knowledge management: projects, systems and

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: PROJECTS, SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES

Proceedings of the 5 International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies th

“Carol I” National Defense University, ROMANIA

Coordinators:

Toma PLEŞANU Constanţa BODEA Luiza KRAFT Cover: Elena PLEŞANU Word-processing: Elena PLEŞANU Copyright © 2010 “Carol I” National Defense University, ROMANIA

ISSN 2069 – 1769 (CD-ROM)

Scientific Editors: Toma PLEŞANU Constanţa BODEA Luiza KRAFT

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT: PROJECTS, SYSTEMS AND TECHNOLOGIES Proceedings of the 5 International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies th

November 12 -13, 2010, Bucharest, ROMANIA

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FOREWORD The papers reunited in the present volume have been submitted to the KM-05: The 5th International Conference “Knowledge Management – Project, Systems and Technologies”, Bucharest, Romania, 12-13 November 2010. This event follows the 4th KM Conference hosted in Bucharest by “Carol I” National Defense University in November 2009, the 3rd KM Conference hosted in Bucharest, by the Academy of Economic Studies, the 2nd KM Conference hosted in Bucharest by “Carol I” National Defense University in November 2007, and the 1st KM Conference hosted in Bucharest in November 2006. Throughout the last decades, a wide variety of organizational practices have been proposed to support the acquisition, storage, retrieval, application, generation, and review of the knowledge assets of an organization in a controlled way; despite this, it is often unclear how these practices relate to one another in their contribution to organizational performance. In the information age, rather than physical assets or resources, knowledge is the key to competitiveness. What is new about attitudes to knowledge today is the recognition of the need to master, manage and use it like any other asset. This raises issues not only of appropriate processes and systems, but also of how to account for knowledge in the balance sheet. The management literature of these last few years suggests a variety of practices meant to support the creation, storage and transfer of information and knowledge. Knowledge Management (KM) is a relatively new subject matter, being integrated in the curricula of some North-American universities and debated in a few dedicated journals starting with 1995. As a new scientific area, there are at present quite many schools of thought referring to Knowledge Management, which therefore accounts for the difficulty or even impossibility to set the conceptual framework of this domain, starting from a unanimously accepted definition for it. As a consequence, the approach to the matter differs with each school or even author. KM can be regarded from the following perspectives: • The techno centric perspective, stressing technologies, especially those contributing to knowledge enlargement and sharing; • The organizational perspective, seeking to answer questions such as: How should the enterprise is designed to facilitate the knowledge processes inside it? Or, which organizations work best and based on what processes? • The ecological perspective, regarding the human interactions, the identity, knowledge and environment factors as a complex adjustment system. In addition to the above, as the subject matter is becoming more consistent and gaining ground, more and more academic debates are taking place in the epistemological area, emerging both at the theoretical and practical level of Knowledge Management. Outstanding standardization institutions in the United Kingdom and Australia produced reference documents in a common attempt to outline the conceptual framework and scope of the subject, but so far all of them have been only slightly accepted or insufficiently grasped and adopted. The papers gathered in this volume are all meant to facilitate communication between international multidisciplinary teams. This year’s Knowledge Management Conference itself provides – as its organizing committee has stated – a forum for discussion of topics related to the development of Knowledge Management and related subject matters. The mission of the International Conferences on Knowledge Management is to facilitate communication between international multidisciplinary teams. The Conference provides a forum for the discussion of topics related to the development of knowledge management and related disciplines.

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The main areas of interest proposed for the submission of the papers cover the following sections: • Knowledge, Learning and Cognitive Systems • K-Organizations • KM Projects • Knowledge Dynamics The Proceedings of the conference include the full text papers. The 5th Conference’s active participants come from different parts of Europe and not only. The conference attracted over 100 papers but, in the end, after careful evaluation, 50 papers were accepted. We had 44 evaluators from over 20 countries, over 80% from outside Romania. 55% papers were rejected, 23% accepted with amendments, and 22% papers accepted as such. The papers are very interesting, meeting high academic standards and address a wide range of key issues. They are contributed by very different individuals, organizations and countries, involved in Knowledge Management issues. The authors bring forth extensive experience and diverse views of the state and local governmental institutions, universities, small businesses, private industry and research institutes from all over the world. We do hope that the conference will keep up the tradition and will continue to be organized every other year in the future. Finally, we would like to thank all participants who shared their expertise with colleagues during the conference. We also hope that the papers included in this volume will give new ideas to the readers in their quest to solve various problems. The publisher is honored to inform the authors and readers that The Proceedings of the 5th International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies is indexed in the BDI - RePEc - Research Papers in Economics, IDEAS (http://ideas.repec.org), EconPapers (http://econpapers.repec.org) and Economists Online. The conference would not have been possible without the joint effort of the organizing committee (the Academy of Economic Studies, “Carol I” National Defense University and the Project Management Romania Association) and the evaluating board, to whom we are deeply grateful.

Professor Toma PLEŞANU, PhD, Professor Constanţa BODEA, PhD, Associate Professor Luiza KRAFT, PhD, Chairs of KM-05, 2010 “Carol I” National Defense University, Romania

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CONFERENCE COMMITTEE: Honorary Chairs Professor Ion Gh. ROŞCA, Ph.D., Rector of Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania Professor Teodor FRUNZETI, Ph.D., Rector of “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania Chairs Professor Toma PLEŞANU, Ph.D., “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania Professor Constanţa BODEA, Ph.D., President of the Project Management Romania Association, Bucharest, Romania Assoc. Prof. Luiza KRAFT, Ph.D., “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania Scientific Committee 1. Aman Agarwal, Indian Institute of Finance, India 2. Ioan Andone, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iasi, Romania 3. Alexandru Balog, National Institute For R&D In Informatics, Romania 4. Frederique Biennier, INSA de Lion, France 5. Wladimir Bodrow, University of Applied Sciences Berlin, Germany 6. Ewa Bojar, Lublin University of Technology, Poland 7. Pino Caballero-Gil, University of La Laguna, Spain 8. Rodica Cândea, Tehnical University of Cluj Napoca - Romania 9. Hans Czap, Trier University, Germany 10. Laszlo Dudas, University of Miskolc, Hungary 11. Howard Duncan, Dublin City University, Ireland 12. Solojentsev Evgueni, Institute of Problems of Mechanical Engineering, Russia 13. Manfred Fischer, Wirtscahftsuniversitaet Wien, Austria 14. Vito Di Gesu, University of Palermo, Italy 15. Janis Grundspenkis, Riga Technical University, Latvia 16. Timothy Hall, Univesity of Limerick, Ireland 17. Martina Huemann, Projektmanagement Group, Austria 18. Luca Iandoli, University Federico II, Italy 19. Ivan Jelinek, Czech Technical University in Prague, Czech Republic 20. Kalle Kahkonen, VTT Building and Transport, Finland 21. Jones Karl, Liverpool John Moores University, United Kingdom 22. Karlheinz Kautz, Copenhagen Business School, Denmark 23. Wong Wing Keung, National University of Singapore, Singapore 24. Kay Koskinen, Project Management Association, Finland 25. Andreja Križnič, Slovenian Project Management Association, Slovenia 26. Yannis Manolopoulos, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece 27. Virginia Maracine, Academy of Economics Studies, Romania 28. Lynn Martin, University of Central England, Birmingham, United Kingdom 29. Antonio Jose Mendes, University of Coimbra, Portugal 30. Mihaela Muntean, West University of Timisoara, Romania 31. Ovidiu Nicolescu, Academy of Economics Studies, Romania 32. Peter Nijkamp, Free University of Amsterdam, Netherlands 33. Stefan Nitchi, Babes-Bolyai University of Cluj-Napoca, Romania 34. Maria Parlinska, Warsaw University of Life Sciences, Poland 35. Boris Rachev, Bulgarian Chapter of the ACM, Bulgaria 36. George Roussos, BirkBeck University of London, United Kingdom 37. Frantz Rowe, University of Nantes, France 38. Heins Schelle, Universitat de Bundeswehr, Germany 39. Yannis Theodoridis, University of Piraeus, Greece 40. Eduardo Tome, Universidade Lusiada de Famalicao, Portugal 41. Michael Tschichholz, Fraunhofer eGovernment Center, Germany 42. Michalis Vazirgiannis, Athens University of Economics and Business, Greece 43. Krzysztof Witkowski, Slovensko Združenje za Projektni Management, Polonia 44. Giuseppe Zollo, University Federico II, Italy

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ORGANIZING COMMITTEE: 1. Professor Constanţa BODEA, Ph.D, President of the Project Management Romania Association, Bucharest, Romania 2. Vasile BODEA, Ph.D, PM FORUM Research Center, Bucharest, Romania 3. Professor Constantin BRATIANU, Ph.D, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania 4. Professor Viorel BUŢA, Ph.D, Deputy Commandant for education (pro-rector), “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 5. Assoc. Prof. Gheorghe CALOPAREANU, Ph.D, Deputy Commandant, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 6. Professor Mircea CERNAT, Ph.D, Deputy manager for scientific research of Military Equipment and Technologies Research Agency (METRA), Romania 7. Assoc. Prof. Vladimir-Codrin IONESCU, Ph.D, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 8. Assoc. Prof. Liviu COŞEREANU, Ph.D, Head of Military Equipment and Technologies Research Agency (METRA), Romania 9. Professor Marius Hanganu, Ph.D, Deputy Commandant for scientific research (pro-rector), “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 10. Angela IONIŢĂ, Ph.D, Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence, Bucharest, Romania 11. Professor Ion IVAN, Ph.D, Vicepresident of Project Management Romania Association, Bucharest, Romania 12. Assoc. Prof. Luiza KRAFT, Ph.D, Head of the Foreign Language Department, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 13. Professor Gavril MALOŞ, Ph.D, Vicepresident of Project Management Romania Association, Romania 14. Lecturer Sorina MARDAR, Ph.D, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 15. Radu MOGOŞ, Ph.D student, Academy of Economics Studies, Romania 16. Professor Toma PLEŞANU, PhD, Head of the Management of the Defence Resources and Education Department, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 17. Lecturer Mirela PUŞCAŞU, Ph.D, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 18. Lecturer Lucian POPESCU, Ph.D, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 19. Professor Victor RADU, Ph.D, PM FORUM Research Center, Bucharest, Romania 20. Lecturer Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU, Ph.D, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania 21. Professor Ion SMEUREANU, Ph.D, Dean of the Cybernetics, Statistics and Informatics Faculty, Academy of Economics Studies, Bucharest, Romania 22. Lecturer Diana ŢUŢUIANU, PhD, “Carol I” National Defense University Bucharest, Romania

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CONTENTS

KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS TRANSGENERATION KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN A NESTED BA ............................................................................................ 15 Constantin BRATIANU THE VALUE OF KM IN REFORMING THE SOCIETY ............................................. 19 Tache JURUBESCU SIMILARITY USED IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE NEED TO REFACTORYZE AN ONTOLOGY.................................................................................. 23 Andreea-Diana MIHIŞ KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING .......................................................................................... 29 Marta-Christina SUCIU Alexandru GHITIU-BRATESCU Ana-Maria NEAGU Mina FANEA-IVANOVICI KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION – AN ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH IN COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS .................................................................... 35 Vasile BODEA Constanta-Nicoleta BODEA GUIDE FOR DESIGNING A CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM..................................................................... 43 Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR SANCTION – VIRTUES AND LIMITATIONS IN EDUCATION................................ 48 Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU Letiţia TRIF

K-ORGANIZATIONS NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF LOADED CREDIBILITY...................................... 57 Virginia ATANASIU IMPLEMENTING A LOGISTICAL MANAGEMENT WITH THE HELP OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE .................................................................................... 63 Florica BADEA Constantin BAGU Cristina BOLCAS THE ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SUPPORTED BY INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY.............................. 66 Domenico CONSOLI KNOWLEDGE SHARING RISKS IN COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS .......................................................................... 71 Lucian HANCU SIE-SECURITY ........................................................................................................... 77 Mircea Iosif NEAMŢU Iulian ALEXE 9

BENEFITS OF USING SOFTWARE WITH SIK COMPLIANT ARCHITECTURE IN CLOUD .......................................................................................... 81 Vasile AVRAM BENEFITS OF GRID COMPUTING FOR K-ORGANIZATIONS .............................. 88 Adrian VASILESCU Răzvan Daniel ZOTA Radu CONSTANTINESCU ENHANCING ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES THROUGH DOCUMENT MODELS................................................................................ 94 Andrei TOMA Răzvan ZOTA Radu CONSTANTINESCU THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN KM........................................... 103 Radu VICTOR Simion – MELINTE Cezar-PETRE FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS IN ROMANIA............................................................... 108 Constanta BODEA Isa TAK CONTRIBUTIONS TO MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION FOR PROJECT SCHEDULING....................................................................................... 116 Constanta Nicoleta BODEA Ileana Ruxandra BADEA ELEMENTS OF FRANCHISE AND NETWORK MARKETING IN NORTH AMERICAN ECONOMY ............................................................................ 123 Gheorghe MINCULETE Polixenia OLAR THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE STRATEGY............................................ 127 Vladimir-Codrin IONESCU Toma PLEŞANU THE STRATEGIC DIAGNOSIS ANALYSIS - AN ESSENTIAL STAGE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES.................................................................. 132 Vladimir-Codrin IONESCU Horea COROIU THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY................................................................. 137 Sorina- Andreea PUSCASU THE COLLABORATION EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE ........................................................................................ 141 Valentin LARION THE INFLUENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY UPON ORGANIZATIONS................................................................................................ 146 Lucian Dragoş POPESCU Diana ŢUŢUIANU

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KM PROJECTS TOWARDS FORMATIVE E-ASSESSMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT THROUGH PERSONALIZED AUTOMATED FEEDBACK ...................................... 155 Maria-Iuliana DASCĂLU DESIGN STAGES OF AN ONLINE COURSE............................................................... 162 Iuliana DOBRE KNOWLEDGE SHARING RISKS IN CORPORATIVE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, PARTNER OR OPPONENT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? .................................................... 168 Anca Maria HRISTEA THE COLLABORATION EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE COMPARISON ON OPEN SOURCE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE ................................ 174 Cosmin MARIN A METHOD FOR SEMANTIC WEB SERVICE COMPOSITION BASED ON PATTERN MATCHING .............................................................................. 179 Andrei-Horia MOGOS Adina Magda FLOREA DEVELOPING STEP BY STEP AN ONTOLOGY TO SUPPORT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT .............................................. 185 Anamaria SZEKELY THE BASIC VERSION OF THE CONTENT COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONING OF THE UNITARY INFORMATION INFORMATIVE ECONOMIC FUND (U.IL.IV.E.F)...................................................... 192 Tudor LEAHU CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING AN INTEGRATED UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ............................................................................................... 198 Alexandra Maria Ioana FLOREA Alina-Mihaela ION Iuliana BOTHA USING PROCESS ONTOLOGY TO REPRESENT LIBRARY ACTIVITIES .......... 203 Dragos VESPAN QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN RESEARCH PROJECTS ASSESSMENT .............................................................................................. 207 Narcisa CIOBOTAR Constantin MITRUŢ A TRANSLOG ANALYSIS OF INSURANCE ECONOMIES IN NIGERIA.............. 212 Usman OWOLABI A THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY - ACADEMIA KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP...................................................................................... 222 Claudia CRISTESCU PUBLIC INTERNAL AUDIT LAW - A NEW BRANCH OF LAW IN ROMANIA .................................................................................................... 231 Valentin – Stelian BADESCU

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KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS WEB COMMUNITIES IN DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE................................................................................. 243 Cristina BOLCAS Ion VERBONCU Florica BADEA E-KNOWLEDGE FOR SUPPORTING STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING PROCESS AT REGIONAL LEVEL ........................................ 247 Mihaela MUREŞAN Emilia GOGU THE IMPORTANCE OFTECHNOLOGY USE WITHIN THE EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION PROCESS.............................................. 256 Dan POPESCU Iulia CHIVU Alina CIOCÂRLAN-CHITUCEA Daniela Oana POPESCU KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WITHIN ITIL .......................................................... 261 Dan Constantin TOFAN USING ONTOLOGY’S IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT ......................... 265 Enikö Elisabeta ŢOLEA KNOWLEDGE DELIVERY EVALUATION IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS ............................................................................................ 271 Adina Ileana UŢĂ, Anca ANDREESCU EMERGENCE AND ADAPTATION IN KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS........... 279 Iulia MĂRIEŞ ENTERPRISE INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE VALUE OPTIMIZATION USING INTELLIGENT AGENTS.................................................... 284 Radu-Ioan MOGOŞ HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT - AN COMPLEX, DYNAMIC AND EVOLUTIONAL PROCESS............................................................... 290 Mirela PUSCASU MEASURING PERFORMANCES IN PUBLIC ENTITIES- IMPLEMENTATION OF ADEQUATE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS -.................................................... 296 Marius-Gabriel TOMOIALĂ THE STUDY OF PHYSICS USING VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY ............ 301 Irina-Elena NICOLAE THE STUDY OF BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS FOR NAVAL ACADEMY TEAM IN THE NAVAL PENTATHLON.................................................. 306 Virgil ENE-VOICULESCU Carmen ENE-VOICULESCU SKILLS ROLE IN THE PROCESS OF WORK INTEGRATION............................... 310 Cătălin BURSUC Andreea NEAGU

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KNOWLEDGE, LEARNING AND COGNITIVE SYSTEMS

TRANSGENERATION KNOWLEDGE SHARING IN A NESTED BA Constantin BRATIANU Ph.D., professor, Faculty of Business Administration Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present a new perspective of studying transgeneration knowledge transfer in a nested Ba. As a case study we choose Academy of Economic Study of Bucharest, Romania. Ba is a concept introduced in knowledge management by Nonaka and his co-workers, and it is the dynamic context for knowledge creation and knowledge sharing. A nested Ba is an organizational context characterized by several generations of people, interacting together in their activities. A university is by its own nature a nested Ba since in any department there are several age layers represented by professors, associated professors, lecturers and assistants. In such a context it is interesting how knowledge sharing is configured according to priorities given by professors to different academic strategies and activities. In our research we have used the method of Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP).

among them. Also, this concept is related to the Japanese specific interpretation of nothing-ness: “No-thing-ness is not to be understood as a ‘thing’ because it then would be based on a conception of something, which would be no-thing… If you understand what exists then you can understand that which does not exist. This means that although it is impossible to know that which does not exists, it is possible to know that if ‘anything is anything, then everything is everything’… The spirit of no-thing-ness means that there is no such thing as relying upon anything at all outside of your individual mind” (Kaufman, 1994, pp.104-105).

Introduction The central part of the Nonaka’s knowledge dynamics model is the concept of Ba. It is based on the work of the Japanese philosopher Kitaro Nishida, and it means roughly place. “The essence of Ba is the contexts and the meanings that are shared and created through interactions which occur at a specific time and in a specific space, rather than a space itself. Ba also means relationships of those who are at the specific time and the specific space” (Nonaka & Toyama, 2007, p.23). Ba is the dynamic context where the four knowledge conversions defined by Nonaka in his SECI model develop continuously. Thus, socialization, externalization, combination and internalization need a specific context of meanings and a framework for same mental models in order to be operational. Although is rather difficult to be conceptualized, Ba is in the same time a physical and a nonphysical space where social interchange can take place and generate knowledge (Nonaka & Takeuchi, 1995). Actually, in the knowledge-based theory of the firm, the whole organization is interpreted as an organic configuration of a multilayered Ba. It means that we have to look into not only the formal organizational structure of the firm, but also the meanings that are created at Ba and the relationship

Transgeneration knowledge sharing A university has by its own nature a nested or layered knowledge structure, due to a continuous flow of students and of the bottom-up regeneration of the faculty staff. Knowledge creation and knowledge transfer are intertwined processes, and both of them are strongly influenced by the age scale (Bratianu, 2009). A university is a multilayered knowledge organization, where the inner most layers are represented by older professors who concentrate the fundamental structures of knowledge, and the outer layers are represented by students in their different learning cycles.

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innovation. Cooperation is like an open process where professors enjoy sharing their experience and theoretical knowledge with their younger colleagues. There is an intrinsic reward of helping young people in mastering more complex problems and research methods. Competition is important especially in American universities, where society is based on individual performance. In Europe, and in the former socialist countries competition has been developed at a lower level. However, competition changes the rules in sharing knowledge. There is less interest for open knowledge sharing and more focus on limited and well controlled activities where professors enjoy sharing some of their experience and theoretical knowledge (Bratianu, 2008; Bratianu, 2009). Innovation is important especially in those fields where new products and services can be put on the market, and intellectual copy right becomes the main outcome. In our research we considered the following four major activities: A1 – working for research grants, A2 – writing scientific papers, and A3 – writing books.

The main processes in a university are the following: teaching students (undergraduate and graduate), teaching and research skills development for doctoral students, performing research, developing technological and business innovation, writing papers for knowledge dissemination, writing books for students and other interested readers, and performing different services for community. Each of these above process is based on knowledge transfer from the older generation toward younger generation. It is a transgeneration knowledge sharing. Since each of these processes involves efforts, time and skills, and since the rewarding system works differently for different processes, professors should have priorities in their involvement in knowledge sharing activities (Bratianu & Orzea, 2010). Our research aimed at finding a set of priorities in the academic Ba for knowledge sharing, in different activities. From this point of view we considered three strategies (S) for structuring the basic attitude of professors in sharing their knowledge: S1 – cooperation, S2 – competition, and S3 –

GOAL

S1

S2

S3

A1

A2

A3

Figure 1: Structure for the academic Ba knowledge sharing

The AHP represents a general theory of measurement developed by Thomas L. Saaty (1994). It has wide applications in multicriteria decision making, in planning and resource allocation, and in conflict

resolution. The basic assumption is that decision making process is a structural one, or it can be structured. The creative part is to design the best structure for mathematical modeling using AHP. That

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means that for any case study there are a multitude of possible structures. Even for our study case, we could find many other strategies and activities aggregations by comparison with that presented in fig.1.

the proposed strategies, with respect to the defined goal, that of transgeneration knowledge sharing. Solving each eigenvalue equation for each strategy we get the vector of priorities for activities. Finally, making an augmented matric equation we get a synthesis of all priorities, considering both strategies and activities. In our study case in Academy of Economic Studies of Bucharest, we got for strategies the following values for priorities: - strategy of cooperation: 0.768 - strategy of competition: 0.134 - strategy of innovation: 0.097 The conclusion is clear, that the main strategy for transgeneration knowledge sharing is cooperation. For this strategy, the vector of priorities for the defined activities has the following values: - working for research grants: 0.618 - writing papers for scientific journals: 0.220 - writing books for students: 0.160 The conclusion is that the most important activity for transgeneration knowledge sharing is working for research grants, where cooperation is the working strategy.

Structured questions

Questions used in our research have a special structure (Bratianu et al., 2010). There are two types of questions: (a) for the strategies level, and (b) for the activities level. A question for the strategies level has the following structure: In the perspective of transgeneration knowledge as the defined goal, (a) Which strategy is more important S1 or S2? (b) How much is more important the chosen strategy by comparison with the other one, on a scale from 1(very little) to 9 (very much)? The questions are conceived for pairwise comparisons as follows: compare S1 with S2; compare S1 with S3; compare S2 with S3. The result will be a matrix, whose elements are S(i,j)=S(i)/S(j), for i,j=1,2,3. For each strategy, there are formulated questions for pairwise comparisons of activities. The structure of such a question is the following: In the perspective of the cooperation (S1) strategy, (a) Which activity is more important A1 or A2? (b) How much is more important the chosen activity by comparison with the other one, on a scale from 1(very little) to 9 (very much)? The questions are conceived for pairwise comparisons of activities, for each strategy separately as follows: compare A1 with A2; compare A1 with A3; compare A2 with A3. The result will be a matrix, whose elements are A(i,j)=A(i)/A(j), for i,j=1,2,3. Finally we get an eigenvalue equation for strategies, and then for activities. Solving the first equation by known mathematical methods we get the vector of priorities for

Conclusions

Universities are organizations of learning, and have their academic staff structured on different layers of age. For this situations, transgeneration knowledge sharing becomes important. Since knowledge transfer is a result of a decision making process, AHP is an important mathematical model to use in this situation. For the study case we investigated three basic strategies – cooperation, competition and innovation, and three main activities – working together for research grants, writing papers for scientific journals, and writing books for students. The quantitative study done in our university, that is a university of research and teaching, showed that transgeneration knowledge transfer is done mostly through cooperation, working

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together for research grants, and through competition, writing papers for scientific journal and international conferences. Thus, AHP model can be used for knowledge intensive organization for knowledge transfer analysis. 5. Bibliography:

C. 2008. Knowledge 1. Bratianu, dynamics. Review of Management and Economical Engineering, Special Issue, Vol.7, No.5, pp.103-107. 2. Bratianu, C. 2009. Challenges for knowledge management research, in: Bratianu, C., Lixandroiu, D., Pop, AL. N. (Eds.) Business excellence, Vol.1, pp.52-56. Brasov: Infomarket. 3. Bratianu, C., Agapie, A., Orzea, I., Agoston, S. 2010. Inter-generational learning dynamics in universities, Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Knowledge Management, pp.146-155, Universiade Lusiada de Vila Nova de Famalicao, Portugal, 2-3 September, 2010. 4. Bratianu, C., Orzea, I. 2010. Knowledge sharing dynamics in post-socialist organizations in Romania, in: UDEN,

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L., Szabo, L. (Eds.) Knowledge management in organizations. Roles and challenges of knowledge management in innovation for services and products, pp.85-94. Veszprem: University of Pannonia, Hungary. Kuafman, S.F. 1994. The martial artist’s book of five rings. The definitive interpretation of Miyamoto Musashi’s classic book of strategy. Boston: Tuttle Publishing. Nonaka, I., Takeuchi, H. 1995. The knowledge creating company. How Japanese companies create the dynamics of innovation. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Nonaka, I., Toyama, R. 2007. Why do firms differ? The theory of knowledgecreating firm. In: ICHIJO, K., NONAKA, I. (Eds.) Knowledge creation and management. New challenges for managers, pp.13-31. Oxford: Oxford University Press. Saaty, T. L. 1994. Highlights and critical points in the theory and application of the Analytic Hierarchy European Journal of Process. Operational Research, Vol.74, pp. 426-447.

THE VALUE OF KM IN REFORMING THE SOCIETY Tache JURUBESCU Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Abstract: Knowledge management is evolving from being successful on small companies to the entire society. The era of information technology and the speed the changes take place, imply a profound transformation from tactic to strategic level, where decision-makers can, and must do a whole society review. Knowledge management is the right tool for reforming the society. Keywords: knowledge, knowledge management, information technology

an organization, to increase innovativeness and responsiveness to help it compete on the market. Knowledge exists, and is located inside the organization, in key staffs, or in common individuals. The problem of identifying, locating, maintaining and applying knowledge is the aim of most knowledge management projects. They make knowledge visible, showing its role within the organization, developing a knowledge culture, and building a real knowledge infrastructure. The processes involving knowledge management activities are mainly the follows: creating internal knowledge, acquiring external knowledge, storing knowledge in documents, updating knowledge and sharing knowledge internally and externally. Organizations as knowledge systems consist of four sets of socially enacted knowledge processes: creation/construction, storage/retrieval, transfer and application (Holzner and Marx, 1979, Pentland, 1995). In order to support and enhance these organizational processes, many KM initiatives involve an implementation of IT-based systems, the so-called Knowledge Management Systems (KMS). Three common IT applications are mentioned in the literature: the coding and sharing of the best practices, the creation of corporate knowledge directories and the creation of knowledge networks. Information systems are meant to enhance knowledge management activities of individuals and organisations. To do this, the organization must formulate the knowledge strategy and analyse the role of IT in facilitating the knowledge management. It is also, of a big benefit, to

Introduction Before talking about Knowledge Management (KM) and its value for the entire society, let us see what knowledge is. Knowledge is “a justified belief that increases an entity’s capacity for effective action” (Huber, 1991, Nonaka, 1994). Knowledge can be viewed in different ways from a state of mind, to an object, a process, a condition of having access to information and a capability. One of the most important views of knowledge is that of a condition of access to information. In post-capitalism, power comes from transmitting information to make it productive, not from hiding it (Drucker, 1995). Therefore, organizations must allow the access to and retrieval of content of knowledge. Knowledge can also be viewed as a capability with the potential for influencing future action, a capability to use information, to interpret it due to learning and experience, and ability to ascertain what information is necessary in decision-making processes. Knowledge must be treated as a significant organizational resource. Information technology (IT) has an important role in the various stages of the knowledge management process, and in the process of developing the Knowledge Management Systems (KMS), with the objective to support creation, transfer, and application of knowledge in organizations. On a larger scale, KM is the key to reforming systems, systems of systems, and eventually the entire society. KM in organizations Knowledge Management is identifying and leveraging the collective knowledge in 19

observation, experience and actions, collective memory is “the means by which knowledge from the past, experience and events influence present organizational activities” (Stein and Zwass, 1995). Organizational memory includes organizational culture, transformation of production processes and work procedures, ecology and information archives. IT can play an important role in enhancement and expansion of organizational memory. Knowledge transfer, another knowledge management process, occurs at all levels: transfer between individuals, from individuals to explicit sources, or to groups, transfer between groups, across groups, and from the group to the organization. It is very important for the organization to transfer knowledge to the locations that need it, on formal or informal, personal or impersonal channels, depending on the size of the organizations, and their strategies. Knowledge application is more important than knowledge itself in terms of competitive advantage in the knowledgebased theory of the firm. Technology supports knowledge application by integrating knowledge into organizational routines. Procedures that are culture-bound can be embedded into IT so that the systems themselves become examples of organizational norms. IT can also enhance knowledge integration and application by capturing, updating and facilitating the accessibility of organizational rules. IT enhances the speed of knowledge integration and application of codifying and automating organizational routines. Workflow automation systems are examples of IT applications that reduce the need for communication and coordination and enable more efficient use of organizational routines through timely and automatic routing of work-related documents, information, rules, and activities. Rule-based expert systems are also means of capturing and w enforcing ell specified organizational procedures. The four knowledge processes are essential to effective organizational

highlight the importance of assessing and understanding the organization’s knowledge position and its existing intellectual resources. In the information system field, it is common to design systems primarily focused on the codified knowledge. Management reporting systems, decision support system, and executive support systems have all focused on the collection and dissemination of this knowledge type. The specific types of knowledge forming the substance of an IT will depend upon the organization’s context. Knowledge creation involves developing new content or replacing existing content within the organization’s tacit and explicit knowledge. Four levels of knowledge creation have been identified: socialization, externalisation, internalisation and combination. Each of them refers to a level of interaction between tacit and explicit knowledge. For example, socialization mode refers to conversion of tacit knowledge to new tacit knowledge through social interactions and shared experience. On the other hand, combination mode refers to the creation of new explicit knowledge by merging, categorizing, reclassifying and synthesizing existing explicit knowledge. The other two modes suppose interactions and conversion between tacit and explicit knowledge. While externalisation means converting tacit knowledge to new explicit knowledge, internalisation means creating of new tacit knowledge from explicit knowledge, articulation of best practices or lessons learned, and learning and understanding that results from reading or discussion, respectively. Knowledge storage/retrieval, or organizational memory, includes knowledge stored in written documentation, electronic databases, codified human knowledge stored in expert systems, and also documented organizational procedures and processes and tacit knowledge acquired by individuals and network of individuals. While individual memory is developed by

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transforming the organizations, or the way they operate. Transformation and survival, the more common success in knowledge management involves operational improvements, such as new product development, education and training, software development, customer support, etc. The most visible benefits from knowledge management involve money. A key focus of the knowledge management projects must be better management, with the goal of increasing revenues, and reducing taxes, some others may have as expectations customer satisfaction, or improvements of production cycle time, being known that even a day’s delay can represent million, or billions in lost revenues. Some other knowledge management projects in the customer support process attempted to improve customer satisfaction by, for example, reducing time of paying taxes providing on-line knowledge, and specialized support. Knowledge management can be expensive, if linked to economic benefit or competitive advantage. Some companies spend between 2, 5 and 10 percent of their revenues on knowledge management, depending on how knowledge-intensive is their business. Knowledge projects are successful when they use the broader infrastructure of technology and organization. Many companies employed multiple tools, which can provide opportunities for organizational learning or increase functional specialization. To develop an organizational infrastructure for knowledge management, first we have to put in place sets of new roles, from Chief Knowledge Officer (CKO) to knowledge project managers, and knowledge network facilitators, and then organize skilled groups to serve as resources for projects. These new roles are meant to create and distribute knowledge, to prioritize knowledge projects and set knowledge strategy, in order to create value from the technology. Beside those two factors mentioned above, there are some others we have to take into account in order to make a knowledge project successful:

knowledge management. The application of information technologies can create an infrastructure and environment that contribute to organizational knowledge management by actualising, supporting, augmenting, and reinforcing knowledge processes at a deep level through enhancing their underlying dynamics, scope, timing, and overall synergy. KM in reforming the society Starting from organizational performance, enhanced with the embedded knowledge in client relationships, increasing knowledge-related employee behavior, and the process orientation by developing measures of the speed, cost, impact, and customer satisfaction of the knowledge management activities, all affect “win rates” in accordance with the way the knowledge resources are put in place. Knowledge represents a very important asset, and has to be treated like any other asset, and employed accordingly in order to create the value we expected. While shareholders do not invest in companies just to have a knowledge-sharing culture, and they invest to make money, the way we assess the projects’ benefits is establishing the link between knowledge and financial performance. Economic returns on knowledge are difficult to quantify and compare across organizations and at the national level, therefore we use success indicators similar to those for assessing the effectiveness of other business change projects, such as: - growth in the resources attached to the project, to include people and money; - growth in the volume of knowledge content and usage; - the evidence of financial return at the level of organization or at the level of the knowledge management activity itself. All these indicators are present to successful projects. When they are not, the projects are unsuccessful, or not yet successful. The successful knowledge management projects produce in many cases organizational or even national-wide impacts,

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standard, flexible knowledge structure; knowledge-friendly culture; clear purpose and language; change in motivational practices; multiple channels for knowledge transfer; Senior management support. I will mention here just the importance of senior management support, knowledge management projects benefit. The strong support from decision-makers is crucial for transformation-oriented knowledge projects but less effective for improving individual functions and processes. The helpful support includes sending messages that knowledge management is critical to success, providing funding for infrastructure and clarifying what types of knowledge are most important. The sequence for addressing these factors is also important. As with building constructions, there needs for foundation. While not adding value in and of itself, a certain amount of infrastructure is needed in order to create value later. Therefore, knowledge environment projects establish the necessary conditions for subsequent projects to leverage knowledge. There is a need for combination of technical and human elements, like in information systems projects. In knowledge management projects, the complexity of human factors to be managed is much greater than the most information management projects. Knowledge is created in human brain, and only the right organizational climate can determine people to create, share and use it. While data and information are transferred electronically, knowledge travels through a human network. Effective knowledge management is not panacea; it is one of many components of good management, a very important and rapid developing one.

Bibliography: 1. Alavi, M., Leider, D.E., “Review: Knowledge Management and Knowledge Management Systems: Conceptual Foundations and Research Issues”, MIS Quarterly Vol. 25 No.1, pp. 107136/March 2001 2. Davenport, T.H., De Long, D.W., Beers, M.C. “Successful Knowledge Management Projects”, Sloan Management Review, Winter 1998, pp. 43-57 3. Drucker, P. “The Post-Capitalist Executive”, Managing in a Time of Great Change, Penguin, New York, 1995 4. Holzner, B., Marx, J., The Knowledge Application: The Knowledge System in Society, Allyn-Bacon, Boston, 1979 5. Huber, G. “Organizational Learning: The Contributing Processes and the Literatures”, Organization Science (2:1), 1991, pp. 88-115 6. Kilcourse, B., Rosenblum, P., “Using Business Intelligence to Help Control Outcomes in an Uncontrollable World – Benchmark report 2009”, Retail Systems Research (RSR) 7. Nonaka, I “A Dynamic Theory of Organizational Knowledge Creation”, OrganizationScience (5:1), February 1994, pp. 14-37 8. Pentland, B.T., “Information Systems and Organizational Learning: The Social Epistemology of Organizational Knowledge Systems”, Accounting, Management and Information Technologies (5:1), 1995, pp. 1-21 9. Stein, E.W., Zwass, V., “Actualizing Organizational Memory with Information Systems”, Information Systems Research (6:2), 1995. pp. 85-117

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SIMILARITY USED IN THE IDENTIFICATION OF THE NEED TO REFACTORYZE AN ONTOLOGY Andreea-Diana MIHIŞ Ph.D., teaching assistant, “Babeș-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca [email protected] Abstract: Lately, different ontologies were developed, manually, semi-automatically or automatically. Some are enriched continuously. In the case in which the ontology development process is involving too many resources, and take place in a long period of time, having as result a very large scale ontology, the quality of the ontology may suffer. And the misplaced elements must be discovered, in order to make possible the refactorization of the ontology. In this paper is proposed a method of spotting the most susceptible misplaced elements using a natural language technique, text similarity. Keywords: ontology, similarity, refactorization, dictionary based methods

Related Work Since from the apparition of the ontologism in the computer science, the need to define principles which guarantee the quality of the ontology was emphasized in many papers. In the same time, a lot of metrics were proposed to evaluate the quality of ontology. In a later paper, the existing metrics were categorized into structural measures, functional measures and usability-profiling measures. In they are categorized into size metrics, structural metrics and summarization metrics. But the construction principles cannot be applied in the case of an existing ontology, and even if the ontology is evaluated, the misplaced elements cannot be identified.

Introduction The existing ontologies are obtained in various forms, from manual way, the work of different specialists or volunteers, to semi-automatic and automatic ways. Moreover, the need to enrich an existing ontology was discussed. So, the existing ontologies are the work of different peoples, groups of peoples, and even machines. Some are developed in a longer period of time. Some have an impresionant number of elements. And when in a work of big proportions a lot of sources are involved, furthermore, from the moment of conceiving and the moment of final release, a lot of time passes, then is more than likely that in the final product, in the final ontology exists some discrepancies. Some misplaced elements. In order to evaluate the quality of ontology, different kind of metrics were proposed. But the proposed metrics evaluate only the structure of an ontology, functionality in general, or metrics strictly related to a specific element (where is located, to how many elements is connected, etc.). But these metrics aren’t capable to pinpoint the discrepancies from ontology. In this paper I propose the usage of a word similarity metric to automatically identify the possible discrepancies existing in ontology, and help the developers to improve the quality of the ontology.

Ontology Ontology is a rigorous and exhaustive organization of some knowledge domain that is usually hierarchical and contains all the relevant entities and their relations, or, “An explicit specification of a conceptualization.” An ontology can be represented in many forms, from an informal way, using natural language, to a formal ways. Today, the ontologies are defined in the OWL (Web Ontology Language) and RDF (Resource Description Framework). Although in OWL and RDF can be defined concepts, individuals, relations and different restrictions, the simplest building-block is represented by a triple concept – predicate – object. And since the most general form to define 23

to maintain”. Here I use the same word for the case in which an element of the ontology is misplaced.

ontology is by using triples, in the following, the analyzed ontology is supposed to be represented in triple form. But even if the ontologies are defined in a formal way, even if the concepts, predicates and relations are represented by Uniform Resource Identifiers (URIs), their natural language roots persist. Since the ontology’s are developed by humans or are automatically or semi-automatically extracted from corpuses of natural language texts, behind every URI is a natural language word, usually the element’s name. Not all the time the name matches the element, but usually, they do.

Similar elements from ontology But when an element is misplaced? Considering the case, in which the ontology is represented by triples, then is possible to identify sub lists of elements which are related by the same predicate to the same concept. If the elements from these lists are in the same relation with the same concept, then they must be related one to another, so they must be similar. Similarly, if two concepts are linked by two or more predicates, then these predicates must be also close ones.

Similarity Different similarity measures were used in the ontology evaluation, ontology alignment or ontology matching. But usually the similarity measurements used are word similarity, evaluated usually by string measurements, from the simple ones, which checks if a string appears as a substring into the other, to the Levenshtein distance. But these kinds of metrics cannot be applied in order to identify synonyms, since they are usually word different in the writing, and induce errors in the case of homonyms. Another kind of similarity used in the natural language processing is text similarity. In the text similarity, are considered almost all the words appearing in the text (usually there is a list of stop words which are ignored), and the similarity is computed using their similarity measurements. Such is the case of which presents a free tool which computes the similarity of two texts. The process includes also a disambiguation phase, using WordNet.

Misplacements So, from any ontology, a set of lists of supposed similar elements can be extracted. If the elements from the lists are analyzed in pairs of two, then the similarity of every element with the other elements from the list is obtained. By computing the average of the similarities of one element with the other elements from the list, every element is scored. The element with the smallest score is the most susceptible misplaced element. But in this way, every list of elements will have one possible susceptible element. The final number may be too great, so, it must be enforced a way to select the most suspicious misplaced elements. The best way is to identify a learned limit, which splits the suspicious misplaced elements into more suspicious misplaced elements and the least suspicious misplaced elements. But this is impossible without a training set of data (a set of ontologies which have some already identified misplaced elements or to which some elements were misplaced consciously). So, in the current approach, from the list of susceptible misplaced elements only the first n will be provided to the developers.

Similarity Used in the Evaluation of the Need to Refactoryze Ontology The term refactorization appears in Software Engineering and means “A rewriting of computer code to improve its readability or structure without affecting its meaning or behavior, thus making it easier 24

to the questioned element and the distinct relations which starts with the questioned element or end with it. The same text similarity measure, computed between the identified senses of the two questioned elements will be used instead of a simple word similarity. In short, the whole process described can be seen in the Figure 1.

The Algorithm So, the purpose of this paper is to identify the less similar elements from ontology. And in order to do so, first, a simple disambiguation phase is performed for the elements in question, by measuring the text similarity of the different senses description of the questioned word from Word Net on-line dictionary and the text composed from the distinct elements related

Figure 1: The process of selection of the most susceptible misplaced elements The algorithm is condensed in the following:

endi endf @add in S’ in a analogue position to the position of the current element e the selected_sense endf i=0 @initialize an empty set S” For @every list L’ from S’ mins=1 poz_min=1 i=i+1 For @every text t from the list L’ nu=0 sum=0 For @every text t’ from the list L’ If e≠e’ @add to sum the similarity of t relative to t’ nu=nu+1 endi endf avg=sum/nu endf If i=1 mins=avg else If mins>avg mins=avg poz_min=i endi endi @add to S” the pair formed by the element from the position i from the list L of set S (were list L is the “parent” list of the list L’) and its score, avg endf @order the elements from the set S” by the scores and keep the first n Results: the first n elements with the lowers scores enda

Algorithm Selecting_the_Most_Susceptible_Misplaced_Elemen ts (O, n) is Data: O- the ontology given as a set of triples n- the number of searched misplaced elements @extract the list of distinct elements (concepts) from the ontology For @every distinct element from the ontology @identify the list of distinct elements which are bent by the same predicate to the current element @identify the list of predicates which bent the same element with the current element endf @keep in a set S only the lists with at least three elements @initialize an empty set of lists S’ For @every distinct element e from the lists belonging to the set S @take all the distinct predicates and elements related to e, and construct a list L @add to the list L the current element e selected_sense=1 min_sim=1 For @ every sense i from the dictionary, sense of the name of the current element from L @compute the similarity s of the text composed by the names of the elements from L and the sense If @these is the first sense min_sim=c else If min_sim>c min_sim=c selected_sense=i endi

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Notice: in the algorithm, by distinct elements or relations are understood the elements and the relations which have A Short Example

distinct URIs. They can present the same natural language name. for the online interrogation of the WordNet dictionary, and the overlap measure for the computation of the similarity of two texts.

Let’s suppose that in ontology we have “man”, “women”, “elderly” and “driver” all as subclasses of the class “adult”. Because all the four concepts are linked to the same concept “adult” by the same relation, “subclass of”, “man”, “women”, “elderly” and “driver” will compose a list of susceptible similar elements. The next step is to disambiguate the names of the concepts, using the predicates and the elements directly related to them, and let’s suppose that the first sense from the WordNet [23] is identified for the all four words: man – man, adult male (an adult person who is male (as opposed to a woman)) "there were two women and six men on the bus" women – woman, adult female (an adult female person (as opposed to a man)) "the woman kept house while the man hunted" elderly – aged, elderly (people who are old collectively) "special arrangements were available for the aged" driver – driver (the operator of a motor vehicle) Again, is used the text similarity measure, this time not for the disambiguation, but to compute the score of an element. After the computations, the element “driver” receives the least score.

Conclusion and Further Work In the following, I wish to acquire a set of test data, which will help for a better evaluation of the proposed approach. In this paper was presented a method capable to pinpoint the most susceptible misplaced elements, and help in this way the ontology developers to improve the quality of the ontology. Acknowledgments This work has been supported by the grant PNII – 91037/2007. Bibliography: 1. Allemang, Dean and Hendler, James. Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Modeling in RDF, RDFS and OWL. Burlington: Morgan Kaufmann, 2008. 2. Bennett, Brandon and Fellbaum, Christiane. Formal Ontology in Information Systems. IOS Press, 2006. 3. Berners-Lee, Timothy, Fielding, Roy Thomas and Masinter, Larry. Uniform resource identifiers (URI): Generic syntax. RFC 2396, IETF, 1998. 4. Brank, Janez, Grobelnik, Marko and Mladenić, Dunja. “A Survey of Ontology Evaluation Techniques”. Proceedings of the Conference on Data Mining and Data Warehouses (SIKDD 2005). 5. Chen, Rung-Ching, Lee, Ya-Ching and Pan, Ren-Hao. “Adding New Concepts On The Domain Ontology Based On Semantic Similarity”. International Conference on Business and Information (BAI 2006), Singapore. http://bai2006.atisr.org/CD/Papers/2006 bai6169.pdf. 6. Cross, Valerie V. and Pal, Anindita. “A Consumer Ontology Analysis Tool”.

The Application It seems that are two gaps in the algorithm. One is for the computation of text similarity, and the other is for the extraction of the senses from WordNet. Is not the case. The application which implements the proposed algorithm was developed in Java, and embeds a part of a previous work, presented in [19], namely, I used for the retrieval of the senses the same part from the previous application which uses the HTTPUnit 1.6.2 API [21]

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knowledge sharing”. International Journal of Human-Computer Studies 43(5/6) (1995): 907- 928. 15. Morita, Takeshi, Fukuta, Naoki, Izumi, Noriaki and Yamaguchi Takahira. “DODDLE-OWL: A Domain Ontology Construction Tool with OWL”. Proceedings of the 1st Asian Semantic Web Conference, Lecture Notes in Computer Science 4185 (2006): 537-551. http://iws.seu.edu.cn/resource/Proceedin gs/ASWC/2006/papers/4185/41850537. pdf 16. Noy, Natalya Fridman and McGuinness, Deborah L. „Ontology Development 101: A Guide to Creating Your First Ontology”. Technical Report KSL-0105, Stanford University KSL, 2000. http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/people/dlm /papers/ontology-tutorial-noy-mcg uinness-abstract.html. 17. Pollock, Jeffrey T. Semantic Web for Dummies. Indianapolis: Wiley Publishing, 2009. 18. Suktarachan, Mukda, Thamvijit, Dussadee, Rajbhandari, Sachit, Noikongka, Daoyos, Mahasarakram, Puwarat P. N., Yongyuth, Panita, Kawtrakul, Asanee and Sini, Margherita. “Workbench with Authoring Tools for Collaborative Multi-lingual Ontological Knowledge Construction and Maintenance”. Proceedings of the Sixth International Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC'08), Marrakech, Morocco, 2008: 2501-2508. http://www.lrecconf.org/proceedings/lrec2008/pdf/624_ paper.pdf. 19. Tătar, Doina, Şerban, Gabriela, Mihiş, Andreea D., Lupea, Mihaiela, Lupşa, Dana and Militon, Frenţiu. “A Chain Dictionary Method for Word Sense Disambiguation and Applications”. Studia Universitatis "Babes-Bolyai", Informatica, (2007): 41-49. 20. Wilkinson, Mark and Good, Benjamin. Construction And Evaluation Of OWLDL Ontologies. Redmond: Microsoft

9th Intl. Protégé Conference. Stanford, California, Stanford Center for Biomedical Informatics Research at the Stanford University School of Medicine, 2006. http://protege.stanford.edu/conference/2 006/submissions/abstracts/11.2_crossvP rotegeConference.pdf. 7. Dahab, Mohamed Yehia, Hassan, Hesham A. and Rafea, Ahmed. “TextOntoEx: Automatic Ontology Construction from Natural English Text”. International Conference on Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning (AIML-06), Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, 2006. http://www.icgst.com/con06/aiml06/Fin al_Articles/P1120615104.pdf. 8. Simpson, Troy and Dao, Thanh. WordNet-based semantic similarity measurement. 2010. http://www.codeproject.com/KB/string/ semanticsimilaritywordnet.aspx 9. Davies, John, Fensel, Dieter and van Harmelen, Frank. Towards the Semantic Web. John Wiley & Sons Ltd, 2002. 10. Euzenat, Jerome and Valtchev, Petko. “Similarity-based ontology alignment in OWL-lite”. Proc. 16th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (ECAI 2004): 333–337. 11. Euzenat, Jerome and Shvaiko, Pavel. Ontology Matching. New York: Springer, 2007. 12. Gangemi, Aldo, Catenacci, Carola, Ciaramita, Massimiliano and Lehmann, Jos. “Ontology evaluation and validation: An integrated formal model for the quality diagnostic task”. Technical report, ISTC-CNR, Lab. for Applied Ontology, 2005. http://www.loacnr.it/Files/OntoEval4OntoDev_Final.p df. 13. Gruber, Thomas R. “A translation approach to portable ontology specifications”. Knowledge Acquisition 5(2) (1993): 199–220. 14. Gruber, Thomas R. “Toward Principles for the Design of Ontologies used for 27

Research Faculty Summit, 2006. http://research.microsoft.com/enus/um/redmond/events/fs2006/agenda_ mon.aspx 21. http://httpunit.sourceforge.net/, 2006

22. http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/refactorization 23. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/ webwn 24. http://wordnetweb.princeton.edu/perl/ webwn?s=ontology

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ITS IMPACT ON EDUCATION AND LIFELONG LEARNING Marta-Christina SUCIU Alexandru GHITIU-BRATESCU Ana-Maria NEAGU Mina FANEA-IVANOVICI Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, [email protected] Ph.D., assistant professor, Academy of Economic Studies, [email protected] Abstract: Nowadays knowledge and its strategic applications have become a major source of competitive advantage for organizations, regions and countries. According to the complexity science approach KM regards to join all the capabilities (called by some authors “core competences”) such as to contribute for acquiring, creating, sharing, diffusing, utilizing, and storing knowledge among organizational members. Knowledge management seems to be one of the major factors for an organization long-run sustainable development and it plays a crucial role in developing a sustained competitive advantage for organizations, especially in a complex and dynamic environment. We consider the results of our study just a starting point for possible future theoretical and empirical investigations. This paper seeks to develop in Romania a framework of knowledge internalization based on the learning cycle theory. We appreciate that such a study could be quite a useful approach for both the academic and business communities in our country. Keywords: knowledge management, competitive advantage, education, lifelong learning, investment in education, knowledge-based society.

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intangible assets and supports the idea of the endogenous nature of competitive advantage that complements the exogenous one.

Introduction

In the era of knowledge-based society (KBS), intellectual capital (IC) and knowledge management (KM) own a continuously increasing part of the set of assets owned by a learning organization. The true source for a sustainable competitive advantage for both companies and nations has to be searched within people, looking attentively at their knowledge and skills (that is mostly about human capital). It also has to be found within the internal processes specific to an organization (that speaks mostly about the structural capital) and in the company reputation (that takes into account mostly the relational capital). Together human, structural and relational capital are the most important parts of the intellectual capital considered to be of strategic importance for any organization as the real source of competitive advantage & wealth as Thomas Stewart expressed in his work ” Intellectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations” (Stuart, 1997). Intellectual capital is one of the most important

2. Knowledge management & the new approach of the long-run sustainable competitive advantage Knowledge management (KM) does not have a unique commonly accepted vision. One of the most recent approaches regards KM as a process (John S. Edwards, 2010). According to this approach KM presents a set of processes possible to be used for identifying and optimizing the effective application and dissemination of intangible assets and mostly of the intellectual capital. In an organizational structure, it would mean a systematic approach to making an organization to use knowledge as much as possible and in the best way such as to fulfill its mission. In the context of the new economy and knowledge-based society intangible assets such as knowledge, information, creativity, innovation, branding, intellectual capital 29

become one of the most important part of the core competencies. Quash, professor at London School of Economics, argues that we live in a world that mostly emphasizes the economic value of intangible assets (Suciu, C, 2004). We are dealing with cognitive domains in which ideas are worth billions, while products still cost less. Growth & development are more and more often determined based on creative employees, under the auspices of a learning culture and sharing of knowledge. A new vision regarding learning within a holistic vision looks for all the forms of learning, both from the formal, non-formal and informal point of view. Lifelong learning approach (LLL) is an opportunity to underpin the success for the knowledge vision and strategy for any person, organization or local community that commits itself to apply LLL principles (Suciu, C, 2007; 2004; 2002; 2001). These ambitious goals are developed through activities and knowledge management initiatives such as: strategic personal recruitment, training, team development, collaborative communications system, monitoring and evaluation of both the knowledge and skills of employees. Knowledge-based organizations are collective intelligent actors of the knowledge-based society and have a determinant role in its assertion as a competitive society. Knowledge-based organizations mark the convergence of two phenomena characteristic to human nature that of knowledge and organization - a social construction of competence for collective ideas, intelligent action and sustainable performance. Knowledge management has become, in recent years, particularly interesting for those dealing with business strategies, offering the opportunity of substantial competitive advantage and increasing organizational efficiency, mostly on the long-term perspective.

Despite many debates that can be found in the literature, KM has the following common attributes (Suciu, C, 2004): • best use of available resources and mostly of knowledge as a key resource; • creation / generation of new knowledge; • increasing understanding and awareness; • capturing, organizing, storing knowledge at individual, group and organization level; • knowledge transfer to other persons or other organizations Companies have to realize how important it is to - know what they knowand to be able to make maximum use of their knowledge. In terms of definitions, knowledge assets are the knowledge regarding markets, products, technologies and organizations, that a business owns or needs to own and which enable its business processes to generate profits, add value, etc. On the other hand, knowledge management is not only about managing these knowledge assets but managing the whole processes that act upon these assets. These processes mostly include: developing knowledge; preserving knowledge; using knowledge, and sharing knowledge. There are two different kinds of knowledge, that is, tacit and explicit (Polanyi 1958). Tacit knowledge is personal and, therefore, difficult to formalize, communicate, share with others and traded as a separate entity. In this respect, tacit knowledge becomes a crucial source of sustainable competitive advantage due to the fact that it is difficult for competitors to imitate it (Teece 1998). Knowledge is created through interaction both internally between the organization’s members and externally in relation to the environment.

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Figure 1: the spiral of knowledge in the SECI model (Nonaka – Takeuchi 1995) Source: Gram consulting, http://gramconsulting.com/2009/04/ba-for-management-development/ Within this interaction process, all participants also get to develop themselves (Nonaka – Takeuchi 1995). In this respect, one of the most popular models of knowledge creation seems to be the model of a knowledge spiral developed by Nonaka and associates (illustrated in figure 1). The model has had a great impact on the knowledge management field and basically shaped the field of managing the knowledge creation process (Travaille, Hendriks, 2009). The knowledge spiral model highlights the confrontation of two main distinctions applied with respect to knowledge: tacit versus explicit knowledge, and individual versus collective knowledge. Therefore based on these distinctions there can be illustrated four modes with respect to the knowledge conversion process: the conversion of tacit knowledge to tacit knowledge (socialization), tacit knowledge to explicit knowledge (externalization), explicit knowledge to tacit knowledge (internalization) and explicit knowledge to explicit knowledge (combination). Different activities within an organization are required in order to accomplish each of the four modes described above (Byosiere, Luethge 2008).

becomes increasingly clear that lifelong learning (LLL) is an important requirement for maintaining an edge in knowledge and skills growth. In fact, another name for the knowledge-based economy is the learning economy (European Commission, 2010), because mere accumulation of data and knowledge without transfer and dissemination would create little impact on economic development. The new “smart”, “sustainable” and “inclusive” development promoted under the auspices of the initiative Euro 2020 in March 2010 is very much based on knowledge and skills development that involves the lifelong learning. Students that live in the context of the new economy and knowledge-based society can read books and articles, interact electronically via the Internet and other media, apprentice with masters in their fields, or attend classes in a traditional educational environment. Ultimately, the profound changes that our system of learning has undergone will likewise mandate a complete reevaluation of the educational role within the economy (De la Fuente, A. and A. Ciccone, 2002). The World Bank’s programme, “Education for the Knowledge Economy (EKE)” is specifically designed for developing countries to cultivate the highly skilled, flexible people able to compete in the global markets. A lifelong learning framework encompasses learning throughout the life cycle, from early childhood to retirement. It

3. Investment in Education and Lifelong Learning As we continue to make progress in the era of the knowledge-based economy, it

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of the knowledge-based society to which they belong. For such organizations, crucial are the processes designated by innovation (creating new knowledge), learning (assimilation of new knowledge) and interactive partnership for knowledge. Training and development programs are commonly used to promote organizational learning. Such programs seek to increase the knowledge capital, and to a lesser extent, the social capital of employees. Most training and development programs focus on ensuring that employees have the most up-to-date, explicit knowledge in their respective areas of specialization. Because explicit knowledge is well known, programs for its dissemination can be easily imitated. Although it is necessary to maintain competitive parity, explicit knowledge usually cannot serve as the basis for a sustainable competitive advantage. But tacit knowledge, as the opposite of explicit knowledge, is far less tangible and is deeply embedded into an organization's operating practices and therefore not easily disseminated. Tacit knowledge, or implicit knowledge must be learned by using it, and this often requires extended periods of social interaction. Because tacit knowledge is learned by experience, the transfer of such knowledge is generally a slow and complex process (Teece et al., 1998). Figure 2 shows us that learning is at the heart of KM. This means that a knowledge management program will raise the learning level of the people who have the highest percentage in. The role of KM is to provide strategic directive, to encourage learning and to make sure there are mechanisms for transferring lessons to demonstrate to people that they are capable of achieving more.

encompasses the so-called wide lifelong learning that takes into account both formal learning (schools, training institutions, universities), non-formal learning (on-thejob and household training), and informal learning (skills learned from family members or people in the community). The role of traditional educational institutions – schools, colleges and universities – in educating younger generations has never been more important than it is today. Approaches to education and training are at a turning point. As the world of work becomes ever more complex and the portfolio careers become the norm, barriers between work and learning are disappearing. Employees are moving in and out of work and between working tasks in a world where skills, disciplines and jobs mutate rapidly. Organizations require a flexible workforce with broad competencies and increasingly individuals are taking responsibility for their own professional development as part of their lifelong learning. Learning today is no longer confined to the traditional educational institutions, companies or training centers. New technologies and tools offer learners greater flexibility, easier access to information and the opportunity to match learning to their specific needs, circumstances and learning profile. We consider that lifelong learning investment in education has a crucial role for knowledge management in the context of a knowledgebased economy and society. 4. KM the drive for sustaining education development Foundation on knowledge for organizations means to achieve full maturity stage, consistent with the essence

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Figure 2: Knowledge Management Components and sub-elements Source: Dilip Bhatt, Excellence Model and Knowledge Management Implications, http://www.eknowledgecenter.com/articles/1010/1010.htm Knowledge management has the possibility to promote and establish an innovation and learning culture within the organization. A learning environment is very important to the new learning that takes place in the company. Attending a training course is only a small element of learning that takes place. Managing tacit knowledge is a significant challenge for the knowledgebased economy and society and doing it properly could easily lead to a long-run sustainable competitive advantage (Lane & Lubatkin, 1998). Another approach to transferring tacit knowledge is to assign more experienced professionals to lead a team of less experienced professionals (Baron & Kreps, 1999). Over time, the less experienced professionals learn the more experienced professionals’ tacit skills (Hitt, Bierman et al., 2001). Organizations with significant learning capabilities understand the importance of both tacit and explicit knowledge and are able to ensure that both types of knowledge are used to promote learning.

consider that one of main factor that will allow Romania implement knowledge management is consistent investments in education, in general and more specifically, in higher education. This paper is intended to be a first step of a more extended study for Romania trying to explain the connections between knowledge management and learning, on the one hand and the role of lifelong learning in the knowledge-based society and economy, on the other hand. Acknowledgments This article is a result of the projects IDEI 1224, “Creative economy & knowledge-based society. Challenges and opportunities for Romania” and POSDRU/6/1.5/S/11 „Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle.” The last project is co funded by European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

5. Conclusions and recommendations

Bibliography:

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Suciu, M.C., Intangible assets and intellectual capital-key resources for Romanian convergence, in Aurel Iancu (coordinator), Economic Convergence/ Convergenta economica, Bilingual edition Romanian/English, Editura Academiei Romane, 2008, chapter 9 Suciu, M.C., Ivanovici, M., Creative economy & knowledge-based society/ Economia creativa si societatea bazata pe cunoastere, in A. Iancu, C. M. Suciu (coordonatori), Knowledgebased economy & society/ Economia si societate bazate pe cunoastere. Editura ASE, Bucuresti, 2008, 100 p. Suciu, M.C., Economics. New economics & Knowledge-based society/ Economie. Noua economie si societatea bazata pe cunoastere, Partea I si Partea a II a Editura ASE, Bucuresti, 2004, 789 p. Suciu, M.C., Knowledge-based economy and the global civilization. Investing and still hoping in people / Economia cunoasterii si civilizatia globala. Investitia si speranta in om, Editura ASE, Bucuresti, 2002, 242 p. Suciu, M.C., Investment in education / Investitia in educatie, Editura Economica, Bucuresti, 2001, 467 p. Travaille, A. Markus, Paul H. J. Hendriks (2009) “What keeps science spiralling? Unravelling the critical success factors of knowledge creation in university research”, in Journal of Higher education, Publisher Springer Netherlands, ISSN 0018-1560 (Print) 1573-174x (Online). Teece, D.J. (1998). Capturing value from knowledge assets: the new economy, markets for know-how, and intangible assets, in California Management Review, 40(3): 55-79.

KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT IN HIGHER EDUCATION – AN ONTOLOGICAL APPROACH IN COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS Vasile BODEA Constanta-Nicoleta BODEA Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Economic Research Department, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Economic Research Department, Bucharest, Romania, [email protected] Abstract: The paper presents an ontology-based knowledge management system developed for a Romanian university. The university used a classic Management Information System (MIS), which was the starting point for developing the knowledge management system. The developed knowledge management system has a general ontology, containing terms which are valid for a public institution, and specific ontology for two process categories, didactic and research process. The ontology is implemented using Protege. The results are very encouraging and suggest several future developments. Keywords: business intelligence, knowledge management, ontology, university

analysis of literature recommendations. (Politis & Siskos, 2004) proposed an educational portfolio evaluation model for enhancing the educational quality and internal organization of an engineering department inside of university. In the future, the difference between universities, collectives and teaching staff will consist in the capacity to do scientific research at a national and especially international level. Scientific research can bring substantial revenue to the people and the institution. Scientific research enhances quality improvement in the educational process, it motivates work adequately and it brings recognition. Common objectives of the universities regarding the research are: • To promote excellence in the scientific research process, to promote the areas with a high potential in processing, transmitting and using knowledge. • To stimulate competition in order to attract financial resources. • To encourage diversity and access to resources and diverse opportunities. • To encourage the accomplishment of some strategic programs for research development and efficient

INTRODUCTION Higher education traditionally has evaluated itself in terms of inputs and resources rather than outcomes and amount of value added. In (Freed & Klugman, 1996) the measurement of resources determined quality, but the public is increasingly concerned about institutional performance and stakeholders’ satisfaction. Strategic management of the university education portfolio requires the participation of all faculties and departments of the University. This extensive participation provides broad education engagement with the economic content, people, and facilities. Close and effective consultation, coordination, and cognizance among all entities are critical to the optimal fulfillment of university’s objectives relative to its education investment. A coordinated and effective university education portfolio requires clear roles, responsibilities and a very well-defined management processes. Different authors addressed the education & training portfolio management issue, most of them proposing multi-criteria decision-making processes. In (Mustafa & Goh, 1996) we can find a comprehensive

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Improving the organization of student's scientific events. Supporting the inter- and pluridisciplinary doctoral schools. The internal environment is represented by the following relevant entities: • The research teams in the teaching departments and research centers; • The teaching departments and faculties; • The functional departments;

capitalization on the research results. • To develop international excellence in scientific research. The main means to accomplish the objectives are: Encouraging and recognizing fundamental scientific research, turned into articles, books, treaties, monographs, reports, scientific events, etc. Increasing the share of the scientific research activity in academic assessment. Stimulating participation to the grants competitions, Supporting, financially as well, the organization of scientific events, the issuing of their volumes and that of the journals edited by different teams. Stimulating article publication in national and foreign journals; Consolidating the national thematic networks, with international participation, with excellence in research, which would entice access to the funds of the Ministry of Education and research. Starting up new joint ventures, under the framework of research consortiums at regional and European level. Encouraging students to obtain PhD and post–PhD grants and creating accommodation for the post – PhD grant beneficiaries. Supporting, financially as well, the accomplishment of documentationresearch trainings, participation in national and international scientific events, by creating a special annual fund, in RON and other currencies, obtained from accumulated research overhead costs. Continuing research in domains such as pedagogy and didactic teaching of economic subjects.

The external environment is represented by the following entities: • The Ministry of Education and Research • The research centers that are partners in research contracts; • The ministries that benefit from the results of the priority research; One of the major concerns of a higher education institution is to assess scientific and technical implementation of projects and scientific research programs nationally and internationally funded. The research projects and programs are multidimensional entities, so to characterize it is necessary to use a system of indicators, having a large number of indicators as components, which allow qualitative and quantitative characterization the performance of research programs and projects. The large number of indicators makes difficult an evaluation process based on traditional methods. THE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Developing knowledge management systems involves modeling knowledge, which is the application of languages, techniques, methods, tools and methodologies for developing abstract models of knowledge related to the specific domain. For university knowledge management system, knowledge will address both institutional 36

management process and teaching and research processes as well. For example, the teaching knowledge management will include identifying and shaping personal and collective knowledge existing in the university (at departments’ level) and share it to the people directly concerned (e.g., students). Knowledge-based systems are intelligent systems that incorporate knowledge from one area of expertise and solve problems in that area by the application of reasoning strategies. As problems solved using knowledge-based systems we can consider: analysis, monitoring, diagnosis, planning, monitoring, prediction, and classification. The main components of knowledgebased systems are knowledge base, inference engine, knowledge acquisition module, user interface and, optionally, an explanatory mode and learning mode. Knowledge database includes explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge (e.g., knowledge relating to ways of solving problems related application). Typically, explicit knowledge is included in the knowledge database, while tacit knowledge is included either in the reasoning mechanisms, or is transformed to the extent possible, the explicit knowledge. Internal representation of knowledge is done based on different methods of representation: frames and scripts, symbolic logic (predicate-order logic, modal logic, temporal logic, for example), semantic networks, production rules, procedural methods, scenarios, dependency graphs and conceptual knowledge representation methods uncertain (probabilistic methods, Bayesian networks, Dempster Shafer theory, fuzzy model, confidence rating method). Knowledge-based systems are developed applying different knowledge engineering techniques. Modeling knowledge is important for understanding

the system functionality, such as for example, generating new knowledge through inference, knowledge acquisition for domain-specific expertise and associated patterns of explanation and learning. Modeling is a process of knowledge transfer of knowledge from human experts and other sources of knowledge by knowledge-based systems. This allows more rapid development of knowledge-based systems and increases their efficiency by reusing existing models for different areas of domain knowledge expertise. Main knowledge modeling techniques are techniques of knowledge engineering, ontologies, language modeling, and multi-perspective modeling techniques. Traditional knowledge engineering techniques were widely used for building knowledge-based systems. Knowledge engineering includes methods and techniques for acquisition, modeling, representation and use of knowledge [Schreiber, 2000]. The most common methodology applied in knowledge engineering are Cognitech (based on the notion of prototype) and KADS, a variant of CommonKADS. CommonKADS has become a European standard for modeling knowledge in knowledge-based systems. This methodology was extended to include modeling knowledge in multiagent systems. CommonKADS includes structured techniques of knowledge engineering, providing tools for knowledge management and includes methods to conduct a detailed analysis of tasks and processes knowledge. Also CommonKADS methodology is a powerful library of generic models which include operational models, logical models and physical models. In table 1 is the general description of the CommonKADS models and the characteristics of these models for knowledge management system in a university.

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Table 1: Description of the CommonKADS models CommonKADS General description model Organization It describes the organization. model Actions: analysis of the major characteristics of the organization in order to establish the feasibility and the impact of the KBS; Role: It is a tool for analyzing the organization; Task model It describes associated tasks, as relevant components of business processes; Actions: identification of tasks to be performed in an organizational environment, analysis of the organization. Role: It provides a framework to distribute tasks to agents sites. Agent model It is a high-level description of the agents. Agent can be human, a computer system or an entity capable of executing a task. Actions: analysis of the agents responsible for task execution as they were defined in task model, including the description of the agents’ characteristics, in terms of skills and limitations; Role: It provide the description of the entities that perform tasks. Communication It describes the interaction between the agents during model task performance. Action: modeling communication between agents involved in problems solving Role: It is a tool for agents’ interaction. Knowledge Agents describe the knowledge used to solve various model tasks, using a generic library component modeling (e.g., methods for solving specific tasks and the domain ontology); Knowledge are described at the following levels: domain (declarative knowledge which includes properties, concepts, relations, instances), inference (a library of generic inference structures), and task (ordering inference); Actions: explain the knowledge types and structures used to execute a task, provides an independent implementation description of the role that different components of the knowledge have in the solving process; Role: It provides an interface for communication between human experts and users. Design model

University implementation University model structure human resources Teaching (including assessment) activity Research activity

Teacher Student Researcher Educational software package

Teacher - student Student - Educational software package Organization ontology Educational ontology Research Ontology

It describes the architecture and detailed functionality of the system to be implemented; Action: provide KBS's technical specification in terms of architecture, implementation platform, software modules, interfaces for communication; Role: it is a link between conceptual models (tasks, knowledge, communication) and the actual implementation of the KBS

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Ontology is an explicit specification of a conceptualization for a domain (Gruber, 1995). A conceptualization is a simplified view of the abstract world that we wish to represent. Components of an ontology are the domain terms of vocabulary (concepts, instances, relations) specific definitions associated with each term and a set of axioms that restrict the possible interpretations of the terms defined. Basically, ontology enables knowledge sharing in a particular area, so the terms used in knowledge representation have the same meaning for both knowledge-based system and its users (humans and artificial intelligent systems). Also, the ontology allows reuse of domain knowledge. Developing a knowledge-based system involves the development of an ontology specific to area of expertise. One of the usual ontology development methodologies [Uschold, 1995] includes the following steps: identifying the purpose (domain application), construction of the ontology (knowledge acquisition, coding, and integration), evaluation and documentation. In general, ontology can be composed of two parts: a general ontology (with customary terms, generally valid, that does not depend on the domain application) and a specific ontology (with specific terms of the application). Currently there are a number of ontology development environments. Protege [Protege, 2000], Ontolingua [Ontolingua, 1997] and Chimaera [Chimaera, 2000]. Some tools use objectoriented methodology for defining hierarchies of classes and objects. In such systems, the classes are also called concepts, properties and attributes are called slots, building concepts and roles or properties and restrictions on slots which are called facets and restrictions on roles.

Ontology implementation of knowledge-based systems can be done using a dedicated tool for ontology development. One such tool is Protege, an ontology editor based on Java, using the method of knowledge representation frameworks (frames). The most recent version of this tool, developed at Stanford Medical Informatics (Noy, 2000), the Protege-2000 (Protege, 2000). Protege ontology includes classes, slots, facets and axioms. Classes are abstract representations of concepts in the field. They form a taxonomic hierarchy and provide templates for individual frames of the courts. Protege-2000 in multiple inheritance is allowed. Developing a knowledge base in Protege-2000 involves following steps: • defining ontology (defining concepts and relations between them); • acquisition of knowledge (domain experts introduce specific knowledge through knowledge acquisition tool); • consulting the knowledge base (problem solving techniques are used to answer questions and concerns related application with the knowledge base). KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SYSTEM ONTOLOGY - A CASE STUDY The figure 1 presents the general ontology hierarchy of the knowledge system for a Romanian university. The figure 2 presents a part of the ontology hierarchy, with specific terms of a university academic processes. Also, the figure specifies a part of the relationship between terms. The figure 3 presents the ontology hierarchy of the knowledge system currently with specific terms of a research university.

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Figure 1: The university ontology

Figure 2: The didactic area ontology 40

Figure 3: The research area ontology ontology into the knowledge management system and to extend the inferential part of the ontology.

CONCLUSIONS AND FUTURE WORK The ontology–based competency modeling improves the functionality of competence-based systems, because ontology gives a better definition of the types of relations and hierarchies among competencies. It extends the measure scales to be used by the competence assessment process. Ontology provides an extended set of modeling elements for defining in competency schemas different kinds of competency, different relationships, several measurement scales. The paper presents the ontology usage, for the competency gap analysis at individual, project and organizational level for project-oriented organizations. Future work will be done in order to integrate the

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was done in the 92-100 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Freed, J., Klugman M. (1996), An culture for academic excellence: implementing the quality principles in higher education, Jossey-Bass Publisher 2. Gruber, T. (1995). Towards principles for the design of ontologies used for knowledge sharing, International

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3.

4.

5.

6.

Journal of Human-Computer Studies, 43/5-6. Mustafa, A., Goh, M. (1996). Multicriterion models for higher education administration, Omega, in: International Journal of Management Science, no. 24, pg. 167-178. Noy, N. F., Sintek, M., Decker, S., Crubezy, M., Fergerson, R.W. and Musen, M. A. (2000). Creating Semantic Web Contents with Protégé2000, SMI Technical Report – SMI2001-0872. Quatrani, T. (2003). Introduction to the Unified Modeling Language, UML Evanghelist, ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/software/rati onal/web/whitepapers/2003/intro_rdn.p df. Politis, Y., Siskos, Y. (2004). Multicriteria methodology for the evaluation of a Greek engineering

deparment, in: European Journal of Operation Research, no. 156, pg 223240. 7. Schreiber, G., Crubézy, M. and Musen, M., (2000). A Case Study in Using Protégé-2000 as a Tool for Common KADS, Proceedings of EKAW’2000, Springer-Verlag. 8. Uschold, M., King, M. (1995). Towards a Methodology for Building Ontologies, Proceedings of IJCAI-95 Workshop on Basic Ontological Issues in Knowledge Sharing, University of Edinburgh. 9. *** CommonKADS, la http://www.commonkads.uva.nl 10. *** Chimaera, la http://www.ksl.stanford.edu/software/ch imaera 11. *** Ontolingua, la http://www.ontolingua.org 12. *** Protégé-2000, la http://protégé.stanford.edu

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GUIDE FOR DESIGNING A CONTINUOUS PROFESSIONAL TRAINING PROGRAM Sorina-Mihaela MARDAR Ph.D., lecturer, „Carol I” National Defense University Abstract: Professional training is essential for the success of any modern productive organization, regardless of its field of activity. This statement is accepted, more or less tacitly, or even acclaimed, by most administrative boards and top managers (who otherwise do not even dare to state that contrary of this “fashionable” idea) or even by an important part of the trained personnel who are in executive functions. This is also due to the fact that several management studies conducted with different instruments and from different perspectives, confirm the idea that human resources – respectively the quality of professional training on the knowledge, abilities and attitudes plan – are often decisive for reaching the goals set at the workplace, implicitly so that the organizations perform in a certain field of activity. Keywords: professional training, adult education, training program

beginning, so that the client’s and trainer’s expectations are seen in a realistic light.

It may happen that the organizations invest significant financial, material and human resources and apply generous continuous training programs to their own employees but with results that are, often, below expectations. The causes can be multiple and they are not always related to the quality of the continuous professional training program approved, but to the general management, organizational culture etc. However, when the continuous professional training program is the weak point, the analysts often notice that despite the fact that important sums of money were spent on courses conducted by the best didactical methods and techniques, with hyper-qualified instructors, the effects manifested in the practical activity at the workplace are not the ones expected. In this situation the training needs of the organization personnel were not correctly identified.

2.

Establishing the training needs This is one of the main steps in drafting a training program. The training program success or failure depends on this step. Although the analysis of the process which helped identifying training as a solution to the problems in obtaining performance has generated enough information, this information may be incomplete, insufficient, and irrelevant. It is also possible that the trainer was not involved in the process from the start. In several circumstances it is not possible to include everything and sometimes it is not even recommendable to do this. It is necessary that we identify and differentiate the “need of knowing” from “the “pleasure of knowing”. This is a very important stage, as it shows us where we can start from, but at the same time it requires serious negotiation between the trainer and the client, with the purpose of providing the best training program.

1.

Establishing the reference terms A first step before starting to work on a training program is establishing the reference terms. The client must specify and agree with the trainer on what needs to be done. Some managers have no knowledge of the continuous professional training and they find it hard to establish the reference terms. In this situation the trainer has to explain, negotiate and guess what the manager wants. This means that the goals, time, costs, people, physical constraints have to be clarified from the

3. Developing the criteria While different analyses may indicate which should be the content of a certain position, this is not useful if we do not know the performance standard associated to it; this way we make sure that the training program is projected to lead towards reaching that level or at least a 43

in the program. In other situations only a few things are known about the participants, as their selection takes place later. In order to draft the profile of the participants in the training program, the basic information that we need must contain: • the number of participants and their location • the participants’ positions and competencies learning styles and abilities attitudes, expectations and motivation It is important to allocate time for diagnosing the participants’ needs and expectations and for deciding how much flexibility must the program have in order to help the participants accommodate. This requires a tight collaboration between the person who designs the program and the trainer, especially during the monitoring of the program. Thus, any motivation problems that might came up can be carefully analyzed and then adjustments can be made according to the program style, rhythm or content.

level on which the employee can start making progress on his/her own and succeeds in reaching the standard performance. These data will be incorporated in objectives before establishing strategies. The position occupant’s or direct manager’s contributions offer the most important and valuable information for establishing the criteria for that position. 4. Establishing goals and objectives We can define the purpose of a training program starting from answering questions such as why is the program taking place; do the program objectives define what kind of results will be obtained in terms of attitudes, behaviors or performance? It is essential that the program purposes and objectives are listed in writing so that from the beginning all parts involved agree on them and any ambiguity is avoided. If there are errors or any misunderstanding in this stage, expensive resources will be wasted, the program will not reach its goals, and the results will be null or even negative. In theory, the person who designs the training program should be involved in stating the objectives in correlation with the general purpose established together with the “client”. In reality, however, most of the times the person who designs the program must work with objectives that we previously set by someone else. The discrepancies on this level, the poor defining of objectives will generate a series of difficulties which will lead to unsatisfying results and useless work. That is why it is mandatory that the person who designs the program changes the goals and/or objectives when he/she considers that these are inadequate; he/she is the specialist!

