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Purpose: Performance management is an increasingly important part of strategic human resources management. Employee performance is related to many factors, but education and training are two of the most significant. So far, literature has confirmed that a strategic focus on the employee training leads to the successful achievement of an organization’s goals, development, and ultimately to performance. However, there is no consensus about the right level of the training. Methodology/Approach: The objective of this article is to analyze the impact of training programs on employees’ performance in case of 839 analysts in a Mexican public financial institution. The research was carried out over a two-year period and the data were evaluated using descriptive statistics and ANOVA. Findings: The results reveal that low number of training hours, together with excessive training of more than 166 hours per year has limited or no impact on the performance. In fact, when employees had more than 166 hours of training, the training was negatively related to their performance. Research Limitation/Implication: Management of organizations should carefully plan the amount of provided training hours per each employee. The impact of training varies based on seniority and number of hours spent on training, but there are no significant differences between employees’ gender. Originality/Value of paper: The originality of this article lies in the identification and evaluation of impact of employee training hours on performance in organization, as well as in the identification of breaking point of number of training hours which may lead to actual decrease of performance.

Este artículo tuvo como objetivo calcular el rendimiento del sistema nacional de refinación en México para el periodo 2000-2019. Para tal fin se utilizó información mensual proveniente de Pemex, con la cual se construyó un modelo de insumos y productos que se estimó mediante el método Data Envelopment Analysis. Lo que se encontró fue que el promedio total de rendimiento fue 82.31%; 80.16% en Cadereyta; 70.11% en Madero; 91.50% en Minatitlán; 75.34% en Salamanca; 88.95% en Salina Cruz y 88.19% en Tula. En promedio los resultados confirman una operación deficiente de la industria de refinación mexicana y contribuyen para que los tomadores de decisiones gubernamentales modifiquen este escenario de cara a la construcción anunciada de una nueva refinería en los próximos años.

Today's workplace has created new challenges and opportunities for managers, as employees from three generations (Millennials, Generation X and Baby boomers) with different personal characteristics now form the workforce. It is crucial for a company's management to understand employees' needs regarding benefits, since employees' satisfaction is vital to their motivation and productivity. In this study, we analysed responses from 272 employees to a survey about their preferences for Health & Wellness programmes, using the Analytical Hierarchy Process methodology. The results reveal significant differences between generations, as well as between genders. The most desired programmes for younger generations are educational packages, whereas Baby boomers tend to prefer cultural events. Despite these differences, there is consensus among all the generations about the high importance of dental care programmes.

Professors’ evaluations are carried out differently throughout individual universities, but it is an important part of a university internal quality regardless the evaluation system. The institutions with a large number of teaching employees are forced to use quantitative means of evaluation to be able to capture differences between individual science fields. We provide the means of meta-evaluation based on the Markov chain approach that allows to further assess the subjects of evaluation on a long-term basis. The approach is demonstrated on the vast evaluation data gathered in the university in Mexico City. The methodology of using Markov chains is explained on the theoretical level and it is applied to the real data afterwards. Results indicate that the lowest-evaluated professors are more likely to remain within the lowest -evaluated ones over a longer period. This may correspond with professors’ unwillingness to make changes in their courses. Moreover, we provide ample commentary on how the results should be understood. In the end, it occurs that using the Markov chain can even provide a reflection on the evaluation system as such.

The importance of correct and clear decisions during a complex and difficult situation is very easy to understand, but not so easy to achieve. Especially in situations where decision-makers must decide under time pressure and uncertainty. For instance, typical crisis situations have such characteristics. Given the uncertainty, subjectivity and ambiguity of human knowledge, crisis situations are also characterized by conflicting interests. In this article, we propose an approach based on fuzzy set theory to help decision-makers to find the collective decision considering weights of each member of the decision-making group. More specifically, the proposed approach uses new and innovative transformation of fuzzy numbers through α-level cuts. The key role in the transformation process is played by the shape and position of fuzzy numbers. Additionally, the Hamming distance will be used for the final interpretation of the results, in order to minimize the loss of information caused by defuzzification.

