THE COMOR PROJECT – A MULTI-CRITERIA

RESEARCH OF ORGANIZATIONAL CULTURE

IN ROMANIA
Constantin ROȘCA
University of Craiova
Nicolae ISTUDOR
Academy of Economic Studies
Nicolae SICHIGEA
University of Craiova
Email: [email protected]

Abstract:
Representing an experiment of the Scientific Society of Management in
Romania, conducted together with the Association of Faculties of Economics,
Romania, the COMOR project 1 studies in an analytical manner the many
forms of expression of organizational behaviors - generally - and of
managerial ones- in particular through the value judgments of a broad
spectrum of respondents (7655 managers and non-managers, males and
females, young and elderly people, with higher and secondary education,
managers and employees, with or without institutionalized managerial
training) working in 594 companies from all areas of economic activity
(according to the NACE code 2) of the Romanian counties and who expressed
their views in two situational aspects (according to the evaluations of current
situation - on the one hand, and - in parallel –according to a prognosis desired
by the respondents, on the other hand).
With proper development, the paper presents the arguments that justify the
authors' scientific approach, the research features and structures of
representativeness of the respondents.

1. Introduction
Like the corporate culture, the organizational culture is the result of a long term
interaction between its members, assuming internal links of interrelation well defined
between its components: language, traditions, rituals, group norms, principles and
values, official philosophy, game rules, work climate (resonant or dissonant), thinking
patterns, symbols impregnated in material elements etc., elements that confer their
own unmistakable personality traits in relation to other cultures.
The studies and researches conducted by international specialists, but also by
numerous Romanian authors offer compelling arguments in favour of intercultural
approach of knowledge in the field.

1
COMOR – Managerial behaviour in organizations in Romania
2
NACE-Classification of National Economic Activities
8 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

The major changes taking place in the global economy of the 21st century,
specific to the informational society, a society based on knowledge, lead to the raise
of economic interdependencies of countries worldwide through increasing volume
and variety of transactions of goods and services across borders, international cash
flows freer and faster and a wider diffusion of technology", manifesting itself in the
form of four types of freedom of the contemporary world in the movement of goods,
persons, capital and technology. In this context, the economic organizations, far from
enhancing their own cultures that differentiate them from each other, tend towards
cultural convergence focused on macroeconomic issues, given the particular
structure and technology of organizations, without eliminating the people behaviour,
a minimum requirement, from the success equation but absolutely necessary for
survival and organizational success.
The Romanian economy, which, after more than a quarter of century, after the
1989 revolution, seeks the most suitable ways and solutions to build a free market
economy, the "cultural sensitivity" - as Gh. Gh. Ionescu calls it - becomes a major
factor for:
- a strategic perspective, which is becoming global, with multiple simultaneous
paths which are used in changing contextual market situations;
- an internal cooperation relation (between managers and employees) and a
wide cooperation with customers, suppliers, stakeholders outside the organization.
Focused on researching the organizational behaviour, the COMOR project
studies various behavioural variables (forms of expression) of respondents in the
Romanian economic organizations, to get to know and develop, on the one hand,
those national specificities that remain and have grown further, and on the other
hand to identify other ways to improve those behaviours that alters one or another
part of the cultural dimensions of organizations at inter-regional or national level.
This paper, which is an experiment of SSMAR, aims at identifying peculiarities
in the Romanian organizational culture and management behaviour through
benchmarking models of Hofstede and GLOBE, and it does not discuss a new topic.
The organizational culture is one of the topics which enjoy a major concern by the
socio-economic theory and practice worldwide, being widely researched, developed
and debated in the scientific world. The analytical approach by researching the
multiple forms of expression of organizational behaviours- generally - and
managerial ones- in particular, investigated in terms of value judgments of a broad
spectrum of respondents (managers and non-managers, Males and females, young
and old people, with higher and secondary education) working in companies in all
areas of the economic activity (according to the NACE code) of the Romanian
counties and who expressed their views in two situational aspects (according to the
evaluations of the current situation, on the one hand and - in parallel - according to
the prognosis desired by respondents, on the other hand), is the novelty that this
paper brings in the scientific and the economic environment in Romania and abroad.
The research of organizational culture in Romania is a scientific argument for
reconsideration of cultural elements, as drivers of the management process. The
study of the economic organizations in Romania highlights cultural particularities of
this geographical area, allowing inter-regional and national and other regions of the
world comparison, formulating relevant conclusions for the management systems,
having the purpose:
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 9

