Proceedings of the 8th International Conference on Intellectual ...

Eva Eckenh<strong>of</strong>er
about <strong>the</strong> person”, “I always try to rely mostly on myself.” and “It takes time for me to trust someone, I
must have regular interaction to build trust”. The answers show <strong>the</strong> importance <strong>of</strong> proximity in physical
matters for <strong>the</strong> building <strong>of</strong> trust. Regular interaction is needed to enable communication, emergence
<strong>of</strong> relations and trust.
For analyzing whe<strong>the</strong>r simultaneously with <strong>the</strong> organizational and network changes, also <strong>the</strong>
productivity <strong>of</strong> PhD students in terms <strong>of</strong> publication outputs changed, <strong>the</strong> number <strong>of</strong> publications <strong>of</strong> all
full-term PhD students from <strong>the</strong> year 2009 has been compared to that <strong>of</strong> 2010. The year 2009
represents <strong>the</strong> productivity prior to <strong>the</strong> changes and <strong>the</strong> year 2010 <strong>the</strong> productivity after organizational
changes had taken place.
Table 4: Publications <strong>of</strong> all full-time PhD Students. Source: Publication Database <strong>of</strong> FAME/UTB.
2009 2010
Articles in Journals 6 22
Articles in <strong>Proceedings</strong> 79 99
Book chapters 4 9
Scientific Monograph 3 7
Total 92 137
Table 4 shows <strong>the</strong> summarized publication outcomes from all full-time PhD students on <strong>the</strong> Faculty <strong>of</strong>
Management and Economics on Tomas Bata University in four categories for <strong>the</strong> year 2009 and
2010. It can be observed that <strong>the</strong> total number <strong>of</strong> publications rose about almost 50%. The highest
increase happened in <strong>the</strong> category “Article in Journal”, where <strong>the</strong> number increased from 6 to 22
articles, which means an increase <strong>of</strong> 267%. An increase <strong>of</strong> 125% was achieved in <strong>the</strong> category “Book
chapters” and an increase <strong>of</strong> 133% in “Scientific monographs”. In total it can be pointed out that <strong>the</strong>
overall improvement <strong>of</strong> publications and productivity in a row was significant.
5. Conclusion
The survey showed <strong>the</strong> positive influence <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> organizational changes done in <strong>the</strong> middle <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong>
academic year 2009 and 2010 on <strong>the</strong> informal social networks. Density increased in almost every
relation and homophily changed towards heterophily in 2011 compared to 2010. Especially <strong>the</strong>
changes in <strong>the</strong> relations “talking about dissertation topics” and “pr<strong>of</strong>essional advice” are important as
those relations contribute to communication, discussion and cooperation, which are not only highly
important for research and innovation purposes, but moreover for <strong>the</strong> aspect <strong>of</strong> knowledge sharing.
Those two relations, visualized and analysed by social network analysis using <strong>the</strong> s<strong>of</strong>tware Ucinet
and netdraw, represent <strong>the</strong> knowledge sharing within <strong>the</strong> group <strong>of</strong> Ph.D students on Tomas Bata
University. It has been found that toge<strong>the</strong>r with <strong>the</strong> improvement on <strong>the</strong> social network characteristics,
especially in <strong>the</strong> knowledge-sharing relations, <strong>the</strong> publication outputs <strong>of</strong> students increased.
The study showed that <strong>the</strong> organisational changes were a step into <strong>the</strong> right direction for integrating
foreign PhD students. Never<strong>the</strong>less as <strong>the</strong> graphical illustrations as well as <strong>the</strong> homophily indices
show, <strong>the</strong>re is still a need for fur<strong>the</strong>r action. As Ing. Adriana Knápková, Ph.D., Vice-Dean for
Research and Business Liaison stated “The goal has to be that foreign students are as well integrated
as Slovak Students”. The author proposes two major changes, on <strong>the</strong> one hand building on <strong>the</strong>
improvement <strong>of</strong> <strong>the</strong> Czech language skills <strong>of</strong> foreign students and on <strong>the</strong> o<strong>the</strong>r hand an increase <strong>of</strong>
joint private activities <strong>of</strong> all PhD students. These activities have to be designed to lower <strong>the</strong> linguistic
and cultural barriers, so that communication and networking is triggered in a row. Trips, tours,
expeditions would serve this goal as well as teambuilding activities like a visit in a rope climbing
garden, which was organized in previous years for foreign students. That <strong>the</strong>se investments do not
serve only philanthropic purposes, showed <strong>the</strong> increase in number <strong>of</strong> publications <strong>of</strong> all full-time PhD
students, which numbered to 92 in <strong>the</strong> year 2009 and 137 for <strong>the</strong> following year. For an increase <strong>of</strong>
cooperation a solid basis <strong>of</strong> communication and trust is needed, but as this survey showed networks
depend on proximity and <strong>the</strong> time spent toge<strong>the</strong>r.
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