Definición de inteligencia emocional

The research was conducted to verify following:

• Verification of the usefulness of e-learning as an element of business man- agement. Ongoing research has examined the impact of e-learning for some aspects of management and the whole organization.

• Researching the degree of readiness of all businesses to implement e-learning both in terms of needs and technologies. Development of company profile, organizationally and technologically ready for such implementation. Creation of criteria for analyzing the business model for the usefulness of e-learning in management processes.

The geographical range was limited to central region of Poland – Lodzkie since the preferences of agro-food sector were similar to average in Poland. The purpose of the research was to determine the actual progress of enterprises in the utilization of information technology and e-learning and the readiness of organiza- tions for introduction of the technologies in close future.

3.1. Description of the randomized sample

Layered method of randomization has been used in this research. In the first stage the sub-regions (gminas) in Lodzkie region have been randomized. Then in each sub-region an adequate number of companies have been selected as follows:

• 60 companies (30%) operating in Lodz;

• 70 companies (35%) in the layered method of randomization: 7 municipal gminas in Lodzkie have been selected (outside Lodz), and then in each of them, 10 enterprises;

• 70 companies (35%) in the layered method of randomization: 7 rural gminas in Lodzkie, and then in each of them, 10 enterprises.

Finally, the research reached 136 companies. The remaining part has not answered the questionnaire. Companies involved in the research were classified according to the business into four groups:

• commerce, • manufacturing,

• food processing industry, • services.

The largest group of companies led trade activities. Businesses this type were 52.9% of the test group. The least popular type of activities is food processing in- dustry. The share of this group in the whole sample was 4.6%. Manufacturing and services represented 32.2% and 10.3%. More than half of companies surveyed conduct trade activities. There is a large group of enterprises engaged in production activities. These two categories constitute a very substantial share of the companies surveyed (82.1% of the total number of companies participating in the survey).

Figure 2. Companies taking part into random sample, divided by the type of activity.

Source: Own work based on the research.

3.2. The use of computers

Most of the companies using information technology equipment are located in the cities of Lodzkie region with the exception of Lodz. They represent 47.3% of all companies with computers. The share of rural firms in this group is 32.7%, while business operators in the city of Lodz, represent only 20% of the group. The nature of their activities also shows diversity. Nearly half of companies benefiting from information technology in their business conduct trade activities. They repre- sent 49.1% of all computerized firms. Production companies represent 36.4%. At the same time, the smallest group in the study was the food processing companies group. Their share in the total number of companies with their computers fluctu- ated close to 3.6%. Companies providing services and having computers accounted represented 10.9% of firms computerized.

Despite the low participation of companies with 4-30 PC's, many firms bene- fit from the local area network as a means of communication between computers.

commerce manufacturing food processing services

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The share of companies benefiting from this arrangement is 32.7%. The rate was for rural businesses around 16.6%, 26.9% for urban and for the Lodz 72.7%.

Lodz Cities Rural

Figure 3. The share of companies benefiting from Local Area Network.

Source: Own work based on the research.

3.3. Internet usage

The 90.9% of the companies owing computers, use internet. This is a very high figure, which shows that companies are trying to take advantage of modern telecommunication solutions in their business. All companies from the area of the city of Lodz have a connection to the Internet. In contrast, 83.3% of operators working in rural areas has access to the Internet. The same indicator for enterprises from the cities of Lodzkie with the exception of Lodz was 92.3%.

3.4. The use of online information systems

The companies use a range of modern telecommunications solutions to facili- tate contacts on the line:

1. business - supplier, 2. business - customer,

3. business - local administration unit.

The companies benefit from a system enabling the ordering of goods over the Internet. While only 12.7% of all companies use the procurement system in their business. Among the 28.5% of the companies has its own system of that kind, while 57.1% benefit from a foreign system. Another subject of analysis is the de- gree of use of online systems to facilitate contact with customers of each company.

It should be noted that this type of solution is used only by 3.6% of firms reporting the use of computers.

3.5. The use of e-learning

Among the companies participating in the research and at the same time using computer equipment 18.2% decided to or intends to take benefit from e-learning or computer-assisted training. Among this group 40% (this is 7.3% of the test group) have already carried out such training and 20% (3.6% of test group) is planning to do so within the next year. The remaining part of companies declaring their will- ingness to participate in this type of training would do so in the longer term (this is 3.6% of the total number of companies with computers).

In the group of companies, which has already benefited from this form of education, using current or intending to use this type of training of employees, the municipal companies are the major part. They represent 40% of the group, of which 25% have already carried out such training, 50% intend to do so within a year and a further 25% wants to make use of this form of education but in the longer term. Among rural businesses, whose participation in enterprises using or intending to use e-learning was 30%, most of the companies have already carried out this type of training (66%), and the remaining 30% intend to do so in the long term. Lodz Companies are less interested in it. They were 30% of companies, but only 33% have done training, and a further 66% have no intention to carry them out at a later date than a year.

At the same time, all companies are interested in training their employees. Almost10% of them would like to further train its partners. Companies also are seeing the benefits of this method of training. Since 77.8% of companies surveyed have already expressed an interest in or benefited from e-learning, sees more than one advantage. The same proportion of the companies point that this method will reduce costs and increase the flexibility of a training time. In contrast, 44.4% believes that the benefit resulting from the use of those methods is the flexibility of place where the training is taking place.

4. CONCLUSION

Summing up the analysis carried out it should be noted that the majority of surveyed enterprises do not officially apply computers in their business. Among the companies that have decided to take such investment is dominated by companies equipped with a few (from 1 to 3) PC's. Commerce and manufacturing companies are among the best-developed ones in terms of the degree of computerization. In contrast, operators of services appear to be clearly different from commercial and industrial entities. But too few companies in the business of food processing make it difficult to draw conclusions. In terms of computerization, it should be noted that

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most companies do not have a developed infrastructure - but they are almost exclusively small single economic activities engaged in simple businesses such as trade of food products. At the same time, most companies declare access to the Internet which is a necessary condition for the use of e-learning technology. Profile of the company ready for the implementation of e-learning is: a medium or large company, with computers in a network, making use of the Internet and having its own website. These companies benefit from the information systems that support management and the production or supply of services with a high degree of innovation and high value-added services.

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A PROCEDURE FOR LEARNING CUSTOMER PREFERENCES