J24 - Human Capital; Skills; Occupational Choice; Labor ProductivityReturn

Research and development activities within the region are often seen as a key driving force of innovation performance. This is further important for productivity growth and economic growth of the region. These issues are part of European Union strategy for regional development called Smart Specialization. Higher education institutions play important role in the support of innovation in the region via their own research activities, knowledge creation and dissemination and improvement of the human capital in the region. The main aim of our research is to test potential link between intensity of research & development as well as specialization of the region and labour productivity in the region. In our research we compared NUTS 2 regions in the Czech Republic and Slovakia based on the selected indicators related to research and development. We used factor analysis and regression analysis based on the cross-sectional data for all NUTS 2 regions in the EU. Our results strongly suggest that focus on research & development activities is positively correlated with higher labour productivity in the region. Higher number of scientific publications and patents is also positively linked to higher productivity in the region. The same seems to be true for higher share of tertiary educated inhabitants.

Management of human resources is crucial for companies and includes internal communication, employee information, as well as employee relations at work. Workplace communication, information sharing and work relations on all hierarchical levels within a business are essential for the survival and success of small and medium-sized companies. The goal of this article is to analyse personnel systems, focusing on the relationships between superiors and subordinates, superior-subordinate communication and information sharing by company leaders with their subordinates, from the perspective of subordinates. Thereafter, gathered information is compared and analysed in terms of a focus on the advantages and disadvantages of a given work climate. Analysis and reasoning around the subject of respect and disrespect towards superiors from the perspective of subordinates is also presented. Data were gathered using questionnaires in small and medium-sized companies in the South Bohemian region. The questionnaires were completed by employees during the year 2013. This paper is based on data from the GAJU 039/2013/S grant-aided project called: The management of human resources of small and medium-sized companies.

The article focuses on issues of employee appraisal with emphasis on the formal appraisal of employees in agricultural businesses in the Central Bohemian Region. The main aim of the article is to evaluate the use of formal employee appraisal in agricultural businesses in the Central Bohemian Region. A partial aim is to compare theoretical approaches to employee appraisal from the point of view of Czech and international authors. The survey showed that 87% of agricultural businesses have no system of formal employee appraisal. Among the reasons for not having implemented a formal employee appraisal system, 36% of agricultural businesses stated that they did not consider formal appraisal important, 34% mentioned capacity reasons (only 17% of agricultural businesses have a personnel department within their corporate structure), 15% indicated financial reasons, 10% time demands and 5% other reasons. The outcomes of the survey also showed there is a lack of interest by businesses to implement a system of formal appraisal of employees (only 22.5% of agricultural businesses, that do not use any system of formal employee appraisal, plan its implementation), despite the fact that, currently, people are considered to be the most important strategic asset of any business for achieving a competitive advantage.