- to remove the prejudgement of the existence of a "good model" in

management and organization;
- to give managers a better understanding of their own cultural organization and
of cultural differences, in general;
- to urge managers to recognize and address the organizational culture in the
context of contemporary business;
- to suggest to managers some cultural insights in the context of the dilemmas
that the Romanian organizations face in the extensive process of globalization;
- to help managers to see in organizational culture - in general - and in the
management - in particular a policy instrument which, although difficult to define,
covers a complex reality with vague contours, being irreplaceable and extremely
delicate to manage.
Highlighting the systems of symbols, traditions, rituals, values and behavioural
norms shared in the studied organizations, but also of the way of thinking and action,
the procedures for internal integration and adaptation to the external environment,
are important milestones for researchers and practitioners, policy makers, investors
and the public. The culture study supports theoretically and practically the relevant
organizations, aware of the influence of values on organizational life. Practically, all
processes in the organization are influenced sensitively - in terms of content and
modalities of development – by cultural entity as organizational culture is directing
efforts towards the stated objectives, develops motivation of employees for the
expected performances, provide the structure and mechanisms which coordinates
employees’ efforts without having too many formal rules and procedures.
Similar to the national culture, the organizational culture has strong roots
developed in history; it has myths, heroes and symbols that evolve around the values
inherited by organization from previous generations, creating a kind of collective
subconscious and influencing critically the ability of the system to change.
Referring to the common identity of national and organizational culture, the
Dutch Professor Geert Hofstede concludes that each national culture, defined by
values, supports organizational cultures, defined by practices (our emphasis).
This was the impetus that instilled us not only the curiosity, but mostly the need of
knowing and disseminating the cultural specificities of the economic organizations of
our country to help improve management practices, aiming at the understanding of
intercultural communication.
The bivalent approach - regional and by sector - enables the multidimensional
analysis, in a trans-cultural view of the major role that the human factor - in general
and its behaviour (organizational and managerial) - in particular, from different types
of economic activities (agriculture, industry, trade, transport, construction, services,
etc.), and the cultural sub-national entities have for durable and sustainable
development of the Romanian society as an entity.
10 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

2. Characteristics of the research

The COMOR project develops and complements the previous researches in
Romania 3 through a comprehensive national application, presented as an
aggregated study of the organizational structures in terms of sectors (areas of
economic activity); territory (counties, development regions, national economy);
employment in the organizational hierarchy (managers and non-managers);
demographic and educational structures (male-female; age; level of education and
training; management training).
Thus, overall, the research findings are based on the 7655 respondents’
opinions from 594 economic companies with a sectoral and an inter-regional
distribution, shown in table 1.
So from the beginning, the COMOR research has two essential characteristics:
- It is comprehensive in order to investigate all the economic sectors and all
development regions of Romania;
- It is representative due to the large number of respondents who work in all
fields and across the country, which gives it a high degree of confidence in the
assessments made for defining cultural dimensions expressed by specific
organizational behaviours.

3. The representativeness of respondents

The gender of respondents (male-female), their age on age groups, the
education level (secondary or higher education), the occupational status of
organizational structures (managers or non-managers), the level of managerial
training of employees - generally but also of those who hold management positions-
in particular, constitute the main factors which imprints its bipolar mark on the
expressed value judgments (pro, against or abstentions) on various aspects of the
expression forms of cultural dimensions.
3.1. The gender and age of the respondents
The expressed opinions (pro, against or abstentions) on issues or concrete
forms of manifestation of the investigated organizational behaviours, are marked by
traits of temperament or attitudes, professional and life skills of respondents, i.e. the
psychological or moral profile of them. Amid innate skills of the individual, his moral
profile is formed based on education and experience, i.e. acquisition due to the
environment as a result of its integration in the socio-professional relations system

3
In 1997-1998, CEMAT SA, under the management of Professor Cezar Mereuţă, organized
a survey formed of 2,041 people in 25 companies; in 2004, Professor Olimpia State shows
the experience of a hotel unit, based on opinions expressed by a number of 105 respondents;
in 2005, Interact Training Company in Bucharest, Romania with The Gallup Organization
Romania, published a study that shows a new perspective on the evolution of the business
environment in Romania; in 2006-2007, GLOBE Romania runs an organizational
behaviour research in agri-food industry, financial services and telecommunications
services, based on a random sampling; in 2008, the Gallup consulting firm published the
results of a research conducted in 125 organizations; in 2011, Angelica-Nicoleta Onea
through her doctoral thesis proposes solving atypical problems of valuing of cultural
elements with regional specificity.
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 11

(family, school, organization, society, i.e. the socio-professional group of affiliation in

its various existential situations) (Didier, 1998).

