An important challenge for the future is focusing on sustainability in life and business. The three elements of sustainability (economic, environmental, and social), defined in 17 factors by the United Nations (UN) as the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), may, therefore, be the main drivers of business competitiveness and opportunity recognition. The main aim of the article is to identify the awareness level of sustainability and sustainable development goals in the context of business opportunity areas by analysing the results of a survey of organisations in six countries (Finland, Slovakia, Italy, Austria, Spain, and Turkey). A multilingual questionnaire, administered in six participating countries, was used as a collection tool to determine the organisation’s level of awareness regarding the SDGs. A research questionnaire was filled in by 238 respondents, providing a cross-cultural view of their attitudes, knowledge, and future interest in sustainability and the SDGs. The obtained results indicate differences in the approach to sustainability issues, the scope of knowledge, interest, competencies in sustainable development and SDGs, and the content of implementation of sustainability and SDGs in organisations in different sectors, regions and countries. Further statistical evaluation of the research hypotheses states the significant relationship between the two variables: sustainable strategy and the designation of a responsible employee in each organisation rs = 0.677 (α = 0.05). It is essential to eliminate the gap in the cross-cultural approach and knowledge in engaging with sustainable strategy and its implementation in current and future organisation activities in the context of sustainability and SDGs, in order to enhance opportunities for the growth of sustainability-focused entrepreneurship across different sectors and countries.

Abstract:Companies of today must have their processes set in a way to fully use their capacities. It especially means efficient work, slimming of processes, reducing costs on quality but not at the expense of customer satisfaction. Within improving its processes they must carry out such improvements which allow them to eliminate unnecessary waste in the production process. Waste occurs in every enterprise, therefore workers should constantly search for it and eliminate it to increase productivity and reduce costs. In uncovering waste it is important to note the fact that we are searching for issues and not their cause and the guilty party to punish. The ability to identify waste and eliminate its causes may be the source of great improvements. When identifying waste we distinguish between seven types of waste and we use different methods and tools of industrial engineering to eliminate them. Based on many years of experience from organizations analyses conducted through student theses and based on the reconnaissance we carried out within resolving a research task we can state, that they include e.g. 5S, SMED etc.

The current approach to a quality management system is based on principles that were specified on the basis of experience and good practices and approaches of major leaders in the field of quality management. Eight principles were defined that nowadays create the backbone of the implementation of a quality management system and are incorporated in the standards of ISO 9000:2005. The first principle is leadership. Leadership is a developmental process, which is based on the type of choice a leader makes (Mostovicz, Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 2009). Leadership leads managers to a fundamental approach that in turn lead to action, an example for others, understanding and flexible reactions to changes in their environment, the constant consideration of the needs of all concerned, including: customers, owners, suppliers, local communities and society as a whole. Their main task is to state the clear visions of an organisation's future, setting values and an ethical constellation of roles at all levels of an organization, to provide the staff with necessary resources and freedom of decision making for activities under their responsibility, to develop an open and decent communication, setting challenging goals and aspirations, using strategies to reach these aims. Consequently, leaders need to recognise that the choices they make for organisational activities have to fit their own worldview. Pursuing the fit between one's worldview and planned organisational activities ensures that leaders continuously improve their ethical behaviour (Mostovicz, Kakabadse & Kakabadse, 2009).

The issue of population aging is currently highly topical. In the context of population aging, age management comes to the fore. It addresses the management of human resources with regard to the age and potential of employees. The main aim of the article is to present the results of research focused on the importance of age management pillars from the perspective of employees from different generational groups in industrial enterprises in Slovakia. Based on established research questions and the research hypothesis, we can state that the perceived importance of age management pillars differs depending on the affiliation to the generational group. The research hypothesis was confirmed, and we conclude that there is a dependence between generational groups of employees from industrial enterprises in Slovakia and the importance of the age management pillars (the number of designations in a pairwise comparison). As a data collection tool, a research questionnaire was created. Collected data were evaluated based on a pairwise comparison of the perceived importance of age management pillars for employees. The research sample consisted of N = 384 respondents (employees of large industrial enterprises in Slovakia). When considering the research results, the use allows approaching the management of different generations of employees directly within the framework of sustainable human resource management. The research problem is also supported by resources and theoretical background.

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