6. Establishing the strategy, direction and management Strategy is the path than needs to be followed in order to reach the vision and general purpose. The learning strategy means that we analyze different ways in order to discover the best way to reach the goal and objectives. But who has the initiative, who is responsible with the management? For simple instances these two roles can be combined. But for complex programs they need to be separated and it is necessary to have clarity and an absolute understanding of each one’s responsibility. Who and how many people are necessary for drafting, administrating and evaluating the program? If the learning strategy refers only to training courses, then the internal or external specialists have to be selected and organized. However, if the strategy includes programs for a new qualification, for professional reorientation,

5. Establishing the profile of the training program participants Sometimes the training program is projected for a certain group of employees. In this case it is easier to make an analysis to establish the “profile” of the participants

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then it is necessary to have a connection with the organization that is offering the program. It is also just as important, when we choose a learning strategy, to analyze the organizational context. Thus, if we think of continuous development through integrating learning in every day’s work, it will be vital to have a determinant organizational culture, as well as support from the human resources policies. If another option is realizing the training assisted by the computer, then it is necessary to have a functional infrastructure and to prepare the participants and managers for this type of approach. The workplace climate should be one that promotes the employees that have just returned to work with new knowledge, skills and, probably, new attitudes. Organizational culture changes very slowly, and the ones who “were at the course” could find invisible barriers that are impossible to cross when they return in the organization. In our culture most of the times the ones who participate in different courses use a “reporting” of what they learned in the respective course, answering to a superficial purpose, that of “checking” so that nobody says that they “don’t know”. But then we all return to the old habits, to the old ways of approach, forgetting the course materials in the library. Therefore everything is, in the best case scenario, a personal acquisition, and a waste or resources for the organization. And this because nobody made the effort to prepare the ground of organizational culture, as those who establish the organizational polices don’t take training courses seriously, but they rather see them as a requirement that they don’t understand but they know that “it’s good to do this, let’s see how it turns out”, “so that people don’t say that we are rigid”. The top managers are forced by their superiors to realize such actions. They concentrate on the purely financial aspects and are not interested in what happens to the people after they come back from the course.

7. The selection of participants In an organization it is ideal that the selection of people who participate in a training course is made by the managers and the people responsible with designing and conducting the course. However, things are different in real life; in many situations the people who design the program do not have the power to decide in the selection process. Still, if they control the selection criteria, then they should identify the people for whom the goal and results would be relevant and who would be suitable for the course. A lot of mistakes are made when selecting the participants in training courses. The danger is maybe even greater in the case of external courses because for the one who makes the offer the temptation of accepting people with needs or skills do not match the course profile is big. However, the organizations realize quite fast when different providers try to “sell” a pret-á-porter product instead of realizing something that responds to the needs of the respective organization. 8. Finalizing the strategy and projecting the program Besides the selection of the program participants it is essential to confirm or change the learning strategy initially presented. Although it is usually just a confirmation, from time to time the information obtained from the needs analysis recommends changes on the level of projecting the program or the strategy that were selected. Ignoring these data may endanger the success of the program. When we design the training program it is essential that we adopt a systematic approach. This process must be characterized by consistency, internal (it refers to the systematic cycle of functional tasks), as well as external (involving all parts from the very beginning, realizing a partnership, and unanimous agreement in making decisions). Learning situations consist of a combination of means and methods, their

45

of an expert fulfilling a task, the learning will “appear” due to osmosis. The use of different training packages, which use computer assisted training and video techniques, require help from a competent tutor. Offering material resources to the course participants and then letting them learn by themselves is not enough. Learning is much more efficient with the trainer’s or even a colleague’s help, who shows himself/herself interested in the progress made and who acts like a supporter. While we are paying attention to the training strategies, there is the danger of sliding towards the situation in which one “reinvents the wheel”. That is why it is necessary that we review the existent training programs – the ones that are conducted within the organization, as well as the ones outside the organization. Sending people to courses, whether these are internal or external, is not a purpose in itself. It is the trainer’s responsibility to monitor the feedback, so that he/she obtains a detailed profile of the resources that were used. This way the participants are encouraged to find by themselves the reasons behind the success or the failure and to offer suggestions for improvement in an open and honest climate. The purpose is that of learning from experience, of improving performance and offering information that can be used further by the trainers. Putting into practice raises a few problems if: • the program is designed in such a manner that the involved parties agree that it responds to the identified needs and for which it was designed; • the learning strategies, the participants, the trainers have been carefully selected; • the program was well designed; • the planning and managerial processes communicate and are realized by experts. Adaptability is essential.

assembly being flexible enough to make changes if difficulties in learning come up. The choice of means and methods is determined by the specific of the situation. One of the main determinants in this choice is the budget allocated for designing and conducting the program. The organizational context has the same importance: some top managers might consider that the line managers do not need external courses for their development, while others might consider that exactly this type of courses is essential in the process of development and they will choose means and methods that serve this purpose. Also, it is good to check, in the past history of the organization, the connection between means, methods and the efficiency of the program. 9. Design and pilot training Pilot training is a stage that the trainer, who is often under pressure, tends not to take into consideration. Many times the clients, who have reservations towards sending their people to training programs, tend to declare their complete confidence in the trainer and to determine him/her to continue. He/she must resist to these attempts each time he/she has the chance, and when this is not possible, the clients must be informed about the possible action “shortcuts”. Conducting every aspect of the training, including the administration of the program, must be planned carefully and in extreme detail. 10. Conducting the program The managerial processes and policies involved in applying the program are as important as the technical expertise. Selection and the training design do not represent a guarantee of success. Everybody appreciates a competent trainer. Still, the skills and abilities that are necessary for the trainer are often not taken into account. The technical competency in itself is not sufficient. The trainers themselves must be trained for the use of certain techniques – there is the wrong opinion that, through the simple observation

46

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program.

11. Monitoring and evaluating the program Monitoring can be compared to “taking the temperature” of the efficiency of different aspects of the program. Evaluation targets the whole value of the program; it places the program in the organizational context and looks at the way in which the obtained results influence the planning of the next actions.

Bibliography: 1. Boydell, Tom, Leary Malcolm. (1996): Identifying training needs, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development House, London. 2. D’Hainaut, L. (1981): Programe de învăţământ şi educaţie permanentă, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti. 3. Gagne, Robert M. (1975): Condiţiile învăţării, Editura Didactică şi Pedagogică, Bucureşti. 4. Goldstein, Irwin L., (1989): Training and development in organizations, Jossey-Bass Inc. Publisher, San Francisco. 5. Goldstein, Irwin L., Ford, Kevin J. (2002): Training in organizations: needs assessment, development, and evaluation, Wadsworth Group, Canada. 6. Hamblin A. C., (1974): Evaluation and Control of Training, Maidenhead, McGraw-Hill. 7. Hardingham, Alison. (2003): Designing training, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development House, London. 8. Harrison, Rosemary. (2003): Learning and development, Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development House, London. 9. Warr, P., Bird, M. W. and Rackham, N. (1970): Evaluation of Management Training, Aldershot, Gower.

Conclusions Although this approach may seem to be on the common sense level, there may be critics as well. One of these refers to the large number of steps and to the content of each step, to the fact that it seems to be a slow and expensive process and even if it sounds good in theory, one may consider that the investment is not justified in time. The option of presenting all stages in detail is justified by the fact that, most of the times, the trainers are not specialists in this field, but rather people who are trying to have a new occupation, to re-specialize (most of the times engineers). They in particular find it very useful to have the stages of designing a continuous training program explained in detail. The specialist in the field of education find it easier to navigate through these stages, they identify faster the critical points that they need to treat with more attention, they can combine stages or apply them in parallel where possible. Developing as a specialized function, training has also developed its own language; it is believed that this creates barriers by using jargon, thus making the whole process too difficult for people who are not specialists.

47

SANCTION – VIRTUES AND LIMITATIONS IN EDUCATION Adriana RÎŞNOVEANU Letiţia TRIF Ph.D., lecturer, “Carol I” National Defense University [email protected] Ph.D., lecturer, “1 Decembrie” University, Alba Iulia [email protected] Abstract: Reward and sanction are reactions of a person or an instance to a behavior that supports, respectively affects norms, values and people that are part of a constituted group (the collective of a classroom that is supervised by a teacher or the school community). If reward is always accompanied by positive affective states which value people and place them in a positive light, sanction, which has the role of correcting by showing that the way things are in the present is wrong becomes a “two blade knife”: it can do good (fix things by showing the right way they need to be done) or wrong (by humiliating the person who is sanctioned, by punishing), depending on how it is designed and used. Our purpose in the present article is to present several considerations on the rather non-educational way in which sanction is used in Romanian schools. Keywords: sanction, educational sanction, non-educational sanction

between educator and child is not compromised. Exclusion from the lesson, from classroom, from school is an incomplete sanction, a simple safety measure that an adult or a community takes for protection and it is no different from violence. The same author points out the fact that the sanction in the school space has to focus on accomplishing three goals: A political purpose, of rehabilitating the law that the adult applies. The punishment does not have to seem an unnecessary act of the teacher’s authority, but has to be considered a teacher’s intervention with the purpose of respecting the law; An ethical purpose, of making the child more responsible, since you can punish only the one who’s responsible. Sanction must be a way of making the subject responsible by imposing on him/her the consequences of his/her actions. In school, which is a space of learning and simulation, the child has the right to try transgressing the norms. He/she is verifying himself/herself by verifying how good his/her social environment works. However, each time the structuring interdictions have to be rephrased, as not transgression of norms, but ignoring transgression is

INTRODUCTION When analyzing the role of sanction in socialization, Eirick Prairat (2001) considers that there are two types of sanctions: the ones which build and support education and the ones which undermine education in school. A sanction applied in school must be an analogue of the educational act, and sanction is an educational act only if it focuses on rehabilitation and integration of the one who’s guilty, if it is a way of re-qualifying the subject. The educational sanction: Must address an individual, not a group (the group can also have innocent members who pay for the guilty ones. For instance the teacher who gives the whole class a test because one student was late); Must be explained as any sanction which is not understood is cruel, and generates evil instead of good; Refers to acts that attempt to the common order. The person in his/her integrity is not punished, but a particular act that took place in a particular situation; Is accompanied by a reparatory procedure, so that the relationship

48

bad. The ethical purpose of sanction is that of progressively creating in a child the capacity of imposing which leads to building his/her freedom; A psychological purpose, of freeing the subject divided between doing evil and being evil. The educational sanction is a stop made by an adult in order to reorientate a behavior that is adrift, a precaution that offers security to the individual concerned as well as to those around him/her. A teacher who does not sanction is an educator who does not assume his/her responsibilities as he/she does nothing else but abandon someone else’s sanctions. We wanted to underline these aspects related to the educational aspects of sanction as a teacher’s activity with students implies a large spectrum of positive as well as negative things. As far as these aspects of everyday life – that may characterize life in or outside the classroom – are concerned, the teacher must decide if a reward or a sanction is needed and especially what kind of reward or sanction he/she will apply. The teacher is the one in charge of the reward and sanction management in the classroom, and it is fundamental for he/she to know the errors he/she may make in order to be able to apply the practice of reward and sanction in a constructive and not destructive manner.

b) Nomination, by the director, in front of their classmates or in front of the teachers’ council; c) Verbal or written communication addressed to parents, mentioning the outstanding acts for which the student is nominated; d) Scholarships or other material rewards granted by the state, by economical agents or sponsors; e) Awards, diplomas, medals; f) Recommendation for going, with priority, to trips or camps in the country or abroad; g) The prize of honor awarded by the respective educational unit.” For serious violation of the school norms nominated in “Regulations for the organization and functioning of preuniversity educational units” (section 6, art. 118 and 120) the sanctions are the following: a) “Individual observation (translated by the teacher scolding the student); b) Scolding in front of the class and/or in front of the teachers’ council (translated by scolding the student in public and advising him/her to behave in such a manner as to prove his/her behavior is corrected, or otherwise the sanction will be more sever. This is accompanied by a low mark for conduct; c) Scolding in writing (consists of scolding the student in writing and handing this document to the parents. This is accompanied by a low mark for conduct); d) Temporary or definitive withdrawal of the scholarship (it is accompanied by a low mark for conduct); e) Eliminating the student from courses for a period of 3-5 days (the usual student’s activity in the classroom is replaced with another type of activity in the learning institution. It is accompanied by a low mark for conduct);

ROMANIAN SCHOOLS REALITY The “Regulations for the organization and functioning of pre-university educational units” (section 5, art. 115) lists the following rewards which the students “who obtain remarkable results in their school and extra-school activity and distinguish due to exemplary behavior” (those who have the highest class attendance rate and those who distinguish through acts with a “high moral and civic standard”) may receive: a) “Nomination in from of their classmates;

49

front of classmates stimulate these ones to be better or does it lead to envy, competition, the desire of being on top of the hierarchy no matter what? Reward and sanction are socializing practices which, if used in a wrong manner, may lead to perverting behaviours, to generating exclusively extrinsic motivations for the learning act.

f) Disciplinary relocation in a parallel class in the same school (it is accompanied by a low mark for conduct); g) Disciplinary relocation in another educational unit, with the approval of the management of the unit that receives the student (it is accompanied by a low mark for conduct); h) Notice of expulsion (it is accompanied by a low mark for conduct); i) Expulsion (it is accompanied by a low mark for conduct - under 6,00).” Analyzing the rewards and sanctions from the point of view of their educational effects, we consider that the requirements of these “Regulations for the organization and functioning of pre-university educational units” only come to support an institution with formal needs, completely separated from the formative actions that the school must initiate. We wonder what was the reasoning of the people who designed these Regulations when they proposed as a “corrective” measure for antischool conduct relocating a student who does not respect the discipline in a parallel class or in a different school? But is expulsion a solution for the student (who will have enough time to meditate on his/her blameable conduct) or for the school (who recognizes its educational lack of competency and inability of finding reasonable solutions for an extreme case)? Is there any difference between expulsion practiced by school and the punishment applied by the parent who kicks out the problematic child? We are also asking ourselves why the rewards given to students are projected as a public show of emphasizing hierarchies based on adults’ criteria of social comparison, of pointing some students’ superiority and, implicitly, others’ inferiority? Does nominating in

TEACHERS’ AND STUDENTS’ PERCEPTIONS OF APPLYING THE SANCTIONS FOR ACTS OF INDISCIPLINE Sanctioning means triggering a socialization practice, as sanction always appears when someone breaks the norms recognized as desirable by the members of a group. In the classroom the teacher faces many situations in which the students, willingly or not, break the norms of common living in the school space (“When you are facing a disciplinary problem in the classroom you teach, how do you usually act?”). Our intention was to find to what degree do teachers use, in a concrete situation, of indiscipline in the classroom, educational sanctions (SANCT_ED_1: after the class finishes I will stay for talks and explanations regarding the respective actions) or non-educational sanctions (SANCT_NONED_1: Ask the ones involved to leave the classroom, SANCT_NONED_2: I apply a sanction right away, SANCT_NONED_3: I do not react). Our study was made on a sample of 96 teachers (64 in military high schools, 32 in civilian high schools) and 500 students (300 in military high schools and 200 in civilian high schools). The results obtained are more than interesting, especially that we can compare the perceptions of the two categories of actors who interact in applying a sanction:

50

Civilian High School Military High School

0.00% 12.50%

Teachers

15.65%

71.85%

22.00%

Students

45.50%

0.00% 0.00% 12.50% Teachers

13.00%

87.50% 4.00%

2.00% 51.30%

Students

0%

19.50%

10%

20%

30%

SANCT_NON_ED_1

42.70%

40%

50%

SANCT_NON_ED_2

60%

70%

SANCT_NON_ED_3

80%

90%

100%

SANCT_ED

Figure 1: Comparative perceptions of teachers and students on the application of sanctions one declared by those who can initiate the sanction. As far as the educational sanction is concerned, the students state that the teachers use it in 42.70% of the cases, this representing half of the percentage indicated by the teachers’ perceptions. o In the case of military high school we have to notice that asking the student to leave or not reacting to acts of indiscipline are marginal aspects compared to applying a momentary sanction or to the teachers’ using the educational sanction. o The teachers in civilian high schools declare that in a proportion of 71.88% of the cases they stay after class with the problematic students in order to discuss and find out the causes of their behaviour, that in 15.63% of the cases they apply a sanction on the spot to those who disturb the class and that in 12.50% of the situations they ask the problematic students to leave the classroom. Not reacting to a situation of indiscipline is not a solution that the teachers in the civilian environment would use. Analyzing the situation declared by the teachers, we underline the fact that in the case of the civilian teachers as well there is high appetite

o The teachers in the military environment state that they use in a proportion of 87.50% of the cases the educational sanction and only in 12.50% of the cases they apply on the spot a sanction to the student who does not respect the discipline, without studying the causes of the disturbing behaviour. We notice that the teachers state that in a proportion of 0.00% of the cases they have to deal with they ask the student in question to leave or they don’t react. Overall the situation is extremely positive and it illustrates the predominant use of educational sanctions in the teacher – student relationship; o However the situation is completely different in the perception of the students in the military environment. Unlike their teachers, the students state that in 2.00% of the situations the teachers ask the student in question to leave and in 4.00% of the situations they do not react to the act of indiscipline. The students in the military environment confess that in 51.30% of the cases the teachers react towards indiscipline by applying sanctions on the spot. The percentage is approximately 4 times higher than the

51

teachers use the same type of sanctions in 57.30% (cumulative) of the cases. In conclusion, we consider that the teacher declare in a desirable fashion the use of practices with known educational values for sanctioning students. However, using the educational sanction in the classroom has to suffer because applying a punitive sanction is easier for the teacher (this can be applied on the spot, without any explanatory discussions), it implies less effort due to the fact that it is enforced and, moreover, its public character discourages other such behaviour in other students. The punitive strategy that excludes the discussions between teacher and student has two types of effects: either the respective student revises his/her behaviour for fear (conforms), or he/she will continue to stand up to the teacher’s authority, reacting in an ostentatious manner. In both cases the educational effect of the teacher’s action on student level is null. Applying an educational sanction requires more effort from the teacher (who has to stay after class, listen the student, talk to him/her), means that the teacher has to postpone or give up satisfying his/her personal ego in the implicit conflict with the respective student. By using this strategy the student has the right to reparatory sanction about which he finds out by personally discussing with the teacher, he/she receives attention, sees that his/her act did not pass unnoticed, and he/she is not nominated in front of his/her colleagues as a negative example. On the other hand the teacher finds out the real reasons of the student’s behaviour, has a dialogue with the student, and applies sanctions according to causes and effects. Another aspect which we would like to approach in our analysis is the SANCT_NONED_3 indicator, which appears with a 0.00% value in both categories of teachers, but with positive values, 4.00%, respectively 13.00%, in military and civilian students. Taking into consideration the fact that the students and teachers have different perceptions of this

for using the educational sanction, which assumes a discussion with the student who does not respect the discipline in order to find out the causes of his/her behaviour and offer him/her the right to provide explanations. At the same time we must underline with worry the high percentage of those who state that they use the sanction of the “expulsion” from class type, this sanction representing actually an abandoning of the student, a rejection and actually a solution that the teacher uses for his/her protection. o However, the students in the civilian high schools have a totally different perception from that of their teachers’, increasing considerably the percentages of the non-educational practices in the detriment of the educational ones: thus, the students state that in 22.00% of the cases (percentage almost double compared to what the teachers state) the teachers ask those who disturb the class to leave the classroom, in 45.50% of the cases they apply a sanction on the spot (percentage that is 3 times higher than the one indicated by the teachers’ perception), in 19.50% of the cases they apply an educational sanction (percentage that is 3.5 times lower than the one indicated by the teachers’ perception) and in 13.00% they don’t react. Overall we notice that the students’ perception is opposite to that of the teachers: the more a sanction is indicated by teachers as representing a frequent practice in the classroom, the less the students indicate it as such, and vice versa. While the teachers declare that they use mainly educational sanctions as a practice for imposing discipline, the students point out, through their perceptions, that noneducational sanctions are mainly used in the classroom: the students in civilian high schools state that their teachers use noneducational sanctions in 80.50% (cumulative) of the cases, the students in military high schools state that their

52

educational sanction is absolutely necessary as it will cultivate a teacher –student relationship different from that between “policemen” and “criminals”. The culture of the educational sanction promotes on one hand the desire of correcting things once one was made aware of the error, as well as the student’s behavioural and attitude progress, and on the other hand it takes the student out of the mistake stigmata and rehabilitates him/her in front of the school collective.

indicator, the explanations which we consider pertinent are as follows: o The classroom is the place of many horizontal interactions and of challenges for the teacher’s authority on a secondary plan, hidden to the teacher’s eyes, but perceived as such by the group of students. The students know the interdictions for having other preoccupations than the educational activities and they assimilate these subterraneous actions to acts of indiscipline to which the teacher does not react. These are not observed by the teacher and, in consequence, not sanctioned, but they are perceived as such by students. o Our explanation is also sustained by the difference of percentage between the military students’ perceptions and the civilian students’ perception. While the military environment is one in which authority and its respect are strongly underlined, the environment of a civilian high school is more relaxed from this point of view. The military students dare to realise “clandestine acts” in the classroom 3 times less compared to the civilian students. Saying that the teachers do not react to these acts is synonymous to recognizing the success of the “rebels” in front of an authority that has to stop them from manifesting.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. *** Regulations for the organization and functioning of pre-university educational units (http://www.edu.ro/index.php/articles/5 55). 2. Darmon, Muriel. La Socialisation. Paris: Armand Colin, 2007. 3. Dubar, Claude. La Socialisation – construction des identités sociales et professionnelles. Paris: Armand Colin, 2002. 4. Houssaye, Jean, Autorite ou education?. Paris: ESF Editeur, 2007. 5. Păun, Emil. Şcoala – abordare sociopedagogică. Iaşi: Editura Polirom, 1999. 6. Perrenoud, Philippe. Métier de l'élève et sens du travail scolaire. Paris: ESF, 2004. 7. Prairat, Eirick. Sanction et socialisation. Idées, résultats et problèmes. Paris: PUF, 2001.

CONCLUSIONS In the Romanian school environment the culture that is rather developed is that of the non-educational sanction, sanction that has the purpose of punishing, of causing pain and humiliation for the one who’s sanctioned. Promoting a culture of

53

K-ORGANIZATIONS

NUMERICAL EVALUATION OF LOADED CREDIBILITY Virginia ATANASIU Ph.D., lecturer, Mathematics Department, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: An original paper, which describes techniques for estimating premiums for risks, containing a fraction (a part) of the variance of the risk as a loading on the net risk premium. Keywords: Esscher premium, variance premium, the linearized credibility formula.

{[ ∫ E [(Y − g ( x)) e

2

2

One approach is to consider the Esscherpremium. In the first section (section 1) it is shown that it can be used as an approximation to the variance loaded premium, by truncating a series expansion. In the following section (section 2) this premium is derived as an optimal estimator minimizing a suitable loss function. In the credibility theory so far the credibility results described are intended to estimate pure net risk premiums. An important question arises if one is interested in estimating the variance loaded premiums. In a top-down approach, the collective premium can be distributed proportionally to this loaded risk premium. Therefore we also consider credibility estimates for loaded risk premiums.

[

[

For

]

( P)

[

[

not .

] [

[

(

)

( )

] [ ]

]

]

ϕ ( p ) = E (Z − p )2 e hZ = .

(

)

E Z e + p E e − 2 pE Ze hZ We have to solve the following minimization problem: Min ϕ ( p ) (1.2). 2 hZ

2

hZ

p

Since (1.2) is the minimum of a positive definite quadratic form, it is suffices to find a solution with the first derivative equal to zero. Taking the first derivative with respect to p, we get the equation: 2 pE e hZ − 2 E Ze hZ = 0 . So: hZ hZ p = E Ze / E e , because: '' hZ ϕ ( p ) = 2 E e > 0 . If the integrand is chosen minimal for each x, the integral over all x is minimized, too. Application 1.1 (Esscher premium and variance premium): For small h, the Esscher premium approaches the variance principle. This can be seen by approximating numerator and denominator of H [Y X ] up to the first order in h:

( ) ( ) ( ) ( ) ( )

]

] [

]

| X = x dFX ( x ) .

( Z ≡ [Y | ( X = x )] ). This quadratic form in p is minimized taking p = E Ze hZ / E e hZ or what is the same g(x) hY hY = E Ye | X = x / E e | X = x . Indeed:

Replacing the loss function (y-x)2 when y is estimated instead of x by a slightly more general weighted loss function (yx)2ehy, one gets the following best function of X to estimate a random variable Y. Minimizing weighted mean squared error: When X and Y are two random variables and Y must be estimated using a function g(X) of X, the choice yielding the minimal weighted mean squared error 2 E (Y − g ( X ) ) e hY is the Esscher premium for Y, given X: H [Y | X ] = E Ye hY | X / E e hY | X (1.1). Proof: write: 2 E (Y − g ( X ) ) e hY =

[

hY

fixed x the integrand can be written as: 2 E (Z − p ) e hZ , with p = g ( x ) and Z distributed as Y, given X=x

1. THEORY AND APPLICATIONS

[

]}

E E (Y − g ( X ) ) e hY | X =

INTRODUCTION

]

H [Y | X ] =

]

[

] ( )

E [Y | X ] + hE Y 2 | X + O(h 2 ) = 1 + hE [Y | X ] + O h 2

(E[Y | X ] + hE [Y 2 | X ]+ O(h 2 ))(1 − hE[Y | X ] + 57

( ))

( ) ( )

+ O h 2 = E [Y | X ] + hVar [Y | X ] + O h 2 . Indeed, we have: e hY ≈ 1 + hY + O h 2 , and so: Ye hY ≅ Y + hY 2 + O h 2 . Therefore, from (1.1) we get: hY E Ye | X H [Y | X ] = =. E e hY | X

( )

[

[ [

] ]

( ) ] ( ) ]

[

]

(

n

n

n

j =1

j =1

i =1

)

∑ w4j μ4 + 3∑ w3j ∑ wi2 − w2j δ ij σ 4

(1.5).

Furthermore: k E ( X r − μ ) (Y − μ ) = wr μ k +1 , k = 2,3

(1.6),

[

]

[

]

E ( X r − μ ) (Y − μ ) = 2

2

E Y + hY + O h | X E [Y | X ] + hE Y | X + O (h ) = E 1 + hY + O h 2 | X 1 + hE [Y | X ] + O (h 2 )

∑ (w

Also:

E ( X r − μ )( X s − μ )(Y − μ ) =

2

2

[

2

n

2

j =1

if:

On

2wr wsσ , r ≠ s

[

−1

n

j =1

j =1

w j ≥ 0, j = 1,2,..., n .

[

[

3

]

=1

1

3

1

3

3

∑ w w w E[( X i

j

k

i

]

− μ )(X j − μ )( X k − μ )

i , j ,k

(1.11). The expectation in this summation is zero, unless: all three summation indices are equal; this gives the term of (1.4):

[

]

[

n

]

n

E (Y − μ ) = ∑ wi3 E ( X i − μ ) = ∑ wi3 μ 3 3

i =1

3

i =1

. The expectation in (1.11) is zero, when: i ≠ j ≠ k , or: i = j , but k ≠ j , or: i = k , but j ≠ k , or: j = k , but i ≠ k . The verification of equality (1.4) is readily performed. Equality (1.5) can be proven by induction. For n = 1 one has trivially: 4 E (Y − μ ) = μ 4 , because:

[ ] E [(Y − μ ) ] = E [w ( X − μ ) ] = . w E [( X − μ ) ] = 1μ = μ For n > 1 , may write: E [(Y − μ ) ] = .

and

4

4 1

Then: (1.4),

]

and: E (Y − μ ) =

58

4

4 1

1

4

1

4

4

j =1 4

3

3 1

3

3 1

n

E (Y − μ ) = ∑ w 3j μ 3 3

j

]

2

[ ] E [(Y − μ ) ] = E [w ( X − μ ) ] = w E [( X − μ ) ] = 1μ = μ . For n > 1 , we may write: E [(Y − μ ) ] =

4

∑w

(1.9),

(1.10). wsσ , r ≠ s Proof: equality (1.4) can be proven by induction. For n = 1 one has trivially: 3 E (Y − μ ) = μ 3 , because:

] − μ ) ] . Let Y be defined as: where

)

4

2

n

(

j =1

[

In fact any loss function ( y − x ) w( y ) with small h = w' (0 ) / w(0) leads to expression (1.3). From this application we may conclude that to derive credibility estimates for premiums loaded with a fraction of the variance, as well as for Esscher premiums, one may consider a weighted loss function. To be able to compute the loaded credibility estimates, we will need (co-) variances of squares of the observations. Application 1.2 (Third and fourth central moments of weighted averages of i.i.d. random variables): Suppose that X1, X2, …, Xn are independent random variables with the same expectations μ and variance σ2, and in addition for each r: μ 3 = E ( X r − μ )3 , and Y = ∑ wj X j ,

]

E ( X r − μ ) ( X s − μ )(Y − μ ) =

obtains:

2

r

3

3wrσ 4 ∑ w 2j − wr2δ jr + wr3 μ 4

2

μ4

(1.8),

E ( X r − μ )(Y − μ ) =

(1 + hE[Y | X ] + O(h )) ≅ 1 − h E[Y | X ] + + O (h ) , and thus: H [Y | X ] = E [Y | X ] + + hVar[Y | X ] + O (h ) (1.3). 2

]

4

taking

one

(1.7), 2

n

Z = hE[Y | X ] + O (h 2 )

[ = E [( X

)

− wr2δ jr σ 4 + wr2 μ 4

[

(1 + Z ) = 1 + (− 1) Z + (− 1)(− 1 − 1) Z 2 + ... 1! 2! ( − 1)(− 1 − 1)...(− 1 − n + 1) n ... + Z + ... , −1

n! Z < 1.

2 j

4

we

∑ w w w w E [( X i

j

k

l

i

]

− μ )(X j − μ )( X k − μ )( X l − μ )

implies our second assertion (see (1.6)). Now, we have: 2 2 E ( X r − μ ) (Y − μ ) = ∑ wi w j

i , j , k ,l

[ E [( X

The expectation in this summation is zero, unless: i) all four summation indices are equal; this gives the first term of (1.5), that

∑ w E [( X n

is:

i =1

4 i

i

]

n

− μ ) = ∑ w μ 4 ; ii) the 4

4 i

i =1

indices from two pairs, e.g. i=j and k=l, but j≠ l (1.12); Also: i=k and j=l, but k≠ l (1.13), and when: i=l, j=k, but l≠ k (1.14). The expectation then equals σ 4 . The case: i=j, k=l, j ≠ l (see (1.12)), gives the term: ⎡ ⎤ 2 2 2 2 4 ⎢∑ w j wl − ∑ w j δ lj ⎥ E (X j − μ ) E ( X l − μ ) j ,l ⎣ j ,l ⎦ 2 2 2 = ∑ w j ∑ wl − w j δ lj σ 4 . The case: i =k, j

[

(

j

][

]

=k, l ≠ k (see (1.14)), gives the term: ⎡ ⎤ 2 2 2 2 4 ⎢∑ wk wl − ∑ wl δ kl ⎥ E ( X l − μ ) E ( X k − μ ) l ,k ⎣ l ,k ⎦ 2 2 2 = ∑ wl ∑ (wk − wl δ kl )σ 4 . The term with

∑ w E [( X j

]

r

i

]

∑ w E [( X − μ ) ] E (X − μ ) = w μ + 0 = w μ j

]

r

r

4

r

4

,

[

][

]

[

][

]

]

]

[

3

j

− μ )] , for n > 1. The expectation in this summation is zero, unless: when i=r and j=s; then i ≠ j; this gives the term: 2 2 w r w s E ( X r − μ ) E ( X s − μ ) = wr w s σ 4 , and when i=s and j=r; then i ≠ j; this gives the term: 2 2 ws wr E ( X s − μ ) E ( X r − μ ) = wr wsσ 4 . So the verification of equality of (1.8) is readily performed. Next, we have: 3 E ( X r − μ )(Y − μ ) = ∑ wi w j wk E [( X r − μ )( X i − μ )(X j − μ )( X k − μ )]

[

wr μ 3 + 0 = wr μ 3 , which proves our first assertion (see (1.6)). For k = 3, we obtain: 4 3 E ( X r − μ ) (Y − μ ) = wr E ( X r − μ ) + j, j≠r

− μ )( X s − μ )( X i − μ ){X j

(n > 1). The expectation in this summation is zero, unless: when i=j=k=r which gives the second term of (1.9), that is: 4 wr3 E ( X r − μ ) = wr3 μ 4 , and when i=r, j=k, with r ≠ k, which gives the term: ⎛ ⎞ 2 2 wr ⎜ ∑ wk2 − ∑ wr2δ kr ⎟ E ( X r − μ ) E ( X k − μ ) = k ⎝ k ⎠ ⎛ ⎞ = wr ⎜ ∑ (wk2 − wr2δ kr )σ 4 ⎟ , and when j = r, ⎝ k ⎠ i = k, with r ≠ k, which gives the term:

]

[

r

i , j ,k

j

]

j

]

[

− μ ) (X j − μ ) =

[

This term with δjr arises because the case of all three indices equal must be ruled out. The verification of equality (1.7) is readily performed. Let r ≠ s. We write: 2 E ( X r − μ )( X s − μ )(Y − μ ) = i, j

δlj, δlk, δkl arises because the case of all four indices equal must be ruled out. The weight of “σ4” in (1.5) is obtained by considering that the same term results in three ways: (1.12), (1.13), (1.14). The verification of equality (1.5) is readily performed. For k = 2, we have: 2 E ( X r − μ ) (Y − μ ) = 2

]

)

] ∑ w w E[( X

k

[

][

j

[

l

l

]

(

][

][

]

− μ ) ( X i − μ ) (X j − μ ) , for n > 1.

[

)

[

r

[

= l, k ≠ l (see (1.13)), gives the term: ⎡ ⎤ 2 2 2 2 4 ⎢∑ wk wl − ∑ wk δ lk ⎥ E ( X k − μ ) E ( X l − μ ) k ,l ⎣ k ,l ⎦ 2 2 2 = ∑ wk ∑ (wl − wk δ lk )σ 4 . The case: i =l, j k

i, j

2

The expectation in this summation is zero, unless: when i=j=r, which gives the second term of (1.7), that is: 4 2 2 wr E ( X r − μ ) = wr μ 4 , and when i =j, but j ≠ r, which gives the first term of (1.7), that is: ⎤ ⎡ 2 2 2 2 ⎢∑ w j − ∑ wr δ jr ⎥ E ( X r − μ ) E (X j − μ ) = j ⎦ ⎣ j 2 2 . ∑ w j − wr δ jr σ 4 ,

l

[

]

which

59

][

]

[

][

] [

]

σ4 ⎛ ⎞ 2 2 2 wr ⎜ ∑ wk2 − ∑ wr2δ kr ⎟ E ( X r − μ ) E ( X k − μ ) = E ( X r − μ ) ( X s − μ )(Yn − μ ) = n k ⎝ k ⎠ ( r ≠ s ) (1.19). ⎛ ⎞ = wr ⎜ ∑ wk2 − wr2δ kr σ 4 ⎟ , and when k=r, Proof: we have: ⎝ k ⎠ n 1 1 E [Yn ] = ∑ E ( X i ) = nμ = μ ; i=j, with r ≠ j, which gives the term: n i =1 n ⎛ ⎞ 2 2 wr ⎜⎜ ∑ w j − ∑ wr δ jr ⎟⎟ 1 n σ2 Var [Yn ] = 2 ∑ Var ( X i ) = ; j ⎝ j ⎠ n i =1 n ⎛ ⎞ 2 2 n E ( X r − μ ) E (X j − μ ) = wr ⎜⎜ ∑ (w 2j − wr2 δ jr )σ 4 ⎟⎟ μ 1 n 3 ( ) − μ = μ = 3 μ 3 = 23 (see E Y ⎝ j ⎠ ∑ n 3 3 n n j =1 n So the verification of equality (1.9) is 1 readily performed. Let r ≠ s. We have: (1.4), with w j = , j = 1, n , from 2 n E ( X r − μ ) ( X s − μ )(Y − μ ) = 4 Application 1.2). E (Yn − μ ) = 2 ( ) ( ) ( ) w E X − μ X − μ X − μ = ∑j j r s j n n 1 1 n ⎛ 1 δ ij ⎞ 4 ⎜ − 2 ⎟⎟σ = 3 μ + ∑ ∑ 4 4 2 ∑⎜ 2 wsσ 4 + + 0 = wsσ 4 . The verification of n ⎠ j =1 n j =1 n i =1 ⎝ n equality (1.10) is readily performed. 1 1 μ 4 + 3(n − 1) 3 σ 4 (see (1.5), with Application 1.3 For the sample 3 n n 1 n 1 mean Yn = X = ∑ X i of i.i.d. random w j = , for all j = 1, n , from n i =1 n variables X1,…, Xn we have the following Application 1.2). For k = 2,3 we have: expressions for the central 3rd and 4th 2 2 E ( X r − μ ) (Yn − μ ) = 1 n E [Yn ] = μ , moment: Var [Yn ] = σ 2 , (n − 1) σ 4 + 1 ⎛ 1 ⎞ 4 1 n ⎜ 2 − 2 δ jr ⎟σ + 2 μ 4 = ∑ n n n2 ⎠ j =1 ⎝ n μ3 3 E (Yn − μ ) = 2 , 1 1 n μ 4 (see (1.7) with w j = , for all 2 n n μ 3(n − 1) 4 4 σ . Also, the E (Yn − μ ) = 34 + j = 1, n , from Application 1.2). n n3 Let r ≠ s. We have: following relations are valid: k 2 2 E ( X r − μ ) (Yn − μ ) = E ( X r − μ )( X s − μ )(Yn − μ ) = 2 σ 4 (see n 1 μ k +1 , k = 2,3 (1.15), 1 n (1.8) with w j = , for all j = 1, n , from 2 2 n E ( X r − μ ) (Yn − μ ) = Application 1.2). Also, we have: n − 1 2 μ4 3 E ( X r − μ )(Yn − μ ) = σ + 2 (1.16), 2 n n n 1 1 ⎛ 1 ⎞ 1 2σ 4 3 σ 4 ∑ ⎜ 2 − 2 δ jr ⎟ + 3 μ 4 = 2 E ( X r − μ )( X s − μ )(Yn − μ ) = 2 n n ⎠ n j =1 ⎝ n n 3(n − 1) 4 1 1 (r ≠ s ) (1.17), σ + 3 μ 4 (see (1.9) with w j = , 3 n n n 3 E ( X r − μ )(Yn − μ ) = for all j = 1, n , from Application 1.2). Let 3(n − 1) 4 μ 4 (1.18), σ + 3 r ≠ s. We have: n3 n 1 2 E ( X r − μ ) ( X s − μ )(Yn − μ ) = σ 4 (see n

(

[

[

)

][

]

[

]

[

]

[

]

[

[ [ [

]

] ]

]

[

[

]

[

[

]

[

]

]

]

]

[

60

]

(1.10) with w j =

1 t ∑ X i is the individual estimator, and t i =1 a, s2 and m are the structural parameters as defined in (2.1): m = E [X r ] = E[μ(θ)], r = 1, t ,

1 , for all j = 1, n , from n

X =

Application 1.2). 2. CREDIBILITY FOR ESSCHER PREMIUMS

r = 1, t ,

a = Var{E[Xr|θ]} = Var[μ(θ)],

σ (θ ) = Var[Xr|θ = θ ], s2=E{Var[Xr|θ]}=E[ σ 2 (θ)],

Consider the original Bühlmann model:

r = 1, t ,

2

r = 1, t , relations numbered with (2.1). If μ(θ) is replaced by Xt+1 in the above minimum problem, exactly the same solution z X + (1 − z )m is obtained, since the covariations with X are the same. Application 2.1: Applying (1.1)-of the previous section-to Y=Xt+1 and ' X = X = ( X 1 ,..., X t ) , we see that the best risk premium-in the sense of weighted mean squared error- to charge for period t+1 is H [ X t +1 | X ] = E X t +1e hX t +1 | X / E e hX t +1 | X . For small h, the expansion (1.3) for H [ X t +1 | X ] can be rewritten as follows: H [ X t +1 | X ] ≅ E [μ (θ ) | X ] +

2.1 The original credibility model of Bühlmann In this sub-section we first present Bühlmann’s original model, which implies only one isolated contract. The original Bühlmann model presents the optimal linear credibility estimate for the risk premium of this case. In the original credibility model of Bühlmann, we consider one contract with unknown and fixed risk parameter θ, during a period of t years. The yearly claim amounts are noted by X1,…,Xt. The risk parameter θ is supposed to be taken from some structure distribution U(·). It is assumed that, for given θ = θ , the claims are conditionally independent and identically distributed with known common distribution function FX|θ(x, θ ). For this model we want to estimate the net premium μ( θ )=E[Xr|θ = θ ], r = 1, t as well as Xt+1 for a contract with risk parameter θ. Suppose X1,…,Xt are random variables with finite variation, which are, for given θ = θ , conditionally independent and identically distributed with already known common distribution function FX|θ(x, θ ). The structure distribution function is U( θ ) = P[θ ≤ θ ]. Let D represent the set of nonhomogeneous linear combinations g(·) of the observable random variables X1, X2, …, Xt: g( X ' )=c0 + c1X1 + c2X2 + … + ctXt. Then the solution of the problem: Min E{[μ(θ)–g(X1,…,Xt)]2} is g(X1,…,Xt)

[

{[

]

] [

]

}

h E σ 2 (θ ) | X + Var [μ (θ ) | X ] (2.2). Remark 2.1 The first term in (2.2) denotes the expected value part, the second term gives the variance part, the last term the fluctuation part.

2.2 Numerical evaluation of loaded credibility Application 2.2 (Linearized credibility formula for exponentially weighted squared error loss function) The solution to the following problem: 2 t ⎡⎛ ⎞ hX t +1 ⎤ Min E ⎢⎜ X t +1 − c0 − ∑ c r X r ⎟ e ⎥ c0 ,c1 ,...,ct r =1 ⎠ ⎢⎣⎝ ⎥⎦ gives: ⎧ E * [H ( X | θ )] * ⎫ * * − z ⎬ Eθ [μ (θ )] M a = z* X + ⎨ θ * ⎩ Eθ [μ (θ )] ⎭ Here H [ X | θ ] is the Esscher-premium for

g∈D

= z X + (1 − z )m , where X ' = ( X 1 ,..., X t ) is the vector of observations, z = at/(s2+at), is the resulting credibility factor,

61

the conditional distribution of X given θ , and: z * = tCov * [H [ X | θ ], μ (θ )] / / tVar * [μ (θ )] + Eθ* [Var [X | θ ]] The asterisks denote expectations taken over a weighted structure function U * satisfying: dU * (θ ) = mh (θ )dU (θ ) / mh with

{

formula for exponentially weighted squared error loss function (a linearized credibility formula for estimating Xt+1), using the greatest accuracy theory.

}

[

mh (θ ) = E e hX | θ

]

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1.

Goovaerts, M.J., Kaas, R., Van Herwaarden, A.E. and Bauwelinckx, T. Insurance Series, volume 3, Effective Actuarial Methods, University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands, 1991. 2. Lepădatu, Gh. The Modern Accouting And The Requirements Of IFRS. IFRS 7 Financial Instruments, Metalurgia International, no. 4 special issue, vol.XIV, (2009): 5-9. 3. Lepădatu, Gh. Why Economy Based On Knowledge?, Metalurgia International, no. 7, vol. XIV (2009): 59-60. 4. Pentikäinen, T., Daykin, C.D., and Pesonen, M. Practical Risk Theory for Actuaries, Université Pierré et Marie Curie, 1990.

and:

mh = E [mh (θ )] = ∫ mh (θ )dU (θ ) . 3. CONCLUSIONS

In this paper we have obtained the best risk premium- in the sense of weighted mean squared error- to charge for period (t + 1) , by truncating a series expansion. To be able to compute the loaded credibility estimates, we demonstrated the relevant (co-) variances of squares of the observations. Apart from the optimal credibility result (2.1) for this situation, we have presented a linearized credibility

62

IMPLEMENTING A LOGISTICAL MANAGEMENT WITH THE HELP OF ELECTRONIC COMMERCE Florica BADEA Constantin BAGU Cristina BOLCAS Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] The firm, considered to be a unitary system, disposes of a functioning mechanism defined by a few characteristics, which include: - it is a unitary ensemble with an established juridical regime and a certain functional autonomy - it has specific in and out parameters

- it is capable of self-adjusting its activity through its own management of informational links To do so, an important role is held by the analises of the logistical system, which implies the component of logistics, and the physics and informational flow.

Figure 1: The logistic system components II. Production logistic III. Physical distribution logistic I. The logistic of acquisitioning and supplying

For figure 1, it's necessary mentioning some aspects of the three components. Thus, the logistic of acquisitioning and supplying, as an uprising sector of the firm, has the essential task of separating the two activities (acquisition, supply), but the logistic management is the one that fully integrates itself in the decision

and administration process, that is why it must have: - a logistic audit of the suppliers, whose foundation is a questionnaire used for evaluating the provider's product, through measuring of the price, quality and performance.

Figure 2: Evaluating a provider's product Evaluation of price

Evaluation of performance

Evaluation of a provider’s product

Evaluation of quality

63

- completely recomposing the physical distribution structures These actions assume engaging the firm to some changes: - specializing physical entities - giving a major role to physical entities - geographical redistribution Calculating indicators: - The direct profit of a product (DPP) - The direct cost of a product (DCP) Evaluation of the logistic cost of a product must have the following types of databases: - databases afferent to the product - databases afferent to the distribution

Production logistics implies using the Just-in-time method, which aims to satisfying the needs of some participants which intervene in the process of supplying a product at the exact time when it’s demanded. The JIT method determines involving logistics management, but raises some problems, like: synchronizing the product flow and rethinking stocks. The physical distribution logistical component implies using the Just-in-time method, which imposes the following actions: - severe administration of logistic costs

Figure 3: Evaluation of logistic cost, (adjusting after Joan Constantin Dima, Monica Viorica Nedelcu: Managementul Productiei, Ed. Economica, Bucuresti 2006 ,Calculul CDP/PDP p. 257) DCP / DPP

Evaluation of logistic cost

Product database

MODEL OF INFORMATION

Distribution database

Validation DCP

DPP

Harmonization

-

contributing products Æ large DPP and small request - ideal products Æ large DPP and large request - troubling products Æ large DPP and small request An essential role in projecting and implementing logistic systems is played by the way of approaching, which means using some varied techniques and means to that aims to the whole firm and makes some basic changes, such as: - JIT – Just-in-time - TQM (Total Quality Management) - CIM (Computer Integrated Manufacturing)

The DPP method has been largely promoted throughout Europe (after it was applied by the Food Marketing Institute). Therefore, for large consumption products, to supply some common data, the firms have affiliated with IFM (Institute Francais de Merchandising) and SECODIP PDP Systeme, which became the data bank as a measure of logistic management, covering the areas of: - transportation, repository, depository Depending on the DPP indicator and the request, the comercialized products divide into: - appeal products Æ small DPP and a large request

64

8. applications 9. design modification 10. services with added value 11. implication of the vertical industry

Besides these, our proposition for implementing a logistical management and making an immediate rentability, is that the firm should use electronic commerce, respectively using the collaborative model, which is based on the collaboration of a few societies – to produce and aim at products and services. The business-to-bussines model (B2B) offers the enterprizers access to useful information concerning the products, prices, clients, supply, production plans, production lines, costs, transportation, stock, alliances concerning the supply chain and the best quality. The key-entities of the B2B model are: database systems, ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) resource planning systems. Through implementing the logistics management with the help of electronic commerce models, the „new economy” campaigns will depend on business plans, respectively on the price strategies techniques and planning. Therefore, the organization’s purpose is the ensure, in time, an adaptable and dynamic business model. The evolution of value in this kind of model will go over the next model of evolution, depending on its worth and time: 1.e_procurement 2. integrating of the supply chain 3. online order management 4. modifying the product’s content 5. auctions 6. CRM 7. virtual separation

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Rosca, Ion Gh, Bucur, C. M. Comertul electronic, concepte, tehnologii si aplicatii Ed. Economica, Bucuresti, 2004 (ISBN 973-590-989-8) 2. May P.,The Business of e Commerce,Cambridge University Press 2000 3. Rosca, I., Patriciu, V., Nastase, F., Paiu, O. and Stanciu, C. ORIZONT 2000 Comert electronic contract de cercetare fazele I,II 2001. 4. Joan, Constantin D., Nedelcu, M. V. Managementul productiei Ed. Economica 2006 5. Dima, I.C. Logistica firmei, Bucuresti, Ed. Didadctica si pedagogica R.A.1996 1. Dima, I.C. Managementul productieiteorie,studii de caz, lucrari practice, Craiova Ed. Arves 2006 6. Zorlentan, T. Managementul organizatiei, Bucuresti, Ed.Holding Reporter 1996 7. Moldoveanu, G. Conducerea operativa a productiei, Ed. Ase Buc.1993 8. Nicolescu, O., Verboncu, I. Managementul Organizatiei, Editura Economica, Bucuresti, 2007 9. Triolaire, G. L’entreprise et son environnement economique, Editions D’organisation, Paris 1995

65

THE ENTERPRISE KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT SUPPORTED BY INFORMATION AND COMMUNICATION TECHNOLOGY Domenico CONSOLI University of Urbino “Carlo Bo”, Urbino, Italy [email protected] Abstract: Generally a good business organization presents an efficient Knowledge Management (KM) system. In the enterpise it’s very important the integration of technological, procedural and organizational know-how. The skills acquired by employees, over time, must be transformed in explicit knowledge and distributed on enterprise community to support decision making for strategic planning. Information and communication technology (ICT) supports very well the flow of knowledge inside enterprise and its trasformation. Keywords: knowledge management, knowledge building, web 2.0 tools, information and communication technology.

procedural knowledge represents the execution of activities. The main distinction is between tacit, implicit and explicit knowledge [3]: - Explicit knowledge is formalized, expressed in words, graphic representations, contained in documents, e-mail, web pages and application software. - Implicit knowledge is the knowledge inherent to business processes that represents the collective experience of how activities are performed in an organization. It’s partially formalized, contained in procedures of workflow, in business models and best practices. - Tacit knowledge is possessed by individuals, is linked to a specific context, and is hardly formalized. This knowledge can be extracted by identifying patterns and behaviors from written documents. The ICT tools that support different types of knowledge are represented in Fig.1.

1. INTRODUCTION The major benefits of a KM system are: creating organizational memory, reducing redundancy, standardizing processes, increasing productivity through the reuse of knowledge and reducing the time to market. In an enterprise to implement an efficient knowledge managemet it’s necessary to reengineer business processes [1]. It’s important also that managers change the vision of use of ICT inside the enterprise. An organization that considers still information systems as pure and simple automation cannot innovate. It's correct think about information technologies as strategic assets that support the enterprise knowledge management and strategic planning [2]. The paper has the following structure: in the next section we talk about the ICT that supports the enterprise knowledge. In the third section we illustrate the ICT that supports processes of knowledge management. The fourth section describes the building of knowledge inside enterprise. The fifth section is devoted to show limits of technology in the knowledge management system. Finally some conclusion is drawn. 2. ICT that supports the enterprise knowledge In the enterprise we can do a first distinction between declarative and procedural knowledge. Declarative or conceptual knowledge refers to description of methods and procedures while

Figure 1: ICT tools to support the knowledge

66

By tools of content management like software of office automation or web content authoring it’s possible to manage explicit knowledge. The implicit knowledge use tools of workflow and business modeling. The main goal is to transform tacit knowledge into explicit knowledge to make it shareable and reusable in the enterprise. To this end, companies, after mapping enterprise expertise, should stimulate the interaction among employees,

for example by communities of practice, groups of professionals who share a common interest in business issues[4]. The community of practice is well supported by web 2.0 tools (chat, forum, blog, wiki). 3. ICT that supports processes of knowledge management The ICT tools that support the flow of enterprise knowledge management [5] are represented in Fig.2.

Figure 2: ICT tools to support enterprise knowledge management Office Automation, Computer Aided By data/text mining tools, we can technology like Computer Aided Design discover interesting patterns and hidden (CAD), Computer Aided Engineering relationships among business data. Text (CAE), Computer Aided Manufacturing mining [6] uses semantic engine and artificial intelligence algorithms to mine, (CAM) and tools of virtual reality that simulate specific business contexts. extract and classify the knowledge. Web 2.0 (blog, chat, forum, wiki) and Expert Systems are programs that capture collaborative (groupware, knowledge forum) the expertise of human resources in limited tools are useful both for creation and domains of knowledge. They include rulebased systems, decision trees and casediffusion of the knowledge [7]. This technology allows a constructive interaction based reasoning systems. with a global audience. The ability to Neural networks attempts to emulate the become community is essential to processing patterns of the biological brain. accelerate and optimize processes and to These systems usually have "learning" capabilities. Artificial intelligent systems better manage business assets. behave like living organisms, with the The knowledge, produced inside ability to learn languages, accomplish company, can be used from enterprise application like Enterprise Resource physical tasks, and emulate human Planning (ERP), Supply Chain expertise in decision making and problem Management (SCM), Customer solving. Relationship Management (SCM) and To create knowledge we can use Content Management System, tools of

67

Business Intelligence (BI) that extract useful information for strategic planning. The new paradigm of Software as a Service (SaaS) stimulates new shared solutions. The services, supported by external online technologies, are usable in a flexible manner from any location. The SaaS is service pay-per-use, scalable and sharable that can help enterprise to save time, money and space. To better manage the SaaS services an effective collaboration framework is necessary.

inputs that come from a large number of people who normally not cooperate physically but constantly they need to be updated. An employee may enter in a wiki platform and describe his experience in the use of a particular technology and his colleagues could add also practical considerations in the discussion. In this way it’s possible to gather more relevant and qualitative information from a wide range of information sources. Each team member can access to wiki space for many operations: edit and update contents, check progress of the project, anticipate next steps, add questions or comments, assign tasks and create hyperlinks to other websites for the project team. These operations eliminate the need to prepare and share several reports on the progressing project with continuous e-mails and large files in attachment. Knowledge generated in the project management would be kept in a specific environment able to tell the story of the project in its entirety. Blogs, in most cases, are web sites where the author (blogger) includes articles on specific topic, business and technological issues and visitors can comment the debate also with other view points. The main advantage of a corporate blog [10] is to create a focal point of knowledge related to a particular enterprise topic. If the blog is open to outside and the blogger has a high credibility, all this is reflected in the image and reputation of the company like a strategic communication of marketing. Concluding this section we can say that the blog is a form of communication oneto-many where the public cannot change, but only comment what the blogger put online. A wiki instead is a collaborative system where anyone can extend, modify or delete the information contained in it.

4. Enterprise Knowledge Building Knowledge is a distributed social object. Bereiter and Scardamalia [8] follow the distinction of Popper between World 1, the physical reality, World 2, the existing reality in the mental representations of individuals and World 3, the knowledge or a system of ideas shared by people in social community. Knowledge should not remain focused on individual acquisition (World 2) but in a community building. The group, redefined as Knowledge Builder, becomes a community that builds and share ideas and knowledge in a Knowledge Building Community (KBC). The concrete translation of the intuitions developed by Bereiter and Scardamalia in the theoretical model described above is made up from the collaborative online tool Knowledge Forum (KF). By this tool, users can write notes, texts, graphs or images that are represented in the vision of the whole discussion by blue or red squares (depending if they are read or not). Notes can be organized into views (perspective) or spaces devoted to specific topic. Each user, connecting to database, can read the notes of others and insert new ones linked to previous. To facilitate the discussion KF tool presents linguistic structures, called scaffolds, whose function is to create common categories for a discourse building. To build knowledge we can use also web 2.0 tools like wikis and blogs. Wikis [9] are good tools for creating and developing shared knowledge. Wikis aggregate many

5. Limits of technology in KM Despite the use of information technology is essential for the implementation of KM processes; the

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human factor is the focal point around which all activities gravitate. Human resources possess information and business knowledge. An efficient and effective knowledge management system may be accompanied by a significant change in the culture, behavior of employees inside organization. Technology alone doesn’t encourage individual not interested in the knowledge research. The mere presence of technology doesn’t create a learning organization or a creative and conscious enterprise. The technology supports the distribution of knowledge but cannot control the subsequent actions of users. The technology supports the creation of knowledge but doesn’t create it. The creation of knowledge is the result of actions of a team or single individuals. The technology is useful to transform tacit knowledge in explicit knowledge. The introduction of technology in KM could have positive effects on corporate culture of the organization. Employees who see the company to invest in these enabling technologies can be encouraged to consider more seriously the creation and management of knowledge.

Information and Communication Services (ICS). This is the way for enterprises to acquire competitive advantages in the business strategy. Bibliography: 1. Abou-Zeid E. “Developing business aligned knowledge management strategy”, In Knowledge Management: Current Issues and Challenges, E. Coakes, IGI Publishing, Hershey, PA, 2003, pp. 156-172 2. Smuts, H., Van der Merwe, A., Loock, M., and Kotzé P. “A framework and methodology for knowledge management system implementation”. In Proceedings SAICSIT '09 , ACM, New York, NY, 2009, pp.70-79 3. Nonaka, I., Takeuci, H. “The Knowledge Creating Company: How Japanese Companies Create the Dynamics of Innovation”, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995 4. Cabitza, F., and Simone C. “Active artifacts as bridges between context and community knowledge sources”. In Proceedings of the Fourth international Conference on Communities and Technologies (University Park, PA, USA), New York, NY, 2009, pp. 115-124 5. Tseng, S. “The effects of information technology on knowledge management systems”. Expert Syst. Appl. 35, 1-2, 2008, pp. 150-160 6. Berry, M. W., and Castellanos, M. editors “Survey of Text Mining II: Clustering, Classification, and Retrieval”, Springer, 2007 7. Consoli, D."The multidimensional model of knowledge management in the competitive enterprise”. In Proceeding of 12th IS MM&T 2010, Sunny Beach, Bourgas, Bulgaria, Journal of International Scientific Pubblication: Materials, Method & Technologies, Vol. 4, p. 2, 2010, pp. 5-29. 8. Scardamalia, M., & Bereiter C., "Knowledge Building". In: J. W.

6. Conclusion By web 2.0 (chat, forum, blog, wiki) and collaborative tools (knowledge forum, groupware) it is possible to create an interactive channel, inside enterprise, to create useful knowledge for business goals. Web communities, social tools, forum is new methodologies, processes that have in common one concept: the importance of human resources in the development of business enterprise. A cultural and technological formation of human resources is a fundamental asset to implement ICT solutions in the knowledge building. An other important factor to optimize the knowledge management is the new paradigm of SaaS. Nowadays we live in a digital era where information technology is a commodity like water, gas and electricity. In this era we are moving from Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) to

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Guthrie (Ed.), Encyclopedia of Education. 2nd edition New York: Macmillan, USA, 2003 9. Poole, E. S. and Grudin, J. “A taxonomy of Wiki genres in enterprise settings”, Proc. of the 6th WikiSym 2010 ACM, New York, NY, 2010, pp. 1-4.

10. Ma, S. and Zhang, Q. “A study on content and management style of corporate blogs”. In Proceedings of the 2nd I.C. on online Communities and Social Computing, Beijing, China, D. Schuler editor, Lecture Notes In Computer Science. Springer-Verlag, Berlin, Heidelberg, 2007, pp. 116-12

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KNOWLEDGE SHARING RISKS IN COLLABORATIVE ENVIRONMENTS Lucian HANCU Ph.D., “Babes-Bolyai” University, Cluj-Napoca [email protected] Abstract: Knowledge Management deals with a multitude of tasks that range from the representation to the evolution of knowledge in its various forms. Understanding the way in which knowledge is used contributes to the improvement of the Knowledge Management Systems at the organizational level. This paper aims at investigating the risks that appear in the process of Knowledge Sharing when two or more distinct companies with different enterprise cultures collaborate, as in the form of a Virtual Enterprise or a recently-completed Merger or Acquisition. We consider the risks identified in the research literature that are linked to the Knowledge Sharing Process in Virtual Organizations and discuss to which extent these risks might appear during the integration process of both Mergers and Acquisitions. An Automatic Supervisor Module of a Knowledge Management System is subsequently presented, with the purpose of continuously monitoring these risks and promoting the sharing of knowledge within a collaborative context. Keywords: Knowledge Management, Knowledge Sharing, Virtual Organizations, Mergers and Acquisitions

entities try various forms of cooperation, at a virtual level or a classical one. Virtual entities are created as a market momentum and often dissolve when the market opportunity (usually in the form of a joint project) ends. In contrast, the mergers and acquisitions between business entities are forms of cooperation that extend over many years and often survive difficult economic conditions. A merger or acquisition appears as a consolidation of one company’s position on the market and its success varies on a multitude of factors. As the economy strengthens (but also in challenging economic conditions), successful mergers will be those that have invested in profitable growth—which requires integrating and motivating employees who will work quickly and smoothly, minimize disruptions, increase market share, innovate, and adapt to emergent trends. [Kanter] Through the factors that motivate the knowledge sharing in an online forum, [Lee] highlights the affiliative tendency (defined as the tendency to have positive expectations from social relationships - in a forum, the individuals with stronger affiliative tendency might respond to other’s postings for this interactive capacity), self-esteem (the individuals who share their knowledge with others

1. Introduction Knowledge Management (KM) deals with the representation, organization, acquisition, creation, usage, and evolution of knowledge in its diverse forms. [Jurisica] KM aims at improving the informal flows of knowledge between individuals, building systems for codifying and sharing knowledge within the organization and tapping into new knowledge from sources outside the organization. [Birkinshaw] Building effective technologies for Knowledge Management could be done by a more profound understanding of how individuals, groups and organizations use knowledge. [Jurisica] Knowledge Management should encourage individuals to interact – to work together on projects or to share their ideas on an informal basis. Moreover, KM systems are needed to codify the knowledge of individuals so that it can be used by others (especially the tacit knowledge which is the most valuable knowledge by individuals, but usually difficult to express or write down). Furthermore, the firm needs to get access to new knowledge from outside its boundaries, as a means of continuously updating and renewing its knowledge base. [Birkinshaw] With the purpose of permanently updating their knowledge bases, the

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mergers, acquisitions and virtual enterprises. The paper concludes with a brief summarization of the issues regarding the sharing of knowledge when considering the collaborative environments and sets directions for future work.

improve their self-esteem and selfrespect) and public individualism (defined as the willingness to engage in behaviors that publicly differentiate themselves from others [Maslach] cited by [Lee].individuals high in the need for public individuation would respond to others’ information requests as a way of making their presence noticed). Knowledge sharing through the organizations’ Knowledge Management System (KMS) can be viewed as an extrapolation of an online discussion forum; therefore the factors that would motivate people to share knowledge through a KMS would be similar to those exemplified above. In our opinion, a successful virtual enterprise (or Virtual Organization), Merger or Acquisition is the one in which the cooperating parties (the virtual partners – in the case of the Virtual Enterprise, the two merging companies – in the case of a merger, or the acquiror and the acquired entity – in the later case) overcome the inherent difficulties that appear in the process of knowledge sharing. For this reason, continuously monitoring and minimizing the risks involved in the knowledge sharing process is crucial. In this article, we tackle the problem of identifying the risks that appear in the knowledge sharing process in collaborative environments. The paper is organized as follows. In the subsequent section, we point out the major risks that are encountered during the knowledge sharing process in collaborative environments. The third section discusses how the risks identified in the previous section affect both the mergers and acquisitions individualy and points out the differences between the sharing of knowledge in virtual environments and in the case of the mergers and acquisitions. The fourth section proposes an automatic supervision module of a KMS system that would monitor the risks highlighted in the previous sections with the purpose of promoting the share of knowledge in

2. Risks Identification The research literature focuses on two distinct directions: knowledge sharing risks in virtual enterprises (that can deteriorate the collaborative process in virtual environments - on one side) [You] and Mergers and Acquisitions (M&A) issues (that significantly affect the success of the mergers - on the other side). [Kale, Kanter, Jones] In this paper, we discuss how the four major risks highlighted in [You] (the core competence losing risk, the enterprise culture risk, the knowledge spillover effect risk and the moral risk) can also deteriorate the collaborative climate in the case of a merger (when two partners are of equal size in terms of market strength, financial and human resources) or an acquisition (when the buyer is financially stronger than the partner that was acquired). [Hancu] 2.1. The core competence losing risk Virtual organizations are formed as a consequence of an opportunity that appears on the market and that puts the partners of the virtual organization in the situation of sharing their knowledge so as to successfully complete the project. During the knowledge sharing process, if the knowledge source side does not pay great attention to protect their own core knowledge, or the knowledge accepters use conditions such as imperfect contract and unsymmetrical information, and exercise the opportunism to absorb knowledge from the partner excessively,

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(Jacobs’s spillover). In collaborative environments like a virtual enterprise, the member enterprise may lose the competitive advantage which is imitated by the existence or potential competition rival due to the knowledge spillover effect, which leads to what it is called the knowledge spillover effect risk. [You]

the core competence losing risk will be induced. [You] 2.2. The enterprise culture risk The employees’ values, faith and behavior within an enterprise are referred as the enterprise culture. In the case of collaborative environments of the form of virtual enterprises, each member of the enterprise has its own unique enterprise culture. [You] Difficulties can arise when a virtual enterprise has not formed values regarding the sharing of knowledge. In this later case, some members of the organization might be reluctant in sharing their knowledge. As stated in [You], such employees might think that their advantages in the enterprise come from certain knowledge they know and others do not know, so refuse to share their own knowledge with others. The scenario of knowledge sharing reluctance can be common in large organizations, when groups of interests appear, which leads to a malfunctioning of the knowledge sharing process within the organization. In the case of a recentlycompleted merger or acquisition, the refusal of collaboration might also be encountered, as organizational cultures need time to integrate. In all these situations, the enterprise culture risk appears and it affects the overall process of knowledge sharing within the organization, either a virtual one, or a brick and mortar (classical) one.

2.4. The moral risk In collaborative environments, contracts can be signed in order to restrict the scope and the degree of sharing knowledge. Despite such contracts, individuals of the entities from the virtual organizations can use limitations of the contracts for their own purpose, which leads to an opportunistic behavior [You] that can alter the overall knowledge sharing process. Moreover, each partner of the virtual enterprise has the relationship of principalagent with the work-team being sent out; unfaithfully caring out this role can induce the knowledge sharing moral risk. [You] Moral risks can also appear in collaborative entities such as mergers or acquisitions, as such strategic alliances might compromise internal groups of interests from the organization, leading to an opportunistic behavior, as stated above. In the subsequent sections of our paper, we shall analyze to which extent these risks appear in the case of a recently completed merger or acqusition. 3. Sharing Knowledge Enterprises vs. M&A

2.3. The knowledge spillover effect risk

in

Virtual

As stated in [You], in the case of a virtual enterprise, knowledge sharing can be divided into two kinds of situations: knowledge sharing caries on in the member enterprise boundary (on one side), whereas knowledge sharing caries on between the member enterprises (on the other). Thorough research has been done in order to identify risks in knowledge sharing across organizational borders within the virtual enterprise context (the later case in

The knowledge spillover refers to the exchange of ideas among individuals that can be either internal (if there is a positive impact of knowledge between one enterprise’s employees) or external (if there is a positive impact of knowledge outside the enterprise’s boundaries). The knowledge spillover can be within a single industry (Marshall-Arrow-Romer spillover or Porter spillover) or in diverse industries

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the above-exemplified situations). In this paper, we also consider the risks of sharing knowledge in the case of an alreadycompleted merger or acquisition, for the reasons that: the post-merger integration process usually lasts several years; during this transition period, several employees might leave the organization, not being satisfied by the integration process or the post-merger organizational culture. Considering the risks described in the previous section, we now analyze the probability that these risks occur in the case of a merger and an acquisition. The reason we highlight mergers and acquisitions separately, instead of considering them as a single strategic action, is that in our MAVOC model (designed for suggesting mergers, acquisitions or virtualizations strategies among two specified economic entities [Hancu]) mergers and acquisitions are treated individually. We suggest a merger between the two entities when they are rather equal in terms of financial strength, market share and human capital. Instead, an acquisition is suggested when one company has the financial strength of buying the other. In the following figure, we highlight the matrix of risks corresponding to the virtualization, merger and acquisition situations. Risk Core competence losing Enterprise culture Knowledge spillover Moral

Virtualization High

Merger Low

Acquisition Medium

High

High

High

High

Medium

High

High

Low

High

The core competence losing risk can appear in both Mergers and Acquisitions. As the knowledge sharing takes place on one entity in the case of mergers and acquisitions, the risks are reduced for the reasons of having organizational systems that monitor the circuit of knowledge within the company. We consider as medium the risk of losing competence in acquisitions, especially in the hostile ones, as several employees might transfer knowledge to external sources (for example former collaborators – clients or suppliers that are not currently accepted by the acquirer). The risk diminishes in the case of mergers when the two partners are equal, not being confronted with conflicts of interests (as in the case of hostile takeovers). This fact also occurs as the two partners might use common clients or suppliers when their financial forces are comparable. Instead, in the acquisitions case, the acquirer might have access to privileged contracts due to its position on the market. The enterprise culture risk is similar in the case of virtualizations, mergers and acquisitions. When two different enterprise cultures meet, the more diverse they are – the longest will be the time for their integration. The risk diminishes when the entities are of small sizes, as small entities tend to integrate much better than the larger ones. The knowledge spillover risk differs in the case of Mergers from the one of Acquisitions. In the case of hostile takeovers, there is a greater probability that spin-off companies appear, formed by former employees not satisfied by the managers’ decisions. The creation of spinoffs is a positive effect of the knowledge spillover risk, as it increases competition in the market, which diminishes the chances of creating monopolies (or oligopolies) – an immediate consequence of continuous acquisitions from a strong competitor. The moral risk appears especially in hostile environments, when employees are rather unsatisfied by their current position

Figure 1: Compared risk matrix for Virtualization vs. M.&A. The matrix considers as High the risks identified in [You] and discusses the probability that such risks occur in the case of Mergers and Acquisition. We further detail the reasons of considering such probabilities that those risks occur.

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for each entity that forms the VO. In addition, the Monitoring function would also provide tools for restricting access to the information from unknown locations (IPs), especially when considering the Virtual Organizations that are geographicaly distributed and whose need of a broader access to the information increases. The Enterprise culture risk and the Moral risk would be intensively monitorized through a Promoter subsystem that would contribute to a better sharing of knowledge within the organization (either virtual or classical one). Promoting the sharing of knowledge can be done through incentives (for instance, the employee that is mostly appreciated by its peers receives a vacation coupon or discount coupons at various stores; in contrast - a financial reward that would be used each time an employee shares an idea with a colleague would be expensive, impossible to monitor and would encourage exactly the wrong sort of narrow-minded behaviour, according to [Birkinshaw]). Such a promoting technique can be the result of either measuring the number of posts (answers) of each employee and periodically computing the top of those who posted on the KMS (the most active contributors) or by collecting votes for their contributions (each answer to the KMS would be ranked by the peers in terms of relevance, clarity, time until problem solved), therefore revealing the most influencing contributors. The Moral risk and the Enterprise culture risk can be monitorized by revealing also the employees that did not submit comments to the KMS and encourage them to share knowledge and cooperate within the organization. When dealing with mergers and acquisitions, a common scenario would be that both entities would have an active KMS. In this case, integration strategies would also be required for the KMS supervisors, so that to reflect the changes within the organization, such as: to enlarge the access to the employees of the resulting

or the environment in which they work. We consider mergers as a positive environment, open for collaborations and less exposed to such risks. Instead, the acquisitions (formed by unequal partners) are more likely to be exposed to the moral risk. 4. Monitoring Risks throught KMS Supervision In addition to highlighting the major risks that appear in collaborative environments when the process of sharing knowledge is involved, this section describes a risk management supervision system that would be used to monitor the above-specified risks. Considering that each organization (either virtual or classical one) would have a Knowledge Management System (KMS) through which employees contribute with their intellectual effort to the organization’s Knowledge Base, the KMS would have to be equiped with an Automatic Supervisor (AS), whose functions would be: monitoring access to the organization’s KMS and promote the sharing of knowledge among the organization.

Figure 2: Monitoring Risks through Automatic Supervision The Supervisor (see Figure 2) would strictly monitor both the core competence loosing risk and the knowledge spillover risk by defining the subsystem of the KMS that is available to the external organization. In the case of Virtual Organizations, the monitoring subsystem would consist in restricting access to the part of the KMS that would remain private

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organization and to promote the sharing of knowledge between the employees without considering their appartenance to the old organization.

2.

5. Conclusions In this article, we have identified the risks that can appear in collaborative environments when the knowledge sharing process is involved. The risks were previously considered for the case of virtual enterprises; we have extended their applicability to both mergers and acquisitions and discuss the particularities of the Knowledge Sharing process in the case of Mergers and Acqusitions. Furthermore, we have proposed an automatic supervisor module that could be used in monitoring the risks, when employees share their knowledge through the organization’s Knowledge Management System. As future work, we plan to quantify each one of these risks through the data provided by the KMS Supervision module we have presented in this paper. We also plan to investigate other methods of quantifying the risks of knowledge sharing and include a risk identification module in our Decision Support System for suggesting strategic actions of the type mergers, acquisitions or virtualizations.

3.

4.

5.

6. 7.

6. Acknowledgement 8.

This work was supported by CNCSISUEFISCSU under the Project no. PN IIRU-PD 397/2010. Bibliography:

9. 1. Birkinshaw, J. Why is Knowledge Management so Difficult?, Business Strategy Review 2001, Volume 12 Issue 1, pp. 11-18, http://faculty.london.edu/jbirkinshaw/a ssets/documents/64why_is_knowledge

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_manag_so_difficult.pdf accessed on 21/09/2010. Hancu, L. Pruning Decision Trees for Easing Complex Strategic Decisions, International Workshop in Collaborative Systems and Information Society, Babes-Bolyai University, October 2008. Jones, K. Mergers & Acquisitions: A snapshot of a SPECIAL pre and post M&A process, Munich Personal RePEc Archive, http://mpra.ub.unimuenchen.de/18500/ , accessed on 03/09/2010. Jurisica, I., Mylopoulos, J., and Yu, E. Using Ontologies for Knowledge Management: An Information Systems Perspective, Annual Conference of the American Society for Information Science, Washington D.C., November 1999. Kale, P., Singh., H., Raman, A.P. Don’t Integrate Your Acquisitions, Partner with Them, Harvard Business Review, December 2009. Kanter, R. M. Mergers that Stick, Harvard Business Review, October 2009. Lee, E. J., Jang, J. W. Profiling good Samariteans in online knowledge forums: Effects of affiliative tendency, self-esteem, and public individuation on knowledge sharing, Computers in Human Behavior, Elsevier, 26 (2010), pp. 1336-1344. Maslach, C., Stapp, J., and Santee, R. Individuation: Conceptual analysis and Assessment, Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, (1985) 49, 729–738. You, T., Zhu., Z., and Yu, Z. Analysis and Assessment of Knowledge Sharing Risk in the Virtual Enterprise, Proceedings of the 9th Joint Conference on Information Sciences, 2006, Taiwan, http://www.atlantispress.com/php/download_paper.php?i d=272 accessed on 06/09/2010.

SIE-SECURITY Mircea Iosif NEAMŢU Iulian ALEXE Ph.D., lecturer, ‘Lucian Blaga’ University, Scientific faculty, Sibiu [email protected] Tester, ‘Lucian Blaga’ University, Scientific faculty, Sibiu [email protected] Abstract: The purpose of this paper is to present the application named SIE-Security providing web programmers with a tool that searches vulnerable links within their web site (i.e. a product page), attempting to perform an SQL Injection and finally, trying to find the admin login page and crack the MD5 hashed password (inappropriately called “crack” because we are actually using Rainbow tables). The application is structured on three tabs, each corresponding to the actions performed by the application and, if you take into consideration that this is a project in development, it could be considered an All-In-One database security testing utility. Keywords: commerce, application, vulnerable, attack, decryption, security, testing

1.

help Web developers to identify and correct these errors in advance. Although at first glance, our application performs exactly the things that any Web programmer tries to dodge (compromised databases), this is not its purpose! The explicit purpose of the program is to analyze a URL, to extract vulnerable links presenting them in a list, testing the vulnerability of links found, testing the degree of the password’s security and finally searching an attempt to find the administrator’s login page.

Introduction and motivation

Electronic commerce has a rapid growth in Romania because of the advantages it presents (range of products, low prices, avoiding queues and congestion, etc.). However, many of those who built these sites for virtual stores, or store managers, have not given due importance of securing the site. This category includes many types of websites, but the importance of computer security in the current environment is best illustrated within online stores. Errors in these sites appear in the website’s programming. Using these errors, malicious people are willing to access or even modify the users’ personal data registered on the website (IDs, passwords, email accounts, etc.). Thus, the users' email accounts could be used in such attacks also for phishing, in order to obtain information about a particular user (bank accounts, personal identification data). We would mention that these errors can occur in sites where professional the programmer’s security has a great importance. A possible motive in these cases could be a large number of links from the site, content volume, etc. Given the large number of websites that incorporate databases and the serious threat attacks they present, we have decided to create an application that has come to

2.

Application Description

SIE is divided into three main tabs, each corresponding to one of the three steps needed for testing a website: • Browse vulnerable links • attack vulnerable links • exploiting information obtained 2.1 Search vulnerable links A vulnerable link may be: http://www.numesite.ro/fisier.php?id=1 or: http://www.numesite.ro/?id=1 The search for this type of links is relatively simple. On the graphic, a user enters a website address and presses the enter button. At this point the program creates a request sending you the targeted site and then getting an HTML response 77

containing the first page of the website. Next, using regular expressions, it finds the HTML tags , extracting links from these tags and storing them in a list. Because a link may appear several times on the same page, we pay attention to eliminate duplicated links from the list

created above before continuing. Finally, the links are subjected to sorting, also using regular expressions to determine which are vulnerable links and the displaying them. Figure 1 illustrates a scanning process and displaying vulnerable links.