Purpose Many higher education institutions (HEIs) have constructed their internal evaluation systems to secure teaching quality. This paper aims to analyze teaching quality, HEIs use students to evaluate their professors as they have direct contact with the professors during the whole semester. The authorities hope to receive valuable information, which can be used for many administrative purposes. The bias in the evaluation toward professors’ gender and attractiveness has already been proven. However, there is only limited evidence whether students give higher value to teaching quality over the professors’ personality. Design/methodology/approach In this paper, the authors go further in the gender-attractiveness evidence and put the evaluation in contrast with professors’ experience, age, etc. Findings The results indicate that the effect of experience predominates the effect of gender and in some areas also the effect of age. What is more, a semester in which a course is taken also influences the evaluation as different professors’ abilities are required in teaching in a different semester. On the other hand, the results do not fully confirm the effect of gender on the evaluation. Originality/value The results reveal that it is important to consider the course structure to assign professors to the right courses.

Selection of personnel in organizations is usually a difficult task. The process gets even more complicated when the selection takes place in complex organizations where different areas can work towards multiple objectives. As many areas might be involved in the selection, the process can become complex and hard to manage. Therefore, it is desirable to use decision-making tools to make the process easier. In this article, we propose new methodology for personnel selection based on Multi-criteria Decision Analysis and the integration of qualitative and quantitative data. We demonstrate the selection process on the case of the Mexican football team selection for the 2018 World Cup in Russia. For the purpose of the article, experts’ opinions are used to evaluate the crucial parameters for the selection.

Summer Olympic games in Rio 2016 were the biggest and the most important sport event in 2016. Athletes’ performance at Olympics is always of a high interest and serve as a basis for various parametric and non-parametric analyses. In this article, we construct data envelopment analysis model to analyze countries’ performance in Summer Olympic games in Rio 2016. The traditional model structure is based on GDP-population theory. In this article, we go beyond this traditional model structure and introduce economic active population and corruption factors into the model. Similarly, the Olympic success is measured regarding medal ranking of each country. Nevertheless, we enlarge traditional golden, silver and bronze medals output structure, including medal ranking up to 8th position. This model structure enables us to also measure performance of lower performed countries that are traditionally not ranked in the medal rankings. As a complement to the achieved results, we decompose the results regarding World Bank’s income classification to be able to make conclusion of countries’ performance.

La Salle University Mexico (La Salle) uses an internal system of professors’ evaluation, which main purpose is to evaluate professors’ performance and secure high quality of teaching at all of its faculties. Since its inception in 2010, La Salle has obtained 517,635 individual evaluations of 45,346 courses. However, no additional analysis of the obtained results has ever been done. This article provides introductory analysis of the accumulated results at faculty level. The main objective is to analyze whether there are differences between faculties regarding the evaluation. Although the results are highly skewed towards the maximal evaluation at all faculties, there are statistically significant differences. The next important task is to investigate what factors influence the evaluation. Moreover, as this is the introductory analysis, the article concludes with possible future steps that should be consider regarding eventual structural changes in the evaluation system.

Received 14 July 2020. Accepted 29 January 2021. Published online 19 April 2021. Women entrepreneurs have progressively gained more space in what is mostly a man-dominated business world. However, a considerable gender gap in the likelihood of starting a business venture still exists in most countries in the world. Such gap can vary depending on the country and on its socio-cultural, legal and economic conditions among others. In this paper, Hofstede’s cultural dimensions and the Human Development Index of 55 countries are tested in order to identify what factors have a positive effect on the gender gap. Results indicate that the most influential factor is the Human Development index, meaning that the more developed a country is, the lower the gender gap in the entrepreneurship is. In addition, the results also indicate that a lower level of gender gap is also observed in rather individualistic, pragmatic and risk-adverse cultures.

The evaluation of the publication outputs in the Czech Republic is based on the methodology from the Research, Development and Innovation Council. This methodology assigns a score to each output according to a various categories. The evaluation is carried out for 5 year-long sliding period. However, the assigned score for an output is published with more than a year delay. Moreover, the assigned score, in most of the cases, does not correspond with the scientists’ first calculation, which was made according to the generally known rules. The impact of this issue on the chosen scientific organisations, Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), is the topic of this paper. The evaluation and analysis of the financial impact of this gap on the Czech higher education institutions’ budgets is provided with data from the years 2007 to 2012.

