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As part of the EFOP-3.3.3-VEKOP-16–2016-00001 “Museum and Library Development for All” project, a national representative digital literacy survey was conducted in Hungary's public libraries at the end of 2019. The aim of the present study is to provide a deeper analysis of the data collected during the survey to answer the question of the role of gender and age in the development of digital skills amongst librarians working in public libraries. This study was designed to answer the following four research questions: Are there levels of proficiency defined by DigComp 2.1 that are more specific to men or more specific to women? Are there areas of competence and competences that are clearly perceived as stronger or weaker for men or women? Are there areas of competence that are clearly influenced by age and others that are not or only moderately influenced by age? Which competences are clearly age-related, and which are not or only slightly affected by age?

The main target group of the study were library professionals working in county libraries. The survey, based on the DigComp 2.1 (Gomez et al., 2017) framework, was conducted using an online questionnaire in the form of a self-assessment and explored four levels of digital literacy. A 30-question questionnaire was completed by 1,868 respondents. The sampling procedure was essentially stratified sampling. The large number of respondents and the sampling procedure combined with the representativeness of the sample meant that the results of the survey can be considered as generalisable to the whole Hungarian public library sector.

Of the five competency areas assessed by the DigComp framework, librarians were found to be most competent in information and data literacy, and least competent in content development, according to the proportion of those with basic skills. 32 percent of women and 22 percent of men working in libraries rated their digital skills as basic, and both groups were weak or less weak in the same skills, with a few exceptions. At the intermediate level, there is a predominance of women. In the information and communication competency areas and in the content development and integrating and re-elaborating digital content in the content creation area, a high proportion of women consider their digital skills to be medium. Relatively few men rate their own competence in these areas as average. They are most likely to have advanced and highly specialised skills. The advanced level in DigComp2.1 implies, in addition to strong digital skills, the willingness and ability to help others, while the highly specialised level requires innovative and creative use of digital technology and knowledge transfer. These top two skill levels are more common amongst men. 34 per cent of men and 27 per cent of women have advanced skills, while 13 per cent of men and 6 per cent of women have highly specialised’s level. The age of librarians has only a minimal influence in certain areas of competence and for certain competences. Skills in the information and data literacy competency area are less age sensitive. For the data management competency, which requires more technological skills, a stronger correlation between age and skill levels is observed, especially for basic and highly specialised skills. In the communication competence area, the youngest age group of librarians has the highest percentage of advanced and the lowest percentage of basic level. The proportion of advanced learners decreases steadily as age groups progress and the proportion of basic learners increases at a similar steady rate. The effect of age on the content creation is much more modest than expected. Age clearly has an impact on the safety competence area. As age increases, the proportion of those at advanced level decreases and the proportion at basic level increases. Age also has a significant effect on the problem-solving competence area. One in two librarians in the 50 and 60s have only basic level skills, compared to one in four in the youngest age group and one in three in the 40s.

Using the DigComp 2.1 framework, a digital competence survey of a whole professional group of library professionals working in public libraries in Hungary was carried out. The study provides new insights into the impact of gender and age as variables on digital competence.

The object of this research is the reconstruction of the existing legal response by European Union states to the phenomenon of immigration. It seeks to analyse the process of conferral of protection.

One main dimension is selected and discussed: the case law of the national courts. The study focuses on the legal status of immigrants resulting from the intervention of these national courts.

The research shows that although the courts have conferred an increasing protection on immigrants, this has not challenged the fundamental principle of the sovereignty of the states to decide, according to their discretionary prerogatives, which immigrants are allowed to enter and stay in their territories. Notwithstanding the differences in the general constitutional and legal structures, the research also shows that the courts of the three countries considered – France, Germany and Spain – have progressively moved towards converging solutions in protecting immigrants.

The research contributes to a better understanding of the different legal orders analysed.

The literature on managerial competences has not sufficiently addressed the value contents of competences and the generic features of public managers. This article presents a model of five competence areas: task competence, professional competence in substantive policy field, professional competence in administration, political competence and ethical competence. Each competence area includes both value and instrumental competences. Relatively permanent value competences are understood as commitments. The assumptions of new public management question not only the instrumental competences but also the commitments of traditional public service. The efficacy of human resource development is limited in learning new commitments. Apart from structural reforms that speed up the process, the friction in the change of commitments is seen as slow cultural change in many public organisations. This is expressed by transitional tensions in task commitment, professional commitment, political commitment, and ethical commitment of public managers.

This paper aims to identify the occupational profiles of a logistics and a supply chain (SC) controller, both promising SC professions, examining the required competences and tasks undertaken while taking into account current trends in supply chain management and its wider dimensions.

