide crisis, seen a high unemployment rate, high public sector debt, uneven regional development and a challenging investment climate. The higher educational system in Croatia, although structured on the foundations of European higher education tradition, has also undergone an intense transformation process mostly initiated by the increased demand for tertiary education, as well as the introduction of the protocol of the Bologna Agreement. Our study on management and leadership development needs in Croatia was based on 18 in-depth interviews with senior and executive managers from 10 companies in Croatia using the grounded theory approach. The results imply that older companies struggle with the generation gap and changing corporate culture, while younger companies like startups face problems with employing workers from countries outside of the EU. Both of them concluded that the current educational system fails to provide graduates with the set of skills the Croatian industry needs. Therefore, the development needs of managers are most often met through in-house development programs and coaching. Although companies realize the need for constant work on developing skills, they are not willing to invest in continuing education and development programs. Suggested recommendations are directed toward the academic and business community as well as the government by changing the relation paradigm between educational institutions and companies, suggesting an open and innovative business model of co-creating learning communities.

Management and leadership development priorities in Estonia are driven by the need to increase productivity and international competitiveness.

This chapter gives insights into the management and leadership development priorities and the business challenges faced by Estonian organizations. The changing demographic situation and understanding priorities of the new generations entering the labor market have been identified as the main challenge for human resource management in the majority of organizations included in the research on management and leadership development needs.

People skills, communication and IT have been high-priority development areas in recent years. More than 50% of organizations have offered some development for their staff in these areas. Strategy, leadership, marketing and sales are also popular development areas.

In order to move from the role of subcontractors to developers of innovative products for export, Estonian companies, universities and state agencies have to cooperate in developing management and leadership education that will support creativity, innovation and change towards more knowledge-intensive business initiatives.

Based on our exploratory study with senior executive managers and human resource managers from companies, our research has identified the following trends in business organizations in Hungary: efficiency pressure due to the harsh economic conditions; increasing political influence and centralization; strong global trends in consumer-consciousness through internationally connected social networks (e.g. sustainability, ethical issues, social responsibility etc.). These trends, together with generational differences in organizations, press for changes in organizations such as increasing consumer focus and employee orientation and introducing more purposeful, flexible, organic structures with supportive and coaching-style leadership; and better quality of work and work-life balance. In this chapter, we give some recommendations for management education in companies and to higher education institutions about how to tackle these challenges constructively.

This chapter presents the results of research conducted in Latvia in the framework of the CEEMAN exploratory study about management and leadership development needs in dynamic societies. To set the context, it provides a brief overview of the main features and trends of the Latvian economy and describes the main features of Latvia’s management education. As part of the empirical research, we conducted 21 qualitative interviews at 11 companies with executive-level managers—chief executive officers and human resource managers—and ran an online questionnaire among human resource professionals representing a variety of sectors: banking, retail, construction, IT services, transport, and food manufacturing. The research findings are based on an analysis of the qualitative and quantitative data. The chapter presents the main challenges Latvian companies are facing, describes how they are addressing these challenges, looks into management development patterns, discusses the missing links between the corporate world and educational institutions, and offers recommendations for management education providers. The research in Latvia, as opposed to the research in other countries participating in the project, addressed an additional issue and investigated the skills companies require from job applicants. These findings are also presented in this chapter.

The emerging business issues underscored by technological advancement, economic and political crises, the increasingly tangible effects of climate change, mass immigration, income inequality and resource depletion create new managerial and leadership challenges. In order to respond to these challenges with appropriate management and leadership development and relevant educational offerings, management education institutions in Lithuania have to comprehensively recognize specific business challenges and understand what the consequent management and leadership development needs are. With this in mind, the authors of this study followed a three-step approach for data collection. First, Lithuanian country data was collected through the World Bank database. Secondly, interviews with decision makers from businesses were conducted (34 in-depth interviews were performed in total). Finally, online questionnaires were filled out by 16 companies in Lithuania. The analysis of the interview data followed the grounded theory approach by Glaser. Research results revealed that there is a gap between Lithuanian management education and market needs. Since educational institutions and businesses have different business models, investments need to be made to converge the two positions before the mutual benefits can be reaped.

