A New Approach Model in Post Graduate Training of Local Government Officers

In 2013-15 there was a new type of post graduate training elaborated and piloted in Hungary at the Institute of Executive Training and Continuing Education (VTKI) within the National University of Public Service (NKE). Although the pilot financed by the State Administration Reform Operative Program (ÁROP) had not lacked the previously established attempts to include interactivity in the training, it was the first to observe and apply the actual principles of the European Union 2020 expressed in the threefold criteria of economic growth: smartness, sustainability and inclusiveness. All of them are represented by a pillar of the program like e-learning, class training and field training with the inclusion of local society. According to the objectives of the program there were at least 10 thousand attendees from the civil service sphere set as project indicators, so it has been a large scale training program that took place in 2014 in Hungary. The following article shows the innovations included in this new approach model of post graduate training civil servants.

Content and drivers of performance management in agency-type organizations of the hungarian public administration

The improving performance of public administration and the reform of public financing system have been on agenda in Hungary for many years, in accordance with the international trends. However, governments have not expected and supported creating of a performance-oriented public administration in a comprehensive and explicit way. Nevertheless, there are bottom-up initiatives at organizational level, which target performance-oriented organizational function. The research focuses on organizations of central public administration where the successful application of performance management methods is most likely based on the international literature. These are the so called agency-type organizations, which are in Hungary called autonomous state-administration organizations independent of the Government (e.g. Hungarian Competition Authority), government bureaus (e.g. Hungarian Central Statistical Office), and central offices subordinated to the government (either the cabinet or a ministry) (e.g. Hungarian Meteorological Service). The studied agencies are legally independent organizations with managerial autonomy based on public law. The purpose of this study is to get an overview on organizational level performance management tools applied by Hungarian agencies, and to reveal the reasons and drivers of the application of these tools. The empirical research is based on a mixed methods approach which combines both quantitative methods and qualitative procedures. The first – quantitative – phase of the author’s research was content analysis of homepages of the studied organizations. As a results she got information about all agencies and their practice related to some performance management tools. The second – qualitative – phase was based on semi-structured face-to-face interviews with some senior managers of agencies. The author selected the interviewees based on the results of the first phase, the relatively strong performance orientation was an important selection criteria.

Merre vezessen a magyar kapitalizmus útja? Látkép Ronald Coase világítótornyából = Which course for Hungary s capitalism? A view from Ronald Coase s lighthouse

A tanulmány - amely Coase és az új intézményi közgazdaságtan alapján keresi a címbeli kérdésre adható választ - a kapitalizmus alapvető interakciós formájaként a kölcsönösen előnyös cserét azonosítja, amely az emberi együttműködés megnyilvánulása. A gazdasági fejlődés feltétele e kooperáció költségeit csökkentő társadalmi játékszabályok, intézmények kialakítása. A jól működő kapitalizmus intézményi rendje sűrű és sokrétű, a részleteit tekintve időben és térben igen változó, jelentős részben nem állami, hanem magáneredetű. Ez a rend nem tervezhető meg, és jelenlegi tudásunk alapján nem is érthető meg konzisztens, összefüggő rendszerként. A magyar gazdaság fejlődési célját ezért nem lehet nemzetgazdasági szintű rendszerként vagy modellként megfogalmazni. A tényleges feladat az intézményi rend középszintű elemeinek fokozatos, kísérletező változtatása, figyelembe véve a már létező intézményi környezet történetileg adott, helyhez és időhöz kötött sajátosságait. De az intézményi "barkácsolásnak" mindvégig szem előtt kell tartania a kapitalizmus alapelvét: az önkéntes, kölcsönösen előnyös tranzakciók támogatását. _____ The study draws on Coase s lighthouse" of new institutional economics in addressing this question. It identifies mutually beneficial exchange, a manifestation of human cooperation, as the underlying form of interaction in capitalism, while stressing that economic development depends on creating social rules of the game (institutions) that decrease the costs of exchange. The institutional order of well-functioning capitalism is thickly woven with many features, often of private rather than public (legal or political) origin. Details vary greatly in time and space. Such an order cannot be planned, and with current knowledge, it cannot be seen as a consistent system. So the goal in Hungary s economic development should not be defined as a system or model for a national economy. It should set out to change intermediate-level institutions in gradual, experimental ways that pay heed to the time and space-bound idiosyncrasies of existing ones. Moreover institutional tinkering" should observe capitalism s basic institutional principle: facilitation of voluntary, mutually beneficial transactions.

An Exploratory Study on the Role of Familiarity in Product Evaluations

There is growing interest among researchers working in the areas of product-country image effects, and more generally international consumer behaviour, in the potential relationship between consumers’ familiarity with, and evaluation of, products from various countries. We use data from a consumer survey in Hungary to attempt an initial exploration of this relationship. The data support findings from earlier similar studies but also suggest that affective considerations may be playing a considerable role in the evaluations of domestic products, and that the relationship of familiarity with product evaluations may vary significantly from country to country and may not be as strong as previously thought.

Interpreting innovation – in another way

Innovation helps to uncover the future social and economic possibilities. Subsequently familiarising with innovation processes, mapping those involved in innovation and researching the relations and influencing factors is becoming more and more valuable. The authors carried out innovation research in three middle-sized and small towns in Hungary on the basis of a request by a municipality among enterprises involved in the intelligent specialisation strategic program. In the course of the research the role of regional universities, the relationship between organisations involved in social innovation and the researched enterprises, as well as traditional innovation areas were dealt with. The innovation performance of enterprises in all three regions are – despite smaller differences – around the Hungarian average. The presence of a university in the region can be felt, however, it does not remarkably influence the innovation potential of enterprises. It seemed that outside the traditional links to chambers of commerce and industry there were no other civic protagonists in the processes of creating knowledge, and even the relations are rather loose, or mediocre. In the wake of these results, the authors formulated specific suggestions for improving the economic and social possibilities of the involved regions by establishing innovative environments.