Generolo Jono Žemaičio Lietuvos karo akademija

Authors of the article focus on the current issues regarding foreign direct investments and their impact on the economic development of Slovak regions. The aim of this article is to draft overview of stage of current development within the economic and investment policy of the Government of the Slovak Republic to meet the needs of regional development. The introduction part presents the theoretical basis described by local and foreign authors reflecting the level of foreign direct investments use including their influence on the economic progress in particular regions emphasised on the development and promotion of small and medium-sized enterprises. Analysis of the government investment policy is carried out in the specification part underlining the significant role of the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency. Stated knowledge provide the theoretical framework for the experimental part of the article. Experimental part of the article by the means of numerical statistics and comparison method analyses and evaluates the level of investment support provided to small and medium-sized regional enterprises through projects sustained by the Slovak Investment and Trade Development Agency within the years 2012 and 2017.Successfully concluded projects concerning the foreign investment aid for the particular Slovak regions are analysed in experimental part, which also quantifies investments based on their contribution to the growth in jobs and provides an overview of the cooperating activities among regions of Slovakia from 2007 to 2017. Contributional outcome of the experimental part of the article is presentation of governmental standards, which are required from regions in order to obtain investment aid while job creation is taken into account. Issued conclusions may inspire further economic operators and authorities responsible in area of social and economic regional development in Slovak republic, regions of other Member States and third countries of Europe as well.

This study examines and compares the attitude of management students in Croatia and Slovakia towards whistleblowing in a sample of 121 master students of business ethics at the Faculty of Economics University in Split, Croatia, and 169 master students from University of Bratislava, Slovakia. The three measurement instruments include whistleblowers’ attitudes (3 items), whistleblowing attitudes (2 items) and potential types of whistleblowing reactions (8 items), i.e. external reactions (4 items) and internal reactions (4 items). The results of the study indicated a positive attitude toward whistleblowing and whistleblowers in both student groups. It is also found that Croatian students exhibited more positive attitude towards whistleblowers than Slovakian students. Also, Croatian students showed more proneness to react in a whistleblowing situation – both inside the organization and externally via media. These conclusions suggest that the sense of moral duty to blow the whistle, as well as less fear of the potential consequences, is stronger in Croatian students. The results may be of practical use to managers who can benefit from whistleblowing while keeping in mind that whistleblowing can’t be avoided and that punishing whistleblowers seems to be a bad managerial practice.

The safety and security research is generally presented as a problem of two levels. The first level is focused on individuals and social groups while the second level deals with the safety and security issues on a country level. Research on both levels, however, is very often concentrated on the life or health threat in direct connection with war conflicts, terrorism, organised crime, political or social persecution and natural disasters. Nevertheless, such understanding and evaluation of safety and security does not comply with the present reality. There exist a wide range of scientific studies proving that the present understanding of human safety and security consists of several dimensions which might not be directly linked to actual war activities. The human safety and security of people in a broad sense could be jeopardized also by unfair practices or abuse of political power by governmental bodies, corruption in national economies, discrimination of minorities, drugs and black markets. The threat to the safety and security of individuals and countries is a multidimensional problem and its scope, intensity and dynamics should be measured by adequate tools and should be understood as a standard dimension of the quality of life. A specific tool should be adopted for measuring the safety and security in people´s life and for measuring safety and security on a country level. Current statistical and other exact methods enable researchers to perform qualitative and quantitative measurements and evaluate the safety and security in a broad scope and with needed depth and qualification. The aim of this paper is to review present trends in the measurement of the safety and security levels in context with actual impacts of external threats from international war conflicts, terrorist attacks and corruption practices and to underline the activities of countries and the international community to stop, or to reduce such threats. To measure these dimensions of safety and security, some selected indexes and indicators of international standards will be used. Our aim is to demonstrate their application in mapping and evaluating the safety and security situation within the European Union countries and particular attention to the performance of Slovakia.