The study used a content analysis based on job advertisements for the position of logistics controller and SC controller. The collected material allowed the construction of an occupational competence mix model in the style of Cheetham and Chivers for the logistics and SC controller, and the identification of the level of competence of both professions, using the model proposed by Czapla. In addition, the analysis of the data was supplemented by use of the Anova test and a radar chart.

The SC and logistics controllers have a high degree of similarity in both the meta and core competences areas. Similarities also occur in the case of the analysed groups of tasks undertaken by these professions. Tasks in the areas of “definition” and “maintaining” prevail. The SC controller and the logistics controller are considered “engaged inspirers” because they have reached this level of professional competence. Both these professions can ensure an effective, sustainable and transparent SC through direct cooperation with the SC manager and/or logistics manager.

This study uses a content analysis based on job advertisements addressed to the German market. These job advertisements are standardized, and therefore, provide only a general outline of the competences and tasks of the SC and logistics controllers.

The study provides information to practitioners by identifying the competences and tasks assigned to the SC and logistics controllers that are needed to improve the efficiency and transparency of the SC and its management. The research is an incentive for people involved in education to adapt changes in curricula in the business (accounting, controlling and logistics) and engineering (related to logistics) fields of study by creating courses based on SC controlling or/and logistics controlling.

The study shows the current, necessary changes for SC professionals (e.g. the appointment of a SC controller and/or logistics controller) resulting from changes in business and the challenges for SC management (e.g. transparency and sustainability).

An increasing amount of research and debate has emerged over the last few years, emphasising the need for developing digitally competent, literate, able, skilled, capable people within a constantly changing technological and online environment. Existing definitions and perspectives in this area go beyond the use of technological tools or media for the creation of a digital literacy mindset, which develops throughout one's life. However, Higher Education strategies have not yet caught up with this agenda.

A student survey with Library and Information Science students from three higher education institutions in Scotland, Ireland and Greece was conducted as a basis of empirical data to support the theoretical propositions of the study. The survey centred on the technical and higher-level digital competences of students and drawing from students' self-perceived digital competences for learning and for the everyday life digital context, addressing e-leisure, e-learning, e-democracy, e-government and e-health activities. The survey critically enabled students to assess digital competences from their perspectives as digital participants.

Students' self-assessment of digital competences were lacking in a number of areas, which involved the development of information literacy, digital creation, digital research and digital identity management. In addition, students' digital competences were found to be linked to previous experiences within the everyday life digital environment. The higher the self-perceived digital competence levels of students were on the basis of dealing with everyday life digital tasks, the more likely they were to also develop high self-perceived digital competence in other digital areas related to their education.

Higher education has not fully embraced digital competences as a core, fundamental literacy which addresses both technology mastery and a digital citizenship mindset. As emerging models begin to challenge traditional teaching and learning paradigms, with global connectivity and personalised approaches, existing digital divides may be further accelerated. This requires revisiting digital competences with emphasis on the diversity of the contexts where it develops and of the learners involved, in the overall continuum of learning for life.

There is a lack of investigation on three areas of competence in the Individual Competence Baseline 4 (ICB4) (IPMA). Furthermore, some studies pointed out the importance of soft skills over hard skills, but this relationship was not explored from the project manager’s competence perspective. This paper aims to analyze the influence of project manager competencies on project success.

The survey involved 100 Brazilian project management professionals. Structural equation modeling (SEM) using a partial least squares (PLS) approach was employed for data analysis.

The competence people was the protagonist of all project success. It affects practice with indirect effects on the impact on the customer. The paper highlights the project manager’s soft skills in reaching customer perception. Besides, the competence people also impacts perspective and, indirectly, preparation for the future.

Personal and interpersonal skills enable the project manager to interrelate with the project environment (organization strategy, governance, structures, processes, standards, power and interest, culture and values) and, therefore, to open a panorama for opportunities as a new market, product or technology. Thus, the new competence area perspective introduced in ICB4 brings an important insight for this research and future studies.

Besides investigating the effect of behavioral competencies on project performance, this research addressed the importance of looking at the indirect effects when exploring models and testing hypotheses for a complete understanding of the relationship between variables.

Hay una falta de investigación en tres áreas de competencia del ICB4 (IPMA). Además, algunos estudios han señalado la importancia de las habilidades blandas en las habilidades duras, pero esta relación no ha sido explorada desde la perspectiva de la competencia del gerente de proyecto. El objetivo de esta investigación es analizar la influencia de las competencias del director de proyectos (ICB4) en el éxito del proyecto.

La encuesta involucró a 100 profesionales brasileños de gestión de proyectos. Para el análisis de datos se empleó un modelo de ecuaciones estructurales utilizando un enfoque de mínimos cuadrados parciales (PLS).

