In today's highly competitive environment the goal of each organisation is to defeat competition and win new customers. Individuals who are holders of knowledge represent a tool for the generation of innovations. Thanks to their personal creativity, their knowledge, skills and abilities it is possible to generate new innovative ideas that will help organisations to achieve a competitive advantage. The aim of the article is to present the findings of a survey targeted at innovations and to identify knowledge as an important element in the process of innovations. Primary data were obtained through a questionnaire survey carried out in organisations in the Czech Republic and evaluated using the tools of descriptive statistics and also the methods of comparison, induction, deduction and synthesis were applied. One of the conclusions of the article is that organisations find it important to innovate and support an innovative culture. Knowledge too is very significant in the innovation process since it represents not only important input, but also output of the transformation process.

Managerial competencies identification and development are important tools of human resources management that is aimed at achieving strategic organizational goals. Due to current dynamic development and changes, more and more attention is being paid to the personality of managers and their competencies, since they are viewed as important sources of achieving a competitive advantage. The objective of this article is to identify managerial competencies in the process of filling vacant working positions in knowledge-based organizations in the Czech Republic. The objective was determined with reference to the Czech Science Foundation GACR research project which focuses on the identification of managerial competencies in knowledge-based organizations in the Czech Republic. This identification within the frame of the research project is primarily designed and subsequently realised on the basis of content analysis of media communications such as advertisements -a means through which knowledge-based organizations search for suitable candidates for vacant managerial positions. The first part of the article deals with theoretical approaches to knowledge-based organizations and issues on competencies. The second part evaluates the outcomes of the survey carried out, and also summarizes the basic steps of the application of competencies. The final part summarizes the benefits and difficulties of applying the competency-based approach as a tool of efficient management of organizations for the purpose of achieving a competitive advantage.

ABSTRACT. Shortage of qualified staff and constant struggle for talents along with the retention of most valuable employees belong to the hottest personnel issues for the majority of organizations nowadays. HR marketing can significantly help in these areas. Within HR marketing human resources officers become those marketers who strive to keep their organization's name in the minds of all stakeholders, thus drawing their attention to organization's qualities as an employer, and in such a way winning by taking care of the most talented employees. The aim of this paper is to determine and evaluate the benefits resulting from employer branding and also to identify the trends conducive to the strengthening of an employer's brand. The data were obtained using a questionnaire survey (n = 492) in the selected Czech organizations. The results show that employer branding is an important element in all economic sectors and businesses can build their brands by focusing primarily on the stability of their current employees, their continuous development and their retaining of the most valuable knowledge. The article focuses on new strategic trends in building employer's good brand and attracting the most knowledgable workers. JEL Classification: M12, M14, M54

STACHO ZDENKO, URBANCOVÁ HANA, STACHOVÁ KATARÍNA: Organisational arrangement of human resources management in organisations operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 2013, LXI, No. 7, pp. 2787-2799 A necessary condition of eff ective functioning of human resources management in an organisation is the creation of adequate organisational conditions including the existence of a human resources management department, its size, composition and responsibility, which are formed following particular conditions of the given organisation. Competitive environment of organisations operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic is growing with the process of world economy globalisation, and it brings the need of fl exibility in management, and therefore we have to get used to changes also in the sphere of human resources management, and learn to cope with new impulses and situations. At present, that predominantly includes spreading eff ects of global fi nancial and economic crisis, infl uencing all spheres of life in Slovakia and in Czech Republic too. Handling this situation presupposes fl exibility in assessment of changes in environment where organisations operate, ability to detect all positive as well as negative impacts and situations, and formulation of measures to enhance their own position sensibly and cautiously. Due to the need of focusing of organisations on comprehensive arrangement of human resources management, in questionnaire researches, we focused on fi nding out whether and to what extent organisations operating in Slovakia (n = 340) and in Czech Republic (n = 109) focus on human resources management arrangement. The objective of the article is to compare results in the sphere of human resources in organisations operating in Slovak and Czech Republics. The results show that 67% organisations in Slovakia and only 43% in the Czech Republic had a human resources management department which realised followed human resources management functions and personnel strategy.human resources management, outsourcing of personnel activities, organisational strategy, functional strategies, human resources management departments, organisations operating in Slovakia Workforce in organisations is most signifi cantly infl uenced by how the department of human resources management, personnel department, personnel professional, respectively employee responsible for human resources management can fulfi l two key tasks, in particular (Kachaňáková et al., 2012):• securing necessary number of employees in required professional and qualifi cation structure and in dynamic accordance with strategic goals of the organisation,• coordination of employee behaviour with strategic goals of the organisation. Eff ective fulfi lment of these tasks requires a broad range of various activities identifi ed as human resources management functions. Objective of systematic management of these functions is to secure optimal usage of human potential and investment potential inv...

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Sustainable development is a concept that is constantly evolving, being discussed at the global, national, and local levels, not only among individuals but also within organisations. However, the importance of this concept lies in its complexity. The article's main goal is to identify the approaches of selected Czech companies to promote the concept of sustainable development and evaluate the basic factors that impact competitiveness. The data were obtained based on quantitative research (questionnaire survey of data collection) in selected organisations (n = 179) and additional qualitative research in the form of individual interviews with representatives of agricultural enterprises (n = 8). Data were processed using chi-square tests and factor analysis to identify latent variables. Key approaches to promoting the concept of sustainable development include an emphasis on process approach, non-financial business performance, and sector stability. The basic factors for competitiveness are quality relationships with stakeholders and the implementation of an integrated management system.

Trends in the job market taking worker knowledge, abilities and skills into account show that the demand for qualifi ed, experienced workers has been rising and that the trend will continue into the future. Accordingly, companies must put a life-long learning and development strategy in place so that even older employees (55+), the proportion of whom has been rising in organizations and in the marketplace, may maintain their positions in the job market for as long as possible. This paper aims to assess how small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic refl ect current demographic developments in terms of age management support and employee development. The data was obtained from small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic (n = 432). The results show that age management is not an offi cial primary focus of small and medium enterprises; but they naturally act in line with age management practices nevertheless. Any effi cient solution to demographic development in the enterprises studied here, however, must be based upon an overall change of attitude coming from both entrepreneurs and company leadership focusing on young employees, as well as older employees themselves, where their ability to pass on their experience to younger coworkers is stressed. To maintain economic prosperity, continuous development is important for both categories.

Primary sector, especially agricultural companies, have long been struggling with labour shortages and demographic trends as well as with negative age structure of employees. The article, therefore, aims to identify the organisational benefits and strategies of human resource management that will help ensure a generational change in selected agricultural companies in primary sectors. The data was obtained on the basis of quantitative research in 136 companies operating in the primary sector according to the CZ-NACE methodology. More than 75% of the enterprises assessed do not apply age management, the biggest obstacle being staffing shortage in the area of age management. The respondents see the main benefits in retaining key employees, improving motivation, increasing performance, and improving organisational climate. The article is limited by its focus on the specific primary sector, nevertheless, this topic is very important in its focus on Common Agricultural Policy at the level of individual companies in all countries of the European Union.