Purpose – The article aims to identify and classify competencies and values considered essential or even necessary in the daily work of active managers and leaders.
Design/methodology/approach – This article is based on the results of comprehensive ethnographic research. I acquired the research material through open interviews (26 items), which facilitated immersion into the social reality of individual groups of respondents.
Findings – A manager who consistently adheres to their values builds lasting authority. A manager who is guided by values also has a greater influence on decision-making and team relationships. A manager who adheres to values can contribute to improving organizational culture and thus increase employee engagement and achieve better organizational results.
Research limitations/implications – Findings from qualitative studies are context-specific and may not be easily generalizable to other settings or populations.
Practical implications – Organizations need to recognize the centrality of values in building managerial authority. By strategically aligning values, promoting consistency and fostering a culture of trust, organizations can enhance managerial effectiveness, team relationships and overall organizational performance.
Social implications – Managers’ values play a crucial role in shaping workplace dynamics and can extend their influence to broader societal contexts. A values-driven approach has the potential to create positive social impacts and thus contribute to ethical business practices, trustful relationships and overall societal well-being. Originality/value – The findings are original and valuable because they holistically explore the connection between managerial values and authority and identify key factors that contribute to lasting and impactful leadership in organizations and society.

Purpose – We aimed to identify factors that influence student engagement in distance learning.
Design/methodology/approach – The research involved a group of 671 students from economic and technical higher education institutions in Poland. We collected the data with the CAWI technique and an original survey. Next, we processed the data using principal component analysis and then used the extracted components as predictors in the induced smoothing LASSO regression model.
Findings – The components of the students’ attitude toward remote classes learning conditions are: satisfaction with teachers’ approach, attitude to distance learning, the system of students’ values and motivation, IT infrastructure of the university, building a network of contacts and communication skills. The final model consisted of seven statistically significant variables, encompassing the student’s sex, level of studies and the first five extracted PCs. Student’s system of values and motivation as well as attitude toward distance learning, were those variables that had the biggest influence on student engagement.
Practical implications – The research result suggests that in addition to students’ system of values and motivation and their attitude toward distance learning, the satisfaction level of teachers’ attitude is one of the three most important factors that influence student engagement during the distance learning process. Originality/value – The main value of this article is the statistical model of student engagement during distance learning. The article fills the research gap in identifying and evaluating the impact of various factors determining student engagement in the distance learning process.

Purpose – The main goal of the article is to determine the mediating role of human resources management (HRM) outcomes in the relationships between shaping employee work engagement and job satisfaction (SEWE&JS) and company performance results and to establish whether there are any identifiable regularities in this scope in the pre-pandemic and pandemic period in the headquarters (HQs) and foreign subsidiaries of multinational companies (MNCs).
Design/methodology/approach – The empirical research included 200 MNCs headquartered in Central Europe. The raw data in the variables were adjusted with the efficiency index (EI) to capture the actual relations between the variables under study. The partial least squares structural equation modeling (PLS-SEM) was used to verify the research hypotheses and assess the mediating effects.
Findings – The research findings show that the HRM outcomes positively mediate the relationships between SEWE&JS and the company performance results. HRM outcomes turned out to be a stronger mediator between SEWE&JS and company performance results in finance and quality in the HQs during the pandemic. By contrast, in the local subsidiaries, they were a stronger mediator of the relationships between the results in innovativeness and quality during the pandemic.
Originality/value – In addition to confirming the results of some other researchers, the research findings also provide new knowledge. They determine the mediating role of HRM outcomes in the relationship between SEWE&JS and the three categories of company performance results, namely finance, innovativeness and quality. In addition, they identify certain regularities in the four studied contexts, which is a novelty in this type of research. A novelty is also the use of employee key performance indicators (KPIs) in the data analysis as the efficiency index in analyzing the effect of the variables under study. The value of the research is also the fact that it covers HRM in MNCs established in Central Europe, which, compared to MNCs from the Western world, is not a frequent subject of research

Purpose – Recently, both researchers and practitioners have been very interested in the impact of leadership on employee engagement. Thus, I aimed to examine the relationship between spiritual leadership and work engagement through the mediating role of spiritual well-being at work.
Design/methodology/approach – I assessed spiritual leadership, engagement, and well-being in an empirical study based on a sample of 223 employees. I collected data through a survey-based method and analyzed them using structural equation modeling (SEM).
Findings – The present study contributes to the existing knowledge in the leadership field, especially spiritual leadership. The results revealed that spiritual leadership impacts employees’ work engagement by indirectly influencing employees’ spiritual well-being.
Research limitations/implications – Theoretically, the findings imply that spiritual well-being can be one of the factors considered in enhancing work engagement through spiritual leadership.
Practical implications – Finding evidence that spiritual leadership, like other leadership styles, can foster employee engagement. Therefore, leaders should take care of employees’ spiritual needs.
Originality/value – Many researchers have indicated that well-being is associated with employee engagement. However, they overlooked employees’ spiritual well-being in the research. The study confirmed the unexplored mediating role of spiritual well-being between spiritual leadership and employee engagement.