Table 1
The COMOR sample distribution from sectoral and regional perspective
No. Areas of Companies Economic development regions Total
economic North -South -South South West North Centre Bucharest Romani
activity East East -West -West -Ilfov a
Respon-
dents
1. Agricult Compa- 3 7 11 4 8 7 5 5 50
ure and nies
Forestry Respon- 45 67 114 30 100 93 59 46 554
dents
2. Industry Compa- 18 37 42 28 41 38 38 22 264
and nies
Energy Respond 285 475 578 542 642 378 591 303 3794
ents
3. Constr- Compa- 11 8 12 12 3 13 6 15 80
uctions nies
Respon- 150 71 110 194 40 99 54 243 961
dents
4. Trade Compa- 11 15 10 10 4 16 6 16 88
nies
Respon- 163 147 104 99 41 117 77 226 974
dents
5. Trans- Compa- - 5 5 1 2 5 3 2 23
port nies
Respon- - 61 61 10 23 51 46 29 281
dents
6. Tourism Compa- 2 4 2 2 3 5 4 - 22
nies
Respon- 30 34 16 18 35 45 27 - 205
dents
7. Services Compa- 6 8 6 13 6 11 4 13 67
nies
Respon- 90 75 51 193 50 113 54 260 886
dents
TOTAL Compa- 51 84 88 70 67 95 66 73 594
nies
Respon 763 930 1034 1086 931 896 908 1107 7655
dents

The history, as the free and careful observation of organizational practices offer
us many examples showing that, in terms of temperament, men - in general - are
more alert, more energetic, more impulsive and dominant, more unscrupulous, more
realistic and cynical, they know better to exploit situations of life for their benefit,
therefore, they are - in general - less choleric and sanguine than women. Thus, the
organizational behaviour of the studied companies is underlined through all opinions
expressed by men and women, respondents with different temperaments (choleric,
phlegmatic, sanguine, melancholic).
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Thus, the male respondents prevail in the research with 4130 persons,
representing 54 % of the total sample of 7,655 respondents, while females are 3,525
persons, representing only 46 %. The high number of male respondents in
compariosn to the female ones is observed in six development regions (Bucharest-
Ilfov, South Muntenia, West, South-East, Centre and North-East), while in the South-
West Oltenia and North-West, the number of female respondents is higher than the
number of male respondents.
The young people (aged under 30 years) as people on the verge of adulthood,
are entry level in their professional career and family life. During this period, they
seek their own way that will evolve throughout their working lives. Besides
physiological needs (food, shelter) and safety ones (personal security, stability,
structured and ordered environment and release of anxiety), as defined by Maslow,
the youth manifests strongly the need of belonging to the organizational group where
they seek acceptance, affection, companionship, friendship. The main expectations
from the organization refers to job security, minimum wages, safe working
conditions, rules and clear work procedures, inter-networking opportunities at work
– within a team or within other forms of work organization.
Being entry level, young people in this age group represent 24 % of the
research sample.
In the adulthood (between 30 and 44 years), having already made a choice on
an identified and desired path, persons live the feeling of high self-confidence,
paying great attention to the needs of esteem (respect, status in the organizational
hierarchy, recognition from others in the group). The expectations from the
organization side refer to the recognition of professional competence, promotion in
prestigious positions, awards and other means of reward.
The 3625 respondents in this age group, accounting for almost half of the
research sample (47.4 % of the total of 7655) are persons who, professionally, have
confidence, whether they are managers or employees, male or female, they fully
show their competence in their field, they have a corresponding occupational status
according to the recognition of professional and human qualities that they possess.
The persons in the third group (aged over 45 years) manifest a particular
concern for the needs of self-realization. The COMOR research shows two stages:
- The first phase is the period of full manifestation of career in which the
individual reaches his full potential, by aspiring for advancement in the upper
organizational hierarchy, or by maintaining the current position through continuous
training (courses) to strengthen the good professional reputation;
- The second stage (usually after 60 years old), representing the top of
adulthood, is specific to the gradual detachment from the career when the individual
is preparing to withdraw from its professional life by retirement.
This group is formed of 2191 respondents, representing 28.6 % of the research
sample.
The three age groups - with different personal needs and professional
aspirations, perceive the variables of organizational behaviour in their own way,
expressing their opinions in relation to specific interests, which allow us, through
aggregation, to obtain a correct characterization of the investigated dimension of the
organizational culture: individualism or collectivism; low or high power distance;
increased or reduced uncertainty avoidance; masculinity or femininity; short or long
term orientation.
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Proportionally, the youngest respondents in the sample are from the North -
West (30.1 %), Centre (26.4 %), and the eldest from the South-West Oltenia and
North-East.
3.2. Respondents gender and education level
The level of education of the respondents (with secondary or higher education)
reflects the degree of mastery and ability to properly interpret the two situations of the
research (evaluation of the current practice or prognosis of the desired practice) of
different variables or concrete expressions of manifestation of the organizational
behavior, accounting for specific and/or concrete terms that define, finally, the various
components of the five cultural dimensions that are already mentioned.
The two categories of respondents have different approaches to the broad
spectrum of investigated issues: people who have higher education relate and interpret
various forms of expression of organizational behaviour through the attributes of the
management process (planning, organization, decision making, training and control-
assessment) with focus on ensuring sustainable development of the organization,
while people who do not have this high level of education, address them globally,
without perceiving and interpreting them in the light of distinct components (planning,
control, etc.) and with various implications on the activities finalities.
If the respondents with higher education answer unequivocally (with pros and
cons) about issues that relate to the creation in the organization of a "culture of
learning", concept emerged as a necessity of the continuous training process
throughout working life of the employees, or in terms of adaptation or modification of
the content of the components of organizational culture that, in the globalized
context, the organization should meet the needs of European integration - and not
only, the majority of respondents with secondary education refrain from expressing
opinions. And the examples could continue.
The processed data analysis shows that the higest percentage belongs to
respondents with higher education (71.3%), while the persons with secondary
education represent only 28.7%. Above the national average of respondents with
higher education, there are the respondents from the regions: South-West Oltenia,
South-East, Bucharest-Ilfov, Centre; North-West.
In terms of respondents with secondary education, the respondents from the
North-East region with a share of 54%, South Muntenia and West with shares of
29.5% and 29%, have higher percentages than the average national level of 28.7%.
In terms of the gender structure at national level, the male respondents are the
majority both in secondary education (58.3%) and in higher education (52.2%).
Geographically, the highest percentage of males - for respondents with secondary
education – is in the West, South Muntenia, South-East, North-East and Bucharest-
Ilfov regions. Regarding the higher education, the share of 52.2% at national level is
exceeded in the regions: North-East, West, South-East and Bucharest-Ilfov.
Being a minority both for secondary education, 41.7% and higher education
(47.8%), the share of female respondents is higher than that of male respondents in
the regions: North-West for higher education and South-West Oltenia for secondary
and higher education.
14 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

