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The purpose of this paper is to review the complexity of post‐Communist transition with regard to the processes of creating a legal and institutional environment, which will predispose social actors to cooperate to solve social problems and neutralize disparities. The paper also seeks to consider the shift from social destruction (everyone fighting with one an other) to social collaboration.

The focus of the paper is on the scope of the simultaneously functioning political, social and moral extremes. They are seen as the key attributes of chaotic social transition and as material for creating cooperative links.

Political and social transformation running simultaneously, and followed by legal and administrative modernization, provoked formerly unknown social conflicts in the transitional society. The case of Lithuania shows that the old methods for dealing with new conflicts were not suitable. Society became fragmented. Social costs of disintegration were high but not equal, when compared internationally. Interdependence between functionality, innovative and cultural potential of the state, and its capability to regulate conflicts and social controversies had been brought into political debates and public discussions after transition had been in progress for several years. This was a signal that political parties and the most influential social players became concerned about social outcomes of the reforms. Developing a new legal and institutional environment, empowering cooperation and conflict management in social interactions, is perceived as an indicator of the progress of the continuing transition.

Because of its nature and size, the research does not develop insights into the processes which were in some sense dependent on, and simultaneously became incentives for, the culture of cooperation in society; for example, dynamics of cooperation and competition among authorities and citizens, business and politics.

Though great interest is shown in transitional processes in social and humanitarian studies, the rise of conflicts in society as well as the limitations of constructive ways of dealing with such conflicts are not yet the focus of social investigation.

Recently, authors have determined varieties in the development of corporate social responsibility (CSR) within Europe. This chapter examines similarities and differences in sustainability and related CSR developments in two contrasting European countries, namely Germany (industrialized society) and Croatia (transitional society). It has been argued that sustainable development is an industrial phenomenon common among Western European countries and the USA, often marked as post-industrial societies, and usually not observed in post-socialist and transitional societies which are confronted with an inner need for economic, political, and overall (re)structuring. Concerning differences within Europe, the concept of sustainable development in general and CSR concepts, in particular, have been described in the literature as less advanced in Eastern European countries than in Western European countries. Taking into account socio-cultural influences on the way CSR is understood and practiced, this study discusses this assumption and also addresses the question whether CSR is differently developed and not implicitly less developed.

As an illustrative example, a small empirical study was conducted to examine whether consumers in Croatia are actually less prepared for CSR, and, on the other hand, whether they just focus on different dimensions of CSR than consumers in Germany. In more detail, it examined differences in participants’ attitudes, social norms, and perceived level of control with regard to sustainable fashion consumption between German and Croatian consumers.

The study’s findings support the assumption of previous studies that consumers’ lack of interest in CSR and knowledge deficits in this regard are likely to be a barrier for CSR development in Croatia. Yet, it also illustrates that the CSR development in Eastern European countries should not automatically be seen as less advanced but in some parts just as different. Findings from the study on differences with regard to the importance of different sustainability dimensions, namely the social and environmental dimension of CSR, support the assumption that the way CSR is understood and practiced differs due to socio-cultural differences.

As the understanding and development of CSR seem to depend on the socio-cultural context, further research is needed to examine which concepts are present in Croatia concerning sustainability and CSR.

The findings provide information on the current status of CSR development and sustainable development in two differently governed nations of the EU, namely Germany and Croatia. Resulting practical implications for CSR strategies of companies and interventions to support CSR development and sustainable consumption patterns in both countries are discussed.

Comparative CSR studies, especially within Europe, are in general rare and in particular, this study is one of a so far very limited number of studies on CSR in Eastern Europe.

Despite certain political, organizational, technological and socioeconomic benefits that e-voting brings, governments around the world are beginning one by one to denounce its further use in the electoral process. In this regard, the paper aims to analyze reasons that led to the discontinuation of e-voting, resorting to the case of Kazakhstan, a transitional post-soviet country, which actively used the technology in 2004-2011, as a poster child of the global trend, elaborating on key political, socioeconomic, organizational and technological risks that could be associated with the possible return of this innovation in future elections.

The research is based on the combination of context and policy analysis, as well as focus groups studies and semi-structured interviews. The context analysis was aimed to understand various political and socioeconomic benefits in adopting e-voting in Kazakhstan. The policy analysis was useful in identifying implementation strategies of the government in promoting e-voting. The focus groups were helpful in understanding the perspectives of various audiences on e-voting. The semi-structured interviews were carried among independent developers in regard to the potential software products that could be used to propose new solutions in the area, including by experimenting with various blockchain platforms.