Fig. 1: Scanning and posting vulnerable links website returns an error the message will 2.2 Vulnerable links attack be in the following form of: “You have an error in your SQL After obtaining a vulnerable link, go to the 2nd step of the testing, meaning the syntax; check the manual that 2nd tab program, namely the actual attack corresponds to your Mysql server version on the link, or rather testing the resistance for the right syntax to use near … at to attacks of vulnerable links. line...” That attack is possible and we can The graphical interface displays things as obtain the user name of the site, from the simple as the first step. The user, having a server, within the databases. Next, the link placed in the address bar, just needs user can press the button "Show DB", to press a few buttons to try to obtain "Show Tables" "Show Columns" and information from the database of the "Show Data". These buttons are activated website. We must mention that a vulnerable when an item, from the hierarchical tree, link shows no certainty of a successfully that supports this action, is selected. The data is extracted by querying the performed SQL attack; in this case the database’s aids, "information schema" program displays an appropriate message. which is created automatically whenever a To begin testing, the actual user clicks database is created on the server and "Start", after the symbol "'" appears within the added link of the test. If the

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contains all other information on a user database of general data about the user. Figure 2 shows how to display the database tables, and columns of MD5

passwords "admin".

extracted

from

the

table

Fig. 2: Display of database and information

for these values. If the password is found in such basic data (rainbow table), this means that the user has chosen a common password with a relatively small length which leads to a very low degree of the password’s security. At the bottom of the last tab we can enter the address of a website and try to find the administrator login page. In the search process, at the end the common link adds names for this type of page. The common names are read from a file currently containing about 200 entries. Consider this page if you found a site not returning an error message when sending a request within the link address to which the extension of the file was added. In figure 3 illustrate this process.

2.3 Use of data obtained Even if the database was compromised and sensitive data were available, all is not lost. Another important aspect is the security of website and passwords degree of resistance of hiding the admin login page. Thus follows, the last tab of our program, which corresponds to the last step in testing a web link to these two aspects. At the top we have the opportunity to enter a password encrypted with MD5 and see if this can be revealed. As for the program, its purpose is not to "break" but to test. I have not implemented a special algorithm for deciphering the password but have chosen to use the search of a database containing common values for password and encryption fields, MD5 decrypting it

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Fig. 3: Decrypting MD5 passwords and display the login page. 3. Testing and application issues • use custom names, if possible, and The application was tested on an unique login page for administrators. agreement with the shop manager. During In the future we plan to implement testing the website content was not changed. testing methods for multiple databases SIE application and source code will not be (Oracle) and several types of sites (. JSP. made public and its marketing will be done ASP, etc.) We aim the automation of the only under a commercial contract and only to entire testing process and implementation of companies or individuals authorized who will the facility to generate reports, marketing take responsibility for the matter in which application for competitive prices on the they use the application. Romanian market and worldwide. 4. Conclusions and future plans Bibliography: By creating this application, we want to 1. Mircea, Neamţu. Programare Distribuită, draw attention once again upon faction errors Editura Alma Mater, 2005 of security of the site but also to offer 2. Mircea, Neamţu. Open Source & Free developers a tool to detect these errors. Software, Casa de Presă şi Editură Here are some solutions in order to avoid TRIBUNA, 2008 these errors and prevent possible attacks: 3. Mircea, Neamţu. Programarea pe Web & • set the ob WORKS magic_quates enable Joomla în 10 Lecţii, Editura Universitatii PHP to prevent its use; Lucian Blaga din Sibiu, 2009 • use php function 4. Mircea, Neamţu. Vulnerabilitatea pe Web, mysql_real_escape_string ( ); Note de curs • use php function is numeric( ) and Web pages ctype_digit( ); 1. http://www.c-sharpcorner.com/ • use the apache files .htaccess; 2. http://www.codeproject.com • use passwords that contain letters, 3. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SQL_injection numbers and symbols that are longer than 8 characters;

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BENEFITS OF USING SOFTWARE WITH SIK COMPLIANT ARCHITECTURE IN CLOUD Vasile AVRAM Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: The aim of this paper is to investigate the main benefits that can be obtained by using a SIK (software inherited knowledge) compliant architecture for cloud services and support software used to build, administer and maintaining the cloud. It introduces the basic building blocks for cloud computing together with the main categories of cloud services. For the SIK architecture, shown in connection with a semantic-web application architecture, are introduced the main functionalities. The paper outlines then the main benefits different categories of users may have from both cloud and SIK compliant architecture for the cloud services delivered onto, for extensive knowledge management, and for creating the base for semantic-web for the modeled domain, the software operation and usage, and automated administrative tasks for the cloud. Keywords: software inherited knowledge, SIK, cloud-computing, knowledge management

storage of documents (or, generally files) in cloud allows for collaboration and simultaneously working on those documents for teams. Figure 1 shows the basic building blocks that allows to the cloud to deliver major categories of services for communications (CaaS), infrastructure (IaaS), software (SaaS), platforms (PaaS), and security (SaaS). Web services are typically an application program interfaces (API) that can be accessed over the Internet and that can be executed on the server that hosts the required service.

Cloud Computing Building Blocks Cloud computing is a large group of interconnected computers (PC’s and servers publicly accessible over Internet) in a grid that allows for both parallel and distributed computing and for combining their resources to generate a supercomputing like power. Applications and data deserved by cloud are available to a large category of users in a cross-enterprise and crossplatform manner. Any web application or service offered via cloud computing is called cloud service and the user runs the applications stored in cloud (the cloud services) via web browsers. Cloud computing offers both hardware and software resources needed to implement IT solutions in the form of cloud-based services that are accessible anywhere in the world, as long as an Internet connection (a broadband one) is available. Data and application will not be affected in anyway if the user computer, from which those services requested, fails. In the cloud data are stored on a virtual server and have a dynamic location perceived as a static one by users. The cloud storage offers financial advantages and increased security. The

Figure 1: Cloud building blocks (source [7], redrawn)

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The utility computing, that can be defined as ‘the provision of computational and storage resources as a metered service, similar to those provided by a traditional public utility company [7]’, is growing in popularity as companies have begun to extend the model to a cloud computing. Cloud computing provide virtual servers that IT departments and users can access on an on demand manner not only for nonmission-critical needs. Cloud computing disrupts the traditional way in which companies invest in servers, PC’s, and software licenses (both, system software and application software) as the business grow. The cloud of computer servers power, accessed over the Internet, become the companies server and the datacenter. Cloud computing allows passing from computer to user, application to task, isolated data to accessible data from anywhere and shared with anybody. From users perspective, an end user (XaaS Customer) or a web service provider (XaaS Provider), the cloud appears as a single point of access for all their computing needs, servicing anything (X) they wants and in the way they need. The major type of applications a provider of such services must maintain and operate, in real time, are represented by administrative, management, performance, monitoring, security, and virtualization applications. Following is a brief description of the cloud services outlined in the figure 1 together with the main type application that are involved to support them [6, 7, 8]. 1) Infrastructure-as-a-Service (IaaS): is the delivery of computer infrastructure (typically a platform virtualization environment) as a service, including computer hardware, computer network with all required networking devices and internet connectivity, platform virtualization

environment, service-level agreements, and utility computing billing. It is centered to a model of service delivery that provisions a predefined, standardized infrastructure specifically optimized for the customer’s applications. Customers maintain ownership and management of their application(s) while off-loading hosting operations and infrastructure management are maintained by the IaaS provider. 2) Communication-as-a-Service (CaaS): is an outsourced enterprise communications solution in which the providers are responsible for the management of hardware and software required for delivering Voice over IP (VoIP) services, Instant Messaging (IM), and video conferencing capabilities. A standard CaaS deployment include chat, multimedia conferencing, Microsoft Outlook integration, real-time presence, softwarebased telephones, video calling, and unified messaging and mobility. 3) Software-as-a-Service (SaaS): a sole application is delivered to thousands of users by intermediate of vendor servers. The clients/customers do not have to pay for software/license. Instead they pay for usage, as a subscription, or generally a payment for a metered service (Pay-as-youdo). The key characteristics of SaaS software are represented by the networkbased management and access to commercially available software from central locations via the Internet, application delivery from a one-to-many model (single-instance, multi-tenant architecture), and centralized enhancement and patch updating. SaaS is often used in conjunction with a larger network of communications and collaboration software giving the main following benefits to the customer: streamlined administration, automated update and patch management 82

the operation of the current application. The formalization of the business rules is realized through RDF/XML serialized triples. The tool used to describe the RDF triples can be an RDF Parser that is able to convert the triples in the serialized format or an RDF Editor able to process directly the serialized format of the triples. The SIK do not restrict that the knowledge stored be only domain business rules. SIK being an RDF document allows to define and keep in the same document vary rules grouped under what they describe so that it allows also to store business rules regarding the application programming interface (API) or the rules applied to operate the application in current use. More than, SIK can be physically defined across several repositories each one having his own specialization and that situation is descriptive by the SIK configuration component. For every application software having SIK architecture, the companion repository act as vector for transport and communication of the knowledge inherited from software. SIK must be accessible to all persons and/or applications having the rights to access and manipulate it. The knowledge involved here will be captured and maintained in the context of analysis, design, coding and testing phases (and of every reiteration of these required in implementation or current operation), and will be expressed in the form of business rules statements, as defined and understood by the software developer, since this incorporates the rules in the application body. The documented knowledge, in the form of business statements or even sentences of a programming environment, will be transformed into formalized knowledge that is actionable and automateable. The formalized rules should be tested to identify ambiguity, incompleteness, redundancy and contradiction, to certify the validity and to ensure truly actionable business knowledge. The rules defined can be incorporated,

services, data compatibility across the enterprise, facilitated enterprise-wide collaboration and global accessibility. 4) Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS): provides platforms for building and running custom web-based applications including all of the facilities required to support the complete life cycle of building and delivering web applications and services entirely available from the Internet, all with no software downloads or installation for developers, IT managers, or end users. PaaS delivers development environments to programmers, analysts, and software engineers as a service allowing users to focus on innovation rather than complex infrastructure (such as operating systems customizations). The PaaS service providers offer application programming interfaces (APIs) that enable developers to exploit functionality over the Internet, rather than delivering full-blown applications. 5) Monitoring-as-a-Service (MaaS): is the outsourced provisioning of security, primarily on business platforms that leverage the Internet to conduct business and involves protecting an enterprise or government client from cyber threats. Software Inherited Knowledge (SIK) Architecture SIK (software inherited knowledge) concept was introduced first in [3] and is build on the basis of an architectural component, in the form of one or multiple knowledge repositories (Figure 2 a [4]), used to systematically acquire, structure, store and maintain knowledge, formalized as business rules for all domain business rules that are incorporated in the software product itself. The knowledge refers mainly to the domain knowledge of the business domain modeled by the application software together with the knowledge about 83

eventual after an adaptation/translation to the language used by a BRMS for representing the business rules it can understand and act, into business applications and/or standard services enabling broad, reusable, scalable, automated distribution of these knowledge assets when and where they are needed. Figure 2 b) illustrates an adaptation of the principle architecture of a Semantic Web Application as defined in [1] and the connection point with SIK repository. The RDF Parser of the Semantic Web Application will access the SIK Configuration file to be aware about the security policy applied and documents

assignment. Later on, it will access the RDF documents and extract the business rules described here as RDF triples, will analyze and store them in the RDF Store from where, by using the RDF Query Engine to extract and combine them, the application will be able to analyze the stored knowledge and even to infer new knowledge. Other applications can access and exploit the repositories in a similar way: the RDF document is accessed via a RDF Parser and the knowledge inside can be imported into the application knowledge base if it have one or can be directly queried by intermediate of XQL.

Figure 2: The SIK Architecture in Connection with a Semantic Web Application Architecture (source [4]) Since the sustainability of an organization and its success in front of the competition lie in its ability to manage and increase its stock of knowledge, the SIK will act as a source of enriching with the contained knowledge every knowledge base deserving / assisting knowledge workers and will favor the integrative architecture

for knowledge management system and associated software. Since one of the knowledge management cornerstones is to improve productivity by effective knowledge sharing and transferring the adoption of the SIK software architecture, at least for both “externalized knowledge” and “monolithic” software categories, 84

which provide the knowledge companion containing the incorporated-knowledge, will be a source and solution for the knowledge extensive implementations and even for future automation. The SIK can be visible to any authorized person, preventing the 'blackbox' syndrome common to all monolithic applications. The user can learn and understand from the system behavior, making his interaction with the application easier. The existing software can be adapted to the new architecture by adding its knowledge repository and by describing the business rules incorporated and/or by extracting them using the existing tools and methodologies, developed in the effort of converting existing systems into BRMS solutions. For knowledge representation, SIK uses the abstract model of RDF that allows ‘any application that understands the model to consume any data source using the model [8]’.

Benefits of Using Cloud Services with a SIK Compliant Architecture Part of the benefits that can be obtained by adopting a SIK compliant architecture for cloud services are similar to the benefits of adopting a SIK architecture for software application as outlined in the references [4] and [3] and the other one are generated by cloud computing itself. By adopting the SIK architecture for cloud services the consumers of these will have at least the following benefits: The cloud computing allows for an increased ability of a global force. SIK allows members of the organization have up-to-the-minute information about the business rules applied through the used software applications, in a formal and concise form that may help them improve business. This information can be extracted and even extended by using semantic search technologies and inference engines, respectively;

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Competitive analysis of cloud services or requirements regarding the way to solve problems can have a real base: one can compare the business rules (and determine those that better fits his needs) and can require knowledgeably new approach; Automated reasoner can deduce (infer) conclusions from the knowledge given in SIK repositories, making the implicit like knowledge explicit like; The service-driven technology is a response to the additional demand for agility and flexibility of company to respond in “market time”. In this context the materialization and distribution of all resources in cloud as cloud services together with the next big trend in Web services to be semanticenabled creates the premises to use information from SIK compliant Web services from different organizations to perform correlations, aggregations, and orchestration. The major industry trend is to realize an extensive knowledge management towards organizations as one of the responses to the effort to increase business agility and flexibility. This goal can be achieved by adopting a SIK architecture that will offer the possibility to access directly the business rules described; With a growing knowledge base where ‘business rules, status reports, lesson learned, and competitive intelligence were all interconnected’, the competitiveness of the company can be really sustained by knowledge. All management and administrative tasks in the cloud must be automated. SIK can play a crucial role in describing business rules in a computer actionable format facilitating application software integration and automation. Application can be sold as traditional or as knowledge repositories actionable via BRMS engines. Corroborated with a Web service architecture for software, SIK can be one of the foundation for the next-

generation information systems called ‘cooperative-information systems’ allowing an ‘intelligent’ mean to be dynamically integrated into customized and highly connected cooperative environments that exploit the Web services, and/or in fully automated environments that exploit the business rules repositories. From the point of view of the domain rules it models and acts, the application is transformed from an ‘isolated one’ into an ‘accessible one’. SIK accelerates and automates the deployment and management of domain business rules as well-formed, welldesigned, and valid domain knowledge. Since ‘knowledge management is particularly important for every organization having geographically dispersed departments [2]’, the knowledge repositories are the means for sharing and deploying that incorporated knowledge across these departments; SIK adds visibility to the way that current cloud services defines and processes business rules and gives a real foundation for future software requirements; SIK creates the ability to integrate and unify different silos of knowledge. This ability is given by the fact that the usage of namespaces corroborated with the structure and data in the same document allows obtaining a domain-neutral model. This allow one set of statements to be merged with another set of statements, even though the information contained in each set of statements may differ dramatically. The repository model or integrative model is one of the models adopted by knowledge management systems. In a multi-tenant architecture is possible to associate a centralized SIK repository containing the business rules associated to all services offered by a tenant; SIK has the capability to provide knowledge management with the ability

to respond in real time and to take action correspondingly. There are technologies and tools that allow analysis, transformation, and querying of large amounts of RDF data; SIK uses the standards that ‘enable the Web to be a global infrastructure for sharing both documents and data, which make searching and reusing information easier and more reliable as well [5]’.

Conclusions The main obstacle in providing better support to domain users is that, at present, the meaning of business rules content incorporated in software products, and also in cloud services, is not human accessible. The business rules meaning is hidden to both users and machines. In a cloud environment where web services can be changed dynamically the documentation of the product itself is not enough for better understanding principles and acting ways. Since cloud offers web services these are self descriptive regarding the possibilities of integration by intermediate of the platform-independent UDDI (Universal Description, Discovery and Integration). The tools that allows retrieving and extracting business rules from application software, do that in their own way and we can say that they act as a ‘tradutoretraditore’ (translator-traitor) and cannot be used in real-time as a web service in the cloud is searched by a broker. With a SIK adoption, the business rules become machine-accessible and human meaningful. This characteristic is given by the main goal of RDF to record knowledge in a machine-understandable format. The designer and modeler of business rules can describe them better and, later, we can use directly intelligent techniques to take advantage of these formalized representations. SIK, by organizing knowledge in conceptual spaces, according to its meaning, allows automated tools be able to extract new knowledge from repositories by exploiting the mechanisms

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provided by RDF that facilitates the combination of data. It also allows replacing the keyword-based search with query answering inside the cloud (especially for private but not excluded for public) and helps developing Semantic Web in a bottom-up approach (eRDF and RDF are supported formats for Yahoo! Slurp the Yahoo!’s web robot that indexes and finds Web pages, for example).

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Allemang, Dean. and Hendler, James. Semantic Web for the Working Ontologist: Modeling in RDF, RDFS and OWL, Elsevier, Morgan Kaufmann Publ, ISBN-13: 978-0-12-373556-0, pp 1-178, 2008. Antoniou, Grigorios. and van Hamerlan, Frank Semantic Web Primer, Second Edition, The MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts, London, England, pp 1-185, 2008. Avram, Vasile. Should software architecture change to adapt to the knowledge era?, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference Knowledge Management - Projects, Systems and Technologies, Academy of Economic Studies and the National Defense University ‘Carol I’, Edited by Toma

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Plesanu and Luiza Kraft, ISBN: 978973-663-783-4, pp 75-77, Bucharest, Romania, pp 75-78, 2009. Avram, Vasile. The Acquisition and Sharing of Domain Knowledge Contained in Software With a Compliant SIK Architecture , Proceedings of the 11th European Conference on Knowledge Management, Universidade Lusíada de Vila Nova de Famalicão, Famalicão, Portugal, Edited by Eduardo Tome, Published by Academic Publishing International, ISBN 978-1-906638-719, pp 19-26, 2010. Cardoso, Jose. (ed.) Semantic Web Services: Theory, Tools, and Applications, IGI Global, pp 1-21, 2007. Chorafas, Dimitris N. Cloud computing strategies, CRC Press, 2010 Rittinghouse, John W., and Ransome, James F. Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security, CRC Press, Taylor & Francis Group, Boca Raton London New York, pp. 1-259, 2010. Segaran, Tobie, Evans, Colin and Taylor, Jamie Programming the Semantic Web, O'Reilly, pp 1-126, 2009.

BENEFITS OF GRID COMPUTING FOR K-ORGANIZATIONS Adrian VASILESCU Răzvan Daniel ZOTA Radu CONSTANTINESCU Ph.D., professor [email protected], Ph.D., professor [email protected], Assistant, Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: For knowledge management to be successful, the corporate culture needs to be adapted to encourage the creation, sharing, and distribution of knowledge within the organization. There exist different historical and theoretical approaches to and theories about organizing knowledge, which are related to different views of knowledge, cognition, language, and social organization. Each of these approaches tends to answer the question: “What is knowledge organization?” differently. Grid computing enables organizations (real and virtual) to take advantage of various computing resources in ways not previously possible. They can take advantage of under utilized resources to meet business requirements while minimizing additional costs. The nature of a computing grid allows organizations to take advantage of parallel processing, making many applications financially feasible as well as allowing them to complete sooner. Grid computing makes more resources available to more people and organizations while allowing those responsible for the IT infrastructure to enhance resource balancing, reliability, and manageability. When you deploy a grid, it will be to meet a set of business requirements. To better match grid computing capabilities to those requirements, it is useful to keep in mind some common motivations for using grid computing. Keywords: Knowledge organizations, grid, cognition

it, they will come" does not apply to information technology.

1. Computer Networks and Knowledge Exchange The low cost of computers and networks has created a potential infrastructure for knowledge exchange and opened up important knowledge management opportunities. The computational power of computers has little relevance to knowledge work, but the communication and storage capabilities of networked computers make them knowledge enablers. Through e-mail, groupware, the Internet, and intranets, computers and networks can point to people with knowledge and connect people who need to share knowledge over a distance. Desktop videoconferencing and multimedia computing that transmits sound and video as well as text make it possible to communicate some of the richness and subtlety of one person's knowledge to another. What we must remember is that this new information technology is only the pipeline and storage system for knowledge exchange. It does not create knowledge and cannot guarantee or even promote knowledge generation or knowledge sharing in a corporate culture that doesn't favor those activities. The proverbial phrase "if we build

2. Exploiting under utilized resources One of the basic uses of grid computing is to run an existing application on a different machine. The machine on which the application is normally run might be unusually busy due to a peak in activity. The job in question could be run on an idle machine elsewhere on the grid. There are at least two prerequisites for this scenario. First, the application must be executable remotely and without undue overhead. Second, the remote machine must meet any special hardware, software, or resource requirements imposed by the application. For example, a batch job that spends a significant amount of time processing a set of input data to produce an output data set is perhaps the most ideal and simple use case for a grid. If the quantities of input and output are large, more thought and planning might be required to efficiently use the grid for such a job. It would usually not make sense to use a wordprocessor remotely on a grid because there would probably be greater delays and more potential points of failure. In most

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scalable application will, for example, finish in one tenth of the time if it uses ten times the number of processors. Barriers often exist to perfect scalability. The first barrier depends on the algorithms used for splitting the application among many CPUs. If the algorithm can only be split into a limited number of independently running parts, then that forms a scalability barrier. The second barrier appears if the parts are not completely independent; this can cause contention, which can limit scalability. For example, if all of the subjobs need to read and write from one common file or database, the access limits of that file or database will become the limiting factor in the application’s scalability. Other sources of inter-job contention in a parallel grid application include message communications latencies among the jobs, network communication capacities, synchronization protocols, input-output bandwidth to storage or other devices, and other delays interfering with real-time requirements.

organizations, there are large amounts of under utilized computing resources. Most desktop machines are busy less than 5 percent of the time over a business day. In some organizations, even the server machines can often be relatively idle. Grid computing provides a framework for exploiting these underutilized resources and thus has the possibility of substantially increasing the efficiency of resource usage. The processing resources are not the only ones that may be under utilized. Often, machines may have enormous unused disk drive capacity. Grid computing (more specifically, a data grid) can be used to aggregate this unused storage into a much larger virtual data store, possibly configured to achieve improved performance and reliability over that of any single machine. 3. Parallel CPU capacity The potential for massive parallel CPU capacity is one of the most common visions and attractive features of a grid. In addition to pure scientific needs, such computing power is driving a new evolution in industries such as the bio-medical field, financial modeling, oil exploration, motion picture animation, and many others. The common attribute among such uses is that the applications have been written to use algorithms that can be partitioned into independently running parts. A CPUintensive grid application can be thought of as many smaller subjobs, each executing on a different machine in the grid. To the extent that these subjobs do not need to communicate with each other, the more scalable the application becomes. A perfectly

4. Virtual resources and virtual organizations for collaboration Another capability enabled by grid computing is to provide an environment for collaboration among a wider audience. In the past, distributed computing promised this collaboration and achieved it to some extent. Grid computing can take these capabilities to an even wider audience, while offering important standards that enable very heterogeneous systems to work together to form the image of a large virtual computing system offering a variety of resources, as illustrated in Figure 1.

. Figure 1:. The grid virtualizes heterogeneous,geographically disperse resources

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machines had shared the connection to the Internet, there would not have been an effective increase in bandwidth. Some machines may have expensive licensed software installed that users require. Users’ jobs can be sent to such machines, more fully exploiting the software licenses. Some machines on the grid may have special devices. Most of us have used remote printers, perhaps with advanced color capabilities or faster speeds. Similarly, a grid can be used to make use of other special equipment. For example, a machine may have a high speed, self-feeding DVD writer that could be used to publish a quantity of data faster. Some machines on the grid may be connected to scanning electron microscopes that can be operated remotely. In this case, scheduling and reservation are important. A specimen could be sent in advance to the facility hosting the microscope. Then the user can remotely operate the machine, changing perspective views until the desired image is captured. The grid can enable more elaborate access, potentially to remote medical diagnostic and robotic surgery tools with two-way interaction from a distance. The variations are limited only by one’s imagination. Today, we have remote device drivers for printers. Eventually, we will see standards for grid-enabled device drivers to many unusual devices and resources. All of these will make the grid look like a large system with a collection of resources beyond what would be available on just one conventional machine.

The users of the grid can be organized dynamically into a number of virtual organizations, each with different policy requirements. These virtual organizations can share their resources collectively as a larger grid. Sharing starts with data in the form of files or databases. A data grid can expand data capabilities in several ways. First, files or databases can span many systems and thus have larger capacities than on any single system. Such spanning can improve data transfer rates through the use of striping techniques. Data can be duplicated throughout the grid to serve as a backup and can be hosted on or near the machines most likely to need the data, in conjunction with advanced scheduling techniques. Sharing is not limited to files, but also includes other resources, such as specialized devices, software, services, licenses, and so on. These resources are virtualized to give them a more uniform interoperability among heterogeneous grid participants. The participants and users of the grid can be members of several real and virtual organizations. The grid can help in enforcing security rules among them and implement policies, which can resolve priorities for both resources and users. 5. Access to additional resources As already stated, in addition to CPU and storage resources, a grid can provide access to other resources as well. The additional resources can be provided in additional numbers and/or capacity. For example, if a user needs to increase their total bandwidth to the Internet to implement a data mining search engine, the work can be split among grid machines that have independent connections to the Internet. In this way, total searching capability is multiplied, since each machine has a separate connection to the Internet. If the

6. Resource balancing A grid federates a large number of resources contributed by individual machines into a large single-system image. For applications that are grid-enabled, the grid can offer a resource balancing effect by scheduling grid jobs on machines with low utilization, as illustrated in Figure 2.

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Figure 2: Jobs are migrated to less busy parts of the grid to balance loads

redundant circuits that vote on results, and contain logic to achieve graceful recovery from an assortment of hardware failures. The machines also use duplicate processors with hot pluggability so that when they fail, one can be replaced without turning the other off. Power supplies and cooling systems are duplicated. The systems are operated on special power sources that can start generators if utility power is interrupted. All of this builds a reliable system, but at a great cost, due to the duplication of expensive components. In the future, we will see a complementary approach to reliability that relies on software and hardware. A grid is just the beginning of such technology. The systems in a grid can be relatively inexpensive and geographically dispersed. Thus, if there is a power or other kind of failure at one location, the other parts of the grid are not likely to be affected. Grid management software can automatically resubmit jobs to other machines on the grid when a failure is detected. In critical, real-time situations, multiple copies of important jobs can be run on different machines throughout the grid, as illustrated in Figure 3.

This feature can prove invaluable for handling occasional peak loads of activity in parts of a larger organization. This can happen in two ways: An unexpected peak can be routed to relatively idle machines in the grid. If the grid is already fully utilized, the lowest priority work being performed on the grid can be temporarily suspended or even cancelled and performed again later to make room for the higher priority work. Without a grid infrastructure, such balancing decisions are difficult to prioritize and execute. Occasionally, a project may suddenly rise in importance with a specific deadline. A grid cannot perform a miracle and achieve a deadline when it is already too close. However, if the size of the job is known, if it is a kind of job that can be sufficiently split into subjobs, and if enough resources are available after preempting lower priority work, a grid can bring a very large amount of processing power to solve the problem. 7. Reliability High-end conventional computing systems use expensive hardware to increase reliability. They are built using chips with

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Figure 3: Redundant grid configuration

Their results can be checked for any kind of inconsistency, such as computer failures, data corruption, or tampering. Such grid systems will utilize autonomic computing. This is a type of software that automatically heals problems in the grid, perhaps even before an operator or manager is aware of them. In principle, most of the reliability attributes achieved using hardware in today’s high availability systems can be achieved using software in a grid setting in the future.

more distributed IT infrastructure. It will be easier to visualize capacity and utilization, making it easier for IT departments to control expenditures for computing resources over a larger organization. The grid offers management of priorities among different projects. In the past, each project may have been responsible for its own IT resources and the associated expenses. Often these resources might be under utilized while another project finds itself in trouble, needing more resources due to unexpected events. With the larger view a grid can offer, it becomes easier to control and manage such situations. As illustrated in Figure 4, administrators can change any number of policies that affect how the different organizations might share or compete for resources.

8. Management The goal to virtualize the resources on the grid and more uniformly handle heterogeneous systems will create new opportunities to better manage a larger,

Figure 4: Administrators can adjust policies to better allocate resources

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Bibliography: 1. Czajkowsk,i K., Ferguson, D., Foster, I., Frey, J., Graham, S., Maguire, T., Snelling, D. and Tuecke, S., From Open Grid Services Infrastructure to WSResource Framework: Refactoring and Evolution, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li brary/wsresource/ogsi_to_wsrf_1.0.pdf, March 2004. 2. Czajkowski, K., Ferguson, D., Foster, I., Frey J., Graham S., Sedukhin I., Snelling, D., Tuecke, S. and Vambenepe, W. The WS-Resource Framework, http://www.ibm.com/developerworks/li brary /ws-resource/ws-wsrf.pdf, March 2004 3. Foster, Z., Kesselman, C. The Grid: Blueprint for a new Computing Infrastructure, Morgan Kaufmann Publishers, San Francisco, CA, 1998 4. Gasser, L. Braganza, C. and Herman, N. - MACE: A Flexible Test bed for

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Distributed AI Research. M.N. Huhns (ed.), Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Pitman Publishers, 1987. Honkela, T. (1993). Neural nets that discuss: a general model of communication based on selforganizing maps. S. Gielen and B. Kappen (eds.), Proceedings of ICANN’93, International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks, SpringerVerlag, London Nagaratnam, N., Janson, P., Dayka, J., Nadalin, A., Siebenlist, F., Welch, V., Foster, I., and Tuecke S. Security Architecture for Open Grid Services, http://www.cs.virginia.edu/~humphrey/ ogsa-sec-wg/OGSA-SecArch-v107192002.pdf. Oliver, D., Roos, J. Studying Organization Identity Empirically: A review, Working paper, Available at http://www.imagilab.org/pdf/wp03/WP 31.pdf, 2003 Open Grid Service Infrastructure Primer, Global Grid Forum, http://www.ggf.org, August, 2004

ENHANCING ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES THROUGH DOCUMENT MODELS Andrei TOMA Răzvan ZOTA Radu CONSTANTINESCU Assistant, Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Business Informatics/Business Informatics Department, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Professor, Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Business Informatics/Business Informatics Department, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Assistant, Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Business Informatics/Business Informatics Department, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: As the European Service Directive has already been enforced, a new challenge is to ensure a fully interoperable e-Government environment at the European level. The new dimension of the public administration process raises several issues that have to be addressed in order to successfully integrate systems from various administrative models. The current Single Point of Contact implementation assures that e-Government procedures can be completed at distance and by electronic means and that the information related to national requirements and procedures will be easily accessible for service providers and service recipients. In this context, a future goal will be to ensure the means in which different PSC will be able to interoperate. This is a complex task because each PSC has its own specific particularities and deals with various document types and formats. Creating common specifications for the documents types, formats and interchange containers is a mandatory stage in achieving the desired interoperability. In this paper we focus to the process of creating a unique document model for pan-European document interchanges. The document model will be used for the communication between PSCs. The communication between PSCs and national authorities will be done independently. The document model consists on both semantic and security metadata. This document model will be properly derived from eGovernment ontology. Here we are presenting the initial assumptions and architectural issues that are elicited and will be used in order to create a fully functional model. We rely on the former experience gained in engineering a Romanian PSC proof of concept and we will extend our achievements to address the PSC interoperability goal. Keywords: e-Government, interoperability, e-documents ontologies

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and procedures easily accessible for service providers and service recipients • Creating „unique desks”, also known as Points of Single Contact (PSC). Those goals were enforced by the Service Directive that firmly required the establishment of the PSCs. PSCs should enable national or European service providers to cover all the formalities related to the establishment and afterwards to practice the specific activity. A particular activity may be performed either on the premises or from the country of origin. The electronic means should also ease the process of dealing with the administrative requirements. In order to provide the authorizations for service providers, a Member State (MS) can require specific documents that justifies that the requester may be entitled to

Introduction

In order to develop the European service market and to facilitate the access for both service providers and clients to the opportunities determined by each individual member state, there is a need to establish a common EU legal and technical environment that should deliver the baselines for cross-border scenarios and the means simplify the administrative processes. The initial general objectives were the following: • Simplification of the administrative procedures and formalities applicable to service providers; • Provision of the possibility to complete procedures at a distance and by electronic means and to make information on national requirements

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perform the specific service/activity. Of course, those kinds of documents may vary from country to country. An inherent requirement will be to set up means/tools which will allow each national administrations to interpret and deal with the information they will receive from a service provider from another MS, and even to check their reliability and integrity. This will ease processing the application and making decisions within acceptable time parameters. This kind of tools will require permanent update from all the MS. Therefore it will be a major goal to achieve interoperability between the information systems from all the MS and to create common procedures and standards that will define the upper layer EU system. At this moment there are several interoperability architectures that are already conceived/ developed in the MS. Those solutions should be integrated in the proposed solutions. Therefore goal will not be to redefine the administrative services implementations in each country but to use the services offered in an interoperable EU environment. Several should be addressed when developing an interoperable solution, mentioning: • continuous automatically rules/formats update for each PSC • common document specifications definition; • secure and interoperable data exchange. 2 Service Directive As we already mentioned, in order to improve the administrative processes involving both in-country specific dataflows and pan-European data-flows the European Parliament and the Council adopted the Service Directive on 12 December 2006. The Directive requires each Member State to simplify procedures and formalities that service providers need to comply with. Particularly, it requires Member States to remove unjustified administrative burdens and to facilitate:

business establishment - scenarios in which a natural or legal person wants to set up a permanent establishment in a MS. • provision of cross-border services scenarios in which a business supplies services across borders in another MS, without setting up an establishment there. 2.1 PSC’s Scope Pursuant to the Directive Member States are obliged to set up points of single contact – PSC’s through which service providers can obtain all relevant information and deal with all administrative formalities without the need to contact several authorities. The PSC’s have to be accessible at a distance and by electronic means. The Services Directive also aims to strengthen the rights of services’ beneficiaries, both consumers and businesses. For example, the Services Directive prohibits discriminatory conditions (tariffs, obligations) based on the nationality or residence of the service beneficiary. The Services Directive promotes a high quality of services and enhances information and transparency relating to service providers and their services. The Services Directive also constrains the Member States to cooperate with each other in order to ensure efficient supervision of providers and their services Europa.eu (2010). The Services Directive does not limit itself to clarifying and systematizing the freedom of establishment and freedom to provide services. The Directive also provides the baselines for a legislation and administration reform mandatory for each Member State. The most important aspects of this reform are the following: • administrative and legislative simplification and modernization, also by improving transparency and easing authorization procedures; • one-stop shops establishment for service providers; • review and adapt the existing legal requirements that are applicable to services; 95

• elimination of discriminatory, unnecessary or disproportionate national legal requirements; • cross-border services may be provided on a temporary basis; • total bans on commercial communications by regulated professions are prohibited; • limiting the restrictions to the exercise of multidisciplinary activities. The Services Directive considers also the problem of supervising the business flows in the Single Market, by setting up a system of administrative cooperation among national authorities with an overview on service providers across borders in order to avoid misuse. The Services Directive considers the rights of service recipients by addressing the following issues: • Non-discrimination against service recipients on the basis of their nationality or place of residence. The obligation must be complied with by both public administrations and service providers. • Comprehensive information rights for service recipients. 2.2 Existing Solutions The Services Directive has had to be fully transposed by Member States into their national systems by 28 December 2009. Romania has delayed this deadline as on the current date the implementation of the Service Directive is not ready. Nevertheless, several PSC prototypes have been developed as we can mention the EUSDRO project that involved E-Caesar Association in which the Academy of Economic Studies and the authors of this paper had a relevant role. Regarding electronic frameworks for eservices, Romania has currently implemented the national electronic system for e-government, named e-Guvernare (http://formulare.e-guvernare.ro/). The portal is delivering e-services as: the unique desk for delivering declarations to public authorities, the online payment desk, the online forms (e-forms) area, the e-auction

service or the transport authorization system. The National Electronic System (SEN) facilitates the interoperability in exchanging data among different public administration agencies. The portal is built on two sections. The first one, E-forms section, allows downloading the standard forms used by various public institutions, which can be further printed, filled in and submitted by classical means to the specific authority. The second one deals with on-line services and implies online filling in the forms, or solving an existing problem with the administration without having to go to the counter or using other means of remittance of the documents. From the available service we can mention: • Declaration submitted to National Agency for Employment, declaration submitted to National Agency for Health Insurance, declaration regarding the payment obligations towards social insurance budget, declaration regarding the profit tax or declaration regarding the profit tax. • The electronic system for issuing licenses for international carriers • Public procurement electronic system • Online customs' declarations • The virtual payment office. Some of these electronic services will be included in the new portal aimed for supporting the national PSC (www.edirect.gov.ro). The most important existing service for the Service Directive implementation is the licensing service. As we discuss about possible PSC implementations, the EUSDRO pilot facilitates the business opening, change and closure, automating the processes currently existing at the Trade Office Register. As results of the implementation of the PSC pilot we can mention that the solution should ensure: 1. Online submission for all the documents required for registering a company. The applicant should not submit any documents at the desk (for the moment 96

when implementing the Service Directive. This challenge needs to be solved in the course of the project, as documentation needs to be understood by points of single contact and competent authorities and service providers; its authenticity needs to be validated, respectively. For efficiency reasons, document processing should be automated to the largest extend possible to minimise manual processes in extracting needed data from the documentation and feeding it to back-office applications. Even having identified documents as a major challenge, the Service Directive offers an opportunity to advance to interoperable electronic documents. At this moment, the electronic documents in eGovernment are still relatively infrequent, the enforcement of the Service Directive will determine large efforts for electronic documents standardization. Moreover, the development of interoperability models for electronic documents will determine the development of open common specifications for future interoperable electronic documents and open source modules that implement the concepts and common specifications. The models will have to be tested in real life in the pilots. The common specification will address document schema, representations and security: • document formats with a structured content that can be automatically processed (such as XML); • visual representation formats (PDF, XPS, RTF, etc.) with limited information structure; • document authenticity based on electronic signatures or other means such as back-office or document register access. There are several issues that should be addressed when discussing common specification on electronically documents: • should introduce a multi-layered framework for cross border exchange of electronically documents should handle all related technologies and formats identified

the current Romanian legislation states that the dossier submission on paper is mandatory). The documents will be digitally signed. 2. Online document management for all the papers submitted by an applicant. 3. Online document validation for the entire dossier submitted by an applicant. 4. Openness for foreign applicants, not just Romanian ones. 5. Online payment for all fees. The fees will be paid after the entire administrative process is over and not in between process tasks. 6. Online free assistance for Romanian and foreign applicants in order to understand the administrative process, to complete the necessary documents, to submit the dossier and to follow its course of action. 7. The tasks that judges perform in the back office to be automated. The presence of an applicant in the court room should not be mandatory even if the applicant’s dossier presents particularities. For the moment this is not possible due to current Romanian legislation. 8. Integration with other institutions applications in order to diminish the time consumed for pan-institutional feedback. 3 Integration Initiatives In an ideal scenario, irrespective of the origin and the language of the documents, official documentation submitted in a cross-border application or resulting from the service has well defined content and structure so that it can be automatically processed. In reality, there are few examples of EU wide common documents. The administrative decisions taken based on aforementioned documents are currently issued by the authorities in charge in a variety of formats and its content depends on national or regional procedural laws and often are not even based on an electronically processing. As a result, documentation accompanying an application varies significantly which gives a major interoperability challenge to be addressed

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as payload and should not be restricted to support only a subset of formats and standards and technologies; • should introduce optional layers for achieving semantic interoperability; • should provide an authentication layer in addition to the authentication mechanisms provided within the payload documents. The interoperability will be achieved by creating meta-documents based on specific national electronic documents. The meta-documents should be created by adding information regarding the payload and also authentication data. The development of the meta-document framework will suppose the following steps: 1. Analyzing e-documents standards, formats and technologies in MS: • identifying document types; • eliciting document formats; • identifying technologies used for creating/validating/delivering/stori ng the documents. 2. Updating and optimizing the specifications, also referring to specific scenarios and administrative data flows: • identifying document flow and use cases; • identifying validation/generation rules. 3. Modeling a semantic network for electronic documents and developing/updating the specifications for the meta-data layer: • modeling documents dependency structure; • modeling a semantic network and defining the semantic metadata; 4. Creating processing modules with respect to performance and security issues: • creating document processor modules

optimize processor modules with respect to performance and security; 4. A Proposal for a European Master Document The challenge of integrating the numerous documents used by the various economic actors in relation to the member states is an aspect of the larger scale integration leading to a unique European reporting system. As such there are obvious advantages to constructing a European master document as well as identifying the correlations between the various existent national documents. 4.1 Existing National Level Documents At the present moment, documents circulating between the entities which are obligated to file reports and the various institutions of the state are organized by national rules without the existence of a European standard. Moreover there are numerous Member States which do not have a standardized internal approach, with document format and document flow defined by each receiving institution. Such a low level of standardization produces a significant amount of data redundancy, as well as an increase in the cost involved in reporting data to the state. If such reporting obligations have a crossstate component, this becomes even more costly. For example in Romania, reporting community level operations involves the use of a set of special forms in addition to the one used for national level operations. The worst case scenario involves the existence of significant variation within the state itself, especially if the state is a federal one. A typical situation involving state reporting in a member state of the community would involve different state institutions defining reporting standards and receiving reports in specific formats. Correlation, if it is necessary, would be then done through communication between the institutions, transparently from the point of view of the reporting citizen, legal person etc.

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A typical report to the state could be represented as a set of information in the

form presented in Figure 1 below:

Figure 1: National level report Although not shown in the figure, this set is accompanied by a series of validation rules which must be applied to the fields. The state master document is obtained by integrating the various sets of data available from its institutions.

Considering the documents defined as in figure [fig1], the complete set of reports which must be sent to state authorities would have the form presented in figure [fig2] below.

Figure 2 : State level document integration As with the case of a single report, the state can define cross-form validation rules, in addition the the ones which must be satisfied in a single form. While creating such a master document 4.2 Necessity of a European Master would encounter significant difficulties in Document the beginning of its adoption this obstacle The initiative launched by the directive can be avoided by integrating the will lead to the integration of all the reports information received by existing entities sent to the authorities of the member states within the states. While initially the leading to an unified approach. This will construction of an unique European benefit both the citizens of the member reporting mechanism would be difficult, the states, through an increase of the celerity of existence of a master document would operations involving a different member lower the entry barriers, aiding in future state, and the states themselves through the initiatives to this end. elimination of data redundancy and optimization of inter-state document flow. 4.3 European Master Document The existence of a generally accepted Format A European master document would European master document format would have to contain the relevant information for allow for the centralization of data supplied by the member states. This would allow for all member states in a standardized form. the elimination of the necessity of The minimal conditions for the format submitting reports to different states and to would involve: different institutions within a particular • completeness, in the sense that all state. information necessary for a state, 99

purpose of extending the desired functionality or due to normative constraints. One possible proposal for the information contained in a European master document is presented below, in figure[fig3]. The document would consist of the series of fields containing the data as well as the states to which each field applies. The possibility to apply both national level validation rules as well as necessary validation rules at community level.

citizen etc. should be extractable from the master document; if certain information would have been available through the use of national reporting mechanisms and is no longer available in the European master document, then the property of completeness is not satisfied • possibility for the same degree of validation; if, at the national level, validation was possible between a series of fields in order to ensure data integrity, it must be possible on the master document (although the master document will not necessarily include the rules themselves) • minimizing redundancy, in the sense that information should not be unnecessarily repeated; this should be pursued in as much as the previous two conditions are respected The conditions defined above are considered by the authors to be the minimal requirements for the utility of a European master document, as supplementary requirements can be defined, be it for the

Figure 3: European master document The information would be extracted from national documents via a series of rules. The process of document aggregation is presented below in Figure 4.

Figure 4: Master document construction the authorities of the member states in an ontology which would facilitate multi step integration.

5. A European Document Ontology In building a European master document for unified declarations in the member states, the existing situation must be taken into account. As such, it is useful to arrange the data currently submitted to

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5.3 Ontology Format The ontology which organizes the data should thus reflect the relations between the data collected by the various countries. The aim is to discover future possibilities of integration through the means of inclusion or addition of intermediary documents. By inclusion we understand the situation where the national data collected by state A is a subset of the national data collected by state B. As such, the data can be integrated, maintaining a single copy and thus minimizing redundancy and facilitating a unique community standard. If the above is not the case, the data from state A and B can be integrated through an intermediary document, provided that the differences are not significant. Since the initial data are the ones collected at national level, an algorithm has to be defined in order to obtain the ontology. We propose an algorithm for iterative generation of the ontology which is presented below. The aim is to obtain an organization of available data most suitable to integration. Constructing the ontology starts from identifying the common sets of data collected by the various member state and then aggregating them into intermediary documents suitable for integration. 6 Future Challenges A critical issue is the composition of existing security-sensitive services in SOAbased infrastructures. This determines a wide range of trust and security issues. This is why a common agreed specification must be established. We consider that the following issues should be addressed by the member states in order to have interoperable PSC’s: • Syndication of the administrative information, as the information related to e-services should be available in different languages and the changes should be easily acknowledged in all member states.

5.1 Utility of a European Document Ontology Building a European master document in a practical situation would involve aggregating the various sets of information available at a national level. The steps of this process are, in our opinion, best reflected through the representation of the information through the means of an ontology. While the example presented in the present article considers only data from the states themselves (which would correspond to the situation in which the states would have a national master document), the model can be extended to consider national authorities, further increasing its granularity. 5.2 Possible Approaches There are multiple possible approaches to building such an ontology and thus multiple possible hierarchical data structures through which to reflect the connections between the available national sets of data. One possible approach is a teleological approach, in which the aggregation of data is done in such a way as to reflect the operations/purpose for which they are collected. This approach would reflect the relations between the various subsets of the data and would ultimately be more useful in an established system; however, since the purpose of constructing such an ontology is the actual construction of the system through aggregation the origin of the data is more important than the purpose for which it is collected. One other approach is to reflect national origin of information through the constructed ontology in a way which would facilitate integration in a European master document. Although this approach no longer reflects the purpose for which the information was collected, the organization of the data reflects the connections between the data collected by various national level institutions.

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e-Government services are just being put in place, the interfaces for the pan-European services will be able to be established from the early stages of development or implementation. Bibliography: 1. Constantinescu, R., Andreescu, A., Boldeanu, D., Mina, L. and Scorţa, I.: EU Services Directive in Romania EUSDRO Project, Raport de activitate, Departamentul de Cercetări Economice ASE Bucureşti, Contract nr. 625/28.05.2009 (2009) 2. Handbook on Implementation of the Services Directive, European Communities http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/ser vices/services-dir/ (2007) 3. http://ec.europa.eu/internal_market/ser vices/servicesdir/implementation_en.htm 4. Mina, L., Scorţa, I., Andreescu, A., Boldeanu, D., Constantinescu, R., Nisioiu, C.: Reforming Public Administration in the Context of the EU Services Directive Implementation- A case study on the Business Registration Process in Romania, Proceedings of The 5th International Conference Public Institutions’ Capacity to Implement the Administrative Reform Process, pp. 307-- 316, Bucharest (2009) 5. http://www.eu-spocs.eu/

Creating common specifications for the documents types, formats and interchange containers. We refer here to creating a unique document model for pan-European document interchanges. The document model will be used only for the communication between PSC’s and not for the communication between PSC’s and national authorities. The document model will consist on both semantic and security metadata. • Data exchange mechanisms with focus on security, interoperability and receipt acknowledgement, as considering that the exchange implies different countries with different communication standards. • European service directories, as repositories that should be used by end-users in order to access eservices. 7 Conclusions The interoperability benefits added by PSCs should be enhanced by using a system that creates the premises for interoperability between PSCs. In order to achieve a comprehensive acceptance for the future proposed European specification for data models and processing modules, the future solutions should take in consideration a wider area of national administrative processes with the specific documents' standards and technologies involved. As in Romania the

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THE ROLE OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE IN KM Radu VICTOR Simion – MELINTE Cezar-PETRE Ph.D., professor Ph.D., asistant Ph.D., asistant Abstract: Creating, managing and transferring knowledge is at the top of the agenda for a growing number of organizations. There are two approaches to knowledge management: the process approach and the practice approach. The process approach attempts to codify organizational knowledge through formalized controls, processes, and technologies. The practice approach to knowledge management assumes that a great deal of organizational knowledge is tacit in nature and that formal controls, processes, and technologies are not suitable for transmitting this type of understanding. Organizational culture is the most important factor in creating, enabling and sharing knowledge and a basic element for knowledge management. There are four cultural elements which can influence knowledge management : working groups and communities; beliefs and values; trust; credibility.

A knowledge management philosophy emphasizes learning collaboratively so that they can add more value to their products and services for the customers. Successful companies create a knowledge pull and develop the desire among the employees to tap into their companies intellectual resources, they reward employees for sharing and creating knowledge.

1. Introduction In this period we are in a knowledge management society. Because knowledge management initiatives won’t take hold unless they are supported by an organization's culture, cultural factors must be considered when developing knowledge management strategies. Building an effective culture within which people operate in an organization is a crucial requirement for effective knowledge management. While most managers may recognize the importance of culture, they find it difficult or impossible to articulate the culture-knowledge relationship in ways that lead to action. Managers can diagnose the culture type of their organization and adopt the appropriate technologies to enhance the KM activity they are concerned with. But managers can change the organization culture for a better knowledge management implementation environment.

Defining KM is difficult because it has multiple interpretations. The following are definitions of KM which illustrate the varying views of many researchers and practitioners: 1. KM is the explicit and systematic management of vital knowledge and its associated processes of creation, organization, diffusion, use and exploitation. (Skyrme and Amidon, 1997) 2. KM is a fluid mix of framed experience, values, contextual information and expert insight that provides a framework for evaluating and incorporating new experiences and information (Davenport & Prusak, 1998). 3. a form of high value information (either explicit or tacit) combined with experience, context, interpretation, and reflection that is

2. KM approaches In recent years, knowledge management has become a critical subject of discussion in the business literature. Both business and academic communities believe that by leveraging knowledge, an organization can sustain its long-term competitive advantage.

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Organizations adopting the process approach may implement explicit policies governing how knowledge is to be collected, stored, and disseminated throughout the organization. The process approach frequently involves the use of information technologies, such as intranets, data warehousing, knowledge repositories, decision support tools, and groupware (Ruggles, 1998), to enhance the quality and speed of knowledge creation and distribution in the organizations. The practice approach to knowledge management assumes that a great deal of organizational knowledge is tacit in nature and that formal controls, processes, and technologies are not suitable for transmitting this type of understanding. Rather than building formal systems to manage knowledge, the focus of this approach is to build social environments or communities of practice necessary to facilitate the sharing of tacit understanding. The perceived benefits that companies can expect from knowledge management implementation are:

ready to apply to decisions and actions (Davenport et al., 1998). 4. Salleh & Goh’s (2002) define KM as a process of leveraging knowledge as means of achieving innovation in process and products/services, effective decision-making, and organizational adaptation to the market for creating business value and generating a competitive advantage to organizations. 5. KM is a systematic, explicit and deliberate building, renewal and application of knowledge to maximize a firm’s knowledge-related effectiveness and returns from its knowledge assets (Wiig, 1997). 6. Owen et al (2001) found that KM has multiple interpretations. When applied in an IT context, KM is about the managing of hardware, software or systems. Applied in a business education context, less attention is focused on technical aspects of KM and more emphasis is given to social aspects such as organizational theory, leadership and other issues in the human side of management. The curricula of Asian institutions of higher education appear to follow this pattern. With respect to the management of higher education establishments themselves, however, KM is clearly to be interpreted in the second and broader sense. 7. KM can be defined as the process for acquiring, storing, diffusing and implementing both tacit and explicit knowledge inside and outside the organization’s boundaries with the purpose of achieving corporate objectives in the most efficient manner (Magnier-Watanabe & Senoo, 2008). There are two approaches to knowledge management: the process approach and the practice approach. The process approach attempts to codify organizational knowledge through formalized controls, processes, and technologies .

• • • • • • • • • • •

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innovation by encouraging free flows of ideas; improve customer service by streamlining response time; boost revenues by getting products and services to market faster; improve efficiency; improve the market position by operating more intelligently on the market; enhance the continuity of the company; enhance the profitability of the company; optimize the interaction between product development and marketing; improve group competencies; enhance employee retention rates by recognizing the value of employees; streamline operators and reduce costs by eliminating redundancies (cost of defects);

• •

• • • •

enterprise. The culture of an organisation acts as a mediator of the relationship between individual and organisational knowledge, and determines which knowledge belongs to the organisation and which remains under the control of the individuals and groups. When individuals are asked to introduce their knowledge in an organisational system, e.g. client database, they tend to think that they have lost the ownership of a know-how that until then remained exclusive to them. The objectives set for knowledge management in the organisation need to take into account the rules and habits concerning the ownership and control of specific knowledge, in order to make the leap from individual to organisation knowledge.

make professionals learn more efficiently and more effectively; provide a better foundation for making decisions like making or buying of new knowledge and technology, alliances and mergers; improve communication between knowledge workers; enhance synergy between knowledge workers; ensure that knowledge workers stay with the company; make the company focus on the core business and on critical company knowledge.

3.The Role of Organizational Culture in KM

Culture has been defined as a set of implicit assumptions held by members of a group that determines how the group behaves and responds to its environment. When looking at organisational culture that is favouring the creation, sharing and application of knowledge, there are some differences with the culture that was (and is) predominant in the industrial or traditional type of organisations:

Organizational culture is the most imperative factor for successful knowledge management. In general, culture supportive of knowledge management is one that highly values knowledge and encourages its creation, sharing and application. Many surveys results affirmed that culture is the largest obstacle faced by organizations in creating a successful knowledge - based Traditional Culture Limited information distribution

Knowledge-aware Culture Wide information distribution

Many management levels

Few management levels

Uneven responsibility

Shared responsibility

Rules based

Principles based

Formal Structure

Informal Structure

Risk adverse

Able to take some risks

Occasional training policy

Continuous learning policy

Financial focus

Marketing focus

Political

Open

Knowledge retention

Knowledge sharing & utilisation

One organisation, one culture

Influences on organisational culture from the networks in which an organisation participates

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Communities are at work in both large and small organisations. Making better use of both the formal communities (functional groups, project teams etc.) and the informal communities (smoking groups, coffee machine meetings, organisational socializing etc.) is a key issue in implementing KM. Knowledge that people hold in their heads – their experience and skills is frequently transferred between people who recognise each other as peers – and speak a common language. Intangible benefits include an increased sense of belonging and partnership; stronger motivation as isolation lessens; improved communication and creativity. People find it rewarding and easy to bounce ideas around a trusted group of colleagues. Many organisations can point to increased consistency of advice and action, to time saved through more rapid surfacing of expertise and to improved employee retention as well as a stronger competitive base. Communities are often the most costeffective routes to using the intelligence and know-how in and available to your organisation. Setting up physical and virtual collaborative areas for discussion allows individuals to voice opinions; concerns, ideas and lessons learnt could provide a good source of understanding about how well a KM initiative is performing. Concerns raised here need to be addressed by the KM team, in order for individuals to feel part have, and contribute, to the KM initiative. Beliefs and values are built from early childhood expenses and mature with experiences as adults. These beliefs give rise to our attitudes and coupled with our previous experience give rise to feelings that drive our behaviour. Our behaviour affects our experiences and our experiences are judged against our values and beliefs (either reinforcing or modifying those beliefs). Our experience of knowledge processing creating, sharing, capturing, applying will therefore shape our beliefs

There are four cultural elements which can influence knowledge management : • working groups and communities; • beliefs and values; • trust; • credibility. Working groups create a culture and the phenomenon of ’Groupthink’ can arise. The strong group beliefs give rise to restrictive behaviours. This creates many obstacles to the changes needed in a knowledge–aware organization. Some obstructive properties of Groupthink are: • Illusion of invulnerability: members believe that past successes guarantee future successes and so take extreme risks. • Collective rationalisation: members collectively rationalise away information that contradicts their assumptions. • Illusion of morality: members believe that they are all moral and so could not make a bad decision. • Shared stereotypes: members dismiss evidence that is contradictory by discrediting the source of that information. • Direct pressure: sanctions are placed on members who do dissent from the majority opinion, for example, using assertive language to enforce compliance. • Self-censorship: members keep quiet about any misgivings they have so that they do not voice concerns. • Mind guards: members screen out information from outsiders where this might disconfirm the group's assumptions and beliefs. • Illusion of unanimity: given these other symptoms it appears that there is consensus within the group, even though there are many of those involved who do not agree with the group decision.

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and attitudes. If the experiences have been positive we will be likely to act positively by participating actively in these processes; or negatively if our experience has been negative. A positive experience normally means that there has been a positive and important gain for the individual; it might be increased credibility, recognition, monetary or promotional reward etc. Trust is based on perceived behaviours. There are two main categories of trust, personal trust and competence (or identity) based trust. For effective knowledge management it does not need to be at the level of personal trust, but can be competence based. The credibility of individuals (particularly ’experts’) within Communities of Practice has been found to have a major impact on who responds and the quality of response. Credibility is strongly related to trust and qualities of leadership, both already recognised as fundamental to knowledge – enabled organisation.

Bibliography: 1. Davenport, T. H., & Prusak, L. (1998), Working knowledge: How Organizations Manage What They Know, Harvard Business School Press, Boston. 2. Goh, S. C. (1998), Toward a Learning Organization: The Strategic Building Blocks, Advanced Management Journal, 63(2), 15-18. 3. Goh, S.C. (2002), Managing Effective Knowledge Transfer: An Integrative Framework and Some Practice Implications, Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(1), 23-30. 4. Magnier-Watanabe, R. m., & Senoo, D. (2008), Organization characteristics as prescriptive factors of knowledge management initiatives, Journal of Knowledge Management, 12(1), 21-36. 5. Ow, C. K., Willett, R. J. & Yap, K. L. (2001), Building a Knowledge-based Business School, Education & Training, 43 (4/5), 268-274. 6. Salleh, Y. & Goh, W.K. (2002), “Managing Human Resources Toward Achieving Knowledge Management”, Journal of Knowledge Management, 6(5), 457-468. 7. Skyrme, D. & Amidon, D. (1997), The Knowledge Agenda, The Journal of Knowledge Management, 1(1), 27-37 8. Wiig, K. (1997), Knowledge management: Where did it come from and where will it go? Journal of Expert Systems with Applications, Special Issue of Knowledge Management, 13(1).

4. Conclusions Organizational culture is the most important factor in creating, enabling and sharing knowledge and a basic element for knowledge management. In the literature are emphasized many differences between traditional culture and knowledge aware culture. There are four cultural elements which can influence knowledge management: working groups and communities; beliefs and values; trust; credibility.

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CONTRIBUTIONS TO MULTI-AGENT SYSTEMS IMPLEMENTATION FOR PROJECT SCHEDULING Constanta Nicoleta BODEA Ileana Ruxandra BADEA Ph. D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Ph. D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: Increasing project complexity makes scheduling problems more difficult to solve and requires more versatile algorithms. Two different approaches for the project scheduling optimization could be considered: TCPSP (TimeConstrained Project Scheduling), and RCPSP (Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling). In this paper we study the possibility to apply Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) for these scheduling problems regarding different fitness functions. We search for strengths and weaknesses of MAS as a prerequisite study for a further implementation of the TCSP on a specific MAS platform. Keywords: multi-agent systems, scheduling, project management, planning

project by hiring personnel or purchasing additional equipment.

1. Project Scheduling Problems Project scheduling problem is known to be NP-complete and has proven to be a difficult task for human planners and schedulers [14]. The traditional positioning of scheduling is between planning and execution and it produces decisions on the specific resources, operations, and their timing to perform the tasks (the schedule). Scheduling methods generally fall into two categories: constructive methods and repair methods. Constructive methods incrementally extends a partial schedule until it is complete, meanwhile repair methods iteratively modify a complete schedule to remove conflicts or to further optimize solution. The project scheduling problem is normally characterized by objective functions, features of resources, and pre-emptive conditions [19]. Minimizing of project duration is often used as an objective function, while other objectives such as minimization of total project cost and leveling of resource usage are also considered. For many projects there is a trade-off between project cost and project duration. When a project lags behind its schedule, extra people may be assigned to the job to speed it up. Even for an on-time project there may be opportunities to ‘crash’ the

We propose to solve a specific scheduling problem Time-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem (TCPSP). The TCPSP is a variant of the well studied RCPSP (Resource-Constrained Project Scheduling Problem) [18]. However, there are fundamental differences between the time-constrained and the resource-constrained variant. In the first, the deadlines cannot be exceeded and resource profiles may be changed, whereas in the second, the resource availability cannot be exceeded. Moreover, in the TCPSP, a non-regular objective function is considered. Therefore, most existing solution techniques of the RCPSP are not suitable for the TCPSP. Although the TCPSP occurs often in practice, it has been considered only rarely in the literature. [5] give an Integer Linear Programming formulation for the TCPSP and discuss the concept of project crashing. In project crashing, it is possible to decrease the processing time of an activity by using more resources [17]. Different approaches to project planning and scheduling have been developed [2].In this paper we concentrate on Multi-Agent Systems (MAS) approach to select its advantages

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3. The agents are likely to represent different stakeholders that each have their own aims and objectives. This means the most plausible design strategy for an agent is to maximize its individual utility/knowledge. 4. Because the system is open, agents can join and leave at any given time. This means that an agent could change its identity on re-entering and hence avoid punishment for any past wrong doing. For example, an agent could sell low-quality products, leave the system as soon as it gets paid (so avoiding retribution from buyers or authorities operating in the system), and then subsequently rejoin the system unscathed. 5. An open distributed system allows agents with different characteristics (e.g. policies, abilities, roles) to enter the system and interact with one another. Given this, agents are likely to be faced with a number of possible interaction partners with varying properties. For example, several agents might offer the same type of Web service, but with different efficiencies (e.g. speed of execution) or degrees of effectiveness (e.g. providing richer forms of output). 6. An open distributed system allows agents to trade products or services (e.g. through various forms of auctions or market mechanisms), and collaborate (e.g. by forming coalitions or virtual organizations) in very many ways. The choice about which mechanism to adopt is important since each of them may enforce a different set of rules of encounter and may result in different performance for the agents involved (e.g. the eBay auction allows the last highest bidder to win meanwhile the Vickrey auction allocates the goods to the agent with the highest valuation. In a MAS, selfinterested agents must often decide which other agents they want to interact with.

and disadvantages in order to be applied on TCSP. 2. Multi-Agent Systems The modern approach to artificial intelligence (AI) is centered around the concept of a rational agent. According to [25] an agent is anything that can perceive its environment through sensors and act upon that environment through actuators. An agent that always tries to optimize an appropriate performance measure, expected utility, is called a rational agent. Such a definition of a rational agent is fairly general and can include human agents (having eyes as sensors, hands as actuators), robotic agents (having cameras as sensors, wheels as actuators), or software agents (having a graphical user interface as sensor and as actuator). However, agents are seldom standalone systems. In many situations they coexist and interact with other agents in several different ways. Such a system that consists of a group of agents that can potentially interact with each other is called a multi-agent system (MAS), and the corresponding subfield of AI that deals with principles and design of multiagent systems is called distributed AI. A MAS can be defined as a loosely coupled network of problem solvers that interact to solve problems that are beyond the individual capabilities or knowledge of each problem solver [8]. MAS and TCSP Due to its complexity and dynamics, a project can be seen as an open distributed system. Open distributed systems can be modeled as open multi-agent systems that are composed of autonomous agents that interact with one another using particular mechanisms and protocols. The agent research community has developed a number of models of interaction including coordination [11] [12] [13] [7], collaboration [4] [23], and negotiation [16] [24] [26]. Their application in largescale open distributed systems, as complex projects, presents a number of new challenges: 109

In order to apply MAS to project scheduling we consider the characteristics Table 1: MAS characteristics applied on TCSP MAS Characteristic Agent design

from the following table:

Environment

Description can be heterogeneous or homogeneous, in both cases computation is asynchronous static or dynamic

Perception

Partial/full perception

Control

Agents distribution involves decentralization along with cooperation and coordination (collaborative agents) or competition (negotiate agents) common knowledge and self agents knowledge

Knowledge – as basis for Decisions Communication

for cooperative agents it means coordination and for self interested agents it means negotiation

TCSP options homogeneous agents as activity agents. First implementation static, and if needed upgraded to dynamic Partially observable as TCSP is applied on project distributed environment Collaborative agents are considered more efficient than competitive agents as they can reach better a common goal – TCSP optimization Self agents Knowledge is evaluated by fitness function value of each agent Common Knowledge means average fitness value of all agents Coordination is seen as a higher value than negotiation, negotiation can be used only in case of resource/time conflicts.

system behavior that is adverse to proper system execution In order to solve TCSP we consider holonic MAS [9]. Holonic characteristic of MAS means that agents appear as a single entity to the outside world and may in fact be composed of many sub-agents and conversely, many subagents may decide that it is advantageous to join into the coherent structure of a super-agent and thus act as single entity. For TCSP project activities can be considered agents that act homogeneous as part of a group entity named project schedule. Also activities can be subdivided into sub-activities that in their turn have a group behavior.

As it can be seen above, TCSP has particularities that require specific MAS implementation. Among all characteristics we should emphasize the need for collaboration between agents. This occurs for many reasons; however, most are rooted in the problem of scarcity of resources as computing, information or know-how. Since, individual agents possess different resources and capabilities, a solution to a given problem, especially TCSP or RCSP, may be beyond the capabilities of any one agent, requiring that a number of agents pool their resources and collaborate with one another in order to solve the problem. Regarding a MAS model to be used we encounter a lack of comprehensive notation since multi-agent theory brings together research from economics, game theory, formal logic, and theoretical AI. Multi-agent systems have received much attention in recent years due to their advantages in complex, distributed environments. A number of methodologies have been proposed for engineering MAS. Constructing MAS involves all the problems of traditional distributed systems along with the problems that arise from the behavior of the individual agents. For instance, the individual behavior of the agents can combine to form emergent

MAS Methodologies and Toolkits In order to create MAS for solving scheduling problems specific methodologies should be used. [10] mention Gaia and Tropos, which use human organization metaphor of agents having multiple roles in the same time and interacting in order to reach goals. The Multi-agent Systems Engineering (MaSE) methodology has been developed at the Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT) to assist in the development of MAS by leading the designer from the

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business process engineering and multimedia information management. This agent-based approach introduces a new level of abstraction of knowledge level cooperation between autonomous systems that enhances distributed systems interoperability, scalability and reconfigurability.

initial system specifications to a set of formal design models [6]. MAS-CommonKADS and PASSI methodologies se combine Artificial Intelligence and Object Oriented Methdologies, meanwhile Prometheus methodology is more strict regarding the use of OO concepts. ADELFE Methodology implements the concept of Adaptive MAS, in which agents try to maintain cooperation relations with each other. Its strength and weakness in the time is the use of only one type of agent: collaborative agent, in order to develop only emergent software.Another advantage is modularization inherited from RUP, through which some components can be reused in other methodologies or can be created in other methodologies. In order to implement MAS for different problems, there are some toolkits, based on theoretical fundamentals of Agent Oriented Programming but none of them is build on a pure agent oriented language. [3] mention two programming languages used for actual developments based on agents (METATEM an IndiGolog), languages used for industrial applications (Brahms, JIAC and Agent Factory), and new generation of object oriented languages as (GOAL). After a surface study of these, we can conclude that MAS development is 95% software engineering and only 5% multi-agent theory. Regarding toolkits available [15] to implement MAS we can mention: ZEUS, JADE,AgentBuilder , JACK. Most of these platforms are Java based. The most interesting appropriate to TCSP seems to be ZEUS, which is a synthesis of established agent technologies with some novel solutions to provide an integrated collaborative agent building environment. The aim of the ZEUS project was to facilitate the rapid development of new multi-agent applications by abstracting into a toolkit the common principles and components underlying two collaborative multi-agent systems we had developed for

Agent Optimization Given the historical role of Nash equilibrium as a predictive concept of social interaction and according to [1], “The attainment of equilibrium requires a disequilibrium process. We consider agent optimization as a process to reach a Nash equilibrium or to some other desirable target set, even through changing status to disequilibrium. Agent changes their status by taking decisions. Multi-agent decision making is the subject of game theory [21] [22]. Although originally designed for modeling economical interactions, game theory has developed into an independent field with solid mathematical foundations and many applications. The theory tries to understand the behavior of interacting agents under conditions of uncertainty, and is based on two premises. First, that the participating agents are rational. Second, that they reason strategically, that is, they take into account the other agents' decisions in their decision making. We consider agent decision as a process that follows a pattern mathematically expressed by a fitness function. Further we present several possible functions to evaluate MAS overall performance and agents decisions. 3. Fitness Functions for Agent Optimization Agent decisions and agent knowledge are very closely related as an optimum decision requires specific level of knowledge. The agent’s level of knowledge can be evaluated through a fitness function. In our approach we consider the fitness

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function based on utility theory, the higher the benefits or performance of the agent knowledge, the higher the agent’s decision quality and the preference for other agents to collaborate with it. After comparing several possibilities from [20], as De Jong’s function, Rastrigin’s function, Ackley’s function, Michalewicz’s function we can say that agent behavior cannot be realistically simulated with only

one fitness function. Therefore we can use two or more fitness functions in the same MAS in different key points when agent decision is required. a) De Jong’s Function. The first De Jong’s function is one of the simplest test benchmark. It is a continuous, convex and unimodal function (Fig. 1) and it can simplify bid actions in a MAS.

f(X)=∑ i (Xi*Xi) Test area is usually restricted to hypercube -5.12 ≤ Xi ≤ 5.12, i = 1,.., n. Global minimum f(X) = 0 is obtained for Xi = 0, i = 1,.., n.

Figure 1: De Jong’s function b) Rastrigin’s function. Rastrigin’s function is based on De Jong’s function with the addition of cosine modulation in order to produce frequent local minima (Fig. 2). Multimodal characteristic makes this function to be more useful than De Jong’s Function for complex agents behavior. Its disadvantage is that agents can be trapped in some fields of search, missing the optimum. f(X) = 10*n + ∑ i (Xi* Xi-10*cos(2*pi*Xi)) Test area is usually restricted to hypercube -5.12 ≤ Xi ≤ 5.12, i = 1,.., n. Its global minimum equal f(X) = 0 is obtained for Xi = 0, i = 1,.., n.

Figure 2: Rastrigin’s function c)

Ackley’s Function. Ackley’s function (Fig. 3) is a widely used multimodal test function and its complexity emulates real agents better than a) and b). Agents following this pattern have a more stochastic behavior than previous functions.

f(X)= -a* exp(-b*rad (1/n*∑i (Xi*Xi))- exp (1/n*∑i (cos (c*Xi)))+a+exp(1) It is recommended to set a = 20, b = 0.2, c =2 pi. Test area is usually restricted to hypercube -32.768 ≤ Xi ≤ 32.768, i = 1,.., n. Its global minimum f(X) = 0 is obtained for Xi = 0,i =1,., n.

Figure 3: Ackley’s function d) Michalewicz’s function. It is a multimodal test function with relative complexity. An agent that applies it has a balance between agent’s optimistic and pessimistic decisions because in the graphic below it shows a clear difference between the valley of minimum values and maximum values. f(X) = - ∑ i {sin(Xi) * [sin (i*Xi2 * 1/ pi) ]2m } It is usually set m = 10. Test area is usually restricted to hypercube Xi=0,..,pi, i = 1.., n., as seen in the function graphic (3D representation)

Figure 4: Michalewicz’s function

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To implement MAS for TCSP according to any of the above functions is a difficult task as long as agents should behave as close as possible to real agents. This is a disadvantage of using MAS for scheduling problems, because the opportunity to use some fitness functions, also a specific MAS platform or a MAS methodology has great impact on system performance.

AKNOWLEDGEMENTS The results presents in this paper were obtained in the framework of the project ID - 873, financed by Romanian through the Program IDEI. PN CDI II. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Arrow, K.J., “Rationality of self and others in an economic system”. The Journal of Business, 59(4):S385–S399, (1986). 2. Bodea, C. & Niculescu, C.S.,“Resource Leveling Using Agent Technologies”, The Proceedings of 20th IPMA World Congress on Project Management, China Machine Press, ISBN 7-11104703-6, (2006): 599-605. 3. Bordini, R. H., Dastani, M., Dix, J., Seghrouchni, A. El F. “Multi-Agent Programming Languages, Tools and Applications”, Springer Science & Business Media, New York, USA, ISBN 978-0-387-89298-6, (2009). 4. Cohen, P. R. & Levesque, H. J.”Intention is choice with commitment”,Artificial Intelligence 42(2–3), (1990): 213–261. 5. Deckro, R. F. & Herbert J.E. ,“Resource constrained project crashing”, OMEGA International Journal of Management Science, 17, (1989): 69–79. 6. De Loach, S. Wood, M., & Sparkman, C., “Multi-agent Systems Engineering”, The International Journal of Software Engineering and Knowledge Engineering, Vol. 11 no. 3, (2001) 7. Durfee, E. H. “Practically coordinating”, AI Magazine 20(1), (1999): 99–116. 8. Durfee, E. H., and Lesser, V. ”Negotiating Task Decomposition and Allocation Using Partial Global Planning”, In Distributed Artificial Intelligence, Volume 2, eds. L Gasser and M. Huhns. 229-244. San Francisco,Calif.: Morgan Kaufmann, (1989) 9. Fischer K., Schillo M., Siekmann J., “Holonic Multi-agent Systems: A Foundation for the Organization of

4. Conclusions and Further Research In this paper, we studied the possibility to use MAS with several fitness functions that could be applied for project scheduling problems: Time Constrained Scheduling Problem or Resource Constrained Scheduling Problem. Fitness functions can be seen as a tool to evaluate MAS or agent knowledge at a specific moment in time. After comparing several fitness functions mathematical formulas and graphics we found that there is no best fitness function to be applied with MAS, each of them having strengths and weaknesses to be considered. A rational approach for TCSP solved by MAS would be to combine these fitness functions, either in a new fitness function, or apply different fitness function for specific types of agent decision. From previous research we have results regarding multi-agent methods as Genetic Algorithms and Ant Colony Algorithm that we can use further with MAS. Because in previous research we found collaborative agents more efficient than competitive agents, in MAS, coordination will be preferred to auction. Auction will be implemented only in case of conflicts between self goals (agent domination) and system common goal (system search for optimum). Even if MAS implementation for TCSP or RCSP requires deep and difficult configuration and knowledge about agents behavior, it is a recommended path to follow as long as agent approach is the best way to emulate real projects.

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18. Kolisch, R. & Padman, R., “An integrated survey of deterministic project scheduling”, Omega, 29, (2001): 249–272. 19. Lee, J., & Kim, Y. “Search heuristics for resource constrained project scheduling“, Journal of the Operational Research Society, 47(5), (1996): 678-689. 20. Molga M. & Smutnicki C., “Test functions for optimization needs” (2005), available at http://www.zsd.ict.pwr.wroc.pl/files/doc s/functions.pdf 21. Osborne, M. J.. “An Introduction to Game Theory”. Oxford University Press. (2003) 22. Osborne, M. J. & Rubinstein, A. “A Course in Game Theory”. MIT Press. (1994). 23. Pynadath, D. & Tambe, M. ”Multiagent teamwork: analyzing key teamwork theories and models”. In Castelfranchi, C. & Johnson, L. (eds.), Proceedings of the First International Joint Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multi-Agent Systems, Vol. 2, (2002 ): 873–880. 24. Rosenschein, J. & Zlotkin, G. “Rules of Encounter: Designing Conventions for Automated Negotiation among Computers” Cambridge MA: MIT Press, (1994) 25. Russell, S. J. & Norvig, P. “Artificial Intelligence: a Modern Approach”. Prentice Hall, 2nd edition. (2003). 26. Zambonelli, F., Jennings, N. R., Wooldridge, M. „Organisational abstractions for the analysis and design of multi-agent systems”,in Proceedings of the Agent -Oriented Software Engineering Workshop (235-251). LNCS, Vol. 1957. Berlin: SpringerVerlag. (2001)

Multi-Agent Systems”, Lecture Notes in computer Science, (2004), Volume 2744/2004, 1083-1084, DOI: 10.1007/978-3-540-45185-3_7 10. Henderson-Sellers, B., P. Giorgini, P. “Agent-oriented methodologies”, Idea Group Publishing, London, U.K, ISBN 1-59140-581-5, (2005) 11. Jennings, N. R.”Commitments and conventions: the foundation of coordination in multi-agent systems”, The Knowledge Engineering Review 8(3), (1993): 223–250. 12. Jennings, N. R., Faratin, P., Lomuscio, A. R., Parsons, S., Sierra, C. & Wooldridge, M. ”Automated negotiation: prospects, methods and challenges”. International Journal of Group Decision and Negotiation 10(2), (1993): 199–215. 13. Jennings, N. R.”Commitments and conventions: the foundation of coordination in multi-agent systems”, The Knowledge Engineering Review 8(3), (1993): 223–250. 14. Hurink J.L., Kok A.L., Paulus J.J. & Schutten, J.M.J., “Time-constrained project scheduling with adjacent resources”, Enschede, Netherlands, (2009): 12. 15. Hyacinth, S. Nwana, Divine T., Ndumu, Lyndon., C. Lee., & Jaron, C. Collis. “ZEUS: A Toolkit for Building Distributed Multi-Agent Systems”, Applied Artificial Intelligence, Vol. 13, Issue 1 & 2, (Jan. 1999), 129 - 185 16. Kraus, S.,”Strategic Negotiation in Multi-Agent Environments”. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (2001) 17. Kis, T. “A branch-and-cut algorithm for scheduling of projects with variable intensity activities”, Mathematical Programming, 103, (2005): 515–539.

