“VÕRU TEENINDUSTOOTMISVALITSUSE KUI INSTITUTSIOONI PÕHIÜLESANDED 1945-1993” (juhendaja Lea Leppik, PhD).
LÜHIÜLEVAADE: Lõputöö eesmärgiks oli anda ülevaade Võru Teenindustootmisvalitsuse põhiülesannetest ja nende muutumisest aastatel 1945–1993. Teemakäsitlusele läheneti kahe uurimisülesande valguses ‑ püstitati küsimused: kas organisatsioon oli analüüsitaval ajajärgul staatiline; kas organisatsioon lähtus oma tegevuses turust. On levinud eelarvamus, et Nõukogude perioodi käsumajandusel oli küsitav mõju tolleaegsete majandusüksuste tööle. Töös leiti aga, et analüüsitav institutsioon oli juhtimiskorralduse ja eesmärkide osas dünaamiline ning arvestas tarbijanõudlusega.
Vaadeldava perioodi teeninduse olemus ja areng on senistes uurimustes ja analüüsides väga vähesel määral kajastatud valdkond. Suur osa sellest on teadusuuringutele tundmatu. Kui Nõukogude perioodi majandust on kajastatud, siis enamasti leidub uurimusi tööstusest ja põllumajandusest, pisut ka kaubandusest. Teenindus on jäetud peaaegu täiel määral tagaplaanile. Nimetatud asjaolu muudab lõputöö aktuaalseks ja see on toetuspunktiks edasistele võimalikele uuringutele.
Töö on oluline ja huvitav ka sellest aspektist, et empiirilises analüüsis kasutati statistilisi lähteandmeid. Moodustunud aegread annavad huvitava pildi Nõukogude perioodi teenindussektori majandusüksuse argipäevast, milles võib kahtlustada teatavat parteilist korrigeerivat suunamist, kuid mis teisalt ikkagi näitavad täiesti ehedat majanduslikku turureaalsust. Töö on huvitav lugemine neile, kes Nõukogude aja majandusüksusi uurivad ja analüüsivad.
Eneken Ulmas
lõputöö autor
TÜ Viljandi Kultuuriakadeemia
LÄBITUD ÕPPEKAVA: info- ja dokumendihalduse õppekava.
SUMMARY: in course of Soviet period services were provided in Estonia by institutions called service enterprises or services production enterprises. These were familiar terms for the people living and organizing their everyday activities during the Soviet years. Institutions were government owned, as all productive units and other institutions at the time.
The research topic of the present paper is The Formation, Tasks and Liquidation of Võru Services Production Enterprise. The goal of present work is to give an overview of the main tasks performed by Võru Services Production Enterprise (hereinafter referred also to as an Institution) and how did those tasks change in course of the period of 1945–93.
The present paper investigates and analyzes how the services were provided by the Institution. More specifically the paper seeks answers to the following research questions:
• did Institution be static in its activities, i.e. in respect of its goal achieving means and management principles in course of multiple years;
• did Institution consider market demand as its guiding force and applied this into the everyday service providing activity.
In respect of research questions it has to be mentioned that the Soviet service sector is a field of ample opportunities for further analysis. The present paper has been tightly focused on the mentioned research questions and thus sheds light only to certain part of this extensive research field.
The present research topic has distinctive importance because Soviet period economic history, especially service sector history, has not been researched and analyzed sufficiently. The new generation of people has not been in touch with Soviet period service sector and thus has no understanding how this sector operated and which were the advantages as well as disadvantages of this sector. The same time the new generation of people is the one shaping the face of Estonian economy today and they should have an understanding where our services sector comes from. Especially when taking that today’s Estonian economy is highly specialized on service sector activities.
Every institution is influenced by the surrounding environment. While analyzing the Võru Services Production Enterprise the present paper also gives a brief overview of the surrounding environment present in Estonia over the abovementioned period of time. Macro environment has been brought in from the aspects which are directly attachable to influence the existence, activities and development of the Institution.
From structural point of view the present research paper has been divided into three separate chapters. First two chapters give an overview of the development of the Institution as well as describe and systematize the information collected in course of the research. The period covered in the first chapter is 1945–62 and the period covered in the second chapter is 1963–93. The third chapter analyzes the empirical data on which the proof of market responsiveness is being evaluated in the paper.
Soviet period statistics has not been generally considered to be very accurate. However, the decision was made in the present research to use quantitative data in order to search for trends over the period of twenty years. Taking the primary input data (based on the forms no 1-bõt filled by the Institution) concerning the quantities of services provided as basis the assumption has been made that these numbers are having of minimal amount of Soviet ideological influence and reflect relatively accurately the volumes of different services provided.
This is important to note here that according to the research results the Institution has been going through considerable transformation from strategic, structural and legal perspective. This change over the years indicates that the Institution was not static in its management activities and marketing attempts. The change seems to be regular and more rule, than an exception. This in turn brings out that the general assumption usually made that enterprises under Soviet rule were static and market distant is not entirely true.
The advertising played a critical role in marketing strategies and tactics of the Institution. One of the main tasks of the Institution was to inform general public (i.e. potential customers) of its services as widely as possible. Special purpose promotional bulletins were published which listed the services offered as well as the location of outlets providing those services. These bulletins became more sophisticated as time passed and were constantly upgraded in respect of changing possibilities of the Institution.
From empirical perspective eight different service markets were analyzed and five different demand patterns were discovered:
– initial growth followed by later decline;
– stabile market with small fluctuations;
– smooth growth and stabilization;
– unstable market;
– fully declining market.
The Institution had a capability to satisfy all mentioned market patterns which proves, that the organization was dynamic (i.e. was not static) and followed the market trends (i.e. was market oriented). In order to be market oriented the Institution had to, and offered, over the time period new and upgraded services. New service improvements and launches seemed to be successful as organization developed and stayed on the market for a long period of time (even during Soviet period there were cases that some organizations disappeared or some branch offices closed down as a result of lack for demand – the Institution succeeded to prevent such a fate).
It has to be concluded hereby that the present research paper fills an important gap in analyzing recent economic history from the historical as well as market perspective. The institutions existed and worked at the time are largely under analyzed as well as their impact to our economic foundation is largely misunderstood. The present paper makes a small step in this gigantic work.