La competencia “Personas” fue la protagonista de todo el éxito del proyecto. Tiene efectos sobre la “Práctica” con efectos indirectos sobre el “Impacto en el Cliente”. El artículo destaca la influencia de las habilidades blandas del gerente de proyecto en la percepción del cliente. Además, “Personas” también incide en “Perspectiva” y, con efectos indirectos, en “Preparación para el Futuro”.

además de investigar el efecto de las competencias de comportamiento en el desempeño del proyecto, esta investigación abordó la importancia de observar los efectos indirectos al explorar modelos y probar hipótesis para una comprensión completa de la relación entre las variables.

Las habilidades personales e interpersonales permiten al director del proyecto relacionarse con el entorno del proyecto (estrategia organizacional, gobierno, estructuras, procesos, estándares, poder e interés, cultura y valores) y, por lo tanto, abren un panorama de oportunidades como nuevas mercados, productos o tecnología. Así, la nueva “Perspectiva” del área de competencia introducida en ICB4 trae una visión importante para esta investigación y para estudios futuros.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the competences needed for managing competitive bidding in the Finnish healthcare and to understand the management of competitive bidding holistically, considering the challenges the management faces from being embedded in focal nets and the wider network.

The phenomenon is examined from the perspective of networks. This focus acknowledges the fact that competitive bidding changes the dynamics of the network and therefore requires new competences from the actors. The study applies qualitative methods.

Competitive bidding connects effects, interests, resources and actors together. It changes the dynamics of the net and the network. Thus, new competences are required. Three major competence areas were detected: relationship management competences, net management competences and purchasing competences.

The conclusions shed light on the combination of competences needed in managing competitive bidding in healthcare networks.

The purpose of this paper is to describe the case of a leading Italian aerospace company which developed an integrated system aimed to optimize the management of engineering competencies within the Chief Technical Office function.

The paper was based on a set of interviews to company referents and a one‐year period of researcher's observation at the company site to analyze competence management processes and the application on the field of the methodology and the tool. The approach adopted is to present a real practice following a pragmatic and illustrative approach.

The integrated system provides an objective method to support critical evaluations related to the management of competencies and actors. The benefits achieved derive from a more effective and efficient monitoring of competencies available to perform given activities, and from the analysis of gaps, actor allocation, and job‐rotation issues.

The application of the method and the tool is still quite “dependent” from the skills of their developers. Besides, the activities and competencies of those units which support new product development processes should be also integrated in the system.

The case described can be a useful benchmark for organizations working in complex industries in the effort of improving the performance of engineering activities through an enhanced management of knowledge about people potential and expertise.

The value of the paper may stay in a twofold process/project and people management perspective in the monitoring, development, and scouting of technical competencies.

The purpose of this paper is to develop a critical understanding of IT enhanced competence management and its promise to bridge operational and strategic functions with the aim of revealing potential hidden challenges.

Empirical data were gathered through interviews and observations during a longitudinal field study over a two year period in a large Norwegian IT consulting firm that has adopted a competence IT tool throughout the entire organisation. The investigation was conducted from a practice‐based approach to studying competence management.

It was found that IT enhanced competence management that aims to bridge the individual and organisational purposes, is mediated by a universal‐stock versus contextualist approach to competence development. This results in four possible alternatives to IT enhanced competence management. In this study the contextual competence assessment for individual purposes has been objectified for organisational purposes, causing confusion about the value of IT enhanced competence management.

This study has been conducted in only one large IT firm in Norway. Further research is needed to support the finding that it is beneficial to remain in either the contextual or the universal‐stock orientation to competence development when using the same assessments for individual‐operational and organisational‐strategic purposes.

The trickiness of IT enhanced competence management lies in the four hidden belief structures about competence that influence both the design and use of IT enhanced competence tools. Insight gained from this paper may help managers to reflect on their assumptions about competence and may contribute to successful IT enhanced competence management.

The research clarifies possible pitfalls when aiming to satisfy multiple purposes in the design and use of a competence IT tool.

The purpose of this paper is to investigate the strategic role of plants, in terms of the type and level of site competence, the relationship with the strategic reason for location, and the impact on operational performance.

The authors use a survey of 103 Swedish manufacturing plants that belong to global production networks and analyze patterns within this context to identify potential archetypes of plants with respect to plant roles, based on factor analysis and cluster analysis.

It is found that the areas of site competence can be grouped into three bundles, characterized thematically as production‐related, supply chain‐related and development‐related. The plants fall into three categories: some plants have only production‐related competences, some have competences concerning both production and supply chain, and the third group of plants possesses all three bundles of competences.

The results provide empirical evidence that site competences come in bundles in three steps according to themes rather than individually. No significant relationship was found between the level of site competence and the strategic reason for site location.

The results provide empirical support for the co‐location of product development and production, since plants with full responsibility for all competence bundles significantly outperform plants having only production‐related competences on cost efficiency, quality, and new product introductions.

The authors research patterns of site competence at a more detailed level than before in the related literature, as well as study the impact on performance, which has not been done before.