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FAMILY-OWNED BUSINESS IN ROMANIA Constanta BODEA Isa TAK Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected], Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] 1. The Business Environment Romania – a short overview

of 2008. Output fell by 16.6 % for industry to reach a low in the second quarter of 2009 (with modest signs of a recovery thereafter in the second half of 2009, (Eurostat, 2010). The European economy is in the midst of the deepest recession since the 1930s, with real GDP projected to shrink by some 4% in 2009, the sharpest contraction in the history of the European Union. Although signs of improvement have appeared recently, recovery remains uncertain and fragile (European Communities, 2009).

in

An average annual rate of growth of 6.92% during 2002-2008 has ensured the gradual decrease in the gap between Romania and other EU member states. Key economic indicators are shown in Table 1. The main growth factor for this period has been the domestic demand. Having grown at a steady pace for several years, EU-27 value added generally peaked in the first quarter

Table 1: Key economic indicators (Sources: National Institute of Statistics, and NBR) Indicator GDP (EUR billion) GDP (% change against previous year) Inflation % Unemployment % EUR/ROL exchange rate (average) Foreign direct investment – FDI (EUR billion) Population (mil inhabitants)

2002 49

2003 53

2004 61

2005 80

2006 98

2007 124

2008 137

2009 *

5.1 22.5 8.6

5.2 15.3 7.0

8,5 11.9 8.1

4.2 9.1 7.2

7.9 6.6 7.3

10.3 4.9 6.4

7.3 7.9 5.8

-7.1 5.6 6.9

3.1270

3.7551

4.0510

3.6209

3.5258

3.3328

3.6776

*

1.1

1.9

5.1

5.2

9.0

7.2

9.4

4.5

22.1

22.0

21.8

21.7

21.6

21.5

In 2008, Romania continued to have high economic growth despite deterioration in international conditions. This increase was driven mainly by domestic demand for investments, which, in turn, has increased the trade and account deficits (CRPCIS, 2010). According to the European Commission, high external and fiscal imbalances increased Romania’s exposure to the global economic downturn. In 2009, the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in Romania was decreasing by 7.1 percentages against 2008, being amounted

21.5

21.5

to lei 491273.7 million lei, current prices. From the viewpoint of GDP formation, we should notice the contribution of services activities to total GDP, this branch holding a share of 50.1% in GDP. The gross value added in the services sector registered a fall of 6.8% and the activity volume in the construction sector was by 13.6% under the level of 2008. The gross value added in industry registered a fall of 4.3% and agriculture, forestry and fishery decreased their activity volume by 0.4%. The analysis of factors that contributed to the 7.1% fall of 115

enterprises for air transport and real estate. According to the main characteristics of their economic behavior, enterprises are classified in the following categories: – Enterprises with non-financial economic activity: agricultural holdings; enterprises from industry, construction, trade and other services; – Financial, banking and insurance companies; – Institutions of central and local government and institutions from social security field; – Non-governmental organizations non-patrimony purpose; – Private entrepreneurs - comprising natural independent persons and family associations. The family business is included in the family associations. According to juridical organizational types, enterprises are the following: – Autonomous companies and national institutes, created on the basis of central or local government decisions; – Commercial companies created on the basis of Law no. 31/1990, with subsequent amendments, such as: partnerships; simple limited partnerships; joint-stock partnerships; joint-stock companies, including national societies and companies; limited liability companies. – Agricultural holdings created or restructured on the basis of Law no. 36 / 1991; – Co-operative companies represent the companies with cooperative capital created or restructured on the basis of Decree Laws no. 66 / 1990, no. 109 / 1996 and 1 / 2005; – Other institutions of government central and local administration created on the basis of Decree, Laws; – Budgetary institutions created on the basis of central or local government decisions;

gross domestic product, from the viewpoint of GDP use, points out the significant contribution of households actual individual final consumption (6.8%) and gross fixed capital formation (8.1%). The European Economic Recovery Plan (EERP) was launched in December 2008. The objective of the EERP is to restore confidence and bolster demand through a coordinated injection of purchasing power into the economy complemented by strategic investments and measures to shore up business and labor markets. The overall fiscal stimulus, including the effects of automatic stabilizers, amounts to 5% of GDP in the EU (European Communities, 2009). According the enterprise size, the following classes are used in the official statistics: large enterprises with 250 or more persons employed; medium-sized enterprises with 50 to 249 persons employed; small enterprises with 10 to 49 persons employed; micro enterprises with less than 10 persons employed. Micro, small and medium-sized enterprises are collectively referred to as SMEs (Eurostat, 2010). Family business is a kind of the micro enterprises. Large enterprises generally contribute a higher share of sectoral value added than employment, while the reverse is true for micro enterprises. This indicates relatively high apparent labor productivity (value added per person employed) among large enterprises and a low level among micro enterprises. For mining and quarrying, electricity, gas and steam supply, water supply, as well as for water transport, micro enterprises had the highest apparent labor productivity among the size classes. The only activity where small enterprises recorded the highest apparent labor productivity was other business activities, while apparent labor productivity peaked among medium-sized

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Competitiveness also requires the ability to cooperate as a cluster to be able to achieve this as no one firm can do it all. Competitiveness depends on the ability to form good alliances and partnerships. At the industry level, business associations can participate in efforts representing business sector before government. Business associations, working with the Government of Romania, can develop international trade and investment linkages to get access to markets and technology. However, this undertaking requires greater communication and cooperation between the private sector and the public sector. Industry clusters can also implement workforce development, human resource and training initiatives by working with education and training providers so that the latter adapt their programs to industry needs. Another field of activity will be that of research, development, testing and certification initiatives that can add value to the industry while adapting to ISO and similar standards.

–

Private entrepreneurs - natural independent persons and family associations, created on the basis of Law no. 300 / 2004; – Non-governmental organizations associations and foundations, unions, political parties, religious cult organizations created accorded to Government Ordinance no. 26/2000 and Law no. 21/1924. The family business is organized as private entrepreneurs. In the national account, the non-observed economy, the family associations are taking into consideration as a component of the informal sector, with the undeclared output of family associations and selfemployed persons. The Government’s actions will aim to consolidate a stable and predictable business environment, eliminate state monopolies, consolidate the free competition, and increase the transparency of the business environment. Assuring the normative institutional conditions for the functioning of the free competition will constitute a major objective for the Government. To this purpose, the following objectives will be mainly pursued: the independence of the Council of Competition, an efficient antitrust legislation, limitation of the state sector, regulation of the state support and of other public interventions that damage the competitiveness of economic agents. Building Romania’s competitiveness requires a complex set of mutually reinforcing activities at the level of the firm and the industry cluster, reinforced by policy and institutional action at the national and local government levels. A key barrier to competitiveness is the mindset of people combined with the ability to build social capital of trust and cooperation. Learning from nations that have built prosperity quickly and aided by the foregoing analysis, one can formulate recommendations that deal with the private sector, with the public sector and with the dialogue that connects them.

2. Doing Business in Romania Doing Business 2010 is an annual report investigating regulations that enhance business activity and those that constrain it (World Bank, 2009). The report presents quantitative indicators on business regulations and protection of property rights during the following ten phases of the business’s life: starting the business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, enforcing contracts and closing the business. Romania is ranked 55 out of 183 economies in the Ease of Doing Business classification, where the top ranked economy is Singapore. The detailed information about the rank by business phases is presented in table 2.

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Table 2: Romania’s rank in Ease of Doing Business classification, for each business phase Source: World Bank, 2009 Business Life cycle phase

Rank (from 1 to 183) 42 91 113 92 15 41 49 46 55 91 55

Starting the business Dealing with construction permits Employing workers Registering property Getting credit Protecting investors Paying taxes Trading across borders Enforcing contracts Closing the business The entire life cycle

Procedures for starting the business in Romania are the following: • Obtain a certificate from the Trade Registry proving the availability of the proposed company name and make a reservation of the name • Deposit funds in a bank and obtain a document confirming bank deposit of sufficient funds • Obtain a fiscal record for the company associates and the legal representatives from the public finance department of the municipality • Register with the Unique Office of trade registry, Bucharest Tribunal; obtain court registration, publication of notice, and registration for statistical purposes and social security • Register for VAT • Register the employees contracts with the Territorial Labor Inspectorate (TLI) Considering the staring business indicators trend, the historical data presented in table 3 suggest that in the last three years the start conditions were improving in Romania, but the improvements in others countries were even better.

Starting-a-Business indicators measure the procedures, time, cost, and minimum capital requirements to register a business formally. Two procedures: notification of existence and tax and social security registration are usually sufficient for business registration. In reality, all countries impose additional requirements. Further, the regulation of business entry varies systematically across countries. Richer countries regulate less. So do countries in the common-law tradition. In poorer countries, market failures may be more severe, and therefore may increase the desire to correct the failures by regulating entry. Some developed economies also suffer from excessive regulation and pay the price. In France, the Ministry of Industry adopted in 1974 the Loi d’Orientation du Commerce et de l’Artisanat, in order to protect small shopkeepers and craftsmen against competition from larger retail stores. The legislation created a zoning permit requirement, at the discretion of the local municipal council. These entry requirements weakened employment growth in the formal retail sector. Table 3: Historical data for starting the business Starting the Business Rank Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) Min. capital (% of income per capita)

Doing Business 2008 * 6 14 4.7

Doing Business 2009 30 6 10 3.6

Doing Business 2010 42 6 10 2.9

1.5

1.1

0.9

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Closing business indicators measure the procedures, time, and cost to go through insolvency proceedings as well as court powers in insolvency proceedings. In the United States, there are more than 55,000 corporate bankruptcy cases each year, 20 per 100,000 population. In the United Kingdom, there are some 40,000 a year, about 75 per 100,000 population. In contrast, about 500 bankruptcy cases were started in Spain, about 1 per 100,000 population. Nordic proceedings are the fastest, at around two years on average, and also the cheapest, at 4.5 percent of the

estate value. Finland and Norway are among the world’s top countries on time and cost. English-legal-origin countries are the second-fastest legal-origin group in resolving insolvency, at 2.7 years. In French-civil-law countries, insolvency lasts on average 3.7 years, and it costs 15 percent of the estate value. In transition countries, the process lasts around three years and costs 7 percent of the estate value. Tables 4 and 5 present the summary of the business indicators for Romania, spitted into two categories.

Table 4: Summary of indicators – I, Source: World Bank, 2009 Business Life cycle phase Starting the business

Getting Credit

Paying Taxes

Trading Across Borders

Closing the Business

Indicator Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) Min. capital (% of income per capita) Strength of legal rights index (0-10) 8 Depth of credit information index (0-6) Public registry coverage (% of adults) Private bureau coverage (% of adults) Payments (number per year) Time (hours per year) Profit tax (%) Labor tax and contributions (%) Other taxes (%) Total tax rate (% profit) Documents to export (number) Time to export (days) Cost to export (US$ per container) Documents to import (number) Time to import (days) Cost to import (US$ per container) Time (days) Cost (% of claim) Recovery rate (cents on the dollar) Time (years) Cost (% of estate)

Value 6 10 2.9 0.9 5 5.7 30.2 113 202 8.2 34.2 2.2 44.6 5 12 1275 6 13 1175 512 28.9 28.5 3.3 11

Table 5: Summary of indicators – II, Source: World Bank, 2009 Business Life cycle phase Dealing with Construction Permits Employing Workers

Indicator Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of income per capita) Difficulty of hiring index (0-100) Rigidity of hours index (0-100) Difficulty of redundancy index (0-10)

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Value 17 243 87.9 67 40 30

Business Life cycle phase Registering Property Protecting Investors

Enforcing Contracts

Value

Indicator Rigidity of employment index (0-100) Redundancy costs (weeks of salary) Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of property value) Extent of disclosure index (0-10) Extent of director liability index (0-10) Ease of shareholder suits index (0-10) Strength of investor protection index (0-10) Procedures (number) Time (days) Cost (% of claim)

46 8 8 48 1.3 9 5 4 6.0 31 512 28.9

various types of family involvement and development of family firm typologies. Using three modes of family involvement, (Poutziouris P.Z., Smyrnios K.X., Klein S.B, 2006) provide three operational definitions of family firms. Their broad definition uses the criteria of family’s retention of voting control over the strategic direction of a firm. In addition to retention of such control by the family, the mid-range definition includes firms with direct family involvement in dayto-day operations. The most stringent of definitions classifies firms as family firms only if the family retains voting control of the business and multiple generations of family members are involved in the day-to-day operations of the firm. According the official statistics, the number of the family associations was continually increasing until 2004 (Table 6). In 2007, the total number of family associations was 115.728, approximately 40%

3. Family business: Statistics for Romania Numerous attempts have been made to articulate conceptual and operational definitions of family firms. The focus of most of these efforts has been on defining family firms so that they can be distinguished from nonfamily firms. Although none of these articulations has yet gained widespread acceptance, most seem to revolve around the important role of family in terms of determining the vision and control mechanisms used in a firm, and creation of unique resources and capabilities. The definitions vary, usually, in terms of degrees of family involvement. Attempts to capture the varying extent and mode of family involvement in firms have been directed in three general directions: articulation of multiple operational definitions of family firms; development of scales to capture

of them acting in the trade sector.

Table 6: Number of family associations, Source: NIS, Statistical yearbook 2008 Activity TOTAL, of which: Industry Trade Hotels and restaurants Tourism

1996

1997

1998

1999

2000

2001

2002

2003

2004

2005

2006

2007

82533

90944 120043 128265 133610 142537 152389 160866 164236 147024 116421 115728

20206 34479

22293 36142

5088

5304

7001

371

396

523

Transport

1864

3397

4484

Other services

20525

23412

29426 47706

30903

31441 50973 7481

32751 53097

34939 56645

37354 60560

39432 63928

40257 65265

36038 58425

28537 46264

28367 45989

7792

8313

8887

9382

9580

8576

6791

559

583

622

665

702

718

643

509

506

4791

4991

5324

5692

6009

6135

5492

4349

4323

33020

34396

36694

120

39231

41413

42281

37850

29971

6750

29793

In 2005-2007 the number of family associations dramatically decreased. For example, in the trade sector, the total reduction was with 30% (see figure 1).

Figure 1: Trends of the family associations in Romania A contributing family worker is a person who carries out his activity into a family economic unit, run by a member of the family or a relative, for which he gets no remuneration as salary or payment in kind. The contribution of the family business in the employment, in 2007 is shown in figure 2.

Figure 2: Employment structure, by status in employment, by sex and area, in 2007 Source: NIS, Statistical yearbook 2008) The structure of active enterprises from industry, construction trade and other services, by class, in 2007 is shown in figure 3. The contribution of the family business in included in the micro enterprises (0-9 employees).

Figure 3: Structure of active enterprises from industry, construction, trade and other services, by size class, in 2007, Source: NIS, Statistical yearbook 2008

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9. http://www.infotravelromania.ro/inte rviu178_happy_tour.html 10. InfoTravelRomania (2010), How to see current and former chief of Happy Tour transform a family business into a corporation? 11. http://www.infotravelromania.ro/en/inte rview027_happy_tour.html 12. JAA (2001) Romania - National Competitiveness Report Executive Summary, E. Austin Associates, Inc. 13. Jones, K. Z. (2005), The 200 best home businesses, F+W Publications, Inc, Avon, MA 14. NIS (2010), Romania in Figures 2010, National Institute of Statistics, Bucharest. 15. NIS (2008), Statistical Yearbook, National Institute of Statistics, Bucharest, http://www.insse.ro/cms/rw/pages/anuar statistic2008.en.do 16. Poutziouris, P. Z., Smyrnios, K. X., Klein S. B. (2006). Handbook of Research on Family Business, MPG Books Ltd, Bodmin, Cornwall. 17. Schwab, K. (2010), The Global Competitiveness Report 2010-2011, World Economic Forum, Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.weforum.org. 18. World Bank (2009) Doing Business 2010 Reforming Through Difficult Times, International Bank for Reconstruction and Development / The World Bank, Washington, D.C.USA.

Bibliography: 1. Anca, D. October 2004, IT & C sector: One of the Romanian economy priorities, OUTSOURCE WORLD TECHXNY - NEW YORK. 2. ARIS (2010), FDI Statistics, Romanian Agency for Foreign Investment, http://www.arisinvest.ro/en/whyromania/fdi-statistics/ 3. CRPCIS (2010), Infobusiness Romania 2010, Centrul Român pentru promovarea comertului şi investițiilor stăine (CRPCIS), http://www.traderom.ro/. 4. Demetriade, N. (2008), Romanii au inceput sa stie ce isi doresc, interviu www.MONEY.ro 5. Eurostat (2010), Keys figures on European business with a special feature on the recession, Eurostat Pocketbooks, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. 6. European Communities (2009), Economic Crisis in Europe: Causes, Consequences and Responses, European economy 7|2009, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, Luxembourg. 7. European Union (2010), Europe in figures. Eurostat yearbook 2010, Publications Office of the European Union, Luxembourg. 8. InfoTravelRomania (2009), Provocarea anului va fi sa crestem afacerea intr-o piata care scade vizibil, interviu din Ziarul Financiarul,

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ELEMENTS OF FRANCHISE AND NETWORK MARKETING IN NORTH AMERICAN ECONOMY Gheorghe MINCULETE Polixenia OLAR Ph.D., professor, “Carol I“ National Defense University, Bucharest [email protected] Teaching assistant, “Carol I“ National Defense University, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract:There are stories about successes but also about failures referring to franchise and network marketing businesses. Considering the similarities and differences they offer, it is necessary to correctly indicate them for a certain situation. If someone wants to find out the perfect moment for a proper business, he must determine its sense; he must also compare and make a clear difference between its applicability through network marketing or franchise acquisition. There are great stories about success, in both categories, as well as stories of monumental failure and financial loss. A careful analysis and comparison will help one businessman to understand the risks and costs involved; he can also develop the proper opportunity for the unique situation that he turns it into account with specific financial tools. According to the American specialists, network marketing is the “the supreme synergy” as it combines the best parts of the franchise concept with the best parts of the exponential growth. For a clear image, we would like to review the two concepts and the relationships between them. Keywords: franchise, network marketing, business, product, service, network distributors.

moment of high excitement when people may experiment great joy or deep frustration. The good news is that these moments are predictable and they may be accelerated till the franchiser’s “maturity” stage. The first stage is called “Launching” and it is characterized by the opening enthusiasm. It is followed by the “Development” stage when the franchiser feels frustrated because of his great efforts and modest results. The “Success” stage offers satisfaction to the franchiser who comes to perfectly know the model in the “Maturity” stage. It is also important for the franchiser to know the final stage which is called the “Going out” An excellent example of a continuous development of a franchise business is given by McDonald’s restaurants. The first restaurant was opened in San Bernardino, California in 1940 by McDonald brothers, Dick and Mac. Before the franchise, only those villagers could enjoy the restaurant’s offer as it was only one location. Early in the fifties, Multimix exclusive distributor for mixers, Ray Kroc visited the two brothers’ restaurant and he was surprised by the huge number of clients queuing for a hamburger that was served fast and well.

1. Franchise Functional Aspects According to the evaluations in the business field, it was found out that franchise was the most successful business model in the XX century. The concept was so successful through the last fifty years of the previous century that, nowadays, some North American experts appreciate that more than a third part of the goods and services sold in the United States is achieved by means of franchises. On the basis of some results in the business field it was said that the franchise was a real philanthropy for consumers who can multiply a product or a service all over the world. Franchise is a checked method used by the people who initiate or develop a business to increase their capital, copying a successful business. In this successful partnership, the “umbrella “company or the franchiser increases its market value when selling its checked, profitable system to an investor. The investor or the franchiser buys a ready-made business with a minimum risk as he doesn’t make the previous, expensive mistakes that may appear when initiating a business. Each franchiser will be intensively trained in the business he has just bought. This is a

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In the middle of ‘50s when the first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in franchise system, most of the investors misunderstood it considering it a cheat. Today, only 60 years later, the economical practice demonstrated that franchise is a global phenomenon.

Ray Kroc grasped the business potential and proposed the two brothers to reproduce the format all over the country. It was the beginning. In April 15, 1955, the first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in Des Plaines, Illinois. Then it was a rapid extension and in 1965, ten years later, McDonald’s company had stocks and shares (in 1965, 100 McDonald’s shares had a value of $2250 and on 31st of December 2003 the same number of shares had a value of approximately $1.8 million). Nowadays, McDonald’s corporation, current on New York exchange as MCD, is the biggest fast-food restaurants chain in the world, mainly selling hamburgers, chickens, French fries, milkshakes and sodas. Recently, it has started to offer salads, fruits, snack wraps and carrot sticks. Due to Ray Kroc’s idea, McDonald’s succeeded to offer hamburgers and French fries to all the consumers in the world. Today there are more than 30000 restaurants and more than 85% of McDonald’s restaurants are independently operated by the means of franchises. In Romania, the first McDonald’s restaurant was opened in June 16, 1995 in Unirea Shopping Center. The opening day brought 15302 customers and recorded the biggest number of transactions in Central Europe for the first day. There are more than 55 McDonald’s restaurants in Romania today and this is not the end. As the world’s fast-food leader and symbol of globalization, McDonald’s has restaurants in more than 120 countries all over the world annually selling products for more than 14 billion Euros. Experts say that between 34%-60% of the products and services are sold by franchise in the United States and many versatile investors all over the world pay millions of dollars to be allowed to multiply a franchise whose success has already been proved. Thus, we may say that franchises are models that can be copied. This leads to the conclusion that if a product or a service can be multiplied, then, that product or service may be sold as a franchise.

2. Network Marketing Concept in Businesses According to the experts, when combining the franchise and the exponential growth concepts we get the network marketing, also called “the supreme synergy”, or the perfect system that can be imitated and increase the banking capital. Considering that the network marketing is dependent on the franchise concept and the exponential growth (an explosive one and one that can be multiplied) of the value through banking capital, the North American experts suggest a simple successful formula for the next decades: $ = T x E: $ = financial freedom T = time invested when multiplying a model (the franchise concept) E = exponential growth Network marketing is an approachable concept similar to franchise system; it is built around some ordinary people who get extraordinary results when imitating an efficient economical system. Thus, instead of spending hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy a franchise, an ordinary man has nothing to do but invest some hundreds dollars to start his own network marketing business. Thus, some experts call the network marketing…”the popular franchise”…or “the alternative franchise”. Both franchise and network marketing are based on imitation but the latter has some key-advantages if compared to the first one. The following chart compares the two efficient systems. Comparing the two systems, we can see that network marketing gets the best part of the franchise, meaning the concept of a

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Thus, for the first scenario let’s suppose that the individual owns five franchises. See figure nr.1 showing the linear growth for the business with 5 franchises.

system that can be multiplied and it eliminates the rest. Similar to the franchise system, in network marketing, every distributor that is part of another person’s network has his own business, distributing products and building a new network.

Franchises Owner Considering the business type, no matter how many franchises somebody owns, the growth will always be a linear one. Thus, as in fig.1, an individual will never earn more than the sum of all 5 franchises he owns. As for the second scenario, let’s suppose that an individual is the leader of an independent distributor network at full progress. In a certain period of time, the individual multiplied his income due to the help given to other five key distributors teaching them to copy and help in turn other five key distributors. Each of the five last distributors copies the system following the same model. Thus, the diagram looks like in fig 2; it shows the exponential growth of the network marketing business. The Leader of a Direct Selling Network As we can see, the leader of a direct selling network helped five new distributors, teaching them to copy what he had already done in his own organization. Doing that, our individual succeeds to turn to good account his business through hundreds of “alternative franchises” (exponential growth by means of accumulation of capital) comparing to the only five traditional franchises. Based on the businesses results, it can be stated that when we double the exponential growth, this growth becomes a real huge one. We may also state that, due to this exponential growth, some network marketing owners have thousands or even hundreds of thousands of employees. Experts and businessmen state that, in economic practice, the network marketing is not a pure theory or a controversial issue any more. They also state that network marketing reached the point where franchise system was 20 years ago; it represents the franchise concept that has an exponential growth being at the initial

Franchise vs. Network Marketing Franchise characteristics: • Medium tax for a franchise is $85000 • A franchise tax of 3%-10% is monthly paid • Employment and lays off • Maintenance costs grow with the business • The employee’s program depends on firm program • Limited area • Someone’s dream comes true Network marketing characteristics: • You may start a business with $500 or less • Income grows exponentially • The network marketing company pays between 3%-28% to the employee • There are no employees • The person who runs the business sets his own program • The person has the national and global territory at his disposal • The person’s dream may come true Unlike the franchise owners, the individual as a network marketing representative does not have to accept the role of a person who bought a franchise. He may choose to play the role of a franchiser if he helps other people to enter his business and teaches them to copy an already checked and efficient system that brings money. Thus, the franchised people will always have a linear development, no matter how many franchises they own while those working in the network marketing will exponentially increase their businesses. Let’s have a look at the two scenarios referring to the linear development and the exponential growth of a business. 125

growing stage and it will be at its best in the following century. In the USA, network marketing is a $100 billion business annually heading to $700 billion annually in the next decade.

2. Kotler, Philip. Marketing Management, 5th edition, Bucharest: Teora Publishing House, 2008. 3. http://www.fbb.ro/francizablog/franchis e-from buying -to-failure-1.htm 4. http://wwwspecialist’sblog.ro/a/Special/ Management-andbusinesses/1296/Franchise-in RomaniaMcDonalds.html

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Hedges, Burke. Marketing la indigo, Bucharest: Curtea Veche Publishing House, 2004.

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THEORETICAL AND METHODOLOGICAL CONSIDERATIONS ON SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISE STRATEGY Vladimir-Codrin IONESCU Toma PLEŞANU Ph.D., associate professor, University of Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Ph.D., professor, “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: In order to constantly create competitive advantages in relationship with the competing companies, small and medium enterprises must promote adequate business strategies which should take into account both the modifications occurring in the business environment and their organizational development stage. Designing and implementing business strategies in small and medium enterprises is of major significance both from a theoretical and methodological, as well as from a practical and an applicative point of view. In this context, the paper aims to reveal significant aspects concerning strategy foundation, elaboration and implementation in small and medium enterprises. Keywords: small and medium enterprise (SME), strategy, designing, implementation, economic efficiency.

regard to the competitors it is imperiously necessary for the productive enterprise to promote adequate business strategies that take in consideration the changes recorded by the business environment as well as the stage of organizational development. The problematic of projecting and implementing the business strategies presents a major importance from a theoreticalmethodological point of view as well as from a practical-applicative one, especially if we take in consideration the fact that more organizations feel the necessity of resorting to a strategic approach in the business that they develop.

1. Introductory considerations The importance of the modern organizations using strategic approaches as well as the complexity of the strategies’ design and implementation phases are emphasized in a series of representative researches, studies and articles published in the specialized literature. An achieving management implies the correlated and unitary approach on projecting and implementing the organizational strategy. In spite of the fact that the strategy’s design constitutes an arduous conception process, numerous management specialists affirm that the implementation is decisive for achieving the strategic step. As a matter of fact the organizational practice demonstrates that many company managers are firstly preoccupied by the strategy’s implementation. Otherwise said it is more difficult to implement the strategy, transposing it into practice, rather than its substantiation. In the context of the present business environment that is marked by the enhancement of the competition and of the moral usage of the products and technologies, the essential premise for the competitiveness of the small and medium enterprises is to substantiate, adopt and implement business strategies. In order to constantly create competitive advantages in

2. Strategy and strategic orientation in small and medium enterprises Projecting the strategy constitutes the final phase of the strategic planning process and it consists in finalizing the strategic orientation followed by the strategy’s detailed elaboration. In our opinion the strategic orientation is defined by three variables: the strategic base, the strategic segment and the targetgroup of clients to whom the enterprise will be addressing. The strategy constitutes the instrument trough which the strategic orientation is transposed into practice thus harmonizing the three vectors that define it - the strategic base, the strategic segment and the clients

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target-segment of clients. The mission constitutes a distinctive element through which a firm is differentiated from the competitors and that delimits a certain position on the market. The objective system represents the second chapter of the strategy. An objective defines what an enterprise proposes to accomplish in a certain amount of time. Between the mission and objectives a relation of interdependency exists, meaning that the objectives concretize the firm’s mission and transpose it into practice. An objectives system for a small and medium enterprise contains strategic, functional, operational and individual objectives. The strategic objectives regard to the enterprise in its ensemble, the functional ones concern the main organizational segments - research and development, commercial, production, financial-accountability and human resources -, the operational objectives refer to the activities that take place in every organizational segment and the individual objectives concretize the functional objectives at the level of every wage earner. Another strategy chapter, the strategic options, defines the methods in which the small and medium enterprise will act in order to accomplish the strategic objectives that are functional, operational and individual. The main strategic options of a small and medium enterprise are the specialization, partnership, to advance from a technological point of view and re-project the management system. The resources constitute an essential chapter of the small and medium enterprise’s strategy. In order to put to practice a strategy a firm needs to allocate human resources of research-development, commercial ones, technical and technological, financial etc. in order to accomplish the objective system of the mission. To these categories of resources we can add the knowledge that tends to become more important in the ensemble of the organizational resources.

segment. In time more approaches of the strategy concept were formed and presented in studies and articles published in specialized literature. In our conception the strategy represents the instrument by which a firm can transpose into practice the strategic orientation and it consists of an ensemble of options to which it resorts in order to fulfill, within the limit of the established terms, the objectives that result from the mission, using a complex of resources and finally aiming at obtaining the competitive advantage. At the actual period the small and medium enterprises need to define the strategy in accordance with a series of variables among which we remind: intensifying competition in the majority of the industrial branches and in particular in the high technology; increasing the quality of the offered products and services and thus the consumers’ exigencies; orienting an increasing number of firms in the direction of satisfying buyers as well as studying the competitors’ actions; using modern fabrication technology and computerizing the management and execution activities with positive implications on the work productivity and the economical efficiency. In the contemporary economical context the clients’ behavior constitutes a key-element in orienting business and implicitly in determining the firm’s profitability. 3. Designing strategy for small and medium enterprises The actual strategy design and elaborating its sections represent a laborious activity that consists in defining the most important steps that a small and medium enterprise will fulfill in order to transpose into practice the strategic orientation finalized in the previous phase. The first strategy section, the mission, reflects the rationality of the small and medium enterprise’s existence and defines the activity profile, products and services that it proposes to achieve as well as the

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through its characteristics by the products and services offered by the competitive firms. The strategic option, to which the firm resorts to, actually constitutes the source of the competitive advantage. An essential condition of maintaining an enterprise in the sphere of economical efficiency is to obtain a long term competitive advantage. A small and medium enterprise can possess competitive advantages that are provided from the activities developed under the low cost conditions or from creating a product different than that of the competitors. Otherwise said the competitive advantage has as a main source the more efficient purchase of the buying values (low cost type) or developing the activities at comparable cost that will instead create a more buying value in rapport with the competitors. As a rule the competitive advantage of the small and medium enterprise combines in different proportions the two reminded types.

An important role during the technical and technological resources is that of the innovating technologies that mainly refer to artificial intelligence, fabricating advanced semiconductors and superconductors, producing digital images, biotechnology as well as fabricating flexible computers. Knowledge has a determinant impact on the economical and social achievements of the organizations. The explicit knowledge are found in studies, certificates, projects, licenses, standards, informatics programs while the implicit knowledge lies in the minds of the organization’s members (technical know-how, technological knowhow, informatics know-how, managerial know-how etc.). Another section of the strategy contains the terms that refer to the moment of starting and implicitly the moment of finalizing the implied strategic options. Given the fact that the specializing actions of the production, advancing the technology and re-projecting the managerial system are complex, it is recommended that the afferent durations to be segmented in well defined intervals. Under the conditions of the market competition’s increase and the rhythm’s amplification of moral usage of the products and technologies, we affirm that the small and medium enterprises need to operate the proposed strategic options in periods of time that will permit them to obtain competitive advantages. Thus introducing a new fabrication technology can determine a competitive advantage if it is fulfilled in a relatively short period of time. Otherwise the firms will resort to that technology and this will not offer a source of competitive advantage. Overdoing the terms set for finalizing the strategic options will cause a negative reverberation on the expenses plan and on the economical efficiency. The final strategy chapter is represented by the competitive advantage. The strategy’s efficiency is practically reflected in obtaining a competitive advantage that consists of assuring a low cost or producing a product or service that is differentiated

4. Implementing strategy in SMEs Implementing or launching the strategy follows the activity of strategic planning and consists in its operation or putting it into practice. The term “launch” suggests the analogy between the process of strategic management and the process of assimilating a new product in the fabrication. Putting into practice a new strategy is correspondent to the stage in which a projected product is released in fabrication. The success of a product is evaluated through the buyers’ appreciation and the success of a strategy is measure from the perspective of the competitive position that the enterprise obtains after applying it. The strategy’s operation process is conditioned by the method in which the phases of the strategic planning developed in the phases of the strategic planning, the diagnosis-analysis, the organizational change and the strategy’s design [4]. Practically at the end of the strategic planning activity the small and medium enterprise is prepared to launch the strategy,

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Exceeding the time limits is reflected in the results that the enterprise obtains after it applies the strategy. Therefore the strategy becomes inopportune if the strategic options do not evolve according to the stages planned according to the calendar. Operating the strategy needs to be done accompanied by a systematic control that consists of following the method in which the strategy is applied in order to trace certain problems that might appear and effectuating the necessary adjustments for obtaining the foreseen achievements. The strategic control needs to be made throughout the strategy’s applying process since the business environment in which the firm evolves is in a permanent change. An efficient strategic control emphasizes at the right moment the impact of these changes on the strategy and is carried out in propositions of revising it. In conclusion, founding, elaborating and implementing adequate business strategies is a sine qua non condition for making SMEs’ competitive. At the same time, promoting a pro-active, flexible and innovative management - based on a unitary approach as to the designing and operationalization of the strategy – represents an essential premise for strategically integrating SMEs into the business environment while also making SMEs economically and socially efficient.

meaning that it has a flexible managerial system, an adequate cultural model, technologies as well as financial and material resources that allow it to be put into practice. Implementing the strategy consists of the development of all the activities that were foreseen to take place, within the limits of some terms, with the purpose of achieving the system of objectives. Many enterprises fail at the stage of applying the strategy since the employees do not possess the qualifications necessary to fulfill the objectives that are assigned to them. When the strategy is applied the obstacles that normally occur because the organizational change is not well coordinated by the managers, the employees are not totally involved in the process of organizational learning and, consequently, do not obtain those qualifications that could help them to achieve objectives. For every objective the concrete methods of action through which they will be fulfilled are mentioned in the strategy. To be more precise every employee has a graphic of activities that need to be run through in a certain amount of time. The communication between the managers and wake earners is essential in the strategy’s implementation. An adequate communication in the strategic planning activity represents a premise for the success of the strategy’s implementation. The organizational change prevents the possible failures that can occur in the operation phase of the strategy. The strategy’s planning and implementation present a major importance because the strategy constitutes the product with which the firm proposes to impose in the market competition. From this perspective the enterprise is permanently preoccupied by improving its main product, meaning that it modifies the strategic orientation and implicitly the strategy in accordance with the mutations that supervene in the business environment. An important aspect is related to the periods of time in which the small and medium enterprise operates the strategy.

Acknowledgments The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program. Bibliography: 1. Băcanu, B. Strategiile competitive ale firmei, Iaşi: ed. Polirom, 2005. 2. Faulkner, D., Bowman, C., Elemente de strategie concurenţială, Bucureşti: ed. Teora, 2000. 3. Hrebiniak, L.G., Strategia în afaceri. Implementarea şi executarea eficientă, Bucureşti: ed. ALL, 2009.

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4. Ionescu, V. Managementul firmelor mici şi mijlocii, Bucureşti: ed. Economică, 2004. 5. Ionescu, V., Saloheimo, M. Business Strategies Promoted by the Small and Medium Enterprises from Romania, Buletinul Universităţii Petrol-Gaze din Ploieşti, Seria Ştiinţe Economice, Vol. LX Nr.3, ISSN 1224-6832, 2008. 6. Kenny, J. Strategy and the learning organization: a maturity model for the formation of strategy, The Learning Organization, Vol.13, Nr.4, 2006.

7. Mintzberg, H. Strategy Formation. School of Thought, in Fredericson, W., Perspectives on Strategic Management, New York: Harper & Row, 1990. 8. Nicolescu, O., Nicolescu, L. Economia, firma şi managementul bazate pe cunoştinţe, Bucureşti: ed. Economică, 2005. 9. Nicolescu, O., Verboncu, I. Fundamentele managementului organizaţiei, Bucureşti: edi. Universitară, 2008.

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THE STRATEGIC DIAGNOSIS ANALYSIS - AN ESSENTIAL STAGE OF STRATEGIC MANAGEMENT PROCESS IN SMALL AND MEDIUM ENTERPRISES Vladimir-Codrin IONESCU Horea COROIU Ph.D., associate professor, University of Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: The strategic diagnosis analysis aims to assess the potential of small and medium enterprises by evaluating their inner resources and the business environment within which these enterprises perform their activity. As a first stage in the strategic management process, the strategic diagnosis analysis ensures the premises for founding, elaborating and operationalizing a competitive managerial strategy. In this context, the paper presents the conceptual criteria which are essential for thematically framing the strategic diagnosis analysis, and the main instruments that can be used by the small and medium enterprises in this strategic managerial process stage. Keywords: small and medium enterprise, strategic diagnosis analysis, strategic segmentation, strategic profile, technological profile, strategic group.

their mentality in the sense that they should understand how important it is to apply strategic diagnosis analyses for the success of the enterprises that they run. Strategic diagnosis and strategy have been approached in a series of representative studies and articles published in the specialized literature.

1. Introductory considerations A small and medium enterprise adopts a business strategy that is adequate to the moment of its application and its development stage if the strategic diagnosis analysis identifies all the variables which have generated the intra- and extraorganizational developments. In the given context of a modern knowledge-oriented economy, we appreciate that small and medium enterprises have to constantly apply strategic diagnosis analyses in order to permanently adapt their strategies to the changes that occur in the business environment. The diagnosis analyses should be applied in all enterprises and the complexity of these analyses varies according to the amplitude, respectively the profile of the organizational activity. Thus, for a small and medium enterprise that performs production activities, the diagnosis analysis is more elaborate than for an enterprise which, e.g., deals with retailing. The complexity of a diagnosis analysis is also higher for a medium enterprise in comparison with a small enterprise. We consider that, at present, managers and enterprisers should significantly change

2. Conceptual delimitations Differently from the operational diagnosis, which deals with analysing functionality and deficiencies in relationship with the expected results, strategic diagnosis aims to evaluate the company’s potential, as well as to identify the ways by which this potential can be maintained or enhanced. Strategic diagnosis hints either at the company as a whole or at its strategic activities, in relationship with the set objectives and the planned period of time. The diagnosis attempts not to elaborate a list of factors but to select for study those factors that significantly influence the enterprise and the branch of activity within which the enterprise functions. Thus, strategic diagnosis implies an analysis of the company and the environment from a dynamic perspective. A frequent deficiency

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into homogenous entities in order to use the organization’s resources as reasonably as possible; evaluating how successful the activity sector is and identifying the hindrances existing in the business environment; analysing the growth and decline mechanism of outlets; analysing policies promoted by competitors etc. Since the diagnosis analysis is a scientific, methodical and professional attempt, it must be applied by a team made up of specialists and coordinated by the manager of the company or by the enterpriser. The team members who apply the analysis have well assigned tasks, competences and responsibilities and use a specific methodology. In our opinion the strategic diagnosis analysis applied in small and medium enterprises is based on two essential coordinates: the analysis of the inner potential of the company and the analysis of the progress made in the business environment. The analysis of the business environment is a complex process that aims to identify the main variables of the economic environment, to investigate the branch of activity, competition, as well as to point out the opportunities offered by the legal framework. The inner potential of a small and medium enterprise indicates the capacity of such a company to integrate into the business environment and it is defined by four strategic variables: resources, organizational culture, competitive capacity and competitive position.

of diagnoses is represented by the fact that they are static, analysing the situation in which a company finds itself while taking into account its recent evolutions and the outer environment evolutions. Diagnosis is a cognitive method which aims to research the essential characteristics of the company’s structure and functioning, as well as to identify its competition sources. There are differences between the concepts of diagnosis, audit and pilot age. Audit is a mechanic operation meant to check the conformity with certain reference norms, while pilot age consists in systematically relating the level of achievements to the level of objectives. Differently from audit and pilot age, the diagnosis has a pronounced strategic dimension. Strategic diagnosis is preceded by an analysis and at the same time it represents the basis for adopting tacit and especially strategic decisions in small and medium enterprises. Diagnosis is based on analysis but it is different from analysis. Analysis and diagnosis cannot be regarded separately for diagnosis cannot be established without analysis and analysis is useless if not followed by a synthesis and interpretation stage, which is, in fact, the diagnosis stage. J. P. Thibaut considers that applying a diagnosis analysis implies several stages such as: identifying disfunctionalities and opportunities; analysing the existing situation, the causes that generate it and establishing responsibilities; suggesting a set of actions to be taken in order to redress or ameliorate the activities performed; controlling the suggested programme accomplishment. Other authors consider that the diagnosis analysis comprises the following stages: preparing the diagnosis analysis; documenting in advance; pointing out significant symptoms; identifying the strong and weak points, as well as the causes that generate them; making recommendations. The strategic analysis diagnosis has multiple objectives: segmenting activities

3. Instruments used in applying strategic diagnosis analysis in small and medium enterprises Accomplishing a strategic diagnosis analysis means using specific instruments, among which we mention strategic segmentation, strategic profile, technological profile and the map of strategic groups. For a medium productive enterprise which has a large variety of products that

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set of activities performed by the company in relationship with the customer, the product and the technology used; pointing out successful key factors reflected by price, profit, production cost, need satisfaction, marketing and technology; regrouping basic activities into strategic activity segments; grouping strategic segments into strategic activity bases. To define the strategic profile of a small and medium enterprise is to compare it to the competing companies. The comparative analysis may refer to the company as a whole, a strategic segment or a strategic activity basis and it has a double dimension – quantitative and qualitative. The quantitative dimension refers to the activities performed in the company – research and development, commercial activities, production, financial-accounting and human resources, while the qualitative dimension takes into account those aspects that refer to the strategic vision, the objectives system and organizational culture. Determining the strategic profile is very useful for it allows evaluation of the company’s competitive potential within a strategic segment or a strategic activity basis. In other words the strategic profile points out the position of the company in relationship with its market competitors. A company’s technological profile is defined by the set of technologies it uses in order to manufacture its products. Arthur D. Little (ADL) Consulting Group considers that the technologies used by a company may be divided into three categories: basic technologies (which previously brought success to the company, but at present are used by most of the concurrent firms, thus no longer representing a competitive advantage), key-technologies (which help differentiate competitors) and emerging technologies (which were previously used but still have a potential that can transform them into key-technologies in that specific domain). It is difficult to include a technology into one category or another. A certain

are produced for more markets and which uses a wide range of fabrication technologies, the strategic diagnosis analysis must be preceded by a strategic segmentation, respectively by the decomposition of the entire system into homogenous subsystems on the basis of pre-established objectives and criteria. Thus, strategic segmentation is a preliminary stage of the strategic diagnosis analysis and it implies the division of the enterprise activities into homogenous segments which have a specific behaviour and concurrence. Strategic segmentation must not be taken for marketing segmentation, which, in fact, it includes. Marketing segmentation is meant to identify the market segments in which the company is going to perform its activity, whereas strategic segmentation is meant to point out the company’s activity groups in relationship with the existing strategic action possibilities. In A bell’s opinion, strategic segmentation is a specific process that implies three directions: establishing the type of customers (who are classified according to the geographic areas or the professional categories they belong to); the type of satisfied needs (consumption products, equipment, service); the type of technology used (what it mainly contains, work methods, materials and cost structure). Strategic segmentation has a pronounced technological dimension, especially for industrial companies. A strategic activity segment (also known as strategic activity domain in specialty literature) may be defined as a space that, at a certain moment, corresponds to a type o customer, a category of needs and a certain technology, and that requires specific competences for implementing a strategy which is distinct from any strategy used by the competing companies. If the principles of strategic segmentation mentioned seem simple and obvious, the accomplishment of segmentation is difficult for it implies covering a succession of several stages in the following order: identifying the whole

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their relative size; the strategic distance between groups or the extent to which their strategies are different. These forces interact and intensify competition between strategic groups. Each firm must evaluate its position within a strategic group and, at the same time, analyse the relation between this strategic group and the other competing groups on the market. The strategic diagnosis analysis is materialized in a report that presents the existing situation, while indicating strong and weak points, evaluating existing resources and conceiving an intervention plan meant to enhance economic efficiency. The strategic diagnosis analysis precedes the decisional act and, by the variants it offers, it justifies this act scientifically. No matter what instruments are used, the diagnosis analysis is the starting point in the strategic management process and, by the information it supplies, it ensures the necessary basis for implementing organizational change and designing a new managerial strategy for the small and medium enterprise. In conclusion, in order to be competitive, small and medium enterprises must apply strategic diagnosis analyses. These analyses are useful both for organizations and its partners (suppliers, customers, banks). The reasons of applying the diagnosis analysis are: to research the small and medium enterprise at a certain moment in time, to identify the variables of organizational development and the correlations existing between them, to propose measures that might lead to improving the activity performed, to point out the competitive advantage sources and, finally, to conceive the development strategy.

technology may be a basic one in an activity sector or a key-technology or an emerging one in another sector. At the same time, a technology may have at a certain moment the status of a key technology and, as the company develops and it introduces other more performing technologies, it becomes a basic technology. Evaluating the technologic profile is important for small and medium enterprises that activate in industry since the level of technological development represents a fundamental premise for obtaining competitive advantage. The strategic group defines a set of firms performing in one activity sector which adopt the same strategy or strategies. An activity sector may have a sole strategic group if the firms in that sector adopt the same strategy. The opposite position is occupied by the activity sector in which every company represents a distinct strategic group. Strategic groups can be identified according to several criteria such as: orienting towards similar buyer segments, satisfying the customers’ needs with similar products and services or with products and services that have an approximately similar ”quality-price” relation and that use common delivery channels. Strategic groups exist due to the fact that each firm is different from the others as to its strong and weak points, the moment it joined a certain activity sector and its evolution in time. Firms that form a strategic group have comparable market shares and they identically react against the actions performed by competing enterprises in that branch of activity. The strategic group is an analytical instrument used by a small and medium enterprise to apply a strategic diagnosis analysis. Competition between the strategic groups existing within an activity sector is influenced by a series of factors, of which we mention: the interdependence of strategic groups on the market; the differentiation between strategic groups by product; the number of strategic groups and

Acknowledgments The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program.

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6. Kenny, J. Strategy and the learning organization: a maturity model for the formation of strategy, The Learning Organization, Vol.13, Nr.4, 2006. 7. Niculescu, M., Diagnostic global strategic, Bucureşti: ed. Economică, 1997. 8. Porter, M., Competitive Strategy, New York: The Free Press, 1980. 9. Thibaut, J. P., Le diagnostique de l’entreprise, Paris: Sedifor, 1989. 10. Trim, Peter R. J., Lee, Y-I. A strategic approach to sustainable partnership development, European Business Review, Vol.20, Nr.3, 2008.

Bibliography: 1. Abell, D. F. Definiting the Business: the Starting Point of Strategic Planning, Prentice-Hall, 1980. 2. Cârstea, Gh. (coord.), Analiza strategică a mediului concurenţial, Bucureşti: ed. Economică, 2002. 3. Constantinescu, D. A., Strategii manageriale competitive, Bucureşti: Colecţia Naţională, 2001. 4. Hrebiniak, L. G. Strategia în afaceri. Implementarea şi executarea eficientă, Bucureşti, ed ALL, 2009. 5. Ionescu, V. Managementul firmelor mici şi mijlocii, Bucureşti,: ed Economică, 2004.

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THE IMPACT OF SOCIAL AND CULTURAL ENVIRONMENT ON THE ENTREPRENEURIAL ACTIVITY Sorina- Andreea PUSCASU Master student, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: Considering that entrepreneurship is closely related to the environmental evolution and dynamism in which it take place, and depending of all its factors: economical, social, cultural, etc., this study tries to outline an overview of what the social and cultural environment, the entrepreneurial activity and the connection between these two mean. The analysis of social and cultural environment on the entrepreneurial activity highlights the importance of social and cultural factors in the entrepreneurial activity because its evolution depends from country to country, depending on the culture, values, norms and importance the respective country give to entrepreneurship. Keywords: impact, environment, entrepreneurial activity

As the impact of globalization on the world economy and technological progress becomes more powerful, it creates growing uncertainties in economy and society, the dynamism of the entrepreneurial activity is an important factor in order to strengthen the new economy based on knowledge and solving environmental, economic and social issues. The social and cultural environment represents the sector of interpersonal relations, people’s connection with society, because it includes their actions, behaviors, desires, values, beliefs or interests. The analysis of this type of environment is achieved in terms of: individuals’ characteristics, demographic trends, life styles, ethical standards and values, attitudes and beliefs, customs, public opinion, social movements or various groups or organizations.1 This type of environment involves the analysis of the influence of demographic trends, lifestyle, values, social contacts, level of education on entrepreneurship. The social and cultural environment plays an important role in the development of entrepreneurial activity and, particularly in seizing opportunities. It influences the development of entrepreneurship in

different ways: through social and cultural norms, attitudes, beliefs.2 “Entrepreneurship is an activity which involves discovery, evaluation and seizing opportunities to introduce goods and services, ways of organization, markets, processes and raw materials by organizing the efforts that did not exist before.”(Venkataraman 1997; Shane and Venkataraman, 2000)3. Entrepreneurial actions are behaviors designed to exploit the discovery of opportunities. Mises (1949) thinks that, the previous actions which have little positive benefits, in time, are abandoned in favor of new created actions, which have more benefits.4 The essence of entrepreneurship is innovation, creating something new, novelty: new resources, new clients, new markets, new combinations of existing resources, new ways of production and organization. Entrepreneurial features are shown in Figure 1, where it is stressed its complexity and dynamism.

2

Scott Shane, A general theory of entrepreneurship, Edward Elgar Publishing House, 2003, Cheltenham, p. 157 3 Scott Shane, quoted work, p. 4 4 Michel A. Hitt, R. Duane Ireland, S. Michel Camp, Donald L. Sexon, Strategic Entrepreneurship, Blackwell Publishers, 2002, Malden, p. 135

1

Radu Emilian (coord), The basis of business management, ASE Publishing House, 2004, Bucharest, p. 49

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The result of entrepreurship depends on many factors

It ivolves various variables

It is produced at the level of an economic enterprise

The characteristics of entrepreneurial activity

It involves a change within the firm

It is an innovative process

Holistis system It is an unique and dynamic approach It creats value

Figure 1: The characteristics of entrepreneurial activity Source: own adaptation based on data from William A. Sahlman, Howard H. Stevenson, The Entrepreneurial venture, Boston, Harvard Business School Publications, 1992, p.9-14

The culture and cultural differences between nations leave their mark on the business environment (Table 1). Each nation has certain norms, standards, social laws, customs, language, its own forms of organization , which give it an unique status in the world.5 Table 1: Influence of social and cultural environment on the entrepreneurship Factors of entrepreneurship The general evolution of economy Inflation Interest rate Access to capital Government regulations Entrepreneurial competence Financial control Stock control Planning Location Marketing activity 5

The scale of cultural responses Positive ÅÆ Negative Declared ÅÆ Creeper Raised ÅÆ Low Facile ÅÆ Difficult Encouraging ÅÆ Discouraging Innate ÅÆ Formed Adequate ÅÆ Neglected Adequate ÅÆ Neglected Rigorous ÅÆ Superficial Favorable ÅÆ Unfavorable Intense ÅÆ Less intense

Radu Emilian (coord), quoted work, p. 49

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Factors of entrepreneurship Human factor Financial and accounting records Attitude Fraud and disaster

The scale of cultural responses Motivated and competent ÅÆ Unmotivated and incompetent Real, complete ÅÆ Unreal, incomplete Open ÅÆ Reserved Big ÅÆ Small

Source: own adaptation based on data from Ioan Popa, International commercial negotiation, Bucharest, Economic Publishing House, 2006, p.140

The access to capital refers to the existence of certain business financing programs to help entrepreneurship develop. In eastern European cultures the access to capital is difficult and is done through a quite complex process due to required formalities and, probably the low number of such programs, unlike western countries, where the entrepreneurs can easily access the capital. Government regulations are of particular importance in the conduct of entrepreneurial process. The consequence of this fact can be seen in the evolution of business environment in different cultures. In the West, they encourage the development of entrepreneurship, compared to eastern countries where there is the predisposition to discourage entrepreneurs. Entrepreneurial competence is one of the most important factors to ensure success in business. In the Western culture, where the freedom of expression of ideas and implementation was higher, generations of entrepreneurs have formed, entrepreneurship being a “family legacy”. In the Eastern European culture, where this field has recently began to take shape, the entrepreneurship competence is one mainly formed. Certainly, regardless of their culture, every entrepreneur holds innate skills and abilities formed in time, depending of the experience gained. Financial control, stock control, planning, location, human factor, marketing activity, accounting and financial records, attitude, fraud and disaster are especially related to the culture of the enterprise, and to a lesser extent to the national culture,

The general evolution of a country’s economy differs from one culture to another. Thus it varies between the developed economy of the countries in the Western and Northern Europe (Germany, England, Holland, etc), where the openness toward business is bigger and the entrepreneurship is more deeply developed and the developing economy countries of Eastern Europe (especially of those countries which are no longer under Soviet influence and under the communist regime like: Ukraine and Romania), where the concept of entrepreneurship has been recently introduced. Of course, it has been taken into consideration the global context (e.g. the current economic crisis), which may affect the economical evolution of all countries. Inflation is closely related to the degree of development of business environment in a country or culture, being an inverse correlation between the two variables. In countries like Germany, where there has been developed a business culture, inflation has reduced values being a crawling inflation, while in countries like Romania, Ukraine, etc., where the entrepreneurship faces a number of difficulties, the values of inflation reach alarming levels (declared inflation) . The interest rate can be raised in countries like Romania, Ukraine, Hungary, etc., because the financial loans given to entrepreneurs are disadvantageous in comparison with western countries (Holland, England, etc.), where the entrepreneurs have a low interest rate, facilitating the recourse to such loans.

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the existence of some perspectives clearly defined by the European Union regarding the promotion and development of entrepreneurship.

because they are tightly connected to the entrepreneur’s view on the enterprise and the way in which he runs his business. The social and cultural environment has a significant influence on the development of entrepreneurial activity in a given territory, because, through its components, it dictates the level of development of entrepreneurship in this area. It is interesting to analyze the entrepreneurial activity in Europe. From my point of view, today’s society will continue to support the development of entrepreneurship because it sees in this field a possibility of recovery and growth of global economy. Promoting entrepreneurship in Europe and elsewhere, achieved through various programs, magazines and special TV shows, proves the degree of concern and it puts a major emphasis on entrepreneurship. Also, the fact that in the process of educating the young they put a great emphasis on entrepreneurial activity shows

Bibliography: 1. 2.

3. 4. 5.

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Emilian, R. (coord) “The basis of business management”, ASE Publishing House, Bucharest, 2004 Hitt, M.A., Duane Ireland, R., Michel Camp, S., and Sexon, D.L. “Strategic Entrepreneurship”, BlackwellPublishers Publishing House, 2002 Popa, I. “International commercial negotiation,” Economic Publishing House, 2006 Shane, S. A. general theory of entrepreneurship, Cheltenham, Edward Elgar Publishing House, 2003 Sahlman, W. A., Stevenson, H. “The Entrepreneurial venture”, Harvard Business School, 199

THE COLLABORATION EFFECTIVENESS AND EFFICIENCY IN A VIRTUAL ENTERPRISE Valentin LARION Ph.D., Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: An important number of factors are creating different types of barriers among the members of a virtual enterprise affecting the collaboration between them. In our attempt to study the evolution of importance of these factors we have chose a set of three studies published in the last decade and a half, which we consider as relevant. This study aims to identify new research directions for mitigating the effects of collaboration barriers by highlighting the most important factors and how they affect the effectiveness or efficiency of collaboration. Keywords: virtual enterprise, collaboration, effectiveness, efficiency.

possible loophole from inflexibility and inefficiency’. During the study we found an increased focus on that factors that may affect collaboration and an increase or decrease in their importance. To underline this we chose a set of three studies published in the last decade and a half, which we consider as relevant. (Hans Jägers, Wendy Jansen and Wilchard Steenbakkers, 1998) presented for the first time, by a comprehensive approach, the primary characteristics that typify virtual organizations and also the main conditions to be satisfied to operate in such an organization, but without an impact analysis. (Marita Gruber, Matthias Nöster, 2005) identified a higher number of features and made the first assessment of their importance. Although the organizational concept of VOs has been well described in theory, they had tested the limitations in practice. Considering that the process of forming an enterprise that is able to react quickly to market demands as well as the immediate coordination of a number of partners requires not only flexibility but also predefined rules and roles, they highlighted the need of preparedness of companies. Based on their results, we considered that these conditions provide a set of barriers for a company in achieving an effective collaboration. (Marc Pallot, Ulf Bergmann, Hermann Kühnle, Kulwant S. Pawar, Johann CKH

Introduction Nowadays, it is widely recognized that a number of factors are affecting collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. These factors are creating different types of barriers among the members of a virtual enterprise affecting the collaboration between them. Based on previous studies we analyze the evolution of research in this area and we highlight a new approach under which cooperation/collaboration barriers are raised by factors creating different types of collaborative distance significantly impacting collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. Development studies Providing an increased dynamic of the virtual enterprise configuration is of particular importance to lead to the increase of efficiency. It must be capable of treating change as a natural process, not as an exception. This includes change of all kinds and at all levels, from alterations in the source network to changes of the goals. At the same time, it must be able to treat exceptional alterations as easily as predictable ones. Efficiency is determined by the flexible relations between the partners. (Marita Gruber, Matthias Nöster, 2007) According to theory ‘cooperation and concentration on core competencies are two complementary strategies regarded as a

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Riedel, 2010) have focused on the distance factors and identified a larger number of distances that can raise barriers affecting collaboration. Actually, they used the same sets of factors (structural, social, technical and legal factors), but the analysis was performed more detailed. In Table 1, factors are rated according to the results obtained in each research. Three different categories were defined for

Distance factors

Distance factors

The adaptability of participants

Existing general industry ties

x

Existing ties between partners

Assuring the complementing of core competencies

Geographical dispersion High diversity of participants

x

Lack of a common vision

x

Identification of core competencies Geographical dispersion Diversity of governance structures

x

Dispersion of power

x x

x

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Distance factors

Lack of commons Lack of absorptive capacity Unbalanced IPR approach Lack of common security rules Weak ties between partners Lack of interpersonal awareness Emotional behavior Lack of mutual trust Lack of incentive Lack of common description Lack of meaning Unbalanced expertise Multi-disciplinary setting Geographical dispersion Different time zones Diversity setting Multi-lingual setting Different investment regulations Different contractual settings Unbalanced power Lack of clear leadership

Most significant Significant Less significant

Table 1 - The evolution of distance factors 2005 2010 Most significant Significant Less significant

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the rating, namely, most significant, significant and less significant factors impeding collaboration performance. It gives a quite good indication about factors in each dimension that still need further research and development to be overcome. In the same time, by presenting these result in the same table, have tried to bring forward the evolution of the approach.

x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x

1998 Lack of use of ICT

2005 Lack of use of ICT

2010 x

Unbalanced technological usage Lack of media naturalness Multi-platform setting Lack of contextualized mode

x x x x

final product is needed a common vision and an accurate identification of core competencies. These issues have been ranked as most significant but latest research revealed that having a common vision is of high importance and relying only on core competencies became only significant. The lack of incentive, lack of common description and lack of meaning were rated as having the most significant impact on collaboration performance. The lack of common description corresponds to the notion of shared knowledge while the lack of meaning corresponds to the notion of sense-making; together they form the basis for reaching a mutual understanding and are affecting also collaboration effectiveness. Geographical dispersion seems to decrease in importance in the last decade. Geographical dispersion had been considered a significant factor in constituting a virtual enterprise since the beginning, but based on latest result geographical dispersion and different time zones are rated as the less significant distance factors. This can be explained by a change in practice partners who have managed to overcome these barriers by using appropriate ICT. The high diversity of participants in a virtual enterprise had raised two problems regarding how to manage partners with different governance structures and how to ensure a proper distribution of power. The second problem proved to be more significant than first one. Based on latest data the distance factor named lack of clear leadership is rated as being the most significant collaboration barrier that impede collaboration performance and especial the

Findings The following analysis will be addressed in particular the most recent data, due to their actuality and level of detail. One major characteristic of virtual enterprises is considered the ‘changing participants’ which raises the problem of finding suitable partners and their adaptability to the specifications of the virtual enterprise. One common solution was defining and identifying the ‘Breeding Environment’ which was established at the beginning of partners already known. Thus were created two barriers imposed by the need of ‘Existing general industry ties’ and ‘Existing ties between partners’, considered significant at that time. Recent research had revealed that both distance factors keep in general the level of significance and highlights as most significant the need of trust. It appears that the ‘lack of common security rules’ and ‘lack of mutual trust’ are the most significant factors impeding collaboration performance and especially collaboration effectiveness. All the other factors were rated as having a significant impact but they are more addressing effectiveness than efficiency, excepting the ‘lack of absorptive capacity’. For example, interpersonal awareness plays an important role in the collaboration effectiveness because each team member has to know what the others are doing and what kind of problems they are facing. Only the ‘emotional behavior’ was rated as having less significant impact. The primary characteristic of a virtual organization is the pooling of the participant's core competencies but for mutual complementing and delivering a

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a so wide distance that collaboration effectiveness will not be ensured until they collectively decide to build-up a common culture and use a common language. Leadership and trust appear to have the highest impact on collaboration effectiveness and efficiency. The lack of clear leadership constitutes a barrier contributing to the increase of organizational distance partly disabling shared purpose, vision, goals and objectives among distributed group members. The lack of mutual trust increases relational distance that leads to weak ties among group members. This is, most probably, due to the fact that trust has a greater impact on collaboration effectiveness while task and process leadership has a greater impact on the efficiency of the collaboration process. Another conclusion is that ICT could be better used to more easily overcome some of the barriers considered most significant. By enhancing the security of applications used within a virtual enterprise, especially taking into consideration the need to assure the Intellectual Property Rights, would lead to an improvement in confidence. Based on knowledge management definition, which is regarded as a range of practices used in an organization to identify, create, represent, distribute and enable adoption of insights and experiences, we consider that by improving ICT solutions can be enhanced quality of shared knowledge and then reduce barriers caused by the Lack of common description and meaning. (Tofan Dan, 2010) To support leadership in terms of shared purpose, vision, goals and objectives is needed to take into consideration a better implementation of the knowledge management because it is a way to convey the right information to the right people at the right time, and helping people to create and share knowledge in a structured way (Daniel Schubert, Oliver

collaboration effectiveness. Although it was considered that the collaboration in a virtual enterprise is based on participants equality the unbalanced power in decision making was rated as significant. Other factors like diversity setting, multi-lingual setting, different investment regulations and different contractual settings were rated as having a significant impact. However, it should be noted that all these factors are directly impeding the effectiveness of collaboration rather than its efficiency. For the technical dimension, one factor named multi-platform setting was rated as having a less significant impact on collaboration performance while the remaining three factors, unbalanced technological usage, lack of media naturalness, and lack of contextualized mode were rated as having a significant impact. Overall, the use of ICT in a virtual enterprise is still of significant importance. Conclusions Is clearly that the most significant factors affecting collaboration performance impede collaboration effectiveness rather than collaboration efficiency. The four factors rated as being the less significant are more affecting efficiency than effectiveness. It seems quite logical that effectiveness factors are rated as being the most significant as they are conditioning the readiness for collaboration. It appears that efficiency factors are more related to the technical and organizational support where appropriate methods and techniques are contributing to speed-up tasks in compressing several distances such as spatial, organizational and temporal distances. It is well known in the international project arena that gathering participants from different countries having their own regional and institutional culture and using mostly their native language create

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Affecting Collaboration, 16th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising, Lugano – Switzerland, 2010. 4. Marita Gruber and Matthias Nöster: Investigating Structural Settings of Virtual Organizations, 11th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising University BW Munich, Germany, 2005. 5. Marita Haas, Sabine Koeszegi & Matthias Noester: Current practice and structural patterns in virtual organizations – a qualitative analysis of 30 cases, The Electronic Journal for Virtual Organizations and Networks Volume 8, 2007, p.83-101. 6. Tofan Dan Constantin: The Role of Knowledge Management in Critical Infrastructure Protection (CIP), 8th International Symposium of Young Researchers, ASEM, 2010.

Romberg, Sebastian Kurowski, Ozgur Gurtuna, Arthur Prévot, Gonzalo SavedraCriado, 2010). Bibliography: 1. Daniel Schubert, Oliver Romberg, Sebastian Kurowski, Ozgur Gurtuna, Arthur Prévot, Gonzalo Savedra-Criado: Concurrent Engineering Knowledge Management Architecture, 16th International Conference on Concurrent Enterprising, Lugano – Switzerland, 2010. 2. Hans Jägers, Wendy Jansen and Wilchard Steenbakkers: Characteristics of Virtual Organizations, Proceedings of the VoNet - Workshop, 1998, p.6576. 3. Marc Pallot, Ulf Bergmann, Hermann Kühnle, Kulwant S. Pawar, Johann CKH Riedel: Collaborative Working Environments: Distance Factors

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THE INFLUENCE OF THE KNOWLEDGE BASED SOCIETY UPON ORGANIZATIONS Lucian Dragoş POPESCU Diana ŢUŢUIANU Ph.D., lecturer, „CAROL I” National Defense University Ph.D., lecturer, „CAROL I” National Defense University Abstract: The survival of any organization depends on its capacity to adjust to the social and technological environment it belongs to. All organizations exist through and for people. The logical consequence of these statements is that organizations must follow the current trends on world’s labour market and take adequate measures in order to have a proper development in this respect. Keywords: organizations, knowledge based society, adjust

The basic prerequisite for setting up organizations is the benevolent and consensual associations of individuals. This benevolence presupposes the existence of a set of comon values which prompt individuals to become part of the organizations. The free consent by which these organizations function result in the observance of the internal rules and regulations lying at their fundation. This prerequisite implies assuming the specific values defining for the respective organization, as well as abiding by its legal framework and customs. Taking into consideration all of the above, the main issue of the organization is turning its goal into direct actions with practical results. Thus, the process of turning the general goal into final practical results implies the following: a) the certain existence of significant common goals among individuals, among the interests and ambitions of everybody who is part of the organization; b) the real participation of all the members of the organization in the process of redefining and restating the goal of the organization, when this needs to be modified;

Management is a natural human activity. Its starting points are establishing its scope and goals, identifying the activities necessary for performing it, setting aims, and prioritizing them in a natural and logical succession. Other prerequisites are identifying and directing the resources necessary for accomplishing the goals, establishing various courses of action and the risk factor implied by each of them, choosing the ways of reaching partial targets, pinpoiting alternative courses of action and ways of getting feedback. Until now, in most cases, this implied other people’s involvement. This necessity resulted in setting up organizations. Inside organizations, by means of cooperation, people can do together things that usually cannot be done alone. The general prerequisites of constituting (setting up) organizations are the following: a) the mere existence of individuals who agree to cooperate in order to reach a goal which they all share; b) the ability of these individuals to communicate with each other and work together in order to reach this common goal. The organization as such is essentially a social system in which and through which people interact and cooperate in order to accomplish common objectives.

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wealth, position, and social status) are given to those who show talent and competence as demonstrated by past actions or by competition. Evaluation systems, such as formal education, are closely linked to notions of meritocracy. This is opposed to other value systems, where reward and legitimacy are based upon possession of wealth (plutocracy), origin (aristocracy), family connections (nepotism), property (oligarchy), friendship (cronysm), seniority (gerontocracy), popularity (democracy), or other historical determinants of social status and political power. For instance, meritocracy was the primary basis for selection of chiefs and generals in the Mongol Empire. Genghis Khan chose whoever was talented and fit for his military chain of command. He even trusted generals and soldiers from opposing armies if they showed loyalty to their leaders. For example, Genghis Khan’s general Jebe had been an enemy soldier who had shot Genghis in battle before he became Great Khan. Technocracy is a form of meritocracy whereby appointments for positions are made based on demonstrated technical expertise. Technocracy is a hypothetical form of government in which engineers, scientists, and other technical experts are in control of decision making in their respective fields. The term technocracy derives from the Greek words tekhne meaning skill and kratos meaning power, as in government, or rule. Thus, the term technocracy denotes a system of government where those who have knowledge, expertise or skills compose the governing body. In a technocracy, decision makers would be selected based upon how highly knowledgeable they are, rather than how much political capital they hold. Technocrats are individuals with technical training and occupations who perceive many important societal problems as being solvable, often while proposing technology-focused solutions. Gunnar K. A. Njalsson, a scientist in the field of

c) the ways of putting into practice the correspondence between the general goal and individual aims. Obviously, any organization is influenced by the type of society it belongs to. The goal of the organization is reached through specific means and methods, the ways of accomplishing the mission of the organization being adjusted to the specific circumstances of the social environment. Thus, in an autarchic society which satisfies its economic needs by its own means, without any import or foreign aid, the armed forces will have to acquire specific dimensions and endowment. In other words, it will need to comprise a large number of soldiers and the technical means afforded by its economic and technological level. This is a situation specific to totalitarian states. Stratocracy is a form of government headed by military chiefs; the term is derived from two Greek terms signifying army and power. It is not the same as a military dictatorship where the military political power is not enforced or even supported by other laws. Rather, stratocracy is a form of military government in which the state and the military are traditionally the same thing and government positions are always occupied by military leaders. The political power of the military is supported by law and the society. Historically, the term was used by Greeks to describe the structure of the late Roman Republic and later the early Empire, where there was no distinction between military and civilian offices and appointment to governing roles was required for military service and promotion. In this type of society, the army consists of a lot of personnel of which a significant part does not belong strictly to operational structures but to the administrative system of the state. Meritocracy is a system of a government or other organization wherein appointments are made and responsibilities assigned to individuals based upon demonstrated talent and ability or merit. In a meritocracy, society rewards (such as

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problem, most likely via a system of interconnected computer networks and automated information sorting software, with human decision makers only be called into use in the case of unusual problems. Cyberocracy is the functional antithesis of traditional bureaucracies which sometimes notoriously suffer from fiefdomism, slowness, and a list of other negative traits such as increasing the number of administrative personnel while decreasing the number of productive personnel, while simultaneously reducing the number of employees. The knowledge based society could be considered a form of cyberocracy in the sense of using people strictly for creative purposes and working on information in order to acquire knowledge. The rate of employment in the main fields of activity (agriculture, industry, services) is maybe one of the most relevant indicators for the transformations that have occurred throughout time, with respect to the importance given to the field of agriculture which was later moved to the field of industry and/or finally the field of services.

administrative sciences, theorizes that technocrats are primarily driven by their cognitive “problem-solution mindsets” and only in part by particular occupational group interests. Their activities and the increasing success of their ideas are thought to be a crucial factor behind the modern spread of technology and the largely ideological concept of the “Information Society”. Technocrats may be distinguished from “econocrats” and “bureaucrats”, whose problem-solution mindsets differ from those of the technocrats. Cyberocracy describes a form of government or an organization that rules by the effective use of information. The exact nature of a cyberocracy is largely speculative as until now there have been no cybercractic governments; however, a growing number of cybercratic elements can currently be found in many developed nations. Cyberocracy, from the roots “cyber“ and “cracy”, signifies rule by way of information, especially when using interconnected networks. The fundamental feature of a cyberocracy would be the rapid transmission of relevant information from the source of a problem to the people in a position able to solve the respective

Tabel 1: The percentage of employment in the main fields of activity Source: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm The first conclusion which can easily be drawn form table no. 1, with profound implications for the subject of the present paper, is that the field of services includes

the highest percentage in most regions mentioned in the table and continues its ascending trend. When compared to it, agriculture seems to come on the second 148

remuneration2. Thus, as shown by the data offered by this indicator in 2007, it was only in four countries in the world, namely Canada, Israel, Russian Federation and Taiwan, that the ratio between supply and demand from the point of view of labor force with a higher qualification (university and postuniversity studies) was much higher than that of labor force with medium or lower qualification (high-school diploma or graduates of compulsory education). Nevertheless, the same indicator shows a tendency of improving the level of education and the professional abilities on a national level, although this does not imply automatically the guarantee of getting a better job. Thus, maintaining a balance between the level of education and the demand on the labor market becomes one of the challenges each country needs to confront in elaborating policies of developing the labor force and its competencies, and subsequently, in identifying future demands on the extended labor market. The table below presents the distribution of young labor force (teenagers: 19-25 years old and young adults: 30+) in various countries, in 2007, according to their level of education.

place, in a descending trend, though. Finally, industry, from the point of view of the overall percentage, gets the last place, nevertheless following different trends according to the region: descending in developed economies and the European Union, Central and South-Eastern Europe, Latin America and the Carribean, and ascending in regions such as Africa, Middle East, South-East Asia and the Pacific. Keeping in mind the situation mentioned above, one can only conclude that the general ascending trend of activities in the field of services should generate a growing importance of the competencies necessary for getting employed in this area, competencies which, in our perspective, are very much the same as most social competencies. Still, beside these competencies, one should also take into consideration the necessity of developing socio-linguistic competencies due to the tendency present in some regions to increase the professional skills of the labor force through the gradual growth of the importance of industry to the detriment of agriculture (see, for instance, the case of Central and South-Eastern Europe). The level of education and literacy are two variables which equally influence the level of remuneration of positions requiring a high level of qualification as compared to those necessitating a lower level of qualification. Thus, the negotiation between supply and demand often generates significant differences between the salaries of people with a higher education (university and postuniversity degrees), whose number is quite low1, and those who come on the labor market with a lower education, and consequently a lower level of 1 From this point of view, Romania is a real paradox. Because of the uncontrollable boom of private institutions of education, the number of graduates of university or post-university education is much higher as compared to the European average.

2 We need to underline that with respect to this indicator, the conclusions refer to the general trend of employment of the labor force on an international level, and not to the exceptions which our country unfortunately seems part of.

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Explanation: Primary or less refers to the primary and general level of education (primary and secondary education) as well as to the absence of any qualification for the position occupied. Secondary includes the compulsory education / high-school level. Tertiary: higher education and post-university studies.

Table 2: Distribution of the labor force according to the level of education in 2007 Sursă: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm Israel and 68% in Portugal. On the other hand, the same differences within the same category have been identified in developing countries such as Georgia: 5% or Costa Rica 65%. However, according to the data compiled, it was only in seven (Belarus, Israel, Pakistan, Peru, Singapore, Taiwan (China), and SUA) of the 120 economies analyzed that the unemployment rate of those with a university degree was the highest.

The unemployment rate according to the level of education is another variable. According to this indicator, there is no obvious difference between the developed and the developing countries regarding the correlation between unemployment and level of education. Thus, the unemployment rate for those who have only a primary education or no education at all in developed countries included in the database, leading to the constitutive results of this indicator, has been between 12% in

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Therefore, the conclusion which seems to be drawn one again is that, despite global interconnectivity, the unemployment rate and the employment percentage of people

with higher education does not necessarily depend on the level of development of a country, but on labor force policies at the national level.

