2nd International Conference on Management and Organization

SAM 2012 Conference Highlights

On June 8–9, 2012 The Slovenian Academy of Management organized the 2nd International Conference on Management and Organization »ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES FOR DYNAMIC STABILITY«, which was held at the Congress Center Brdo pri Kranju, Slovenia. 27 participants from Universities from Slovenia, Sweden, Austria, Hungary, Switzerland and Kazakhstan and some large Slovenian companies attended the conference. 21 participants presented their papers.

The conference was opened on the June 8^th 2012 by the chair of the conference Rudi Rozman with some introductory words about the theme of the conference »ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES FOR DYNAMIC STABILITY«, followed by Aljaž Stare, giving the participants some additional technical information.

In the first session, which was moderated by Miran Mihelčič, the key-note speaker Christof Droste, general manager of Hella Saturnus Slovenija, The Manager of the Year 2011 in Slovenia, in his visionary speech introduced the approaches used in his company to deal with change, especially emphasizing change initiatives coming from bottom up, adjusting organization to the people and choosing a coach to best fit the team. Presentation by Juergen Muehlbacher followed, in which he presented the paper Change Communication: Facts and Fiction co-authored by Raoul Seifert, emphasizing the importance of choosing the right change communication tools to ensure for successful change processes to take place. The last presentation of the first session was about 7 – S Model, presented by Štefan Ivanko.

In the second session, moderated by Mihaly Görög, Miran Mihelčič first presented the paper The Organization Change Process Must Also Be an Organizational Learning Process, followed by presentation of Ole Bloch Jensen emphasizing Engagement and The Importance of Engaging Employees in Times of Rapid Change. Then Vojko Potočan presented the most important characteristics of Management of Organization’s Innovative Changes

The third session was moderated by Jon Aarum Andersen and included the presentation of Milena Alič talking about Accreditation and External Evaluation of higher Education Institutions: How to Consider the ISO 9001 Certificates, followed by Aleša Saša Sitar explaining the Influence of Organization on Individual Learning in terms of differences in learning styles, learning loops and ways of knowledge acquisition in different organizational structures and Vesna Vodopivec talking about a Changed Role of Human Resource Management as Consequence of Changed Strategy on an Actual Case of a Slovenian Enterprise.

In the last session of the first day, moderated by Borut Rusjan, Mihaly Görög first presented A Conceptual Approach to the Phenomenon of Organizational Project Management, followed by presentation of Aljaž Stare, taking about A System for Implementing Changes in a Manufacturing Company. The last presentation of the first day was about Organizational Changes: Towards the Innovativeness and Achievement of Dynamic Stability, presented by Aleksandra Stjepanović Vračar.

After the fourth session of the conference Rudi Rozman expressed some concluding remarks about the first day of the conference and proudly announced the release of the first issue of international journal Dynamic Relationships Management Journal published by The Slovenian Academy of Management. He invited the participants to submit their work for the future issues of the Journal. The first day of the conference ended with gala dinner which was held at hotel Kokra at Brdo.

On second day of the conference, June 9^th 2012, three sessions followed. The first session was moderated by Viktor Vauhnik and three papers were presented. First Rudi Rozman presented the paper Is There Another Way to the Future But an Utopian One, talking about the signs of the future changes in socioeconomic system. Then Milena Kramar Zupan in her paper titled Governance by Stakeholders and Corporate Social Responsibility as a New Reality for Corporate Governance and Management, talked about new challenges in the governance-management relationship. The session ended by presentation of Aleksander Janeš, talking about Achieving Accordance between the Short Term Dynamic and Long Term Stability through balancing qualitative and quantitative approaches to measuring key performance indicators.

In the second session, which was moderated by Cene Bavec, Viktor Vauhnik first talked about Strategic Thinking – Tool for Mastering the Future, particularly focusing on managing the changes in the retail industry. Then Darja Peljhan presented the paper External Challenges vs Internal Changes: B – Schools Dilemma, which was co-authored by Yelena Istileulova, talking about the reasons why B – Schools decide to acquire international accreditations and what changes do schools implement due to the impact of international accreditations. The last paper of the session titled Public vs. Private Managers: Do They Differ in Leadership Behavior and Change Orientation?, was presented by Jon Aarum Andersen, sharing with the participants the surprising result of the empirical research, that business managers in Sweden have lower change potential than public managers.

In the last session of the day, which was moderated by Rudi Rozman, last three papers were presented. Viktor Vračar first talked about ways of Adapting to Changing Business Environment with Inter-organizational Alliances, emphasizing that in inter-organizational networks, internal organization of firms is crucial to the success of the network. Oliver Tsuruta then presented Reengineering and Organizational Restructuring Processes – The Case of Swiss Financial Services Providers, talking about organizational and other changes taking place in a financial sector. The last paper of the conference was presented by Tomaž Hovelja explaining The Impact of IT Performance Measurement System on IT Management, addressing the changes in focus of IT managers on strategic level, operational level and evaluation of IT success.

The conference ended by concluding remarks by chair of the conference, Rudi Rozman thanking all the participants for their papers and presentations and inviting them to attend the next International Conference on Management and Organization. The more informal discussion then continued over lunch, held at hotel Kokra at Brdo.