A versenyképesség és a társaságok belső ellenőrzése (Competitiveness and corporate internal audit)

A cikk a belső ellenőrzésnek a hatékony társaságirányításhoz való hozzájárulását és ennek a versenyképességre gyakorolt hatását vizsgálja. A belső ellenőrzés és a társaságirányítás kölcsönös összefüggésben áll egymással. Nemcsak a belső ellenőrzés hat a társaságirányításra, hanem a releváns társaságirányítási struktúrák, emberi kapcsolatok és magatartásformák jelentős hatást gyakorolnak a belső ellenőrzés színvonalára és hatékonyságára. A cikk ezért különös figyelmet szentel a belső ellenőröknek az igazgatósággal, az auditbizottsággal/felügyelőbizottsággal, a menedzsmenttel és a könyvvizsgálóval való kapcsolatainak vizsgálatára. Rávilágít a belső ellenőrzés legfőbb funkciójára, amely objektív bizonyosságot nyújt az igazgatóság és a felső vezetők számára a kockázatok azonosítására, kezelésére és elfogadható szintre történő csökkentésére szolgáló kontrollfolyamatok megfelelőségéről és hatékonyságáról. A bemutatott belső ellenőrzési modell azt a szemléletet közvetíti, hogy a belső ellenőrzés által nyújtott objektív bizonyosság megszerzése nemcsak a jogszabályoknak vagy az ajánlásoknak való megfelelés, hanem a társaságok versenyképessége szempontjából is kiemelkedő jelentőségű. _________ The purpose of this paper is to consider the contribution of internal audit to the sound corporate governance and the impact of that on the competitiveness of the companies. There is a mutual dependency between internal audit and corporate governance. Not only the internal audit has impact on the corporate governance but the relevant governance structures, relationships and behaviour influence the level and effectiveness of the internal audit. Therefore the present paper is highly concerned with the internal auditors` relationships with the board, audit committee/supervisory board, senior management and the external auditor. It highlights the internal audit function, that provides objective assurance to the board and senior management about the adequacy and effectiveness of the processes by which risks are identified, managed, controlled and mitigated to acceptable levels. The internal audit model demonstrated represents an approach, according to that getting objective assurance provided by internal audit is important not only to be in line with laws and recommendations but to facilitate the corporate competitiveness.

Recent Developments in the Autonomy and Governance of Higher Education Institutions in Hungary: the Introduction of the Chancellor System

After the change of regime in 1989, Hungarian higher education started to return to its Humboldtian tradition. It was widely accepted that academic freedom could be guaranteed by high degree of institutional autonomy manifested especially in structures of self-governance and avoidance of direct state supervision/interventions. Attempts to introduce boards and other supervising bodies were successfully resisted until 2011. The new government coming into power in 2010, however, introduced new mechanisms of supervision and changed institutional governance and reduced institutional autonomy considerably. Changes in the selection of rectors, the appearance of state-appointed financial inspectors and the newly appointed Chancellors responsible for the finance, maintenance and administration of institutions are important milestones in this process. In the paper I review these developments focusing especially on the analysis of the Chancellor system.

Governance in the European Union - Applying the "trilemma of global politics"

The European Union with its sophisticated institutional system is the most important regional integration on Earth. This tight form of economic integration converges to the level that Dani Rodrik calls hyperglobalization in his model, the political trilemma of globalisation. In our paper we develop the mentioned model and then we apply it to the case of the European Integration. We argue that if we want to maintain the deep integration among member states in the EU we have to pass more and more functions of the nation states to the federation level. In case of the EMU that means that federal fiscal policy is needed which could lead to multi-speed Europe considering new member states’ reluctance to give up their specific institutions.

Rules-based economic governance in the European Union: A reappraisal of national fiscal rules.