In this study, we have interviewed 18 CEOs and human resource managers from 10 companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange as well as conducted a survey with 82 companies. We found that the major challenges said actors face are connected to the changing politics, economy, technology and demography. On the other hand, companies also struggle with the lack of certain employee competences, in particular soft skills. Company solutions include development and educational programs, but they also expect increased cooperation with educational providers, especially business schools. The companies’ development needs are sophisticated and subtle, meaning that the ‘one-size-fits-all’ development model is no longer suitable. Companies are looking for specific, tailor-made content to suit their and their employees’ needs. The flexibility of educational programs also determines whether employers will consider them for their companies.

Instead of periodic development programs for everyone imposed by the human resource department, companies opt for programs when faced with a particular challenge. In the majority of cases, the initiative to participate in management development comes from the department or individuals. Moreover, companies currently prefer short-term programs over the complex courses offered by universities. It has also been emphasized that as of now, there are missing links between educational institutions and business entities, as the former are seen as being detached from market needs and lacking a more practical approach in their teachings.

Within the following study, we provide recommendations for management development and education providers as an answer to the current challenges companies face. The study concludes that in order to remain competitive, educational institutions need to observe the markets demands and adjust their offer accordingly.

This chapter gives insights into the current and future management and leadership development needs in companies operating in two Russian regions (the Moscow region and the Ural region). It also explains the missing links between the corporate world and management education institutions.

The research uncovered a declining interest of companies in long-term MBA-level programs on one side and a fairly high interest in short-term programs which allow participants to quickly apply the acquired knowledge and skills into practice on the other.

The emergence and development of corporate universities have changed the competitive conditions for traditional management education institutions. As a result, the latter should search for ways of working together with corporate universities.

This study identified a number of important aspects that traditional management education institutions should take into consideration. In particular, they should consider using new innovative learning and teaching methods and engaging practitioners to be part of the learning and teaching process.

There is a need for preparing lecturers and professors in multidisciplinary fields, despite the barriers that exist for this kind of approach at traditional universities. It seems that this demand can be met only by introducing new forms of cooperation between research and teaching subdivisions at the university level as well as collaboration between universities (including their constituent management education institutions) and companies.

In recent years, the importance of change and innovation has emerged in every industry and sector. This has triggered the need for a wide range of new knowledge, skills and competences. The exploration, identification and assessment of management and leadership needs, actions and gaps contributed to the main framework of this research. Research done in Slovakia indicated that businesses face huge challenges related to macroeconomic uncertainty. In order to maintain a competitive advantage, companies inevitably need to invest in innovation and people. Companies also need to find new ways of identifying potential employees, leading and motivating people and to establish new types of relationships between employees and employers. In order to address business challenges, an Innovative Network Centered Approach should be implemented. Also, collaboration between businesses and educational institutions is inevitable for developing a diverse and skilled labor force.

Higher education in Slovenia has a fundamental role in the developmental ambitions of the country in terms of empowering social and cultural wellbeing, and by supporting the Slovene economy in raising its growth potential. This chapter gives insights into the perceptions of the representatives of the Slovene economy regarding the relevance of higher education in Slovenia. It reveals the current and future management and leadership development needs concerning knowledge, skills and attitudes that should be taken into consideration while designing higher education offerings in the near future. The results of the qualitative analysis have implications for all higher education institutions in Slovenia, not only the ones focused on management education, in terms of strengthening collaboration between the business sector and higher education institutions in Slovenia. One of the major conclusions of this exploratory study is the importance of systematically monitoring the needs of higher education stakeholders as well as dynamics on the labor market with regards to employability and employment.

The volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous conditions in the business environment bring about challenges when it comes to managing organizations, as managers have to find new ways of maintaining profitability despite said conditions. Management schools can play a significant role of providing relevant educational content to deal with the challenges that organizations are facing. Therefore, this study investigated the current and future management challenges and developmental needs in South Africa. A small-scale empirical research using interviews with 13 executives was conducted to get an in-depth understanding of the challenges and developmental needs. The findings showed that the main challenges for organizations are developing agility, building internal capabilities, improving innovation and remaining profitable by focusing on the basics of business. In order to achieve that, companies need to develop soft skills, strategic foresight and acquire a transdisciplinary approach to management. Regarding the future, organizations will be faced with uncertainty, digitalization, innovation, a globalized workforce and demand for specialized skills. This study makes recommendations to both business schools and businesses.

This chapter summarizes the research findings with regard to the current business challenges, developmental needs, and missing links between the corporate world and management education in countries (Croatia, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Slovenia, South Africa and Ukraine) that are included in this book. Finally, the authors offer several recommendations to educational institutions and businesses on how to address these challenges.