Business Values in Slovenian Companies

Abstract

The research on business values in Slovene companies was carried out in March 2010 amongst 578 students of Doba Fakulteta who are employed in various companies and organizations. Almost 60 % of respondents have estimated the business values of their employers/companies as mostly or totally in accordance with the principles of socially responsible entrepreneurship – towards employees, business partners, customers, society and natural environment. Quality, care for the environment, ethical principles and cooperativeness are the business vales that are according to the opinion of respondents most highly valued in their companies. Equality and care for the employees are on the other hand the two business values with the lowest priority – as perceived by the respondents. Care for the employees is on the contrary the most highly valued business value by respondents themselves, from their personal point of view. Besides, they also highly value quality and ethical principles, which is congruent with the perceived situation in their companies, as well as knowledge and innovation and development. Care for the environment is from their personal point of view the least important business value. The method of cluster analysis has shown that the sample of respondents can bi divided in two homogeneous groups, whose results substantially differ. Group 1, which is composed of approximately 60 % of all respondents, has expressed significantly more positive attitude towards the compatibility of business values with the principles of socially responsible entrepreneurship than group 2. Besides, the value of all listed business values in the companies where respondents are employed was perceived much more positively in group 1. Members of group 1 can therefore be referred to as “satisfied employees” and members of group 2, which is composed of almost 40 % of all respondents, can be referred to as “unsatisfied employees” – dissatisfaction is indirectly evident from the very low scores for perceived value of care for the employees and equality amongst employees in their companies. In group 1 there is slightly higher share of leading employees and individuals employed in smaller companies (with maximum 50 employees), while in group 2 there is higher share of non-leading employees and individuals, employed in bigger companies with more than 50 employees. There is on the other hand no significant difference between the two groups according to gender and age.