Purpose – The literature currently offers only fragmentary insights into the research on the relationship between employee emotions and human resource management (HRM). Therefore, further research is essential to bridge this knowledge gap. Our study aims to identify the mediating effects of positive employee emotions and exhaustion in the relationship between HRM and employee engagement.
Design/methodology/approach – Drawing on the literature review findings, a conceptual model was formulated to illustrate the relationship between HRM, employee emotions and engagement. A confirmatory analysis was conducted using structural equation modelling (SEM CFA) on a sample of 1,000 employees to validate the proposed model. The data were collected in 2021, with a particular emphasis on exploring the indirect influence of HRM on engagement through positive employee emotions and exhaustion.
Findings – The quantitative research aimed to test a model depicting the relationship between HRM and employee emotions. The findings indicate the robust effect of HRM on positive employee emotions and exhaustion. The authors observed significant variation in the level of impact depending on the size of the organisation (stronger in large firms) and the sector (stronger in the public sector).
Originality/value – The study bridges the gap in our understanding of the link between HRM and employee emotions. It would be advisable to further explore the specific impact of individual HRM practices on both positive and negative employee emotions. It is worth extending the scope of future research to explore components of the investigated constructs as well as mediators and moderators of the relationship between HRM and employee emotions.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper was identification and empirical assessment of the differentiation of consumers’ attitudes in Ukraine and Poland to Russian brands and other brands offered on the Russian market after Russia’s aggression against Ukraine on February 24, 2022.
Design/methodology/approach – The main research methods include a systematic literature review and the authors’ own surveys conducted in November 2022. The research sample comprised 950 consumers – 67%of them were Poles, 30% – Ukrainians and 3% from other countries.
Findings – A respondents’ country (Poland and Ukraine) does not impact attitudes to brands offered on the Russian market after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022. Moreover, it does not affect and differentiate emotional engagement in the conflict and assistance to war victims. Cluster analysis resulted in identifying two groups on the basis of consumers’ declared emotional reactions to the war. The first group was smaller (N 5 353, 37.2%), referred to as “indifferent consumers”, and was characterized by a greater inclination to purchase brands offered in Russia. The other cluster, referred to as “sensitive consumers” (N 5 597, 62.8%), comprises those engaged in offering assistance to war victims, showing strong emotions in connection with the aggression and military activities and characterized by a clearly negative attitude to Russian and other offered brands and an inclination to boycott these brands.
Research limitations/implications – A short time horizon, the study confined to two countries, difficulties in reaching Ukrainian respondents due to power failures in Ukraine in the period of conducting the survey (November 2022), a non-representative research sample – overrepresentation of people aged 18–25 years. Practical implications – The research study contributes to the knowledge about consumer brand attitudes and preferences under unique social, economic and market conditions. These conditions were created by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, as well as the international and global character of the war in Ukraine. The significant implications of the study refer to brand communication policies and companies’ CSR-related declarations. A number of consumers’ errors were recorded, resulting from wrong brand retrieval, which were rectified at a later stage as a result of international restrictions imposed on Russia, harsh media criticism and social international embargoes imposed on brands offered in Russia. The marketing communication of contemporary global brands should give consideration to the informative function of CSR activities, and the communication process should be continuous. Critical attitudes and an inclination to boycott brands point to the possible consequences faced by inconsistent and ethically doubtful brand policies. This implication is clearly confirmed by the results of the study.
Social implications – The authors also wish to highlight the implications for practice and society. As mentioned earlier, Polish consumers involved in providing aid to victims of the war also expressed their opposition to the war by boycotting Russian products and international brands remaining in Russia. Popularization of the research results obtained by the authors can be a form of sensitizing the public to the need for long-term relief, awakening global awareness of the essence and importance of sanctions imposed on Russia, as well as the possibility of expressing opposition through individual purchasing decisions and boycotting brands still present in Russia.
Originality/value – The study allowed for identifying consumers’ differentiated brand attitudes in two countries: a country inflicted by war (Ukraine) and a front-line country, strongly supporting Ukraine (Poland). The research contributes to consumer behavior theories and studies of consumer attitudes and preferences from the perspective of international corporations’ CSR activities under the unique conditions of war. Also, it contributes to the knowledge of the mechanism of forming attitudes to Russian and international brands offered in Russia among CEE consumers.

Purpose: This study aims to provide an empirical study of the factors that influence how companies engage in strategic philanthropy and philanthropic strategy.