Analyzing the lessons from Kazakhstan, one can conclude that e-voting was introduced and used for several years by authorities in this country for certain economic and organizational benefits, but later they had to reject it and return to traditional paper ballot due to lack of confidence from the non-governmental sector in the capacity of public sector to ensure the integrity of e-voting procedures. As a result, building trust and applying innovative approaches should be a priority for policymakers in the area, if they wish to return to this technology, especially in adopting new presumably more reliable solutions based on blockchain technologies.

The primary data that was collected by the author from field studies were indexed, refined and presented in a special matrix in a separate section, which were interpreted in the discussion session. These data could be used by other scholars for further interpretation and analysis in their own studies, setting new research agendas and testing hypotheses. This is a single case study research, which is focused on the analysis of reasons that led to the denunciation of e-voting in Kazakhstan, which results could be extrapolated mostly to similar transitional post-totalitarian settings.

The study can be used to inform ways of how to improve the current e-voting platforms, especially in ensuring better security and transparency of the systems, which could be useful for developers who work on blockchain-driven solutions.

The results of the case study research and expert opinions expressed by various software developers in the e-government areas, which were presented in the paper, could be used by both an academic community and practitioners in understanding better a wide range of political, organizational, economic, social and technological drivers, risks and new opportunities in promoting e-voting technology as a trust generating social phenomenon.

The paper proposes the first case study of reasons that led to the discontinuation of e-voting in the context of such a typical transitional, post-totalitarian and post-soviet society as Kazakhstan, providing new insights into a wide range of political, regulatory, socioeconomic, organizational and technological aspects of related policy decision-making and implementation strategies adopted by public institutions in this country.

To explore, through a case study, some of the key career‐related HRD issues that senior managers are currently facing in the Estonian civil service.

Presents primary empirical research into career management in the Estonian civil service since 1991, that is, in the post‐Soviet era. The research involved in‐depth interviews with a group of 12 senior staff employed by the Estonian civil service.

The interview data reveal the ways in which downsizing and de‐layering in the Estonian public sector have led to shortened career paths, increased functional flexibility, increased spans of control and shifts towards open job systems.

The research explored career‐related issues solely within the Estonian civil service. Further research would be needed in a wider range of organisations and countries before the transferability of the findings could be established to transitional economies more generally.

Provides practical insights into the difficulties of career management in transitional economies situations from an HR perspective.

Offers a valuable contribution by demonstrating that, within certain parameters, Western‐based career management strategies and techniques may be adapted to fit transitional public services in Estonia but only as one element of a comprehensive HR modernisation programme.

A distinguished authority on methodology in the social sciences has written: “We are using models, willingly or not, whenever we are trying to think systematically about anything at all.”² As used here, a model refers to any “structure of symbols and operating rules” which we think has a counterpart in the real world. A circle, for example, may be used as a model to characterize the shape of a bowl or a crown. Governments are often described in terms of a model of the family, the ruler being likened to a father, the people to children. In one sense, a model is simply an elaborated simile or paradigm.

Poland’s political and economic transition of 1989 resulted in a cultural trauma experienced by consumers, which has influenced their perception of the retail experience. However, younger Polish consumers can remember neither communism nor the transition period. Therefore, this study aims to investigate the differences in perception of customer experiences in retail between Poland’s pre- and post-transitional generations.

A quantitative survey is first conducted with a sample of 1,045 Polish consumers measuring their perception of utilitarian and hedonic customer experiences in retail environments. Then, five qualitative focus group interviews with 29 participants provide an in-depth understanding of the survey results.

The quantitative study suggests that the pre-transitional generation is focused on utilitarian experiences, whereas the post-transitional generation is attracted to hedonic experiences in retail environments. The qualitative study provides an understanding of how the utilitarian and hedonic aspects of customer retail experiences are perceived and how the cultural trauma manifests in consumers’ values.

The study provides a new perspective on the customer experience in retail contexts from a society that has undergone a cultural trauma. The findings focus on generational differences in consumer attitudes toward hedonic and utilitarian experiences in a post-transition society and expand the theory of cultural trauma into the field of customer retail experience.

Low‐income transitional countries in the region of the Caucasus and Central Asia lack the existence of a solid assessment of public perceptions regarding the causes of poverty during transition. The purpose of this paper is to fill that gap in the existing literature.

This paper uses the secondary analysis of a recent cross‐sectional multinational survey to shed light on public beliefs of the causes of poverty in seven countries of the region – Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Uzbekistan. In addition, Russia and Ukraine are used as a comparison point. The theoretical framework for this study is that the subjective beliefs regarding the explanations of poverty can be classified into three broad groups: individualistic, fatalistic, and structural. Hence, regression coefficients and marginal effects of the multinomial logit regression model (MNLM) are estimated to associate the set of various individual, households, and community characteristics selected in the conceptual framework with the likelihood of choosing one of the three afore‐mentioned explanations of poverty.

