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Abstract: Communication is an important tool in maintaining legitimacy and acceptability of forest sector operations and activities, and expectations by the general public on the forest sector conduct in Europe are in general very high. Despite this, there is scarce research in crossnational context on how forest sector sustainability is communicated to the general public, and what development areas can be identified in terms of communication content. This study applies a qualitative content analysis in four forestry-rich European countries (Austria, Finland, Germany and Slovenia). The state of online communication of 61 companies and 19 industry associations was qualitatively analyzed in 2014 with a focus on eight core sustainability topics of interest that were identified via an international forest sector stakeholder feedback process. Our results show some great similarity, but also some interesting differences in terms of communication frequency and weight of hot topics across countries. The most frequently communicated area was economic contribution of forests (in Finland and Austria); debate over forest conservation versus production (Germany) and the concept added value of wood (in Slovenia). With the exception of Slovenia, role of forests in combatting global warming was emphasized more frequently within industry associations than among individual forest industry companies. Characteristically, current content of sustainability communication focuses on supplying factual information. Thus, there is a need for developing more targeted and bidirectional forms of stakeholder communication in the future, emphasizing also more active use of social media channels and empowering organizations to promote interactive communication and collaborative learning.
Keywords: communication, sustainability, stakeholder, forest sector, Europe
Published in RUP: 08.08.2016; Views: 3065; Downloads: 241
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Abstract: The insurance sector in India is rising rapidly to bring in growth and employment opportunities. Insurance companies are basically human intensive, and human resources act as an undoubted differentiator. Quality manpower and its retention would act as a litmus test. Turnover of sales force has been high because of low entry and exit barriers. The paper addresses issues of recruitment, retention and turnover of sales force in insurance companies. An attempt is made to integrate them to Maslowćs Need Hierarchy. A survey was conducted among 350 employees who worked in or had left insurance companies to analyze factors that influenced their decisions and job satisfaction. The data were treated with factor analysis. Factors such as Safety & Security, Social & Esteem and Personal Work Style emerged as the influencers to join insurance companies. Primary Needs and Social & Self Esteem Needs were the factors associated with job satisfactionč Stress, Career Advancement and Work Environment emerged as factors for leaving the companies.
Keywords: India, insurance sector, employee, motivation, retention
Published in RUP: 15.10.2013; Views: 3828; Downloads: 72
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Keywords: cultural diversity, intercultural competence, private sector work, East Finland
Published in RUP: 15.10.2013; Views: 2820; Downloads: 72
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