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Various countries apply different methodology for national critical infrastructure identification. MCDM method TOPSIS is extensively used in different areas of research such as logistics, health. The best alternative is based on all criteria, dependant on their significance. The paper presents the study of multiple criteria decision-making method TOPSIS application for identification of Lithuanian national critical infrastructure. The experiments demonstrate, that use of MCDM ensure better and more stable identification of critical infrastructure resulting in concentrating protection efforts and resources on the most important infrastructure nodes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper analyses the relevant issue of the relationship of international law and European Union law. Therefore, independent systems of law exist, which inevitably arise the issue of relationship and interaction of these systems. Legal literature analyses the question of the relationship of these two systems of law on the basis of various aspects. The author has chosen the following structure of the paper: first, the general problem of the relationship of international and European Union law is discussed. While describing the problem, the nature of the European Union and international law, as well as the distinguishing features of these systems of law, is analysed. The paper also provides a discussion about the decisions of the Strasbourg court and the Court of Justice of the European Union, which provide the basis of solving the problem of the relationship of these systems of law. In the second part of this paper, the main theories are analysed: the monistic, dualistic and coordination theories, which can be used to answer the issue of interaction of the two systems of law -- international law and European Union law. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article concerns the thematic of evaluation in public management. The purpose of the paper is to analyze the conception and the models of evaluation in public management. There is a study of different types of evaluation approaches and evaluation definitions in the paper, which indicates the idea that there is no common definition of evaluation in public management, because it is strong in the context. Moreover, the implication of evaluation depends on such criteria as evaluation needs, evaluation purpose, typically applied methods, the role of evaluator and others. The paper also provides a discussion on the evaluation in historical perspective and the classification of evaluation models. The article identifies and describes the main evaluation models such as politically controlled studies, objectives orientated evaluations, management information systems, decision orientated evaluations, etc. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The psychological empowerment of employees as the psychological enabling and positive motivational state of individuals at work has been broadly studied in relation with their attitudes towards work and organisations, work behaviour, productivity, reactions to changes or innovations. Employee empowerment is especially important for the organisations with flexible management systems which are based on the principles of employee proactivity, personal responsibility and intrinsic work motivation. The article presents the process of improving the LPEQ - Lithuanian Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire (Tvarijonavičius & Bagdžiūnienė, 2013) and the revised 9-item version of the questionnaire. The first version consisted of fifteen items representing five dimensions of psychological empowerment: meaning, enthusiasm, decision making, autonomy, and trust in competence. However, later studies revealed that a three-dimensions exploratory factor solution is also possible (e.g., Jokubauskaitė & Lazauskaitė-Zabielskė, 2016). The aim of the two studies presented in this paper was to repeatedly evaluate and to specify the structure of the LPEQ and to verify the psychometric indicators of the revised 9-item version of the questionnaire. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses of data from the first study sample (740 employees from different Lithuanian organisations) were explored to examine the structure, construct validity and reliability of the questionnaire. The CFA showed substantial support for the three factors‘ solution when the first factor (meaning) consisted of two items from the previous meaning dimension and one item from enthusiasm, the second factor (decision making) included two items from the previous decision making and one from autonomy dimensions and the third factor (trust in competence) remained without changes (χ² = 57.69, df = 24, χ² /df = 2.391, p < 0.001; RMSEA = 0.061; GFI = 0.9674; CFI = 0.939; NFI = 0.953). Measures of validity and internal consistency were additionally analysed on the second study data (658 participants). The results proved the convergent validity of the shortened version of the LPEQ: three dimensions and the total score of empowerment were highly and positively related with similar constructs - intrinsic motivation, engagement, autonomy, occupational self-efficacy, in-role behavior (p < 0.01). Cronbach's α coefficients of the dimensions varied between 0.755 and 0.835. In conclusion, the revised version of the Lithuanian Psychological Empowerment Questionnaire (LPEQ - 9) can be characterised as an instrument with appropriate psychometric properties for use in research and practice. Directions for the future research in the field are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the main policy outlining the arena proceeds at the level of governmental organisations, the operational level of policy governance needs to be aligned with the demands of wider participation. Namely at this level, representation of local government interests together with public opinions concerning the relevant problems, methods for their solution and their relevance to wider needs are required. This paper is designed to investigate participation of local government in the decision-making process initiated by the Ministry of Education and Science and to evaluate the impact of interest representation in the formation of public policy. The research methodology of mixed methods was employed (document analysis and interviews with the members officially nominated to resolve problems, decision-making groups, councils and commissions operating from 2007 to 2010 at the Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania). Formal participatory instruments were applied 162 times involving 985 actors in affiliate associations, service providers, regulators, service supporters, funding offices and independent experts. The research has revealed occasional tendencies of local government participation in the participatory instruments for public policy formation. On the contrary, empirical studies of the group characteristics exhibit a rather low level of interest representation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The modern business is developing in the context of rapid social and political changes, which contributes to the changes in economic and cultural priorities as well as mindset and behaviour of people. This puts new requirements on development and implementation of business negotiation strategies, aiming to ensure that during bargaining, everything is done to understand the other party and related contexts, to achieve mutual understanding, to reach common agreement and eventually find the optimal negotiating decision. The author of this article researched and analysed negotiation process concepts in the global scientific literature and practice. The article examines negotiation and bargaining concepts. Also, the global analysis of the scientific literature revealed that there is no single negotiation planning concept. The author defines the basic conceptual negotiation planning concepts. The paper deals with negotiation strategy conceptions used by scientists around the world. Conclusions present the proposals for further business negotiation research. