Rakauskienė, Ona Gražina

As economic instability grows and the risk of global threats increases – including pandemics, wars, climate crises, and sudden migration flows – conventional indicators of progress, such as gross domestic product (GDP), are increasingly recognised as insufficient to assess socio-economic development, societal resilience, and a country’s capacity to recover from crises. This article highlights the role of culture in evaluating the socio-economic development of European Union member states under conditions of uncertainty. Culture is understood as a factor shaping long-term development trajectories, influencing not only economic outcomes but also institutional quality, social trust, and societies’ ability to adapt to shocks. From a methodological perspective, the article applies criteria for assessing the cultural sector in line with the EU's "Beyond GDP" approach, focusing on cultural employment, the business environment of the cultural sector, and public expenditure on culture across EU countries. These indicators are analysed alongside levels of trust in public institutions and the Human Development Index (HDI), as well as their correlations, to identify key factors that may significantly impact societal resilience, sustainability, and long-term growth. Using descriptive and comparative methods, the study seeks to identify recurring patterns and structural imbalances across countries, particularly when high GDP levels are not reflected in social well-being or national stability. The empirical findings suggest that cultural indicators are more closely associated with long-term development outcomes than with short-term economic performance. The results indicate that the vitality of the cultural sector and consistent public support contribute to strengthening social cohesion and resilience, while their impact on economic growth is indirect and materialises through longer-term institutional and value-based transformations. The article concludes that culture should be regarded as a strategic resource for long-term development rather than a secondary component of economic policy, especially in contexts of global crisis and uncertainty.

The contemporary world is increasingly shaped by multiple overlapping threats, including pandemics, socio-economic inequality, geopolitical tensions, climate change, and technological risks. These challenges create new forms of uncertainty that affect both individuals and societies. In this context, strengthening human and societal resilience has become an important condition for sustainable development. This paper examines the impact of this new complex of threats on human and societal resilience in the Baltic Sea Region (BSR) countries during periods of shocks. The aim of the study is to assess how major global threats influence human development and resilience in the BSR countries and to identify possible directions for strengthening resilience. The analysis focuses on ten countries of the region: Denmark, Sweden, Finland, Germany, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Norway, and Iceland. The research relies on the analytical framework of the United Nations Development Programme and uses indicators such as the Human Development Index (HDI), the Inequality-adjusted Human Development Index (IHDI), and the Planetary Pressures-adjusted Human Development Index (PHDI). The results show that although human development in the BSR countries has generally improved, significant differences remain between country groups. Inequality and planetary pressures reduce the potential of human development and weaken resilience, while countries with higher development levels demonstrate greater capacity to withstand shocks. The findings highlight the importance of reducing inequality, strengthening human potential, and integrating social, economic, and environmental policies in order to build more resilient societies in the Baltic Sea Region.

The aim of this monograph is to examine the impact of a new set of uncertainties on the socio-economic situation of people and societies and to provide research-based innovative approaches and methods for building socio-economic resilience in order to reduce vulnerability and promote the resilience of people and societies to shocks. To achieve its objective, the monograph aims to reduce human and societal vulnerability and build resilience in the face of uncertainty and shocks. The authors of this monograph propose a new approach to address the problem of vulnerability not by focusing on traditional social policies but by strengthening the resilience of social groups in the face of uncertainty and shocks, by developing a strong person who (1) pursues goals, who is responsible for his or her life and actively participates in shaping it; (2) can respond and adapt to stressful situations; and (3) uses the experience and resilience gained for further human development and flourishing. The proposed understanding of resilience is a relatively innovative approach to dealing with human and societal vulnerability. This book is helpful for many researchers and academics dealing with related fields, policymakers on all levels, as well as practitioners and entrepreneurs. A large scientific and academic community is involved in studies of society’s resilience to various shocks, and they might be interested in new and important topics related to their work and addressed in this book.

