Organizations thrive on attaining and sustaining competitiveness because of the turbulent, rapidly changing business environment. The research shows that it is possible to improve organizations’ competitiveness by considering the multidimensional model viewpoints, which include the strategic talent management ecosystem viewpoints and the strategic agile management ecosystem viewpoints. The multidimensional model includes the essential constructs for developing strategic talent management, i.e., acquiring talented employees, target development of talented employees, designing talent teams, and talent leadership, as well as the following essential constructs for developing strategic agile management, i.e., designing agile teams, agile leadership, and support agile management culture. The research was implemented on 532 owners/managers in organizations. Structural equation modeling was used to test the hypotheses. Results show that developing a strategic talent management ecosystem positively affects developing a strategic agile management ecosystem and leads to higher organization competitiveness. A developed multidimensional model will help owners and managers comprehensively embrace and implement agility in their organization to increase competitiveness.

Growing importance of sustainable development, corporate social responsibility and business ethics requires various types of contemporary organisations innovation. This research assesses the problem related to business policy innovation (BPI), which represents organisational governance determination. The main purpose of the paper is to qualitatively and quantitatively present a new, requisitely holistic strategic model of the soft factors influencing BPI, which interdependently incorporates changes in organisational values, culture and business ethics, as well as stakeholders’ interests reconciliation, thus determine soft possibilities for more sustainable business policy, management and practice. While the relevance of these factors for business policy is in the literature widely recognized, there is a small amount of empirical research on their influence on BPI. To mitigate this research gap, advanced structural equation modelling (SEM) based partial least squares (PLS) method was used for analysing data of 734 organisations in Slovenia, the EU state. The research results show that researched soft factors organisational values, culture and stakeholders’ interests reconciliation statistically confirmed influence BPI. Thus, these recognitions can be used as the basis for strategic managerial decision making towards social responsibility and sustainability of an organisation. Reasons why it has not been statistically confirmed that business ethics influence BPI needs to be investigated in future research.

The integration of artificial intelligence (AI) within the decision-making processes of small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) presents both significant opportunities and substantial ethical challenges. The aim of this paper is to provide a theoretical model depicting the interdependence of organisational decision-making levels and decision-making styles, with an emphasis on exploring the role of AI in organisations’ decision making, based on selected process dimension of the MER model of integral governance and management, particularly in relation to routine, analytical, and intuitive decision-making capabilities. The research methodology employs a comprehensive qualitative analysis of the scientific literature published between 2010 and 2024, focusing on AI implementation in SMEs, ethical decision making in integral management, and regulatory frameworks governing AI use in business contexts. The findings reveal that AI technologies influence decision making across business policy, strategic, tactical, and operative management levels, with distinct implications for intuitive, analytical, and routine decision-making approaches. The analysis demonstrates that while AI can enhance data processing capabilities and reduce human biases, it presents significant challenges for normative–ethical decision making, requiring human judgment and stakeholder consideration. We conclude that effective AI integration in SMEs requires a balanced approach where AI primarily serves as a tool for data collection and analysis rather than as an autonomous decision maker. These insights contribute to the discourse on responsible AI implementation in SMEs and provide practical guidance for leaders navigating the complex interplay between (non)technological capabilities, ethical considerations, and regulatory requirements in the evolving business landscape.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to prove that it is possible and necessary that higher education institutions develop appropriate competencies of students during the learning process as required by the practice if teachers use the systemic approach and cybernetics knowledge. The authors especially research the importance of competence entrepreneurship and how to stimulate entrepreneurship by developing competencies of creativity, teamwork and communication.Design/methodology/approach: Based on systems theory, transversal competencies entrepreneurship, creativity, teamwork and communication, as well as their interdependence, were requisitely holistic selected. In the selection of diverse contemporary learning methods, the authors started from an action research approach that implies learning by doing, i.e. participation of students. With the use of statistical methods, the authors showed that a cyber-systemic requisite holistic learning action approach based on interdependence of teacher and students learning process results in innovation of researched transversal competencies.Findings: Based on two quantitative and qualitative researches of 96 students’ competencies, the authors found out that when using contemporary learning methods, the desired results can be achieved. In described learning process everyone involved gained: both the teacher and the students.Research limitations/implications: The survey does not include verifying the usefulness of developed competencies in practice. Also, the study only covers the findings of the research study of one academic year.Practical implications: The research is important for the practice of higher education, as it demonstrates that the teacher is with a targeted focus on the selected viewpoints able to effectively improve students’ competencies.Social implications: If higher education’s institutions take a strategic decision to target improvement of the transversal competencies of students, they will be easier and faster to employ, and practice will get more relevant employees. The economy will be more efficient and effective.Originality/value: According to the authors’ knowledge, no research measures the development of selected transversal competencies using the contemporary learning methods, based on cyber-systemic learning action approach. The authors found out that the methods used have influenced the final results, which show that all measured students’ transversal competencies have improved.

As the importance of the transition to sustainable development is increasingly recognised by individuals, organisations, and society as a whole, there is a growing need to examine its impact at micro-, meso-, and macro-levels. There is an urgent imperative to ensure the sustainability of growing economic inequalities, a degraded environment, and people living in uneven conditions in different societies. The authors, therefore, highlight the strategic role and essential contribution of organisations, and universities/higher education institutions in particular, in achieving sustainable development and the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Universities/higher education institutions play a key role in fostering entrepreneurship and innovation, and they form the crucial architecture of contemporary practices in national economies and beyond. Policy makers, university/higher education institution governors, managers, and professors shape students and create new social contexts, and these must be oriented towards sustainability. This paper aims to explore the strategic role of organisations, in particular, universities/higher education institutions, as a key link between personal and social responsibility and, thus, as a powerful enabler of sustainable development. The authors examine the strategic transition to sustainability of two higher education institutions, the University of Maribor and the University of Economics—Varna, and conduct a qualitative case study research to develop a cybernetic model of the university’s/higher education institution’s transition to sustainability, which reflects the organisation’s growing commitment to achieving the Sustainability Development Goals. The model includes seven successive stages: pre-awareness, awareness, focusing, implementation, reaching out, transparency and disclosure, and continuous improvement. The study shows that sustainable development, i.e., sustainability governance, management, and operations, are indispensable for implementing the strategic concept of sustainability in an organisation and for achieving the strategic transition to sustainability as explained in the proposed cybernetic model.

This article aims to analyse significant differences in four constructs: occupational stress, job satisfaction, work engagement, and work productivity among employees before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the paper is to develop a multidimensional model with these four constructs and analyse the differences in the strength of their effects on the model across two intersectional times: before the COVID-19 pandemic and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research was implemented on a sample of 885 employees in Slovenian organisations. During COVID-19, Slovenia had one of the strictest lockdowns. Based on the research, we can confirm significant differences in the four analysed constructs among employees before COVID-19 and during COVID-19. Based on the results, we can confirm that occupational stress had a more negative effect on job satisfaction and work engagement during COVID-19 than before prior to it. Our research and conclusions highlight the measures with which organisations can reduce the problem of occupational stress and with which organisations can increase job satisfaction, work engagement and work productivity among employees during COVID-19. Based on this, organisations may be able to build a more supportive work environment during, and after, COVID-19.