Talent management practices in IT companies of Ukraine: Differences in exclusive and inclusive approaches

In recent years, all economically developed countries of the world experience formation of knowledge economy as the highest stage of postindustrial economy development. International companies, basing their activity on accumulation of human capital according to the principles of innovativeness, scientific nature, continuity and progressiveness, play an important role in activation of this process. Owing to global nature of their activity it influences all spheres of human life in the world, improving it, as well as having an adverse impact (enhancement of poverty in some regions of the word, environment pollution, etc.). Achievement of these conditions of sustainable economic growth is possible just by the way of prevention of the adverse impact, which, among other things, depends on the active social position of the management of international companies. Therefore this paper is aimed at identification of priority focuses of socially responsible activity of international companies. This goal was achieved through generalization of basic program initiatives of the activity of three companies, leading in innovations (Apple, Samsung and IBM). Adoption of the above-mentioned initiatives by other companies of the world as guides while developing their own development strategy has to facilitate the growth of positive effects from enhancement of knowledge economy in the world.

The relevance of the topic is defined through the idea that appropriate leadership competencies and their application in certain activities enabling the followers can ensure the prospects of organizational development and individual career opportunities. To review and summarize the aspects of research findings of leadership science in expression of competencies in managerial processes, highlighting the leadership competencies in the context of general competencies. Methods. In order to formulate analytical findings describing the concept of leadership, generalizing the stages of development of theories, expression of leadership competencies and impact, there were used the methods of scientific literature analysis and synthesis as well as simulation. Results. According to the scientists insights, the article deals with leadership concept analysis, leadership research overview according to development stages. Scientific novelty. The analyzed theme has a scientific novelty, because recently there has been more and more discussion about the importance of leadership, but it is important to analyze the core leadership competencies that would predetermine both the findings of decisions of organizations’ managerial processes and positive changes of individual career in the integration in the activities of organizations. Practical significance. The need in leadership competencies is related to the issues of good leadership in organizations. Aiming to implement ideas of modern leadership in organisations, the leader has to have certain characteristics of leadership expressions, such as ability to communicate effectively, respond to the needs of others, and influence the behavior of the followers directing them towards the achieving of the set goals and implementation of the leader’s vision.

The focus of the research is to develop recommendations of smart specialization (SS) for Ukrainian policymakers using European approaches. The authors revealed that the main SS projects are presented in such sectors as agri-food, industrial modernization and energy. More than 12 EU countries were the plot for conducted analysis of SS, as a result of which the level of activity of each country was determined. The creation of consortiums, including SMEs, associations, universities and other participants, disclosed the successful way of SS realization. The structure of SME’s innovative potential in Ukraine was identified underlining their main characteristic features like types of innovations and innovative activity, differentiation according to enterprise size, their regional distribution. The authors explored lack of innovations on regional and national level and significant territorial disparities, which could be eliminated through policy implementation of regional SS. The existing legislative norms for possibility of SS implementation in Ukraine were analyzed due to correspondence with the EU ones. The analysis provides the opportunity to consider them only as general framework documents without any action plans and sectoral prioritization at all. The weak points of these law documents are emphasized. As a result of research, the authors developed recommendations presented by direct action plan for Ukrainian policymakers, which include such activities as underlining key priorities (especially ICT applicability in every SS project) and their correspondence with the EU ones; eliminating regional imbalances by focusing on innovation development and reorientation of some regions according to SS priorities; respecting regional existing capacities; providing organizational mechanism for cooperation of stakeholders and financial mechanism for SS support through the EU structural funds.