Valickas, Andrius

In the post-modern era, it is more meaningful to identify individuals' careers in terms of the achievements relating to their work experiences - knowledge, skills, competences - rather than in terms of job titles or career progression. The most important guarantee of career security is employability, the enhancement of career potential - development of career capital and personal career management resources needed in the complex environment. Work tasks, roles, formal and informal training, and relationships with co-workers in organisations serve as career experiences in which the knowledge and skills acquired in the course of these experiences are used in current and future jobs. Dynamic learning is therefore a key process in the career potential development of employees. In the rapidly changing business environment, companies are increasingly confronted with completely new situations and problems where old solutions are not suitable and the situation has to be solved in the here and now, without having time to gather all the necessary information, or with insufficient information. Learning and acting in today's complex context must be agile and integrated. It is therefore believed that a dynamic employee learning process, appropriately designed by the organisation, can meet the need for employee career development on the one hand and organisational adaptability on the other. The aim of the study was to evaluate the relationship between dynamic learning for career and employability in the population of employees working in high-tech companies. The findings of the study confirmed the existence of a positive relationship between a dynamic career learning process and employability.

Complex social environments change traditional human resource management policies and practices, affecting customary interactions between organizations and employees. The aim of this article is to propose a model for an organizational career development system based on the principles of complex adaptive systems (CAS) grounded in an analysis of the issues and challenges arising for individuals and organizations in complex environments. This model can then be applied in businesses and public sector organizations. The methods of scientific literature analysis, synthesis and theoretical modeling are used in this article. Currently, it is more reasonable to understand careers and their management not purely from the organizational and structural perspectives, but as dynamic processes where employees expand their career potential in the form of knowledge, skills and behaviors through various learning experiences provided by the organization, and organizations use these intangible assets as adaptive and creative potential in a complex environment. Individuals can no longer rely on traditional principles of career development based on rationality and planning that used to work in stable environments. For individuals, it is necessary to engage in a continuous meaning-making process by enhancing working experiences and strengthening career potential, which primarily involves investing in personal career capital through learning activities. Intellectual, creative, and adaptive resources accumulated in the careers of individuals compose an important part of the human capital of organizations. This then becomes the essential source of competitive advantage, especially in knowledge-based spheres. As a result, the career development models of organizations change from traditional, stable, universal and hierarchical to dynamic, flexible, individualized processes that increase the career potential of employees and provide organic structures which satisfy the diversity of individual and organizational career needs.

According to contemporary career conception career initiative undoubtedly belongs to the individual employee, not to the organization, in case of civil service to - civil servant. Civil service as supporting system, following the best human resource management practices, via its human resources management and career development sub-systems, must also actively participate in the employees’ career development processes. This can only be achieved though help in career planning and coordination of work assignments and learning experiences in the service with the career plans of civil servants, providing real possibilities of development not only in the areas, which are relevant for the civil service system, but also in the areas, which are important for individual civil servant’s career visions and plan. The aim of the empirical research was to explore the relationship between learning and career development attitudes and practices in the Lithuanian civil service. The survey of the Lithuanian civil servants of various ranks was carried out. Analysing the results of the research it was established that learning system was considered more functional at the national than municipal level and among higher ranked civil servants in comparison to lower ranked public servants. The essential shortcomings of public service learning system were related to unequal and sometimes unjust distribution of learning opportunities which could result in worse opportunities implementing individual career plans and lower career satisfaction.

Traditional public governance is based on rationality, clear causal links, and the assumption of stability of social systems. However, contemporary public governance systems have different levels of operation, they adapt, can organise themselves, have different levels of sensitivity, evolve and change unpredictably according to their internal logic of operation or under the influence of other external systems. Thus, traditional models of public governance become insufficient to explain and address the challenges that arise in this context. The provisions of complexity theory and methodology become especially important for understanding the contexts and processes of modern society, applying governance methodologies and increasing their efficiency, implementing systemic changes, and forming prediction models. While it may not be possible to provide concrete technical solutions that are useful in the short term, this theory can offer certain models and principles to better meet the challenges ahead. This article aims to define the essential features of complexity theory and to discuss the possibilities of its application in the context of public governance. The methods of scientific literature analysis, synthesis, historic analysis, and document analysis are used in this paper. The possibilities of applying complexity theory differ depending on the stage of development of public governance and its methodological assumptions. In the context of complexity theory, when shaping public governance change strategies for effective solutions, it becomes important to understand the limitations of idealised future perspectives and to assess the current functioning of systems and forces acting on them, identifying natural system development trends due to the influence of self-organisation forces.

Innovation in the public sector is inseparable from the political, administrative and technological components and stages of public administration systems development. Purpose of the article is to analyse and define the emerging concept of collaborative innovation in the public sector and indicate the major challenges relating to their generation and implementation. Benchmarking, generalisation and synthesis will be used as the methods in order to achieve the purpose of the article. Contemporary challenges of public governance lead to the change of the concept and operational principles of public sector organisations and encourage the need for innovation. The traditional, hierarchical innovation development conception is changed by collaborative innovation, which is characterised by networking, promotion of creativity and unification of resources. Significant principles for effective collaborative innovation become inter-organisational trust, knowledge sharing, informal leadership, ensuring the necessary resources and conditions for experimentation. Application of collaborative innovations requires adaptation to the changing positions of power and transformation of traditional roles of public sector employees.

