Over the last years, there has been a significant increase in interest in sustainable development in higher education institutions, and many have begun to implement sustainable development into their system. Several sustainable development assessment tools have also been developed to help universities systematically measure, monitor, benchmark, communicate, and manage their sustainable development efforts. These efforts have led to mixed results. It seems that one of the main reasons for this situation is the non-systematic and non-holistic approach to implementing sustainable development in universities. Thus, it can be assumed that the implementation of sustainable development in a university should cover all dimensions of its functioning and involve actors within it. Therefore, the aim of this article is to present a tool (inspired by the concept of university sustainability), based on the method of multicriteria rankings, for assessing the factors influencing the implementation of sustainable development in higher education institutions at the level of departments, as relatively autonomous wholes, based on the analysis of departments at one of the leading technical universities in Poland. The proposed tool provides an opportunity for a more holistic view of sustainable development implementation, both by prioritizing factors and by considering that higher education institutions are systems that are, in fact, composed of two distinct but necessarily cooperating subsystems: the academic subsystem and the administrative subsystem. The proposal is preliminary, but it seems that given the relevance and urgency of the sustainable development issue, this is the direction to take in research on sustainable development management in higher education institutions.

The pressure to incorporate sustainability principles and objectives into policies and activities is growing, particularly in project management. A successful project cannot disregard any of the three triple bottom line (TBL) sustainability pillars (economic, social and environmental). Stakeholders representing each of those pillars have to be satisfied to a certain degree in each successful project, even if the way of balancing the three pillars varies depending on project type. Project definition is of primary importance for the proper addressing of stakeholder expectations during the project, and thus for project success. The problem is that project definitions in practice are not written in a way which would guarantee a sufficient degree of project sustainability. However, the hypothesis can be formulated that a systematic analysis and modification of project definition can increase the degree of project sustainability, and thus the degree of project success. That is why we propose here a method of checking and improving existing project definitions in order to improve the chances of project success through increasing the satisfaction of the stakeholders representing the three TBL pillars. The method is based on a careful identification of missing and ambiguous information in a project definition and on correcting it on the basis of TBL stakeholders’ opinions and preferences. These preferences are modelled, wherever possible, by means of fuzzy sets, in order to provide a systematic, formal measurement of sustainability degree in TBL sustainability pillars, represented by project stakeholders. The method’s use and potential advantages are illustrated by means of two real world projects. The initial verification of the method allows us to formulate the hypothesis that analysing and improving project definition may considerably contribute to increasing the sustainability degree of projects, and thus to their success.

Modern approaches to project management link project success both to sustainability and with the value delivered to project stakeholders. In the final analysis, it is the satisfaction of the identified stakeholders based on the sustainability principle which decides whether a project is successful or not. The value delivered to appropriate stakeholders has to be incorporated in the earliest phases of the project defining process. Otherwise, it may be too late to introduce changes which would allow the right value to be delivered to the right stakeholders. In this paper, we propose that a simulation is used in the phase of project definition to choose such implementation forms for individual project phases or tasks which would facilitate the delivery of the value expected by the stakeholders. Our approach also supports the process of agreeing (among the stakeholders) on the value expected from the project. We show, using a post-factum real-world project case, that the application of a simulation in the predictive project stage may considerably increase the probability of the project’s success.

Purpose: The article refers to a valid and current research area related to business sustainability. The main objective of this article is to identify the relationship between different types of environmental innovations and sustainable outcomes. Design/methodology/approach: For the needs of this article, the researches were conducted in 293 companies operating in Poland. In the course of the research, an additional division of environmental innovations derived from the Oslo Manual classification was taken into account, and the following were distinguished: environmental process innovations, environmental product innovations, environmental organizational innovations, and environmental marketing innovations. In addition, for the analysis of sustainable business performance, it was divided into economic, environmental, and social performance. The relation between the level of types of innovation and organizational outcomes is examined for each of these categories, and three models are presented. Findings: Empirical research confirmed that different types of environmental innovations are essential factors for sustainable outcomes and, as a result, their growth. Research also revealed differences and similarities between different sustainable outcomes and their relationship to innovations of different types. Research limitations/implications: First, although outcomes were measured using subjective indicators consisting of a limited number of items, using objective indicators or collecting data through in-depth interviews would have provided more detailed data. Second, increasing the size of the research sample and expanding the research to include companies operating in other countries (replication of research) would allow for generalization of the results, as the results obtained may be specific to companies operating in Poland. Originality/value: The main value of this article is a broad and holistic view, which made it possible to use the four types of environmental innovations and link them in the model to organizational outcomes and clarify the relationship between them. It seems crucial to take a systemic view of what innovations collectively build the model and to note that organizational innovation appears as an element present in each of the models obtained. Thus, it is an indication that organizational activities should support process, marketing, or product innovations to lead to sustainable results of environmental innovation implementation. Keywords: business sustainability, environmental innovations, sustainable outcomes, management. Category of the paper: Research paper.

The purpose of the described research was to identify the impact of different types of environmental innovations on sustainable organizational performance of companies operating in Denmark. The research considered four types of environmental innovations: process, product, organizational and marketing and sustainable performance in three areas: economic, social, and environmental. The research methodology involved a survey of 338 Danish companies, using a validated questionnaire, which provided data on their implementation of different types of environmental innovations and their sustainable performance in three basic areas: economic, environmental, and social. Three regression models were built to verify the theoretical relationship between different types of environmental innovations and sustainable performance. The results showed that all four types of environmental innovations have a positive impact on sustainable performance. Detailed analysis showed that organizational innovations as well as process innovations support organizational performance in all three areas. The article also pointed out the limitations of the research conducted and directions for future research.

The purpose of this article is to analyse the challenges of periodic employee evaluation in the IT sector, with a particular focus on its impact on employee motivation, engagement and development. The IT industry is characterized by high dynamics, rapid change and the growing importance of soft skills, which places specific demands on evaluation systems. Classic, annual periodic evaluations often prove insufficient especially in an environment based on agile methodologies, where flexibility, ongoing feedback and an individual approach to professional development are important. The paper presents the results of a survey of 67 IT employees, varying in age, experience, job role and project management methodology used. Aspects such as transparency, fairness, objectivity, frequency of evaluations and their impact on motivation, efficiency and team relations were analysed. The results indicate significant differences in the perception of appraisal systems depending on the sector (e.g., R&D, Software House, IT Services) and the age of employees. Major barriers to effective appraisals were also identified, such as subjectivity of appraisals, unclear criteria, failure to adapt tools to the realities of project work, or inconsistency in communication of goals. Based on the analysis, recommendations were made for adapting appraisal systems to the specifics of the IT industry. Differences due to the age of employees and, consequently, their changing needs in the context of increasing digitization and generational differences were pointed out.