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background. It appears from the anchoring effect studies that the imprisonment sentence can be appointed arbitrarily because of the cognitive characteristics, not because of corruption or nuisance. However, compared with nearly 4 decades of research on the anchoring effect, its impact on the imprisonment sentence received relatively little attention. Since the severity of a imprisonment sentence is important both to the individual and society, we discuss the applicability of the amounted knowledge on the anchoring effect to the real sentencing decisions. Purpose - to present the results of the studies of the anchoring effect relevant to the imprisonment sentence, to reveal their strengths and weaknesses, and suggest new research directions. The method of this paper -literature review and analysis. Results. Research shows the potential influence of several types of anchors (accidental, environmentally suggested), mood and experience of the judge. Nevertheless, research has limitations: different types of anchors acting in one judgment have been investigated separately, only standard anchoring procedure has been used, anchor consistent information (e. g. attorney's closing speech) has been ignored as well as the amount of thought given to anchor, and influence of a person providing the anchor. Conclusions. We suggest future research perspectives: taking into account the specifics of the sentencing situation, investigate the interaction of different types of anchors, explore the influence of both defence and prosecution attorneys' closing speeches and their interaction, compare accidental anchor's effects using standard and basic procedures, examine the elaboration of the anchor and social status of the person providing it. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the principle of subsidiarity, which is one of the key principles in the European Union law and which along with other principles essential for democratic political systems, such as the principles of federalism, regionalism, local self-government, proportionality, legal certainty etc., is recognised in the EU law as an effective method (and criteria) of State governance as this principle is the basis for separation and allocation of powers at different levels of governance. This allows bringing decision making closer to citizens, promotes democratic processes in the country, increases the openness of the public sector to the needs of the society, and contributes to better protection and implementation of human rights. The work presents the analysis of national legislation which imposes the principle of subsidiarity, discusses the impact of the principle on the system of legal institutes, its use in the state governance and local self-government, analyses the practical problems of the application of this principle in the decentralisation and democratisation of state governance (distribution of powers to the governance entities). The principle of subsidiarity is used to defend the prerogatives of central governance and local community interests, and the result of its application is a rational consolidation of the management concept in the state organisation, when the allocation of institutional powers between different levels of governance is caused not by ambition of political governance but the effective exercise of powers conferred on the authorities in order to achieve that decisions are taken not only at the highest management level, but also that the local community is included in their making. It is important for Lithuania that during the application of the principle of subsidiarity in the management system, the level of decision-making is adequate to the scale and complexity of the arising problem, so that the assignment of functions is based on the need and ability to implement them in a specific level of state management, and that the state management functions are based not only on the political will but also on the financial resources necessary for the implementation of the functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article examines customer behaviour in general and discusses factors determining customer behaviour in car industry. The paper describes a concept of consumer behaviour and the importance of factors influencing the situation. Empirical study about factors determining car industry in consumer-made decisions is carried out. In addition, statistical factor analysis is performed. The key sets of factors helping the user with choosing a new car are identified and analysed at the level of the groups of factors (factor). The conducted analysis shows that car price, ergonomics, image, dynamic and user-friendliness as well as environmental groups are the main points that assist in buying a new car. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lithuania is not the only country where public contribution to urban planning and urban design processes is highly procedural and formalistic. Unidirectional and inflexible cooperation between participants of urban planning activities is common in various countries. Cross-purposes and conflict situations once boosted emergence of innovative and effective methods for decision making in urban planning processes in developed countries. Now it's time to learn from these examples and creatively adopt them for purposes of long-term optimization of our national urban planning system. Paper describes some marginal activities in urban planning and design processes and disputes a growing impact of public participation in development of cities and urban regions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper we describe the application's fields of the sensitivity analysis methods. We pass in review the application of these methods in multiple criteria decision making, when the initial data are numbers. We formulate the problem, which of the sensitivity analysis methods is more effective for the usage in the decision making process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]