Public sector organisations are increasingly tasked to adapt and evolve, dealing with shocks and disturbances without compromising their role as wealth generators. However, as complex adaptive systems, they do not manifest equal capacity for adaptation and evolution in response to complexity. This article explores the role of resilience in public sector organisations and sheds light on the interactions between different elements of resilience that enable these organisations to navigate complexity. The study combines a systematic literature review and a quantitative empirical investigation to propose and test a framework of organisational resilience in the public sector. It identifies planning, adaptation, and enhanced learning as critical phases to explain organisational resilience and how they intervene dynamically when dealing with adversity. The empirical investigation analyses the Lithuanian public sector organisations and explains the relationships among the model dimensions. The paper offers a model for theory development to understand the dimensions of the resilience of complex adaptive public sector organisations and how they interrelate with each other. For practice, it suggests which aspects are relevant to help public sector organisations develop their capacity to build resilience and overcome adversity.

Research background: During the COVID-19 pandemic, public sector entities encountered extraordinary difficulties in maintaining the delivery of public services. They were ill-equipped to operate in the unpredictable circumstances of the pandemic, causing a significant impact on the accessibility and quality of public services. This scenario also highlighted the importance of the resilience of the public sector, which entails an organization's capacity to function in a crisis setting and uncover opportunities that might not have been evident during normal circumstances. Purpose of the article: This study aims to assess development trends within public sector resilience and their impact on the quality of public services. As resilience is realized through a three-phase prism - i.e., Planning, Adaptation, and Enhanced Learning - we hypothesize that Adaptation is endogenously interrelated with Planning and positively affects Enhanced Learning, which in turn positively impacts Service Quality. Methods: Two successive surveys were carried out to examine the links between organizational resilience and Service Quality in the public sector. The first involved interviewing 401 senior managers of the organizations that provide public services in Lithuania to assess their level of organizational resilience. The second survey involved questioning individuals aged 18 and above who had used the services of the previously surveyed organizations. In total, 3,609 public service users were interviewed to gather data on Service Quality. Structural equation modeling was performed to analyze the data collected. Findings & value added: The results of structural equation modeling revealed that Enhanced Learning positively and significantly affects Service Quality. The findings of this study suggest that the bounce-back stage of organizational resilience, i.e., Adaptation, indirectly affects Service Quality through the bounce-forward stage, i.e., Enhanced Learning. Thus, Enhanced Learning acts both as an accelerator of Service Quality and as a moderator of the effect that other stages of organizational resilience have on Service Quality. The primary contribution of this article is its discovery that Service Quality develops from Enhanced Learning, implying that the optimal approach to service provision is based on both newly acquired knowledge and experience gained during challenging times. This enables organizations to transform their service delivery in response to the realities of changing circumstances, thereby creating opportunities to prepare for future challenges from the standpoint of a new equilibrium.

The focus of this research is on assessing the perception of public service quality through a customer-centred approach. Public service quality comprises multiple factors that are prioritised differently by customers. Therefore, the study aims to conduct a literature review to identify the primary quality dimensions of public services and evaluate the heterogeneity of their perception within the context of Lithuania. The research measures the user perceptions of public service quality. The literature review allowed for identifying service quality indicators and grouping them into dimensions based on unifying characteristics. Such identification of service quality dimensions grounded the research methodology. An adapted SERVQUAL model was used to analyse data collected by a survey to interview customers of Lithuanian public service organisations. Logit and probit models were applied to examine the effect of socio-demographic characteristics and the type of service on customer perceptions of different quality aspects of the provided public services. Explored heterogeneity of attitudes and detailed analysis of socio-demographic factors revealed that women with higher education are the most satisfied users of public services, while less educated men usually have a negative attitude towards the quality of public services. The study confirmed that marital status and income level are not related to customer satisfaction with service quality. Although gender, age, family size, education level, and employment status explain heterogeneity in customer satisfaction, they still account for only a small amount of variance compared to the place of residence and type of service. The study is a significant contribution to the field of service engineering as it introduces a systematic approach to the development of service quality, incorporating models and methods that enable the assessment of service quality and efficiency. The literature review has identified several research gaps related to public service quality, including a lack of research on general public services and areas such as tourism, real estate management, fire protection and rescue.