3.3. Occupational status and gender of respondents

In terms of occupational status, the human resources of any organization are
grouped in managers and employees.
As the occupational status of respondents implies certain responsibilities which
arise logically from the role of each category (managers or non-managers) in
accordance with the tasks set by internal regulations on functions and positions, the
perception of different manifestations of the organizational behaviour is different
reflecting in a high or low extent, the promotion or defending the interests of the held
position. The employment status of the respondents as a factor that determines
different perceptions on organizational culture variables, involve also the
temperamental and behaviour traits of individuals - whether managers or employees,
and the experiences within and beyond the organization to which they belong. So,
for example, managers - on one side - and employees – on the other side - have
different approaches to several investigated issues, such as:
a) Democratization of decision-making, by acceptance or not of collaboration
and consultation at the stage of substantiation and, respectively, of growing or not
the consensus in the phase of choices of solutions, ranges the respondents on
different positions:
- Managers – the most interested actors to adopt the most appropriate decisions
to ensure the steady and upward development of the business, sometimes due to their
temperament or behaviour are more reserved in expressing the positive views;
- Employees, however, especially the specialists, based on the negative
experiences of some management decisions at different levels of the organizational
hierarchy, consider they are justified and responsible to be part of the decision process;
b) stringency in organization, evidenced by the development of standards and
performance indicators or by specifying tasks and work procedures in the job
description, is considered necessary by managers, but excessive by employees;
c) frequent adaptation of the style and methods of management to the
organizational dynamic (change), it is harder accepted by managers used with a
routine, but is regarded as absolutely necessary by young managers, but also by
employees;
d) discrimination by sex, age, relative degree etc. at hiring, remuneration,
rewards, continuous training, promotion to management positions and so forth, is
hardly accepted by employees and sometimes tolerated by those who lead.
The structural analysis records that more than half of the sample (56.2%) is
represented by managers and only 43.8% of respondents are employees.
In terms of managers, above the average in the country there are the following
regions: North-West, Bucharest-Ilfov, South-Muntenia, South-East and Centre,
South-West Oltenia and North-East are below this average.
In terms of respondents gender, the male respondents have higher percentage
in comparison to the female respondents, both in the whole research and in the
development regions.
3.4. Structures of the sample of managers
3.4.1. Managerial hierarchy
The organization's hierarchy has three levels of leadership that in a graphic
form look like the pyramid of managers: managers at the top of the hierarchy (top
managers), those in the middle (middle managers) and those at the low level (first
line supervisors or managers).
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 15