Methodology: A target group of Czech companies engaged in corporate philanthropy was contacted with an e-mail containing a hyperlink to an online questionnaire. In total, 296 companies participated in the study. Secondary data was collected from the Albertina database, Anopress IT database, and 2016–2018 annual reports. Logistic regression and likelihood-ratio tests were used to analyze the data.

Findings: The results imply that company size, ownership, industry, slack resources, and visibility are predictors of philanthropic strategy. Company size and headquarters’ location are predictors of strategic philanthropy. The legitimacy strategy and slack resource theory may explain engagement in philanthropic strategy, but not in strategic philanthropy.

Originality: This study contributes to scarce research addressing the drivers of the strategic approach to philanthropy. It provides a comprehensive empirical study of the factors influencing strategic philanthropic practices in the Czech Republic.

Purpose: The goal of the article is to systematize the literature related to the role of stakeholder engagement in corporate social practices and related disclosures by identifying the main theoretical lenses, research methods, and topics undertaken by authors of articles under scrutiny.

Design/Methodology/Approach: The article systematically reviews and discusses existing studies in the area of management, social and environmental accounting, intellectual capital, ethics, and accounting. We identify and subsequently analyze 68 articles published over the years 2010–2020.

Findings: According to the study findings, stakeholder theory is most often used as a theoretical background. The survey is the most popular research method, while stakeholder engagement in social practices is the most common research problem investigated by the articles’ authors. Corporate stakeholders’ communication on social media is a new topic that emerged in the literature in the studied period.

Research Limitations/Implications: Our analysis is restricted to articles published in journals included in the ABDC Journal Quality List that are ranked B, A, and A* in a 10-years period.

Practical Implications: The article’s findings may be useful for researchers and practitioners who deal with corporate social practices, disclosures, and stakeholders’ roles in these processes.

Originality/Value: The paper offers an up-to-date literature review, identifies the main themes, research gaps, and provides relevant guidance for future research.

Purpose: Assuming a duopoly industry with pollution producing processes, the aim of this work
is to study the firms’ choice to engage in Environmental Corporate Social Responsibility (ECSR)
by means of “green” managerial delegation, i.e. hiring managers with preferences for environ mental
concerns to whom owners delegate both sales and decisions to adopt green technology.

Methodology: Depending on the firms’ strategic choices, a two/three-stage game takes place solved
by the backward induction method to obtain sub-game perfect Nash equilibria.

Results: When the market structure is a Cournot duopoly, and the environmental sensitivity of
“green” managers is extremely low, then the engagement in ECSR is the firms’ dominant strategy,
regardless of the efficiency level of the available abatement technology. Nonetheless, firms are cast
into a prisoner’s dilemma. On the other hand, if “green” managers have low-intermediate to intermediate
environmental sensitivity, then either no ECSR, multiple symmetric equilibria, or ECSR
engagement can emerge as a result in equilibrium. Finally, if managers’ environmental sensitivity
is adequately high, then firms do not engage in ECSR. When a market entry game is considered
with the Stackelberg competition in which the incumbent adopts ECSR while the entrant does not,
socially responsible behaviors cause the market to be more contestable. However, the incumbent’s
owners can use ECSR to secure a dominant position in the market, provided that they hire “green”
managers with adequate environmental concerns.
Implications: In the case of entry, non-trivial policy implications arise. Due to increased competition,
the welfare of consumers improves (lower prices for the goods). However, the entry of a polluting
firm increases emissions. Higher emissions damage consumers and lower the overall social welfare
of an environmentally concerned government. Thus, a complete welfare analysis is required prior
to the design of a government’s regulatory intervention.

Originality/Value: This paper is the first that introduces the figure of the “green” manager who
shows, in its utility function, an environmental concern.

Purpose: The willingness of consumers to engage in co-creation activities is affected by multiple factors, including intrinsic motivation, firm-level factors, and expected outcomes of the participation in co-creation process. However, the final decision of customer engagement in co-creation is determined by the level of brand attachment and love experienced by customers, product category, and the type of needs satisfied with the object of co-creation. The current research proposes a holistic view of the abovementioned factors and variables by exploring their relationships and mutual influence.

Methodology: This study analyzes the results of qualitative research on the dynamics between positive client attitude toward a brand and the willingness to engage in co-creation activities.

Results/Findings: The study reveals that the willingness to engage in co-creation activities is strongly related to the level of brand attachment except for when people conduct such activities to experience the process itself. The level of customer satisfaction from participation in co-creation processes influences their future sense of brand love and attachment. Moreover, the way and strength of customer engagement in co-creative projects are affected by the product category. The authors especially stress the importance of a strategic approach toward designing and implementing co-creation projects and the key role of appropriate communication with participants.