Table 3: Distribution of unemployment rate according to the level of education in developed and developing countries in 2007. Source: http://www.ilo.org/public/english/employment/strat/kilm labor force with respect to intercultural competencies, where the lack of such a study needs to be mentioned, as well as the situation of the labor market in EU. The last step should be drawing a profile of the highschool and university graduates according to soft and hard coordinates of the demands on the labor market. Acknowledgments The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program. Bibliography: 1. Nastase, Marian. Lider, leadership si organizatia bazata pe cunostinte. Bucuresti: Editura ASE, 2007. 2. Nicolescu, Ovidiu, Verboncu, Ion. Fundamentele managementului organizatiei. Bucuresti, Editura Tribuna Economica, 2007 3. Paunescu, Mihai. Organizare si campuri organizationale: o analiza institutionala. Iasi: Editura Polirom, 2006 4. www.ilo.org/public/english/employmen t/strat/kilm

Starting from the study of the indicators above which we considered relevant for establishing the share of parameters regarding competencies acquired through education, firstly we can say that the field of services does not only hold the largest share on the international labor market, but it is also the one in which socio-cultural and psycho-cultural competencies are to be found from the point of view of demand. Secondly, although the indicator referring to the correlation between the unemployment rate and the level of education is relevant only in some particular cases, we consider that it still needs to be addressed, as it depends on national policies with respect to the employment of highly qualified labor force. If Romania needs to be competitive within a knowledge based society, it is compulsory to initiate a thorough inquiry starting from the school syllabi for the study of foreign languages, Romanian language, and native languages, with respect to the intercultural competencies implied by the themes included in them. This inquiry should then pass to the demand on the Romanian

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KM PROJECTS

TOWARDS FORMATIVE E-ASSESSMENT IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT THROUGH PERSONALIZED AUTOMATED FEEDBACK Maria-Iuliana DASCĂLU Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: Formative e-assessment is a complex process, in which learners can build their knowledge, fill up their knowledge gaps or increase their learning abilities. The feedback mechanism is considered to be highly important for the formative dimension of e-assessment. Current paper proposes a model for automated feedback in a project management e-assessment environment: the model blends a built-in feedback sheet (a document containing the correct answers) with a recommender engine, which searches the web for references related to the incorrectly answered questions. The feedback model is personalized, because the web search is made taking into account the user profile: the list of concepts which weren’t correctly understood. This list of concepts is mapped on project management domain ontology. Keywords: e-assessment, project management, automated feedback, ontology, knowledge system

learning [Bodea and Dascalu, Competencybased E-assessment in Project Management and Firm Performance: a Case Study, 2010] [Frey and Fisher, 2009], being known as “assessment for learning” (Birenbaum, Kimron, Shilton, and Shahaf-Barzilay, 2009). Bennett describes three generations of e-assessment: Tests using designs based on existing paper-and-pencil tests, tests using new formats (such as multimedia) and ‘R’ (reinvention) generation tests, where complex simulator and intelligent tutors are used. Practically, the ‘R’ e-assessment applications are knowledge systems. An example of such a system is when the instructional sequence is modified according to the users’ dynamic profile [Bennett, 2010]. No technology-based assessment is itself formative, but many technologies can be used in formative ways [Pachler, Daly, Mor, and Mellar, 2010]. Black and Wiliam propose a set of strategies to give e-assessment formative features [Black and Wiliam, 2009]: • engineering effective classroom discussion, questions, and learning tasks that elicit evidence of learning; • providing feedback that moves learners forward; • clarifying and sharing learning intentions and criteria for success;

Introduction E-assessment has applicability in various types of education, from higher education to work-based education. In order to improve learning effectiveness, the formative dimension of e-assessment has been increasingly developed. Formative assessment is defined as “an ongoing process of monitoring learners’ progresses of knowledge construction” (Hsu, Chou, and Chang, 2010) or “the process of seeking and interpreting evidence for use by learners and their teachers to decide where the learners are in their learning, where they need to go and how best to get there” (Assessment Reform Group (ARG), 2002). Formative eassessment is a much more complex process, because of the ‘e’ dimension, which lies over the assessment process itself. Its value was greatly appreciated by researchers: Formative e-assessment promotes self-reflection, and students can take control of their own learning [Pachler, Daly, Mor, and Mellar, 2010]. Formative eassessment can fill a gap, between “the obtained (observed performance) and the intended (as defined by the objectives)” (Sadler, 1989). The author argues that it fills a knowledge gap, that’s why formative e-assessment has an important role in learning and teaching [Delcea and Dascalu, 2009]. It is well-used in organizational 155

•

does not increase the students’ performance [Wieling and Hofman, 2010]. The current article states that, if included in a recommender system, it efficiently adjusts learning. A recommender system guides the user to interesting objects (concepts) in a large space of possible options [Hernandez del Olmo and Gaudioso, 2008]. In present case, the large space of possible options is represented by the knowledge domain which is tested. Interesting concepts are the particular concepts which weren’t understood by the student. The following sections will present a recommender-based feedback model, which can be successfully used in project management e-assessment.

activating students as owners of their own learning; • activating students as instructional resources for one another; Formative assessment has been studied in various educational systems, from countries like Australia (Queensland), Canada, Denmark, England, Finland, Italy, New Zealand and Scotland, and turned out to be highly efficient “in raising the level of student attainment, increasing equity of student outcomes, and improving students’ ability to learn” (OECD, 2005). Features of Formative E-assessment

A Formative E-Assessment Application in Project Management

Several features define formative assessment: it places much more emphasis on the role of feedback, it gives the students the possibility to revise their mistakes, it is a learning tool, opposite to summative assessment, which can be used only as an evaluation tool. Most of the assessment systems which have formative dimensions are web-based applications, like GAMWATA [Wang, 2008]. Some of the strategies used in formative e-assessment [Wang, 2008] are the following: • Timely feedback: feedback is delivered immediately, after each given answer; • Repeat the test: correct answers aren’t given, so that the test can be repeated till all the answers are correct; • Query scores: users are given other users’ scores, so that they can compare themselves; • Ask questions: users can ask their tutors, using the e-mail; • All pass and then reward: of the user answers correctly at the same question, three times in a row, then that question isn’t given at other test sessions; otherwise, it is considered that the user guessed the answer, so the question remains in the questions’ bank; The feedback mechanism is generally considered to be highly important for the formative dimension of an e-test [Biggam, 2010], but some researchers argue that it

As project management knowledge has a tremendous impact on economical wellbeing [Bodea and Badea, Optimizing project time-cost-quality, 2009], various efforts have been made to fill knowledge gaps in project management domain [Zhen, Huang, and Jiang, 2010], [Delcea and Dascalu, 2009]. Among these efforts, there are the ones made by the Romanian Association of Project Management, which provides an e-assessment application for certification exam preparation: www.pm.org.ro/certexam. The test items are multiple-choice questions. The score sheet has incorporated an automated feedback mechanism: the user can return to the incorrectly answered questions (which are marked with red in Figure 1) or to the correctly answered questions (which are marked with green), if he considers that he guessed the answer. The user can also ask for an exam report, which will give him a “pdf” document (see Figure 2) with the correct answers. The formative dimension of the test can be increased by pressing the “Search on WEB” button from Figure 1: a recommender engine will be called and the users will obtain a set of web documents related to the knowledge checked by the questions which were incorrectly answered.

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The

algorithm

standing

behind

this

recommender-based feedback is further described.

Figure 1: Score Sheet

Figure 2: Automated Included Feedback Recommender engines can be contentbased, collaborative or hybrid [Hsu I.-C. , 2009], but in recent years several research studies have been focused on ontology approaches [Göksedef and GündüzÖgüdücü, 2010], [IJntema, Goossen, Frasincar, and Hogenboom, 2010], [Yang, 2010], [Weng and Chang, 2008].

A Recommender-based Model for Personalized Automated Feedback in Project Management E-assessment As mentioned in Section 2, current article militates for improving the feedback mechanism presented in Figure 2 by including a recommender engine. 157

Each question checks a certain number of concepts from the knowledge domain in project management. This knowledge domain is represented by an ontology [Bodea and Dascalu, “A Parameterized Web-based Testing Model for Project Management”, 2009]. The recommender systems should search for web documents related to the concept of the incorrectly answered question, but also for web documents related to the parent node of the concept in the domain ontology and other child nodes of that parent: in Figure 3, c1 represents the initial concept related to a question, but the recommender should take into account c1, cp, c2 and c3 concepts. In this way, the recommended references are much more comprehensive. Each web document should be ranked and all results should be clustered according to the initial sets of concepts related to the questions.

Figure 4: Recommender-based Model for Personalized Automated Feedback

The steps used by the recommenderbased model for e-assessment feedback are described below: 1. The user takes the test. 2. The user finishes the test and the ‘user profile’ is built: A set of concepts related to the incorrectly answered questions. 3. The user profile is mapped in the domain ontology: All initial concepts related to the questions, the parent concepts of those concepts, and all the other child concepts of the parent concepts (just from the first level of relationship) are extracted; A ‘concept vector’ is built. 4. A ‘webpage crawler’ is invoked to obtain related WebPages, for the concept vector in Step 3. 5. A ‘webpage classifier’ is used to classify the WebPages according to the concept vector 5.1. After, each web page is processed (html tag removal, removal of stop words and characters, word root extraction), it is represented by a vector of index words; Each word

Figure 3: Concepts taken into account by a recommender-based feedback mechanism, for one question A representation of the recommenderbased model for e-assessment feedback is available in Figure 4.

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5.2. 5.3.

5.4.

5.5.

recommenders should be made [IJntema, Goossen, Frasincar, and Hogenboom, 2010], [Yang, 2010]. The model can be improved by adding an off-line part: A database with useful references, mapped according to the domain ontology, is necessary for building this part. The user profile can be enriched by adding information about its previous scores ( a cognition student matrix) or its type of certification (level A, B, C, D) and, in this way, the web search can be refined. The fact that the web search is based on user profile proved that this kind of feedback is a personalized one. Essentially, this feedback model is a knowledge system, because it is based on knowledge structures (ontology, concept vectors). Its formative nature is explained by the fact that it gives proper knowledge to proper users [Zhen, Huang, and Jiang, 2010].

has a weight: The occurrence of that word in the document. The vector of words is then mapped to another concept vector, according to the domain ontology. A matrix of web documents and concepts is built: On each line, a new document, on each column, a new concept, in each matrix cell the occurrence of a concept in a web document. A “cleaned” matrix is built from the one in Step 5.3: only concepts from the concept vector in Step 3 are kept and only web documents containing those documents are preserved. We should take into account the fact that not all the concepts in concept vector from Step 3 have the same rank: The initial concepts (c1 from Figure 3) have greater importance than parent concepts or other child concepts (cp, c2 or c3 from Figure 3); Consequently, each concept receives a rank, calculated upon the following formula:

Acknowledgments This article is a result of the project POSDRU/6/1.5/S/11 „Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle”. This project is co funded by European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

5.6. = The formula was adapted from the rank semantic recommendation [IJntema, Goossen, Frasincar, and Hogenboom, 2010]. 5.7. A k-means clustering algorithm is applied on that “cleaned” matrix, and a list of documents classified according to the concept vector in Step 3 is offered; The final list presents the web documents according to their rank from Step 5.5.: The documents with higher rank are highlighted.

Bibliography: 1. Assessment Reform Group (ARG). (2002). Assessment for learning: 10 principles. Cambridge, UK: University of Cambridge, School of Education. 2. Bennett, R. E. (n.d.). Reinventing assessment: Speculations on the future of large-scale educational testing. Retrieved October 02, 2010, from JISC: http://www.jisc.ac.uk/media/document s/programmes/elearningpedagogy/road mapeassessment.doc

Conclusions In order to validate the proposed recommender-based feedback model, a comparison between it and other such

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10. Göksedef, M., and Gündüz-Ögüdücü, S. (2010). Combination of Web page recommender systems. Expert Systems with Applications , 37, 2911–2922. 11. Hernandez del Olmo, F., and Gaudioso, E. (2008). Evaluation of recommender systems: A new approach. Expert Systems with Applications , 35, 790–804. 12. Hsu, I.-C. (2009). SXRS: An XLinkbased Recommender System using Semantic Web technologies. Expert Systems with Applications , 36, 3795– 3804. 13. Hsu, J.-L., Chou, H.-W., and Chang, H.-H. (2010). EduMiner: Using text mining for automatic formative assessment. Expert Systems with Applications . 14. IJntema, W., Goossen, F., Frasincar, F., and Hogenboom, F. (2010). Ontology-based news recommendation. Proceedings of the 2010 EDBT/ICDT Workshops. Lausanne, Switzerland : ACM . 15. OECD. (2005). Formative Assessment: Improving Learning in Secondary Classrooms. Retrieved October 2, 2010, from Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development: www.oecd.org/dataoecd/19/31/356610 78.pdf 16. Pachler, N., Daly, C., Mor, Y., and Mellar, H. (2010). Formative eassessment: Practitioner cases. Computers and Education , 54, 715– 721. 17. Sadler, D. (1989). Formative assessment and the design of instructional systems. Instructional Science , 18, 118–144. 18. Wang, T.-H. (2008). Web-based quizgame-like formative assessment: Development and evaluation. Computers and Education , 51, 1247– 1263. 19. Weng, S.-S., and Chang, H.-L. (2008). Using ontology network analysis for research document recommendation.

3. Biggam, J. (2010). Using Automated Assessment Feedback to Enhance the Quality of Student Learning in Universities: A Case Study. Technology Enhanced Learning. Quality of Teaching and Educational Reform (pp. 188-194). Athens: Springer. 4. Birenbaum, M., Kimron, H., Shilton, H., and Shahaf-Barzilay, R. (2009). Cycles of inquiry: Formative assessment in service of learning in classrooms and in school-based professional communities. Studies in Educational Evaluation , 35, 130–149. 5. Black, P., and Wiliam, D. (2009). Developing the theory of formative assessment. Assessment, Evaluation and Accountability , 21 (1), 5–31. 6. Bodea, C. N., and Badea, I.-R. (2009). Optimizing project time-cost-quality. Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Management (pp. 155-163). Bucharest: UNAP. 7. Bodea, C.-N., and Dascalu, M. (2010). Competency-based E-assessment in Project Management and Firm Performance: a Case Study. Proceedings of the 4th conference on European computing conference (pp. 76-81 ). Bucharest: WSEAS . 8. Delcea, C., and Dascalu, M.-I. (2009). Knowledge Strategies Tools for Managing Enterprise Crisis. Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies, Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Management (pp. 115-119). Bucharest: UNAP. 9. Frey, N., and Fisher, D. (2009). Using common formative assessments as a source of professional development in an urban American elementary school. Teaching and Teacher Education , 25, 674–680.

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Expert Systems with Applications , 34, 1857–1869. 20. Wieling, M., and Hofman, W. (2010). The impact of online video lecture recordings and automated feedback on student performance. Computers and Education , 2010, 992–998. 21. Yang, S.-Y. (2010). Developing an ontology-supported information

integration and recommendation system for scholars. Expert Systems with Applications , 37, 7065–7079. 22. Zhen, L., Huang, G. Q., and Jiang, Z. (2010). An inner-enterprise knowledge recommender system. Expert Systems with Applications, 37, 1703–1712.

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DESIGN STAGES OF AN ONLINE COURSE Iuliana DOBRE Ph.D., candidate, assistant Petroleum-Gas University of Ploiesti [email protected] Abstract: Worldwide, there are more and more enterprises, organizations and educational institutions where the educational process works partially or exclusively via the Internet using a wide range of online courses. In such an online course design, resources and materials made available to learners must compensate the missing of the physical presence of the trainer or teacher as well as the missing of a direct and permanent communication between learners and trainers/teachers, these features being common to traditional educational process through classroom courses. The stages of such process, which will be presented in this article, are of similar order with those of making a traditional classroom course, but require a more effort, a more specialized people involved and a greater number of activities. Keywords: E-learning, learning content management systems, online education

Seaman survey [1], a survey of Chief Academic Officers of US degree-granting institutions of higher education, 81% of all institutions of higher education offer at least one fully online or blended course, 34% of the institutions offer complete online degree programs, and 67% say online education is a critical long-term strategy for their institution. Same survey [1] also suggests that academic leaders believe online education may be superior to face-to-face education, the results showing that 75% expect learning outcomes for online education to be equal to or better than face-to-face instruction within three years, and 33% believe it will be superior to face-to-face instruction within three years. Following chapters and sub-chapters of this article will present a review of the online course development design process, focusing on the planning and designing stage.

1. Introduction The modern society requires the development of mass education. Various solutions were developed in order to offer the advantages of uniformly and equal chances education. One of these solutions is the E-learning. During the past two decades many specialists have progressed on this domain. In fact E-learning grown exponentially as more and more entities around the world started to use it for their educational programs having as ultimate goal the build of effective competence of their people. Why E-learning can be considered an efficient solution? An answer to such questions is offered by Marc J. Rosenberg [3], quoted below. From Marc J. Rosenberg: Mass education became popular at the point in history when apprenticeships became impractical because there were too many knowledge seekers and not enough knowledge providers. Since then, we have relied on schooling, where one subject matter expert, or master, teaches dozens or hundreds of people on one time. [3] Taking into consideration the growing demands for education, the increase of learner’s diversity and the fact that the knowledge is becoming more and more expensive there will be sufficient motivation to look for other reliable options. Only a classroom and dedicated teachers to a defined number of learners is not sufficient anymore to confront with the future demands. According to Allen &

2. Online Course Development Process An online course development can be considered as a process in three stages as shown in figure 1. Each stage consists of several developmental steps. Is to be highlighted the fact that a very important role in developing an online course pertains to the instructional designer/s and other support personnel as they have a key role to ensure

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the online courses required quality, and

FIRST STAGE PLANNING AND DESIGN

SECOND STAGE DEVELOPMENT AND IMPLEMENTATION

THIRD STAGE DELIVERY AND MANAGEMENT

STAGE STEPS

STAGE STEPS

STAGE STEPS

effectiveness. Step 1 – Pedagogical General Considerations Step 2 – Course Learning Objectives Identification Step 3 – Course Content Identification Step 4 – Course Components Identification Step 5 – Course Structure Design Step 6 – Instructional Strategies Design

Step 1 – Preparation of the Course Content Step 2 – Web Page Creation and Development Step 3 – Development of the Course using a Course Management System Step 4 – Course Testing Phase

Step 1 – Course Delivery to Learners Step 2 – Course Management Step 3 – Learners Feedback for course improvement

Figure 1: Online Course Development in Three Stages experience gained within projects developed as follows [4]: • An easily navigable web site; • Clearly articulated objectives and expectations; • A course structure that facilitates collaborative learning; • Assignments and activities that facilitate participation and communication among learners; • Timely feedback for learners from the Instructor; • An appropriate use of technologies to enhance learning; • A discussion space for learners to talk openly about the course (expectations, uncertainty, what they like, dislike, their participation, progress etc.). In some specialists’ view, an online course has three main components as shown in figure 2 [5].

The result of the first stage is a draft course syllabus which includes as main components: The list of topics which should be covered by learner, learner assessment plan, a course schedule proposal. Also, is the stage when new components could be identified, planned and designed. Once the first stage is completed a second stage has to go through. This stage has like end result the complete online course. During the last stage the online course is delivered, managed and improved. 3. Planning and Design of Online Courses From figure 1 result that during planning and design stage several steps must be fulfilled prior starting the course development phase. Several criteria for success have been developed by specialists in the past years based on the

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The alignment process is including several actions and could be affected by external (education environment factors). Some of the most important actions which should be considered by online course developing team could be the following: • Learning objectives should be articulated based on the requirements referring to the knowledge and skills which learners need to acquire by the end of the course; • Instructional activities has to be developed and scheduled in a manner that will allow learners learning meeting the learning objectives; • The assessments should allow the teachers/trainers not only to check the degree to which the learners are meeting the learning objectives but also should contribute to knowledge and skills building process by allowing both, teachers/trainers and learners, to identify in due time the weak areas and create necessary support for solutions implementation; • All course improvement activities should be based on feedback received from both, teachers/trainers and learners, during all phases required to develop, implement and manage an online course. If the above major components are not aligned than the risk is very high referring to the possibility receiving complaints from all parties involved (teachers/trainers and learners). A large room for complaints can lead to a direct proportionally decrease of the online course rate of success. For example, the learners could complaint that the tests did not have anything to do with what was covered during teaching process, or teachers/trainers could complaint about the fact that learners haven’t really mastered the material at the desired level. Most of the specialists agree that one way to approach the course design is to start from the learning objectives, then move on the other major components,

Figure 2: Online Course Main Components Relationship [5]. The author consider that the number of major components of an online course has to be increased, based on the fact that all activities related to continual improvement can’t be associated strictly to one of the three components and can’t be considered just an education environment constrain. In the author view, the course improvement activities should a be treated as well as a major component of the online courses, a component which should enclose efforts of both, teachers/trainers and learners, in order to improve. In figure 3, the author presents the relationship between the four major components. Generally, the planning and design stage has to consider the alignment of the four main online course components in order to ensure a consistent and effective course structure. The components alignment is a dynamic process due to the fact that any change in one component will affect the others.

Figure 3: Online Course Main Components Relationship.

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course development principles.

and revisit the cycle iteratively as needed [5]. In other words, articulating the learning objectives will help in selection and organization of the course content and determinate the appropriate instructional activities, assessments, and improvement activities. Also, the learners will have the opportunity to direct their learning efforts on the appropriate direction and to monitor their own progress, contributing directly to their personal improvement. Below sub-chapters will present briefly the six steps taken during the online courses planning and designing stage. 3.1. Pedagogical Considerations

and

planning

3.2. Course Learning Objectives Identification In this step, all learning objectives on the online course have to be identified. The designing team could prepare a list with general online class objectives and specific behavioral outcomes. The learning objectives must be centered on learners and also must be measurable. Measurement will facilitate the issue of the key performance indicators, and those will allow not only the teachers/trainers and learners to understand the progress level and solutions for improvement but also the designing team will be helped by such measurements.

General

An analysis of the general considerations referring to pedagogical aspects is the very first step when planning and designing an online course. Questions need to be asked by the designing team and these questions should be related to topics such as: positive and negative aspects related to targeted learners, prior knowledge of the learners, strategies to approach the learners and their effectiveness, expected impact of online instructional environment on learners, how the issues coming from changing the instructional environment can be solved, etc. The designing team should prepare a list with goals proposed to be achieved and another list with expected issues and with the strategies & techniques which will be used as solutions to issues expected. An important role in getting this step taken will have the designing team, this team heaving the task to answer to general questions regarding the online course which will be developed as well as the task to point out the difference between online and classroom teaching, providing in same time a list with resources which will be used for online

3.3. Course Content Identification The course content identification is a step involving two major tasks as follows: • Identifying the topics (subjects) that would be covered in the online course; • Identify and start gathering material resources (e.g., textbooks, video clips, photos, graphs etc.) or in case necessary develop new multimedia materials to fit with the course objectives. If is the case, copyright clearance for the available materials need to be obtained. Prepare two lists, one for the available resources and one for the needed materials and not available; • Check for financial resources availability to purchase existing material and/or to developed new materials. 3.4. Course Components Identification Apart the knowledge content design the team should look forward and identify some other components of the course which need to be developed because they are sufficient important to facilitate the learning process. Examples of such components could be: • Online communication module, which can facilitate group and individual discussions;

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• Online logs to record learners progress; • Learners assessments modules others than the ones already required to assess their knowledge for records. These could be quizzes, exercises etc. and could be used for learners self assessments and own progress measurement.

should be available for review with individuals and group discussions. 4. Conclusions More and more organizations have in place programs to evolve to online instructional structures. For sure, during next decade, newer models for success will be developed having as support more effective applications and best practices achieved within experience in domain. Of course, important issues will still remain under close attention of specialists, and most probably, these will be related the online education quality, improvement of the online courses design, developing new design elements which will lead to superior courses etc. Doesn’t matter the issues and amount of efforts needed to progress one fact is for sure and that is that online education is strategically vital for all organizations [2]. Therefore, the author considers that the next important task of the professionals involved in online education is not to develop more and more courses but the most important is to develop new design models and frameworks which can help to simplify and clarify the online courses. Solving such task than more engagement from learners’ side will be obtained and more exciting pedagogy will be ensured. Design stage will have also in the future a very important role in improving the online courses considering all aspects of such courses. Technology progress will provide necessary support to designers but a basic principle shall not be given up, and the online courses shall be centered on learners.

3.5. Course Structure Design The structure design requires splitting the content material and course components, as appropriate, into course units. After, a course structure for each unit needs to be developed. Such structure has the scope to map out the organization and connection for individual units. Also, a map out of the relationships between content units and course component units has to be created during this step (i.e., links between a self assessment quiz and a unit). Together with the organization maps for units should be used maps for content files and support materials placement and storage. The units’ length and logical connection units shall be considered as important aspects which need to be solved during this step. 3.6. Instructional Strategies Design In this step, the designing team has the task to identify the information delivery strategies and design activities for each unit’s content. A set of plans has to be created and this set has to contain as minimum the following plans and schedules: • Teachers/Trainers activity plan, including their activity schedules; • Learners activity plan and activities schedule; • Learners assessment plan and assessments schedules; • Course schedule (overall and each unit schedule). Checklists are recommended for use and also, summaries of various activities

Bibliography: 1. Allen, I. Elaine. & Seaman, J. Sizing the opportunity: The quality and extent of online education in the United States. Alphred P. Sloan Foundation. U.S.A., September 2003.

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http://www.sloanc.org/resources/sizing_opportunity.pdf 2. Neuhauser, Charlotte. A Maturity Model: Does It Provide a Path for Online Course Design? The Journal of Interactive Online Learning, Volume 3, Issue 1, 2004. http://www.ncolr.org/jiol/issues/PDF 3. Rosenberg, J. Marc. Beyond ELearning: Approaches and Technologies to Enhance Organizational Knowledge, Learning, and Performance. San Francisco: Pfeiffer, an Imprint of Wiley, 2006.

4. Anonymous. Design Courses: Instructional Design for Online Learning. Educational Technology User Group, 1 December 2008. http://www.ibritt.com/resources/ dc_instructionaldesign.htm 5. Anonymous. Design & Teach a Course: Align Assessments with Objectives. Carnegie Mellon University – Enhanced Education Web Site, September 2010. http://www.cmu.edu/teaching/designte ach/design/assessments.html

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CORPORATIVE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY, PARTNER OR OPPONENT OF KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT? Anca Maria HRISTEA Ph.D., lecturer, Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: It appeared as an initiative of the big transnational companies in their fight for the maintaining and the improvement of their competitive position, Corporative Social Responsibility imposes itself nowadays as an innovative concept, usually associated to “society based on knowledge” that has as a purpose the improvement of the organization’s relationship with the environment (internal and external) and also on gaining some important advantages in connection to the competition. On the other hand, Knowledge management became in the last few years one of the most recent and innovative ways of formation, certification and international cooperation in the field of global consulting, that has as a final target the creation of value and the generation of competitive advantages at an organizational level. The convergence of both concepts towards the final purpose of improving the competitive advantages leads to the conclusion that both Corporative Social Responsibility and Knowledge Management are challenging intercession, of maximum interest, that conditions the evolution of modern society, even if sometimes they merge together, most of the times they complete each other while other times they are in opposition because of the actual state of the research. The paper focuses mainly on the systematical analysis of the concept of Corporative social responsibility at the level of economic entity, because the content of the notion of Knowledge Management is better known within the Conference, and the participants can formulate their own pro and con opinions in the relationship Corporative social responsibility – Knowledge Management. Keywords: corporate social responsibility, business ethics, knowledge management, stakeholders, commitment, performance, sustainability, competitive advantage.

Corporative social responsibility (abbreviations: CSR in English and RSC in Romanian) became starting with the year 2000 one of the hot topics in the field of business. Concept that refers to the contribution that the companies have to the development of the modern society, the “responsible” initiative was theorized by the thinking trends and it was promoted through a great diversity of terms: corporate citizenship, corporate philantropy, corporate societal marketing, community affairs, community development etc. We can say that corporative social responsibility is a way of durable development through which the companies chose to treat the environment problems and the social ones as integral parts of the business operations. Well known personalities from the field of strategic management and marketing (M. Friedman, M. Porter, Ph. Kotler), teachers and researchers, mass media and even the managers of the companies that had over time remarkable contributions to the shaping of the concept of CSR phenomenon so that today recent studies and surveys show the fact that social responsibility is a

1. Some considerations regarding corporate social responsibility The literature of this field and the practical experience of the last two decades show the fact that in the context of the globalization and the regionalization of the economies, of the growth of interdependence between the states or the segmentation of the markets, the development of the economical entities (may it be small and middle-sized enterprises, multinational or transnational corporations) only on the criterion of return and on the sales volume it becomes limited, sometimes even impossible. A notion that is already well-known at an international level, corporate social responsibility became a reality present for Romania too, being a concept that is in full evolution and an important premise for the business world. Although there isn’t yet a standard, universally accepted definition, RSC is, in the opinion of many specialists, the way to success and performance, one that is more complex and viable compared to the classical vision of the industrial capitalism or of the tertiary of the economy, as exclusive chances of economical growth.

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desideratum of the vast majority of the companies. The large volume of papers and articles on this theme (several dozens of million references that appear in seconds from the mere Internet access) confirm the interest shown by the managers and the scientific world for this subject. More than never, on the international level there are important preoccupations for the insurance of equilibrium between morals and the personal interest of the companies. The economical growth of a company does not mean only the obtaining of profit but also its reinvestment. In any business we need financial capital and assets and human resources and, in the last couple of years, a social capital formed by reputation and trust. The strategic approach of CSR is a condition of obtaining business success. Still vulnerable for some specialists, that claim that CSR generate costs way too big in social investments without visible effects, this concept must be understood and promoted through the prism of the long term benefits, without minimizing its strategic role. In the author’s opinion the conclusion from the social perspective and from the economical one is that CSR, through the forms and strategic policies it adopts, is a game with a positive sum. From this strategic intercession the initiators and the beneficiaries of the programs win, when they are conceived and unrolled in a responsible manner. The implication in the life of the community became necessary for any company that wants to have not only commercial success, but also the respect of the community where and for which it operates. Michael E. Porter, first rang authority in the field of competitive strategy, says in one of his articles that “social responsibility became a priority that is impossible to avoid by the business leaders of any country and any field” [Michael E. Porter & Mark R. Kramer in “Strategy & Society – The Link Between

Competitive Advantage and Corporate Social Responsibility”, Harvard Business Review, 3rd December 2006, p.4] Many studies made in the last decade emphasis the importance of the corporatist behavior that is responsible and durable, this being perceived generally as representing a way through which an entity integrates the social, environment and economical preoccupations to its own cultural values, in the taking of decisions, in establishing strategies and activities in a transparent and responsible manner. Thus RSC represents a way of establishing exemplary practices of creating, of wealth and improvement of the qualitative and sustainable level of the society. World Business Council for Sustainable Development describes corporate social responsibility as representing the contribution brought by the organization to the economical development on durable criteria, being based on the obeying of the rules and legislations, “the engagement of the business environments to contribute to the durable economical development working together with the employees, with their families, the local community and society as a whole to improve their life quality”. No matter how it is called, the enterprises’ ethics, corporatist social conscience, durability, triple account, corporatist philanthropy, “corporate citizenship”, community business, corporative social responsibility is a concept that refers to the contribution that any company has to have to the development of modern society. Corporative social responsibility can be perceived as based on the personal social responsibility, on the care and the availability of each individual to build his existence in a strong correlation with the environment, in the context of finding one self in the values promoted by the companies. The European Commission, a forum with constant interest in this field, defines

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universal principles from the field of human rights, work standards, environment protection, anticorruption. 2. CSR, source of competitive advantage and strategic intercession The majority of the specialists consider that the implementation of firm politics of corporative social responsibility give companies many social, economic and financial advantages, that come to cover the efforts made with the launching of these programs. Often the results appear late, but the studies made by institutions from the field (The French Institute for Business Ethics, for example) show that those companies that included in their activity object CSR are exposed to lower risks and the commercial advantages, mirrored through the company’s image are sure in the future. RSC have to respect always the practices regarding the ethical values: of all the parties that are involved in the process (employees, creditors, clients, shareholders, caterers, competitors), of the community (local collectives, consumers associations, ONG), of the environment. From the bibliographical sources and the case studies made by the big corporations with experience in CSR we have reached the conclusion that the main categories of advantages obtained by the social responsible companies are grouped as such: 1. the growth of the financial and commercial performances; 2. the diminishing in time of the judicial, industrial, operational risks, 3. the emphasis of the competitiveness. 3. Another approach to CSR – Reflections of the author As long researched and promoted, the social responsibility of the corporations is a reality of today’s world whose existence cannot be denied. The majority of the specialists, no matter if they come from the scientific field or from the economic practice consider that CSR opened a new

corporative social responsibility as being a phenomenon through which the companies decide in a voluntary manner to contribute to a better society and a clean environment. According to the definition given by the European Commission in order to be social respected a company must integrate in its actions and strategies the social and environment problems that are related to the interactions in which it is involved. From here it results that two are the distinctive traits of a corporative responsibility program. First of all RSC has a voluntary character, implying moral responsibility assumed by the companies, above the ones imposed by the law. Then CSR means the creation of relationships on long term and equally profitable with the market and social environment, so more than the simple act of philanthropy or donation. Although it implies costs, RSC is a profitable management strategy because it generates long term credibility and trust that are necessary to a company in the relationships with the ones that it depends on, respectively the shareholders, business partners, clients. The European intercession of CSR permits the operation of the notion of durable development between companies. In a practical sense, the term of societal responsibility is associated to the concept of “triplebottom-line”: economical prosperity, respecting the environment, respecting and improving social solidarity. The CSR practice is exposed to big debates and critics, idea that is supported by the large number of books, papers, articles, comments that are presently made on this theme. The phenomenon of social assumption of responsibility was supported since January 1999, at the Worldwide Economical Forum from Davos, when Koffi Annan showed in his speech the force of the collective action, through the Global Compact initiative, that promotes the growth of the role of the corporatist citizenship responsible through ten

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multiplication of wealth is made through global practice and strategies. In my opinion, in order to have motivation, any company has to analysis its availability for projects of social responsibility only after a strict diagnosis that takes into account one won economic result, through the determination of at least one of the vectors: • CSR effect on the volume of sales; • The modification of the market share; • The company’s image towards its clients and creditors; • The effect on return; • Costs savings; • Market evolution; • CSR’s effect on the employees’ behavior and efficiency. Also, I share other authors opinion according to which the concept of corporative social responsibility can be regarded as a part of the marketing politics, through which the company wants an increase of its reputation and the improvement of its image/brand in the given competitive context (the frequent association in mass-media of the company’s name with the name of a CSR project can be considered as a form of free publicity through which the economic entity becomes more well known, thus being preferred by the clients compared to a similar one that does not have such actions). Through the made analysis, other specialists consider that some companies have CSR programs under the form of hiring underprivileged staff (with handicap, institutionalized youngsters) not from a civic spirit but because of the advantages given by the public institutions, the giving of funds given by the state for social integration, to cover productivity loses. Other companies accept social responsibility because through charity actions, philanthropic ones, donations, “charity business” they benefit from fiscal advantages and tax deductions. The exemplification can continue in other fields. We must mention the fact that throughout this paper the author did not use names of companies, programs, initiatives

era and it represents a starting point for the creation of a new society, less egoistical, oriented towards the future and people. Far from me the desire to place the concept in a shadow but I believe that some aspects still raise question marks and that some questions have not received a clear answer. For example, in the majority of works I have read, special attention is given to the social, altruist spirit of the company towards what is around it, the people and the environment. On a secondary plan we see the correlation that is born on the “gestures” made by the company through the launching of some programs, between the efforts made and the obtained ones. The emphasis is placed on the typology and the description of the social programs with a lot of details and in a laser measure the fact that through these intercessions society really wants economic performance, profit, image, derogations or obtaining of rights, competitive advantages. In some measure, I share Milton Friedman’s opinion that remained famous through the conclusion according to which “the social responsibility of a company aims the increase of profit”. It is not very credible, at least from a personal point of view that a company, no matter its size and object of activity, takes into discussion the well fare of the humankind, durable development and it searches for solutions in this sense, and only then it makes efficiency accounts. Most of the studies shown by the companies consider CSR as a distinct filed in the practice of the commercial companies, and they analysis the results based on the activity reports that are afferent to each project, giving a minimal importance to the economic-financial results. I would conclude that the recommended transparency refers only to the way of making the objectives of the CSR program, not the impact it has on the commercial company. In the conditions of the actual market, as a financial analyst, I agree that no economical entity can obtain profit only from the basic activity and that the

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9. Knowledge and social responsibility phenomena must be always be monitored and managed elementary conditions of the economic game on a open market; 10. Corporative social responsibility is a reality of today’s world and an important premise of the business environment; 11. RSC is a way of establishing exemplary practices of creating wealth and of improving the qualitative and sustainable level of the society; 12. Through CSR any company has a contribution to the development of modern society on sustainability criteria; 13. CSR is an engagement through which any company assumes in a standard way the care for the environment, employees and the community; 14. CSR is a modern practice through which all the parties involved (stakeholders) have to win; 15. By adopting efficient ethical CSR programs, the companies can have multiple advantages: the diminishing of the costs, the improvement of the brand image, the stimulation and motivation of the employees, improving the chances to get to capital, the attraction of the customers, the increase of the business figures, the diminishing of the risks; 16. There is no legal framework to regulate the obligation of adopting the CSR by the commercial companies; 17. The adoption of coherent strategies in the field of RSC, based on integrity, solid values and a long term approach, give enterprises important commercial advantages and they contribute to the well fare of the civil society;

or organizations because of the vastness of information, the purpose was not to focus on CSR in certain fields, regions, objects of activity but the emphasis of the role and the necessity of implementing CSR, in a transparent and square manner. As a conclusion I could say that corporative social responsibility and the marketing of the parties involved in the process are a part of the classical commercial practices, used for a better sustain of the exploiting environment. Although they are presented as having benefic effects on the community and the environment, the real CSR objective is to maximize the company’s profit. This fact is not a negative one and it is another form of economic growth, on sustainable criteria. CONCLUSIONS: The analysis made throughout the research laid to the following conclusions: 1. Creativity and innovation must dominate the economical activity of any entity; 2. Corporative social responsibility is a form of knowledge that must obey the principles of organization’s management; 3. Corporative social responsibility is an important pawn of Knowledge management; 4. The lack of communication influences in a negative manner corporative social responsibility and Knowledge management; 5. A confused or passive management influences negatively the capacity of innovation and the intercessions regarding corporative social responsibility; 6. Knowledge management is in a interconnection with the corporative social responsibility; 7. Knowledge management and Corporative social responsibility are not only attributes of the companies, may they be local or multinational, but they are also. 8. The big consulting international centers consider that in order to attain important objectives “the un-measurable must become measurable”;

Bibliography: 1. Aggeri, Frank., Acqueir, Aurelian. La Théorie des Stakeholders Permet-elle de Rendre Compte des Pratiques d’Entreprise en Matière de RSE ?, XIVème Conf. Int. de Management Stratégique, Pays de la Loire, Angers, 2005.

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9. Phillips, Robert. “Stakeholder theory and organizational ethics, London: Berrett-Koehler, 2003. 10. Robert L. H., and Lan N. 2008, Corporate Social Responsibility, http://www.instituteforpr.org/essential_ knowledge/detail/corporate_social_resp onsibility/htm, 2010 11. Ronald, R. Sims. Ethics and Corporate Social Responsibility: Why Giants Fall, New York: Praeger Publishers, 2003 12. Van Tulder, R. International businesssociety management: linking corporate responsibility and globalization. London: Routledge, 2006. 13. AFNOR, 2 oct. 2008, 1ers États Généraux de la Responsabilité Sociétale. Colloque «ISO26000: une révolution silencieuse?», Paris, http://www.iso26000forum.com/ISO26000.pdf. 14. “Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises: une contribution des entreprises au développement durable” http://europa.eu/legislation_summaries/ employment_and_social_policy/employ ment_rights_and_work_organisation/n2 6034_fr.htm. 15. Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises: Guide de mise en oeuvre à l’intention des entreprises canadiennes, August 2010, http://www.ic.gc.ca/eic/site/csrrse.nsf/fra/rs00126.html

2. Batellier, Pierre., Rauffet, Emmanuel. Responsabilite Sociale de l’Entreprise, Montreal: Presses Internationales Polytechniques, 2008. 3. Beji-Becheur, Amina., Bensebaa, Faouzi. « Responsabilité Sociale de l'Entreprise: les Apports Prometteurs du Pragmatisme », XIVème Conf. Int. de Management Stratégique, Angers, 2005. 4. Bodet, Catherine., Lamarche, Thomas. La Responsabilité Sociale des Entreprises comme Innovation Institutionnelle. Une lecture régulationniste, Revue de la régulation, no. 1, juin, 2007. 5. Capron, Michelle., Quairel-Lanoizelle Francoise. Mythes et Réalités de l'Entreprise responsible, Paris: La Découverte, 2004 6. Crane, Andrew., Matten, Dirk., Spence, Laura. Corporate social responsibility: readings and Cases in a Global context., London: Rourledge, 2008. 7. Crane, Andrew. et al. (eds) , The Oxford Handbook of Corporate Social Responsibility, London: Oxford University Press, 2008. 8. Kotler, Phillip. and Lee, Nancy, Corporate social responsibility: doing the most good for your company and your cause, London: Wiley, 2005.

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COMPARISON ON OPEN SOURCE COLLABORATIVE PROJECT MANAGEMENT SOFTWARE Cosmin MARIN Ph.D., candidate, BSc, BA, PMP, Solution Director AAM Consulting [email protected] Abstract: Modern concepts, like team collaboration and project management, have to backed up by modern software tools, with economic efficiency. Keywords: Open Source, Collaborative, Project Management, Software

projects, a proliferation of project planning and collaboration tools is available in "the cloud", often at low or no cost, as open source. The Project and Portfolio Management Software market as a whole continues to support internal IT, new product development, professional services administration, and traditional architecture, engineering and construction environments. The market has matured extensively from project time and schedule support to the holistic management of IT, as well as business initiatives, resources and spending. Through the handling of more than 1,600 PPM-related inquiries in 2009, the Gartner PPM analysts observe many clients focused on enhancing the collaboration, communication and resulting portfolio-level reporting needed to gain first-line visibility into project demand, project status, resource capacity and utilization, and cost estimates versus actuals. The sweet spot primarily represents the communication and reporting improvements that need to be made between the project manager (the one responsible for managing and monitoring the work) and the project sponsor (the one asking for the work and responsible for justifying the need to have the work completed) [1]. Selected software Among hundreds of candidates existing on the Open Source and Commercial market, the first choice, supported by budgetary constraints, turned to Open Source software.

Introduction Context The study presented in this paper is a part of a larger project: “Sisteme colaborative pentru managementul proiectelor economice, contract 92100/2008, CNMP, Program 4-Parteneriate in domenii prioritare. Coordonator UBB Cluj-Napoca”. Scope The study included only 5 Open Source Collaborative Project Management Software. However, a summary analyses of the market – both on Open Source and Commercial areas – is presented below. Objectives Main objectives of this study are the following: • Present a comparison between selected software based on a structured methodological approach; • Recommend options for structural funds projects, for IT tools designed to support project management and collaboration between world wide spread team members. Market Analyses Market Overview Traditional project management tools have matured and become increasingly feature-rich. This perspective assumes that these products will maintain the natural growth course of tapping into the full population of users who need to manage some type of formal project work, including those who mostly manage their work via spreadsheets today. Also, for less-formal

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utility – in the conclusions this thesis was addressed more specific.

Following a research in the Open Source possible Collaborative Project Management Software, a sample of 5 representative items was extracted: 1. Endeavour Software Project Management 2. eGroupWare 3. Project.net 4. Project-Open 5. Redmine

Findings Endeavour Software Project Management Endeavour Software Project Management is a rich web-based Open Source solution to manage the creation of large-scale enterprise systems that use an iterative and incremental development process by providing administration for software process artifacts, reports and collaboration among stakeholders. Among its strengths we can count webbased independent development (can be used no matter the browser), strong collaborative tools, support for software development based on modern agile methodologies. Also several languages are available. The software has basic features like project management (planning, reporting, visualisation of Gantt Chart), document management, issue (actually defect) tracking. Among its weaknesses we can include no or minimum resource management, portfolio of projects management, but also the fact it is a relatively new software with small installed base. The documentation is not public and we can expect the support would be not too good.

Methodology Dimensions Each of the selected software were analysed from 7 dimensions angles: • • • • • • •

Collaborative software Issue tracking system Scheduling Project Portfolio Management Resource Management Document Management Web-based

Scoring scales and total score computation For every dimension described above, the software received a mark according to the a scale from 0 to 3. The meanings of the marks are the following: 0. Feature is missing or completely inadequate 1. Feature is present at minimum complexity 2. Feature offers good utility 3. Feature very rich The 7 marks were summarised for each software and weighted by 75%. Another mark – from 1 to 10 - was given for Easiness of Usage (including elements like stability of software, support and documentation, large pool of installed base, focus of supporting organisation for Open Source versus Commercial, etc). This mark was weighted by 25%. Then a final score was calculated. Nevertheless, we have to qualify our overall opinion with the fact that any software has a specific set of project or organisation types to which it brings highest

eGroupWare eGroupWare is a free open source groupware software intended for businesses from small to enterprises. Its primary functions allow users to manage contacts, appointments, projects and to-do lists. The development team is originated in Germany. Besides Open Source version, there is a commercial version (Premium Line). Among its strengths we can count very strong collaborative tools – basically the software has as a core function groupware features -, document management, multiple integrations possibilities, especially with email clients, advanced user management.

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employees. Covers ERP and CRM aspects as well as project planning, project tracking, etc. It is developed and maintained by a German and Spanish community and includes about 10 languages. Among its strengths we can count traditional project/portfolio management features like planning, issue tracking, resource management and reporting, Knowledge and Collaboration module, Financial Module but also IT Service Management or HR module. Among its weaknesses we can include minimum collaborative features and document management features.

The software has also added project management and HR functionalities like planning, task allocation and follow-up, resource management, timesheet management, budgeting. Also, the software offers 25 languages, is platform (i.e. operating system) independent and has a large customer base, with adequate support for the commercial version. Among its weaknesses we can include proper project management scheduling, issue tracking and portfolio tracking and reporting. Project.net Project.net is a collaborative project portfolio management tool designed for global organizations from different industries. It is a complete web-based enterprise project management application that helps companies plan, execute and deliver on their entire portfolio of projects. Project.net is the first Open Source PPM Application to be included in Gartner's: Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management (Appendix 2 includes an extract from Gartner’s report ID Number: G00200907). Among its strengths we can count modern collaborative – document sharing, document versioning, blog, wiki, Skype integration, discussion groups, automatic emailing, etc, and traditional project management features, including planning, scheduling, resource management, deliverables tracking, status reporting. However, in our scoring matrix we had to take into account that most of the above features are embrionary in the Community version – basic reports, minimum automatic functions, less friendly document sharing, etc. Among its weaknesses we included lack of issue tracking and the facts that only English is offered for installation and the dependency on Oracle database.

Redmine Redmine is free and open source software which provides integrated project management features, issue tracking, and support for multiple version control options. Redmine is cross-platform and crossdatabase. Among its strengths we can count support for Agile project management methodologies, collaborative features and multiple projects support. Also we can mention decent document management and a large number of languages are available. Among its weaknesses we can count lower level of functionalities offered for traditional project management - aspects like resource management, scheduling, reporting, and its pure Open Source support (lack of documentation and reliable support, considering also the atipical technology used). Conclusions Specific Conclusions Endeavour Software Project Management is an relatively new software addressed mostly to software development imitative. Although designed fully webbased and browser independent, it lacks many features required for a versatile Collaborative PPM software. eGroupWare is a enterprise ready groupware software for the company network, an organisation communication

Project-Open Project-open is a web-based project management system for service and consulting companies with 2-200

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• Low budget projects have a handy solution in Open Source free of charge family of products. However, advantages of such a solution have to be carefully weighted, considering many of them offer full set of features under commercial conditions. • While Endeavour Software Project Management and Redmine target mostly software development projects, eGroupWare is an groupware software (similar with MS Outlook) with added project management tools. • Project-open has most of the features of a collaborative project management software, but could be considered more as enterprise integrated software (like ERP/CRM). • Project.net, despite its Community version drawbacks , seems to be the most appropriate solution for Collaborative Project/Portfolio Management.

server accessible from any place on the world and using any type of device, including PDA. Although it includes many project management and CRM features, we consider the software more suited for operations. Also we consider that Community version might not be stable and versatile enough. Project.net is a software for project portfolio management best for start-up companies, IT, and enterprises that require a detailed project management option for their software. Considering that a large community of more than 50000 users backups the organisation and the intensive usage of the Project.net in the academic environment in USA, makes it one of the best choice for Collaborative Project Management tool for similar projects. Project-open has a modular design and it is very scalable. Although its project management features are well represented, due to its lateral development in ERP / CRM / ITSM areas, we consider the software more appropriate for middle to large organisations and not for collaborative project management purposes. Also we consider that Community version does not benefit the extended professional services provided by proprietary organisation. Redmine is a good choice for less demanding project organisations. Having extended collaborative features it is mostly adequate for spread software development teams. General Conclusions Software products are very unique considering features, platform, target customers, support. The measurement of capability of a software is also a very subjective endeavor. The scoring matrix is included in Appendix 1. Within the framework of the study presented in this paper, I can conclude with several general statements: • Before choosing a software, one should carefully define the requirements, which might be business requirements in case of an enterprise or specific short time requirements in case of a project.

1.

2. 3.

4.

5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

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Bibliography: Daniel B. Stang, „Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management”, Gartner RAS Core Research Note G00200907 Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Compariso n_of_project_management_software Ronda Levine, “Top 10 Free Project Management Software Applications”, http://www.brighthub.com/office/projec t-management/articles/84947.aspx Michele McDonough, „]project-open[ Review: The Latest in Open-Source PM Software”,http://www.brighthub.com/of fice/projectmanagement/reviews/54701.aspx Home Page, http://endeavourmgmt.sourceforge.net Home Page, http://www.egroupware.org Home Page, http://www.project.net Home Page, http:// www.projectopen.org Home Page, http:// www.redmine.org

APPENDIX 1 – SCORING MATRIX SOFTWARE

Collaborative software

Issue tracking system

Scheduling

Project Portfolio Management

Resource Management

Document Management

Webbased

TOTAL1

Endeavour Software Project Management

1

1

2

0

1

1

3

9

eGroupWare

3

0

1

1

2

3

3

13

Project.net

2

0

1

3

2

2

3

13

Project-Open

1

2

2

2

2

1

3

13

Redmine

2

2

0

2

0

1

3

10

Table 1: Scoring for 7 dimensions SOFTWARE

TOTAL 1

WEIGHTED 75%

TOTAL 2 (Ease of Usage)

WEIGHTED 25%

GRAND TOTAL

Endeavour Software Project Management

9

6.75

2

0.50

7.25

eGroupWare

13

9.75

5

1.25

11.00

Project.net

13

9.75

8

2.00

11.75

Project-Open

13

9.75

6

1.50

11.25

Redmine

10

7.50

4

1.00

8.50

Table 2: Grand Total computation APPENDIX 2 – GARTNER MAGIC QUADRANT

Figure 1: Magic Quadrant for IT Project and Portfolio Management Source: Gartner (June 2010)

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A METHOD FOR SEMANTIC WEB SERVICE COMPOSITION BASED ON PATTERN MATCHING Andrei-Horia MOGOS Adina Magda FLOREA Teaching assistant, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers [email protected] Ph.D., professor, University Politehnica of Bucharest, Faculty of Automatic Control and Computers [email protected] Abstract: The composition of semantic web services is a very important and actual problem in the semantic web services research area. There are several semi-automatic approaches for this problem, but most of the results are related to automatic approaches. In this paper we present an automatic approach for the composition of semantic web services based on pattern matching. We consider a special type of semantic description, represented as a list of semantic descriptions corresponding to several semantic web services. The semantic description related to the semantic web service that we want to obtain is decomposed until all the parts of the semantic description correspond to semantic web services from a library. In the end, all the necessary semantic web services found in the library are composed in order to obtain the semantic web service that we wanted to construct. Keywords: semantic web service composition, semantic description decomposition, pattern matching

research area. There are several semiautomatic approaches for this problem (see, for example, [11]), but most of the results are related to automatic approaches. Some of the main techniques used for automatic semantic web service composition are the following: AI planning (see, for example, [6], [4], [8]), multi-agents systems (see, for example, [5]), logic languages (see, for example, [9]), rules (see, for example, [10]). In this paper we present a semantic web service composition approach based on pattern matching. Given a semantic description, in the form of a list of semantic descriptions that correspond to several semantic web services from library of semantic web services, we want to create a new, composed semantic web service, that correspond to the initial semantic description, using semantic web services from the library; this objective is achieved using the decomposition of the initial semantic description. We analyze several possible structures of the initial semantic description and we present a decomposition algorithm and a software system for solving the problem. The basic idea is to find similar patterns in the initial semantic

1. INTRODUCTION Web services and the Semantic Web are two of the most important technologies of the computer science research area. In [12], we have the following definition for a web service: “A Web service is a software system designed to support interoperable machine-to-machine interaction over a network”. The Semantic Web is a machinereadable and machine-processable web. As stated in [1], “the Semantic Web is not a separate Web but an extension of the current one, in which information is given well-defined meaning, better enabling computers and people to work in cooperation”. Semantic web services bring together the two technologies presented above: web services and the Semantic Web. Semantic web services are web services with a formal semantic description [7]. Using this type of semantic descriptions several important operations over web services can become automate: discovery, selection, composition, and invocation of services [7]. The composition of semantic web services is a very important and actual problem in the semantic web services 179

quality) from several semantic web services with the same semantic description.

description and to use them to facilitate an efficient solving of the problem. The paper is organized as follows. Section 2, contains the description of the problem that we want to solve. In Section 3, we discuss about the pattern matching problem, we give some examples of algorithms for solving this problem, and then we present the Boyer-Moore algorithm for pattern matching. In Section 4, we describe the decomposition method for the semantic description of a semantic web service. In Section 5, we present the structure of our software system. Section 6 contains the conclusions and some future work.

3. PATTERN MATCHING ALGORITHMS: THE BOYERMOORE ALGORITHM String matching (or pattern matching) represents the following problem [3]: given a string (generally, called pattern) and a text, we must find an occurrence, or more generally, all the occurrences of the string in the text; the length of the pattern is m and the length of the text is n. The pattern and the text use the same finite alphabet whose size is a. There are many algorithms for this problem [3], for example: Karp-Rabin algorithm, Shift Or algorithm, KnuthMorris-Pratt algorithm, Galil-Giancarlo algorithm, Colussi algorithm, Boyer-Moore algorithm, Horspool algorithm, Quick Search algorithm, Two Way algorithm, Optimal Mismatch algorithm, Maximal shift algorithm, Alpha Skip Search algorithm. As stated in [3], “the Boyer-Moore algorithm is considered as the most efficient string-matching algorithm in usual applications”. The original Boyer-Moore algorithm was presented in [2]. Next, we present a short description of the Boyer-Moore algorithm, as presented in [3]: the algorithm aligns the left end of the pattern and the left end of the text and compares the characters of the pattern and the characters of the text from right to left. When the algorithm meets a mismatch or a complete match of the pattern in the text then the pattern is moved to the right using two pre-computed functions: good-suffix shift and bad-character shift. The Boyer-Moore algorithm consists in two phases: the preprocessing phase and the searching phase. During the preprocessing phase the two functions are pre-computed in time O(m+a). The searching phase has a time complexity of O(mn), but the algorithm makes at most 3n text character comparisons for a non periodic

2. THE PROBLEM DESCRIPTION Consider that we have the semantic description SD of a semantic web service S and a library of semantic web services, called the SWS Library. The semantic description SD has the following form: SD = SD1 SD2 ... SDn , where SD1 , SD2 , ..., SDn are semantic descriptions corresponding to several semantic web services from the SWS Library. The semantic web services from the SWS Library will be called elementary semantic web services and their corresponding semantic descriptions will be called elementary semantic descriptions. We want to construct the semantic web service S that corresponds to the semantic description SD using semantic web services from the SWS Library. The semantic web service S will be the result of the composition of several elementary semantic web services. We consider that the SWS Library can contain several elementary semantic web services that correspond to the same elementary semantic description. Each elementary semantic web service has a coefficient of quality. We are not interested about how this coefficient may be increased or decreased. This coefficient was introduced only for helping the software system to choose a semantic web service (the one with the highest coefficient of

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pattern. The best performance of the algorithm is O(n/m).

solution for each situation. In the end, we present the main algorithm that describes the decomposition method of a semantic description.

4. THE DECOMPOSITION METHOD In this section we discuss about the decomposition method that will be used by our software system in order to obtain the semantic web service S that corresponds to the initial semantic description SD. We analyze several possible structures of the semantic description SD and propose a

Several possible situations a) The initial semantic description contains only once each semantic description corresponding to an elementary semantic web service. The formal description for the semantic description SD is the following:

SD = SD1 SD2 ... SDn , where ∃/ i, j ∈ {1, 2, ..., n} such that SDi = SD j In this situation, the semantic description SD is decomposed into the following semantic descriptions: SD1 , SD2 , ..., SDn . For each such semantic description the system will search into the SWS Library for a corresponding elementary semantic web service. Consider that the algorithm that corresponds to this type of decomposition is called DecompositionMethod1. After the decomposition process, during the searching process, the system must perform n searches into the SWS Library.

(1)

Next, we present a simple example, where each elementary semantic description is represented by a character: - let be SD = a b c d - the result of the decomposition is: a, b, c, d b) The initial semantic description SD contains elementary semantic descriptions with multiple occurrences in SD, but there are no sequences of elementary semantic descriptions with multiple occurrences in SD. The formal description for the semantic description SD is the following:

SD = SD1 SD2 ... SDn , where ∃ i, j ∈ {1, 2, ..., n} such that SDi = SD j , but ∃/ i1 , i2 , j1 , j2 ∈ {1, 2, ..., n}, with i1 < i2 < j1 < j2 , i2 − i1 = j2 − j1

(2)

such that SDi1 ... SDi2 = SD j1 ... SD j2

system must perform k searches into the SWS Library. Next, we present a simple example, where each elementary semantic description is represented by a character: - let be SD = a b c a d c e - the result of the decomposition is: a, b, c, d , e c) The initial semantic description SD contains sequences of elementary semantic descriptions with multiple occurrences in SD. The formal description for the semantic description SD is the following:

In this situation, the semantic description SD is decomposed into the following semantic descriptions: SDi1 , SDi2 , ..., SDik , with k < n where these

semantic descriptions are all the different elementary semantic descriptions from SD. We consider that the algorithm that corresponds to this type of decomposition is called DecompositionMethod2. After the decomposition process, during the searching process, when an elementary semantic web service is found in the SWS Library that service is put into the Auxiliary SWS Library. In this case, the

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SD = SD1 SD2 ... SDn , where ∃i1 , i2 , j1 , j2 ∈ {1, 2, ..., n}, with i1 < i2 < j1 < j2 , i2 − i1 = j2 − j1

(3)

such that SDi1 ... SDi2 = SD j1 ... SD j2

into the Auxiliary SWS Library. We observe that there can be semantic web services in the Auxiliary SWS Library that ( SDi SDi ... SDi ), ( SD j SD j ... SD j ), ... ( SDl SDl ... SDl ) correspond to sequences of length 1. We also observe that, in this situation, new with p + q + ... + r < n where these semantic web services will be created, by sequences of semantic descriptions are all composing the elementary semantic web the different sequences of semantic services that correspond to the elementary descriptions with no common indexes from semantic descriptions from some SD. In this decomposition we consider that sequences. we can have sequences with at least one Next, we present a simple example, elementary semantic description. In this where each elementary semantic case, the system must perform at most description is represented by a character: p + q + ... + r searches into the SWS - let be SD = a b c a b a d e a b c a b f d e Library. We consider that the algorithm - the result of the decomposition is: that corresponds to this type of (a b c a b), a, (d e), f decomposition is called DecompositionMethod3. The main decomposition method After the decomposition process, during the searching process, when a semantic The main decomposition method is the web service that corresponds to a sequence following: from the decomposition is constructed using elementary semantic web services from the SWS Library, that service is put

In this situation, the semantic description SD is decomposed into the following semantic descriptions: 1

2

p

1

2

q

1

2

r

1: DecompositionMethod(SD) { 2: Type = getDecompositionType(SD) 3: Decomp = applyDecompositionMethod(SD, Type) 4: for-each D in Decomp { 5: if length(D) > 1 { 6: AuxDecomp = DecompositionMethod(D) 7: update(Decomp, AuxDecomp) }} 8: return Decomp } pattern matching problems that have to be solved during the decomposition process, the Boyer-Moore algorithm is used. One can observe that if the current situation is c) and consequently DecompositionMethod3 is applied, a recursive decomposition process is necessary (see, lines 5-7 from the algorithm).

The function ‘getDecompositionType’ analyzes the semantic description SD for finding the decomposition method that corresponds to the current situation: DecompositionMethod1, DecompositionMethod2 or DecompositionMethod3. After that, the appropriate decomposition method is applied for decomposing the semantic description SD using the function ‘applyDecompositionMethod’. For all the

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5. THE SOFTWARE SYSTEM

The structure of our software system is presented in Figure 1. Decomposition Agent

SD Main Agent

SWS Library

Pattern Matching Agent

Searching Agent Auxiliary SWS Library

CD Composition Agent Figure 1: The system structure

The Main Agent receives a semantic description SD and returns the complete description CD of a semantic web service that corresponds to that semantic description. This complete description contains all the necessary information to access that semantic web service. The Decomposition Agent uses the algorithm presented in the previous section and decomposes the semantic description SD received from the Main Agent. The Composition Agent composes all the semantic web services corresponding to a decomposition in order to create a composed new semantic web service. In the end, this agent will send to the Main Agent the complete description of the semantic web service that corresponds to the semantic description SD. The Composition Agent puts into the Auxiliary SWS Library the semantic web services that it creates during the composition process. The Searching Agent searches for semantic web services into the two semantic web services libraries and consequently helps the Composition Agent during the composition process. The Pattern Matching Agent uses the Boyer-Moore algorithm for solving all the pattern matching problems sent by the Decomposition Agent, by the Composition Agent and by the Searching Agent.

6. CONCLUSIONS

This paper presents a composition method for semantic web services based on pattern matching. The goal is to obtain a composed, new semantic web service that corresponds to a semantic description, using the elementary semantic web services from a library. When the semantic web services library contains many semantic web services, the search for a semantic web service can be a very difficult task in terms of the necessary computational resources. The main advantage of the proposed method is that it minimizes the number of searches, analyzing the structure of the initial semantic description. The method is very useful when some of the elementary semantic descriptions that compose the initial semantic description SD have multiple occurrences in SD. The best performances are obtained when the number of these occurrences is high. The initial semantic description used in this paper is represented as a list of elementary semantic descriptions. As a future work, we want to analyze the properties of a more general semantic description, in order to create a method that

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will cover a higher number of semantic web service composition cases.

Intelligence (AAAI-07), 22-26 July 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, vol. 2, pages 1383-1388 8. Lin, Naiwen and Kuter, Ugur and Sirin, Evren. Web Service Composition with User Preferences, in Proceedings of the 5th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2008), Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain, 1-5 June 2008, pages 629-643 9. McIlraith, Sheila and Son, Tran Cao. Adapting Golog for Composition of Semantic Web Services, in Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Knowledge Representation and Reasoning (KR 2002), 22-25 April 2002, Toulouse, France, pages 482-493 10. Meditskos, Georgios and Bassiliades, Nick. A Semantic Web Service Discovery and Composition Prototype Framework Using Production Rules, in Proceedings of OWL-S: Experiences and Directions Workshop in conjunction with the 4th European Semantic Web Conference (ESWC 2007), 3-7 June 2007, Innsbruck, Austria 11. Sirin, Evren and Hendler, James and Semi-automatic Parsia, Bijan. Composition of Web Services using Semantic Descriptions, in Proceedings of Web Services: Modeling, Architecture and Infrastructure Workshop in conjunction with the 5th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems (ICEIS 2003), 2326 April 2003, Angers, France 12. Web Service Architecture W3C Working Group: “Web Services Architecture”, February 2004, http://www.w3.org/TR/ws-arch/

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

1. Berners-Lee, Tim and Hendler, James and Lassila, Ora. The Semantic Web, Scientific American, May 2001 2. Boyer, Robert Stephen and Moore, J Strother. A fast string searching algorithm, Communications of the ACM, vol. 20, 1977, pages 762-772 3. Charras, Christian and Lecroq, Thierry. Exact String Matching Algorithms, http://www-igm.univmlv.fr/~lecroq/string/ 4. Hoffmann, Jörg and Bertoli, Piergiorgio and Pistore, Marco. Web Service Composition as Planning, Revisited: In Between Background Theories and Initial State Uncertainty, in Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Artificial Intelligence (AAAI-07), 22-26 July 2007, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, vol. 2, pages 1013-1018 5. Kumar, Sandeep and Mishra, Ravi Bhusan. Multi-Agent Based Semantic Web Service Composition Models, in Journal of Computer Science, Infocomp, 2008, vol. 7, iss. 3, pages 42-51 6. Lécué, Freddy and Léger, Alain. A formal model for semantic Web service composition, in Proceedings of the 5th International Semantic Web Conference (ISWC 2006), November 2006, Athens, GA, USA, pages 385-398 7. Lécué, Freddy and Delteil, Alexandre. Making the Difference in Semantic Web Service Composition, in Proceedings of the 22nd Conference on Artificial

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DEVELOPING STEP BY STEP AN ONTOLOGY TO SUPPORT HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Anamaria SZEKELY MSc. Student Babes Bolyai University, Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration [email protected] Abstract: Human Resources Management is aimed at ensuring all activities, development, motivation and retention of human resources within the organization to achieve its objectives with maximum efficiency and meet the needs of employees. Because the current economy is dominating by information and technology, the managers of an organization need concise and structured information to cope with problems arising in the activity they lead. The same is happening in the department of human resources, management requires structured and concise information about the employees, activities, processes, tasks, etc. in order to properly manage the entire human resources management. This paper argues for the development of an effective ontology to manage the human resources existing in an IT company. Keywords: human resource management, ontology, ontology web language

common vocabulary that facilitates communication among human resource workers, managers, and also can be used to develop related human resource software’s or decision-support systems. The next section of the paper contains a theoretical overview of human resources and ontologies. The third section will present the problem statement while section four will introduce the proposed design for the ontology, followed by the presentation of implementation details. And the latest sections include discussions about evaluation, the conclusions and future work of this paper.

Introduction The Web is not more limited to a collection of documents of various formats, in time the Semantic Web appeared, and extended the capabilities of the Web known by that time. Semantic Web has emerged as a necessity in order to add semantic to information available on the Web. Now, in the information age, data presented on the web must be connected, to offer users more precise information. But the Semantic Web is at the beginning and the computer cannot yet understand the meaning of data; it is a skill specific to human beings. For example, if a person seeks information on a search engine about the U.S. state Georgia, the search engine will return results about the Eurasian country Georgia, because the search engine cannot make the difference between them. The current web has very little metadata and no means to encode semantics. The Semantic Web idea is not only to furnish linked documents to each other but also to recognize the semantic of the information in those documents and to provide connected data. [2] In an IT organization, the connection of data held by the company, and the semantic modeling of knowledge held about human resources can be achieved by developing a specific ontology. So, the purpose of this study is to develop an effective ontology which can be used as a

Problem context Human Resources Management is aimed at ensuring all activities, development, motivation and retention of human resources within the organization to achieve its objectives with maximum efficiency and meet the needs of employees. Currently, organizations are giving more attention to human capital to facilitate a smooth economic development, because the human resources provide the necessary know-how. Human resources management refers to the efficient use of human resources to improve organizational performance. [1] An ontology is a conceptualization of a domain, it’s a way of representing the knowledge held by a company in a specific

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can be merged with other existing ontologies, resulting in a different ontology. OWL is an standard promoted by Word Wide Web Consortium (W3C) and is based on Description Logic (DL). DL is a “logicbased knowledge representation formalism designed to represent and reason about the knowledge of an application domain in a structured and well-understood way”. (10) The basic notions in DLs are concepts and roles, which denote sets of objects and binary relations, respectively. Complex concept expressions and role expressions are formed by starting from a set of atomic concepts and atomic roles. DLs are equipped with a formal, logic-based semantics. Such well-defined semantics and implemented powerful reasoning tools make DLs ideal candidates for ontology languages. [5] One off the real advantages of using an ontology language representation, such as OWL, is represented by the ability of access generic reasoning tools. Our ontology will provide such a mechanism and will offer the possibility to sharing, reusing, enhancing and modifying the knowledge held by the ontology knowledge base. Therefore, this study is focused on the development of an ontology, which will offer a common vocabulary in the human resource management of an IT organization, and will provide a formal model of the researched domain.

domain, i.e. our case: the human resource management. More specifically, an ontology describes the concepts of a specific area of interest and the relationships between this concepts. Some ontologies in human resource management domain were found [4, 7, and 9]. For example was found an ontology [4] developed for an Employment Service, which presents an approach for reusing existing human resource management standards and another similar ontology [9] presents the idea of integrating management competencies and offering learning opportunities for workers. Another ontology in human resource management focus on the development of an ontology based Competence Management System for an IT organization. Our proposed model is different from those just mentioned. Problem Statement Developing an ontology to support human resource management for an IT company, means to define the basic concepts, knowledge occurred in the applied field. Then the ontology can be used in many different ways to analyze and reason upon the domain. But, the ontology has to be represented in a formal language, and for this ontology the formal language chosen was Web Ontology Language (OWL). OWL is a semantic web technology which is builds on RDF and RDF Schema (RDFS). RDF is designed to process metadata, providing interoperability for different applications. RDF statements are represented as triples, consisting of a subject, predicate and object. RDF uses XML to represent metadata syntactic. RDFS provides a basic relational language for the ontology. [8] Representing knowledge by ontology assume that the word is formed by concepts, which are represented with a Unique Resource Identifier (URI), a set of attributes, and relationships to other concepts. Then the developed ontologies

Design and Implementation Details Ontologies can be developed using specialized tools. In general, an ontology editor supports the definition of concepts, attributes, relations and the creation of class hierarchy. In our case, was elected the Protégé-OWL editor, that provides a graphical user interface and comply with existing standards for Web software development. Protégé-OWL enables the creation, the development, the modification, the visualization, the coding, and the querying of the ontologies. Protégé-OWL includes reasoners (inference mechanisms) which helps the user to design, maintain

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• Department, class that contains the departments of the company; • Education, class that contains the • Job, a class that contains all the available jobs in the company; • Project, an entity that include all the projects of an IT company based on project working; • Skill, contains the major skills needed for the company jobs; • Task, an entity that includes the related tasks for a job or a person; • Responsibility, a concept that contains employees responsibilities; A job is a collection of tasks and responsibilities that an employee is responsible to conduct. Although at first glance we might be tempted to define the classes Task and Responsibility, as subclasses of class Job, they are actually just parts of the concept of Job. The entire concepts mentioned above are subclasses of the class ‘Thing’ (Figure 1.), which is part of the OWL Vocabulary and is defined at http://www.w3.org/2002/07/owl#Thing. The class Thing contains all the individuals of the ontology.

and deploy the created ontology. The reasoner verifies the consistency of the ontology and makes inferences for identifying subsumption relationships between defined classes. [3] The current economy is forcing organizations to structure their knowledge more effectively to cope with competition on the market. Knowledge and information in the field of human resources must be managed properly, because these resources provide the largest value of manufactured products. And in IT, this is indispensable. For this reason, the proposed ontology, will try to cover the important concepts of this domain. Therefore our ontology development approach will contain the following basic concepts: • Person, an entity that includes all individuals who come into contact with the organization, for example, candidates for a job, unemployed persons and the employees; • Activity, group the main project activities; • Employee, a subclass of Person, is a concept that gathers all the persons which work in the organization;

Figure 1: - The class Thing and it subclasses The conceptualization phase of developing the ontology contains besides the defining concepts / entities required for the ontology, the relationships existing between

this concepts (properties) and their restrictions. For managing the relationships between a Project, Activity, Project Manager, Employee and Testing (Figure 2), were

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defined the following properties: isPartOf and its inverse property hasComponent, hasEmployee and its inverses worksIn and

hasJob, which are equivalent properties, hasAssignedA, which is a symmetric property, hasResponsability and hasTask.

Figure 2: Relationships between concepts Project, Project_Manager, Employee, Activity and Testing indicate the instances of the class. The properties hasTask and hasResponsability were used to assign the necessary testing tasks and testing responsabilities to the testing activity of a project. It’s important to mention that restrictions in Owl give rise to anonymous superclasses of the class that is being described. For example the restriction, worksIn some (Department or Project) refer to all the individuals which work in a company department or project. The class testing is like Project a defined class, if an individual is a subclass of activity, has tasks: make tests, identify scenarios, stimulate load, analyze results and write test cases, and has the responsibility to assist in the testing of technological solution, then we can say that the individual is an instance of the class Testing. For this ontology were also defined data properties like hasBirthDate, hasEmail, hasPhoneNumber, hasNationality, has Address, hasStaredIn, hasExperienceInCompany etc, which

The object property isPartOf, is used to specify that an Activity is part of a Project, more specifically a Project is composed by many activities, as shown by the inverse property. For Employee class was defined a existential restriction on the property worksIn, which specify that is necessary for an employee to work at least in one department or in a project: worksIn some (Department or Project) and to restrict the Project class were used the restrictions: hasEmployee some Employee and hasAssignedA exactly 1 Project_Manger; the second restriction, is a cardinality restriction which restrict the class Project to have just one Project Manager. The Project class was converted to a defined class, which means that those conditions are necessary and sufficient for assign an individual to this class if full fit these restrictions. The class Activity contains several activities, Testing is one of them. Between this concepts is used a build-in property ‘has subclass’, because Testing is a subclass of Activity. Another used buildin property is ‘has individual’, which 188

facilitate the keep of employees most personal data. A big advantage that Owl offers to ontologies is the use of the reasoner which

makes inferences to obtain new knowledge. For example Figure 3 and Figure 4 show the functionality of the Protégé inference engine.

Figure 3: Project Manager Class Description

Figure 4: Example of how Protégé reasoner works

In Figure 3 can be view the result of the reasoned inference. The inference engine used the project manager class description and the restrictions defined for the individual, and concluded that the individual Cristea_Elena is a project manager. .

The Protégé-OWL allows querying the ontologies. For example if a manager wants to talk to an experimented Java employee programmer (with an experience grater that 2 years), which assist in the coding of a system, the ontology can provide an individual name (this was selected) quickly

Figure 5: Example of querying the ontology stage. A possible evaluation is to compare the proposed ontology against a similar one, but a similar shared ontology was not

Evaluation Evaluation of human resource management ontology is a quite difficult

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ontology model for the representation of human resources management knowledge that can be used to develop different applications to advise managers on human resources. The development life cycle of ontology is a cyclic one, thus the ontology can be reviewed and redefined to improve it continually. Other direction that can be investigated in future research is the integration of the ontology with another similar ontologies or standards, for increase the coverage area of the assumed domain.

found. In the conceptualization phase was tried to identify as much as possible concepts to cover as much as possible the addressed domain. The usage of an OWL ontology offers a lot of advantages. Our proposed ontology has also a lot of advantages, from the use of OWL language: provide a common vocabulary for an IT human resource management, allows the sharing of knowledge, provide querying support for retrieving relevant information’s, represent and organize the knowledge base of the organization, but also has other advantages: provides structured and concise information about employees, activities, tasks, skills, responsibilities, jobs, etc., facilitates communication among human resource workers and managers, and also can be used as an infrastructure to develop related human resource software’s or decision-support systems. The proposed ontology has also a few limitations due to OWL formalization language, which is not recommended for complex software problems, is limited to a number of triples, and the classification process of the reasoner can take even hours if the ontology is bushy.

Acknowledgment This work was supported by ANCSCNMP, project number PNII – 91037/2007. Bibliography: 1. Cornescu, Viorel, Marinescu, Paul, Curteanu, Doru and Toma, Sorin. Managementul Resurselor Umane. Bucharest: University of Bucharest, 2004. 2. Frauenfelder, Mark. “A Smarter Web.”MIT Technology Review (November, 2001). 3. Horridge, Matthew, Jupp, Simon, Moulton, Georgina, Rector, Alan, Stevens, Robert and Wroe, Chris. A Practical Guide To Building OWL Ontologies Using Protege 4 and COODE Tools. The University Of Manchester, 2004 4. Gómez-Pérez, Asuncion, Ramírez James and Villazón-Terrazas Boris. An Ontology for Modelling Human Resources Management based on standards. Osaka Institute of Technology and Setsuan University, Vietri Sul Mare, 2007. 5. Klenzerini, Maurizio, Milano, Diego, and Poggi, Antonella . Ontology Representation and Reasoning. Roma: http://www.dsi.uniroma1.it/~estrinfo/1 %20Ontology%20representation.pdf 6. McNamara, Carter. Employee Task and Job Analysis.

Conclusions The current economy is based on information and therefore it’s important to have this information’s well structured. Nowadays, human resource drives the value of products. IT human resource ontology means: conceptualization of the domain and a way of representing the organizational knowledge related to human resources. The purpose of this study was to develop an effective ontology which can be used as a common vocabulary that facilitates communication among human resource workers, managers, and also can be used to develop related human resource software’s or decision-support systems. Using the Protégé-OWL editor, this goal was achieved, was developed an

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http://managementhelp.org/staffing/sp ecify/job_nlyz/job_nlyz.htm 7. Niculescu, Cristina and Trausan-Matu, Stefan. An Ontology-centered Approach for Designing an Interactive Competence Management System for IT Companies. Informatica Economică, vol. 13, no. 4/2009 8. Pollock, Jeffrey. T. Semantic Web for Dummies. Wiley Publishing, Indianapolis, 2009 9. Schmidt, Andreas and Kunzmann, Christine. Sustainable Competency-

Oriented Human Resource Development with Ontology-Based Competency Catalogs Ontology-based Competence Management for Healthcare, 2007 10. Tessaris, Sergio, Franconi Enrico, and Eiter Thomas. Reasoning Web. Semantic Technologies for Information Systems, 5th International Su 2009, Brixen-Bressanone, Italy, August 30 - September 4, 2009, Tutorial Lectures. Germany: Springer, 2009

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THE BASIC VERSION OF THE CONTENT COMPOSITION AND FUNCTIONING OF THE UNITARY INFORMATION INFORMATIVE ECONOMIC FUND (U.IL.IV.E.F) Tudor LEAHU Ph.D., professor, Cooperative Trade University of Moldova, Chisinau [email protected] Abstract: From on the functional content positions is elucidated a basic version of the composition and functioning of the unitary information informative economic fund (U.Il.Iv.E.F.) of the economic unitary (E.U.), are’nt elaborated the scheme of the correspondence and insertion of the management and information (functional, decisional, informative) units and the scheme of the orientations of the forming, interconnections and interactions of the information of the this fund. Key-words: basic version, content composition, functioning, unitary information informative economic fund (U.Il.Iv.E.F.) of the economic unit (E.U.).

substratum of the U.E.K.Bs. it is necessary organize in the form of the U.Il.Iv.E.F., but in the aspect of it informatic realization – in the form of the U.E.Iv.D.Bs. From the motivs of negligence and even ignorance towards elaborative activities, predominant is given especial attention to programming and technology, arrive to the situation, when, compared by them, the level of the theoretical examination and practical realization of the theoretical examination and practical realization of the informatic organization of information informative economic resources (Il.Iv.E.R.) is enough low. In consequence, dont was a success and are extremely problematic the creation and functioning a such form, but conceptually U.Il.Iv.E.F. is considered not more then the illusory aspiration of materialize in adequate reality and of improvement of organization of Il.Iv.E.R. Apart subjective, create situation primarly is caused and of the series of objective factors, among which decisive are’nt the excessive variety, considerable number, immense spatial and temporal scales of the functioning of the resources, objects, objectives and activities of the economic units (E.U.) As a result-up to now is not elaborated on the scientific basis the unitary system of the economic information (U.S.E.I.) and organized it real functioning. Out of the context of the formed circumstances becomeny the problem to elucidate the U.Il.Iv.E.F. not only on the

Content In the source [1]-[3] has been established what the informational compartment (Il.C.) of the unitary process of economic leadership (Pu.e.l.) includes in its composition two subcompartmentsprogrammatic (P.Sc.) and information (Il.Sc.), the last consisting from the unitary economic knowledge base (U.E.K.Bs.) and unitary economic informative database (U.E.Iv.D.Bs.). Also, was just going to demonstrated that fact what the latter formed the foundation of the Il.C., as only after analysis of the values of the obtained information informative products within the framework of her and in accordance with the results of this analysis perhaps formulated and accepted the values of the information decisional products of the U.E.K.Bs. Simultaneously, in [3] was just going to confirmed that phenomen, in accordance with which at the moment, in the final of the evolution of the various forms of the organization and functioning of the informative economic information (Iv.E.In.), the informatic theory and practice more insistent require the necessity of the elaboration, implantation and putting into operation of the one unitary information integrated nucleus in the form of the unitary information informative economic fund (U.Il.Iv.E.F.) of the economic unit (E.U.). Consequently, in the functional (external) aspect, the content of the informativ

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conceptual positions of it composition, structure and functioning, but and from the point of view of theirs concrete content. For these reasons is establishing what the content composition of the oneself fund is derivative of the composition of that category of the U.E.K.Bs., but the last-from the composition of resources, objects, processes and goals of theirs functioning. From the indicated interpretation, the correspondence between managerial and informational (functional, decisional and informativ) units are presented in fig. 1 (in the growth order). sis. Also, in [3], on the level of economic informativ information subsystems has been established the consistency of functioning of E.Iv.S., according to the which the chain them realization has two variants: variant 1 – the initiating case of the material economic activities: N.R. → P.R. Managerial units 4)E.Mg.S. => ↑↑ 3) E.Mg.F. => ↑↑ 2) E.Mg.C.P. => ↑↑ 1) E.Mg.S.P. =>

→ C.P. → O.P. → O.E. → B. → S. → S. → O.E.A. → C.E.A. (subsystems of: N.R. – normation and regulation, PR.– prognostication, C.P.–current planning, O.P.–operative planning, P.E. – primary evidence, O.E. – operative evidence, B. – book-keeping, S. –statistics; O.E.A.operative economic analysis, C.E.A.current economic analysis ) Variant 2 – the functioning case of the material economic activities: E.O.A. → E.C.A. → PR .→ C.P. →O.P. → P.E. → O.E. → B.→ S. As each of elucidated informative subsystems ensure the evolution of the managerial function with so mach the name, them information are organized under form of the flows – the only structural dinamic units of the content . In given context

functional

Information units decisional

E. S. In. => ↑↑ E. SS. In. => ↑↑ E. C. In. => ↑↑ E. M. In. =>

E. D. S. => ↑↑ E. D. SS. => ↑↑ E. D. C. => ↑↑ E. P.D. =>

informativ E. Iv. S. ↑↑ E.Iv.SS. ↑↑ E. Iv.C. ↑↑ E.Iv.Ind.

