Νικόλαος Κάκκος

ABSTRACT: Much emphasis has been placed in the higher education literature, to the understanding of the manner and process of providing education in the accounting discipline. Specifically, the emphasis on using innovative teaching practices such as information and communication technologies, the Internet as well as various computer programs, simulations, case studies on real and virtual work environments, have been investigated in an attempt to understand current demands and move the discipline forward. Following a thorough review of the relevant literature, this study aims to identify and present different views and research findings on the key issue of teaching accounting, internationally. The findings suggest that despite the availability of the former teaching practices, students mainly prefer personalized teacher-centered methods; they also recommend the aforementioned practices as ancillary tools to the traditional method, rather than key learning tools in the courses taken. These findings have obvious implications for the design of accounting course curricula by professional bodies and/or Higher Education Institutions in order to help graduates meet and adapt to the demands for professional competency development in the accounting field.

The contemporary cultural environment makes urgent the strengthening and the adjustment of production structures and supply of art and culture. It is certainly depending on the individual involvement, the evolution of the economic and social conditions, the requirements and the expectations for which the effective exercise of the cultural policy of each Member presents an outstanding priority consideration. It seeks that the produced cultural products have high quality and competitive nature, able to attract the interest of the public. In this context we should unavoidably takes into consideration the activities of the cultural enterprises, they are required to preserve their viability, to renew the productive operational practices and to meet the high cultural requirements of the area in which they are active. A typical case study of one of the most important cultural organization of Karditsa Municipality is the Municipal Cultural and Public Benefit Enterprise of Karditsa (DI.KE.K.). This organization attempts to outline the cultural environment, to identify the factors that are responsible for the organizations’ production weaknesses and last but not least we are going to propose a formation of a dynamic production network that is expected to ensure a high level of value and produced cultural products which can meet the cultural needs of the public in the local and the regional level. Keywords : Cultural Entreprises, Cultural Product, Product Quality, Cultural Audience, Local and Regional Cultural Development.

The purpose of the present study was to reveal how demographic characteristics influence the perceptions of bank employees of organizational culture. The sample of the study consisted of 240 employees from Greek banking institutions, from different occupational positions. 60% of the employees were 31-40 years old followed by the categories 41-50 years old (20%), up to 30 years old (10%) and 51-60 years old (10%). Most of the employees (63.8%) had been working as bank employees for 6-15 years and the majority of them (63.8%) had been working in the same bank for 6-15 years. The majority of the employees (59.6%) were simple clerks, 29.2% were supervisors and 11.3% were Managers or Assistant Managers. The assessment of organizational culture was performed with the Organizational Culture Assessment Instrument (OCAI) developed by Cameron and Quinn (2006). Results indicate that there is a significant difference in the perceptions of the subjects between the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture. In addition, a statistically significant difference (p<0.01) was found between Managers and clerks on the one hand and Supervisors on the other hand in terms of both the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture. Finally, employees' perceptions of the dominant current and the dominant preferred type of organizational culture were found to be affected by other demographical characteristics, likeijhrs 82 age, total years of working in the same bank and total years of working in any bank. Future studies can extend the present work by examining additional parameters that affect employees' perceptions of organizational culture.

The remarkable and multilateral developmental impact and perspective of H.E.Is is widely known. Moreover, the spread of competence and technological innovation should not be a privilege for a few people who have the possibility of acquiring knowledge and skills from the International Academic Institutions. Unfortunately, raw reality remains the same and in order to be reduced, the “conventional” Academic Institutions ought to evolve constantly and develop more remarkable international collaborations in order to be able to exist, operate and contribute to the strongly competitive environment. Based on the above references, the undergraduate course of the Department of Business Administration, Faculty of Business and Economics, of the Technological Educational Institution (T.E.I) of Thessaly is being evaluated through the Benchmarking process as it has been defined by the Hellenic Quality Assurance & Accreditation Agency (H.Q.A), as well as with the standards of other internationally recognized and accredited institutions (e.g. European Association for Quality Assurance in Higher Education – E.N.Q.A, Chartered Management Institution – C.M.I etc.) in order to detect any deviations that would need specific suggestions and improvement procedures able to make this Department strongly competitive.

The phenomenon of domination of several powerful trading countries in the international market, which import semi-finished food products from the economically and commercially weaker countries, slightly process or standardize them and channel them for their final consumption arrogating their qualitative superiority, is an undeniable fact with major negative economic and not only consequences for the origin countries. In this category of the weakest countries naturally belongs Greece. Based on these brief remarks, the purpose of this work is the search for and formulation of effective ideas, organizational processes and operational procedures in the form of a "model" for the production of innovative products, capable not only to rapidly penetrate the international market, but also to steadily control a substantial part of it. Besides, the policy of innovative production management is scientifically recognized as a modern form of "national defense" in the face of contemporary globalization and Greece should not ignore it.