The top managers are the strategic management of the organization, who
establish the strategy, objectives and organization policies and long-term decisions
related to all this, such as: business development through the creation of new
capacities, penetrating new markets, retehnologization, modernization of
organization etc.
In this research, the top managers are represented by 570 respondents,
representing 13.2 % of the total sample of 4304 managers.
The most managers in this category come from the regions: North-West, South-
East, Bucharest-Ilfov, South-West Oltenia. The few managers at the top of the
organizational hierarchy come from the regions: North-East, West, Centre, South
Muntenia.
The middle level managers form the tactical management of the company, i.e.
those dealing with planning, command and control of activities. They coordinate one
or more compartments of the complex work, implementing plans that are consistent
with the overall objectives of the company. This category includes 1622 respondents,
representing 37.7 % of the total of 4304. In descending order, the contribution of the
8 regions is as follows: Bucharest-Ilfov, South Muntenia, North-West, West, Centre,
South-East, South-West Oltenia, North-East.
The first line managers or supervisors are operative managers who lead and
support the executives, they take operative decisions (on short term), in a single
organizational structure (a single structural component, a compartment: office,
project, lab, team). The respondents in this category represent nearly half of all
manager respondents (49.1 %). Proportionally to the number of managers in each
region, the most supervisors respondents come from the regions: North-East, West
and South-West Oltenia. Below the average of 49.1 % of the research, there are the
regions: Centre, South Muntenia, South-East, Bucharest-Ilfov and North-West.
3.4.2. The gender of the managers respondents
The main conclusions drawn from the analysis of the processed data at national
level are:
(1) More than half (57.8) of the 4304 managers respondents are males (2486)
and only 42.2 % (1818) are females.
Comparing by gender the structure of the entire sample of 7655 respondents,
it is shown that the proportion of male- managers exceeds with 3.8 percentage that
of males in the sample (57.8 % -54 %), while the share of female manager is lower
than the percentage of women in the sample with the same difference of 3.8%.
(2) In each development region, the male managers-respondents are more
numerous than the female manager respondents.
(3) Compared to the average share of the two genders of manager respondents
(male-female), at regional level, the position of the eight development regions is
situated as follows:
• The male managers, above the average of 57.8 % of the sample are in the
regions: West, North-East, Centre and South Muntenia.
The regions: Bucharest-Ilfov, North-West, South-East, South-West Oltenia are
below the average share in the research.
• At the opposite level, the percentage of female managers is above the sample
average of 42.2 % in the regions: South-West Oltenia, South-East, North-West and
Bucharest-Ilfov.
16 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

The regions: South Muntenia, Southeast, Centre, Northeast, West are below
the sample average share of 42.2 %.
(4) Among the top managers, the male respondents represent 65.8 %, while
the share of female top manager is only of 34.2 %.
(5) In the middle level management, the male-respondents are over
represented in the regions: Centre, West, South-West Oltenia, South Muntenia,
North-East.
The females hold the majority share among the middle managers in the
regions: North-West, South-East and Bucharest-Ilfov.
(6) The supervisors respondents who conduct directly the work processes
within organizations are in this research - males, a rate of 60.6 %, and females, in
a proportion of 39.4 %.
3.4.3. The managers’ age
In terms of age, 52 % are managers respondents, the respondents in this
research are between 30 and 44 years (52 %), followed by those in the age group
over 44 years (39.5 %), and young people aged under 30 years (8.5 %).
As a general trend, the groups’ percentages in the three age categories of the
research are maintained across all development regions, with differences that do not
have a special significance on defining the dimensions of organizational culture.
3.5. The management training of respondents
Since its origins, the management - regardless of the field - is based on the
ante facto (ex ante) finding of the qualities of the future manager (regardless of the
level and position to which / on which he will be located) and not on the post-factum
finding, when he is dismissed for mismanagement after destroying - equally – the
heritage (material and/or financial one) of billion lei of the organization, the career of
thousands of employees and their families.
Developed as a science in the early 20th century, the concept of management
has penetrated and has imposed in the economic sphere after the appearance in
1941 of James Burnham's work "The Managerial Revolution," published in New
York. In the author's conception, managers are a socio-professional category in
which individuals are endowed with the ability to organize a company in an innovative
and expansionist way. He drew attention to the multiple qualities of true manager
with a focus on dynamism, openness to knowledge, communication and adaptability,
which translates into three-dimensional significance of management that is treated
as a science, art and state of mind (Burnham, 2010).
Corroborating the respondents’ contribution to defining the dimensions of
organizational culture with their gender, age, type and level of education, personality
traits and behaviour, the COMOR research has focused its investigation on the
competence of managers, gained and proven through knowledge of management.
3.5.1. The triple significance of management
Management as science
Summarizing the many definitions that the literature offers to the management
as a science, we can note that:
- Management is treated as an instrument through which the organization can
be run profitably;
- Management tasks (planning, organizing, decision, training and control) are
geared towards the goals of the organization;
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 17