In an attempt to improve the quality of doctoral studies and the satisfaction of PhD students at the Czech University of Life Sciences Prague (CULS Prague) the authors disseminated online questionnaire among all PhD students in May and June 2014. The questionnaire covered areas related to doctoral study, PhD supervisors, doctoral scholarship, research publications, and last but not least, to satisfaction with the doctoral study. In this article responses related to research, such as allocation of time to doctoral studies, allocation of time to research, involvement in research projects and satisfaction with research outputs. The authors provide comparison of all above mentioned domains according to faculties as well as form of doctoral studies at CULS Prague.

Research results and university performance measures have been frequently discussed topic in the Czech higher education system. Performance can be improved by establishing innovations in education in many areas. At higher education sector the performance within research activities is of the same importance. Various authorities have been making an effort to establish a set of measures to assess research performance at institutional level. This paper focuses on the assessment of research activity within an institution – the Faculty of Economics and Management (FEM), Czech University of Life Sciences (CULS) Prague – with the use of Data Envelopment Analysis model (DEA). The measured units (DMUs) are 12 FEM departments. Based on the findings revealed by the DEA model application various measures adopted by the faculty in order to improve research and education performance are introduced. Following the widespread trend in many countries the focus of the effort is in training of university teachers and students. This aim is being partially accomplished by the Project Operational Program Prague – Adaptability (OPPA), which is focused on the innovation of the Ph.D. studies at the FEM. The main project aims are i) to improve students’ research experiences, ii) to provide appropriate conditions for Ph.D. students at the departments/faculty and iii) to launch tools for better communication among Ph.D. students and their supervisors.

The paper evaluates research and teaching efficiency at faculties of economics in the public higher education institutions in the Czech Republic. Evaluation is provided in two periods between the years 2006-2010 and 2007-2011. For this evaluation the Data Envelopment Analysis and Index approach are used. Data Envelopment Analysis measures research efficiency according to weighted inputs (average wages of academic staff, number of academic staff, and average number of students) to weighted output (RIV points). Teaching efficiency is measured according to weighted output (average number of absolvents). Index approach compares changes between productivity measured in two different ways (RIV points per academic staff, number of students per academic staff) and changes between average wages adjusted of average inflation rate. Although we evaluate research and teaching efficiency with different approaches, some similiraties can be found. Therefore, the detailed comparison of the results is provided. For the analysis we use data from the Ministry of Education, Youth and Sports (MSMT) and from the Research, Development and Innovation Council (RVVI).

The authors of the paper endeavoured to find out key competences in IPMA standard for educational approaches in project management. These key competences may be used as a basis for project management university courses. An incidence matrix was set up, containing relations between IPMA competences described in IPMA competence baseline. Further, discrete-time Markov chain was used to calculate the weights from the incidence matrix. The authors later considered the most important competences whose weight sum equalled 50% importance. The article defines IPMA standard competence minimum. Since the minimum comprises the standard from more than its half, it can be regarded as minimum for the creation and development of project management teaching and learning. The structure corresponds to IPMA certified B level (excluding such requirements as experience etc.). In the discussion of this article the defined minimum of the standard competences was compared with recommended preparation for individual certification levels. The findings show that real distribution of competences in the IPMA standard based on importance and real IPMA standard requirements for non-purpose and complex project management education differ from the structure of basic certification degrees of the standard. The authors further say that the education as such should exceed requirements for professional certification. The students should benefit from a complex training with emphasis on such topics and competences that would help them make a successful foray into project management practice.

This article analyzes the performance of the national football teams during the 2014 FIFA World Cup qualification. The sample consists of 31 qualified national teams to the final tournament in Brazil. The analysis uses Data Envelopment Analysis (DEA) methodology and is carried out for the whole qualification period between June 2011 and November 2013. Each national team is evaluated according to a number of played matches, used players, qualification group quality, obtained points, and score. The results show that only 12.9% teams reached the performance of 100%. The reasons of low performances mainly depend on teams´ qualities either in each qualification zone or in each qualification group. In addition, a sensitivity analysis is used to confirm the adequate structure of the DEA model.