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world countries. It became urgent to eliminate any waste and ensureproductivity and profitability as a means of survival. Businesses use severaloptions for this: they leave unproductive activities, reduce the number ofhierarchical levels, abandon functional organisational structures in favour ofmatrix structures, disseminate information faster to improve the decisionmaking process, and look for means to measure performance moreaccurately.An accompanying sign of changes in the economic environment is thegrowing competence and flexibility of people management, especially inthe business world, as it became a condition for the necessary adaptation tothe mentioned changes. It is an important tool for cost optimisation incompanies. The competence means ensuring the growing requirements forseveral new skills and abilities, i.e. the competences of managers andemployees, which are directly related to the rapid development of technologies.Firstly, it is the ability to abstract, which becomes necessary in relation to theincrease in dematerialised activities. Work is increasingly realised through therepresentation of reality on the screens of information and communicationtechnologies, rather than in reality itself. This is most evident in productionprocesses, which is no longer managed directly, but through computer screensand keyboards, and in this way information about the progress of theproduction process is also obtained. At the same time, new technologiesrequire a high degree of adaptability at the management and executive level interms of controlling work tools and devices, which consequently requires thepermanent development of individuals, even changes in their originalprofession, or alternating several occupations in the same work environment.Lelarge (2014, p. 67%u201368) says that new technologies force three degrees ofadaptability:%u25aa the ability to react quickly, because the need to make decisions in real timeand in the constant dialogue between a person and a technological device ismultiplying,%u25aa the ability to find time for the necessary reflection despite the fact thattechnologies require a certain regular rhythm of work,%u25aa the ability to be proactive (time to prepare) and post-active (need to makechanges as a result of feedback).The ability to manage the amount of available information in terms of sorting itaccording to the priority of the set goals also becomes an essentialcompetence. The necessity of individual initiative is also closely related,because in the changing economic context they have to move from the logic of872.3 Managing People in Europe