- the management process is based on the general requirements of applied

sciences, on a continuous process of development of sciences in the field, on
observing strictly the organization and conduct of activities, on the systematic and
responsible analysis of the successes and failures;
- the behaviour of the management teams, the team work, and change as a
promoter of progress within organizations by adopting new, medium and long term
provisions etc. represent the research variables defining for the dimensions of the
organizational culture.
"Using its own methodology of investigation, the management as a science,
capture information on process management and behaviour of management teams,
which are submitted to special procedures of analysis and synthesis in order to
validate the positive experience in the field, to perfect the existing management
methods and techniques and to add new ones" (Rosca, 2003).
Another definition, which belongs to Professor Ion Petrescu and that is reflected
to a large extent in the COMOR research shows that management is represented by
"all the activities, subjects, methods, techniques that encompass the tasks of
leadership, management, administration and organization of businesses and aims
that through taking the optimal decisions in projection and adjustment of business
processes to involve the entire team of employees and to undertake and work
profitably, to organize capable changes of providing a strong and effective future on
the economic and social plan” (Petrescu, 1991).
Management as art
Interpreted as art, the management is based on the personality of the manager,
on his ability to behave with people, employees, and business partners. In Mircea
Malita view, the management appears as occupation, as skill that differs according
to experience, vocation, talent or manager skill, mentioning that "Management is an
old art, as most human pursuits were firstly arts. As time passes, the medieval arts
turned into science and intuition, vocation, talents were gradually substituted with
well elaborated rules and techniques". In the same interpretation, Doina Rosca
believes that "the elements that define management as art are expressed through:
- The personal capacity of the manager to ensure the profitability of
the organization he leads;
- Managerial responsibility for guiding objectives, allocation and
utilization of company’s resources to achieve the best possible results;
- the organization of his own staff in order to obtain the best possible
productivity, taking into account the aspirations of employees and serving
the social function of the company” (Rosca, 2003).
Addressing the management, both as art and as a science, with legitimacies,
object and its principles, the American Management Association believes that the
management involves:
- "to get results through others, assuming responsibilities for these results;
- Be oriented towards environment;
- To make decisions on business purpose;
- Trust in subordinates, empowering them the responsibilities for the outcomes
that are to be achieved, recognizing their ability to make mistakes and to receive
favourably their initiatives;
- To decentralize the organizational system and appreciate the people
according to the results (Nica and Panaite, 1994)
18 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

