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Purpose: The aim of this paper is to show how restaurants in Poland managed their intellectual capital (IC) in the COVID-19 crisis and how knowledge sharing (KS) helped them to survive in those dynamically changing conditions. Methodology: The study is based on qualitative research - semi-structured interviews with a few restaurant owners and managers responsible for the business operations during the first year of COVID-19 pandemic. Findings: Research results show that one of the key factors in the restaurant survival is their IC. Proper management of this capital allowed businesses to adjust to this unprecedented situation. Dynamic and intense KS between restaurants' owners, managers and employees fastened the process of adjustment and provided new kind of services necessary to successfully operate in the new reality. Research limitations: The paper takes into consideration only selected restaurants in the Pomeranian region in Poland. Hence, the results cannot be generalized. Practical implications: The paper shows how restaurants' managers and owners used KS and IC management in order to adapt their business operations to the COVID-19 reality. That can be inspiring for entrepreneurs and help them fully utilize IC of their employees and coworkers, as well as discover the benefits of KS practices. The study also shows the idea of supportive restaurant community and its important role in KS. It also shows arising coopetition between businesses in order to survive violent changes in the socio-economic environment. Originality/value: The paper focuses on dealing with the COVID-19 problems in the restaurant industry from the KS and IC perspective. So far, there are few studies of this kind that take the catering sector as the main subject of the research. Findings can be helpful and valuable not only for academics, but also for entrepreneurs and managers that seek knowledge and solutions they can use in order to grow and develop their organizations in the turbulent environment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge management in enterprises may be considered on many levels. The most common ones are knowledge creation (innovation), knowledge sharing, knowledge distribution and knowledge protection. However, there is one area of management where the importance of knowledge management is underestimated, namely, that of organizational conflict. The aim of this paper is to show how knowledge management can affect the efficiency of reaching an agreement, while resolving an organizational conflict and to what extent inappropriate knowledge distribution in an organization can play a conflict-generating role. The research conducted is of a qualitative nature. Case studies of mediations conducted within the framework of Collective Disputes Resolution in Poland will be presented in the paper. The subject of the analysis will be production and service companies, as well as organizations from the public sector. The author will prove the proposition that democratic access to information in an organization has a positive impact on the effectiveness of resolving organizational conflicts. Even if conflict resolution is not possible at a given moment, the democratic distribution of knowledge enables the effective management of the process of an organizational conflict. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The purpose of this paper was to conduct pilot studies on the main characteristics of knowledge management (KM) in small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) in Poland, especially in comparison to big corporations. The main goal was to define the key challenges connected with KM in SMEs and suggest some solutions. The reason for the choice of the research question was that, although SMEs play a very important role in the economic development of Poland, they are quite vulnerable to business failure due to the limited amount of resources at their disposal. Well-thought out management of knowledge, which is nowadays one of the most valuable assets, could increase their chances of development and business success. A synthetic review of the literature on knowledge management in SMEs was conducted and presented. Opinions of respondents with work experience in both SMEs and big companies in Poland in the form of semi-structured interviews were gathered and analyzed. The results are presented in this paper, followed by discussion and implications. The main conclusion is that SMEs face many more challenges connected with effective knowledge management in comparison to big companies and tend to perceive that investing in KM is a luxury they cannot afford. The prevailing strategy of KM is the personalization strategy. The main problems concern a lack of codification of knowledge and lack of training for staff. Recommendations for the owners of SMEs include trying, despite constant lack of time and money, to organize some valuable training for their staff, setting up codification procedures for the key business processes and implementing low-cost IT tools. All companies, regardless of their size, can benefit from creating a positive, friendly atmosphere of cooperation among their employees. As the study was meant to be a pilot study, a further, more comprehensive research into the subject will be worth conducting. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Projects provide opportunities for combining various types of knowledge bases and expertise. Sharing knowledge and best practices through projects can improve an organization's ability to make the learning organizational, and become a learning organization. Earlier research studies show that, though the positive effects of knowledge sharing are recognized, it is still challenging to implement inter-project knowledge sharing and harvest the desired benefits from it. There is increasing focus on leveraging learning and reusing knowledge across projects. The need to focus on learning and knowledge sharing is important for organizations in the public sector too. Several researchers indicate that progression of projectification of public policies, public organizations, and individuals working in public sphere has an impact on actions undertaken for delivery of public services. As social, economic, political and technological changes happen in a faster pace, there is a need for public sector organizations to become more effective and efficient in order to deal successfully with the changes and address the emerging challenges timely. The focus of this paper is on inter-project learning processes in public organizations. This paper is based on a brief literature study and a case study of two public organizations, concerning public sector project management and project knowledge management. The research question that we ask is: What characterizes processes of inter-project knowledge sharing in public organizations? The research is of preliminary character. It is our first attempt to address the issue of inter-project learning in public organizations in our collaborative endeavor - collaboration between researchers from Poland and Norway. Therefore, we illustrate our deliberations with limited data - a case study of two public organizations: Trondheim Municipality (Norway) and Municipality of Kraków (Poland). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The development of ICT and the ever-increasing role of the Internet in the functioning of virtually all contemporary organisations has increased the number of threats related to security of information and data. The low level of measures protecting organisational information resources and a growing number of incidents of personal data breaches prompted the European Union to introduce a new regulation that imposes stricter rules in the area of information and personal data protection in its member states. The new EU's legislation - General Data Protection Regulation, commonly called the GDPR, became effective on 25th May 2018. This paper presents the selected issues related to information and personal data management in a selected group of Polish public service bodies. Based on the results of the conducted surveys, the authors present in it the assessment of the state of personal data security in these organisations just prior to the introduction of the GDPR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of the paper is the presentation of the development of the Polish Qualifications Framework (PQF) and qualifications system as an example of the implementation of knowledge management in public policy in Poland. The process of PQF development was initiated in 2008. It followed the KM approach, including building knowledge by collecting information on national and international practices, co-operating with experts and conducting research. Further, the knowledge was held and pooled, in particular through a public debate to collect additional insight and feedback necessary to further develop a comprehensive proposal of the PQF and adjust it to the needs of stakeholders - learners, employers, training institutions, etc. The knowledge was used to plan further monitoring and evaluation activities closing the KM cycle. As a result of applying the knowledge management approach, the initial proposal of the PQF was enriched and enabled a proposal to be elaborated for the modernisation and integration of the qualifications system in Poland that allows for integration and permeability between specific qualifications subsystems as a part of the reform of lifelong learning policy in Poland. This proposal was presented in the report referencing the Polish Qualifications Framework to the European Qualifications Framework. Publication of the report allowed for further sharing of knowledge with a wider spectrum of stakeholders. The next stages of the process included an assessment of information and knowledge needs required to proceed with the modernisation of the qualifications system in Poland, to close the cycle of knowledge management. We conclude with an assessment of the proposed approach to the PQF development from the perspective of its contribution to the implementation of lifelong learning policy in Poland, which is recognised and shared with a wide range of stakeholders contributing to the potentially successful implementation of this policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents the issue of innovation process planning. The discussed problem concerns identifying decisions which may be supported by DSS (Decision Support Systems). The paper discusses the original model of innovation process planning that assumes three hierarchical levels of making decisions. This enables to constraint the decisive field, not to break the creative nature of innovation processes, to coordinate actions and to direct them in accordance with the company's strategy. The research on elaborating the innovation process planning model was conducted in 20 Polish enterprises selected from the innovation leaders. All the data was collected basing on the semi-structured interviews with managers strictly engaged in the projects. Indicating different levels of innovation leads to classifying the decisions related to innovation process planning. The applied methods and tools supporting the managerial decisions have to comply with the problem's issue. The use of identical approach in managing processes that lead to creating both incremental and radical innovation would be unreasonable. However the distinction between innovation processes concerning novelty degree of their effects is not sufficient enough. The importance of the process itself should also be considered and is related to its expected influence on the company's development. The bigger the importance the better is the identification of innovation process connections with the company's functioning system. Nevertheless it is related to the increase of risk and uncertainty. The knowledge gap was defined as a parameter characterizing innovation processes. It describes the difference between knowledge that an enterprise has before starting any innovation process and knowledge that has to be created and implemented during the innovation process. A fuzzy linguistic evaluation system of this parameter was elaborated together with innovation process decision map. Understanding the context of managerial decision-making is important because it defines both the potential for and the limits to decision support The map was created basing on matching decisions to proper innovation process model levels and on evaluating knowledge gap. It enabled indicating those decisions which main manager should focus on. It involves the problems of delegating authorities and defining proper inputs (including time) required for analysis that precedes decision-making. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In recent years banks are operating in an increasingly competitive market environment. The changing economic environment has significant impact on banks' strategy. The expansion of banking sector, stronger competition, changes in customer needs and habits, and the emergence of new information technology accelerated the shift towards knowledge-based or innovation-driven activities. In the response to unstable market environment commercial banks in Poland have shown a renewed interest in marketing their product/services to their customer effectively. They focus on relationship marketing and developing long-term relations leading to customers' loyalty. Knowledge embodied in intangible assets is becoming crucial for that activity and in large extend influences banks' competitiveness and growth. The importance of intangible assets has increased in developing and maintaining competitive advantage, value creation and competitiveness. The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of banks' intangible assets in the developing positive relationships with young customers. The results show to what extent banks' services correspond with their needs and which intangibles are crucial for them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The fundamental problem is theoretical research and application verification conditions, motives and methods to encourage key employees of companies with unique powers and determining the company's competitive position, to communicate the knowledge of low-skilled workers, such as newly recruited adepts. Key personnel are a top-class professionals. They include managers, senior executives and leading specialists company, Featuring unique knowledge and capabilities. Key personnel in the organization often do not have any reason to be generous to share knowledge. In a highly competitive economy, and this is after the knowledge economy, having a unique and at the same time important for the company is the source of exclusive competence of the organizational position. Their current knowledge is knowledge of an advanced, innovative, and unique and, therefore, is always very personal. Its rich and varied resources are long-term effects of the learning process. Promoting knowledge sharing, in which the focus will be key personnel require a comprehensive approach. In the set of possible actions you need to put those that are focused on issues related to: organization of the work environment, incentives, and principles of career development including career vision. The primary objective of this paper is to present knowledge sharing between key employees and other employees in the Polish service companies. The author presents the results of research based on questionnaire surveys of a sample of the target of several dozen companies. Based on the results will be presented on the application form to motivate key employees to share knowledge [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]