Figure 1: The scheme of the correspondence of the increasing formation of managerial and information (functional, decisional and informative) units. economic decision subsystem; E. D. C. economic decision complex; E.P.D. economic particular decision; d)economic informative units: E.Iv.S.-economic informative system; E.Iv.SS.- economic informative subsystem; E.Iv.C.- economic informative colection; E.I.Ind.- economic informative indicator; the functioning of the U.Il.Iv.E.F. can be presented in the form of the scheme of the direction of succession of the moving of the such flows, as well and processing and position of each of them in the unitary process of transformation of the values of theirs componets.

In figure 1 are admited the followings conventional indentifiers: a)for managerial units: E.Mg.S.- economic managerial system; E.Mg.F. - economic manageial function; E.Mg.C.P.- economic managerial complex problems; E.Mg.S.P. - economic managerial separate problem; b)economic functional units: E.S.In. -economic system of information; E.SS.In. - economic subsystem of information;E. C. In. economic colection of information; E.M.In.economic massif of information; c)economic decisional units: E.D.S. economic decision system; E. D. SS. 193

processes of obtained of the derivate values of the results record, planning information units, of the economic analysis etc. Also, in their basis may be made and some sections of economic management functions. At the same time , for any lower – ranking level of economic management the planning information to be concretized (detailed). But, not always something similar it’s possible, for that raison what for that managerial levels as place to work, brigade, sector, department etc. it’s necessary the execution of certain preliminary organizational works of the productive and economic order. This explained that fact vhat dont in all cases the flows planning information penetrated to the very lower managerial levels(biophysical systems). In particular, that situation is characteristic for the economic management system based on the administrative method. The market evironnment objective make the intensive formind and utilization the values of the planning information units on the any managerial economic level. In the opposite case- may be created the unforesee n situations who leading to a bancruptsy. Apart from other reasons, the economic market relations to facilitate the development of the information potential at the expense of the increase of the number of economic agents with light and middle potential, what, in one’s turn, to contribute of the forming and the movement of the information flows on the any lowest control level, as the special and temporary scals of the leading objects are essential diminutioned.

The variant of the general order of the scheme in cause is presented in fig 2. From her can see what in the unitary process of dynamics of the U.Il. Iv. E.F. are realized three basic categories of connections bettween various groups of the information: connections of the incalculing (informational and structural) processing;connections of the calculing (artithmetical, statistic, multifactorial analysis, economic-matematical) processing; connection of the functional utilization. The first two categories of connection taking place how inside every information group , so and beetwen each of them or between all three groups. The connections of utilization in common of the information in cause are motiving for necessary of realization of the function of economic analysis through the followings versions of basic combinations: record information + planning information; record information + normative information; normative information + plannig information; record information + normative information + plannig information. In any version of combination exist the posibility of the drawing into the regulatory and the referense information. The combined connections (of the functional processing and utilization) are characteristic for the same normative, regulatory and reference information. Almost the majority derivative values of the record and the planning information entities are obtaned trough the involvement of these categories of information. They serve as the basis for the formulation of many decisions of the leardership relating to estimating the function of the guided object and therefore penetrated almost all information flows at all levels of economic management. From such position, the values of normative regulatory and reference information units conventional may be perceived thesoursce of food of the

Conclusions So, of the positions of the service of the functions of managerial economic system, the organization of the information dictated the realize and acceptance in consideration

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Normative, regulary and reference information

Records information Planning information Managerial levels

n

1 n

2 1

Normative, regulary and reference information

Fig. 2 The scheme of the conceptual

3)

directions of the formng (obtained) and functional interconnections between information groups, of the U.Il.Iv.F.: →the directions of the forming the values of the information units in basis of calculing and incalculing processing of the initial data; ← -→ - the directions of utilization in common of information with the goal of the economic analysis; −·−·−·→the directions of the processing in common of the values of normative , regulatory and reference information units with information units of the others categories of economic information;...-the guided objects (processes) belongs to appointed managerial level. the next basic moments, of which it is necessary always to take into account as in managerial activities, as and in that information, independently of mod of execution of the last (manual or automatic) the interpretation of the leading economic object as the unitary material- managerial- information nucleus; 1) the indissoluble organic connection between material objects and activities; 2) the precedency and the sequency of the material economic processes;

4)

5)

6)

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the intermediate position between leading material object and its managerial system; ensuring of the functioning of leading object and realization of its managerial system through organization of information under form of the flows; the opposite direction of the movement of information informative flows, which preceed (normative, regulatory and planning) of those who succeed (records, statistics, reports ) material economic activities. The first do move of the management system to the led object, forming the values of the derivative information structural units through of theirs decomposition. The second information do move in the opposite direction – of the guided object to the it management system, forming the derivative structural units through generalization (sinthezation); through structural and incalculated infiltration of the information which preceed whith them which succeed the human activities that formed the

7)

8)

9)

10)

11)

12)

13)

14)

third category of information – that of economic analysis; in processes of the proceding the normative and reference information serve the base for obtained the values of the majority derivative planning and records unformation units,so execute the function of the ”nutritious environment”of forming and conceiving of the last; the double role (transformational and functional) of the information, which preceed the material economic activities, contribute of the its organization in combined mode, in combination between as by them, as and with the other categories of the information; the realization of the combined connections between groups of functional information leading to the formation of the information of economic analysis; on the level of the economic unit, the organization of the economic information is realized under form of the network, adequate of the reticulate realization of activities of this unit; the realization of the unitary information network taking place thanks to the disposing of the appointed parameters and requests, which it’s necessary to be observe; the diversity of the versions of organization of the information is provoked of the environment and principles of their distributive approach; the distribution neatly functional contribute of organization of the information of the U.Il.Iv.F. on the managerial functions, complexes of problems and separate problems; the functional – spatial approach of U.Il.Iv.F. is achieved by branching on the managerial functions, levels, organs and places, solve problems and indicators belong of their. Framed of this mode of the approach

may be realized the various versions of organization of information = neatly spatial, on the managerial levels, combined; 15) the temporal approach also contribute of the various versions of the organization of the economic information on the terms (periods) of the functioning of the leading objects (processes). Biblography: 1. Tudor Şt. Leahu The evolution, specific and problems of constitution and functioning of automatized banks of intelligent economic data (A.Bn.Ig.E.D.). Academy of Economic Studies. Faculty of economic cybernetics, statistics and informatics. Departament of informatics in economy.Information and knowledge age.The proceedings of the seventh international conference on informatics in economy, may 2005. Editura economică. INFOREC Printing House, pp.845-851 2. Tudor Şt. Leahu The functional – conceptual aspect of the composition, structure and working relations of the composition, structure and working relations of the automatized banks of intelligent economic data (A.Bn.Ig.E.D.)Volume X, 2006. The 2nd supplement of the review „Informatica economică”.International Conference “Knowledge management:projects, systems and technologies”. Bucharest, november, 9-10, 2006. Volume II Reinforcement and extension of universities and business community partnerships in the knowledge era, pp.89 – 96.Review published by Eonomic Informatics Departament and INFOREC Association with the support of Romanian Ministry of Education and Research. Review accredited by CNCSIS with B-level. 3. Tudor Şt. Leahu. The Conception of the General Content of the

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Composition, Structure and Working of the Informative Components of the Economic Knowledge Base //INFORMATICA ECONOMICA JOURNAL Published by INFOREC Association Founded by members of the Economic Informatics Department, Faculty of Cybernetics, Statistics and Economic Informatics Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest ISSN 1453-1305 EISSN 1842-8088 Published with the support of Ministry of Education, Research and Innovation CNCSIS B+ Category Listed in the Directory of Open Access Journal Copyright© INFOREC Publishing House,vol.XII, Nr.4(48), pp.105-112.

4. Tudor St.Leahu The conception of the composition, elaboration and working of the unitary informational informative fund (U.Il.Iv.F.) of the economic unitary knowledge base (E.U.K.B.). Knowledge management: projects, systems and technologies. Proceedings of the 4th International Conference on Knowledge Management: Projects, Systems and Technologies. November, 6th - 7th 2009. Bucharest, Romania, pp.55-60 5. Tudor Leahu Organizarea, structurarea si transformarea informatiilor sistemului managerial economic. Chisinau , CEP \ USM, 2009, pp.60-64

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CONSIDERATIONS REGARDING AN INTEGRATED UNIVERSITY MANAGEMENT SYSTEM Alexandra Maria Ioana FLOREA Alina-Mihaela ION Iuliana BOTHA Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: Today we witness an increase in the role of universities in civil society. The international trends show the universities’ openness towards the alternative offered by new technologies. The article shows the actual perspectives in our country, presents the main characteristics and the structure of a computerized university management system, and also indicates the possibility of informatic integration for the system modules. The development of such a project must be controlled and validated by a standardized methodology for project management, which is shown in the article. Keywords: Project Management, informatic system, management of an educational institution, portal application integration, methodology, Prince2

computerization of the entire activity. Disparate modules were introduced one by one, depending on the needs of the moment, without considering a unified approach to the university. One such example is the system provided by Red Point Romania for improving the process for admission of candidates, a system implemented in universities such as University of Bucharest Lucian Blaga University, in Sibiu. The solution manages the candidates’ records (personal data, notes, options), automatic calculation of averages for each option and generates charts, but does not go on watching the students further on. This is a perfect example of how this activity has been approached in the past. But slowly things have begun to change, mostly due to the alignment to European standards and trends.

1. Introduction Knowledge management becomes the base activity of knowledge society for all the levels: enterprises, organizations, institutions, local and national administrations. At the same time, KM deals all the knowledge issues inside an organization: knowledge creation, knowledge storing, knowledge conversion, encryption, sharing and the way that these tasks lead to organizational learning and innovation. The most dynamic domain which had a significant evolution regarding knowledge management is represented by information technology – software, domain which uses knowledge management for acquiring the knowledge and the experience resulted during software development In the context created by the development of the knowledge management field as well as that of the new economy, improving the teaching process can not be conceived without a sustained effort to computerize it as much as possible and without its alignment to the European higher education standards. In Romanian universities, the computerization of higher education structures was done in stages, without following a coherent plan for

2. Some aspects regarding the necessity of an integrated university management system Computerization of university management requires first the decentralization of decision making process, an action that would lead to accelerated qualitative decision making and

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to more complete information of high level management structures about the efficiency of its subdivisions. The overall objective is to improve university management by increasing the academic quality of the ecosystem through the implementation of an integrated system that reaches all the areas of a higher education institution. Therefore it would be of great utiliy to have a standard configuration implemented in the major Romanian universities, a configuration developed according to particularities of Romanian universities, European priorities and the legislation in force. This unitary approach would lead to an increase in quality not only in a few but in most of the major higher education institutions. Such a system would also adress the need for increasing transparency by providing updated information at any moment and it would optimize the main existing information flows. Also it would lead to an increased efficiency of staff involved in university management. In the context of EU integration and the Lisbon priorities, universities in Romania are facing new demands and the need to align to new standards. Standardization of administrative activities in universities is a contemporary trend.

c.

d.

e.

f.

3. Some aspects regarding the structure of an integrated system for university management In order to achieve a complete management system for a University all the functional areas should be taken into consideration. The areas that a computerized university management system should include could be grouped as follows: a. Course Planning – this covers the whole process from establishing a new study course to defining the rules for composing curriculum for students. b. Student services - its purpose is to provide at the same time features for both the University administration (student office) to handle the entire

g.

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lifecycle of the studentand the individual student. Resource allocation – this area is dedicated to the precise organization and articles of all educational activities and other related activities along the academic calendar sharing physical resources of the U niversity. Management of research and related assets, Project management - The scientific research activities in Universities are carried out in particular with the development of projects that represent the engine of this functional area. Research projects are very complex and generally require the management of funds provided by third parties with which the university has contractual bonds. Evaluation and management of academic offer – this module shares a tight connection with the course planning area, as it picks up where that module lets of, more precisely at the evaluation phase of the courses offered by the university. E-learning - the growth in the provision of highly interactive online environments holds a high strategic importance as the number of professionals who want to complete or advance their education in an alternative manner without compromising quality grows every year. Academic community – in the university domain communities like the students attending one course, the staff and the students belonging to one department or the alumni of a school can be found. The single communities can profit from the extended communication medium a community platform provides or can become a community with the help of such a platform (for example the alumni of a department that does not provide a special alumni program or alumni reunions- as it is the case for most European universities).

The modules of the university management system are shown in the figure below. Each of these modules can be correlated with the others and can function

in an integrated manner, through an informatic Portal, like is shown in the paragraph 4:

Figure 1: The structure of the proposed university management system 5. Some aspects regarding project management methodologies The development and the implementation of a project for improving university management, involve the use of a standardized methodology. Without a methodology, the persons in charge of the leadership and management of such a project might have different ideas on how the activities should be organized, on what should be done in different stages of the project, or what are the responsibilities and the authority level for each role in the project. Considering both the multitude of activities that take place inside a university besides teaching, and the informational workflow of the documents, any project that will be implemented to manage the activities of a university should be based on a methodology. Any methodology [1] is based on the experiences of the people from previous projects that they were involved in. The main advantages of using a methodology are related to duration and cost. The methodology helps keeping these two characteristics between the tolerances limits allowed. The optimal development of the project is conditioned by the timing and the budget. Any delay which cannot be avoided in useful time can lead to project delays or budget overrun. Thus, the two main essential conditions to develop a project are:

4. Some aspects regarding the integration of the system modules In the current globalize economy it is certitude that integration is one of the main means of ensuring an institution’s economic processes are as close as possible to the optimum. An integrated system for an educational institution must be scalable, useful for a great number of users and must integrate the various software products, which are already developed in different developing environments, for the institution departments. According to [5], the integrated systems have distinct characteristics and share essential attributes. Thus, it must be assured the technical and functional compatibility between application modules, and the technologies which are involved in the application processes must be relative transparent for the users. Also, the data must have a complete and coherent definition in all the application modules which are using them. All the applications must be scalable, portable and must quickly be modified, according to the changes of business processes. The primary purpose of a portal is to integrate data and information from a wide range of applications and repositories, and to create and manage a volume and variety of composite applications. [4]

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Components: the components explain the philosophy of different aspects of the project, why they are needed and how they can be used. These components are implemented through specific processes. - Techniques: Prince2 methodology provides some techniques that help the project manager. The use of these techniques is optional. Prince2 is made of eight processes. Three of them (Project start, Project initiation and Project Planning) refer to project planning. In Prince2 methodology, both Project start and Project initiation occur at the beginning and Project Planning is a continuous process during the entire duration of the project. A methodology similar to Prince2 is TenStep Project Management Process composed of ten steps. In this methodology the first two steps are dedicated to project planning (1.0 Working definition and 2.0 Construction work plan) although project is constantly re-planned as part of Working plan management. The other eight steps of TenStep methodology are dedicated to project execution management.

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keeping the time intervals in accordance to the structure of university year, because the project is designed to manage the activities of an university environment; - keeping the initial budget established for the realization and the implementation of the project. The methodologies have the role of improving the performance, the productivity and the quality of the project management services and of increasing the client’s confidence in the successful accomplishment of the project. The chosen methodology must guide the project through a controlled and visible set of activities to achieve proposed objectives. One of the most known methodologies that may be used to develop the project for implementing a management system at a university is the Prince2 methodology (PRojects IN Controlled Environments). The mains characteristics that make Prince2 methodology [2] to be suitable for such a project are: - it is a scalable and a flexible project management methodology, developed in United Kingdom and used initially in governmental project; - nowadays the methodology is accepted as a general standard of project management at European level; - it is product oriented and includes processes which are verified through Project Management; - any project must have from the start an economic justification, represented by Business Case in Prince2 methodology, and implementation control must be made relative to the scope and the economic parameters initially set. Prince2 methodology uses processes, components and techniques: - Processes: Prince2 provides a set of processes which assure a controlled environment for the project start, deployment and end, which define what should happen and when it should happen.

6. Conclusions In order to optimally deploy and implement a project for managing activities inside a university, Prince2 methodology should be used because it considers some essential characteristics related to progressive visualization of project phases through Gantt chart, to economical justification of such a project done through the Business Case document, to external dependencies of the project for implementing the management system inside a university. The implementation of such a system is still directly conditioned by the university approval. Bibliography: 1. Cătălin Tiseac Professional Management Solutions 2. Cătălin Tiseac, Diana Pasat Iordache, Workshop - Managementul proiectelor

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informatice, Bucharest, 27 October 2004 3. Alina-Mihaela Ion - Knowledge Management Methodologies, Informatics In Knowledge Society - The Proceedings Of The Eigth International Conference On Informatics In Economy May 2007, pg. 1051 - 1056, Ase Printing House, ISBN 978-973-594921-1 4. Diaconita Vlad, Botha Iuliana, Bara Adela, Lungu Ion, Velicanu Manole Two integration flavors in public institutions. WSEAS Transactions on Information Science and Applications, Volume 5, Issue 5, May 2008, pp. 806815, ISSN: 1709-0832, SCOPUS indexed

5. Ion Lungu, Manole Velicanu, Adela Bâra, Vlad Diaconiţa, Iuliana Botha – Portal based system integration – foundation for decision support, Economic Computation and Economic Cybernetics Studies and Research Journal, nr. 1/2009, Vol.43, pp. 123135, indexed ISI Thomson - Web of Science, ISSN: 0424-267X 6. Alexandra Florea, Alina Ion Databases for Assisted instruction in economic superior learning, International conference EG 2008 Economic Growth and E.U Extension Process, May 2008, ISBN 978-606-505065-5,

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USING PROCESS ONTOLOGY TO REPRESENT LIBRARY ACTIVITIES Dragos VESPAN Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania E-mail: [email protected] Abstract: This paper describes the concepts used to capture and organize web services, as simple processes or combination of processes, by using ontologies. The meta-model of process ontology and the process model specialization are described and applied on services provided by AES library. Keywords: process ontology, library activities, web services, Semantic Web, OWL

ontology, and describes the characteristics of Semantic Web services, allowing users and software agents to retrieve, use, select, combine and monitor web based services. This ontology provides two essential types of knowledge about a certain service, characterized through the following questions: - What do services require from users and what do they provide the users? This type of knowledge is provided by the service profile, a class that describes service parameters and capabilities. - How does the service work? The answer of this question is in the model, a class that describes the execution flow of the service. Services may be simple processes or combinations of different processes. An example of a simple process is supplying the title of a book when its ISBN is provided. A more complex service requires a form of interaction with the user which should be able to perform different choices and supply information apart from the context. An example of a complex service is a personal book loan advisor which assists a library user to loan a book and which requires information out of context like the e-mail address or the library access card ID. Process ontologies are based on several powerful concepts to capture and organize knowledge about processes: attributes, ports, decompositions, dependencies, exceptions and specialization ((Klein & Bernstein, 2001). Process attributes capture information like textual descriptions of activities, usual performance values (process execution time)

1. Introduction

The use of Semantic Web is not restricted just to the access of static documents which provide useful information about a certain domain, but also to services providing useful behaviours to users. Such examples of services are: - Software applications (design, financial or document processing applications) which may be remotely used by people or other applications; - Software components that may be used for developing other software applications; - Process models that describe how to fulfil certain objectives (business models, processes for transforming materials); - Customized services provided by specialized peoples or organizations (programming customized applications, contracting credits). A web service may be defined as a website that does not provide only static information, but also allows the execution of certain activities like selling a product or controlling a device. In order to fulfil their objectives, web services must provide interoperability between different applications, with interfaces independent of language or platform. Web Semantic services are web services that, beside the interface they provide, they also include a complete description of their capabilities, their premises and consequences of using them. Characteristics of services OWL-S (Ankolekar, et al., 2002) represents a set of specifications as an OWL based 2.

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and also conditions that are previous, concurrent or subsequent to process execution. Through decomposition, a process is modelled as a collection of activities which, at their turn, may be decomposed in subactivities. Ports present the I/O behaviour of an activity by describing the resource types that the activity uses or produces. Dependencies include coordination mechanisms represented by activities that manage resources flow and coordinates the activities connected through these dependencies. Exceptions represent particular situations when processes may fail. Usually, exceptions are associated to error anticipation/avoidance or detections/resolution schemas. Specialisation represents the way to describe processes and their key elements (ports, resources, attributes and exceptions) through

taxonomies with very generic classes at one extreme and more and more specialized classes at the other extreme. Taxonomies set the elements with similar semantics (processes with similar objectives) close to each other, the same way that a inside a library, the books with similar subjects are situated close to each other. Specialization hierarchy of services provided by AES library Figure 1 presents the meta-model of process ontology, where a process is defined by specifying its decomposition (into the activities that it contains), its interface (ports), the dependence between its activities and attributes. Each activity may be correlated to the exceptions types that it might raise and, at their turn, these exceptions may be related to the processes used for resolving them. 3.

Figure 1: Process ontology meta-model Each process component type has its own specialization hierarchy where it may be placed, so it results a completely standardized process description. There are specialization hierarchies for processes, resources and exceptions, based on services specialization hierarchies. Figure 2 presents the specialization hierarchy for the services provided by AES library, (Biblioteca ASE, 2010). The service Acces colecţii (Access to

collections) is a specialization of the service Acces resurse (Access to resources) and specializes further into more specific services, like Access direct la raft (Books direct access), Acces indirect (Indirect access) or Rezervarea publicaţiilor (Publication Booking) Each of the specialization of the service Acces colecţii (Access to collections) is, at its turn, a member of the more general service Access resurse (Access to resources).

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Figure 2: Specialization hierarchy of the services provided by AES library The services are indexed in the process ontology so they can be easily retrieved. Indexing a service is done by setting the associated process model and all of its

components (attributes, dependencies, subactivities and exceptions) in the appropriate place inside the ontology.

Figure 3: Process model for the service Access to resources (Acces resurse) If we want to index a service for accessing the resources of a library, the process model of this service, Acces resurse (Access to resources), includes most of the elements required for allowing the access to resources, Figure 3: - The ports that describe the inputs of the process: the description of the resource to be accessed, information about the user who wants access to the resource; - The main sub-activities of the accessto-resource process: user validation, validation of the resource to be accessed, setting conditions for user access to the resources, and the access of the user to the resource.

The process can be defined as consisting of a set of activities P={A1,…,An}, a set of connection conditions CON={external, sequential, and-join, and-split, or-join, orsplit}, and a set of connection operations COP={PreCon, PostCon, Pre, Post}, represented as ProcessName= P, CON, COP , (Zhuge, 2002). For any activity, Ai P, its pre-condition PreCon(Ai) CON, its post-condition PostCon(Ai) CON, its predecessor Pre(Ai) P, and its successor Post(Ai) P. For the initial activity, Pre(Ai)=external and for the termination activity, Post(Ai)=external. If P1 and P2 are two semantically different processes, P2 is a specialization of P1 if it has all the activities,

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connection

conditions

and

connection

operations that P1 has (Murat Şensoy, 2008).

Figure 4:- Process model of the service Online access to resources (Access online) as a specialization of the process Access to resources (Acces resurse) For the service Access online (Online access), it is enough to create a specialization of the service Acces resurse (Access to resources) by making only the changes which are specific to the online access of resources, like specifying the information types about the user (username, password, ip address where the access is made from) or validating the rights of the user access to resources (partial, read-only, printing-enabled), Figure 4. These elements may be defined also by the specialization elements that are already defined in the process ontology.

resources that provide customized library services, with a higher precision and recall. Bibliography: 1. Ankolekar, A., Burstein, M., Hobbs, J., Lassila, O. M., McDermott, D., McIlraith, S., et al. (2002). DAML-S: Web service description for the Semantic Web. 1st International Semantic Web Conference—ISWC 2002 (pp. 348-363). Heidelberg: Springer Berlin. Biblioteca ASE. (2010, 08). Retrieved from http://biblioteca.ase.ro. 2. Klein, M., & Bernstein, A. (2001). Searching for services on the semantic web using process ontologies. International Semantic Web Working Symposium (SWWS), (pp. 431-446). Palo Alto. 3. Murat Şensoy, P. Y. (2008). A cooperation-based approach for evolution of service ontologies. International Conference on Autonomous Agents, (pp. 837-844). Estoril. 4. Zhuge, H. (2002). A process matching approach for flexible workflow process reuse. Information and Software Technology, 44 (8), 445-450.

4. Conclusions

Ontologies have a very important role in processing, distributing and reusing web knowledge in applications as they provide a a common understanding of subjects that may be communicated between peoples and software applications. The process models of the services provided by libraries and their specializations defined in process ontologies can be used for indexing library services so that users and software agents may discover, use or monitor Web

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QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN RESEARCH PROJECTS ASSESSMENT Narcisa CIOBOTAR Constantin MITRUŢ Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest Dorobanţilor street 15th – 17th , 1th sector [email protected] Abstract. In this paper it proposed an indicators system for scientific research performance ex-post evaluation based on results indicators. This approach ensures the integration of indicators system in policy and strategy R&D and Innovation. The paper is based on case study developed for Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies. Keywords: Scientific production, indicators system, methodology, evaluation, performance.

criteria, standards and methodology assessment for certification or accreditation by the ability to perform their activities of entities and institutes research and development components of the national system R&D. In this context was developed and implemented AI - Certification or Accreditation indicators system Certification or Accreditation ability to perform scientific research. The analysis and interpretation of results obtained by AES Bucharest by two indicator systems creates the possibility to formulate in the following similarities and differences, weaknesses and strengths of both methodologies for performance evaluation of scientific research projects. As a first result of the analysis can be said that Accreditation indicators system (AI) is a much more complex compared to IQ6 indicators system, but includes identical or similar to IQ6 quality indicators such as number of projects funded, number of articles published, number of researchers. It applies to the entire R & D system and is provided sine qua non for obtaining funds. The similarities are: • both models include indicators of the same content as: the number of projects funded, number of articles published, number of researchers involved in project management, etc. • both models use statistical methods and formulas, weighting of indicators, average

1.

Introduction An analysis of the phenomena are taking place in higher education and research has demonstrated the importance of scientific research developed by programs or projects, as part of the Romanian and European higher education. Quality of scientific research programs and projects, by assessing and this activity is established in every institution of higher education. Areas, criteria, standards and performance indicators are the basis for measuring and evaluating the quality of scientific research in universities in the coordination processes leading to obtaining the best outcomes research projects implemented. The concept of quality indicator was introduced for inclusion in the methodology of financing universities a stimulating role and remedial component and also to express, in quantitative terms, the idea that budgetary allocations should emphasize quality and cost. This allows the core or main funding to be correlated with the level of satisfaction of performance requirements. Thus was developed and implemented the IQ6 - Quality indicators system - Performance level in scientific research. Also, entities and research and development institutions which have the perspective to participate in publicly funded activities must be certified or accredited for the ability to perform research and development. From this perspective have been developed and implemented the 207

the indicators system covers the entire research system is a system that should be addressed only by higher education institutes (such as IQ6). Develop new indicators system is based reasoning: • Identifying common indicators of the two systems have the same content and are relevant for analysis such as:: number of projects funded, number of papers published, number of researchers, and others. • computation methodology is similar but less complex than two systems methodologies • Introduction of new indicators in the analysis such as products and technologies, physical models, experimental models, patents • applicability the new system in the entire national research system not only in universities. 3. Quantification and evaluation method of research results through the new indicators system To achieve own indicators system criteria have been established: • performance criteria relevant international • performance criteria relevant national • relevant professional criteria • institutional infrastructure Based on delimitation international of national component have been defined five indicators subsystem to evaluation performance produced by scientific research projects: Ability to attract funds for scientific research 2. The relevance and visibility of scientific research results 3. Ability to design and develop innovative products and technologies for business environment 4. Institutional capacity to organize and support scientific research and transfer research results in the socioeconomic environment 5. Ability to prepare human resource for scientific research

• both indicator systems are provided for obtaining funds for research projects • both models summarizes the performance of scientific research projects • both indicators system IQ6 and IA include information on scientific and technical capacity of research units and also institutional capacity to developed scientific research.. The differences are reflected as follows: • IQ6 systems applies only universities to obtain additional funding from core funding while IA systems applies to the entire national system of research – development certification and accreditation ability to develop scientific research representing sine qua non provided to access public funds through projects • IQ6 systems is ultimately measurable in a coefficient between 0 and 1 while IA systems is reflected a score obtained as the ratio between the total score and average number of certified researchers • IA indicators system is a more comprehensive than IQ6 indicators system and requires more computations • IA is a restrictive indicators system minimum performance criteria failure will determine entities and institutes ineligible to participate in national competitions for obtaining funds while IQ6 indicators system achieved a ranking of universities based on scientific performance the funding allocated in proportion to their score. Given the case study analysis AES Bucharest considering the weaknesses and strengths of both methodologies for performance evaluation of research projects it launched the idea of publishing a new indicators system to eliminate redundancies and capture the relevant aspects 2. Definition, Importance and Purpose of the new indicators system The new system includes relevant performance indicators in both systems analyzed but add other new indicators. The new system will enable the hierarchy of research entities in multicriterion terms and

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professional relevance. Monitor performance indicators show involvement in human resource training young, effectiveness in preparing young human resource and not least number and type of awards for outstanding results achieved in research conducted by the projects. 3. The relevance and visibility of scientific research results Visibility and international cooperation resulting from performance indicators evaluation: the number of papers published in journals with international or national recognition, the number of papers published in international conferences and national visibility, the number of books published by recognized. All collaborating institutions between them and the proportion of papers in collaboration with a certain category is approximately proportional to the total number of papers in this category of institutions. Lately, much of Romanian scientific production flow within the main scientific (ISI journals, IDB) and the internal flow with recognition. This indicator shows the visibility and relevance of scientific papers books published the results of which are in fact fundamental research projects. 4. Ability to design or develop innovative products and technologies for business environment This indicator refers to performance determined by the number of patents, number of patent applications, the number of products, technologies, studies, services, number of models, norms, procedures and innovative institution ability shown by the staff involved. 5. Institutional capacity to organize and support scientific research and transfer research results in the socioeconomic environment Show the institutional infrastructure existence and number of equipment in laboratories, research centers, show the ability to develop the institutional context for knowledge creation. Impact factors are classified on a scale from 0-30 where 30 is the maximum importance level.

Each indicators subsystem defines specific indicators for performance evaluation structured on the two relevance components. In other the same specific indicators to each subsystem can be found both on the part of international and national relevance but the indicators are differentiated by the impact factor. The last indicators subsystem is based on the relevant professional criteria of staff in projects. Indicators quantification involves two stages: the first step is determined the ratio of each indicator and the total number of staff involved in projects (teachers and researchers) and in the second stage is determined values weighted by impact factor established for each indicator from its own system. The scores obtained for each indicator are aggregated at general indicator and finally getting them made the score summarizing subsystem level component of the system. 4. Interpretation method of scores obtained on each criterion and or subsystem The new system allows a structural analysis of performance indicators in research projects which determines the feasibility of a nationally and internationally comparative analysis of existing evaluation systems. Each of the indicators system allows assessment and quantification of results according to national and international relevance and visibility. 1. Ability to attract funds for scientific research The general indicator or indicators subsystem indicates whether attracting funds for research represent or not an essential component of a quality activity, no results with the resources invested shows an unsatisfying project management which are managed by research funding at national or institutional level and analytical project. 2. Ability to prepare human resource for scientific research This is only indicators subsystem of the five refers to the system of prestige and

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with the strategic objectives of research programs and national RDI strategy, resulting continuous feedback based on funds allocated to correlate with the results. The proposed indicators system of performance results is direct related directly with the strategic objectives of research programs and national RDI strategy resulting continuous feedback based on funds allocated to correlate with the results. To expand these activities suggest some actions such as: • develop a national information platform which includes indicators that reflect all transferable research results in the form of a single database accessible to anyone interested in technology transfer • develop a procedure to collect performance data from scientific research, • unlimited access to the database addressed exploitation of results by the beneficiaries of technology • scientific research performance evaluation of each research and development entities receiving public funds. It creates a possibility of closing the loop finance-research-results-recoveryeffects with the return of funds from the state budget. This loop is now open without the existence of a feedback effects see you when you need to justify the efficiency of budgetary funds for research consumed or to justify the need for funds for this purpose.

5. Advantages and disadvantages of the new indicators system The advantages: • Allows assessment level performance in scientific research while assessing ability to perform scientific research • Allows assessment both the higher education institutes and research and development units of the national system. • Provides hierarchy in terms multicriterion units indicator system may include national research and development system is a system that is only universities (as IQ6). • This system allows a structural analysis of performance indicators. Allows assessment of the performance indicators that reflect the scientific research based on performance criteria so that it is possible to assess analytical or structural projects on specific outcomes such as: - Performance evaluation based on the number of patents - Scientific papers indexed by ISIWOS - Citations in journals with ISI - Performance evaluation reflected in national documents • The selected indicators have status as credible indicators take into account the relevant, visibility performance and the system allows a structural comparison with international rating systems. • Evaluate the importance of selected indicators on a scale of 0-30 points where 30 means maximum score. • Expression of results in terms of quantifiable, measurable and verifiable. • The existence of correlations in the presentation of numerical results.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The research was done in the ID-873 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, IDEI Program, grant no. 873/2007.

The disadvantages: • The large number of indicators increases the complexity of the calculation. • Only part of indicators system could form the basis of analysis to obtain additional financing for research by Conclusions universities. The proposed system of indicators of performance results is directly related

BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Fahrenkrog G., Polt G, Rojo J., Tubke A., Zinocher K. (2002) RTD Evaluation Toolbox - Assessing the SocioEconomic Impact of RTD-Policies, http://epub.jrc.es/docs/EUR-20382EN.pdf. 2. Gheorgiou, L., Rigby, AJ and Cameron, HM. (eds), (2002), Assessment of the

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Assets into tangibile Outcomes Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2004 6. SEI (2004) Applications of the Indicator Template for Measurement and Analysis, CMU/SEI-2004-TN-024. 7. Seppanen V. (2000), Competence change in Contract R&D: Analysis of project nets, VTT, ESPOO. 8. Technopolis France (2002), Use of Evaluation in the Commission Services, http://europa.eu.int/comm/budget/evalu ation/pdf/use_of%20_evaluation_final_ report.pdf

Socio-economic Impact of the Framework Programme, available from http://www.cordis.lu/ 3. Kusek J.,Khatouri M. (2006), Resultsbased Monitoring and Evaluation in Bank projects, HD Learning Week, November 6. 4. OECD (2002) Proposed standard practice for surveys of research and experimental development – Frascati manual. 5. Robert S. Kaplan and David Norton Strategy Maps: Converting Intangibile

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A TRANSLOG ANALYSIS OF INSURANCE ECONOMIES IN NIGERIA Usman OWOLABI A AKINLO A. E Department of Management Science, Ladoke Akintola University of Technology, Ogbomoso, Nigeria Department of Economics, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, Nigeria. e-mail labisky @yahoo.com Abstract: Recapitalization process that has recently become an imperative process in the Nigerian Financial industry has implications for the survival of insurance sector, especially on their service delivery efficiency. This study therefore seeks to investigate the problem of inefficiency in the Nigerian Insurance market from the perspective of their cost structures. The study takes advantage of secondary data of financial reports of thirty randomly selected insurance firms which span over a period of ten years and applied transcendental logarithm model to evaluate their performance from the cost structures strategy. The results indicate that only large scale firms enjoy cost saving advantages. Twenty percent firms sampled belong to this category. The result suggests that premium income would contribute to insurance firm’s performance, only when a sound investment decisions are made. Keywords: Transcedental Logarithm, Cost Structures, Insurance firms and Efficiency

differs from the production costs of a bestpracticed company under the same condition and producing same outputs. Efficiency of production is measured with regards to cost function that is normally constructed from the observation of all companies considered within the sample set. Cost functions are derived from the production function which describes the best available efficient methods of production at any point in time. Total cost is a multivariable function as it is determined by many factors. Such factors might include the quantities and qualities of factor inputs, the efficiency of the entrepreneur as regards the optimum choice and combination of both technical and economic inputs to produce the maximum output (Kwan, 2001).

Background to the Study Insurance companies as a service firm, attract a different class of policies from the economy, pool the premium together to help bear risk whenever the holder of an insurance policy suffers genuine loss. The roles of insurance company as risk taker, saving mobilizer and financial intermediary of sorts affects not only the pace but also the pattern of economic activity particularly in developing countries. The way and manner in which a financial system functions determine to a large extent the capital shortage problems often experienced in the less developed countries (Soyode, 1983). This is because entrepreneurship in the business activity of any economy can be enhanced better when insurance companies help bear losses that are often more severe, where both internal and external business environments are hostile to the extent, that it stifles rather than encourage business enterprises. Consequent upon restructuring, especially deregulation of interest rates in the finance sectors of the Nigeria economy, most financial institutions have had to operate in an increasingly competitive environment. Insurance companies, like banks, also operate in a competitive environment where issue of cost has become a critical element of survival. Cost efficiency estimates how production costs of an individual company

Statement of the Problems Insurance companies engage in the production of various classes of services and hardly have there been any particular service where they have performed optimally, as there are inadequacies in the production cost of insurance services of some companies which in any case affects proper insurance practice (NAICOM, 2004). Insurance companies much like banks are suppose to mobilize funds through pooled premiums in order to be able to indemnify their policy holders who

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In a situation where the empirical evidence reported for the banks production characteristics is to be taken for cost estimation in the finance industry as a whole, proper attention will have to be directed at devising relevant concepts in the factor input cost analysis for the insurance industry, as it has not attracted much attention in Nigeria. Afolabi and Osota (2001) has made use of translog model to analyze production characteristics in the banking industry .This effort is therefore an attempt to employ the translog models to evaluate performances in the Nigerian Insurance sector. To the insurance business, it enables it to carry out comparative analysis of performance among competitors, operating within the same market environment, especially as firms use differently entrepreneurial efforts as a key for marketing insurance policies. This evaluation could be done in terms of aggregate results and in terms of the major indices of performance evaluation. It helps insurance business in planning both the technical and economic allocation of resources as a basis for required adjustment over immediate and future periods.

might have suffered genuine losses. The other crucial financial intermediation role is when insurance companies reinvest pooled premiums into investment in reinsurance or other sectors of the economy. The inability of many insurance firms arising from poor performance to indemnify their suffered clients has also discouraged prompt payment of premiums on the part of existing clients and lack of interests for insurance policies on the new and would-be clients (Chukwulozie, 2007). The implication of this problem is that premium mobilization which is the backbone of an insurance business has suffered a great deal. This problem is coupled with high cost of operation arising from large number of branches, overhead cost among other costs (Bouno and Eakin, 1990 ). High cost of producing insurance services and low premium rates have both tampered with operational efficiency and business performances of Nigerian insurance sector, as many of them find it difficult to take high risk businesses in the economy. The public attitude towards insurance policy and other services in Nigeria is generally not encouraging. The aggregate view centers on the observed inadequacy in the payment of compensation indemnity to the holders when they have suffered losses. Justification for the study The general disenchantment and disregard for insurance services among insuring public in Nigeria, arising from inefficient firms requires a closer examination and proactive measures in order to ensure the continued usefulness of the industry as conduit for economic stabilization which this study intends to examine. The ability of the government to implement consistent policy that will lead to realization of net economic benefits could only be assisted by empirical studies of this nature. This study attempts to predict the quantitative effects of cost, scale and scope on performance that may possibly arise from structural and behavioural changes induced by the regulatory agency.

Objectives of the study The broad objective of this study is to examine cost efficiency of the insurance industry in Nigeria. The specific objectives are to: (i) examine cost efficiency characteristics across various sizes of insurance companies vis-à-vis large, medium and small sizes. (ii) investigate optimal production scale in the Nigeria Insurance Industry Literature Review In order to make an assessment of the effects that cost structures are likely to have on efficiency, there is a need to define a framework over which costs can be analyzed. Economists generally assume that firm minimizes the cost of producing every level of output, based on the prices paid for

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organizations. The difference in system characteristics is important as different system stands to have different impact on business performance. This position however was a clear contrast from the work of Becker and Sloan (1985), which reported less than significant result (ρ< 0.05) on the study that related systems to performance. Almost similar to the above studies on hospital efficiency, Evans (1999) examined the significance of quality in the specification of hospital cost function, scale economies effect on hospital cost efficiency and reported that cost increases with the desires for quality. Like many previous studies on hospital efficiency and much like Evans, Bays (1980) work addressed the need to introduce physician variable in order to measure size. Bays in his work estimated two regressions on cost functions: one with physician service as one of the inputs and another without physician service as one of the inputs. Bays findings however suggested a decrease in average cost for a medium sized hospital but that average cost will start to increase as the size of the hospital becomes larger. Not only this, although there was a difficulty in obtaining physician input data, Bays work concluded that managing physician inputs might become unmanageable as the size of the hospital grows larger. Because insurance firm is also a multiproduct in production of services, much like hospital, similar approach can be used to study it. In addition to the conventional inputs such as capital, labour and intermediate input, the financial intermediation activity of insurance carriers use an extra input, premium reserve which needs to be accounted for in the production function. The output of this activity, measured by the investment is derived in a large part from the premium reserve. These are in effect lent to the company by policyholders and for which they do not receive any explicit interest revenue (Harchaous 2005). To achieve earlier stated objectives therefore, this study, therefore adopts the unrestricted, functional translog form which has been

factors of production and the technology available to the firm, (Bitzan, 2000). Although Cobb-Douglas production function has been widely used for many empirical studies, especially as it is well behaved in terms of monotonicity and convexity. This function has been tactically criticized on two grounds. The first criticism borders on the assumptions of additivity and homogeneity, suggesting that factor shares are constant. The second criticism has to do with the elasticity of substitution and the cross-partial elasticity of substitution being limited to unity. In a bid to find a leeway and create flexibility so as to take care of the difficult restrictions imposed by the Cobb-Douglas production function; (Christensen, Jorgenson and Lau 1975) came up with an alternative representation of the production possibility frontier, called transcedental logarithms, (Translog function). Rosko, Proenea and Zinn (2002), examined the relationship between membership in different types of systems and hospital cost inefficiency. They made use of stochastic frontier analysis to measure hospital efficiency vis-à-vis different systems. The study reported that a decreased inefficiency was associated with centralized and decentralized systems whereas an independent system was associated with increased inefficiency. One particular issue of interest was the fact that cost structure, employing capital was used to determine operational efficiency in a hospital system. In the contention of these researchers, there was an argument to suggest that a system may be in position to achieve greater efficiency because of multi product nature of services being provided in the hospital which allows the employment of a more richly specialized group of personnel in big organization than in a small one (Conrad and Shortfell, 1996); (Carey, 2003) and (Bazzoli, Shortfell and Baunno, 2000). This is in line also with the views of (Ermman and Gabel 1985) on the cost saving advantage of marketing and business advertisement cost of large

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for the medium size and fifteen (15) for the small size firm Analytical techniques The cost and production functions can be specified by estimating a stochastic cost frontier (Leigh, 2001). It allows modeling of a multi-input, multi-output production process. For translog flexible functional form, Young’s theorem requires that the second order parameters of the cost function must be symmetric. Translog cost function is a logarithmic regression model a seemingly unrelated system of equations that is effective to determine coefficients. Many of the standard regression techniques were used to determine the fit of the model. F-tests and ttests were used to determine the significance of the model and coefficients. The r-squared value will describe how well the model explains the true cost function. Also Durbin Watson statistic was used to explain if the model has a problem with serial correlation. These tests and values verified the effectiveness of the model and the model’s ability to explain cost structure in the insurance industry. This study therefore attempts to study Nigerian insurance firms using stochastic cost frontier analysis of a translog model. Model Specification: Translog is a local, second-order approximation to an arbitrary cost function. It places no a priori restriction on the elasticities of substitution and allows the economies of scale estimate to vary with the output level. For the approximation of the underlying cost function to be made at local point, this study normalize all independent variables at their median point. The translog function could be specified as follows:

typically used for several studies on production. Research Methodology: Sources of Data for the Study The insurance financial data were obtained from Annual Reports and Accounts of each of the sampled Nigeria insurance companies. The Annual Reports and Accounts of each of the insurance company comprises sufficient data that measure all the variables of the cost, economies of scale and economies of scope that are necessary for this study. The specific data for this study were assembled from the followings: (i) Returns of Assets and liabilities (ii) Returns of current year’s profit and loss account (iii) Annual analysis of policy and provisions for indemnities. The above data and information sourced from insurance companies; regulatory authority and the Central Bank yearly bulletin are adjudged, in the literature, to be sufficient enough to elicit necessary data and information needed to estimate the production in the financial industry variables (Afolabi and Osota,2001). Sample Size NAICOM (2003), reported that apart from about thirty (30) insurance companies whose operations were partial, insurance companies in Nigeria could be segmented into three major sizes; twenty (20) belong to large size firms, twenty nine (29) to the medium size firms, while forty-six (46) belongs to the small size category. This study therefore randomly selected one-third of each of this categories such that six (6) was chosen for the large size firms, nine (9)

ln C

= a 0 + ∑ α r C n ln γ r + 1 ∑ j ∑ iα ri ln γ r ln γ i + ln W + 1 ∑ i β i ln Wi ln W j + δ z ln Z 2 2

+ 1 ∑ ∑ δ z ln Z i ln Z j + δ ms lnMs + 1 ∑ ∑ δ ms ln Msi ln Msj + ∑ i ∑ rδ ri ln γ r ln Wi 2 2 + ∑ r ∑ iδ ri ln γ r ln Z i + ∑ r ∑ msδ rms ln γ r ln Ms + ∑ j ∑ irδ iz lnWi ln Z iz + ∑ i ∑ msδims ln Wi l ( n M S + ∑ ∑ δ zms ln Z ln Ms + ψCn + ∑ n

Where In – logarithm; C – Total cost,

Output are indexed by = total indemnities 215

(CL) and Investment (I) and inputs are indexed by W, j = capital input price (Kp), Labour Input price (Lp) and Entrepreneurial price (Ep). The following parameters α , β , δ andψ are expected to be estimated.

estimation, total output, premium income, have positive results of 0.134232 and 0.253644 respectively which denotes that holding other factors constant, a 1 percent increase in the total output leads on the average to about 0.1 increases in the total cost and 0.3 increases in the total cost for premium income. However, both factor input price and market share have negative signs meaning that a 1 percent increase in the use of these inputs reduces total cost of production of insurance services by 0.1 percent for market share and 0.5 percent for factor input prices. By this result, market share reduces total cost in both models. The square input prices contribute to total cost by 0.3 percent. Looking at Table A which reports Translog model result for the entire sample, it can be noted that variables such as output, square of output, square of input prices and firm size all have positive signs except for market share and square of market share which have negative signs. While the former (variables with positive signs) have a strong corollary in the Varian conditions for cost estimation, the latter (variables with negative signs) have failed to meet up with our apriori expectations in this study. The own price elasticity is even inelastic. By this result, a 1 percent increase in the market share on the average reduces total cost of operating an insurance branch in Nigeria by 11 percent. Interactions between output/firm size and output market share are all cross substitutes but the figures are very small when compared with the theoretical limit of infinity for perfect substitution. On the other hand, the cross interaction between output and input prices; input prices and firm size; firm size and market share are all complements. If the price of the substitutable product increases, then there is a proportionally higher fall in the quantity demanded as consumers shift to the nearer available substitutes. The same result is reported for input price and firm size and firm size and market share. The adjusted R2 is indicative of the magnitude of usefulness of the explanatory variables to explain changes in total cost variable

The subscript depicts coefficient of the variable to be estimated δMs for instance, is the coefficient estimated for Market share

variable and δ z is the coefficient estimated for the size variable. Where there are two letters in the subscript, it implies measurement of cross-product relationship

δ such as zms is the $$coefficient of the cross product of size and the market share. In which case, the cross elasticities are easier to compute from Translog regression results. For instance, the cost elasticity of output can be represented as ∑ cn δ ln/ δ ln Yr (Greene, 1993) (Evans, 1999). Empirical Results Analysis: The quadratic terms generated which are specified with the cross products and squares allows for elasticity of factor substitution to be unrestricted (Green, 1993). The basic translog model works well or even better than Cobb-Douglas in terms of describing Nigerian Insurance cost function in a manner that produce the cost structures in the Nigerian Insurance Industry (Usman, 2007). To confirm this, insurance firm is conceived to maximize profit and increase efficiency by selecting an optimal mix of production technologies such as capital, labour, entrepreneurial skills, premium income and market share that minimizes production cost of indemnity and investment services. The result of this study has shown that output/input price combination in this study is capable of reducing costs by 0.2%. So also the interaction between firms’ size and market share is capable of reducing total cost by approximately 0.3%. However, a 1 percent increase in the output will on the average increase the total cost by 0.13 percent. The cost elasticities under translog

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Table A: Translog function result for the entire firms DEPENDENT VARIABLE VARIABLE Total Cost TC Constant

PARAMETER

CO-EFFICIENT

C(1)

10.73992 (5.368676) 0.134232 (0.066783) 0.209768 (0.028690) -0.464710 (0.522953) 0.267907 (0.037819) 0.253644 (0.317417) -0.007736 (0.0119288) -1.110858 (2.187336) -0.560056 (0.470132) -0.240280 (0.021215) 0.040801 (0.009804) 0.215863 (0.090790) -0.016105 (0.011901) 0.267354 (0.091880) -0.286334 (0.075687) -2.455003 (1.119750) 0.817914 0.807910 0.682227

Output

LNY

Square Output

5*(LNY)2

Input price

LNW

Square of Input price

5*(LNW) 2

Firm size

LNZ

Square of Firm size

5*(LNZ) 2

Market share

LNM

Square of market share

5*(LNM) 2

Cross elasticities of output and input prices Cross elasticities of output and firm size Cross elasticities of output and market share Cross elasticities of input price and firm size Cross elasticities of input price and market share Cross firm size and market share Pre and post consolidation

LNY*LNW

R- square Adjusted R-square Durbin-Watson

R2

LNY*LNZ LNY*LNM LNW*LNZ LNW*LNM LNZ*LNM CN

tSTATISTICS 2.000478** 2.009974** 7.311585** -0.888627 7.083971** 0.799088 -0.401072 -0.507859 -1.191275 -11.3617** 4.161795** 2.377594** -1.353178 2.909827** -3.783116** -0.192456

** and * significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively Factor input prices has statistically negative relationship with medium and small firms. A one percent increase in the cost of factor inputs reduces total cost for medium firm by 7.06 percent and small firm by 3.58 percent. Market share reduces total cost by 22.38% for large firm, by 9.60% for medium firm and by 10.5% for small firms. In Table B below, firm size measured by the premium income does not have significant contribution to total cost. However, interactions between output and

input prices are negative and significant only for small size firms but positive for medium size firms. Interaction between output and firm sizes is positive for all categories and significant only for medium and small size firms. While the interaction between output and market share shows a negative relationship with total cost and significant only for the medium size firms. Input prices/firms size is not significant for all categories. Input prices and market share is positively significant only for medium

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size firm. Firms size/market share is variables employed in this analysis. significant for small category of firms. However, it is pertinent to note here that out 2 Result of R coefficient of determination of the three categories of insurance firms in obtained for large firms is significant at this work, the result obtained for medium is 2 96% confidence level whereas the R best behaved both in terms of economic and determination for medium firms is 97% and statistical criteria of the analysis. Cost 85% for small firms. These results have efficiency gains have been indicated for shown that explanatory variables employed medium size firms especially in factor in this model have been able to account for combination of output and market share. changes in total cost of providing insurance This result suggests that insurance services in Nigeria at very high percentage. companies could save costs by 1.9% if their Similar result has been obtained for the business expansion strategies could be adjusted R2 . pursued side by side with opening of more Durbin Watson result has indicated a branches. minimum serial correlation among TABLE B: Translog Model results for Large, Medium and Small Firms Dependent Variable Total Cost Tc

Independent Variable Constant

Parameter

Output

LNY

Squared Output Input price

5*(LNY)2

C(1)

LNN 2

Squared of Input price Firm size

5*(LNN)

Squared of Firm size Market share

5*(LNZ) 2

Squared of premium income Cross elasticities of output and input prices Cross elasticities of output and firm size Cross elasticities of output and market share Cross elasticities of input price and firm size Cross elasticities of input price and market share Firm size and market share Pre and post consolidation

5*(LNM) 2

LNZ

LNM

Large firm CoEfficient 428.7688 (266.1137) -10.17656 (9.302529) 0.634473 (0.528838) 3.462090 (5.825450) -0.097096 (0.465272) 1.077517 (8.976571) -236.3053 (138.4283) -223.8151 (138.4283) 49.11057 (33.51489)

TStatistics 1.611216* -1.093956 -1.199749 0.594304 -0.208685 0.120037 -0.894571 1.616831* 1.465336

Medium firm CoT-statistics Efficient. 137.6461 2..514419** (54.74269) 5.227706 3.207611** (1.629782) 0.095776 1.955858** (0.048969) -7.065864 (1.349885) 5.234421** 0.148045 2.747718** (0.053879) 1.290537 1.079697 (1.195277) -0.076865 (0.030834) 2.492844** -96.08422 (42.44795) 2.263577** 33..37694 1.982486** (16.83590)

Prob.

Coefficient

0.0139

-124.2944 (35.71281) 3.8424471 (1.788550) -0.205672 (0.064852) -3.587788 (1.556265) 0.323499 (0.063804) 3.346507 (1.557607) -0.087400 (0.041848) 10.56499 (22.27637) -48.70695 (7.442249)

0.0019 0.0538 0.0000 0.0074 0.2834 0.0147 0.0262 0.0507

Small firm T-statistics 3.480388** 2.148373** 3.171380** 2.305384** 0.507218 2.148492** 2.088494** 4.742691** 6.544654**

LNY*LNW

0.481371 (0.519404)

0.926777

0.136315 (0.051797)

2.631712**

0.0101

-0.103506 (0.027849)

3.716735**

LNY*LNZ

0.346052 (0.423929)

0.816297

137.6461 (54.74269)

1.726276*

0.0880

0.072997 (0.024858)

2.936551**

LNY*LNM

2.601419 (3.191857)

0.015017

-1.940962 (0.645027)

3.009118**

0.0035

0.291463 (0.741091)

0.393289

LNW*LNZ

-0.418519 (0.281254)

-1.488012

0.009050 (0.018212)

0.496890

0.6206

0.019120 (0.019827)

-0.964328

LNW*LNM

-0.944089 (1.875659)

-0.503337

2.940124 (0.536907)

2.940124**

0.0000

0.560146 (0.586245)

0.955481

LNZ*LNM

1.799462 (2.602822)

0.691350

-0.468867 (0.500211)

0.937338

0.3513

-1.466101 (0.533556)

2.747791**

CN

0.105347 (0.413979)

0.254475

-0.299697 (0.148422)

-2.019217

0.0469

-0.273399 (0.320729)

-0.852429

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R- square Adjusted Rsquare DurbinWatson

R2

Large firm 0.964032 0.947683

Medium firm 0.973936 0.969226

0.857331 0.839933

-51.77957

1.404951

0.840977

** and * significant at 1%, 5% and 10% respectively Output elasticity with respect to total cost is positive and implies that a 1% increase in the production of total output (indemnity and investment) ceteris peribus, will on the average increase the total cost by approximately 0.4%. This result indicates the presence of operational functions derived from managing multiple outputs. The cost elasticity of investment is highly significant and it is almost perfectly elastic. However cost elasticity of indemnity is inelastic but significant. The implication of this result is that investment product has a very high significant relationship with total cost of producing insurance services in Nigeria. However, the outcome of this result follows Caves

Small firm

(1984); Filippini and Luchsinga (2005) which reported economies of scale as a proportional increase in total cost brought about by a proportional increase in output holding all other factors constant. Both cost elasticity of total output and cost elasticity of indemnity indicates increasing return to scale whereas cost elasticity of investment indicates constant return to scale. Increasing returns to scale is when a larger quantity of the firms’ output is produced at a lower average cost than are smaller quantity of the output. The implication of this result is that insurance firms in Nigeria enjoy economies of scale in the production of the output and more importantly in the provision of indemnity product.

Table C: Calculation of elasticities and scale economies (SCE) from Translog regressions Elasticities Cost Elasticity of output Cost Elasticity of Investment Cost Elasticity of Indemnity

Elasticities Value 0.36 0.99 - 0.83

Further, firms in the large category performed best in terms of efficiency and results generated from Translog indicates that well over 90 percent changes in the cost have been explained by the specified explanatory variables. The translog model results for the three categories have similar and dissimilar results. For instance in table B, in the case of large firm, the coefficient result is 10.1766 which implies own-price inelastic and that holding all other factors constant, a 1 percent increase in the total output, would on the average reduces the total cost by 10 percent which is cost efficiency gains. Similar result was reported by (Wuyts and Cayseele, 2004) on cost efficiency in the European security settlement and safekeeping industry. Although, this result must be interpreted

SCE 1 – 0.36 = 0.64 1 – 0.99 = 0.01 1 + 0.83 = 1.83

with caution as it does not conform to Varian Cost conditions (which expects cost function to be linearly homogenous, increase in output and price but concave in all input prices). But in another case, the economies of scale suggest a cost saving advantage as the production goes into large scale. It can on the strength of this result posit that there exist economies of scale for large scale insurance firms in Nigeria. The R2 is significant at 96 percent confidence level, implying that the explanatory variables used in this model are almost perfect. When viewed, the result with medium and small scale, which reported 5.223 and 3.8425 respectively, one can simply conclude and in line with economic theory that economies of scale could only be enjoyed by large scale producing firm. Also in the medium and small firms both

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the input prices and market share own prices elasticities are inelastic. However, in all the three categories, the results have shown, ceteris paribus, that market share reduces total cost. This might be true as more branches create opportunity for more businesses and capacity to mobilize larger premium income which on the long run reduces cost of operation.

premium income. This firm size represented by premium income would contribute to firm’s performance only when a sound and suitable investment decision are made. The result also implied that optimal production scale from production of insurance services in Nigeria is attainable when they grow into larger scale firm. As it is presently constituted, more than 80 percent of Nigerian insurance firms are either in medium or small scale

Conclusion: The strict analysis of cost structures in Nigerian insurance industry suggest that factor input prices contributed mostly to total cost. Over the period of study it is evident that Nigerian Insurance sector was characterized by increasing returns to scale, hence insurance market stands to reduce cost of production when it is well recapitalized. Based on the results of the estimated model, it could be reported that most Nigerian insurance firms operations are still cost inefficient. Of all the three categories, the coefficients results obtained for large firm in the model reported high significances. The implication of this is that economies of scale is achievable by larger insurance firms, hence performance can be enhanced through cost minimization advantages associative of large scale business. It is also pertinent to conclude that there is a need to retain the best suitable experts/ personnel in insurance industry through attractive remuneration packages that is comparable with bank workers, since both operate in the same finance industry. This issue becomes more pertinent in the light of universal banking system which tries to create a level playing ground for all financial products in the financial supermarkets. The study also concluded that mobilization of premium income is not enough to enhance insurance performance what is much more important is the ability to reinvest pooled premium income into high yielding investments, such that the rate of returns obtainable supersedes the level of risks associative of such mobilized

Bibliography: 1. Afolabi, and Osota (2001): “Production characteristics in the Nigerian Banking Industry”. AERC Final Report. 2. Barnum, H. and Kutzin, J (1993): “Public Hospital in Developing Countries”; Resources Use, Cost, Financing. John Hopkins University Press, Baltimore, Maryland. 3. Baumol, W J; Fischer, D and Nadriri, M.I (1978): “Forms of Empirical Cost Functions to Evaluate Industry structure”, paper N0.30, center for the study of Business Regulations, Graduate school of Business Administration, Duke University. 4. Baumol, W.J., John C.P. and Robert D.W. (1982) “Contestable Markets and the Theory of Industry Structure” (New York: Harcourt Brace, Johanoviah, Inc.) 5. Bays,C.W (1980): “Specification Error in the Estimation of Hospital Cost function”. Review of Economics and Statistics, 302-305. 6. Bazzoli, G.S. Shortfell, and T.D. Aunno (2000): “The Financial Performance of Hospitals belonging of Health Networks and Systems” Inquiry, 37, 234-252. 7. Becker, E.R and Sloan, F.A. (1985): “Hospital Ownership and Performance”, Economic Inquiry, 23, 21-36 8. Bitzan J (2000): “Railway Cost Conditions- Implication for Policy”; Upper Great Plains Transportation Institute, North Dakota State

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University 9. Caves, W.C, Christensen, L.R, Tretheway, M.W (1984): Economies of Density versus Economies of Scale: why trunk and local service Airline costs Differ, Rand Journal of Economics, 15, 471-489. 10. Christensen, L. R, Jorgenson D.W and Lau L. J (1975): “Transcendental LogarithmicUtility Functions”. American Economic Review 65, 367383. 11. Chukwulozie (2007); “Recapitalization in the Insurance Industry” .The Guardian Newspaper Vol 24 No. 10497. 12. Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) Bullion (1997): “Budget of Economic Growth and Development”. 13. Conrad, D.C. and Shortfell S.M Health (1996):“Integrated Systems”.Promise and Performance Frontiers in Health Services Management 13, pp 3-40 14. Ermann, D. and Gabel J. (1985): “The challenging Face of American Health Multihospital System, Care: Emergency Centres, and Surgery Centre”, Medical Care 23, 401-402. 15. Evans M.J (1999): “ Hospital Cost Funtions and Quality”; Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and StateUniversity. 16. Fillippini, M. and Luchsinger C. (2005): “Economics of Scale in the Swiss Hydropower sector”.Center for Energy Policy and Economics, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, Zurich, CEPE Working Paper No 44, Switzerland. 17. Greene ,W (2003): “Econometric Analysis”. New Jersey. Prentice Hall.Fifth Edition. New York University, Upper Saddle River, NEW Jersey 07458.

18. Harchaous T, M. (2005): “Structures, Conduct and Economic performance of the Insurance sectors Financial Intermediatum activities”. Statistics, Canada. 19. Kwan S.H (2001) : “The X- Efficiency of Commercial Banks in Hong Kong”; Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, Hong Kong Institute of Monetary Research. 20. Leigh D (2001): “Efficiency in UK Building Society Branch Networks”. A comparative Analysis Using parametric and non-parametric Distance functions; Centre for International Finance and Economics Research Longhborough U.K 21. NAICOM (2006) : “Guidelines for the insurance sector reform and consolidation, “Published by National insurance commission, September 30,2005. Wuse zone 5, PMB 457, Garki, Abuja. 22. Rosko D; Proenea J. and zinn J. (2002): “Does membership in different types of health care systems affect Hospital cost efficiency”? 23. Soyode, A. (1983): “Constraints on Economic Development in Nigera”. In Development of Economics and Planning, Essays in honour of Ojetunji Aboyade (eds). 17 Osayinwese Unibadan press. 24. Usman, O.A(2007) “Impact of Cost Structures on the performance of selected insurance companies in Nigeria”; Being a PhD Preliminary report submitted to the Department of Management Science, LAUTECH, Ogbomoso. 25. Wuyts, C. and Cayseele V. P. (2004): “Cost efficiency in the European Securities Settlement and Safekeeping industry” K.U Leuven, Department of Economics, Naansetraat 69, 3000 Leuven Belgium.

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THE INTELLIGENCE COMMUNITY - ACADEMIA KNOWLEDGE PARTNERSHIP Claudia CRISTESCU Ph.D., candidate, National Defence University, Bucharest, Romania, teaching assistant, Department of Political Science, West University of Timisoara [email protected] Abstract. As part of the wider doctoral research „Reforming the intelligence sector through academic education. Implications for the military higher education”, the paper focuses on the lack of intelligence education as a threat to the national security and also on the Intelligence – University nexus as a critical part of todays Knowledge Society and of the Bologna process to create the EHEA by making academic degree standards&quality assurance standards compatible throughout Europe. Firstly, we will examine the Sherman Kent approach of the link between intelligence, knowledge and decision making. Then, we will argument the need for an academic outreach of intelligence based on the new context of the 21st century (the heightened role of intelligence in international affairs and in its influence upon political agenda setting, decision making and policy making; the preminence of intelligence and security issues in political discourse as well as at the level of public opinion) also pointing out the main approaches to academic outreach for intelligence. The paper also discussess the new intelligence paradigm -marked by the "Clearances Matter Less Than Knowledge"- versus the open science dilemma. A key-issue of the paper is about the need for Intelligence Studies as a new field of intellectual inquiry, scholarly debate and as an academic study program within the social sciences field of study. Keywords. Intelligence studies, Academic outreach, Research cluster, Knowledge, Open science dilemma

about intelligence and national security affairs. In 1949 intelligence pioneer Sherman Kent introduced a triplicate framework within which to consider the subject of intelligence, as knowledge, as activity, and as organization1. More specific, Kent saw intelligence as “a special category of knowledge”. From this point of view, the link between Intelligence, Knowledge and Decision-making is that intelligence organisations are knowledge organisations, with the analysts creating new or add value to existing knowledge every time they make sense of conflicting and uncertain information. The partnership has obvious benefits for both universities and IC as it illustrates its commitment to the professionalization of knowledge work. In other word, it is a matter of gaining knowledge through academic education (via the emergence of intelligence studies) for entering the intelligence industry or for creating the national intelligence policies. How is knowledge supporting intelligence? As Figure 1 shows, when a growing supply of relevant information is

Lack of Intelligence Education as a National Security Threat The lack of intelligence education can become a national security threat due to the fact that the future public officials, policy makers or political consultants educated at civil universities could bias the intelligence process by not acquiring and not possessing the necessary skills and knowledge of it. It is well known that only an adequate intelligence can guarantee the success of decision and policy making; governmental policy makers shall be able to make relevant internal political or diplomatic intercessions, only if they assimilate the information regarding the global security and political context and try to adapt it to the strategic situation, risks, threatening or existent opportunities. One way to overcome the public apathy toward intelligence is by cultivating a political culture that supports and trusts intelligence. Thus, contributions to developing an intelligence awareness among IC outsiders must include building an higher educational capacity in intelligence studies that would create an enabling environment for universities to exercise intellectual leadership in addressing societal demand for knowledge

1

Kent, Sherman, Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy, (Princeton University Press, 1949), ix

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issues driving the political and security agenda. By reaching out to the academic community and increasing the ties between the IC and the university system, the IC can gain meaningful insights and alternative opinions: the academics could be used to review analytical assumptions and logic, to examine alternative approaches to an issue, to argue the pros and cons to a judgment involving uncertainty, ambiguity, or debate, and to provide technical peer review. The U..S Intelligence Community Directive 205 dated 16 july 2008 defines analytic outreach as „the open, overt, and deliberative act of an intelligence community analyst engaging with an individual outside the IC to explore ideas and alternate perspectives, gain new insights, or generate new knowledge.” According to Gregory F.Treverton, the main approaches to academic outreach for intelligence are: co-production by outsourcing certain analysis task to outsiders with academic background, virtual co-production (e.g. wikis, blogs, U.S.Intellipedia), occasional consultation of academic experts, joint working groups on particular issues, IC publications made available for academic researchers, occasional conferences to enable the dialogue between the intelligence and academic communities, use of intelligence services Web sites for interaction2. Those types of outreach involve relations with academics designed mainly to build long-term relationships or platforms for public discourse on issues related to national security, and not necessarily to produce immediate analysis. For example, the British Defence Academy’Advanced Research and Assessment Group (ARAG) organizes its work in „research clusters” by holding

put together and we begin to recognize what is happening (cognition), we are able to move up one more step to a level of knowledge, where we can know what is happening in a wider context. When enough knowledge is acquired, we can apply judgement to that knowledge and take yet another step up the hierarchy to achieve understanding of the events in progress. At this point, the assessment of future probabilities is a higher form of cognition. Prediction applied to understanding yields the intelligence product, which is then used to support decision-making leading to advantageous action. True intelligence resides at the highest level of the human cognitive hierarchy. Academic Outreach of Intelligence Building partnerships between the scientific and intelligence communities could help our country to better balance relative risks and benefits as viewed from the different perspectives of the university and security communities. Such collaboration will help improve the knowledge of both communities in order to achieve a better understanding of the security issues and the consequences for science, higher education, and the future of the Romanian economy. Giving the new context of the 21st century (with the heightened role of intelligence in international affairs and in its influence upon political agenda setting, decision making and policy making, the prominence of intelligence and security issues in political discourse as well as at the level of public opinion), we argue in favour of the need to bring non-governmental expertise into the intelligence process, referring to this source of knowledge as “the missing dimension of intelligence”; outside experts with academic background can assist the intelligence community in better understanding the context underpinning unprecedented challenges posed by the age of transnational threats and in creating new knowledge on priority

2

Treverton, Gregory F., Approaches to Outreach for Intelligence, Swedish National Defence College. Vallingby: Ellanders Printing, 2009. http://www.fhs.se/upload/Forskning/centrumbildnin gar/cats/publikationer/2009/approaches-to-outreachfor-intelligence.pdf

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research based thematic seminars with participants from intelligence community and the Academia. The results of the research are discussed by intelligence and academic experts, along with policy makers as intelligence consumers. Similarly, the SHARP workshop is but one of a wide array of outreach projects now underway in United States, involving millions of dollars in contracts, fellowships, conferences-even wikis and blogs-directed at scholars and other IC outside experts. Organized under the auspices of The Office of the Deputy Director of National Intelligence for Analysis, the Summer Hard Problem Program (SHARP) brings together annually leading specialists from the social sciences and government analysts with the goal of engaging external (non-government) experts on issues of critical interest to the Intelligence Community, as part of the White House initiative/commitment to create and institutionalize a culture of Open Government Even tough Robert David Steele talks about “public intelligence”, “multilateral information sharing rather than unilateral secrecy” and about the emergence of academia as one of the seven “intelligence tribes”3, the outreach varies in extent and form across nations. For instance, the German external (Bundesnachrichtendienst) and domestic intelligence services (Bundesamtes fur Verfassungsschutz) do not cooperate with any NGO or academic consultant. In Spain and the UK outreach activities mostly evolve around the concept of “open source” aiming at promoting an “intelligence culture” as the knowledge base citizens must have about intelligence agencies in order to perceive them as integral part of society itself. To accomplish this, the Spanish and British intelligence seek to make intelligence an academic discipline to

be studied at universities and also tend to cooperate with Academia in order to benefit from its knowledge base on topics of interest for the IC. In general, the European governments are more reluctant to academic outreach for intelligence, and the private-public cooperation is rarer than in United States or Canada. For example, the National Intelligence Council (NIC) is the US intelligence community’s center for strategic thinking, charged with coordinating outreach efforts to nongovernment experts in academia and the private sector; the Pentagon’s academic outreach project — the "Minerva Consortium" – proposes to have universities work together on a number of projects of interest to the Pentagon; the FBI’s “National Security Higher Education Advisory Board” is panel of university presidents to advise the agency on how to improve relations with higher education; the CIA’s Center for the Study of Intelligence and “Officers in Residence Program” (that affords Agency Intelligence Officers the opportunity to serve as faculty members at academic institutions); The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI’s) “IC Centers for Academic Excellence Program” establishes long term partnerships with Academia for the IC to help meet the requirements articulated in the authorities; the “Program of Intelligence Research and Education” (PIRE) at University of Maryland operates in partnership with the National Consortium on the Sources of Terrorism and Responses to Terrorism and the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Agency; the Canadian Security Intelligence Service’s “Academic Outreach Program” brings together experts from various disciplines and sectors, including government, think-tanks, research institutes, universities, private business and non-governmental organizations. The main instrument to build an ICAcademia relationship in the European context would be through the establishment

3

Steele, Robert D., “Information Peacekeeping & The Future of Intelligence--The United Nations, Smart Mobs, The Seven Tribes.” Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future, (Virginia: OSS International Press, 2003), Chap. 13.

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of an independent open-source research that benefits both IC (by supplementing internal analysis) and Academia (1.by encouraging the inclusion of intelligence content in teaching about international relations, which would help foster greater public interest and understanding of the role of intelligence in statecraft; 2.by creating a culture of openness toward discussing policies and procedures employed by the intelligence organizations; 3.by offering the opportunity to the political scientists, historians, psychologists to test their own theories in a policy-infused setting and to subject them to the scrutiny by fellow scholars, policy makers as well as analytic practitioners4; 4. by developing an intelligence paradigm5 in an effort to apply analytic methodologies and insights drawn from the social sciences, to understand the fundamental nature of intelligence, to explain the history of intelligence successes and failures, to understand intelligence organizations and processes, and to assess and improve upon the craft of analysis itself). Nevertheless, as Kenneth E. Roberts points out, the main obstacles to government outreach toward academic expertise by working from unclassified sources and providing unclassified information on topics related to the security could include6: inadequate funding, prejudice in the academic community against the intelligence community, that lack of access for academics to classified reporting that makes their analysis less timely and less informed. In addition, the

writing styles of academics are often different from the needs of policymakers and intelligence analysts. The study of intelligence One of the research priorities relating to the partnership between the science and intelligence Communities focuses on the major role to play by the social sciences in understanding threats, risks, and potential organizational response strategies. There is a gap between the importance of intelligence agencies in the public policy world and the attention that they are receiving by social scientists and the consequence of this gap is an underdeveloped understanding of the political, sociological and organizational factors that critically influence what agencies do and how effectively they do it. As the 2002 National Academies report, Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences, emphasized that “systematic theoretical and empirical research can create, confirm, refine, and reject understandings about terrorism as a social and political phenomenon, thereby improving the knowledge base for efforts to contend with it.”7 Furthermore, with regard to security concerns, the social sciences could focus on the precise nature of current “threats” to national and global security, including investigations of the culture of terrorist groups and the structure of terrorist networks. As a relatively recent addition to academic study, Intelligence Studies is defined by the Chair of the IAFIE (International Association for Intelligence Education) Educational Practices Committee – as “the study and practice of applying information gathered by both open and clandestine methods for the purpose of strategic planning, criminal investigation, and policy implementation by governments,

4

Bowmann, M., The Intelligence CommunityAcademic Partnership: Of Smarts and Secrets, Maryland: St.Mary’s Defence College, 2008. http://www.smcm.edu/democracy/_assets/_docume nts/Dr.%20Bowman%20Miller.pdf 5 Johnson, Loch K., Handbook of Intelligence Studies (New York: Routledge, 2007), 31-36. 6 Roberts, Kenneth E., Better Analysis through networking: Expanding Outreach in an Era of Global Challenges. International Studies Association. 2005. http://www.scribd.com/doc/28736060/BetterAnalysis-Through-Networking-ExpandingOutreach-an-Era-of-Global-Challenges

7

National Research Council, Terrorism: Perspectives from the Behavioral and Social Sciences (Washington, D.C.: The National Academies Press, 2002), 50.

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law enforcement agencies, and business”. The aim set for intelligence studies can be summarized as promoting multidisciplinary understanding of the concepts, issues and debates regarding intelligence in order for the public to become more aware of issues around the meaning, value, nature and proper use of intelligence. According to researchers L.Scott and P.Jackson, “much of the study of intelligence concerns the relationship between power and knowledge, or rather the relationship between certain kinds of power and certain kinds of knowledge.”8 It is not a linear relationship: sometimes “knowledge is power” while at others knowledge may inform the exercise of power. Yet, at other times, power may determine what is “knowledge”. As showed in Table 1 by Peter Gill, the research elements correspond to the “levels” of analysis individual, small-group, organisational, societal and trans-societal. Each provides the context for, and is influenced by, the actions and dispositions of those “below”. Each level has theoretical approaches that already exist within social science and that can be deployed by scholars and researchers. Comparisons may be made along a historical dimension by studying the single agencies, operations and countries at particular times. Also, in the form of comparative analysis, studies may be conducted on a spatial dimension, by comparing who are recruited as intelligence officers to agencies in the same country or to equivalent agencies in different countries. Similarly, the impact of organisational cultures and the phenomenon of “groupthink” might be studied intra- or inter-nationally. Analysts will use various research techniques as they focus on different levels of intelligence processes in order to produce empirical work.

“Clearances Matter Less Than Knowledge” and The Open Science Dilemma According to Prof.Martin Rudner, university-based research represents a valuable means of building knowledge at the leading edge of historical and policyoriented intelligence and security studies9. The academic research can offer an outside perspective based on open sources that allow new insights, comparative assessments or analytical reviews on intelligence and security policies, organizations and activities. Even if, in the past, intelligence agencies were reluctant to the research inquiries into their secretive domains, today, in most democracies, academic research is recognized as contributing added value to broader governmental and public knowledge of the intelligence community. The new intelligence paradigm marked by the "Clearances Matter Less Than Knowledge" doctrine favors the open source information and a trans-sector intelligence collaboration that includes a broad network of public and private actors. For example, www.isn.ethz.ch and www.oxan.com are two academic websites that provide a wealth of open source information for researchers and analysts. Based at the Center for Security Studies at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, the International Relations and Security Network (ISN) collects and manages resources from hundreds of different thinktanks, research institutes, international organizations, and government agencies in its digital library and also publishes a daily news analysis service, Security Watch. Oxford Analytica is a premium rate strategic analysis and consulting service drawing on a network of university researchers and faculty members at Oxford and other major universities around the world. 9

Rudner, Martin, “Intelligence Studies in Higher Education: Capacity-building to meet societal demand.” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, 22:1 (2009): 110-130.

