Apart from causing a global pandemic, COVID-19 has also affected many industries worldwide, causing the economic position of businesses to weaken. This study provides an empirical assessment of the impact of COVID-19 on the economic position of micro, small, medium, and large business enterprises in Kosovo. While COVID-19 has been detrimental to many businesses, many of them have adapted to the possibilities, created by the new situation. Our findings indicate that almost all enterprises have reported a financial loss, and more than one-third have laid off employees. More than one-half of the enterprises have changed product delivery methods, and more than one-third have reorganized and changed their organizational structure. Meanwhile, around one-sixth of enterprises have changed their primary activity and have declared the need for new employees. Furthermore, surveyed enterprises have reported issues in retaining applicable contracts, supply of materials, trust in supply chain partners, and product placement, among others.
The purpose of this paper is to study the impact of the Human Resources Development (HRD) on the performance of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Kosovo. There is a large volume of research that support the positive relationship between HRD and the organizational performance. Most of such research was conducted in the developed countries and to a lesser extent in the developing countries (countries in transit). Through this study we confirmed the impact of the investments in various forms of HRD in the performance of the SMEs in Kosovo. This study provides empirical data that support the impact of training and development, career development and motivation of employees on organizational performance, but the results of this study do not support the impact of the education of entrepreneurs on the organizational performance.
This research deals with the professional preparation of the founders of the SME sector in Kosovo, and also aims to present the state of abilities and skills of the founders of SMEs. Also of interest in this research is the analysis of the skills of managers, founders of SMEs, what is their perception regarding the reflection of education in the SME business, namely what is their performance which should be reflected in the success and development of SMEs. The paper therefore aims to analyze the education and reflection of this education on the success of SMEs. Economic and social development in Kosovo, and elsewhere, depends on the success of SME owners and managers. This management structure will be able to move SMEs forward if they have an important factor such as education and experience in the sector where the SME operates. This paper explores the professional background of the founders, the size of the business structure, the experience of the founders in the field where the SME was founded, the age at the time of its establishment, the impact of technology.
The main purpose of this research is assessing the fundamental learning elements, considered as prerequisites for an enterprise to become a learning organization. More speciÞ cally, the research on the supportive learning environment, concrete learning processes and practices, and leadership that reinforces learning in Kosovan enterprises. This paper discusses how important and crucial is for enterprises to become learning organizations. A quantitative survey was conducted among 150 selected Kosovan enterprises. Learning Organization Survey-LOS is utilized as an assessment tool. This tool was chosen to assess the degree to which the Kosovan enterprises function as Learning Organization. The research results have highlighted that Kosovan enterprises have fallen short in implementing the Learning Organization since the scores were below the benchmark set up by Garvin et al. (2008). This study is likely to contribute to decision makers and leaders keen to improve the learning environment, learning processes and practices and to reinforce learning within their enterprises. Also, it pinpoints the areas needing improvement in the Kosovan enterprises in this context.
Stress has emerged as an increasing problem in organisations and companies over the recent decades. The workplace has become a place of rapidly changing forces, such as increasing competition, quality pressure, innovation and increasing pace of doing business. As a result, employees’ demands have increased dramatically and this has led to the creation of stress at work. Despite the awareness of the importance of occupational stress, the growing number of stress research and stress measurement methodologies at workplace, there are still major empirical gaps in Kosovo, where this topic is not explored enough. Therefore, the present research seeks to provide scientific contribution to the spread of stress among organisations in Kosovo and to identify factors that cause stress among public and private sector employees. To achieve this goal, as part of the Doctoral Thesis, a methodology of measuring stress has been applied in organisations, and the effects of stress on motivation and performance of employees has been studied. The study has shown that there are several stress factors in organisations, and managers need to undertake specific interventions to manage the occupational stress. Findings of this paper suggest that occupational stress is mainly caused by job insecurity, lack of information on developments in the organisation, work overload, inadequate treatment by the employer, destructive relations among colleagues, lack of general working conditions and resources. The findings also show that occupational stress negatively affects the employees, in particular by reducing employee performance, reducing work efficiency and decreasing their motivation. Furthermore, the results indicate that both public and private sector employees consider similar factors as stressful and experience relatively similar levels of stress. Based on findings from primary data collected through surveys and secondary data from international literature, it is recommended to undertake periodic stress tests, engage senior management level in re-designing jobs, increasing decision-making authority of the employees, reducing workload, reducing role conflict, and continuously providing training.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.