The results of cross‐tabulation reveal that in a majority of the countries studied, the predominant explanation for poverty is structural, with the exception of Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, where predominant explanations are, respectively, fatalistic and individualistic. The results of MNLM show that most individual, household, and community characteristics possess the expected direction and are in line with previous findings. However, some of the characteristics have a similar significant effect across several countries, while other characteristics are significant for a single country only.

These findings demonstrate that despite the dominant post‐socialist ideology which favors individualistic and fatalistic explanations of poverty based on the economic rationality of market capitalism, the efforts of the elites in promoting and imposing these ideologies has not been fully successful. Nevertheless, no single unified model of the determinants of beliefs regarding the causes of poverty in the countries of the region is observed.

This is one of the very few papers aimed at assessing public perceptions regarding the causes of poverty in transitional countries of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

This chapter examines the delicate balance achieved by apex courts in new democracies when dealing with impunity for rights violations during times of transitional justice. While international law has clearly rejected amnesties for past rights violations, domestic politics sometimes incorporate amnesties as part of larger peace settlements. This puts courts in the difficult situation of balancing the competing demands of law and politics. Courts have achieved equipoise in this situation by adopting substantive interpretations and procedural approaches that use international law’s rights-based language but without implementing international law’s restrictions on amnesties. In many cases, courts do this without acknowledging the necessarily pragmatic nature of their decisions. In fact, oftentimes courts find ways of avoiding having to make any substantive decision, effectively removing themselves from a dispute that could call into question their adherence to international legal norms that transcend politics. In doing so, they empower political actors to continue down the road toward negotiated peace settlements, while at the same time protecting the courts’ legitimacy as institutions uniquely situated to protect international human rights norms – including those they have effectively deemphasized in the process.

Iraqi society has suffered from loss or fragility of human security since 2003. The developmental policies, programs and plans of the successive Iraqi Governments throughout the transitional period have not been able to achieve human security, despite the availability of different resources. They have also not prevented or limited the spread of corruption, according to domestic and international reports. Now the country faces a large phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of human security loss. This study aims to ascertain the nature of the relationship between the phenomenon of corruption and the dilemma of loss or fragility of human security in Iraq since 2003 to learn about the form of this relationship, how the selected variables contribute to the two phenomena and determine the degree of impact of corruption and its dimensions on human security and its components.

This research uses the social survey methodology of the sample taken from the Iraqi society and benefits from system analysis approach to identify the inputs and outputs of the variables researched. Moreover, the study uses the case study methodology to collect data and information precisely in an in-depth manner to support qualitative and quantitative analysis and clarifies the situation at the macro level of both phenomena.

Findings show the prevalence of corruption structurally in the Iraqi state and society. The contribution of dimensions and selected indicators in the spread of corruption and lack of human security varies. Findings also underline a strong statistical correlation between the two variables and their reverse relationship. In other words, the more the corruption is, the less the opportunities of human security are. There is also a strong impact of corruption and its dimensions on the conditions of human security factors.

The paper provides profitable findings and recommendations, which can be used by the Iraqi relevant institutions to eliminate corruption, achieve human security and benefit from its indicators in research and development.

The new addition of this research can be represented by linking the two phenomena and trying to build national standards with the capacity to describe, interpret and predict.

The aim of the study is to explore how organizational culture influences occurrences of workplace bullying in Estonia as a post‐transitional country. Another objective is to produce comprehensive empirical evidence of bullying in the specific cultural context.

The survey is based on the internationally well‐known research instrument, the Negative Acts Questionnaire Revised (NAQ‐R) (Mikkelsen and Einarsen) and the Questionnaire of Organizational Culture (QOC) (Vadi et al.).

Victims of bullying: 22 percent – at least one negative act per week; 9.3 percent – at least two negative acts per week; 0.6 percent – by definition (several times per week or daily); 8 percent – by definition (occasionally). The results reveal a clear negative relationship between bullying and task and relationship orientation of organizational culture.

The present study indicates clear factors at the organizational level where the preventive actions are needed to diminish the negative impact of bullying on employee's well‐being and encourages a discussion and further studies of workplace bullying in post‐transitional countries.

In Estonia and in other post‐transitional countries workplace bullying has not yet been studied closely. This study provides a comprehensive approach of workplace bullying related to organizational culture in a post‐transitional country.