International Scientific and Practical Conference “Psychology of Business and Management: Challenges of the Present” was held on March 16-17 at the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, to which experts from 10 countries of the world – Ukraine, Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Poland, Finland, Georgia, Jordan, Tajikistan, Canada and scientists from 20 universities joined.
The general partner of the business conference was SoftServe Corporation Nataliia Zhyhailo, Doctor of Psychological Sciences, professor, head of the educational program “Psychology of Business and Management” started the Conference. Vitaliy Kuharsky, Pro-rector for Scientific and Pedagogical work and Informatization of the LNU delivered a welcome address speech on behalf of the Rector’s office.
On the first day of the event the Chairman of the Supervisory Board of the Lviv Ivan Franko University, co-founder of SoftServe corporation,Candidate of Physics and Mathematics, Honored Economist of Ukraine Taras Kitsmey reported at the roundtable, which discussed the role of psychology in business and the transformation of business education and outlined the requirements of modern business and changes in education.
The Head of educational programme “Psychology of Business and Management” Nataliia Zhyhailo informed participants of launched MAster’s Programme “Psychology of Business and Management” at Lviv National University , the expediency of which is determined by the requirements of the labour market for such specialists: business psychologist, psychologist-trainer, psychologist-consultant; psychologist-psychologist in the system of entrepreneurial, financial-economic, trade, private sector, coach, consultant in management psychology and communications, PR manager, HR manager, recruiter, creative director, lecturer in business psychology and management, etc.
Natalia Zhyhailo also emphasized on the competencies that such a specialist should possess and told what was done to develop these skills and abilities. Also, the speaker outlined the prospect of opening the specialty “Psychology of Business and Management” on the OS “Bachelor”, because, for successful formation and development of the students’ personal skills and professional skills (soft skills) demanded by employers, for preparation for employment in business organizations, it is necessary to begin the preparation purposefully, starting from the first year of study.
The head of the School of Sustainable Entrepreneurship, Eghard Kraine (Germany), emphasized the role of psychology to succeed in business, and the founder of Colaboritsi.com, a researcher at the University of Ontario Olena Mikhailenko-Blejon (Canada), spoke about organizational learning and the development of human capital in the post-industrial period.
Sandra Velazquez, practical psychologist, business coach, teacher Webster Vienna Private University (Austria) introduced the participants to the problems of psychological counseling for business efficiency
In the second half of the same day, the participants of the conference visited unique workshops from practical psychologists from Austria and Ukraine: Salvatore Jakomuzzi, Sandra Velasquez, and Igor Lebedinets, who shared tools of psychodiagnostics in business, decision-making psycho system, enriched the philosophy of business coaching.
On Saturday, March 17, the conference continued to work at the office of the international company Soft Serve, an interesting cognitive excursion was for the participants by the co-founder of the SoftServe Corporation Taras Kitsmey. A number of reports were also held, including from Renata Chuchmai, Vitali Kukharskyн, and Eckhard Kerain.
We will add that the most active participation in the organization of events was taken by teachers and students of economic and philosophical faculties, masters of the educational program “Psychology of Business and Management”. The co-organizers of the conference were the Higher Humanitarian and Natural Sciences School in Sandomierz (Poland), the Vienna private university of Webster (Austria), the Institute of Psychology named after GS The University of Turku (Finland), Kaunas University of Applied Sciences (Lithuania), Lodz University (Poland), Tajik State Commercial University (Tajikistan), Amman University of Al Ahliya (Jordan), Rzeszow University (Poland), Batumi Maritime State Academy of Sciences (Georgia), Sigmund Freud University (Austria), Society of Psychologists of Ukraine and SoftServe General Business Partner.
The coordinators of the conference were Natalia Zhyhailo, Doctor of Psychology, Professor, Head of the educational program “Psychology of Business and Management”, Marianna Kochan, Associate Professor of the Department of Management and responsible for the issue of conference materials Yuri Maksimets, Associate Professor of the Department of Enterprise Economics.
