Starting from the fact that the units of local
self-government of the Republic of Serbia are not sufficiently oriented towards
innovations related to human resources and the environment, the application of
quantitative research tradition examines the positioning and understanding of
certain procedures and decisions of human resources management regarding the
functioning of the environmental protection system, on the one hand, and future
strategies for changing the given system, on the other. A series
of 105
face-to-face interviews were conducted during the whole of 2016 in 105 of the 191
municipalities in the Republic of Serbia. Examination of the attitudes of the
local self-government was carried out using a specially designed closed
electronic questionnaire.
The results of the multivariate regressions show that the most important
predictor of the possible improvement of the environment is the size of the
municipality. The remaining variables (e.g., human resources policy, human
resources service) did not have significant effects on the ability to improve
the environment. In more than half of local self-governments, there was no
clearly defined human resources strategy in the field of environmental
protection, an environmental protection service, an Environmental Action Plan,
as well as an employment plan for waste management in local governments, etc.
The research has shown that top managers of local governments agree that the management
of human resources in environmental protection represents a significant
opportunity to improve the quality of the environment. The results of the
research can be used to improve the organization of human resource competence
in environmental protection and the quality of a working and sustainable
environment in the area of local self-government.
Nikolić, N., Cvetković, V., & Zečević, M. (2019). Human Resource Management in Environmental Protection in Serbia. Bulletin of the Serbian Geographical Society, 100(1), 51-72.