The management as art emphasizes the pragmatic side of it and relies primarily
on native skills and then on those acquired through both scientific knowledge in the
field and on the managerial experience.
Therefore, the management as art is based on the ability of the leader to exploit
the skills he applies to the realities of the organization in terms of efficiency.
Management as state of mind (Rosca, 2010; Rosca, 2003)
The state of mind specific to management is reflected in the way of looking at
the managerial phenomenon, addressing issues in an optimistic-constructive
manner in order to want, seek, accept and implement progress, meaning that the
manager directs its specific activities on three main areas: exercise of the scientific
management attributes; human resources management; external relations.
The content of management attributes (features) determines the management
state of mind through:
- planning, attribute that scrutinizes the future, determining the organization's
mission or raison d'être and its strategic and tactical objectives;
- organization, which it is associated always with the order, establishing links
between people and things, the rules by which the work processes are conducted,
with the content of resources allocation and coordination of the organization to meet
the established plans;
- the decision is the fundamental attribute of management, which allows
maintaining the balance of the entire organizational system in all its structural
components and at all levels of the management pyramid. In order to achieve the
set of objectives, the decision is based on adequate information enabling to choose
an action from several possible elements. In a market economy, often the difference
between a very good decision and a good one is measured in tens and hundreds of
millions of Euros, which may have on medium or long term, the existential effects
that are most undesirable for the entire organization;
- the training - means the process by which an employee empowers its
collaborators through motivation to participate actively and effectively to the
implementation of the given orders. It involves knowing and taking into consideration
the employees psychology, personality traits and character, needs and aspirations,
ensuring the motivation and their effective integration. The training requires: a high
motivation of employees; clarity and brevity in formulating the management
provisions; optimal argumentation of the optimal action; realism in formulating the
objectives, allocate resources and milestones; balance the responsibility with the
entrusted authority; equitable distribution of tasks and responsibilities; give a wide
initiatives in action, according to the established procedures; achieving a suitable
information system, adapting the style and methods of management to the nature
and specificities of each situation;
- the control - is that attribute of management which allows the adjustment of
the organization activity so that everything fits the scenario, to a set of rules and
given orders. For any manager, regardless of the hierarchical stage, the control
should allow him: to verify if what he decided finds its application in practice; if
decisions were timely and fairly communicated, without distortions, through
appropriate provisions, if they were properly understood and assimilated correctly by
employees and if they have been properly applied; to know the deviations from the
objectives, the nature of these deviations and what caused them. The purpose of
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 19

control is that based on these elements of knowledge, appropriate corrective

measures can be taken.
3.5.2. Professional competency. Managerial competence (Roșca, 2013;
Roșca, 1997; Didier, 1998; Nicolescu and Ilieș, 2011; Sărățean, 2003; Mic
dicționar encicpledic, 1986)
As an element of the human personality, the professional competence
involves the analysis and synthesis ability, responsibility and critical discernment,
originality in thinking and action, spirit of initiative and authority on work efficiency,
being opposed to mediocrity. It has two components: granted competence and
intrinsic competence.
Granted competence (authority) is achieved through specialized studies and
defined occupationally by internal regulations of the organization. It is the one which
establishes the relationships necessary to accomplish some assigned duties or
tasks. Intrinsic competence of the person is reflected in the skills, knowledge,
behaviour and experience necessary to exercise the powers or duties in optimum
conditions. The professional behaviour as manifestation of intrinsic competences of
an individual is the externalization of his psychic life in circumstances or conditions
specifically determined by the condition and its social role, by the system of interests,
attitudes and opinions, of concrete situations, independently from which it declares,
from his psychological thoughts and attitudes. Educated in family, school and
organizational environment, the professional conduct is the key factor of psycho-
socio-professional integration and success at work.
The experience in the profession is acquired in the organizational environment
and it is constantly enriched in the active life of a person.
The managerial competence is manifested by exercising the managerial
process attributes (planning, organization, decision making, training-coordination
and control-assessment). It is based on three pillars: skills, knowledge and
behaviours, being present at all levels of the managerial hierarchy.
The most important managerial skills relate to: the ability to decide, ability to
lead the team, the desire to manage, the organizational spirit, the ability to lead
people, the continuous self-training capacity. The continuous education process
(lifelong active) which, in the context of the modern approach to theory and
management practice appears as a necessity sine-qua-non to performance, is the
means by which it ensures the synergistic blending of the three sides of the scientific
management (art, science and state of mind), having the purpose and effect on the
development of managerial skills such as: interpersonal relations, leadership, conflict
resolution, decision drafting, entrepreneurship and introspection.
The second pillar of managerial competence involves supplementing the
professional knowledge in the field of expertise with a series of knowledge of
management, economics, psycho-sociology, law, mathematical and statistical and
general knowledge etc. The nature, volume and content of management knowledge
- complementary to the basic knowledge of the profession - varies depending on the
nature of the organization (agriculture, commerce, industry, education, health etc.),
on the level of the managers in the organizational hierarchy, growing gradually from
supervisors to top managers.
The management behaviour - in addition to the professional behaviour
components outlined above, involves the management component that emphasizes
20 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

the specific skills to see in perspective, to organize, to decide on the allocation and use
of resources, to train and control- assess the conduct of activities and obtained results.
As a specificity of the managers that manifest towards the collaborators and
subordinates in their duties, but also in interpersonal relationships, the management
behaviour is determined by the objectives and tasks that have to be performed, the
specific conditions under which the activities of the organization take place and
under the psycho-socio-professional profile of managers as persons. Reflecting the
work style, the way the managers work with people, the management behaviour is
the main determinant of the psycho-social climate, influencing - positively or
negatively - the mood of the staff in the company.
The managerial competence has a triple meaning, similar to the management,
forming the well-known competence triangle (Fig. 1), consisting of science, art and
state of mind.

