A formal employee performance appraisal is regarded as one of the tools of human resources performance management. People, their knowledge and skills are currently considered to be the most valuable resource a company has. The article focuses on methods of employee performance appraisal in agricultural organizations in the Czech Republic. The first part of the article deals with the theoretical background of the term "formal appraisal" and employee performance appraisal methods as defined by Czech and foreign specialists. Further, the article describes, based on a questionnaire survey, employee performance appraisal methods that are considered important for the agricultural organizations in the Czech Republic. The aim of the article is to identify the current state of formal employee appraisal in a sample group of agricultural organizations and to test dependencies between selected qualitative characteristics. The outcomes show that the most commonly used methods of employee performance appraisal in agricultural organizations include predefined goal-based performance appraisal, predefined standard outcome-based performance appraisal and appraisal interviews. Agricultural organizations apply these methods in particular due to the fact that their findings are further utilized in other areas of human resource management, such as reward system and personnel planning. In statistical terms, dependency between the method of employee performance appraisal according to predefined goals applied by agricultural organizations and personnel planning (an area of human resources management) has been proven (p-value: 0.032, Phi coefficient: 4.578).

Employee performance appraisal is one of the most important human resource management tools. The first part of the article concentrates on the theoretical background. The second part evaluates the results of the quantitative survey. The aim of the article is to evaluate the use of formal appraisal of employees in agricultural organizations in the Czech Republic and to test dependencies between selected qualitative characteristics. The results of the survey show that only 12.3% of agricultural organizations (n = 332) use formal appraisal of employees. They also confirm that the application of the formal appraisal of employees in agricultural organizations depends on the size of the agricultural organization (p-value 0.006, Phi coefficient 0.151) and the existence of a personnel department (p-value 0.000, Phi coefficient 0.210). 49.1% of agricultural organizations did not consider formal appraisal important. Only 5.8% of agricultural organizations that do not use any system of formal employee performance appraisal plan its implementation, despite the fact that currently people are considered to be the most important strategic asset of any organization for achieving a competitive advantage.

Brand loyalty and customer involvement are two important concepts that help explain and understand a significant part of consumer shopping behavior. The aim of the present work is to identify factors influencing brand loyalty and customer involvement. A further aim is to consider subsequent segmentation of customers with respect to different degrees of brand loyalty and customer involvement. The research was focused on the field of Czech telecommunication services -mobile operators. Primary data were acquired through the method of questionnaire survey. In total, the questionnaire was completed by 340 respondents, of which 319 respondents owned their mobile phones for private purposes only. For more accurate interpretation of the identified factors the Exploratory Factor Analysis method was used. Four factors of brand loyalty were extracted, which account for 75 % of the variability of the original parameters: (1) Cognitive affective loyalty, (2) Trustworthiness, (3) Attitudinal loyalty and (4) Commitment and three factors of customer involvement were found to account for 71 % variability of the original parameters: (1) Social involvement, (2) Centrality, (3) Importance. High loyalty customers mostly have only one SIM card and 73 % of them use a tariff. In a further group of highly involved customers own from 80 % only one SIM card. This study forms part of a research programme investigating the influence of customer involvement on brand loyalty.

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At present, the real generator of wealth in society, as well as in the economy as a whole, is knowledge. Knowledge that is critical and precious for an organization (whose loss would represent a threat for the organisation) and that is valuable for competitors needs to be treated with care. Knowledge continuity management is, also, applied to preserve critical knowledge in an organisation in situations where its holder leaves to join a competitor or to retire. The article aims to identify the level of business continuity ensuring in organisations with an emphasis on knowledge continuity. Without employees with the necessary knowledge it is not possible to ensure business continuity. The article contains recommendations for anticipating threats and the elimination of their effects on human resources through knowledge continuity. The article is prepared on the basis of the evaluation of results of research conducted in organisations in the tertiary sector in the Czech Republic. The results show that the majority of organisations do not ensure knowledge continuity as a part of Business Continuity Management, which leads to a threatening of key processes in organisations. One of the conclusions of the article is that, by systematic ensuring of business continuity, it is possible to support the continuity of individual activities in organisational processes and, thus, support Business Continuity Management.