This study combines two main challenges for organizations today, as it examines the alignment between personal values of future leaders and the values needed in the Industry 4.0 workplace. Based on the movement of the organizational environment toward a more multidisciplinary, open, collaborative and multicultural environment, we presuppose that the Industry 4.0 workplace requires a more benevolent, universally oriented and generally self-transcended leaders. Drawing upon Schwartz’s value theory, we examine the impact of Generations Y and Z’s personal values on their leadership inclination. The results from the survey of 371 young participants from Generations Y and Z reveal that self-enhancement (i.e., power and achievement), openness to change and conservation values most significantly affect leadership inclination. Meanwhile, benevolence, universalism and general self-transcendence values—cornerstones of the Industry 4.0 workplace—show negative effects on leadership inclination in the frame of the Industry 4.0 workplace. This indicates a poor fit between the values of future leaders and the values of the Industry 4.0 workplace. These findings have significant implications for human resource management in future organizations and contribute to the understanding of future leaders. In addition, the findings can help organizations to manage sustainable workings in an Industry 4.0 environment.

The main purpose of this study is to examine how the use of management tools supports the readiness of manufacturing organizations for the implementation of Industry 4.0. The originality of the research is reflected in the exploration of the relationship between the use of the selected well-known management tools and their readiness for the implementation of Industry 4.0, which was assessed using a combination of two models—one developed by the National Academy of Science and Engineering (Acatech) and the other by the University of Warwick. The relationship was assessed by applying structural equation modeling techniques to a data set of 323 responses from employees in manufacturing organizations. The results show that the use of six sigma, total quality management, radio frequency identification, a balanced scorecard, rapid prototyping, customer segmentation, mission and vision statements, and digital transformation is positively associated with Industry 4.0 readiness. Inversely, outsourcing and strategic planning are negatively associated with Industry 4.0 readiness, while lean manufacturing, which is often emphasized as the cornerstone of Industry 4.0 implementation, is not associated with Industry 4.0 readiness in our study. These findings can help organizations to understand how to consider and measure readiness for the implementation of Industry 4.0 more comprehensively and present guidelines on how the use of management tools in manufacturing organizations can foster their implementation of Industry 4.0 principles.

The main purpose of this study was to examine the influence of leaders’ personal values on their democratic behavior from a sustainability perspective. We specified and tested the research model, drawing upon modified versions of the theory of basic values and the autocratic–democratic leadership continuum. A total of 208 Slovenian and 196 Austrian leaders’ responses were used in hierarchical regression and structural equation modeling analysis. The results reveal a significant and positive influence of collectivistic values in both samples on democratic leadership behavior. A significant and negative effect of individualistic values on democratic leadership behavior is present in Austria, while in Slovenia, the effect is positive but not significant. Based on acknowledged associations between leader’s values, leaders’ democratic leadership behavior, and sustainable development, we argue that democratic leadership behavior contributes to the sustainable working and behavior of organizations. These results have theoretical implications, indicating how personal values affect leaders’ democratic behavior and contribute to the sustainable working and behavior of organizations. The practical implications relate to the strengthening of leaders’ democratic behavior in Slovenian and Austrian organizations. In addition, these findings will be helpful in increasing the sustainability of organizations via fostering democratic leadership behavior and its underlying personal values.

The paper analyses the environmental Kuznets curve relationship between greenhouse gases and chosen indicators of economic development based on the panel data of 20 countries of the EU in the period 2006–2013. Besides the typical variables, such as the share of a particular polluting industry, environmental taxes, energy taxes, research and development, the dummy variable of the crises and enterprise’s sustainability score were also included in the model. The fixed effect panel model was used as a framework for the analysis. The original contribution of this paper is that the factor referring to the enterprises’ sustainability was empirically tested in the expanded model. Higher energy taxes, research and development and the number of sustainable enterprises decrease the level of greenhouse gases. The size of agriculture, production and construction has a positive sign, which means that a higher value of the indicator is associated with a higher level of greenhouse gases. This implies that the analysed set of factors can be applied to adjust the trend in the region and might be useful for the climate change policy adjustment.

The main purpose of this paper is to develop a framework for utilization of lean, agile, and leagile strategies in the supply chains, where the core idea of the framework is to improve the global sourcing practices. Based on in-depth interviews with supply chain professionals and grounded theory approach, we constructed a framework of global sourcing improvement to support better utilization of lean, agile, and leagile strategies, which we believe can help the supply chains worldwide to act better, especially in various difficult conditions and sustain their business accordingly. Our proposed framework also contributes to the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals, since the core concept of the framework is to establish a new organization under the umbrella of the UN to improve the global sourcing and consequently the usage of supply chain strategies accordingly. The applicative part of the paper reveals characteristics of new developed framework, ranging from its purpose and aims, structure, key processes, functions, and its financing. Along with validation of the framework are presented benefits for society, industry, and global economy. Additionally, the paper also reviews the impact of the current health and economic crisis caused by COVID 19, on usage of the three supply chain strategies namely; lean, agility, and leagility to see how they can work in the difficult time, as COVID 19.