In the world marked by continuous changes and complexity, chance events play an important role in everyone’s career. The construct of planned happenstance refers to the set of competencies allowing to deal effectively with random events in career development process. These skills enable individuals to recognize, create and use unplanned events as their career opportunities. The planned happenstance skills are particularly important to students since apart from developing their professional qualifications, they should also seek to acquire the strengths which facilitate a successful adaptation to the professional environments, and even more, to prepare for their career management in the rapidly changing world. The purpose of the present study was to examine whether planned happenstance skills affect the subjective well-being and academic adjustment of Lithuanian students. The study was conducted using the quantitative method - questionnaire survey. The data analysis indicated that planned happenstance skills are positively related to students’ subjective well-being and academic adjustment. Analysis of the research data demonstrated that higher level planned happenstance skills are associated to a higher perceived academic achievement. Planned happenstance skills were also found to be positively correlated to the students’ autonomy, environmental mastery, personal growth, purpose in life and self-acceptance.

Transition from the academic setting to the turbulent labour market requires more personal resources than ever before. In order to successfully enter and perform in professional life one must be ready to respond adequately to conditions of uncertainty and complexity. The concept of planned happenstance skills presents a set of competencies to deal e ectively with unplanned events generated by chaotic environment. These career-related resources are extremely important for students pursuing successful adaption to professional environments and seeking to prepare for personal career management. The present article aims to analyze the role of planned happenstance skills when predicting psychological wellbeing and academic adjustment. Lithuania was chosen as a case study since there is a high percentage of people with higher education. The study was conducted using the quantitative method of questionnaire survey. Data of the survey were analyzed using correlation and multiple regression analyses. It was found that planned happenstance skills had a significant positive relationship with study variables and were a significant predictor of academic achievement and psychological wellbeing.

Straipsnyje analizuojami asmens ir jo darbinės aplinkos atitikimo koncepto dimensijų – asmens – darbo, asmens – organizacijos ir asmens – profesijos – atitikimo tarpusavio sąsajos ir ryšiai su organizacijos veiklos veiksmingumui ir efektyvumui aktualiais veiksniais, t. y. darbuotojų pasitenkinimu darbu ir ketinimu iš jo išeiti. Vienoje Lietuvos draudimo įmonių atliktas kiekybinis tyrimas, pasitelkiant anketinę apklausą, atskleidžia teigiamą ryšį tarp visų asmens – aplinkos atitikimo dimensijų, taip pat patvirtinti statistiškai reikšmingi atitikimo dimensijų ryšiai su darbuotojų nuostatomis. Tyrime identifikuota prognostinė kai kurių atitikimo dimensijų galia, be to, paaiškėjo, kad kai kurie ryšiai tarp kintamųjų yra sudėtingesni nei rodo ankstesnių tyrimų duomenys.

Teacher competency is one of the main concern of the Lithuanian educational system. Exemplary teachers customize their work agendas, either eliminating unnecessary steps or entire processes or adding undocumented steps to their work processes. They seek out the data and documentation they need from sources that might not be known to others in their institutions. Lithuania has officially defined the competencies necessary for the teachers of general education schools. However systematic teachers’ competence models do not exist and assessment of the teachers’ competencies is not performed on the basis of such models. The purpose of this research was – evaluation of level of teachers’ generic and didactic competencies, their developmental needs and circumstances (context) of their development from the perspective of the school administration. Quantitative methodology – representative survey of the school administrators was carried out. 615 school directors and deputy directors representing the Lithuanian general education schools participated in the survey. The main findings of the research indicated that teacher competencies development mechanisms are operating autonomously and in isolation from the general educational strategy of the country and its strategic priorities. The need for development of teachers’ generic and didactic competencies is usually formulated not taking into consideration the preestablished competency frameworks but on the basis of available market supply of teacher training.

Competent teacher is one of the most important factors contributing to the quality of education especially in the context of constant changes in the educational environment and the teacher’s role. According to the contemporary practice applied in many institutions, human resources are managed on the basis of competencies’ models. School is not an exception. Lithuania has officially defined the competencies necessary for the teachers of general education schools. However systematic models don’t exist and assessment of the teachers’ competencies on the grounds of such models is not performed. Therefore, the purpose of this research was – evaluation of level of teachers’ generic and didactic competencies, their relative importance and developmental needs from the perspective of the teachers themselves. Quantitative methodology – representative survey of the teachers was carried out. 865 teachers representing Lithuanian general education schools participated in the survey. Didactic competencies were defined according to the official legal documents and definition of generic competencies was based on Hay/McBer dictionary of the competencies taking into consideration legal regulations. The main results of the research indicated that the most developed teachers’ competencies were considered to be schoolchildren achievement and advancement recognition, assessment and provision of support in learning and schoolchildren motivation. Analysis of the research data demonstrated the tendencies of teachers’ work area self-perception. Lithuanian teachers tend to perceive their work within the boundaries of their specialization, not to accept leadership roles, they consider themselves as not much involved in schoolchildren career development processes and not necessitating to perform professional action research.