The economic and financial crisis of 2007/2009 has posed unexpected challenges on both the global and the regional level. Besides the US, the EU has been the most severely hit by the current economic crisis. The financial and banking crisis on the one hand and the sovereign debt crisis on the other hand have clearly shown that without a bold, constructive and systematic change of the economic governance structure of the Union, not just the sustainability of the monetary zone but also the viability of the whole European integration process can be seriously undermined. The current crisis is, however, only a symptom, which made all those contradictions overt that were already heavily embedded in the system. Right from the very beginning, the deficit and the debt rules of the Maastricht Treaty and the Stability and Growth Pact have proved to be controversial cornerstones in the fiscal governance framework of the European Economic and Monetary Union (EMU). Yet, member states of the EU (both within and outside of the EMU) have shown an immense interest in adopting numerical constraints on the domestic level without hesitation. The main argument for the introduction of national fiscal rules was mostly to strengthen the accountability and credibility of national fiscal policy-making. The paper, however, claims that a relatively large portion of national rules were adopted only after the start of deceleration of the debt-to-GDP ratios. Accordingly, national rules were hardly the sole triggering factors of maintaining fiscal discipline; rather, they served as the key elements of a comprehensive reform package of public budgeting. It can be safely argued, therefore, that countries decide to adopt fiscal rules because they want to explicitly signal their strong commitment to fiscal discipline. In other words, it is not fiscal rules per se what matter in delivering fiscal stability but a strong political commitment.

Gazdasági kormányzás a gazdasági és monetáris unióban - a globális politika lehetetlen szentháromsága szemszögéből (Economic governance in the economic and monetary union – applying the trilemma of global politics)

Az Európai Unió a világgazdaság egyik legfontosabb integrációja. A benne megvalósuló gazdasági integráció szorossága megfelel annak a szintnek, amit Rodrik hiperglobalizációnak nevez. Az elmélet szerint a politika szintjén egyszerre nem megvalósítható a demokratikus politikai döntéshozatal, a teljes világgazdasági integráció, illetve a nemzetállam. A trilemma a globalizáció útjában álló intézményi különbségeken alapszik. Megoldása három módon lehetséges: a demokrácia kiiktatásával a megoldás az arany kényszerzubbony, ahol a piaci mechanizmusok veszik át az állami gazdaságpolitika szerepét; a globális kormányzás megvalósulása esetén a szuverén nemzetállamok tűnnek el a nemzetközi rendszerből; végül a Bretton Woods kompromisszum esetében a globalizáció útjába állítunk akadályokat. Írásunkban a modellt az európai integrációra, egészen pontosan a Gazdasági és Monetáris Unióra alkalmazzuk. Érvelésünk szerint, ha fent kívánjuk tartani az integráció szorosságát, erősíteni kell az integráció szintjén a gazdasági kormányzást, ami pedig csak a tagállami szuverenitás rovására mehet. Ez, mely a GMU esetében leginkább a fiskális föderáció erősítését jelenti ugyanakkor, megnövelve az integráció költségeit, egy többsebességes Európa kialakulása irányába hathat. _____ The European Union with its sophisticated institutional system is the most important regional integration on Earth. This tight form of economic integration converges to the level that Dani Rodrik calls hyperglobalization in his model, the political trilemma of globalisation. In this model Rodrik assumes that from the three desired element of world politics (deep economic integration, the nation state, and democratic politics) only two can be chosen. We can either choose deep integration and the nation state but then we have to abandon democracy; or we can choose deep integration and democracy, but then we have to forfeit the nation state; or we have to circumscribe globalisation to maintain democracy and the nation state. In our paper we develop the mentioned model and then we apply it to the case of the European integration. We argue that if we want to maintain the deep integration among member states in the EU we have to pass more and more functions of the nation states to the federation level. In case of the EMU that means that federal fiscal policy is needed which could lead to multi-speed Europe considering new member states reluctance to give up their specific institutions.

