Thank you!

1. A COMPARATIVE SURVEY OF STUDENTS‘ MANAGEMENT SKILLS ANDABILITIES AT VILNIUSCOLLEGEANDBANKING INSTITUTION OF HIGHER EDUCATION OF LATVIA. RELATIONSHIP WITH STUDENT PROGRAMMES. Vladimiras Grazulis Associate professor , Doctor of Social Sciences Vilnius College1 in Higher Education Faculty of Economics Naugarduko street 5, LT-01141 Vilnius Phone/fax (370 5) 270 1287 (home) Mobile(370699) 27652 Email vladimiras@takas.lt Conference “Increasing Value of Business: New Insights and Approaches” Riga, October 14, 2005

2. The science of Management as a subject finds its roots in the studies of Economics. After discussions which lasted a few decades, only in thesecond half of the 20th century was ample attention paid to to the cognition of the manager‘s personal abilities.1960-1980 in the theory and practice of management the chrestomatic, in other words the traditional manager stereotype was formed. During that period the understanding of the manager was based on the same presumption applied in Economics, helping to foresee how the organisation would succeed in the future. Similarly, an attitude towards the manager according to the regulations meant that all managers plan, organise, encourage and control in a manner consistent with the same requirements.They also have to perform all the tasks in the same way under any circumstances, in any organisation.

3. The traditional attitude to management and the training of managers does not sufficiently evaluate the world of the manager. For this reason the circumstances are not shown enough due to which managers plan differently, organise and encourage their employees to carry out work.

4. Management specialists from Western countries, while forming a modern attitude towards Management studies, emphasize the fact that in these studies the focus should be on the following issues : - Management should be understood in a much wider context; - students should be taught independent skills of how to learn to scrutiniseproposals and make possible presumptions; - alternative principles of Management should be presented; - reasonable sceptiscism towards everything, also concerning one‘sownattitude towards“I“ should be instilled in students.

8. In modern Management practice the readiness to participate in changes may be evaluated according to the following 5 criteria (profiles). 1. the level of strategic thinking, showing where the person is, his/her attitude to challenges, ability to determine goals and priorities; 2. the need to expand the areas of activities of an organisation or an enterprise, showing one‘s personal abilities to evaluate the surroundings, to diminish the impact of threats to an organisation and to increase its advantages; 3. the increase of opportunities, showing the person‘s ability to choose a few options because having a limited number of options increases the probability of a bad judgement; A larger number of decisions also means a higher degree of credibility of the applied criteria towards making an efficient decision; 4. the involvement of all the personnel in making changes, showing the efforts of a person also those who support or those who protest against novelties; the ability to have such a staffthat can adjust to changes will enable to create the environment of flexibility and a strategic attitude in the future of the organisation; 5. readiness for contingencies which would mean a person‘s ability to be prepared for challenges. The possibility of surprises may be avoided or at least reduced only with the help of strategic development plans, etc, transferring resources to the areas where they are mostly needed. The organisations which can decrease the impact of changes will win against others, regardless of the type of activity they perform.

10. Conclusions and suggestions:1. The traditional attitude to Management studies has poorly evaluated the situational world of the manager of today, therefore does not shed sufficient light on the circumstances in which managers plan differently, organise and encourage, as a result such studies undermine to a certain extent the quality of management education.2. The implemented Management methodics create the conditions for students to develop different skills of a “good manager”, such as self-analysis, suitable communication, the right evaluation of one’s colleagues, adjustment to the challenges of today etc.3. The performed survey is regarded as the first attempt to connect Management studies with students’ preparedness to emerge into the expanding globalisation process, therefore continuation of such surveys might result in the elaboration of serious basis for “outstripped” Management study programmes.

11. Thank you!