Malinauskienė, Eglė

Portugalų kilmės profesorius dr. Paulo Alexandre da Silva Pereira – mokslininkas, jau 16 metų dirbantis Mykolo Romerio universitete (MRU). Jo veikla neapsiriboja vien tarptautinėmis konferencijomis ar aukščiausio lygio mokslinėmis publikacijomis. MRU koridoriuose jis žinomas kaip charizmatiškas lyderis, įkvepiantis ne tik savo komandą, bet ir visą akademinę bendruomenę. Globaliai jis vertinamas kaip ekspertas, kurio įžvalgos prisideda prie pasaulinių institucijų darbotvarkių, skirtų globaliems iššūkiams spręsti.

Today's ultra-competitive businesses pose new ambitious challenges for universities to become entrepreneurial, to promote creativity and student aspirations to start up a business, to contribute to the spirit of entrepreneurship, to provide the knowledge necessary for the development of business and to introduce new and innovative entrepreneurship programmes. The paper argues that this shift arises from factors such as the image of entrepreneurship, personal qualities and the environment, the university study process, study environment and university infrastructure, all of which should be taken into consideration. The aim of the research was to determine and compare the factors that influence students’ intentions to start their own business in Dongseo University (South Korea) and in Mykolas Romeris University (Lithuania), using quantitative (a sample of 367 and 335 students) and qualitative (a sample of 6 and 10 experts) research methods respectively. The results showed that personal qualities, the image of student entrepreneurship and the environmental impact on entrepreneurship vary across cultures. However, it should be noted that students’ intentions to start a business are affected by determining factors in the study process. These research results could help determine what are the expected knowledge, competences or practical skills to be acquired at university.

Institutions of higher education are increasingly adopting blended learning, because it has been widely demonstrated that blended learning could be a better learning model than pure face-to-face classroom teaching or online learning. However, literature reviews show that many institutions mostly implement blended learning rather than evaluate the potential benefits. As blended learning continues to grow in popularity, so researchers must explore the potential and limitations of this field in depth. The aim of this paper is to present research results of effectiveness and efficiency of a hybrid learning and teaching model for developing leadership skills among graduate students. The authors focused on two important things. First, the authors investigated how to enhance benefits of blended learning for leadership training for working students and, second, the authors explored the drivers of blended learning for working students in order to achieve high quality teaching and learning experiences. Blended learning has been shown useful and beneficial when used to attract experienced teachers from abroad to university courses when they cannot come for the whole semester. Therefore, the paper analyzes theoretical aspects of employing a blended model to teach degree level as well as executive level studies in a university context, and the applicability of this model in the context of leadership courses. In order to empirically test how efficient and effective the hybrid model is for teaching and learning leadership, a qualitative case study research strategy was chosen. This strategy allowed interpretive, contextual, and authentic evaluations instead of objective, non-contextual, and inauthentic evaluations. The research results are based on the case study of recently developed leadership studies course at one Lithuanian university. During the research, it was found that blended learning provides powerful and efficient methods for course participants, however, several things need refinement. In particular, some aspects of learning design, learning material and modifications at organizational level.

Recent economic environment more than ever highlights the need for essential changes in modern governments. Effective absorption of information and communication technologies (ICTs), usually described as electronic government (e-government) is one of the tools to achieve it. Its nature has evolved from silos to cross-organisational systems, so the significance of new organisational capability for interoperability is increasing along with the demand to re-design existing e-government development models. The aim of this paper is to examine the aspects of applying dynamic organisational capabilities approach for government transformation models based on ICTs. As a result, integrated framework for the strategic planning, implementation and research of government reform based on ICTs, grounded on the approach of dynamic organisational capabilities and their assessment, is proposed. It might ensure more comprehensive and sustainable change in public sector, capable to build global national competitiveness in the period of economic uncertainty.

Research limitations/implications – This paper is a theoretical study of the essential e-government interoperability aspect – its context-dependability – that determines not only the adaptability level of various related political, managerial and technological methods, but also the rigour of research in the field. However, the presented conceptual framework for contextbased e-government interoperability development is of the high abstraction level and integrates only the main perspectives, principles and elements of interoperability contextualisation. It should be further supplemented with concrete operationalisational context factors extracted from the empirical research in the domain. Practical implications – The proposed conceptual framework for context-based e-government interoperability development suggests policy makers, public managers and related private sector organisations to assess technical and evolutionary fitness of dynamic organisational capabilities for interoperability before starting any cross-organisational e-government initiative or adopting any leading method for interoperability enforcement taken from different than its deployment context. It should be done through the analysis of related processes, asset position and path-dependency factors of all participating parties. It is also recommended to incorporate these principles of context analysis in the research of e-government interoperability phenomena and its enforcement methods. Originality/Value – This research addresses a complex issue of e-government interoperability contextualization and offers a conceptual framework which not only embraces the main context factors identified in the previous e-government research, but also integrates the contextualization approach from the theory of dynamic organizational capabilities that are the core of contemporary e-government interoperability concept.

Straipsnyje pateikiami praeitos ir šios kadencijų Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo narių ir Lietuvos parlamentinių politinių partijų interneto svetainių empirinio tyrimo „Elektroninio dalyvavimo iniciatyvos Lietuvos centrinėje atstovaujamojoje valdžioje“ rezultatai. Aptartos elektroninio dalyvavimo priemonės, kurios potencialiai gali kelti piliečių pasitikėjimą valdžios institucijomis, ypač atkreipiant dėmesį į demokratijos vystymo procesus ir Lietuvos parlamentarų bei politinių partijų elektroninio dalyvavimo priemonių taikymą. Apžvelgiami elektroninio dalyvavimo iniciatyvų atstovaujamoje valdžioje tyrimai pasaulyje, pateikiama tyrimo Lietuvoje metodika ir aptariamos demokratijos vystymo tendencijos informacinėje visuomenėje. Pateikiami Lietuvos Respublikos Seimo narių ir politinių partijų svetainių tyrimo rezultatai. Pabaigoje apibendrinama Lietuvos atvejo studija ir pateikiamos rekomendacijos, kaip plėtoti atstovaujamąją valdžią.

The paper reflects on the unique experience of social and technological development in Lithuania since the regaining of independence as a newly reshaped society constructing a distinctive competitive IST-based model at global level. This has presented Lithuanian pattern of how to integrate different experiences and relations between generations in implementing complex information society approaches. The resulting programme in general is linked to the Lisbon objectives of the European Union. The experience of transitional countries in Europe, each different but facing some common problems, may be useful to developing countries in Africa.

Lifelong learning (LLL) is of great importance in transitional nations such as Lithuania as a vehicle in the restructuring Of the nation's knowledge to bridge the gap between formal education and the real needs of work, while the fuller reform of its educational system is still underway. This study provides a holistic approach to LLL and its role as a catalyst for structural changes in society, the climate for innovation, work organizations, and management. Particular attention is paid to the role of Lithuanian universities in the development of LLL activities and the associated transformation of their functional abilities to develop efficient knowledge processes for society. The most prominent theme is the role of universities in the deepening crisis of the educational system, specifically their inability to establish sustainable and efficient knowledge partnerships With other sectors. How soon and how effectively Lithuania completes its postcommunist economic transition depends oil how the nation's human capital call develop the requisite knowledge structure.