Andreea Feraru-Prepeliță

Artificial intelligence (AI) and neuroscience technologies are transforming the workplace at an accelerating pace, offering significant gains in operational efficiency, talent identification, and workforce analytics, while simultaneously generating profound ethical, legal, and social risks. This paper examines their impact on human resources (HR) management from a rigorous interdisciplinary perspective, integrating recent statistical data from Romania and European Union member states with insights from organisational psychology, applied ethics, and machine-learning theory. We analyse concrete applications in recruitment, performance evaluation, diversity management, and employee well-being, providing empirical data that illuminate prevailing trends and disparities. Key findings include: only 13.5% of EU enterprises had formally adopted AI by 2024, with Romania recording a mere 3.1% adoption rate (Eurostat, 2025), contrasted with a striking ground-level reality in which approximately 35% of Romanian office workers already use AI tools regularly (Romania Journal, 2024). This divergence between formal enterprise adoption and informal employee use is conceptualised as a complex governance problem-rather than a mere technological lag-situated at the intersection of organisational psychology, applied ethics, and machine-learning theory, a unified framing that underlies the entire analytical framework of this paper. We systematically identify ethical risks - algorithmic bias in automated hiring (exemplified by Amazon’s now-discontinued recruiting engine that penalised women’s resumes), covert neuro-surveillance via wearable EEG headsets, and opacity in AI-driven performance appraisal - and ground mitigation strategies in both the EU AI Act (2024) and the emerging Neurotechnology Framework. As a novel contribution, we propose and elaborate a mathematical optimisation model in which organisations maximise a utility function combining productivity gains, bias penalties, and privacy risk costs, subject to formal fairness (equal opportunity) and neurorights constraints. The model, solved via Lagrangian methods, is demonstrated through a detailed case study of a hypothetical Romanian technology firm. This structured, data-driven, ethically grounded approach offers concrete guidance for HR professionals, corporate governance bodies, and policymakers seeking to deploy AI and neurotechnology responsibly and in compliance with EU law.

Background. In a time marked by globalisation, environmental challenges, and rising social expectations, European businesses face increasing pressure to align profitability with ethical responsibility and sustainable development. Purpose. This study analyses how organisational ethics and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are integrated into European business strategies and assesses their strategic impact on sustainability and competitiveness with a focus on Romania. The study analyses the conceptualisation of CSR, the evolution of sustainability reporting in Europe (2010–2025), compared regional models, and conducted a sectoral analysis that considered changes in EU legislation. Findings. The study applies a mixed-methods approach, combining quantitative analysis of CSR indicators, such as sustainability reporting rates, performance metrics, and policy data (2010-2025), with qualitative case studies and comparative assessments at the firm and sector levels. CSR has evolved from a voluntary, philanthropic concern into a strategic necessity. Across Europe, 82% of major firms now issue sustainability reports, while Romania’s reporting rate among large companies rose to 74% by 2022, signalling rapid but still incomplete convergence with Western standards and proving the persistence of significant regional differences. CSR and ethics improve innovation capacity, risk mitigation, stakeholder trust and are positively associated with long-term competitiveness. Implications. Corporate social responsibility and organisational ethics have become core drivers of long-term competitiveness in European markets. However, persistent regional disparities mean that Western Europe operates with mature and stakeholder-oriented corporate social responsibility models. In contrast, in Romania, social responsibility remains an emerging component of organisational culture, primarily driven by EU integration and regulatory pressures. For Romania, sustainable success will depend on deepening the transition from formal compliance to genuinely embedding ethical and sustainable business practices.

Extreme heat disrupts labour, infrastructure, and health systems, yet most response frameworks intervene after clinical impact is confirmed. This review analyzes documented cases across sectors and regions to determine where heat effects are first detected and why intervention timing varies. The analysis used institutional reports, epidemiological summaries and occupational data to map how early functional signals appear across systems. A conceptual matrix is proposed to permit action to be authorized at the earliest sign of functional stress, using mortality, productivity, service instability, vulnerability, and adaptive capacity as operational inputs rather than retrospective outcomes. The analysis suggests that heat becomes observable first through reduced work capacity or infrastructure strain, not through hospital data, and that systems with predefined activation criteria engage earlier and with less irreversible loss. The matrix provides a transferable basis for integrating occupational, infrastructural, and clinical information into a unified heat response mechanism. This approach supports a transition from post-impact validation to forward-based decision logic, particularly in settings where vulnerable workers remain outside formal surveillance.

This paper is a theoretical approach of the importance of functional strategies use by organizations in order to reach set targets. Functional strategies are closely linked to the changing competitive environment. Functional strategies may be the competitive advantage of each company. These strategies contribute to the implementation of the integrated business strategy of the company. They are the foundation for achieving the company's strategic intent. Functional strategies clarify the corporate and business strategies of a company or business unit. In contemporary times, these strategies offer a series of more specific details on the way in which key functional areas shall be managed in the near future by operations managers. Through functional strategies, managers make decisions and carry out actions acquiring higher competencies in different business functions (marketing, financial, operational, human resources) in accordance with corporate strategies and on business level. If corporate strategies and strategies on business level are developed by managers, strategies may be prepared for the functional areas of each business unit. The development of functional strategies may fluctuate from formal to informal. Within larger organizations that carry out complex operations there may be several strategies regarding each major function. Smaller organizations may usually function with lesser policies, and most of them may be informal.