Emanuel Banutai

On-the-job management training and multicultural skills: the moderating effect of openness to experience

This study examined the effects of on-the-job management training on the incumbent public administration managers’ multicultural skills as a function of the managers’ openness to experience. Two hundred eighty four public administration managers from the European Commission and 26 member states participated in the study. The results indicate that on-the-job training (including the initial training, informal training, mentoring, coaching, and the availability of resources) improve the incumbent managers’ multicultural skills, but only when the managers are moderate or high in openness to experience. The multicultural skills of the managers who are high in openness to experience benefit from on-the-job training the most, followed by the skills of the managers who are moderate in openness to experience. When the managers are low in openness to experience, the increased amounts of on-the-job training actually decrease their level of multicultural skills.

Nothing to be done about them without them: The Slovenian National Police and Roma joint-training program

This research contributes to police policy formation aiming to confront Roma social and political exclusion in Europe. Since Roma are technically protected by European national constitutions, as well as by the European Convention on Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms and other human rights declarations, how Roma are handled by national governments, and in particular the police who may regularly encounter them in daily life, becomes an important part of whether the promises of democracy and multiculturalism can be achieved in actuality. This research outlines promises and challenges faced by a unique Slovenian joint-training program and suggests that a program which leverages relationships with the diverse communities that are Roma-identified can have benefits beyond merely educating police officers. The main methodologies used to document and asses the training program and its community effects were police focus groups and semi-structured interviews with past participants in the program, from both the Roma and non-Roma communities, as well as semi-structured interviews with other community stakeholders. The research shows that increased confidence in the police and community problem solving and dialogue may be attributed to a police focus on Roma-related joint training.

Policing a multicultural community: a case study of the Roma community in northeastern Slovenia

The authors analyze the level of implementation of community policing in Slovenia from the point of view of four sets: quality of police contact, perception level of crime and disorder, fear of victimization, and the level of community cohesion. The first part of the report presents the results of the research carried out on a sample of 51 members of the Roma community and 161 members of the non-Roma community in the municipality of Lendava in the northeastern Pomurje region of Slovenia. The results show that the implementation of community policing in the multicultural community studied was slightly above average, whereas statistically significant differences between the Roma and non-Roma population regarding community cohesion and perception of crime and disorder were discovered. Respondents from the Roma community reported perceiving disorder and crime in their environment less frequently, but they are less integrated into the community they live in compared to the non-Roma respondents.