Today’s concrete realities give us the opportunity to evaluate the strength of our own spirit and identity to believe in the unity of never stop reorganizing in approaching adaptive challenges, while preparing economists through continuing education, development, and training, always thinking about the increasing competition and the increasing global interdependence within the context of the linkage of education to work. There is no doubt about the importance of: the organizational culture (arisen and formed as a result of repeated interactions between its members (being influenced by the management style, the organizational structure, the business policies and practices and so on), which displays a mix of rational and irrational behavior (the modern management having as major components the emotional skills, the empathy, and the altruism), and ensures a consensus on principles and values of an organization; the intercultural studies, of the intercultural communication, as managers and employees come from different countries and cultures in this globalized world, and as the behavior in organizations is influenced by national cultures, each employee being influenced by the environment in which it was formed.
The beautiful Aula Magna of the Bucharest University of Economic Studies (ASE Bucharest) hosted Friday, February 24, 2017 the works of the General Assembly of the prestigious Association of Faculties of Economics in Romania (AFER). On this occasion it was launched the Volume 1 of “The research of the organizational culture in Romania” (Coordinators: Constantin Roşca and Nicolae Istudor; Universitaria Publishing House, Craiova, 2016), developed under the auspices of the Romanian Scientific Society of Management (SSMAR) in collaboration with AFER, and offering an optimistic outlook for the Romanian organizations led by professional, rational and emotional leaders. It is well-know that AFER and SSMAR, both responsible and dynamic actors of the academic scene, are continuing to confirm the importance of the quality of team relations, as well as the quality of the network in initiating partnerships, along with establishing a fluid and flexible process for planning sequential stages, of a supportive organizational culture, developing a high research potential via learning experiences based on projects and workshops conducted by excellent managers who aim high but at the same time pay a lot of attention to details.
The Members of the Presidium were Profesors: Nicolae Istudor, President of AFER, Rector of ASE Bucharest, and Honorary Member of SSMAR (in December 2016, at the Romanian Academy, the “Pierre Werner Centenary” Medal has been awarded to Professor Nicolae Istudor as recognition for his contribution to the development of higher education and academic research); Gheorghe Zaman, Corresponding Member of the Romanian Academy, Director of the Institute of National Economy , Honorary Member of AFER, and President of the Scientific Council of SSMAR; Ovidiu Folcuţ, Vice President of AFER, and Rector of the Romanian-American University; Petru Ştefea, Vice President of AFER, and Dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, West University of Timisoara; Ioan Radu Petrariu, Executive Director of AFER. Professor Nicolae Istudor gave the floor to the four speakers invited to share their thoughts and ideas as the above mentioned Volume’s first ambassadors: Gheorghe Zaman, Theodor Purcarea, Gabriela Marinescu, and Constantin Roşca (President of SSMAR, and Honorary Member of the Romanian Distribution Committee).
The first volume of “The research of the organizational culture in Romania” is divided into three parts: Organizational culture – the theoretical foundations; Research methodology; Sample representativeness. COMOR project (“The Managerial Behavior in Romanian Organizations”, an experiment of SSMAR): studies various manifestations of respondents’ behavior (managers and non-managers, men and women, young and elderly persons, with medium and higher education level, who work in companies in all areas of economic activity according to the NACE code11, in all the counties of Romania) in order to learn and develop, both those national specificities which remain and have to be developed further, and those behaviors (which have to be improved) that alter one or other cultural dimensions of organizations at local, regional or national level; aims to identify the peculiarities in the Romanian organizational culture and managerial behavior (through benchmarking of Hofstede and GLOBE models) by researching multiple forms of expression, and considering the views expressed by the broad spectrum of respondents with regard to two aspects in parallel (according to the evaluations of the current situation; according to the respondents’ desired future/prefigurations), which constitutes the novelty of this approach.
It is worth remembering that the second volume, dedicated to this research report on results achieved in defining the organizational culture of the Romanian economy has five chapters corresponding to the five dimensions of organizational culture (as defined by Gert Hofstede), the variables corresponding to specific organizational behavior and an approach from two perspectives: regional (in the 8 development regions of Romania: North-East, South-East, South Muntenia, South-West Oltenia, West, North-West, Centre, Bucharest-Ilfov) and sectorial (in 7 areas of activity: agriculture and forestry, industry and energy, construction, trade, transportation, tourism, services). On the other hand, a special chapter in this second volume presents a correlative analysis of the degree of participation of respondents to define the dimensions of organizational culture and behavioral variables of these dimensions, as well as of responses from the questionnaire with multiple meanings in defining the cultural dimensions while the last chapter of the volume presents the general conclusions about the content of the dimensions of the organizational culture specific to Romanian economic organizations. As shown by the authors: the above mentioned regional approach allows multidimensional analysis at the county level of the major role that the human factor – in general and its behavior (organizational and managerial) – in particular, from different types of economic activities (agriculture, industry, trade, transport, construction, services, etc.) and sub-national cultural entities have for sustainable development of the Romanian society as a whole; they aim mainly to support the revival of national culture as multicultural practices support in organizations using individuals’ fundamental similarities while respecting their cultural differences, the cultural-management problem becoming the spiritual support (immortal in its essence and flexible in connection to this multicultural global current reality) of achieving the mission, seeking to provide solutions to common problems (both for the organization and for its members).
