Search

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]

A confidential meeting of Lithuanian diplomats in the USA took place in Washington on October 25–26 1943, at the time when the foreign ministers of the allied countries – the USA, Great Britain and the USSR – were meeting at the Moscow Conference. The Lithuanian diplomats discussed the general international situation, the challenges facing Lithuania, the uncertain fate of the diplomatic institutions themselves, and preparations to help Lithuanian refugees in Europe and exiles in Siberia. Decisions were made. Traditionally, attention was also paid to cooperation with Lithuanian organizations in the United States, with which it was sought to act in harmony. The representatives of Lithuania in America undertook to cooperate and consult with Lithuanian political organizations in the United States. [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 paper analyses the problem of multiple attribute decision-making (MADM) under fuzzy environment. In some cases the crisp value is inadequate to model real-life situations. For this reason some fuzzy MADM methods have been developed. The extended TOPSIS (Technique for the Order Preference by Similarity to Ideal Solution) to fuzzy environment is presented in the current paper. Weights and ratings of each criterion are described in triangular fuzzy numbers. The relative closeness to the ideal solution of each alternative is calculated applying different approaches that were presented in different scientific papers. A computational experiment is presented to compare the results of a multiple attribute analysis that uses three modifications of fuzzy TOPSIS method in a particular situation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The authors of this paper together with the other VGTU scientists participate in the international project INTELCITIES and present Multiple Criteria Web-Based Negotiation Decision Support System for Real Estate (NDSS-RE). INTELCITIES project is a research and development project that aims to pool advanced knowledge and experience of e-government, planing systems and citizen participation. NDSS-RE includes a decision support tool based on the methods of alternative generation and multiple criteria analysis that enable negotiating parties to evaluate their systems of preferences and recognize opportunities for trade-off between differently valued objectives and joint gains. At present the developed NDSS-RE allows for the performance of the following functions: search for real estate alternatives; finding out alternatives and making an initial negotiation table; multiple criteria analyses of alternatives; negotiation based on real calculations; determination of the most rational real estate purchase variant on the ground of characteristics describing effectiveness of the analysed alternatives. The third part of the paper deals with traditional negotiation principles and describes negotiation tactics, such as "The Atractive Alternative", "The Stall and Jolt", "The Comparative Value", "The Third Party", "The No More Money" and "The Walk Away" tactics. More traditional negotiation principles and tactics have been planned to integrate in future concerning the described NDSS-RE system because the knowledge and implementation of all the above mentioned tactics and principles lead to more successful negotiation for the lowest possible price buying real estate. [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]

In the context of globalization geo-social territorial structures (sociotopes, sociomorphotopes, socioecological patrimonies) which can be defined and explored by social ecology and social geography are becoming increasingly important. The aim of the work is to present the concept of socioecological patrimonies or paternalized sociotopes based on the objectives set. Socioecological properties of patrimony formation were established -- a group of people whose psychological state is characterized by attachment to a particular location. Attachment occurs periodically experiencing a range of human emotions in a certain area, and place of residence within a certain radius becomes constant and highly significant, and forms local identity, which after some time becomes native land or universalized patrimony, named pattern in contemporary social ecology. The concept of paternalized sociotopes (patrimonies) helps to divide the public living space, expresses the determination of territorial identity of geosocial units and presents real social geographic cells. It is necessary to distinguish not only patrimonies sets but also classify them according to their major typological features: social acceptability, communication intensity, the stability of the structure, intensity of expression and the origin of organic quality, which would not only identify the key characteristics of these patrimonies but also allow them to predict the behavior of a variety of space and time circumstances. The paper analyzed the structure of patrimonized sociotopes, which is based on the physiological and sociological space uniting the main subjects -- the people and the social ties connecting them to the general area of residence. Given these facts, the pattern classification model was concluded, which aims to reveal the basic classification criteria. The first level contains determining whether rural or urban area is. Then the set area is analyzed under the above typological key features: positive or negative, potent or slight, steady or temporary, overtime or secluded, and, finally, naturally formed or expressly formed. In particular, it is important to identify the positive and negative patrimonies by their social acceptability as positive sociotopes can help raise public corporate angles, direction of the evolution and negative sociotopes can be important for their problems in order to increase the effectiveness of social management. This model of classification and patrimonies analysis methodology consists of significant areas in planning practice. The concept of paternalized sociotopes can help humanize and optimize spatial planning processes as structured groups are easier to influence and motivate participation, collective decision-making and promoting common development of landscape management policy. The main task could be the necessity of strengthening the geosocial research of agrarian communities and the need to make the geosocial structures become an integral part of our land management plans, projects and training of spatial planning specialists. [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]

The need to effectively integrate decision-making tasks (such as interactive access to data and support for numerical and quantitative modelling techniques) together with the knowledge representation and visualisation tasks and inference procedures that model an expert's thought process has provoked research efforts to integrate decision support systems (DSS) with knowledge and expert systems (ES), neural networks and multimedia towards the formulation of intelligent DSS. We can analyse the intelligent DSS as a network of distributed systems (DSS, ES, neural networks, etc.) each of them facing and solving a specific problem. Under this point of view different systems can be integrated in the integrated system. Knowledge based decision support system for building refurbishment developed in Vilnius Gediminas Technical University is described in the paper in order to describe the above systems integration. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]