Science

State of
Art
mind

Figure 1. The triangle of the management competence

3.5.3. Managers and their training in management

Only 2727 manager-respondents, representing 63.4% of the total of 4304 in the
COMOR research, said they have management studies through institutionalized
forms (Bachelor degrees, training centres, master degrees etc.), 630 respondents
(14.6 %) have acquired managerial training through self-study, and 947 (22%)
exercise this occupation based on intuition, saying they do not have any training in
matters concerning the management of the economic organizations.
An analysis of the managerial training on levels of the organizational hierarchy
shows that only 61.5 % of the top managers-respondents possess management
training through various institutionalized forms (which are empowered to confer
managerial skills through official documents: diplomas, certificates), while more than
a quarter (26.7 %) exercise functions of the highest professional, social and moral
liability without having even the most basic knowledge of management. The question
that every reader can answer is the following: how did they get in such positions,
who has entrusted them to manage huge assets and the fate of thousands of people
and who are soon replaced because of mismanagement?
The managers from the other two hierarchical levels are in similar situations, from
259 manager-respondents who are of the middle level hierarchy, and represent 16 %
of the total 1622. 514 (24.3 %) supervisors say they do not have any training in
management. If one questions the merits of individual study stated by respondents,
Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017 21

we find that a third (36.6 %=14.6 % with training through self-study+ 22 % without
training) of manager respondents (38.5 % of the top of the hierarchy, i.e. 11.8 % + 26.7
%; 31.9 % of the middle management, i.e. 15.9 % + 16 % and 38.9 %, i.e. 14.6 % +
24.3 %, from the low level of the hierarchy) participate in the management of economic
organizations through intuition and "their good leadership sense".
3.5.5. The management training of the employees-respondents
Half of the employees- respondents (representing 49.8% of the total of 3351)
say they have management training (41.2 % through institutionalized forms and 8.6 %
through individual study).

4. Conclusions
The COMOR research results are highly reliable to characterize the specificity
of cultural dimensions in the economic organizations in Romania thanks to its all-
encompassing nature of the multiple viewpoints of the structure of the sample under
study, as follows:
The 594 business organizations are from the following sectors: industry and
energy (44.4 %), trade (14.8 %), construction (13.5 %), services (11.3 %), agriculture
and forestry (8.4 %), transport (3.9 %), tourism (3.7 %).
Accordingly, the 7655 respondents who through their judgment values participated
in defining the dimensions of organizational culture, are at a rate of 49.6 % from industry
and energy, 12.7 % from trade, 12.5 % from constructions, 11.6 % from services, 7.2 %
from agriculture and forestry, 3.7 % from transport and 2.7 % from tourism.
Respondents who participated in the research are:
- Males in a proportion of 54 %, and females in a proportion of 46 %;
- Young people up to 30 years (24 %), adults aged between 30 and 44 years
(47.4 %) and elderly (over 44 years) at a rate of 28.6 %;
- People with higher education (71.3 %) and persons with secondary education
(28.7 %);
- Persons who hold management positions (56.2%, of which 13.2% are top
managers, 37.7 % are middle level managers and 49.1% are supervisors) and
employees (43.8 %).
The managers- respondents are:
- 57.8 % males and 42.2 % females;
- 8.5 % are aged up to 30 years, 52 % aged between 30 and 44 years and 39.5 %
aged 45 years and over; - 63.4 % have management studies through institutionalized
forms, 14.6 % acquired management training through self-study and 22% exercise
this occupation based on intuition.
Management studies through institutionalized forms are possessed by: 61.5 %
of top managers, 68.1 % of middle managers and 75.7 % of supervisors.
Through self-study, 11.8 % of top managers, 16% of middle managers and 14.6 %
of supervisors attained managerial knowledge.
30.5 % of top managers, 16 % of middle managers and 24.3 % of supervisors
occupy managerial positions without any training in the field.
It is noteworthy that 41.2 % of employees possess managerial knowledge
through institutionalized forms.
22 Management&Marketing, volume XV, issue 1/2017

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