Purpose: Developing a strong, favourable employer brand of a retail chain may be regarded as an important means of creating a competitive advantage. Retail chains should attract personnel with desired competence required for their particular purposes. The retail sector in Poland is perceived as a strongly disliked employer. Thus employer branding can be an important element of strategies adopted by retail chains operating in Poland. The main objective of this paper is to analyse the development of employer branding strategies implemented by selected global retailers operating in Poland and the impact of such strategies on their respective competitive positions in the Polish market. The time frame for the analysis is the period of 2009–2014.

Research design and methods: In addition to a review of the literature on the development of employer brands, this paper includes a case study of a few global retail chains operating in Poland. The paper is based on the assumption that retail chains pursue competitive advantage by developing employer brand strategies.

Implications and recommendations: A continued engagement in strategic activities in the feld of employer branding is very important for retail chains. Decision makers need to pay special attention to the promotion of their retail chains as a good workplace, using employer branding techniques

Purpose: The goal of this paper is to develop a framework describing the mechanisms which explain how and when CSR engagement affects company’s bottom line, based on a review of the business case for CSR literature.

Approach: This article is conceptual and based on literature review. By using a CSR stage development model, behavioral and stakeholder perspectives, it offers a descriptive multi­dimensional integrative framework of the business case for CSR.

Findings: The fndings show that the relationship between engagement in CSR activities and corporate performance (CP) depends on a CSR development stage, managerial interpretation of CSR issues, stakeholder management model and moderating factors.

Originality: This article integrates disconnected models and conceptualizations in the subject literature and contributes to the theoretical discussion by arguing that type and scale of benefts from CSR activity progress along the stages of organizational CSR development. Moreover, it also shows that the CSR­CP relationship depends on internal and external factors (mediators and moderators). It therefore supports the contingency argument.

Purpose: This study investigates the benefits of being perceived as a socially responsible company. The main purpose of the research was to find out whether company managers consider that certain aspects of company activity may benefit from being perceived as socially responsible. Research limitations: The primary source of data used in this study was a survey of respondents’ views and opinions rather than an analysis of extensive numerical data.

Methodology: The research methods included a literature review and a survey conducted in several Polish companies regarded as socially responsible. The so-called RESPECT Index, including socially responsible companies listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange Main List, as well as annual rankings of responsible companies were used as a kind of reputation database for choosing survey respondents.

Findings: The most important benefits indicated by the respondents included better frm image/reputation, improved relations with stakeholders, increased employee motivation, better communication inside the company, as well as more effective management and control over new aspects not considered before. Additionally, the identified benefits were analyzed using different criteria, such as the size of the company or its feld of activity.

Originality: The problem analyzed in this study is important, yet it is still not a suffciently examined issue in many emerging markets including Poland. As benefits taken into consideration in the survey are also valid for other financial markets, the results can be used for comparative studies of Poland and other countries.

Purpose: The article is devoted to critical refl ection on the commonly used value chain model taking the perspective of contemporary role of client and technological advancement in multifaceted organizational development and management. It attempts to outline and thoroughly describe the new perspective of value creation and value management taking into account digital technologies and social media platforms.

Methodology: Deductive approach have been implemented, secondary data and sources have been used. Finally, the model of Value chain 2.0 was presented, conceptualized and described from both theoretical and practical sides.

Design: The fi rst part of the article is focused on the explanation of present potential of client for any enterprise. The second part attempts to explain the role of virtualization processes, exemplifi ed by social media, semantic web approach or virtual organization in the shift of value creation. Finally, the concept of value chain 2.0 is proposed and discussed.

Findings: There is a rapid transformation of value creation where linearity, control and inter organizational resources are gradually being replaced by network value creation where clients’ activities play pivotal role in organization performance and where value is defi ned in much broader way.

Practical implications: The conclusions have profound meaning for companies and organizations striving for engagement of clients, partners and employees in value creation processes. The paper presents both theoretical foundations along with practical implications for value co-creation.

Originality: The thorough and detailed analysis and interpretation of multifaceted shift and transformation of value creation and value management is presented. The article describes the ways the social media, digital technologies and contemporary marketing influence the way organization.

Purpose: The goal of the text is to show a number of challenges which major central banks must face today. Impressive engagement of the central banks in counter-crisis policy leads to many controversial decisions and its results are not clear both for economic theory and for real economy. For now, one cannot show a full overview of the policy of central banks – on the one hand, thanks to the expansionary monetary policy, recession was quite shallow and the risk in financial markets has declined, but on the other hand, few side effects of this policy can be mentioned, which can jeopardize economic stability in the future.

Methodology: The paper has a theoretical character. The findings are based on a literature review and an analysis of the major macroeconomic data.

Findings: The text indicates the most important areas which have to be investigated by central banks. There are serious doubts about issues like: inflation targeting as a fundamental part of monetary policy, the efficiency of monetary policy instruments and the side effects of loose monetary policy.

Originality: The text presents quite a new approach in analyzing macroeconomic policy by indicating important gaps in contemporary economic knowledge according to which economic policy is conducted.