8

Scott, L. and Jackson, P., “The Study of Intelligence in Theory and Practice.” Intelligence and National Security, 19:2 (2004): 150.

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Despite of this openness, the intelligence community currently imposed several restrictions on the free flow of scientific information in order to avoid the potential transfer and exploitation of knowledge among adversaries. From this point of view, the intelligence and university research communities have limited understanding of each other’s cultures: many in the intelligence community do not understand the need for open scientific communication; many in the university community do not understand the concerns of the intelligence community about the potential exploitation of academic research among adversaries. The convergence of a new age of science and a new age of terrorism threatens to compromise the open science by imposing restrictions on the free flow of scientific information. The open science dilemma10 has been recognized as a top priority in the scientific and national intelligence communities since the terrorist attacks of 2001, because - undisputedly the fruits of scientific advancements may also be subject to harmful “dual use” by enemy combatants, terrorists, and any number of other malefactors with the necessary skills and resources. As the 2002 National Academies report, Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism11, recommended: “It must be initiated a dialogue between intelligence authorities and the research universities on the balance between protecting information vital to national security and the free and open way in which university research is…accomplished.”

Conclusion Building partnerships between the academic and intelligence communities could help Romania to better balance the potential risks and benefits as viewed from the different approaches of the university and intelligence communities. Such collaboration will help educate the two communities in order to achieve a better understanding of the security issues and the consequences for science, higher education, and the future of the U.S. economy. Mechanisms should be created to maintain an ongoing dialogue between these two communities in order to improve awareness of issues before they become a source of controversy or confrontation by disseminating the appropriate appropriate technical and policy expertise. Acknowledgments The research was done in the 92097/2008 project, financed by the Romanian Ministry of Education and Research, Parteneriate Program. Bibliography: 1. Bowmann, M. The Intelligence Community-Academic Partnership: Of Smarts and Secrets. Maryland: St.Mary’s Defence College, 2008 2. Cox, Jim. „Intelligence: Definitions, Concepts and Governance.” Canada: Parliamentary Information and Research Service (2009): 4-5 3. Gorman, Brian J. “Balancing National Security and Open Science: A proposal for Due Process Vetting.” Yale Journal of Law and Technology (20042005):.492-493 4. Johnson, L.K. Handbook of Intelligence Studies. New York: Routledge, 2007 5. Kent, Sherman. Strategic Intelligence for American World Policy, Princeton University Press, 1949 6. Roberts, K.E. Better Analysis through networking: Expanding Outreach in an Era of Global Challenges. International Studies Association, 2005.

10

Brian J.Gorman, “Balancing National Security and Open Science: A proposal for Due Process Vetting.” Yale Journal of Law and Technology (2004-2005):.492-493. 11 National Academies, Making the Nation Safer: The Role of Science and Technology in Countering Terrorism. http://www.nap.edu/openbook.php?isbn=03090848 14

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1. http://www.scribd.com/doc/28736060/B etter-Analysis-Through-NetworkingExpanding-Outreach-an-Era-of-GlobalChallenges 7. Rudner, M. (2009). “Intelligence Studies in Higher Education: Capacitybuilding to meet societal demand.” International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence 22:1, (2009): 110-130 8. Scott, L. and Jackson, P. “The Study of Intelligence in Theory and Practice.” Intelligence and National Security, 19:2 (2004): 150. 9. Steele, R.D. “Information Peacekeeping & The Future of Intelligence--The United Nations, Smart Mobs, The Seven

Tribes.” Peacekeeping Intelligence: Emerging Concepts for the Future, Virginia: OSS International Press (2003): Chapter13 10. Treverton, G.F. Approaches to Outreach for Intelligence. (Swedish National Defence College. Vallingby: Ellanders Printing 2009) 2. http://www.fhs.se/upload/Forskning/cen trumbildningar/cats/publikationer/2009/ approaches-to-outreach-forintelligence.pdf 3. http://www.nap.edu/ 4. http://www.dni.gov/electronic_reading_ room/ICD%205.pdf 5. http://www.whitehouse.gov/open/about

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Annexes Figure 1: A Cognitive Hierarchy. Source: Jim Cox, „Intelligence: Definitions, Concepts and Governance”, (Canada: Parliamentary Information and Research Service, 2009), 4

Figure 2: IC – Academia Partnership to Enhance Knowledge

Intellectual cross-pollination OSINT

Romanian Universities as Knowledge Organizations

Romanian IC as Knowledge Organization

Research – Education - Innovation

OUTCOMES Intelligence Studies as Academic Discipline Intelligence Education Encouraging Public Debate, Informing Decision and PolicyMaking, Demystifying the Intelligence Activity

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Table 1: A map for theorising and researching intelligence. Source: Loch Johnson (ed.), Handbook of Intelligence Studies (New York: Routledge, 2007), 87

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PUBLIC INTERNAL AUDIT LAW - A NEW BRANCH OF LAW IN ROMANIA Valentin – Stelian BADESCU Ph.D., lecturer, lawyer, Romanian - German University, Sibiu Abstract: In Romania, the introduction of internal audit is relatively recent fall in the overall effort to modernize financial management in both private and public sectors. Also, note that the introduction of public sector internal audit is not transposed in the Romanian economy features of the acquis communitarian, for the simple reason that there is no internal audit. At the same time, there is no legal framework and procedures to adapt to one of our member countries, since it does not correspond to current concepts of internal auditing and internal controls. Keywords: Internal audit, public law, management control systems

functioning of public administration, in the spirit of the principle of legality demands, requires the existence of nature selfregulating factors, both within the administrative structure and the foreign debt. More so today, when the distance increases between legality and morality of concern and can not be covered by arguments no matter how cleverly drawn as a solution could be to introduce these assessment mechanisms. Otherwise said, to ensure the legality of administrative acts by way of control implies the existence of some form of administrative control within themselves, as the example of grace is public internal audit. Another argument is that Romania's accession to the European Union meant that there have been substantive strides in filling the forms. More specifically, the EU has exported its forms - rules - in Romania, and then they are pressed and applied, that is filled with the substance to substance. Theoretically, integration into EuroAtlantic structures can only take place when these two dimensions overlap or are about to interfere. One of the largest and most common mistakes made by the Romanian, including intellectuals, is sometimes to believe that accession to the European Union and the transformation is profound and full of country, state, economy and society. Not at all like that. The famous European acquis is not done to build modern states, but largely assumes the existence of modern and

1. Argumentum One of the great challenges that the company must cope with today is the need to develop and maintain institutions and governments control their citizens. In this regard, the government plays an important role in ensuring an adequate quality of public services, thereby contributing to promoting and sustaining economic prosperity and social justice by developing national policies and interaction with European or international in a consistent manner and appropriate. Realizing highquality performance in public administration, without risks and dangers, public policy can be corrected and improved, allowing the entire system to become stronger. In this respect science administration gives us a series of value judgments, so ruling that his reason for being is to achieve a more efficient administration and effective or, in other words as powerful. In view of this science, can be formulated the principle that the staff structure, namely, the use of material and financial resources must be made according to the needs to achieve competence, or, achieving competence in a constitutional system based on rule of law is inconceivable without complying law. Achieving competence requires an organ of government, that essentially the implementation of provisions of law or, where appropriate, the provision of various public services, but only to the extent permissible by law. Therefore, "the 231

with a larger sense, it is seen as a management function and not as a verification operation. Using the control, management finds deviations from the objective results analyze the causes and have them decide what corrective or preventative measures taken. The process of developing internal audit systems in our country, which is currently well placed in the Member States of the union hierarchy, at least in terms of legislative and procedural framework, but also the existence of institutions necessary for the functioning of these systems, has experienced two important moments, namely: the emergence of the Government Ordinance no. 119/1999 on internal control and preventive financial control, republished and, especially, the design and appearance of the Law no. 672/2002 on public internal audit, after which the process in Romania was accepted adequate regulatory and institutional framework in the European Union. And another argument, subjective: our knowledge in this field are very few papers and those developed by economists, scientific approach to being a copyright lawyer with the first pure blood. We are committed to being convinced of the beneficial nature of competition, which is always a boost and motivation for the man who led permanently to - and improve performance, which ultimately translates into benefits for others interested in this field. Therefore, we are not afraid of competition, because we believe that every competitor is a stimulus for our development. In fact it is an internal auditor? "An enemy of all, a lawyer grafted on to an economist. Mutatis mutandis, consideratis considerandis. Auditors of all ages, as individuals who were always checked the work of others, howsoever called, "Inspector" of Gogol, or simply controllers, auditors or, more recently, auditors, were sometimes admired, sometimes misunderstood. Never loved, because where there is much wisdom is much grief, and he

functional states. The acquis is only what the member states of the European Union have agreed to common rules. He is by nature limited. Applicable regulations may mean in a good area, but may be absent in others. The transfer of the acquis has positive effects on reform and transformation in a country, but by no means complete modernization and reform of the state, for example. Full modernization of Romania, the reconciliation forms by combining with specific local fund "the universality of European-style" can only be the result of a Romanian political project, a project of the political elite and the Romanian society to proclaim a number of them and ideals that are nation of them, rather than ready-made, imported or copied. Realistic that the ideals and by a modern and efficient, Romania will become the seventh power of the European Union, the Union and contributing to progress in carrying out its own identity and mission. In Romania, the introduction of internal audit is relatively recent fall in the overall effort to modernize financial management in both private and public sectors. Also, note that the introduction of public sector internal audit is not transposed in the Romanian economy features of the acquis communitarian, for the simple reason that there is no internal audit. At the same time, there is no legal framework and procedures to adapt to one of our member countries, since it does not correspond to current concepts of internal auditing and internal controls. Acquis communitarian in the field of internal control is composed largely of the general principles of good practice internationally accepted and EU. How those principles translate into systems management / internal control is specific to each country, taking account of the constitutional, administrative, legislative, cultural. In the context of general principles of good practice which make up the acquis communitarian, the control is associated

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the paper aims to decipher and analyze the principles, methods and internal audit. As a result, after the presentation of the audit process Romanian training, compared with European and North American, a prominent place is reserved for its fundamental concepts. They are addressed mainly theoretical and methodological aspect to facilitate entry of the least familiar with the vocabulary of abstract logic and audit "functionality" it. In this orientation and concern falls and applications, tables, analytical models, guides and types of documents - forms presented in the paper. In developing the scientific approach we started the specialized Romanian literature, especially from the work of teaching staff at the prestigious Academy of Economic Studies, worthy of the staff of the Department for Strategy and General Methodology of the CHUPIA: Central Harmonization Unit for audit Public Affairs, the Ministry of Public Finance and the ideas and experience from other countries, the state of the practice of internal auditing, and why not from our modest experience in the public internal audit, the auditor's records. The second part of the paper is devoted to internal audit practice with reference to the standardization, planning and conducting internal audits. It is treated in the same manner, with the same intention, to facilitate the general understanding the fundamentals of internal auditing, but also a desire to contribute to future specialists familiar with new concepts and principles introduced in the audit in its improvement process in line with current requirements Euro-Atlantic Romania. The paper is addressed to both theorists but, practitioners and, therefore, includes chapters devoted to external relations at internal audit, management system and quality assurance in public administration, with fraud. We believe that it may be useful and necessary to all who wish to internal audit approach, both for documentation and for practical needs, being aware of its limits and that anything made by man, not

who increases his knowledge multiplies suffering. The auditors, in their investigations uncomfortable, can cause discomfort and sometimes pain. From another point of view, in short words, one can say that our world is in a tolerable balance. Ill they impact on both good prevail. We can still sit in a convenient angle to daily harassment, to interpret the teaching and the limit to save our taking, against all and all, a distance in context. What will it take but this watershed? And what can be done to keep them poor static? As in the case of public entities, as they will be able to maintain this state of affairs in public administration in Romania, which alters its operation, and which cause dissatisfaction and distrust of the Romanian citizen, financier of both the national budget and the European one? When an auditor can assess in terms of the four fundamental principles that guide her work and practice - integrity, objectivity, confidentiality and competence - that delicate balance that will not break? It is an old question, asked by God to Abraham before Sodom conviction. What should be inside a community, the proportion of good and evil, so that the community in question should be "forgiven", protected by the last sentence? How many of the inhabitants of cities should be good for the evil it does not lead to disaster? At such a pathetic question, but obviously, other dimensions and other terms, the auditor must also account when drafting the evaluation report. At least ten call God's response. The aid workers, without judging, if the auditor of an entity in which internal audit is part of the culture of the organization and is supported with interest. There, in an entity faced with important potential risks, the absence of compliance with key regulations with a low efficiency and effectiveness, due to diversions of funds is obvious that the manager will be judged, praised, regarded by the internal auditor's findings difficult to accept. It is from this perspective, a multi systemic and multidisciplinary approach,

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- Assessing the quality of action in putting in execution of the responsibilities assumed Recommending operational improvements. The auditor is a person who is qualified and who is mandated to conduct an audit and all components: - Do not belong to upper caste and not invested with any power; - Ascertain facts; - Complies with strict ethical principles; - Belongs to a new body created jobs in recent years. Internal audit responsibilities within the organization must be clearly established by the Board. Its authority should allow the internal auditor full access to documents, goods and people that have a relation to the subject of control. The internal auditor should be free to determine, to estimate the value of policies, plans, procedures and internal and external reports. Internal audit responsibilities are: - To inform and advise management in accordance with the ethics of the International Institute of Internal Auditors; - To coordinate its activities with other control groups so as to ensure the best possible security controls and organization effectiveness. In performing its functions, an internal auditor has no control over the activities they no direct responsibility or authority. For these reasons, the internal audit review and appraisal should not in any way relieve other persons exercising their responsibilities were assigned. Independence is essential for the effectiveness of internal audit. It is obtained primarily through organizational status and objectivity: - The status of the internal audit function and support accorded to it by management are major determinants of action and of its value. For this reason the head of internal audit function must be attached to a department whose authority covers a large area and ensure its

infallible, is intended to improve and improvement. 2. Internal Audit - Preliminary Issues The audit is a methodical review to determine whether the activities performed and results reviewed satisfy the provisions relating to the subject of default and whether these provisions are put into work in an effective and capable in order to achieve " The audit is used both as a preventive measure, in an audit program to assess the effectiveness of an organization, process, process, classification and tracking from a supplier, as well as curative, in delicate situations: bankruptcy (failure) of benefits, the state of affairs. Internal audit is inside a company or body, or appreciation for independent control of operations, he is in service leadership. In this area, he is a control that has the function of estimating and assessing the effectiveness of other controls. Internal audit objective is to assist the board in the exercise of their responsibilities by providing analysis, findings, recommendations and pertinent comments concerning the activities reviewed. The internal auditor is concerned with all phases of company activities to management. This involves going beyond the accounting and financial records to obtain a full understanding of the operations examined. To reach this objective involves the following activities: - Examining and appraising the soundness, sufficiency and application of accounting, financial, operational and promoting effective control at reasonable cost; - Verification of compliance with policies, plans and procedures; - Check to which company assets are accounted for and safeguarded from losses of any kind; - Verifying the accuracy of the information used by management;

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In the legal sense, the notion of internal audit has a broader scope than the term defined in the economic sense. It includes not only the activities they carry out the auditors assessment, but also operations that they carry the organization to achieve its objectives and its risk management processes, control and management of the organization. Definition of internal audit is based on the Law on public internal audit settled through art. 2 lit. a. However, Chapter IV of that law, persons assigned to internal auditing quality - assigned to an individual employment contract or civil servants - who perform their duties objectively and independently, with professionalism and integrity in accordance with law and in accordance with specific procedures for audit work comply with internal and Code of Ethics of the internal auditor. From what has been stated that the public internal audit includes a set of legal rules governing the manner of assurance and advisory mission, its areas of responsibility and purpose. In another perspective, the notion of internal audit in the formal sense - organic, evokes the following public authority, as established by law: a) Internal Audit Committee (CAPI), a consultative body to act in order to define the strategy and improve the internal audit activity in the public sector; b) The Central Harmonisation Unit for Public Internal Audit (CHUPIA), specialized structure directly subordinate to the Minister of Public Finance with the main attributions: - Design, implementation and monitoring strategy unit in the field, nationally and regulatory framework development (manuals, procedures and methodologies based on uniform international standards, etc..) - Verification of compliance with rules and instructions; - Collaborating institutions and public authorities from Romania and abroad.

recommendations, effective action, appropriate to its effective action vis-à-vis the recommendations of the auditor; - Objectivity is essential audit function. For this reason, an internal auditor must define and implement procedures in place in any activity subject to control or normal, it would be likely to compromise his independence. The financial audit does not respond exactly the same definition as in the case of internal and external audits. Is there really a difference between the frequency of inspections, their degree of precision, the kind of data examined? 3. The concept of public internal audit Name of the internal audit suggests that the public internal audit activity is functionally independent and objective assurance and advice giving leadership to the proper administration of public revenues and expenditures helping public entity to achieve its objectives through a systematic and methodical approach, which assesses and improves efficiency and effectiveness of the management system based on risk management, control and management processes. As can be seen, the need for scientific rigor and teaching terminology we used Romanian legislator, enshrined in article 2 point. of Law no. Internal public audit 672/19.12.2002 But like any work of man is not infallible and can always be improved. The notion of internal audit is used in several ways: etymological, economic and legal. Etymologically speaking, although the audit is talking about ancient Egypt from the time the term comes from the Latin word audit auditing that has significance of "listening". In economic sense, internal auditing is an independent and objective activity, which gives an insurance organization in the degree of control by the operations, a guide to improve operations and contribute to adding value. These activities are performed by internal auditors, independent and objective.

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law audit internal public financial law strictly delimited by the tax law or administrative or economic one. From this perspective, in relation to these fields of law, are entitled to some traditional explanations. Thus, there is no economic law defining unitary point of view, it is conceived as the antithesis of liberal legal model as a new scientific discipline and practice or as a branch of the judiciary. According to an opinion, economic law would be a set of rules that establishes government intervention. In this conception, the content of economic law has evolved, taking momentum in economic or neoliberals period. After a second opinion, economic law is a set of special rules applicable to the economic phenomenon, without distinction as the state is interested or not to intervene in economic activity. According to this view, economic law provides a grouping of rules around the commercial law. But, one can easily see that according to this view, belongs to private law economic law. In time, legal norms belonging to financial and tax law is in close collaboration, differentiation is hard to do otherwise: While the financial legal rules specify the behaviour that you must show the economic and social actors in general, legal rules provide tax law obligations belonging to the collection, management of resources from individuals and legal issues of paying taxes, including penalties for failure to comply with these Tax Code and the Code of Fiscal Procedure. In the process of formation and redistribution of financial resources between the needs of the society's general financial and tax topics as relationships are made - as specific relationships with particular content - specific mutual rights and obligations specified by the national legal standards and/or international. The specificity of these financial tax legal relations resulting from the following features: - Participating subjects: if the first is public revenue an administrative body

c) internal audit department directly subordinate to the leadership constituted public entity shall draft annual plan, performing internal audit to assess whether the institution's financial management and control are transparent and conform to the standards of legality, regularity , economy, efficiency and effectiveness, regularly reporting on the findings, conclusions and recommendations resulting from work. In the material sense - functionally evokes the notion of internal audit and legal acts that run the physical operations by law or by the subsequent issuance of rules, which can not only be secundum legem and praeter legem or by the organization or, if appropriate, providing Public Services Department. Pull therefore dominant few notes: - Activity performed only by executive and administrative authorities that called internal auditors; - Task of fulfilling the law (ie laws and adopt legally inferior law) or, where appropriate, organizational or internal audit to the effective date; - Activities carried out in the public power system, ie through powers granted by the Constitution and laws that make public interest should prevail when it conflicts with particular interest. Given the demands of formal logic and the variety of specialized terminology of the doctrine, consider that a better understanding of our concept of public internal audit required more extensive explanations. It is common knowledge that any definition should look like proximate and specific difference. Even if it is not stated expressly that the definition of public internal audit is a species of internal control. 4. The right of public internal audit - a new branch of law In order to improve public entities in Romania business and legal relations that it entails, I suggest, for the first time in the specialty doctrine - because, to our knowledge, is the first initiative of this kind - need to recognize and thus the autonomy

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specific legislation. In terms of taxes and operating one of the fundamental principles of legality is: nothing, not a tax or a charge off in explanation of their law, order or decision governmental local community councils. In other words, financial market (capital) market is well regulated / controlled as opposed to other markets such as consumer goods market is characterized by freedom of partners (commercial law issues). It is true that some segments of financial markets (domestic credit insurance market, etc.) Participants can express their freedom to contract. In essence, financial and tax law belongs to the subsystem where the relationship between public law partner of the legal issues are in a relationship of subordination, given the general interests of the State take precedence over group interests and / or private. Economic activity in its various concrete manifestations, appears in the form of goods and services offered on the market (per product / service creates a market for the product.) Currency - money in the name of the generic - and everything is a commodity with very special, resulting in open market concept. Among the various market segments of the national market system are closely interdependent, manifested in a dynamic equilibrium specific national markets advanced course, which operates within the rule of law and where the blind force of law to eliminate the manifestations of unbalanced and the markets group interests (economic) determine the general interests of society. Interest groups (economic interest) in power will transform their state laws "caste" that generates waste, social injustice, poverty and underdevelopment. Financial and tax law rules by their content to help ensure the financial means to meet the overall strategic objectives: prosperity, balance and decency in social life. Financial law can be defined as consisting of all acts regulating relations of constitution, distribution and use of funds of state and government institutions,

vested with the state financial interest in setting up funds, and the other is a natural or legal person paying the tax, duty, excise duty etc. In the event of redistribution of public funds by the various beneficiaries, it receives revenues under different names: grants, stipends, pensions, scholarships, etc. Of the authorizing officer who turns to his own budget in various categories of expenditure; - Content of a legal report highlights the financial and fiscal rights and responsibilities as participants in various topics of economic relations (narrowly financial, credit, insurance); - The report of financial law and tax law refers to the conduct, actions or inactions that subjects can report them to accomplish and give substance content of the rights and obligations of participants in various financial relationships (planning, standardization, management, prognosis, evaluation using funds ); - Disputes that may arise under a legal fiscal financial report may be resolved administratively or by a court common and / or Court of Auditors. Documents and financial transactions tax law made by the participating subjects are of very high complexity: - Financial administration bodies (MFP Financial Guard, the State Financial Control Territorial Court of Auditors) performing actions related to: design budgets central / local, up methods / models of norms of expenditure for various uses, identifies best management solutions for balancing budgets, temporary openings Cash, funding deficits, evaluate the direct and indirect use of public funds etc. - Natural and legal persons paying taxes to meet obligations arising out actions contrary disputed tax or if it considers that they have been wronged by the tax authorities. Financial economic relations, both in narrow (classical) and in the modern sense are market relations, monetary and which expressed a dominant characteristic of

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the general legislative framework of public finances. In this regard, Public Finance Law is a law-level regulatory framework. Regarding the state's financial relations legislation, Parliament passed several laws for: Banking, National Bank of Romania, income tax, the organization and functioning of financial control and financial Guard Financial law in the legal system. Our law system is characterized both by the essential unity of all the legal rules to express the wills and interests of working people and by dividing these branches according to the specific rules that govern social relations. Among these branches, after the constitutional and administrative law, financial law is listed and include all the legal rules governing the financial activity of state bodies, preparation and execution of state budget, credit, insurance, etc.. Financial law is presented as a branch of the legal system and legal expert in financial work in our state and others. As regards the internal audit law, it is important to note at the outset that there is so far a widely recognized definition of the doctrine and literature. This leads to different and complex approach, from the origins of the internal audit law, often is identified in the minds of lay persons, financial and tax law. It was found that the internal audit right may not itself be considered a separate branch of law despite crossing many other fields of law, be they economic or legal. Right internal audit unit is a multidisciplinary subject placed both between and among the legal discipline as lacking economic autonomy as a feature of other industries. We believe that the internal audit law is more pronounced than the multidisciplinary character right fiscal financial. The right of public internal audit include: elements of public law that the tax law, administrative law, labour law, elements of economics and management elements (on the organization and management of public entities). Even though until recently could not talk yet about a separate branch, it began to

designed to meet socio-economic tasks of society. With public finances ensures the creation, distribution and efficient use of public money to increase production of goods, development of productive forces, the development of education and culture, health, etc.. Sources of financial law. Sources of financial law shall consist of all legal acts regulating financial relations. In relation to the degree of generality or specificity, there are the following sources: a) Common Sources of finance law. Thus, the hierarchy of sources common to distinguish as the first source of financial law - the Constitution. The country's Basic Law provisions regarding the preparation, approval and implementation of national public budget and budgetary year closure account, the rules also state constitutional competencies are established for the management of public funds, on control of budget implementation tasks, exchange rate policy, fiscal policy etc.. As a common source is also distinguished the ordinary laws of the parliament, presidential decrees and government decision. b) Specific Sources of financial law. Sources include legislative acts that are specific provisions relating to financial relations. As finance law cite specific sources of public finance law. This law defines the scope of public finances, namely: development, approval and implementation of national public budget, setting and collecting taxes and other revenues of the State, using funds of the legislative bodies, judicial and executive, and controlling how use of material and financial means public institutions, autonomous, and state capital invested in companies. The law is stated coverage of public institutions including the Romanian Presidency, Government, ministries, other bodies of state administration and state institutions at central and local subordination. In this regard, public finance law contains basic principles and rules of the financial activity of the state, representing

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take shape, as the years passed and the state's business relationships with the private, have begun to diversify in the light of labour market economic and financial relations, the expansion of trade in a geographical area becoming larger, the phenomenon of globalization that affects a growing number of high population. Thus, new challenges are starting to emerge, which have forced this seemingly "new right of public internal audit, particularly

mobile, to integrate the phenomena manifested in society, to embrace the whole law. Adapting to rapid change, arising in practice was manifest in many sectors and thus forced the legislature to develop a series of laws to meet the challenges offered by real life practice. The internal audit law contains both rules of substantive law and procedural law, both covered by the framework law and implementing rules, but other sources of law.

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KNOWLEDGE DYNAMICS

WEB COMMUNITIES IN DEVELOPMENT OF THE BUSINESS ENTERPRISE Cristina BOLCAS Ion VERBONCU Florica BADEA Ph.D., candidate, ASE Bucharest, [email protected] Ph.D., professor ASE Bucharest, [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, ASE Bucharest, [email protected] The concept of e-business IBM brought the company involve the integration of wide range of services, such as serving customers, working with other business partners, electronic trading within the organization. The network feels a strong need to share information, opinions and experiences. All these contribute to a fundamental change of business. The power of customer will also tend to rise. Deliver the e-business process consists in developing more cyclic steps: - assessment, - knowledge, -information, - transformation processes in the core business system - development of applications, - running applications. The managerial communication, the management techniques as well as the methods approached in decision-making will be influenced by the informational exchange.[Badea, Bolcas, 2008] The access as fast as possible to information entails: - the amendment of the organizational objectives - the change of organizational structures - the diversification and the modernization of the means of gathering, registering and sending of the information, which lead to costs cuts and time-saving in decision-making. The concept of e-business facilities meet all local intranet site, that internal data exchange, management, work group,

The world today has created a new different economic knowledge because as technology, innovation and information has become the engine for sustainable economic welfare and increasing competitiveness. [Badea Bolcas and all, 2009]. The value of each company is determined by what customers are willing to pay to buy its products or services. The customer’s opinions are important, not only for the marketing function and for the loyalty of customers but also to avoid any bad reputation. A message can damage enterprise reputation and credibility of its management. In the market there are many example of customers’ co-producer. [Consoli and all, 2008] The company must invest more on contacts, relationships with customers, cooperation and sharing of information useful to enrich the product. The company must "read", “see” and "interpret" opinions and suggestions that customers express with web 2.0 tools as e-mails, forums, and logs, chats etc. Acquiring this information in real time, the company becomes agile and develop more capacity “Sense and Response” in interaction with the market. [Overby and all, 2006] In the knowledge of the news economies, with the tools of Web 2.0, the company can encourage the birth of web community where all virtual consumers discuss freely on a product or service and list its strengths and weaknesses.

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organization-wide integration with the overall benefits of his, that e-mail, news

channels, and forecast, customer service. The customer is King.

STORE ELECTRONIC Company Producer

Company CustomerC

Informations about products manufacturer

Products Catalog

Customer order information

Figure 1: Architecture of e-business market enabling the automation ans storage of all information. The solution Business Management can also be adapted according to the needs of each company: Integrating the various departament of the company - Slow response time to market - Optimizing the floe of information - Reduce maintenance costs. To computerize a business we must first of all, and se the rules or procedures of the business. These should incluse all situations that occur in day-to-day organization and actions. Customers exploit web 2.0 tools (Smith et al, 2008) for both expressing their opinions about a product and suggesting solutions for improving it. Web 2.0 brings out the social dimension of the network as a product of collaboration of all its users/producers. Internet in recent years has given greater emphasis on social rather than technological expected. Normaly the tools that customer use in web community (DeRose et al., 2007) are: blogs, chat, wikis, istant messaging, mashups, podcasts, RSS, Folksonomy, forums (Fig. 2):

Increasingly more, in business environment, it is develop a collaborative model, which can be implemented in the platform, companies or virtual communities. [Rosca and all, 2004]. The platforms include tools and information medium for collaboration between companies. It may relate to specific functions, such as design. Earnings from the management platform, meaning use or membership fee, and sales of specialized tools such as design, workflow and document management Virtual Corporation is an organization composed of several business partners, who share the costs and resources for the creation and maintenance of products or services. Virtual Corporation is possible because the communication platforms that allow business partners to use e-mail, video conferencing, knowledge sharing, EDI (Electronic Data Interchange) EFT (Electronic Fund Transfer). Business Management, a solution of ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) helps companies improve their effectiveness, organize and streamline daily operations of the business. It allows all information to flow easily and quickly between all areas involved in different business processes,

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1) Forums are online discussions on a specific theme; 2) Chat usable in collective way, channels or via web specific applications; 3) Blogs are online journals or diaries, hosted on a website; 4) Istant messaging similar to chat but in individual way; 5) Wikis are systems for collaborative publishing.; 6) Mash-ups are applications of contents from different online sources to create a new service. For example use of Google maps to show the location.

Forum

Chat

7) Podcasts are audio or video recordings, a multimedia form of a blog or other content; 8) RSS (Really Simple Syndication) is a method that allows people to subscribe to online distribution of news, podcasts, blogs or other information 9) Folksonomy is a collaborative tagging to annotate and categorize internal and external content of wikis or blogs or content management system. In this way the enterprise increases its business intelligence repository

Blog

Instant messaging

The tools in WEB communities

Mashup Wikis

RSS

Podcast

Folksonomy

Figure 2: The tools in web communities

the managed knowledge enables the members to treat the organization to date and to shape the future. Without access to the knowledge management application, each situation is handled individually. It can not be left to drift chance. Only through ondemand access to managed knowledge, every situation is dealt with in the possession of knowledge about the organization of a similar situation. Knowledge is not discontinuous, separate in individuals or groups of individuals working more or less, but becomes a continuum, at hand to everyone. The web communities have the strategic role in the relationship of the company, the channel between enterprise and customer, in the development of the business. Management knowledge is new

Corresponding to a report by Forrester Research Inc. [Www.forrester.com] Internet food sales in Europe is structured as follows: United Kingdom online trading 7% of total food sales, the Nordic countries 6%, France and Germany each 3%. In Central and Eastern European countries develop trade online is braked by cultural factors and poor equipment of information technology and communications. According with the same researchers from Forrester Research Inc, Internet commerce is more than 8.5% of total sales. However taking into consideration that only 10% of the world population uses the Internet, according to Media Metrix, the value is high. The value of knowledge management is directly linked to the efficiency with which

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Building structured web community portals: a top-down, compositional, and incremental approach. In Proceedings of the 33rd international Conference on Very Large Data Bases (Vienna, Austria, September 23 - 27, 2007). Very Large Data Bases. VLDB Endowment, pp. 399-410. 5. Overby, E., Bharadwaj, A., and Sambamurthy, V. (2006): Enterprise agility and the enabling role of information technology. Eur. J. Inf. Syst. 15, 2, pp. 120-131. 6. Rosca Gh I, Bucur, C, M, TimofteStanciu C, Paiu O, Visean M Comertul Electronic, Concepte, tehnologii si aplicatii Editura Economica, Bucuresti 2004 7. Smith, M., Barash, V., Getoor, L., and Lauw, H. W. (2008): Leveraging social context for searching social media. In Proceeding of the 2008 ACM Workshop on Search in Social Media SSM '08. ACM, New York, NY, pp. 91-94. ***http://www.javali.pt/gestão-empresarial ***http://www.gotham.pt

concepts, methodologies in the process of conception and design of the product or service Bibliography: 1. Badea F, Bolcas C, The Informational System – Factor of Success in the Management of the Organization, revue Informatica Economica, vol XII, nr.4/2008, pag 22-26. 2. Bolcas C, Badea F (2009) Knowledge Management as European Model of Globalization 16th International Economic Conference 7-8 May 2009, Industrial revolutions from the globalization and post –globalization perspective, Sibiu. 3. Consoli, D., Diamantini, C. and Potena, D. (2008): Improving the customer intelligence with Customer enterprise Customer model. In Proc. of the 10th International Conference on Enterprise Information Systems, Software Agents and Internet Computing (SAIC), Barcelona, Spain, pp. 323-326. 4. DeRose, P., Shen, W., Chen, F., Doan, A., and Ramakrishnan, R. (2007):

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E-KNOWLEDGE FOR SUPPORTING STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING PROCESS AT REGIONAL LEVEL Mihaela MUREŞAN Emilia GOGU Ph.D., professor, Christian University “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucharest Ph.D., associate professor, Christian University “Dimitrie Cantemir”, Bucharest Abstract: The paper approaches a subject of great novelty in knowledge-based society related to regional strategic decision making. This work and the innovative solutions introduced represent the results of a Romanian research project: “Regional Knowledge Management Architecture for the Regional Sustainable Strategy Development” (KnowHowReg), funded by the National Council for Higher Education and Research, Programme Ideas (code: 896, contract number: 383/2007). The research emphasizes the necessity of increasing the vitality of the local knowledge poles, by intensive use of scientific knowledge generated in the academic and research environment for a better fundament of the strategic decision making process at the regional level. The solution proposed, based on web 2.0 technologies, integrates e-Knowledge and eConsultation tools in a regional portal, facilitating the bottom-up decision-making processes related to the regional strategy design and implementation. The paper focuses on e-Knowledge approach as a driver for the improvement of the decision making processes. Key words: bottom-up decision making, regional knowledge management, e-Governance, e-Consultation.

focused on solving the local issues for increasing competitiveness and ameliorating the living conditions in the region, the national and international context is also taking into consideration. In this perspective, the international agreements (Kyoto protocol, environmental agreements etc.), as well as the European strategies and policies (2020 – A smart, sustainable and inclusive growth etc.) and the national strategies represent the broad framework for the regional/local decision making process.

1. Actual context and challenges for regional governance The regional development, as a driver for competitiveness represents a major concern of the policy makers and public administration. The actual context characterized by globalization and major social, economic and environmental challenges creates a supplementary pressure on governments. Governments have to find solutions to cope with these challenges and with the increased citizens’ expectations. The globalization and the diversity of the actual challenges creates difficulties for the policy makers confronted with an increased complexity of the issues to be faced and with accentuated dynamic of the phenomena. Governance issues related to the strategy design and implementation become more and more complicated, due to the reduced degree of predictability in this dynamic context, where small unforeseen phenomenon could induce major changes with unexpected effects. A picture of the actual context with some of its significant challenges is illustrated in the figure 1. The new challenges involve also a great permeability to the global context and an in-depth analysis of the local context with its connectivity to the global context. Even if the regional development strategy is

CONTEXT

CHALLENGES

Globalization Virtualization Global markets Global digital information space

Connectivity to the global space Capacity to cope with world crisis Open access to information and digital resources

Sustainability Balanced human, social, economic, environmental development

New development models International agreements Increased cohesion

Knowledge society HighTech and digital products and services High competition

Creative and innovative economy Open innovation. Increased competitiveness

Figure 1: Challenges for the regional development

In addition to the increased global competition, the democratic deficit and the ageing population, the actual financial crisis creates new challenges for the governmental entities consisting in the need

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order to improve public services and democratic processes and strengthen support to public policies” (European Commission, 2003); “e-Government is the use of information technology to support government operations, engage citizens, and provide government services” (Dawes S.,2008). The e-Governance concept introduces a wider perspective, being defined in terms of the interaction between the citizens and the representatives of the public authorities and policy makers for defining, adopting and implementing the development policy, as illustrated in the figure 2.

of more efficient and effective strategic solutions. In the actual context, the regional decision making process becomes more and more an intensive knowledge based process, articulating the global thinking with the local action, in order to define the best development path. 2. The sustainable strategy design as a knowledge and multi-actor based process

eG ov er na nc e

cy ra c o

D e-

em

Politicians

Regional actors (citizens, companies)

e-Governance

t en m e rn ve anc n Go e- over G e-

The regional strategy design involves an in-depth analysis of the main opportunities and constraints, various benchmarking for revealing the position of the region compared with other similar European or Romanian regions in order to identify the main realistic targets and priorities on a mid- or long-term. This complex process involves the use of knowledge, experiences and best practices related to the regional strategy design and implementation. Consequently, the strategic process for defining development paths is not only an intensive knowledge process, but also a multi-actor one. In addition, the process relies also on the new technologies, especially the web 2.0 paradigm, for a better connectivity and efficiency. As a knowledge-based process, the design of the regional strategy involves a scientific base, i.e. the specific models and set of indexes related to the sustainable development. As a multi-actor process, the design of the regional strategy is based on a trinomial approach with multiple interactions among policy makers, public administration representatives and regional actors. The technological approach induces also major changes for supporting the transition to the e-Government and further to the e-Governance processes. There are various definitions of the eGovernment concept adopted by the European Commission or the World Bank: “The use of information and communication technologies in public administration combined with organisational change and new skills in

e-Management Public administration

Figure 2: e-Government versus e-Governance

In this context, the reform in the public administration has to re-thing the relation within the triangle public administration – politicians – regional actors and also to redefine the internal and external processes on a digital base. The major challenge for the reform of the public administration is making government services more efficient and user friendly, as well as accelerating the transition of the public administration to the knowledge society, consisting in the use of advanced e-Government services, not only for reducing the bureaucracy, but also for increasing the transparency and democratic engagement. The fulfillment of this ambitious goal involves a complex process for translating the research results and advanced knowledge into practical applications, which enables transformational changes based on technology, as mentioned at the Ministerial Conference in Lisbon, 2007 248

(***, 2007) and at the e-Government meeting in Malmo (Sweeden). Beyond the intensive knowledge use and technological approach, the eGovernance involves also advanced and efficient interaction with the citizens and various entities focusing on qualitative issues. In this context, the research has been oriented to find the relevant models

Strategy design process Complex and intensive knowledge Democratic centric

and set of indexes for assessing the real possibilities for a sustainable future development and to create the framework for an open and interactive space between citizens and political actors. The main findings offer solutions for supporting the e-Governance processes by creating adequate e-Knowledge and e-Democracy tools, as presented in the figure 3.

e-Governance solutions Scientific base for the strategy design Open access to the information Wide participation Integration of the regional actors’ views with the scientific analysis

e-Knowledge

e-Democracy

Figure 3: e-Governance framework for the regional strategy design Indicators (10 Themes, 3 levels) – EUROSTAT and National Institute for Statistics; Economic Lisbon Indicator – European Commission; Regional Innovation Performance Index - European Commission; Sustainable Society Index Geurt van de Kerk; Human Development Index (HDI) and Poverty Index (PI) United Nations Development Programme; Environment Performance Index (EPI) - 6 categories, 16 indicators - Columbia University and Yale University, USA. Beside the set of indicators aggregated in various models and indexes, the research introduces four indexes corresponding to the major sustainable dimensions: personal dimension, environmental dimension, social dimension and economic dimension. The indexes facilitate the benchmarking and the positioning of the region related to other similar regions or to various targets established as strategic goals. The algorithm for the set of indexes of the sustainable model is presented in the table 1.

As the European Commission outlines, “the pressure on public administration is so great that improving existing routines with the help of ICT alone is not enough; progress also requires more innovative approaches” (European Commission, 2004). The research focused on finding solutions for transforming the governance decision making processes in knowledgebased processes. Consequently, the actual strategic decision making process should rely on various sustainable models and on the statistical data which provides information about the real opportunities of the region. In this perspective, the comparative results using various models and the benchmarking process will reveal the strengths and the weaknesses which should be considered in a SWOT analysis. The main models and indexes available in the research area for supporting strategies design are focusing on specific domains of the sustainability or have a global approach integrated the more important dimensions: Sustainable Development

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Table 1: Algorithm for the specific indicators of the model Significa nce i = year, varying from 1 to n Value of k = domain, varying from 1 to m the ISki= specific indicator k in the year i specific ISki=Vi/Pi Vi= specific value of the factor k in indicator the year i per capita Pi = population in the year i ISki= specific indicator k in the year i Comparati Iki = index for the specific indicator k ve index - maximization: in the year i to indicate Iki= (ISki - Ik _min)/ I _min = minimum value (related to the k ( Ik _max - Ik _min) the global/EU development) of the position at - minimization: specific indicator k a Iki= (Ik _max - ISki)/ ( Ik _max - Ik _min) Ik _max = maximum value (related to European the global/EU development) of the scale specific indicator k IDi = value of the composite index Composit specific to the domain D in the year i e indicator n n I = index for the specific indicator k for a IDi=(∑ Iki * αk) / (∑αk) ki in the year i specific k=1 k=1 αk= the weight for each specific domain indicator in the composite index for the domain D Formula

Explanation

The main axes and the corresponding indicators taken into consideration for calculating the sustainable index are presented in the table 2. Table 2: Algorithm for the specific indicators of the model Formula Explanation IDP = personal development index ISV = life expectancy index IDP = (ISV+ISS+IRLL+IVR) ISS = healthy life expectancy /4 IRLL = index for working/ free time IVR = indicele consumului IMN = natural environment index ICA = aer quality index IMN = (ICA+ICAP+ICT)/3 ICAP = water quality index ICT = soil index IMS = social index ICL = living conditions index IMS = IE = education index (ICL+IE+IROP+IS)/4 IROP = insertion rate index IS = poverty index IDE = economic development index IDE = IPIB = economic results index (IPI+IRDE+IEFF+IW+ IRDE = economic dependency rate index ICE+IDI+IDF)/7 IEFF = efficiency index 250

Formula

Explanation IW = productivity index ICE = energy consumption index IDI = innovation index IDF = financial index

Comparing the set of indexes with the usual information used as fundament for the regional strategy design, it is obvious that the personal development is not a major concern. Consequently, the research focused especially on the analysis related to

the personal development, using the data available, i.e. the data at the national level. The tables 4, 5, 6 are illustrating the way of calculating the aggregated indexes related to the personal development.

Table 3: Life expectancy 2007 Indicators Romania Life expectancy (years) Life expectancy at birth male (years) Life expectancy at birth fem. (years)

73

69,2

76,2

Minimum EU-27

Maximum EU-27

71 (Lithuania)

81 (Sweden)

Average Individual Aggregated EU-27 index index 78,4

0,20

65,3 78,8 75,2 (Lithuania) (Sweden,Cyprus)

0,29

76,2 84,4 (Romania) (France, Spain)

0,00

81,5

0,163

Source: Eurostat, Europe in figures 2008; Statistics year book Romania 2008 Table 4:– Healthy life expectancy in 2007 Indicators Romania Healthy life expectancy (years)

48

Minimum Maximum Average Individual Aggregated EU-27 EU-27 EU-27 Index index 48,0 (Estonia)

68,5 (Malta)

0,00

Source: Eurostat, Europe in figures 2008; Statistics year book Romania 2008 Table 5: Consumption index in 2007 Minimum Maximum Average Individual Aggregated Indicators Romania EU-27 EU-27 EU-27 Index index Weight of 68,2 35,2 70,6 57,2 0,07 0,07

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the (Luxemburg) (Greece) household expenditure in GDP Source: Eurostat, Europe in figures 2008; Statistics year book Romania 2008 consultative process supported also by two ways digital communication channels. The openness of the public administration (Lenk, K., 1999) and the extended use of the ICT tools, namely the Internet, increase the opportunities of creating interactive space between citizens and political actors (Tomkova, J., 2009). According to the results of the desk research, investigation of the regional strategy design process and of the pilot survey, the solution proposed, i.e. a virtual regional platform supporting the participation of the citizens to the regional strategy design, could offer a balanced approach of the decision making process and the public engagement of the citizens. Simultaneously, the observers of the European e-Consultation processes noticed that the citizens’ initiatives “have been poorly and arbitrarily integrated in the respective policies they intend to inform” (Tomkova, J., 2009). Sometimes the citizens’ opinions have not been enough consistent and coherent to be integrated in the strategic decision making process. The solutions proposed have a major contribution to inform and engage people. The digital platform with its eKnowledge components becomes also a learning environment where the learners could be contributors to the knowledge base development. The regional stakeholders’ expertise and other sources for data and knowledge could be integrated offering a realistic and accurate perspective for the regional development, having a major contribution to gear the knowledge management in the benefit of the sustainable development. The virtual regional platform, as a driver for regional knowledge management, integrates various functions, such as: acquisition of information and knowledge related to the

Analyzing the value obtained for the personal development index (0.09 – without taking into consideration the rate for the working an free time index), compared with the other European countries, Romania is on the last position in the European space. The worse situaton is observed concerning the healthy life expectancy indicator, which places Romania also on the last position in the European hierarchy. This important information leads to the conclusion that the sustainable development in Romania should be focused on the individual issues, in order to offer better life conditions. A similar approach has been developed for each index, revealing interesting results concerning the position of our country or a specific region compared with the European space or with settled targets. 3. e-Knowledge – component of the eGovernance The knowledge and information emerged from the research and practitioners’ area could produce a better impact, if it is delivered in an open space with greater accessibility from both sides: decision makers and public actors. In this perspective, other important findings revealed the benefits of using a digital regional platform for providing open access to this valuable information concerning the sustainable development. Beyond the trinomial relationship politicians-public administration-public actors, the researchers and practitioners could be integrated with their knowledge and experience in this complex process. In this case, the citizens, the NGOs and the representatives of the business area, having access to the knowledge and information related to the strategy design, could be better informed and have a consistent approach for the

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the regional digital platform integrating eKnowledge and e-Participation tools will support and facilitate the bottom-up decision making process. The paper emphasizes the role of the advanced interactive web services provided by a virtual platform, as a single point of access, for the regional e-Governance. This approach is in line with the actual public administration reform and of its transition to the knowledge society and eGovernance. In this inclusive and democratic view, everybody, regardless of socio-economic background, is given an equitable playing role in the design of the regional strategy, being part of the consultative and decisional processes at the regional level. The main findings introduced by the research project are represented by the improvement of the scientific base of the regional strategy design and by the efficient interaction of the regional/local public entities with the stakeholders. This innovative approach represents a qualitative change at the regional/local administration level, involving major changes.

sustainable development of the region, data presentation and interpretation, benchmarking and scenarious concerning the actual picture of the region and its future development trends. The new eKnowledge services tools integrated in the regional platform represent a new generation of e-Government services, which provide the opportunity of creating a regional knowledge base and advanced interfaces for a more refined and holistic understanding of the opportunities and constraints of the development, as well as ensuring the infrastructure for the inclusive and democratic process of designing and implementing the regional sustainable strategy. The e-Knowledge components support also the e-Consultation process, offering complementary information and a holistic approach through the integration of the statistical data processing and the results of the various online surveys and debates, representing the public actors’ views. This approach facilitates the transition to the eGovernance, in order to increase the effectiveness of the two-ways communication with the citizens. In the same time, it is important to mention that the effectiveness of the e-Knowledge and eParticipation processes represents not only the reflex of the technological approach, but also a change in the mentality and in the local government internal and external processes.

Biblography: 1. Dawes, S., (2008), „Governance in the information age: a research framework for an uncertain future”, Proceedings of the 2008 international conference on Digital government research, Montreal, Canada, pp.290297. 2. European Commission (2007a), Communicating about Europe via the Internet, engaging the citizens, SEC(2007)1742, Brussels, ec.europa.eu/dgs/communication/ pdf/internet-strategy_en.pdf. p.: 9-12, accessed: 07.05.2009 3. European Commission (2007b), Midterm review of the Sixth Community Environment Action Programme, Communication from the Commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and

4. Conclusions The analysis of the regional development strategy process in Bucharest-Ilfov region revealed a gap between rethoric and reality, such as the lack of a scientific base for the design of the strategy and the lack of a consistent dialogue between the local governance and the regional stakeholders, especially the citizens. Consequently, changing the system-oriented strategy design process to a knowledge-oriented and actor-driven one represented the main challenge of the research. The solution of

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(e)Participation in the Governance of the European Union. European Journal of ePractice n. 7. http://www.epractice.eu/en/document/, accessed: 14.05.2009 12. Tomkova, J. (2009), E-consultations: New tools for civic engagement or facades for political correctness?. European Journal of ePractice n. 7. http://www.epractice.eu/ en/document/, accessed: 21.05.2009 13. United Nations (2007), E-Participation and E-Government: Understanding the Present and Creating the Future, Report of the Ad Hoc Expert Group Meeting Budapest, Hungary, 27 – 28 July 2006, United Nations New York, 2007. http://unpan1.un.org, accessed: 10.08.2009 14. UNDP, (2007): The Human Development Index (HDI), http://hdr.undp.org/en/, accessed: 16.06.2008 15. Van der Kerk, Geurt (2008): A comprehensive Index for a sustainable society, Ecological Economics, Volume 66/2-3, pp 228-242 16. *** (2009a), Core Priciples for Public Engagement. http://www.thataway.org/files/ Core_Principles_of_Public_Engageme nt.pdf, accessed: 12.06.2009 17. *** (2009b), eRomania – Strategia naţională de guvernare electronică, http://www.mcsi.ro/Minister/Domeniide-activitate-ale-MCSI/TehnologiaInformatiei/e-Romania, accessed: 01.09.2009 18. *** (2008a): Environmental performance index, http://epi.yale.edu/Home, accessed: 15.08.2008 19. *** (2008b), Sustainable society index, http://www.romaniadurabila.net/, accessed: 29.09.2008 20. *** (2007a), 4th Ministerial eGovernment Conference, Lisbon, 1921 September 2007, http://egov2007/, accessed: 17.08.2009

Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions, April 2007 4. European Commission (2007c), Growing Regions, Growing Europe, Forth Report on economic and social cohesion, Office for Official Publications of the European Communities, May 2007 5. European Commission, (2004) „Working Paper on eGovernment Beyond 2005 – An overview of policy issues, Information Society Directorate-General, eGovernment Unit. 6. European Commission, (2003) „The role of eGovernment for Europe’s future”, European Commission, COM (2003) 567. 7. Eurostat, (2008), Indicators for monitoring the EU Sustainable Development Strategy, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/portal/ , accessed: 16.06.2008 8. Lenk, K., (1999), Electronic Government als Schlüssel zur Innovation der öffentlichen Verwaltung, in: K. Lenk, R. Traunmüller (ed.). Öffentliche Verwaltung und Informationstechnik Perspektiven einer radikalen Neugestaltung der öffentlichen Verwaltung mit Informationstechnik. Schriftenreihe Verwaltungsinformatik 20. R. v. Decker's Verlag. Heidelberg. p.: 123 – 142 9. Panopoulou, E., Tambouris, E., Tarabanis, K., (2009), eParticipation initiatives: How is Europe progressing?. European Journal of ePractice n. 7. http://www.epractice.eu/en/ document/, accessed: 14.05.2009 10. Scherer, S. and others, (2009), Usability Engineering in eParticipation. European Journal of ePractice n. 7. http://www.epractice.eu/en/document/, accessed: 21.05.2009 11. Smith, S., Dalakiouridou, E. (2009), Contextualising Public

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21. *** (2007b), Sustainable development indicators in your pocket 2007, an update of the UK Government Strategy indicators, Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, 2007

22. *** (2007c): Sustainable Development Indicators, http://www.ymparisto.fi/, Finland, accessed: 15.10.2008

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THE IMPORTANCE OFTECHNOLOGY USE WITHIN THE EDUCATIONAL COMMUNICATION PROCESS Dan POPESCU Iulia CHIVU Alina CIOCÂRLAN-CHITUCEA Daniela Oana POPESCU Ph.D., professor, “Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest” [email protected] Ph.D., associate professor, “Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest” [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, assistant professor, “Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest” [email protected] Ph.D., candidate, ec., “Academy of Economic Studies from Bucharest” [email protected] Abstract: Romanian economic environment, in terms of social and cultural boundaries suppression, was oriented towards the knowledge global trend, but in the absence of strategic options, it was unsystematic, especially manifested informaly and randomly: a local, disorganized phenomenum. The new communication process type of approach outlines a map of knowledge management in education and creates the necessary infrastructure to support teaching and learning within universities, while increasing the quality of academic training provides highly qualified graduates for the Romanian economic environment. Keywords: technology, education communication,

Human resources knowledge and skills, as main working tools, are acquired within the organization - regarded as environmental training area through learning processes.

Introduction Onset of the current millennium has seen an exponential increase of interest in transforming the world economy rapidly towards a new model: the knowledge-based economy model. The Academy of Economic Studies (A.S.E.) from Bucharest is known to promote universal values of science and culture, economic sciences in particular, and, according to The A.S.E. Charter, its task to train highly qualified human resources for economic, administrative and social domains, to promote the spirit of free and critical thinking, to develop scientific research in economics, and also in legal and public administration, to develop entrepreneurship programs, simultaneously with developing and disseminating cultural values and human civilization spirit. The organization's competitive advantage depends on its ability to hold and preserve the assets of its superior resources, which are valuable, rare and not substitutable. Value knowledge and skills held by people are very hard to imitate by competitors.

The Educational Communication Process within Universities Education, as means of personal and social benefits, represents an investment of knowledge, skills and competencies that provides individuals the opportunity to adapt better and more easily to the challenges posed by economic change and technological progress. Currently, the company knows a mode that requires educating its members at a higher level. Development known at the beginning of XXI century involves a type of higher education, reflected in the general skills, communication, use of information technology for positive relations with others, teamwork and results orientation (Lacatus, 2009, p.12). Direct and indirect beneficiars and education providers face requirements to provide a greater volume of information, the need to acquire skills and capabilities of 256

Diaconu explains communication behavior as reflected in the teaching process: 1. Educational communication efficiency is determined by the verbal content mastery, clarity and consistency in speech; 2. Efficiency depends on education and communication content transmitted to the receiver and the communication situation. The attitudes they adopt (positive, negative or indifferent, neutral), the teacher and students may enhance or hinder communication, and, therefore, enhance or diminish the effects of educational content. 3. Pear and nonverbal communication prepare the ground for the verbal message. Before translating and accepting the importance of rational demonstration, the student feels that the importance of content is proposed. The role of affectivity is particularly important as it was shown experimentally that the information received on a positive emotional background are better retained and vice versa (www.didactic.ro).

comparison, analysis, evaluation, and responding to community expectations (Lacatus, 2009, p.123). Educational Communication constitutes the bulk of training activity, which implies a message prepared by the transmitter (teacher) in order for receiver (student) to get the formative content. Formative educational priority communication dimension involves the following activities, carried out and integrated by the teacher: excellent mastery of the educational content of the message, use the full means of transmitting educational messages so the recipient (the student) to receive content communicated, continuous improvement of communication channels related educational message, by comparing the effects achieved in accordance with goals. Analyzing the problem of educational communication, Constantine Cucoş, in his paper work called Pedagogy, says that there are three categories of signs related subsystems used in teaching processes: verbal, nonverbal and paraverbal. The verbal subsystem record is all words used in educational communication, meaning the language used during courses and seminars. The language used in training has several functions: a call function – which aims the receiver, and an expressive function, which aims the teacher. The paraverbal subsystem plays a fundamental role in education as "the way words are pronounced or spoken emotionally charged ideas, formats and converts them into regular dialogues court expressive modeling." The nonverbal subsystem includes gestures, facial expressions and deportment teacher clothing, accompanying verbal language, and delivers the message by adding additional meanings. Comparing the three subsystems, we can advance the idea that the nonverbal subsystem and the paraverbal subsystem occupe a well determined space in the work of educational communication. Mihai

The Technology and The Educational Communication Building the knowledge economy, both in Romania and in developed countries, is a complex process that can be done by harmonizing economic factors, innovative, educational, social and political respecting international and European trends. Unlike previous terms, specialist Thomas Stewart believes knowledge based economy as an economy that brings money to the fore in the context of purchasing, production and sale of knowledge. Knowledge economy has knowledge as essential elements, which are equally important for organizations having low technical level, non-profits, government agencies, but also for companies focused on cutting-edge technology. Like the classical economic approach, a financial element directly expresses economic performance. But the basis for obtaining such economic performance si different: knowledge added value, whatever their nature, degree and

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competitive advantage. Registered spectacular developments in information and communications technology (IT&C) influences decisively, the ability of organizations - regardless of the size and nature - to acquire, store, manipulate and disseminate knowledge. The logistics and information technology create conditions for organizations worldwide to compete or cooperate to achieve economic results in November. Types of technology: Audio technology: broadcasting stations, radio, audio books, phone; Video technology: videoconferencing, phone (3G) video; E-learning: learning using online platforms in order to facilitate interaction among members participating in the training process to transmit a large volume of information in a short time; Using information resources internal (intranet) - Educational Portal Using external information resources (Internet) interactive courses, applications, tests, games formative purposes.

modern technical information held (Nicolescu, 2005, p.45). OECD defines knowledge-based economy as the economy based directly on production, distribution and use of knowledge and information. According to Romanian papers, knowledge-based economy is characterized by transforming knowledge into raw materials, capital goods, a key economic inputs and economic processes in which the generation, sale, purchase, learning, storage, development, sharing and protection of knowledge become more prevalent and critical condition the profit and ensure long-term economic sustainability. Specialized works such as The Wealth of Knowledge: Intellectual Capital and the Twenty-First Century by Thomas A. Stewart, in particular, the recent work of famous futurologist Alvin Toffler and Heidi: Revolutionary Wealth have confirmed the results of academic research and revealed major changes in the factors of production: capital, traditional factors of production, has lost ground to the knowledge and intellectual activity. Worldwide, more than ever, knowledge is accepted as a key source of competitive advantage. Simultaneously, recorded spectacular developments in information and communications technology (IT&C) have influenced, decisively, the ability of organizations - regardless of size - to acquire, store, manipulate and disseminate knowledge. The logistics and information technology has created conditions for organizations worldwide to compete or collaborate to create new economic results. Importance of concepts for the Romanian economy is reflected within INFOSOC research effort, Strategies and Solutions for the Information Society Knowledge Society in Romania, managed by The Research Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Worldwide, more than ever, knowledge is accepted as a key source of

The Metodology Research The purpose of this research approach is to improve communication and constructive learning through direct students involvement to participate actively in class, and with technology integration in teaching. Research objectives are: 1. Determining the impact of information and communication technology use on student behavior and the social-cognitive skills. 2. Highlighting key issues related to information technology in educational communication: the existence of necessary infrastructure, the frequency and nature of media use technological advantages and limitelele occur if this approach. Research sample consists of a total of 320 third year students, licensing cycle,

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implications will be successes in life (interview, negotiate salary and days off, requiring point view before colleagues), and not only; • 98% of respondents accept the idea of using media and information communication technology in education as thei belive it increases the seminar activities attractiveness.

attended a weekly seminar on Business Communication and Negotiation. The Research Methodology Exploratory research was done by the method of observation and investigation. Observation method: the teacher found the seminar leader and benchmarked attention, involvement, degree of motivation and performance by students in the two cases: the traditional approach include seminars and educational communication in the modern teaching facilities: Internet Microsoft applications, groups of online communication. Investigation method is based on the questionnaire as a tool and allowed rapid collection of data from subjects and their interpretation - 320 subjects, the questionnaire was applied in April 2010, in order to determine student expectations of the new approach for conducting the seminar. Educational communication problems that we have identified and started justifying the research are: • issues raised within the seminars or courses are often considered boring and outdated, thus depriving the students prefer teaching or obligation to come in (just to pass the exam) - 15.4% of respondents; • interest and motivation to participate in class are much diminished by the sense that teaching is mainly theoretical and does not prepare students for practical life situations - 62.7% of respondents; • the seminar, students often prefer to engage and respond, for fear of being ridiculed by colleagues - 36.6% of respondents; • 24.5% of respondents claim that students do not feel comfortable supporting a speech to present a theme to their colleagues; Research approach is supported by the following arguments: • 88.9% of respondents are interested in learning to recognize their mistakes and improve their behavior interpersonal communication skills, convinced that the

Conclusions Considering the exposed facts, we appreciate the new type of educational communication as appropriate as a solution to increase the quality of teaching and learning in higher education in management, with the following benefits: • contributes substantially to increasing efficiency and effectiveness of teaching by facilitating transfer of learning materials (courses, seminars) between the direct beneficiaries, which involve optimizing the student-teacher relationship; • outlines the approach of the study courses that provide correlation and interdependence between the concepts and information received, which facilitates learning and encourages the creation of logical links between knowledge and expertise; • ensures increased interest in students for learning and research activities in individual or team, because modern format, accessible educational platform; • proposed activities in the workshop involve theoretical and methodological materials as well as practical elements, applied, to the satisfaction of current students: to customize the knowledge gained in practical life situations (case studies, role plays, simulations). Bibligraphy: 1. Cucoş, C., Pedagogy, Ed. Polirom, Iaşi, 1996:135. 2. Diaconu, M. Napoca, Chapter: The Educational Communication, its specific within philosophy, http://www.didactic.ro/, 15 June 2010

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3. Exarhu, M. Qualitative development of higher education under the impact of IT&C, http://www.agir.ro/buletine/82.pdf, accessed in 2 June 2010 . 4. Făt, S., Labăr, A. Efficiency of utilization of new technologies in education, evaluative research report, EDU IT&C, 2009. 5. Friedman, T. The World is Flat: A Brief History of the Twenty-First Century, Farrar, Strauss & Giroux, New York, 2000: 70-76 . 6. Harvey, C., Denton, J. To come of age: the antecedents of organizational learning, Journal of Management Studies, 2006,Vol.36, Nr.5, pp.897-918 7. Lăcătuş, M. L. Higher education and economic education, Ed. A.S.E., Bucharest, 2009, pp.12-13,123 8. Nicolescu, O., Nicolescu L. Economy, business and knowledge management, Ed. Economics, Bucharest, 2005, 45-52.

9. Pemberton, J., Stonehouse, G., Organizational learning and knowledge assets – an essential partnership, The Learning Organization, 2000, Vol. 7, Nr. 4, 184-193. 10. Popescu, D., Chivu, I. Communication and Negotiation Skills Development, Ed. Luceafărul, Bucureşti, 2008, p.165 11. Stewart, T. Intelectual Capital: The New Wealth of Organizations, Nicholas Brealy Publishing House, London, 1998, 120-125. 12. Toffler, A., Toffler, H. Revolutionary Wealth, Knopf Publishers, 2006, 120-123. This article is a result of the project „Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle”. This project is co funded by European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

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KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT WITHIN ITIL Dan Constantin TOFAN Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: How people work requires knowledge and knowledge management is the fundamental glue that binds an IT organization and transitions it from good to great. ITIL, in its third version, has adopted a new process, related to knowledge management, and became even more business oriented service management standard. Keywords: knowledge, management, information, technology, infrastructure, library

Agency (CCTA) – now subsumed within the Office of Government Commerce (OGC). The initial version of ITIL consisted of a library of 31 associated books covering all aspects of IT service provision. Between 2000 and 2004 this initial version was revised and replaced by seven, more closely connected and consistent books (ITIL V2) consolidated within an overall framework. This second version became universally accepted and is now used in many countries by thousands of organizations as the basis for effective IT service provision. In 2007, ITIL V2 was superseded by an enhanced and consolidated third version of ITIL, consisting of five core books covering the service lifecycle, together with the Official Introduction. The five core books cover all stages of the service lifecycle, from the initial definition and analysis of business requirements in Service Strategy and Service Design, through migration into the live environment within Service Transition, to live operation and improvement in Service Operation and Continual Service Improvement. The ITIL Strategy Service provides guidance on how to design, develop and implement Service Management. The scope is to ensure that IT organizations are in position to achieve effectiveness and efficiency and to offer qualitative services to their customers. The ITIL Design Service volume provides guidance on the design of IT

What is ITIL? The Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL) is a set of concepts and best practices for Information Technology Services Management (ITSM), Information Technology (IT) development and IT operations. ITIL v3 is the most widely adopted framework for IT Service Management in the world. It is a practical, no-nonsense approach to the identification, planning, delivery and support of IT services to the business. [ITIL The Basics - White Paper, May 2010,Valeria Arraj] The ITIL standard gives detailed descriptions of a very large number of important IT practices and provides tasks and procedures that any IT organization can adapt to its needs. ITIL is published in a series of books, each of them treating an IT management topic. The books describe the entire ITIL Service Lifecycle, beginning with the identification of customer needs, continuing with the design and implementation of the service into operation and finishing with the monitoring and improvement phase of the service. ITIL sustains that IT services must be aligned to the needs of the business and support the business processes. It also provides guidance to organisations on how to use IT as a tool to facilitate development. ITIL was published between 1989 and 1995 by Her Majesty’s Stationery Office (HMSO) in the UK on behalf of the Central Communications and Telecommunications

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Processes. The perspective of CSI on improvement is the business perspective of service quality, even though CSI aims to improve process effectiveness, efficiency and cost effectiveness of the IT processes through the whole lifecycle. The CSI service uses methods from quality management in order to learn from past successes and failures. It implements a closed-loop feedback system as specified in ISO 20000 as a means to continually improve the effectiveness and efficiency of IT services and processes. CSI needs to be treated just like any other service of the ITIL standard.

services, processes, and other aspects of the service management. Its scope includes the design of new services, but also changes and improvements to existing ones. The ITIL Transition Service has the role of building and deploying IT services. It also assures that changes to services and Service Management processes are carried out in a coordinated way. List of processes of this specific service comprises Release Management, Change Management and Knowledge Management. The ITIL Operation Service is the part of the lifecycle where the services and value is actually directly delivered. The scope is to make sure that IT services are delivered effectively and efficiently. This includes fulfilling user requests, resolving service failures, fixing problems, as well as carrying out routine operational tasks. The functions include technical management, application management, and operations management and help desk as well as, responsibilities for staff engaging in Service Operation. The Continual Improvement Service aims to align and realign IT Services to changing business needs by identifying and implementing improvements to the IT services that support the Business

Knowledge Management within the new ITIL V3 In the version 2 of the ITIL standard Knowledge Management was a missing process. But in the new version it is no longer missing. The authors of ITIL v3 have positioned knowledge management as the capstone for the Configuration Management Process. Within the new Transition Service the authors have included a new service called Knowledge Management.

Figure 1: Service Knowledge Management System within ITIL V3

Many aspects of Knowledge Management were covered by various processes in ITIL V2 - for example, Problem Management was responsible for

managing the Known Error Database. ITIL V3, however, defines Knowledge Management as the one central process responsible for providing knowledge to

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Releases; and may contain data about employees, Suppliers, locations, Business Units, Customers and Users. The CMS includes tools for collecting, storing, managing, updating, and presenting data about all Configuration Items and their Relationships. The CMS is maintained by Configuration Management and is used by all IT Service Management Processes.” [ An Introductory Overview of ITIL V3, 2007, itSMF Ltd ]

all other IT Service Management processes. The Knowledge Management process itself ensures that all information used within Service Management, stored in the Service Knowledge Management System, is consistent and available to every . The purpose of the Knowledge Management process is to ensure that the right person has the right knowledge, at the right time to deliver and support the services required by the business. This delivers: • more efficient services with improved quality • clear and common understanding of the value provided by services • relevant information that is always available. At the heart of Knowledge Management process is the DataInformation-Knowledge-Wisdom structure, condensing raw – and unusable – data into valuable assets. This is illustrated by the Service Knowledge Management System (SKMS), holding relevant information and wisdom derived from Asset and Configuration Data. Within the SKMS we have the Service Asset and Configuration Management Process (SACM). The purpose of SACM is to identify, control and account for service assets and configuration items (CI), protecting and ensuring their integrity across the service lifecycle. In order to do that ITIL v3 introduces the Configuration Management System, or CMS, as the control system or “container” for configuration items, management data repositories, CMDB’s (Configuration Management Database), and the activities and processes for managing them. This structure is similar to the one within the v2 Configuration Management process. ITIL v3 defines the CMS as “A set of tools and databases that are used to manage an IT Service Provider's Configuration data. The CMS also includes information about Incidents, Problems, Known Errors, Changes and

Conclusions Many organizations still see IT service management as being mostly a technology issue. ITIL promotes a much more “user friendly” approach to IT service management. „The focus of IT management has been changing for some time and in the future management will be even less focused on technology and still more integrated with the overall needs of the business management and processes”. [ An Introductory Overview of ITIL v3, 2007, itSMF Ltd ] New management systems are already starting to evolve and will continue to evolve over the next few years. Definitly management systems will become more focused on business needs. How people work requires knowledge and knowledge management is the fundamental glue that binds an IT organization and transitions it from good to great. ITIL, in its third version, has adopted a new process, related to knowledge management, and became even more business oriented service management standard. Bibliography: 1. 2.

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Alex D. Paul, „ITIL Heroes Handbook”, ZoHo Corporation, 2008. Alison Cartlidge, itSMF Ltd, “An Introductory Overview of ITIL V3”, 2007.

3.

Drew Robb, Internet.com IT Management eBook, „The IT Manager's Guide to ITIL v3”, 2008. 4. Hank Marquis, „CMDB 3.0”, ITSM Solutions, 2007, http://www.itsmsolutions.com/newsl etters/DITYvol3iss24.htm 5. Larion Valentin, „The general framework of competencies in the context of virtual organizations”, KM 2009 Conference, The Bucharest Academy of Economical Studies, 2009. 6. Majid Iqbal and Michael Nieves, „ITIL Service Strategy”, UK - The Stationery Office, 2007. Valerie Arraj, Compliance Process Partners, „ITIL The Basics - White Paper”, 2010.

7.

Vernon Lloyd and Colin Rudd, „ITIL Service Design”, UK - The Stationery Office, 2007. Van Bon, „The guide to IT service management”, Addison Wesley, 2002. 8. Microsoft Operations Framework; Cross Reference ITIL V3 and MOF 4.0. Microsoft Corporation, 2009. 9. UK - Office of Government Commerce, „The official introduction to the ITIL service lifecycle”, 2007, www.tsshop.com.uk. 10. Information Technology Infrastructure Library, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Informat ion_Technology_Infrastructure_Libr ary

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USING ONTOLOGY’S IN HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT Enikö Elisabeta ŢOLEA Ph.D., candidate, Babes Bolyai University, Faculty of Economic Sciences and Business Administration [email protected] Abstract: In today’s business environment, human resource management is playing an important role and it is present in each organization. Human resource management (HRM) is the strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working in the organization. We try to design an ontology for human resource management, and we want to encompass in it all common items no matter in which area we want to apply this structure. This paper wants to propose a model for a human resource management system. This future structure will be incorporated into an ontology. Ontologies are used to capture knowledge about some domains of interest and in our case, it is used to capture knowledge about an human resource management system. Key Words: Ontology, Knowledge Representation, HRM.

2. Related work A widely accepted definition for the concept of ontology given us the first time by T. Gruber (1993), says that ontology is "an explicit specification of a conceptualization." He defines the term conceptualization by referring to objects, concepts and other entities, which are presumed to exist in a particular area of interest and relationships that keeps them all together. Note that this definition uses the traditional description of the conceptual database scheme, but differs in at least three essential elements: objective, scope and content [4]. An ontology language is a formal language used to encode the ontology. To create this ontology we used OWL language. OWL is a language for making ontological statements, developed as a follow-on from RDF and RDFS, as well as earlier ontology language projects including OIL, DAML and DAML+OIL. OWL is intended to be used over the World Wide Web, and all its elements (classes, properties and individuals) are defined as RDF resources, and identified by URIs [5]. 3. Statement We are more interested in the field of enterprise ontologies. We want to create a dictionary of knowledge for human resources management. Dictionary meaning the concepts of knowledge recorded in a given field, relations between concepts and constraints to be applied to concepts.

1. Introduction Human Resource Management (HRM) or more specifically competence management is an important function of knowledge management because it reasons about an organization’s most important resource – the knowledge and skills of its staff [1]. For this we wanted to create an ontology, a prototype for an human resource management ontology. Ontology is the clue in integrating data/knowledge base objects with distributed objects systems in diverse integrative collaborative applications. It decreases semantic ambiguities in knowledge sharing and reusing [2]. Ontology allows us to express the formal rules for inferences. When software reads our ontology, it should have all the information necessary to draw the same conclusions from our data that we did. When the actions of software are consistent with the rules expressed in the ontology, we say that the software has made an ontological commitment [3]. This article is structured as follows: • In the first part: Problem content and statements, we will debate what ontology is, which the most common definitions are and we will give some other information about ontology. • In the second session: Proposed Model, we will describe the architectural solution of this model along with design and implementation details.

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Explicit definitions are designed to improve communication, integration and consistency when a new system is design. Construction phases of ontology, are presented for the first time by A. GomezPerez (1998) [6], and this phases are: Knowledge acquisition; Specifying

requirements; Conceptualization; Implementation; Evaluation; Documentation. The effectiveness of employee activity is largely conditioned by linking tasks, powers and responsibilities, metaphorically expressed by a triangle called "golden triangle of the organization."

Figure 1: The golden triangle of the organization knowledge-based applications with ontologies. Ontologies are used to capture knowledge about some domain of interest. An ontology describes the concepts in the domain and also the relationships that hold between those concepts. Different ontology languages provide different facilities. The most recent development in standard ontology languages is OWL from the World Wide Web Consortium (W3C)[7]

4. Proposed model. Design Details We developed a prototype for human resource management, and in the following paragraphs we will describe how we did it. In Figure 2 we described some of the component classes of the ontology. This figure contains the basic concepts and the relationships between them. We used Protégé for the development of this structure. Protégé is a free, open-source platform to construct domain models and .

Figure 2: Class Description

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The next step was to create subclasses for the already defined classes. Up to this point, we have created some simple named classes, some of which are subclasses of other classes. The next steep was to create properties and define them. We first off all created some properties and then used them to define the competence and tasks for our employees, as you can see in Figure 3.

4.1 Implementation Details

After defining classes we moved further and added some properties to the Classes. Firs property that we added was the Disjoin Property between classes. In order to ‘separate’ a group of classes we must make them disjoint from one another. This ensures that an individual which has been asserted to be a member of one of the classes in the group cannot be a member of any other classes in that group[8].

Figure 3: Object Property definition and their use

In figure 4 we described the competencies, objectives, responsibilities and tasks that the General Director may have.

Figure 4: Attributions for an employee 267

In OWL, “attributes” of classes (concepts) are represented by OWL data type properties and “relationships” between classes are represented by OWL object properties[9]. We identified the following attributes and relationships to define a competency in our ontology as can by seen in figure 5. The “has_knowledge_level”, OWL object type property was made to record the knowledge-level of the competency and it has two sub-knowledge levels in order to be able to differentiate them.

Figure 5 Competencies

All the mentioned restrictions are just a small part of the entire project. Other restrictions and OWL functionalities will be analyzed as the project will grow. This is an evolving prototype, and as it is developed it is necessary to describe it more. 5. Evaluation For the evaluation we decided to run two simple queries and to display their result as it can by seen in Figure 6.

Figure 6: Queries And in order to have a future perspective we decided to add a SWOT Analysis to this project(Figure 7).

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‐developed relations between concepts;

‐users must define adnotation elements;

‐quick responses to interogations and semnatic interfaces;

‐users and developer always collaborate; ‐can botbe used by user on his own;

‐ontology is „opened world”, easy to extand. ‐semantic capabilities for software;

‐lack of trust of organizations in knowlege based systems;

‐ converts relational databases in triplets; ‐relationa databases direct concurent; ‐permits easy future development of the systems; ‐unclear benefits for managers.

Figure 7: SWOT Analysis 6. Conclusion Ontologies have started to be used more and more to the development intelligent information system that integrates modular type structure and expert systems. We believe that human resources development of specific applications will help demonstrate that more companies may have the same structure of human resources even if the scope of the different companies. We focused on the design of the ontology. This ontology was created in several steps. It required more reviews, every time we wanted to improve this prototype. Surely more needs and other changes are to by accomplished in the future, because eventually this prototype, to be one that would apply in the field of human resources and to successfully cope with such management.

2.

3. 4.

5.

Acknowledgments This work was supported by ANCSCNMP, project number PNII – 91037/2007.

6.

Bibliography: 1. J. Dorn, T. Naz, M. Pichlmair: "Ontology Development for Human Resource Management"; Vortrag: 4thInternational Conference on Knowledge Management, Wien; 27.08.2007 28.08.2007;

7. 8.

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in:"Proceedings of 4rdInternational Conference on Knowledge Management", Ch. Stary, F. Barachini, S. Hawamdeh (Hrg.); Series on Information&Knowledge Management, 6 (2007), ISBN: 978-981-277-058-5; S. 109 - 120. Cristina NICULESCU, Perspective ontologice în modelarea sistemelor informationale de colaborare ale organizatiilor virtuale, Revista Informatica Economica, nr. 3(23)/2002 Toby Segaran, Colin Evans, and Jamie Taylor, Programming the Semantic Web, O’Reilly Media, 2009 Ioan I. Andone, Ontologies and Enterprise’s Information Modelling, Analele Stiintifice ale Universitatii "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" din Iasi - Stiinte Economice, 2005/2006 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontology_ %28information_science%29 Gomez-Perez, A., (1998), Knowledge sharing and reuse. The Handbook of Applied Expert Systems, edited by J. Liebowitz, CRC Press, Boca Raton, chapter X. http://www.w3.org/TR/owl-guide/ Matthew Horridge,Nick Drummond, Simon Jupp, Georgina Moulton, Robert Stevens, A Practical Guide To Building OWL Ontologies Using Protege 4 and

CO-ODE Tools Edition 1.2, The University Of Manchester, 2009 9. J. Dorn, T. Naz, M. Pichlmair: "Ontology Development for Human Resource Management"; Vortrag: 4thInternational Conference on Knowledge Management, Wien;

27.08.2007-28.08.2007; n:"Proceedings of 4rdInternational Conference on Knowledge Management", Ch. Stary, F. Barachini, S. Hawamdeh (Hrg.); Series on Information&Knowledge Management, 6 (2007), ISBN: 978-981277-058-5; S. 109 – 120.