Global economics governance in the post-crisis world

The Great Crisis has made it clear once again that avoiding the derailment of globalization of trade and finance and the protecting the globe from fragmentation call for enhanced global cooperation and an efficient, flexible and coherent system of global governance. Three interconnected levels (national, regional, and global) comprise the system of global governance. This paper is dealing with some of the main issues of global economic governance in the post-crisis world. It reveals that the turbulence and the distress of the world of the early 21st century have deeper roots and broader sources than the crisis. Global governance therefore has to respond much broader set of challenges in comprehensive framework and long term perspective.

Global crises: Is the Keynesian recipe relevant if applied under a global governance?

Keynesian policy was quite successful in the post-war decades in Western Europe, but by the late 1960s lost its efficiency due to changes in conditions rather than its mistaken logic. The lesson from the first global crisis erupting in early 1970s and also from the subsequent several crises since then is that the increasing crisis propensity of the world economy is rooted in its inherent disequilibria stemming from deep inequalities, asymmetrical interdependencies and disintegrated socio-economic structures. In view of the failure of the prevailing methods of crisis management, particularly those undifferentiated, antisocial austerity measures corresponding to a neo-liberal monetarist concept which neglects this lesson, many economists prefer the Keynesian recipe. However, since global crises need global solution, and the spread of conspicuous consumption modify the demand constraint, its application must be adjusted to reality, and requires some global governance which may pave the way for a global oeco-social market economy.

Trust - Networking - Innovation

From innovation point of view the agri-food industry is seen as matured branch of the economy, where revolutionary new products and processes are very rare. Especially the SMEs are in squeezing situation: they have to fit very sharp prerequisites and demands on one side and very much constrained resources to give them power in order to formulate appropriate answers on the other side. They are looking for partners beyond the boundaries of their organization, mainly with other firms, universities, research organisations and government agencies. Adopting an effective innovation process to successfully introduce and develop new products to the market has become one of the most important strategies for food companies. The innovation dimension of networking activity contributes to growing network complexity, which in turn also affects the nature of traditional governance structure. Trust and other relational factors are playing an increasing role in these structures. Our research interest is whether the trust as coordination form of governance structure plays significant role in the Hungarian agri-food industry. Empirical data was drawn from a survey carried out in Central Hungary and aiming at the research of cooperation and knowledge management within the SMEs of the food economy. Structural Equation Modelling (SEM) is applied in order to determine the relationship among the three (Trust, Networking, Innovation) latent factors. We have found that trust plays significant positive role in increasing networking activity and innovation, but the extent of it is less than expected.

Az abduktív menedzsmenttől a tudáskormányzásig = From abductive management to knowledge governance

Hogyan juthat az ember helyes döntésekig egy adott területre (mikroverzumra) vonatkozó mély, belsővé tett tudás birtokában anélkül, hogy következtetne? Az abduktivitás fogalmának körüljárása után öt hüvelykujjszabályt fogalmaz meg a szerző az abdukció működéséről, majd összekapcsolja azt a vezetői munkával, tudáskormányzási kontextusban. Ebből kiindulva a globális munkatérelmélet (Global Workspace Theory) alkalmazásával a vezetők vagy az organizmusként felfogott szervezetek abduktív kapacitásának fejlesztési lehetőségeit vizsgálja. Befejezésül egy hatlépéses, a szervezeti szintű abduktivitásra rákérdező speciális tudásaudit-módszertan rövid kifejtésére vállalkozik, két esettanulmány vázlatos bemutatásával. _____ How to make right decisions without any inferences, thanks to interiorized, deep knowledge on the given field (micro verse)? After defining the concept of abductivity, the author presents five thumbnail-like rules about the nature of abductivity, combining it with leadership aspects and knowledge governance approach. He introduces a method supporting the development of abductive capability of a leader or an organization as a whole, using the Global Works pace Theory. Finally, the author tries to briefly formulate six steps of an organization-level knowledge governance audit framework, illustrating its relevance with two short case studies.