The Editor's Corner
Boštjan Antončič
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E-Learning and the Changing Face of Corporate Training and Development
Max Zornada

Internet technologies and the advent of e-learning applications inmany organisations have made a fundamental difference to the way organisations deliver training and development content, activities and experiences to their employees. Some of the organisations at the forefront of deploying e-learning technologies have been global corporations and/or transaction processing intensive organisations, who typically have difficulties assembling their staff for traditional classroom based training activities, either due to logistical difficulties or because of the impact this would have on work flows and business continuity. Such organisations have developed approaches to e-learning and competency development that overcome the logistical problems of conventional training by making innovative use of e-learning. This paper examines the approaches used by several leading global, Australian and Asian organisations, including Cisco Systems, Motorola, Qantas and several others by drawing on a field study conducted by the writer during 2003–2004. It attempts to identify some key emerging trends and practices in the field, and lessons that can be learnt from the experiences of organisations reviewed, for the successful deployment of e-learning strategies.

Key Words: e-learning, learning and content management systems, Australia and Asia Pacific
JEL Classification: M53, O33
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School Leadership Training under Globalisation: Comparisons of the UK, the US and Norway
Arild Tjeldvoll, Christopher Wales, and AnneWelle-Strand

In common the three countries see a need for increased quality of schooling as necessary because of globalisation. Leadership is crucial to achieve quality. However, there are distinct critiques in all countries fearing ineffective bureaucratization. There is resistance among education researchers towards the market orientation and the application of the language of business. Universities have played a conservative role. In terms of differences, the UK is uniformby its centrally organised National College, while the US with over 500 programmes and no national coordination shows complexity, if not chaos. Norway, with its National Network gives much freedom to individual institutions, although the diversity leads to tensions when the municipalities now can choose the training providers. All three nations are attempting to ‘reframe and reform’. Some educators think the defining factors will be quality of performance and quality of collaboration, while others believe that there must be a shift from focus on performance to focus on learning.

Key Words: globalisation, school leadership, training, policy
JEL Classification: I20, I23, I28
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Evidence of Returns to Education Among Roma in Central and Eastern Europe and Their Policy Implications
Susanne Milcher and Katarína Zigová

In this paper we analyze specific educational issues faced by Roma households using data from the UNDP/ILO survey conducted in Bulgaria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia in 2001. Roma situation is characterized by poverty, low educational achievements, and consequently limited employment opportunities. We believe that the core of this trap is insufficient education, nonpreparedness for entry into the labormarket of amarket economy. This is demonstrated by the existence of vital returns to education estimated for Roma households throughout the region. The patterns are similar over the whole region and hence the need for a systematic and common education policy of Roma is both necessary and beneficial.

Key Words: returns to education, Roma minority, poverty, labour market
JEL Classification: J15, J24, J31
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Restructuring and Business Reengineering in Integrative Processes
Drago Dubrovski

Globalisation has intensified competition to such an extent that the corporations, merely with one’s own resources, cannot achieve acceptable success any longer. Objectives, which had been set-up prior to establishing the alliance in order to justify the investment, frequently will not be possible to achieve if during the integrative period revolutionary methods of change are not applied, to which one can classify restructuring and reengineering. Therefore, it is essential to be successful, not only in rules and principles of strategic alliances but in the methods of radical changes.

Key Words: strategic alliance, integration, restructuring, reengineering, crisis
JEL Classification: G34, L14
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Key Sector Analysis: A Case of the Transited Polish Economy
Henryk Gurgul and Paweł Majdosz

The transition process from a centrally planned economy to a market economy started in Poland at the beginning of the 1990s. In this paper we try to answer the question in which direction has the structure of Polish economy changed, if indeed it has. By means of the key sector analysis applied to the Polish input-output tables that come from the period 1990–2000, we find that the structure of the Polish economy still remains characteristic of a centrally planned economy rather than a market economy. Although, in the last year of the period under study, the first improvement symptoms could be observed (the increased significance of services in the Polish economy) but there is still a lot of work to be done. An inefficient operation in the case of some sectors reaches a considerable level. This is reflected by the structure of the most important input-output coefficients, of which, the most important inputs are located on the diagonal of the sensitive matrix.

Key Words: input-output tables, transition, key sector analysis
JEL Classification: C67, P21
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