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KNOWLEDGE DELIVERY EVALUATION IN E-LEARNING SYSTEMS Adina Ileana UŢĂ Anca ANDREESCU Ph.D., professor, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Ph.D., lecturer, Academy of Economic Studies Bucharest, Romania [email protected] Abstract: The paper presents some aspects concerning the evaluation of e-learning systems, emphasizing in particular the tutor's role in such a training system and the evaluation of course materials’ quality. Keywords: Knowledge, E-learning, Evaluation, Distance Learning Education, Tutor, Course content

1.

account and integrated in statistical indicators such as earlier school drop out, completing the studies, etc. The problem arises when interpreting the results, especially when they are compared with traditional education and training system - are relevant comparisons between different educational approaches? Founded or not, comparisons are made. But without a thorough program evaluation is not possible to consider a simple indicator such as promotion rates of the final examinations as a criterion for success. It requires much more comparative data. First, must be collected data on demographic characteristics of students and on the amount of prior knowledge. Most of the traditional education forms do not take into account years of study that are not completed by the end qualifying examination. Distance training modules often have a large number of students who appear to be under-prepared or, at best, have no qualifications to enable them to follow the course for which they applied. From the traditional perspective, completion of courses by a group of such a students is considered to be a great "added value", due to their original disadvantage positions.

INTRODUCTION

Reasons for enrolment in a distance course are varied, and some are not sufficient to ensure complete attending courses and their promotion. Evaluation is not a subject often mentioned in the theory of open and distance education. This is a problem, if we consider distance education as an innovative approach of education and training, of knowledge delivery, which are still under development. Clearly, full confidence in such an innovation would come only after determining precisely the level to which goals are reached and expectations are justified. Part of the problem stems from the definition of distance education as an attempt to avoid difficulties related to accessibility of traditional education. Reasons for enrolment in a course in elearning system are often more than getting a certificate for employment. Not all beneficiaries of a distance education mode are students by their own choice. Some, particularly in vocational training type, meet certain conditions by the time position within a company, they can be hired and sponsored by the company and sponsorship depends on the outcome of the final exam, others, from the same series, are interested only by educational content that is close to their hobbies. Many of them may have some resentment because they were forced to follow, in their free time, a training course. These individual decisions are taken into

2. E-LEARNING SYSTEMS EVALUATION PROCESS General areas of e-learning evaluation (training activities, course material etc.) can be develop into subcomponents. Boundaries between various components of a program 271

of distance education are variable, depending on the type of system developed, the system complexity and on the philosophy of the institution. This fact is important for evaluation process because, to highlight the efficiency of the system components the data must be collected from different system areas. Each of the general areas, that can not be absent in a distance education program, can be developed in separate but highly interdependent components.

• Detailing the requirements of individual / in collaboration task; Integrating a general theme of the course topic; • Help in preparing the final exam; • Development of their skills for further work; • Advice on learning style; • Help in identifying strengths and overcoming the drawbacks in terms of the activities of a student; • Help in learning rhythm and establish priorities.

2.1. Evaluation of mentoring and support activities Tutorial support activity is the most exposed, susceptible to get the answer "too little provided" in any evaluation, and, in order to obtain real results. In the evaluation process should be given special attention to this activity. The components that must evaluate are: Course material; the time assigned to a training unit; tutorial support.

The most of the students have the attitudes bellow, regarding the tutor role in a e-learning process: • Besides evaluating and communicating results throughout the program works, the student do not need other contact with tutors - disagree and totally disagree • The tutor help in solving the problems arising during the course can not be provided by anyone else in the institution - total agree and agree • A good tutor can make a good course, an unprepared tutor can ruin everything total agree and agree • Some aspects of the course material can be understood only with help from a tutor - total agree and agree • Reduction in aid from the tutor would lead to lower my ability to understand course - total agree and agree • Without a tutor, probably would have dropped at least one course in which we encountered problems - disagree and totally disagree • Without providing tutorial support, the institution would lose credibility - total agree and agree

2.1.1 The role of tutors from the student point of view To appreciate the role of tutor, from the students point of view, detailed on specific activities, in the first part of the training program, can be to apply a questionnaire, that can provides the issues that can be improved, with the following questions (with the possible response “More support” or “Not vary necessary”): • Type of help from the tutor; • Analysis of errors and weaknesses in resolving issues / individual workload; Explanations - such as work had to show; • Clear identification of positive aspects of their work; • Clarifying difficult course material contents; • Broadening the perspective on topics of current materials; • Analysis / feedback about their progress in assimilating a topic; • Encouragement from tutor; • Tips on how to approach a subject and an individual task;

2.1.2. How to evaluate tutors feedback offered to the students Students waiting for their feedback and their performances depend by the quality of the feedback offered. Among activities considered priorities for a tutor and who are often the subject of evaluations, the

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but may by useful to check if tutors meet professional standards. The criteria for assessing the effectiveness of support in attending a course at a distance depend on the type of the expected results and to content difficulty.

feedback can be detailed and analysis on several levels. First may be done a quantitative measurement of responses to student questions. Rate responses are recorded per problem and are made on the bases of: • the volume of knowledge contained in the response, • the time between request of the support and tutors response, • if the student ask the same question later or not. In terms of quality, to establish the tutor competence in measurement and assessment by notes, can be make a quality analysis of responses provided by the tutor and a review of student work, or, to avoid the consumption of time and resources reevaluation of notes issuance may be replaced by a statistical calculation system. Although the appreciation by notes of the student activities is important, the scope of these assessments is much larger, joining in the overall approach of the support provided by tutors.

The feedback provided by tutors can be assessed from the perspectives below: - Efficiency: Give feedback to the students during the optimal time required by the system; Comments are likely understood by students; Record notes and related comments to the catalogue - Scoring: Accurate / indulgence / severe; Correctly use of the dreading scales; - Relationship with student: Friendly and empathetic tone; Encouraging comments; Encouragement to use the tutorial support to solve the further problems - General assessment of student activity: Performance evaluation ; Motivation of the notes ; Suggestions for improvement ; Assessment of overall progress in attending a course - Detailing comments: Correcting every error; Suggestions on how to approach ; Suggestions to pages and sections to be reversed ; Emphasizing the positive aspects; Comment on some irrelevant aspects of student issues; Indication of the further course materials for the development of ideas expressed by student

There are types of distance education programs where assessment during training is missing. However, students expect a feedback and their performance depend on the quality of the feedback offered. The comments of the feedback provided by the tutor are: • Analysis and explanation of the causes of low performance • Constructive criticism - encouraging comments • Detailed comments of the scoring criteria • Analysis of the general progress and of a several stages during training period Because of the importance (qualitative and quantitative) of the tutorial support offered in the distance education programs, this component is an important area for monitoring and evaluation this type of education programs. Evaluation of tutorial support is done, primarily, through the application of questionnaires to the students

2.1.3. Tutor (self-) evaluation Tutorial support activity is closely conditioned by factors of personality. Tutor performance is one of the most difficult areas of evaluation and improvement, because, first, the variety of problems encountered by students and, on the other hand, the specific activity of tutorial support - strongly conditioned by factors of personality. A desirable step in this direction is the analysis of the tutors themselves of the feedback forms from students. These forms - anonymous - are

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completed at the end of the first training sequence. A possible structure consists of assigned tutor list desirable characteristics, which are structured on two levels: generally valid (important to determine the type of support or / and interaction for student) and applied to their tutor. A tutor can reflect on the learners, course content, and the effectiveness of his/her teaching method methodologies. Characteristics / feature of the tutors can be: - Clarity of explanations; - Enthusiasm for the content topics; - Stimulating personal court; - Efficient organization; - Efficient stimulation of group discussions; - The quality of the communication channel used; - How to solve specific problems encountered; - Encouraging all students in group discussions; - Encourages me to contribute to joint working sessions; - Promptness answers; - Clear explanation about errors; - Individual encouragement ; - Availability. A tutor can reflect on the learners, course content, and the effectiveness of his/her teaching method methodologies. The tutor might ask the following: - Regarding the learners - Why were the students enrolled? What was their motivation? - Was there a mix of students? Consider a student profile. - Were there mixed abilities? - How did this particular mix impact on the success, or otherwise, of the course? - What were the student expectations on joining the class? - Did they have realistic expectations? If not, why? - Did the students have the right abilities/aptitude for the course?

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Did students have sufficient literacy skills? Do the admission criteria need to be reconsidered? What was the attrition rate and why? Did students give reasons for not completing the course? What were the concerns, or anxieties, of students? Were the students comfortable in a classroom situation? Were students keen to participate? Did all the students participate in discussions? Did the group need supports? What kinds of supports were needed? Could/should these have been planned for/envisaged? How did students develop/change over the duration of the course? Why were the successful students successful? - Regarding the content - Were goals and outcomes met? Were students interested in the course content? Was the material pitched at the right level? Was there sufficient introductory material covered? Was it necessary to revise the material at any point? Why? What areas evoked the most response? Which material was understood most easily? Why? What areas caused difficulties? How might the difficult topics be presented differently? How could the material be updated/revised to make a greater impact? Was there any unnecessary overlap in content? Was the material contemporary and upto-date? Was the course timed correctly? Was there sufficient time for reflection? Was there sufficient time for group work, or discussion?

-

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Did students have sufficient prior knowledge to enable them participate in the course? Was there an opportunity to draw on the students' personal experiences? Did students reach the anticipated outcomes? If not, why? Were there any unanticipated learning outcomes? If the students were assessed, was their work up to the expected standard? Which areas of the course did students concentrate on in their assignments? Why? Are some areas being focused on to the detriment of others? What would need to be changed for future courses? In future, would it be necessary to add new topics? Why? - Regarding the methodologies Was there a sufficient mix of teaching strategies? What was the ratio of talk time students: tutor? Were adult education principles followed? Was the group facilitated well? Could anything have been done differently/better? How were the student introductions organized? Did the ice-breaker activity work well? Why/why not? Was there a good group dynamic? Why/why not? Was there opportunity for experiential learning? Was there group work? Did everyone participate willingly? Did students have an opportunity to participate individually? How did students react to different exercises? Was there opportunity for discussion? Were audio-visual or information technology resources integrated into the course?

-

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Was the material presented in a variety of formats to accommodate all learning styles? Was student feedback encouraged? Was it necessary to incorporate study skills advice? Were problems/conflicts in the group addressed adequately? How? How might problems have been dealt with more effectively? Was the assessment fair and relevant? Could the students be assessed in any other way? Did the assessment adequately test the material covered? What was the level of work presented? Was adequate feedback given to students? Did students have an opportunity to evaluate the course content? Which teaching strategies were most effective? Why? What elements of the course presented challenges? - Regarding the personal development How would I run the course differently? What are my own learning needs after the course? What skills do I need to acquire to be more effective in my teaching? Would I benefit from professional development/training? What areas could I read up on to better inform my practice? 2.2. Evaluation of the course materials

Evaluation of the course materials is not synonymous with course evaluation. In most systems of distance education, generation and transmission of course belong to different departments or even the responsibility of different institutions. The evaluation of the course occurs at each company, and parts of the basis for evaluation results are the basis for improvements in the design of training and development contents.

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Premises of departure in assessing the course material resides in a terminological clarification: a distance learning course is a process of interaction: learner materials made available to him, student facilities offered by the system, student tutor / adviser / course manager. Of course, the product (course material) is the reference point, always invoked in other interactions, but do not cover the student experience in learning process and thus evaluation of the course materials is not synonymous with course evaluation Data on student performance, including the rate of achieving individual COMPETENCE

workload is one of the clearest areas of assessment approach course material. Continuous monitoring of how students make up their homework, provide an adequate indicator, which can be correlated with the contents of that sequence learning. In the 1990's, Anderson and Krathwohl (2001) revised the taxonomy with a view to making it more relevant to the twenty-first century. The following table is listed in the order of the revised taxonomy with the original categories printed in black.

SKILLS DEMONSTRATED

QUESTION CUES

Remembering (Knowledge) Can the student RECALL information?

• Observation and recall of information • Knowledge of dates, events, places • Knowledge of major ideas • Mastery of subject matter

List, define, tell, describe, identify, show, label, collect, examine, tabulate, quote, name, who, when, where, etc.

Understanding (Comprehension) Can the student EXPLAIN ideas or concepts?

• Understanding information • Translate knowledge into new context • Interpret facts, compare, contrast • Predict consequences

Summarize, describe, interpret, contrast, predict, associate, distinguish, estimate, differentiate, discuss, extend

Applying (Application) Can the student USE the new knowledge in another familiar situation?

• Use methods, concepts, theories in new situations • Solve problems using required skills or knowledge

Apply, demonstrate, calculate, complete, illustrate, show, solve, examine, modify, relate, change, classify, experiment, discover

Analyzing (Analysis)

• Organization of parts

Analyze, separate, order, explain, connect, classify,

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COMPETENCE

SKILLS DEMONSTRATED

QUESTION CUES

Can the student DIFFERENTIATE between constituent parts?

• Seeing patterns • Recognition of hidden meanings • Identification of components

arrange, divide, compare, select, explain, infer

Evaluating (Evaluation) Can the student JUSTIFY a decision or course of action?

• Compare and discriminate between ideas • Assess value of theories, presentations • Make choices based on reasoned argument

Assess, decide, rank, grade, test, measure, recommend, convince, select, judge, explain, discriminate, support, conclude, compare, summaries

Creating • Use old ideas to (Synthesis) create new ones Can the student GENERATE new • Relate knowledge products, ideas or ways of viewing things? from several areas • Predict, draw conclusions

Combine, integrate, modify, rearrange, substitute, plan, create, design, invent, what if?, compose, formulate, prepare, generalize, rewrite

will have varied abilities and require varied levels of support. Prior experiences of learning may differ radically with some students being enthusiastic lifelong learners and others making a tentative move back into education. Motivations for attending may also range from those needing a particular course for work/personal reasons to those who just wish to take a course to get out and meet people. In between will be all degrees of commitment, interest and enthusiasm. All of these learners may have to be accommodated in the one group.

When course content is planning, the following questions need to be considered: • How can my material be organized best and presented so as to reach my proposed learning outcomes? • What do I need to consider about the type of learners with whom I work? • How do adult learning styles impact on the way I present material? • What teaching methodologies are most suitable for adult learners? • How do I involve the learners as much as possible? • How can I draw on the learner's own experience and knowledge?

3. CONCLUSIONS Direct involvement of tutors in assessment, does not necessarily include the use of questionnaires; this can be done in the current activities with students, or through discussions with other tutors (or advisers and technical managers where appropriate). Improving tutorials activity, in a distance education program, involves

When planning and organizing the course content, it is important to take into consideration the individual nature of learners who come to the course. Learners

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evaluation of the course materials, tutorials or activity system as a whole.

monitoring the quality of support offered to all students and continuous assessment of the interactions with the groups of students. The goal for providers of distance education programs to monitor and evaluate course material depends largely on the level to which they have control over their content and the intention to elaborate further courses. But even when the contents can not be changed over time, financial or technical reasons, simply monitoring the reactions and views of students can result in improved learning activities support students for future series. Student may be involved in evaluating every aspect of a distance training program and often the views and behaviours are very important in the

1.

2. 3. 4.

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BIBLIOGRAPHY: Association for Educational Communications and Technology California. Design Guidelines and Consistency of Navigation Items. http://www.coe.uh.edu/ courses/cuin7317 /interface_design.html Olimpius Istratehttp://www. elearning-forum.ro/resurse/ http://www.worldwidelearn.com/elear ning-essentials/ Rhonda Wynne, Learner Centred Methodologies, http://www.assetproject.info/learner_ methodologies/introduction.htm

EMERGENCE AND ADAPTATION IN KNOWLEDGE-BASED SYSTEMS Iulia MĂRIEŞ Ph.D., candidate, Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: The main objective of the paper is to highlight the characteristics of knowledge-based systems and to present the concept „community of practice” in the context of knowledge-based economy. The paper addresses the new trends and challenges of knowledge dynamics within communities of practice and examines the emergence of this type of communities. Keywords: knowledge-based systems, emergence, adaptation, communities of practice

organizations and provide an efficient organizational framework for achieving the creative and learning functions of organizations. The organization of the future is that organization which learns to adapt and to benefit from the creative power of project communities, knowledge networks, and open source teams based on free associations of persons passionate about what they do together. The remainder of this paper is organized as follows. In Section 2 the concept of community of practice is defined in the context of knowledge-based economy. Section 3 highlights the characteristics of knowledge-based systems and emergent communities of practice. Section 4 comes up with conclusions and directions for future work.

Introduction Knowledge assets are a critical resource that can generate competitive advantage for organizations. Generally, knowledge can be divided in explicit knowledge and tacit knowledge. Organizations focus on managing the explicit knowledge, but also on capturing the tacit knowledge embedded in the individuals’ experiences. Through the interactions in social networks, communitybased knowledge development has become a very effective tool. In this context, more and more organizations are developing communities of practice as a strategic tool for knowledge development and sharing within the organization and across organizational boundaries. In the last years numerous contributions and approaches pointed out the importance of communities of practice in the knowledge-based economy. The most relevant argument is that communities of practice are the core of collective learning and collective intelligence, relaying on a permanent exchange of knowledge and information related to the practice. Communities of practice can provide a social reservoir for practitioners, knowledge producers and policy makers to analyze, address and explore new solutions to their problems. These communities are emerging in knowledge-based organizations. They can enhance the efficiency of production and can improve the innovative processes. Communities of practice represent social structures suitable for creating, developing and sharing knowledge in

A New Organizational Form – The Community of Practice In a global perspective, knowledge represents a dynamic entity that is processed and analyzed through intelligent networks to serve the knowledge society. Knowledge sharing in communities has attracted attention in fields like knowledge management or sociology, in both research and practice. Inter-organizational forms of network organizations are more and more accentuated. A new organizational form has emerged that complements existing structures and emphasizes knowledge sharing and learning, called the community of practice. The concept has received much attention

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from researchers and practitioners in the management area, especially in knowledge management. Communities of practice are considered important components of the strategies regarding knowledge exchange and innovation processes. Communities of practice are free associations of persons who choose to improve their skills together. Furthermore, they develop new productive collective capabilities, which are sources of value creation in knowledge-based economies.

Communities of practice are groups of selfgoverning people who are challenged to create value by generating knowledge and increasing capabilities. The concept „community of practice” was outlined by Lave and Wenger in early 90’s, to describe „a group of people who share a concern, a set of problems or a passion about a topic, and who deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis” (Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002).

Table 1. Key characteristics of communities of practice Characteristics of CoPs Sustained mutual relationships, both harmonious and conflictual Shared ways of engaging in working together Common background, shared stories Certain styles and habits recognized as displaying membership Specific tools, representations and artifacts Shared repertoire reflecting a certain perspective on the world Quick setup of a problem to be discuss Absence of introductions, if is not the first interaction Rapid propagation of innovation Source: Compiled from [Wenger, McDermott and Snyder, 2002] A community of practice represents „an intrinsic condition for the existence of knowledge” (Juriado and Gustafsson, 2007, 50-61). Learning in communities of practice is not only replicating instances of practice, but also „learning as legitimate peripheral participation”. Legitimate peripheral participation means learning as an integral part of practice, learning as „generative social practice”. Participation represents the key of understanding communities of practice, because they imply participation in an activity about which all participants have a common understanding. Therefore, both the community and the degree of participation in it are inseparable from the practice. Another complex definition of communities of practice describes them as „self-organizing and self-governing groups of persons who share a passion for the common domain of what they do and strive to become better practitioners. They create value for their members and stakeholders

Communities of practice can be defined as „groups of people informally bound together by shared expertise and passion for a joint enterprise” (Wenger and Snyder, 2000, 139-145). Within communities of practice the individual knowledge and experiences are shared, new knowledge is developed and problems are solved through interactions between members of the communities. In respect to the above definition, a community of practice is delimited by three dimensions: • What it is about: the „joint enterprise”, as understood and continually renegotiated by its members; • How it functions: the relationships of „mutual engagement” that bring members together into a social entity; • What capability it has produced: the „shared repertoire” of communal resources (routines, habits, artifacts, vocabulary, styles) that members have developed over time. 280

practices” related to the practice represents the most important activities in communities of practice. Through these activities, members are able to engage and participate in collective learning process. Therefore, many communities of practice emerge naturally from existing relationships and trustfulness. In general, individuals do not consider themselves to be part of a community, knowledge sharing taking place in nonhierarchical groups, beyond the formal work description. This phenomenon has been identified as the „emergent communities of practice” (Juriado and Gustafsson, 2007, 50-61). The emergent communities of practice are created by the complexity, diversity and fluidity of the individuals. „Communities of practice do not usually require heavy institutional infrastructures, but their members do need time and space to collaborate. They do not require much management, but they can use leadership. They self-organize, but they flourish when their learning fits with their organizational environment. The art is to help such communities find resources and connections without overwhelming them with organizational meddling. This need for balance reflects the following paradox: no community can fully design the learning of another; but conversely no community can fully design its own learning.” (Wenger and Snyder, 2000, 139-145) Communities of practice are characterized by the absence of any contractual scheme, agents being able to set the nature of their commitment to the community. The individual expertise underlies the existence of communities of practice, while members are endowed with different experiences. The heterogeneity determines specialization in different fields implied by the personal background of the individuals. The specialization effect shows that each member develops specific knowledge related to his field of enquiry and ignoring other parts. Furthermore, communities often develop specific

through developing and spreading new knowledge, productive capabilities and fostering innovation.” (Pór and van Bukkum, 2004) Emergence and Adaptation in Knowledge-based Systems The knowledge-based systems have a continuous evolution towards increasing complexity and adaptability. Adaptation is a concept stemming from nature that has been adopted in systems theory. Complexity attributes in terms of openness and dynamics have varied contexts within complex systems. The emergence of knowledge-based systems tends to create irreversible structures or ideas, relationships and organizational forms that become part of the individuals and, in return, affect the evolution of these entities. For instance, the emergence of new knowledge and ideas within a team, company or even the whole society can be described as an emergent process because it represents a result of interactions between individuals and not the sum of existing ideas, but something entirely new and possibly unexpected. Once ideas are revealed, they become part of each individual history, but also part of common history of a community, organization or company. The process is irreversible and these new ideas and knowledge can be used to generate other new ideas and new knowledge. The analysis of knowledge-based systems shows that this type of systems satisfies the general properties of emergence and adaptability. The emergence of centralized structures in communities of practice is the result of a self-organizing process. Emergent Communities of Practice A starting point of the emergence of communities is related to the existence of problems with current solutions or a shared need. The evaluation of relevant knowledge and information, and also of „best

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structures of organization. This implies a differentiation in the roles played by specific members. As a result, each member is endowed with different objectives and motivations. The individuals are also characterized by the deepness of their experience in the community representing the time spent in the community and conditioning the level of knowledge of the practice. The core participants of the community develop common cognitive frames and knowledge. This facilitates coordination among community members, but also restricts the capacity to find solutions to new problems. Original solutions to problems are given by the peripheral members. The process of learning at the boundary is the base of the legitimacy of peripheral members (Lave and Wenger, 1991, 103). Communities of practice represent the core of the collective learning and collective invention processes which relies on a constant exchange of knowledge and information. Temporary organizations are motivated to perform specific actions in order to achieve immediate goals. The emergence of such temporary and networkbased organizations has determined the creation of communities of practice, which become active temporary in network-based organizations.

of the communities of practice within organizations is to transfer shared knowledge into organizational knowledge. In this context, communities of practice represent the center of the creative and innovation process. The organizational behavior field is interested in studying organizations as complex social systems. Most of the theories from this field explore individual and collective human behavior within organizations and their central activities try to identify the determinants of intraorganizational cooperation. The contribution of the paper is mostly theoretical, presenting a conceptual analysis but also a practical use of knowledge within communities of practice. The research is based on the sociological literature, with emphasis on the theory of organizational behavior.

Conclusions and Future Work

Bibliography:

Communities of practice are developed around things that matter to people. As a result, their practices reflect the members understanding of what is important. Outside constraints can influence this understanding, but even then, members develop practices that are their own response to these external influences. In this sense, communities of practice are fundamentally self-organizing systems. To develop the capacities to create and retain knowledge, organizations must understand the process by which learning communities evolve and interact. The role

1. Garrido, Paolo. „Business Sustainability and Collective Intelligence”, The Learning Organization, 16, 3 (2009): 208-222. 2. Hildreth, Paul, Kimble, Chris and Wright, Peter. „Communities of practice in the distributed international environment”, Journal of Knowledge Management, 4, 1 (2000): 27-38. 3. Juriado, Rein and Gustafsson, Niklas. „Emergent communities of practice in temporary inter-organizational partnerships”, The Learning Organization: The International

Acknowledgements This article is a result of the project „Doctoral Program and PhD Students in the education research and innovation triangle”. This project is co funded by European Social Fund through The Sectorial Operational Programme for Human Resources Development 2007-2013, coordinated by The Bucharest Academy of Economic Studies.

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Practice”, Lecture Notes in Business Information Processing, 22, 5 (2009): 144-158. 9. Wang, Chen-Ya, Yang, Hsin-Yi and Chou, Seng-Cho T. „Using peer-to-peer technology for knowledge sharing in communities of practice”, Decision Support Systems, 45 (2008): 528 – 540. 10. Wenger, Etienne C. and Snyder, William M. „Communities of practice: the organizational frontier”, Harvard Business Review, 78, 1 (2000): 139-145. 11. Wenger, Etienne, McDermott, Richard A. and Snyder, William. „Cultivating Communities of Practice: A Guide to Managing Knowledge”, Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2002. 12. Zhang, Wei and Watts, Stephanie. „Online communities as communities of practice: a case study”, Journal of Knowledge Management, 12, 4 (2008): 55-71.

Journal of Knowledge and Organizational Learning Management, 14, 1 (2007): 50-61. Lave, Jean and Wenger, Etienne. „Situated Learning. Legitimate Peripheral Participation”, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991. Luck, Michael, McBurney, Peter and Preist, Chris. „Agent Technology: Enabling Next Generation Computing – A Roadmap for Agent Based Computing”, Agent Link, 2003. Pór, George and van Bukkum, Erik. „Liberating the Innovation Value of Communities of Practice”, Amsterdam, 2004. Scarlat, Emil and Maries, Iulia. „Simulating Collective Intelligence of the Communities of Practice Using Agent-Based Methods”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, 6070 (2010): 305314. Turoff, Murray and Hiltz, Starr R. „The Future of Professional Communities of

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ENTERPRISE INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE VALUE OPTIMIZATION USING INTELLIGENT AGENTS Radu-Ioan MOGOŞ Academy of Economic Studies, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: This paper presents a description of the Enterprise Architecture, the benefits of its use and its key issues. Enterprise Information Architecture is also described and the value that represents in the economic field. Based on the general architecture of the Enterprise Information Architecture was developed a case study containing a data stream that describes the steps required of a financial transaction. In the Enterprise Information Architecture model an argument-based intelligent agent is proposed in order to select the best data mining algorithm to analyze the incoming data. Keywords: enterprise architecture, intelligent agent, data mining

In conception of [4], EA provides a framework for the business to add new applications, infrastructure, and systems for managing the lifecycle and the value of current and future environments. It also provides the alignment across business strategy, IT strategy, and IT implementation. It tightly integrates the business and IT strategies to create an ongoing way to use IT to sustain and grow the business. According to the same authors of [4] the goal of EA is to create a unified IT environment (standardized hardware and software systems) across the firm or all of the firm’s business units, with tight symbiotic links to the business side of the organization and its strategy. More specifically, the goals are to promote alignment, standardization, reuse of existing IT assets, and the sharing of common methods for project management and software development across the organization. The end result, theoretically, is that the enterprise architecture will make IT cheaper, more strategic, and more responsive. The purpose of EA is to create a map of IT assets and business processes and a set of governance principles that drive an ongoing discussion about business strategy and how it can be expressed through IT. There are many different suggested frameworks to develop an EA. Most frameworks contain four basic architecture layers as follows: infrastructure technology architecture

1. INTRODUCTION Project managers, senior business and technical executives are becoming increasingly concerned about whether they have all the needed critical information at their disposal to help them make important decisions that might impact the future of their enterprises and companies. They need to anticipate and adequately respond to business opportunities and proactively manage risk, while also improving operational efficiency. What these business and technical leaders have come to realize is that a success key factor across all these pressure points is information. 2. ENTERPRISE ARCHITECTURE (EA) In the business domain, an architecture can be seen as a blueprint for the optimal and target-conformant placement of resources in the IT environment for the ultimate support of the business function. As described in American National Standards Institute/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ANSI/IEEE) Std 1471-2000, an architecture is “the fundamental organization of a system, embodied in its components, their relationships to each other and the environment, and the principles governing its design and evolution”.

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layer, information architecture layer, application system architecture layer and business architecture layer. New approaches are taking into account

another new architecture layer, the Enterprise Strategy Architecture Layer. The EA architecture layers are illustrated in Figure 1.

Figure 1: The Enterprise Architecture layers (according to [1]) Roadmap (an Information Agenda is an approach for transforming information into a trusted source that can be leveraged across applications and processes to support better decisions for sustained competitive advantage). Architecture Methodology. A number of Enterprise Architecture methodologies have been developed since the origins of the Enterprise Architecture field in 1987 [6]. Currently, the architecture methodology field has several leading methods developed by governments and other large institutions. According to [3] and [5] among the most recognized methodologies in the EIA field are the following four: • The Open Group Architectural Framework (TOGAF) • The Zachman Framework for Enterprise Architectures • The Federal Enterprise Architecture • The Gartner Methodology (formerly Meta Framework) Each of these architecture methodologies has areas of strengths and dedicates a significant part of its content to the creation of an Information Architecture and an EIA as a core component of an Enterprise Architecture. In Figure 2 is illustrated according to [1] an architecture overview diagram for the EIA reference architecture.

3. ENTERPRISE INFORMATION ARCHITECTURE (EIA) The need for an EIA. Today, advances in information management and business intelligence drive the level of transformation that empowers businesses and their people. By embracing an enterprise approach, information-enabled companies optimize three interdependent business dimensions [2]: - Intelligent profitable growth - provides more opportunities for attracting new customers, improving relationships, identifying new markets, and developing new products and services; - Cost take-out and time efficiency optimize the allocation and deployment of resources and capital to improve productivity, create more efficiency, and manage costs in a way that aligns to business strategies and objectives; - Proactive risk management - reduces vulnerability and creates greater certainty in outcomes as a result of an enhanced ability to predict and identify risk events, coupled with an improved ability to prepare and respond to them. The organization value provides a documented, value-based economic justification for enabling the process, organization, and technology capabilities set forth in the Information Agenda

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Figure 2: Architecture Overview Diagram for the EIA Reference Architecture that can make fast decisions and swift execution are core requirements to accomplish this.

4. A CASE STUDY - IMPROVING DECISIONS IN FINANCIAL SERVICES - TRADING The newer generation of EIAs for the financial industry, particularly in the trading areas, need to combine optimized utilization of processing power with being able to process Structured and Unstructured Data including time series data. They also need to be able to perform complex analysis in real time. In this industry, to gain a competitive advantage, having robust capabilities for real time management of risk is a core imperative. For many wellestablished professional trading groups from the United States, Asia, and Europe, having a flexible, low-latency, highcapacity EIA and underlying infrastructure enables the use of newer algorithmic trading tools, which require ultra lowlatency trading services. Getting market data quickly and having a trading engine

4.1 Component Interaction Diagram In the following list, there are described the steps highlighted to describe this interaction: 1. A Market Data Acquisition Application Component receives streams of data from a variety of market data provider institutions such as the stock exchanges (for example NYSE - The New York Stock Exchange, the largest stock exchange in the world by United States dollar value). This step contains also information about order execution. 2. Communication typically occurs using a low-latency Data Bus Component that enables microsecond response time.

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Figure 3: Workflow for a financial exchange service sector deployment scenario between the business context and the underlying IT objects. 7. Connectivity and Interoperability Services serve as the communication enabler between the various components. These services are requested numerous times in this scenario. 8. Presentation Services are responsible for providing the financial alerts and other intelligence information to the appropriate delivery channel. These services can be packaged to generate embeddable insights that are delivered to the user interfaces in context. Embedded Analytics act as an enterprise Business Intelligent Service that users and applications tap into to deliver information. 9. Delivery Channels Component consists of channels that information is distributed to distribution ways.

3. An In-Memory Database adds relational capabilities to the technology, enabling high-speed data caching, persistence of states for high availability, and the possibility to enrich the streamed data with Metadata. 4. Enterprise Information Integration obtains data from different sources and integrates them into formats used by the Analytical Application and necessary to Metadata Management. 5. The Analytical Applications are configured apply a variety of analytical techniques and algorithms, using correlations, filters, and other supplied analytical functions. Information is correlated, classified, aggregated, transformed, and often annotated to enable patterns and trend detection before the trade decision is made. 6. Metadata Management will be executed to optimize, validate, and execute other steps. The relevant Metadata needs to be identified, retrieved, and exploited. Metadata Services are also invoked to store new Metadata from the data streams and to enrich the information managed by the In-Memory Database. Metadata Services will help to identify relevant information and to establish the linkage

4.2 Abstract architecture for argumentation-based intelligent agent for data mining analysis The Analytical Application component from Figure 3 may be improved by using an intelligent agent. The agent goal is to select the most

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appropriate argumentation-based data mining algorithm for data analysis. When the argumentation-based intelligent agent receives a message, the communication component and, in particular, the message interpretation process needs to break it down into its constituent proposal of choosing the data mining algorithm and supporting argument (if such an argument is included in the message) of using an algorithm over another. The argument forms the input in the argument evaluation process

which, as the name suggests, evaluates the newly received argument and also updates the agent’s model of the environment. For instance, it may be the case that the argument offered do not be good enough. Then, the agent is looking in his Data Mining Results History component to find out a better algorithm solution. The new proposal is evaluated by the DecisionMaking component and a response is generated, taking into account the updated model and the Data Mining Results History.

Figure 4: Abstract architecture for argumentation-based intelligent agent The generated proposal forms the input of the argument generation process, which is responsible for generating arguments for supporting the proposal, if this is required. The purpose of the argument selection process is to select the most appropriate one. The proposal along with the supportive argument, are subsequently passed on to the message generation process and the appropriate message is generated and sent as an input to the Analytical Application.

predictability and consistency of project outcomes across the portfolio. Consistently repeatable and thus predictable project success is of utmost importance to achieve an orderly change required for driving effective and lasting transformations such as SOA initiatives while managing associated, inherent risks. The business scenarios discussed in this paper provides an example of the newer trends in the use of advanced and traditional Business Intelligence strategies and technologies to help enterprises and other organizations across all industries handle more information than ever before to derive business value and react to opportunities and threats. A key challenge faced by these organizations is the sheer

5. CONCLUSIONS EA gives the business and IT stakeholders the big-picture perspective across enterprise strategy, business processes, information systems and technologies. Applying EA improves the 288

2. IBM Whitepaper: Business Analytics and Optimization for the Intelligent Enterprise. ftp://ftp.software.ibm.com/common/ssi/p m/xb/n/gbe03211usen/GBE03211USEN. PDF (accessed September , 2010) 3. J. Schekkerman, Institute For Enterprise Architecture Developments (IFEAD), Trends in Enterprise Architecture 2005, Reports of the Third Measurement, December 2005, Edition 1.0, Suikerpeergaarde 4, 3824BC Amersfoort, The Netherlands. 4. Koch C., Enterprise Architecture: A New Blueprint For The Enterprise, CIO Magazine, March 1, 2005 5. Microsoft Developer Network (MSDN). Building Distributed Applications—A Comparison of the Top Four EnterpriseArchitecture Methodologies. Roger Sessions, ObjectWatch, Inc. 2007. http://msdn.microsoft.com/enus/library/bb466232.aspx (accessed September 2010). 6. Zachman, J.A. A Framework for Information Systems Architecture. IBM Systems Journal, Volume 26, Number 3, 1987.

volume of all this data. This makes it increasingly difficult to manage, analyze, and put information in the hands of people who need it in context and in a timely manner. The advantages of using an intelligent agent are that the data processing time is faster, the best algorithm is used to return the best results (decision is made based on experience accumulated over time through different runs and obtained results) and the information accuracy (forwarded to the one that comes out of the component number 5 from Figure 3) is also higher. These optimizations of Analytical Applications component may be considered as an optimization of the EIA because essential issues are improved like time for information achieving and information accuracy. BIBLIOGRAPHY: 1. Godinez M., Hechler E., Koenig K., Lockwood S., Oberhofer M., Schroeck M., The Art of Enterprise Information Architecture, A Systems-Based Approach for Unlocking Business Insight, IBM Press, Pearson plc, 2010

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HUMAN RESOURCES MANAGEMENT - A COMPLEX, DYNAMIC AND EVOLUTIONAL PROCESS Mirela PUSCASU Ph.D., lecturer, “Carol I” National Defence University, Bucharest, [email protected] Abstract: The human capital is the essential element of the value of an organization. Quality assessment of human resources management, identifying the “measurement units”, as well as ways of understanding and analysis of information related to this capital, will allow the organization to focus on what must be done in order to find, preserve, develop and build human capital which it holds. Value quantifications and quality assessment of the human resources management, provides the basis of the HR strategies directed towards success, which aim at developing the basic competencies of the organization. The assessment can be used to track the status of reaching the human resources objectives and, in general, to assess the quality and efficiency of human resources practices. Keywords: assessment, quality, management, resources, human capital

individual and organizational needs; both of them use the same selection methods and techniques, management of performance, competence analysis, development of training and management; and, in both cases, communication has a major importance”1. In respect to differences, it can be emphasized the legged version (in 1998, Karen Legged expresses her view on the essential features of human resources management which are: various forms of flexibility, teambuilding spirit, empowerment and involvement, cultural management, respectively). The author has made three important distinctions: personnel management primarily aims at those without managerial tasks, while human resources management addresses primarily to the managerial staff; personnel management can only influence performance management, whereas the former comprises human resources management; personnel management dealt with suspicion the idea of developing the organization and the social-psychological ideas, whereas human resources management focuses on senior managers’ involvement in culture management.

There is no single model of approach and description of the human resources management. We encounter similarities and differences of approach in the reference work, and there are even some holdbacks regarding this subject. There are ideologists and practitioners who believe that human resources management does not meet a broad consensus neither as theory nor as alternative to staff management. According to other believes, human resources management, as theory, has serious minuses; it represents a simple concept; it is overly ambitious and impracticable; it is rather rhetorical. Beyond these opinions, many academics are wondering where the resemblance is and what is the difference between “human resources management and the staff”? If it were not tendentious, having been brought up by those who are reluctant on human resources management, the question might have been correct. To emphasize the fact that they are “different issues”, M. Armstrong (one of the first academics who have answered this question) has shown the main similarities: the strategies arise from the general strategy of the organization for both staff management and human resources management; both cases admit that managers have the responsibility to implement people’s management and they promote common values regarding the

1

Cf. M. Armstrong, Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest, p. 16-17.

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These ideas, restated in some sort, can underline the fact that the main difference is made, on one hand by the coverage area and, on the other hand, by the orientation of human resources management. Human resources management is based on a philosophy managerial and economically orientated that represents a strategic activity of managerial leadership, which covers all the interests of the organization. Relevant are the viewpoints expressed by Guest, who claims that “human resources management is too important to be left in the hands of personnel managers”2 or by M. Armstrong, who considers the human resources management as a “high conception of personnel management”3. The disagreements on this issue are timely, increasingly claiming that the optical, extremely critical on the human resources management, is contravened by practice. It is argued by Chris Hendry and Andrew Pettigrew that “better descriptions of structure and strategy-making in complex organizations and of frameworks for understanding them, are an essential base for human resources management”4. They think that „…human resources management was, in the truest sense, strongly normative, from the outset: it came up with a diagnosis and it proposed solutions”5), it can be stated that human resources management has four major directions: appeal to planning, harmonization of HR management with economic strategy; considering people as a “strategic resource” to acquire

competitiveness and the coherent approach of planning and resource management plan. Such an approach aims at improving resource capability, made possible by the correlation between resources and the possibility of obtaining added value from their use. Resource orientated strategy ensures the quantitative development, but especially the quality of the intellectual and human capital of the organization. From the perspective of obtaining, developing and retaining intellectual capital it is important to address strategic human resources management oriented towards resource capability through the total integration of human resources management in the system strategic planning, so that top managers can use the practices of HR management, as part of daily business. There are no universal recipes for policies or practices of human resources management; both the organizational culture as well as the context is important. However, what we call “optimal match” and “optimal practice” should be considered in the sense that a method which works well in a given environment should not be eluded, but creatively exploited. However, assuming the risk through mechanical processing and adaptation may be dangerous. It should also be avoided falling into the enigmatic trap of rational options, paying full attention to processes of organizational change, even more than to the “optimal match” or” optimal practice”. In the area of human resources management, the function of human resources handles the organizational planning and development, human resources planning, knowledge management, legal requirements, organizational relations, issues concerning the insurance of equal opportunities, social protection. In the reference work there are not outlined standards regarding the organization and manning of human resources function.

2

Guest, D, Personnel management: Has end of orthodoxy, British Journal of industrial Relations, 29(2), p. 149-197. 3 Cf. M. Armstrong, A Handbook of Personnel Management Practice, 6th edn, Kogan Page, London 1996, citat în M. Armstrong, Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest, p. 18. 4 Cf. M. Armstrong, Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest, p. 11. 5 M. Armstrong, Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest, p. 11.

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M. Armstrong believes that it is actually the old distinction between efficiency, meaning the way one does things and effectiveness, meaning what should be done in terms of results6. He points out the fact that “when deciding how the HR function should be assessed, it is also necessary to distinguish between quantitative criteria …. and qualitative ways..”7. The criteria that may be considered in the evaluation, are the following: the time needed to fill vacancies; the acceptance indicator, as a benchmark between the number of employment applications and the number of candidates accepted; the cost of training per employee; the direct results of training; the indicator of staff experts compared to the total number of staff in the organization; the ratio between personnel costs and added value; personnel costs related to the budget. However, following extensive research made at the top management of several organizations, Armstrong and Long concluded that the assessment basis is one’s own judgment, relatively to nine factors which refer to knowledge, organizational culture, capacity, efficiency, quality and credibility. Measuring the results allows that their tendencies be known by analyzing the gathered information, allows also the assessment of their level of competitiveness and it gives the opportunity to identify the improvement tools. The results can be measured in terms of quantity, quality, finance, etc. Normally, a full assessment involves combining the first two, both quantitative and qualitative. From the perspective of quality of processes, benchmarking used for quality improvement, identifies the improvement opportunities, used for the improvement of quality planning, establishes the quality objectives and, used for the improvement

Generally, experts convey values between 1 and 80, up to 1 and 1000 and even higher when we look at a ratio between the number of human resources experts and the staff number from an organization. There are no absolute rules, thus being supported the idea that the value of the above mentioned ratio cannot be established other than empirically. The human resources function is designed to meet the uniform implementation of human resources policies and legislation, accordingly and this fact is not always understood. But, even if the human resources experts did not have the capacity and tact to make these responsibilities properly understood they should have shown more tact in carrying out the responsibilities by adopting a more modest note and providing more advice to avoid tensions and ambiguities. Human resources management and, implicitly, the function of human resources are complex, dynamic and evolutional processes. The materialization from practice through positive effects and results must be viewed as a natural outcome of a changing process or adaptation to new social demands. Their promotion should be a concern in various fields of social activities. A proactive approach to human resources management is a requirement to achieve quality, assuming that HR experts want to innovate, to introduce new procedures and processes, which, through actual analysis, can improve the effectiveness of the organization. The need for innovation must be established through diagnosis and analytical processes. In this sense one could call the “comparative benchmark assessment” to identify the “optimal practice”. Some theorists in the field believe that human resources management practice can and should be considered a vocation, given the broad definition of professionalism, as implementation of specific skills on a defined set of knowledge and according to acknowledged norms of behavior.

6

M. Armstrong, Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest, p. 106. 7 Idem, p. 196.

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of quality control allows the establishment and monitoring the indicators of key processes. The general model of the

benchmarking process can be represented as follows: What is compared

A Processes, methods, practices, etc. B Factors of success

How it is compared Who initiates the comparison

With whom it is compared the target

Results

Results

WHO has better results WHAT must be improved OBJECTIVES

Figure 1: The overall model of the process of benchmarking Source: Virgil Popa, Management and measurement of the organizational performance, Valahia University Press Publishing, 2005. mainly the time available for implementation in conditions of convenience and efficiency, staff training needs and training costs, as well as some aspects concerning staff motivation.

The benchmarking process involves an Application Study, in the shape of an organizational project, where the key aspects of organization are materialized, meaning that there is a clear statement about the responsibilities of a project team, the special team responsible for the implementation and coordination of the deployment area. The resources needed for implementation and the importance of the expected effects are criteria for establishing the improvement proposals priorities. In itself, the process has three important stages: selecting and establishing the improvement proposals priorities, developing the implementation plan, deployment organization. The improvement proposals must be selected according to the stipulations imposed by the aspects connected with the investments necessary for implementation, time limits,

When achieving the implementation, it is very important to continuously follow and, with constant attention, to honor the plan, schedule the deadlines, the limits of the budget, as well as the expected quality at the level of expected results. The quality of results and the confidence level when applying this modern method of assessment depend on a very good knowledge of the method itself both conceptually-theoretically and, also procedural. In the development of human resource management practices and when taking personnel decisions, the human resources management policies are important

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benchmarks. These have a normative value and are not to be confused with human resources procedures which explain, clear and concrete, the undertaken activities in relation to the adopted policies. Engineer Penică Puşcaşu proposes a model of personnel policies which includes: purpose, anticipation of events, and identification of major initiatives and policy framework and nomination of values to be preserved8. We can not ignore the fact that the quality level of human resources policies is mirrored in the accomplishment of objectives of the organization. Ultimately, an important criterion for assessing the quality of human resources policies is their communication and supplementing their communication through staff training. The existence and continuous improvement of certain reliable and efficient systems of communication lead to obtain coordinated established results through the effort of the whole management system, so that the approach from a strategic perspective, at the level of the whole organization, of the computerized human resources system, is an important requirement of the managerial development for the continuous improvement of performances of the management system. The human capital is the main element of the value of an organization. The human resources strategies that have the objective to develop the basic competencies of an organization are based on the quantified values and the assessment of human resources management quality. Quality accomplishment in human resources management requires a transformation in the field, aiming to achieve an efficient HR management.

The development of a modern HR management system, capable to maintain competitiveness in the economic-social environment, is the general objective in their field. In this sense, the applied assessment methods of managerial performance should lead to the production of relevant information to what is sought in the evaluation. According to the aforementioned, in a first stage, it is defined the purpose of the assessment. In the case of competencies evaluation, the intercession of assessment should undertake competencies evaluation in conjunction with the assessment of professional knowledge, and the results of the evaluation should be used in career managing and its counseling, as well as for better knowing the employees and to favor a harmonious collaboration. In a second stage the assessment criteria are chosen, according to its purpose, criteria that, in order to obtain some valid results, must be: clearly formulated, in simple terms, in a limited number, covering key issues. Each criterion is determined to meet certain levels of gratification or is related to certain performance standards prior set out. The assessment methods or techniques are chosen in the third stage of the evaluation through insurance measures of the favorable environment for a correct evaluation. Thus, the evaluators are subjected to training, the staff is informed, they prepare the instruments, the way of appliance and the privacy measures and they set the calendar and presentation form of results. In the fourth stage they apply the assessment procedures and they gather data. In the final stage they analyze data, they communicate the results and they establish the strategies or improvement measures for individual or collective performance.

8

Lt. col. engineer Penică Puşcaşu, Current issues of human resources management in the military, Military Technical Academy Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003, p. 188.

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1. 2. 3. 4.

5. 6.

7.

8. Puşcaşu, Penică. Current issues of human resources management in the military, Military Technical Academy Publishing House, Bucharest, 2003. 9. Puşcaşu, Mirela. Evaluarea calitatii managementului resurselor pentru aparare, Editura Universitatii Nationale de Aparare “Carol I”, Bucuresti, 2009. 10. Stanciu, Ş. Human Resources Management, Bucharest, “David Ogilvy” Communication and Public Relations, Faculty Publishing, 1994. 11. Storey, J. From personnel management to human resource, in New Perspectives on Human Resource Management, ed. J. Storez, Routledge, London, 1992. 12. Tsui, A. S., Gomez-Meija. Evaluating Human Resource Effectiveness, in Human Resource Management: Evloving roles und responsibilities, Ed. L Dyer, Bureau of National Affairs, Washington DC, 1988. 13. Tyson, S. The management of the personnel function, Journal of Management Studies, September 1987.

Bibliography: Andersen, B., Pettersen, P. G. The Benchmarking Handbook, Chapman und Hall, London, 1996. Armstrong, M. Handbook of Human Resources Management Practice, Codecs Publishing, 2003, Bucharest. Drucker, P. The Effective Executive, Hainemann, London, 1967. Guest, D. E., Peccei R. The nature and causes of effective human resource management, published in British Journal of Industrial Relations, from June 1974. Guest, D. E. Personnel management: Has end of orthodoxy, British Journal of industrial Relations, 29 (2) Sissou, K. l. Human resource management and the personnel function, in Human Resource Management: A critical text, J. Storey, Routledge, London, 1995. Purcell, J. The Challenge of human resource management for industrial relations research und practice, International Journal of Human Resource Management, 4 (3).

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MEASURING PERFORMANCES IN PUBLIC ENTITIES - IMPLEMENTATION OF ADEQUATE PERFORMANCE INDICATORS Marius-Gabriel TOMOIALĂ Ph.D., candidate, internal auditor, Ministry of National Defence [email protected] Abstract: The financial crisis determined a transition in management from an approach based on spending allocated funds in the budgetary year and avoiding loosing it to another that takes into consideration economizing as more as possible. Performance measurement in public entities implies certain particularities, which make this process to be different from the process within the private sector. An important phase in the process of measuring performances is setting and implementing a group of relevant quantitative and qualitative indicators that express also economy, efficiency, and efficacy. Keywords: measuring performances, performance indicators

industries. In the public sector there is no possibility of measuring the performances of different entities by taking into consideration an indicator similar to profit, which could be a general indicator in the process of measuring performances. Also, in the absence of an indicator as “profit” from private sector, there are some difficulties in comparing the performances of a public entity within a certain industry with those obtained by another from a different field. Internal control system is one of the tools used by the management in order to provide a reasonable assurance regarding fulfilling the established objectives with efficiency and economy. For an adequate implementation of internal control systems, as well as theirs efficacy, in Romanian was issued the Internal Control Code, comprising of internal control standards for public entities. Once the standards had been applied it was necessary to put in line their new provisions with the existing internal control systems within the public sector. Standard no. 10 “Performance monitoring”, represents one of the most important standards, which speak about the performances obtained by a public entity. This standard mentions that the public entity ensures, for each policy and activity, the follow up of performances, using important quantitative and qualitative indicators, including measurements of economy, efficiency, and efficacy. The

1. Introduction The spreading of financial crisis in south-eastern Europe and manifestation of its effects, have determined important changes in the environment in which public sector is carrying the activities. One of these changes is represented by the transition of management from an approach based on “spending allocated funds in the budgetary year and avoiding loosing it” to another that takes into consideration “economizing as more as possible”. So, confronted with the perspective of not having, any more, the desired resources, at first, the management tried to economize. Subsequently, the management has approached aspects regarding efficiency and efficacy, existing more and more clear an orientation of toward performance measurement. Despite all this, performance measurement in public entities implies certain particularities, which make this process to be different from the process within the private sector. Thus, in a private company the main indicator for measuring performances is the “profit” (profit rate, gross profit etc.), but for a public company the problem is a little bit difficult, because usually there is not profit involved. A comparison between two private companies can be made through the amount of profit achieved, no matter the industry. So, a company can be more profitable than other, although they belong to different

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offers the answer to the question “what could we measure?” The reason for identification of the plans, policies and procedures in achieving the objectives is to see if the necessary activities for that are correlated to allocated resources. During this phase, the process of measuring performances offers the answer to the question “what should we do to achieve our objectives?” Setting the standards or performance targets is based on the fact that the objectives of an entity could be formulated very generally and being difficult to see the outcomes expected to be obtained. So, the standards or performances targets represent criteria used to asses obtained performances, in this phase being provided the answer to the question „to what we have to compare obtained performances?” Setting the responsibilities in the process of measuring the performances implies ensuring a proper control of the process of measuring performance, finding the answer to the question „who is responsible?” There are named the employees responsible for gathering data, analyzing and reporting obtained performances, as well as implementing the corrective actions, if it is necessary. Gathering data has in attention the way of collecting, saving and validating data. Analyzing and reporting obtained performances is concerned with analyzing collected data, operating data, comparing measured performances with established standards/targets and reporting the results. Setting corrective actions or other decisions ordered by the management take into consideration the actions took by the management when the objectives are not achieved. An important phase in the process of measuring performances is setting and implementing a group of relevant quantitative and qualitative indicators regarding economy, efficiency, and efficacy of processes. This indicators measure some variables as: quantity, quality, costs, time, which

general requirements of this standard are for the management to receive periodic reports regarding activity of the public entity and also to assess its performances. In case of deviations from objectives must be taken corrective actions. An important difficulty encountered by the management from public entities regarding compliance to this standard is represented by the lack of practical frameworks, guidelines, etc, in other words the answer to the question “How should I do this?” The standard contains clear specifications about the actions which must be taken to ensure follow up of the performances, but practically is not presented the algorithm which must be used by the management. 2. Measuring performances in public entities – implementation of performance indicators An appropriate process for monitoring performances comprises, at least, the following phases: − identification of objectives defined by the public entity; − identification of the plans, policies and procedures in achieving those objectives; − setting the standards or performances targets; − setting the performance indicators; − setting the responsibilities in the process of measuring the performances; − gathering data; − analyzing and reporting achieved performances; − setting corrective actions or other decisions ordered by the management. Identification of objectives defined by the public entity is based on finding out exactly what the entity wants to obtain (delivering goods and/or services) and a concern is to determine if the objectives are in compliance with S.M.A.R.T. requirements package. During this phase, the process of measuring performances

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− lead to obtaining objective, reliable data. Some of the disadvantages of using performance indicators are the following: − establishing inadequate performance indicators, which doesn’t lead to ensure the main objective, respectively measuring the stage of accomplishing objectives; − the tendency to define too many indicators, or defining indicators without having data sources for measuring, which implies increasing the costs for the performance measurement system and also not using the system as was intended. For establishing appropriate performance indicators must be followed criteria as: − consistency, that mean that the indicators have to allow the comparison in time and among similar entities; − clarity, which mean that indicators must be simple, easy to understand by users; − controllability, meaning that indicators must allow monitoring performances for those areas which can be controlled by management; − relevance, meaning that the indicators must cover the important aspects of the objective/process; − credibility, that means that defined indicators must be adequate for measuring performances and be based on real, qualitative information; − economical, meaning that indicators involve a low cost compared to the their benefits etc. For instance, in the procurement field for a public entity, some performance indicators could be: − for monitoring performances concerning the quality of the goods: ▪ the percentage of rejected goods from the total amount of goods, subject of delivery, which represent an indicator of procurement of goods with low/superior quality; ▪ the fault rate detected after reception, which shows the quality of

combined in different percentages make possible partial or total fulfillment of the objectives. Performance indicators measure the inputs of resources, processes, the outcomes and their impact obtained for projects, programs etc. Performance indicators are not meant to be known and used only by the management of public entities. It is important for all the employees to use these performance indicators in accomplishing individual objectives and supporting the achievement of strategic objectives of the organization. So, the performance indicators can be used for: − assessing the progress in achieving the objectives; − identification of the deficiencies by implementing a proactive warning system which can allow taking corrective actions; − identification of the periods of time when are necessary detailed checking tests; − increasing the accountability of management from public entities towards customers (public users) through the presence of performance assessing criteria. Based on these performance indicators the management could be evaluated in a very objective way; − making comparisons in order to identify improving opportunities; − promoting improvement of the activities by publishing the levels of performance achieved etc. Some of the advantages of using performance indicators are the following: − represents an effective tool for measuring the stage of accomplishing objectives; − allows comparisons among different structures within the same organization or other organizations; − allows comparisons in time for the same structure or entity; − represents assessing criteria for entity performances;

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points out the compliance of procurement process. − for monitoring performances regarding procurements timing: ▪ the time, computed as average number of days from initiating the acquisition order and till receiving the goods; ▪ the performance of delivery, computed as a difference between the date mentioned in contract and effective date of delivery (in days). − for monitoring performances regarding the procurement process costs: ▪ the average cost regarding procurements, computed as a ratio between the full cost with procurement department (personnel, materials etc.) and procurement value; ▪ the value awarded initial by contract compared with the value of payments, indicator that monitor the contracts’ price adjustments etc. Regarding performance indicators implementing, it has to be followed their grouping depending on some criteria and allocating for each indicator a unique reference number (for instance: I1cost). Each performance indicator has to have a short name in which to be described what it measures (for instance: „Indicator regarding the quality procurement process”). For users of these indicators it is necessary to include a definition and references to other sources of information for interpreting and analysis and also for its calculating and measuring.

procurement process, but also the quality of delivering process; ▪ the number of canceled contracts due to delays in fulfilling contracting provisions, related to the total number of signed contracts. − for monitoring performances concerning the quantity of the goods: ▪ the percentage of inventory without movement or with little movement in total inventories, in a certain period. By this indicator, it can be monitored if there were purchased goods that are not necessary. It is computed as a ratio between inventory without movement and total inventories, in a certain period; ▪ number of inventories interruptions by which it can be monitored if the procurement process ensured in time the necessary goods for public entity. This indicator points out if goods are purchased at higher prices because this situation occurs in emergency acquisitions; ▪ performing procurement annual program, indicator calculated as a ratio between acquisitions made and those planned; ▪ the number of low acquisition orders, indicator used to monitor orders regarding low quantities of goods which, usually implies high prices than large amounts of goods for which are offered discounts; ▪ procurement procedures initiated and not finished. This indicator is computed as a ratio between number of unfinished procurements and total number of procurements, pointing out the efficacy of acquisition process; ▪ number of competitive procurement procedures related to the total of initiated acquisition procedures, indicating efficiency of procurement process; ▪ the value of contracts awarded in accordance with best practices (legislation, other best practices) as a ratio between contracts value being in accordance with best practices and the total value of signed contracts, indicator that

3. Conclusions Implementing an effective process of measuring performances could ensure a better adaptation of public entities to the actual environment. Defining adequate performance indicators could ensure the management orientation from public entities on achieving of certain preestablished levels of performances, meaning that the funds will be allocated based on the measurable objectives previous established by management,

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in a though competition for acquiring resources. Now, and maybe in the future, those resources won’t be ensured any more at the required level and that’s why the management of public entities has to try to do more with less resources. In other words the management has to economize, to pursue increasing efficiency and efficacy in all the fields, aspects that can be done by measuring performances.

evaluating the achieved results ant their impacts in society. Monitoring performances based on implementing a system of relevant indicators ensure management accountability form entities, being a useful tool of objective evaluation of its achievements. Also, measuring achieved performances and their comparison with those obtained by similar entities will ensure the efficiency of activities by establishing S.M.A.R.T. objectives, get rid of formal reports on management’s behalf regarding fulfilling objectives, requiring resources related to established objectives and also adjusting established objectives at the same time with resources’ adjustment and vice versa. Ensuring performances monitoring is strong connected with implementing a sound financial management, meaning that the public entity pursue fulfilling its activities economically, efficiently and efficacy. So, measuring performances by implementing adequate indicators ensures a control key in allocating resources stage. Without knowing what management wants (objectives), no necessary level of resources can be calculated. In a globalize economy in which the access to resources is more and more difficult, besides companies (from private sector) also the public entities have entered

Bibliography: 1. U.S. Department of Energy – How to measure performance, 1995 2. James, K. Kincaid. – Certified Government Auditing Professional, 2005 3. Course Textbook „Performance Audit”, issued through Phare Project RO 2002/000.586.03.04.13 4. Improvement and Development Agency - Local performance indicators for procurement 5. World Bank - Monitoring & evaluation, some tools, methods and approaches (www.worldbank.org) 6. Order no. 946/2005 of public finance minister for approving “Internal Control Code”, including the standards of management/internal control at public entities and for development of internal control systems, with subsequently additions and modifications.

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THE STUDY OF PHYSICS USING VIRTUAL REALITY TECHNOLOGY Irina-Elena NICOLAE Ph.D., professor “Ion Creanga” National College, Bucharest [email protected] Abstract: Physics is considered the basis of future in the economic development of any civilized country. Regarding education and research as a whole, at world level, there are three factors that influence education directly with profound implications, respectively the economical factor, the political one and the military one. On the one hand , these factors created a state of intensity that stimulate through massive financial investments the evolution of specialists and, on the other hand, they led to the founding of a few elite education centres (post-universitary), where the pedagogic methodology of teaching physics is avant-garde. Particular roles have computers, by creating virtual reality (V.R.), in training their own scholars and specialists of financial giants, being the highest form of the human-computer system. Nowadays, the study of physics assisted by V.R. is at an informal level, which means studying physics outside of an organized group, without objectives and without established operational behaviour.

Another particularly important aspect refers to the teaching of physics “as a science”, emphasizing the fact that we do not teach science of physics as it is, but the subject of physics at different levels, according to analytical programme. The subject of physics contains the conceptual matrix of physics, as a science, that is its conceptual structure and its basic components. Virtual reality (V.R.) allows the learning of physics by an individual in a rhythm and at a level much higher than the known average in the present day. V.R. is exactly what has been missing until now from the methodology of teaching physics, which emphasizes its connections with other sciences, with technology and social life, thanks to its applications in all of the domains of social life. Virtual reality leads to the teaching of physics as a mirror of these connections, eliminating completely certain tendencies that inherently existed at a moment in time, and that made physics appear as an abstract knowledge. The whole concept of professional and didactical training which refers to the psychological and pedagogical module which comprises of psychological education, the didactics of physics and the pedagogical practice gain particular qualities compared to what was known until now through the introduction of virtual reality.

Introduction Right now, the use of virtual reality is advanced and improved more than it is known, and using it to teach can revolutionize education amazingly. In studying physics V.R. has a truly major and incontestable importance. Thanks to the most up-to-date computer technologies, the students and the professor can take advantage of the most complex and improved V.R. existing today. The network enables to access labs, libraries and other institutions. Each lab accessed makes it available for a professor, a student, a specialist or a guide, to present the latest achievements. An older experiment can be recorded and watched later. It has been undoubtedly proved by the experiments and the statistics that the ones who study physics helped by V.R. (no matter the preparing level, whether it is primary school or university) understand the information in this way four or five times faster, and this doubles the volume of their knowledge. The most modern computerized virtual reality system allows the subjects to have access in a three-dimensional space to all of the sensations, be it that of acceleration or that of braking or the sensations that are produced by gravitational acceleration. The system is especially complex, having sensors and stimulators that act directly on the cortex.

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intervenes through receiving developing and presenting the message in a logical manner, the student or pupil perfectly understanding the method of solving without wasting time with mathematical calculations and the establishment of parameters. 4. The interaction modelbased on the continuity between the sending of knowledge assured by the professor and the pedagogical communication of this knowledge. In this case, the teaching is focused on conveying of the minimal necessary knowledge for triggering the learning process. If so far, virtual reality (V.R.) had not changed the model of teaching except until a certain point, this time there is a particular model of pedagogical communication in use which implies redefining the fundamental and operational concepts included in the educational system. Also, the exposal of the content (information, skills and strategies) falls to virtual reality (V.R.), acquiring the connotations of a scientific theory. Triggering the learning process happens basically at the same time with the passing on of knowledge. The assembly of the defining - exposing explaining operation do not require, at the level of teaching, of the professor to convey knowledge in a coherent and logical way, the teacher becoming, to all intents and purposes, an assistant of virtual reality, leaving him with only the task of handling his knowledge by himself in a logical way. Before moving on to the section of learning assisted by virtual reality, I will refer to a few technical and potential data of the virtual reality systems. I will not refer however to the technologies which use virtual reality in two-dimensional plane. I will now make a series of statements to relegate to the most advanced technology which helps in using virtual reality. As I have mentioned in the beginning, this system can make a person to perceive absolutely every sense and sensations of which he is capable of, even being able to create the sensation of imponderability.

The teaching of physics using virtual reality (V. R.) As it is well known, teaching represents the action in which a teacher sends his knowledge at the level of a one direction pattern of communication, abiding by certain methodological requests, which condition learning in general especially in learning in school. The impact of teaching physics with the assistance of virtual reality makes the communication pattern to evolve from the level of a one direction pattern to an interdirectional level. Concerning the school learning, the capacity of assimilating the information becomes very large. In speciality literature, more teaching models have been outlined and defined: 1. The behavioural modelbased on the direct relation between the messages transmitted by the professor and the final result obtained by the pupil or student. It is obvious that virtual reality modifies this relation as the message transmitted by the professor obtains new attributes being much larger in quantity and quality. 2. The task analysis modelbased on the relation between the content that the professor teaches and the learning prescriptions made to transform the personality of the student. Virtual reality acts directly in this models case as well, basically eliminating the learning prescriptions. 3. The cognitive modelbased on the orientation of the thinking process (analysis-synthesis and going from the abstract part to generalization) in the direction of logical conclusion of the speech transmitted by the teacher. This time, virtual reality eliminates the analysis-synthesis and the transition from the abstract to generalized, the thinking process being taken over by the computer which assists the processing of information by the virtual reality. The problem solving modelbased on the application of concepts, principles, and rules inside the message sent by the teacher. Here, virtual reality

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frame and included usually in educational programmes. The fact that virtual reality acts directly and simultaneously over this entire ensemble is logical. The process of learning employs the knowledge dimensions as well as the affective ones, the motivational ones of human personality, which sustain the intentional behaviour transformation and of the one who studies. The learning activity factors are external and internal. The internal factors of learning are of biological nature (age, sex, health, and mental development) and of psychological nature (intellectual development, assimilation capacity, affective-emotional development and working style). Over these internal parameters, virtual reality has a minimal effect. Nevertheless, the capacity of neutrality must be emphasized which virtual reality creates, the pupil or student evincing his emotions, his shyness in a much more diminished manner. The external factors of studying regard the pedagogical organisation of learning (objectives, contents, and the instruction methodology) and the action (direct and indirect) of social-cultural background (family, cultural institutions, economic agents, entourage et cetera).

Practically we can move and act in a threedimensional universe, chosen or programmed before. It is absolutely normal for the subject who has entered virtual reality to be able to assimilate in a limited time-frame a huge quantity of information, which if they were read, would have not been so precise, so complete and would have needed a longer time-frame by two hundred and fifty times. The most spectacular result in using virtual reality for learning physics was remarked at pupils from primary and higher than primary schools, these age groups already having predilections for computer games. Let us think that we are programming a virtual reality unit for a pupil with a mechanical physics class, in which he is the material point that has different movements, being subjected to the different forces that act permanently over him. Basically, the student feels what is happening to that material point in a state of movement (reactions of the forces, the collisions, the oscillations etc.) and at the same time, the computer explains through voice what is going on with him. The same programme can be used for an atom, a molecule, a photon or an acoustic wave. This way the earned information will be set in the subject’s memory. All the experiments and the lab experiences can be also visualized.

The mechanisms of learning The mechanisms of learning imply three categories of operations employed at different levels of integration in didactical actions: 1. The modification of quantity of knowledge already obtained- learning through increase (addition). As formerly stated, the accumulation in quantity of information can be very large in a very short time frame, virtual reality having in this case an overwhelming part. 2. The selection and memory of certain facts ascertained or communicated by the professor or another person, fact which implies learning through making connections, this depending on the relations with rudiments. It is normal

Learning assisted by virtual reality Pedagogically speaking, learning is the activity that the professor projects in order to determine behavioural changes at the personality level of those who learn, by improving their capacity, of acquiring of knowledge, strategies and cognitive attitudes. The impact that virtual reality has over the one who is studying is very easy realize. The product of learning is represented through an ensemble of skills (intellectual and psychological movements), cognitive strategies, logical information (notions, judging, reasoning, principles and laws) cognitive attitudes in a specific structure

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but we have to take into consideration the specific traits that they attain by the learning sciences and the psychological and pedagogical attributes. On the other hand, the specification of the place and part of the technical means of teaching in the didactical process imposes the establishment of their psychological and pedagogical value. The universities and the classrooms the real ones as well as the virtual ones must have teachers that should be equipped with technological resources, talent and skill and that can persuade the students to learn the content of the subject including at the same time technological concepts and skills. The connections to the real world, the primary sources of information and the sophisticated means of gathering data are just a few of the resources that allow teachers to provide unimaginable possibilities for the understanding of concepts. The use of advanced informational technology has the advantage of enacting a lab experiment, by rapid multiplication of the work and going through the sequences by the users in real time. The purpose of simulating lab experiments is not to completely replace real experiences, as sometimes it is enough to run the programme parallel to the deploying of the lab experiment to be able to do a suggestive comparison between the model and the physical phenomenon. A teaching algorithm that would be based on: modelling, direct experiment and continuous evaluation, can be implemented. The experiment data processing with the aid of multimedia technologies nowadays is becoming faster, rounder and more attractive and can contribute to raising motivation and interest of the students regarding the study of experimental physics. The main source of future economicalsocial development is the production and consume of information. This situation will generate the necessity of higher grade skills in handling information. The use of multimedia means in education is linked directly to the formation of these types of

that when we already have a background (referring to knowledge) that we are able to correlate the new information to permanently form a whole of our knowledge, in continuous expansion. In our case, even if the subject has rudiments, we can program the virtual reality so that, besides correlating the new information assimilated in physics, to also gain a volume of extra information in the other domains, which are directly related to the information assimilated recently. 3. Superior mental activities employed to acquire new knowledge, starting from the knowledge already in place. On this subject, there is nothing much to say, having already explained the process of learning and the role of virtual reality in mental activities. Didactical learning promotes conscious pedagogical activities, based on the interaction of two types of psychological and of movement mechanisms: 1. The reception mechanism, which presents the material which is being studied in the form of a product, which has to be understood by reporting to the earlier studied material. 2. The mechanism of discovery, which presents the material in terms of process, process which has to be realized in a complementary sense by reporting to the already studied material and based on the understanding of the didactical message.We have to be realistic and consider the fact that in the present day it is much too materially expensive for the students or pupils to posses advanced virtual reality systems in their homes. In the future, it may quite be possible. Using multimedia modalities in the education process In the onset of the theme of the technical means of teaching we can not limit ourselves to the level of purely technical or technological characteristics,

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more precisely than in the formative evaluation.

skills, requested by the integration of the young in their future career. The training environments based on informatics can achieve the interaction of the student with his learning material, and on this background, fine-tuning the training by a series of parameters: working rhythm, level of knowledge and intellectual abilities. In the laboratory, the computer is used to gather, represent, analyze and process the experimental data. For measuring, corresponding interfaces along with a distributor are used. In the present day, the impact of new information technology over educational systems is being discussed. These informational technologies mean a great deal of electronic, informational means, for telephonic and video conferences, used for making, storing, finding and distributing of information under an analogical or numerical form. Using this educational technology based on informatics in universities has a large impact over teaching methods. It leads to the development of teaching forms that are not available with the traditional methods and means. The possibilities of environments based on computer, regarding processing, recording and retrieving of information will determine the introduction of situations in which the student will gain knowledge and abilities autonomously, accordingly to the person’s own interests and aspirations. In modern didactical technology, the idea that the purpose of evaluating is not mainly making a difference between pupils, but the application of real performances of each student reported to the earlier established standard, formed from the objectives of teaching is contoured. The evaluation reported to the objectives offers the adequate frame for building measuring devices, in which the measured feature would be defined and demarcated much

Conclusion Virtual reality can be successfully introduced in educational institutions, playing a major role in the teaching of physics. Of course the professors must also be acquainted with this technology, and the teaching methodology must be modified based on the level of the particular institution. Until this day, the teaching of physics by virtual reality has been realised through organising an experimental lot of persons, in which there were included: students, teachers, scientists and other experts. The results achieved with this experimental lot have been compared to the normal results of those who study physics through present methods that are currently in use. These investigations were made to emphasize the specific differences of teaching physics, with and without virtual reality. The conclusion that we draw from this study is that regarding the way physics has to be taught, assisted by virtual reality and especially, the impact that virtual reality has over those who study physics. The results are outstanding, the capacity of assimilation has risen exponentially and the time has been reduced in arithmetical progression. Let us hope that we will be able to use this state of the art technology on a large scale, as soon as possible. Bibliography: 1. Nicolae, Irina. Doctorate Thesis, Faculty of Physics, University of Bucharest, 2005. 2. Jokie, Stevan., Ivanka Milosevi, Antun Balaz, Zoran Nikolz, Fifth General Conference of the Balkan Physical Union (BPU5), Serbian Physical Society, Belgrade, 2003

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THE STUDY OF BIOCHEMICAL PARAMETERS FOR NAVAL ACADEMY TEAM IN THE NAVAL PENTATHLON Virgil ENE-VOICULESCU Carmen ENE-VOICULESCU Ph.D., senior lecturer, Naval Academy „Mircea cel Batran” Constanta, Romania [email protected] Ph.D., professor, University „Ovidius” Constanta, Romania [email protected] Abstract: Under consideration accomplished subdued research a series of the biochemical parameters (the haemoglobin, albuminoidal, lactic acid), who conditions the physical special effort. Hold the medical area ( A. Demeter, 1982; I. Dragan, 1984; M. Ifrim, 1989, etc.) propose in the process of selection grids with standard values have the parameters determinant in the system criterions of selection. Biochemical investigations suggested were effectuate in this experimentally stage to the initially and final moment. Through these inhibition of laboratory investigation we have follow: 1. If the results obtained frames in the natural suggested limits hold by the medical area specialist; 2. In what grey the investigations values obtained are influenced of the specific complex effort from the military pentathlon. The biochemical investigation realized demonstrated that the results obtained of subjects the group of the experiment they framed in natural physiological limits. From the series four the biochemical parameters apply in research, from statistical viewpoint to the ultimate testing mark crease average values to the level experiment group. Key words: the haemoglobin, albuminoidal, lactic acid, the urea

THE ANALYSIS AND INTERPRETATION OF THE RESULTS The results obtained as part as both tests were statistically work (the table 1-2) and analyzed between groups research to the twice tests. Haemoglobin – the first submissive parameter research is the conjugated protein or heteroprotein, that confer erythrocytes the main function of O2 portents, composed by pigment fraction, that contains iron, appointed hem and albuminoidal fraction, from the class histonelor, appointed globins (Massage molecular the haemoglobin is 68. 000 - hem represent 4% and globins 96%). From the calculus difference significantly, they among average to the ultimate testing, between twice groups, it notices a semnificative difference, where t are expressed through the value 2,38>2,13 to the degree of freedom n-1, p= 0, 05.Knowing the fact from quantitative viewpoint the haemoglobin circulated is 600g - 800g, and the physiological mechanism for form's sake the ox haemoglobin is in progress to the level of pulmonary capillaries, O2 frees to the level weaved, consider the significant results obtained by experimentally group are

INTRODUCTION In speciality literature more majority of sports area sustain that sports training will be realize on base by criterions, who can be taken like a model for the efficiency in sport performance (N. Alexe, 1993; N.J. Bulgacova, 1996; A. Dragnea, 1996). In this study we have selected the aspects which we can establish the contain and the structure on the level at military sports-man used main parameters presented in speciality literature to the discipline: soothing, athletics and swimming. In the same time we considered excellent used same testing who exist for this disciplines, with purpose verify objective to the subjects experiment. Through adapted existent testing from speciality literature, as through applied a new testing created by us we establish semnificative results in experimental stage 1. SUBJECTS AND METHODS The experiment group of our study was consisting to the military sports-man (age 18–25). Methodology research, the research methods was applied on monocycle period to eight month, adequate period to the selective and training process before National Naval Pentathlon Championship.

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truthful. The albuminoidal represent of second parameter studied, through the biologic value and through the protean index have important distinguished in the physical effort. In accordance to the valuable standard this grid physiological

parameter (6,5-7 g%), notice that to the initially testing (the table 1), average values are relative close (6,5 g % for the witness group and 6,4 g % for the experiment group).

Table 1. Analyses comparative to average of groups what characterized biochemical investigation to the naval sportsman’s testing initially in the experimental stage 1 Nr. Crt.

The parameters compares

1 2 3 4

Haemoglobin (gram %) Albuminoidal (gram %) Urea (ml %) Lactic acid (ml mol/l)

X ±m Group witness 13,60 ± 0,11 6,50 ± 0,03 360,00 ± 3,08 10,60 ± 0,07

Group experimentally 14,00 ± 0,07 6,40 ± 0,04 355,00 ± 3,85 10,50 ± 0,06

Criterions “t”

“p”

0,95 2,00 1,01 1,11

>0.05 >0.05 >0.05 >0.05

Table 2. Analyses comparative to average of groups what characterized biochemical investigation to the naval sportsman’s testing final in the experimental stage 1 Nr. Crt.

The parameters compares

1 2 3 4

Haemoglobin (grame %) Albuminoid (grame %) Uree (ml%) Lactic acid (ml mol/l)

X ±m Group witness 14,70 ± 0,15 6,90 ± 0,04 300,00 ± 2,31 10,00 ± 0,06

Group experimentally 15,20 ± 0,15 7,00 ± 0,04 295,00 ± 2,69 9,90 ± 0,06

Criterions “t”

“p”

2,38 2,00 1,41 1,25

0.05 >0.05 >0.05

Choose the biochemical parameter urea in this investigation is motivated as a matter of fact as although the anabolism and the catabolism am diametrical opposite process, interaction reciprocally, anything synthesis realized on the expense of unbound energy through the of a decomposition a power substance. Starting from the premise biochemical of decomposition reactions, characterized at large through emission of energy causes finish of degradation produced (CO2, H2O, urea, uric acid, creatinin), carry eliminated through urine, notice (the table 1) to the first testing average values registered (360, 00 g% group the witness; 355, 00 g% group the experiment) are in the biochemical grid proposed of special physiologists hold this parameter. To the ultimate testing the average values diminish progressively, group the witness registering 300, 00 g% and group the experiment 295, 00 g%. To the ultimate

Starting from the fact the necessity of albuminoidal represent the amount of necessary albuminoidal of the organism in 24 of hours, for the covering requirements loin of azoth, notice that to the ultimate testing the average values to this parameter breed. Although to this testing the difference among average is insignificant (t is 2, 00