Employees In Small Enterprises Research Articles

Human resource management in small enterprises

Small enterprises with fewer than 50 employees form the backbone of the economy in many countries and significantly contribute to gross domestic product, employment, and exports. Given their importance and role in economic development, economies can benefit from a strong, productive, innovative, growing small enterprises sector. Employees play an essential role in the development of small enterprises. For this reason, it is important to examine the extent to which small enterprise owners pay attention to human resource management and its development. Previous research on human resource management has mainly focused on large enterprises, while there is little evidence on how small enterprises manage and develop their employees. This paper analyses the approach to human resource management in two small Croatian enterprises. Based on six semi-structured qualitative interviews conducted with three different groups of employees – the senior manager, the middle manager, and the senior staff, two qualitative case studies were conducted to gain a deeper understanding of the approach to managing and developing employees in small enterprises. The findings suggest that small enterprise managers know the importance of their employees and the need to support their future development. Although small enterprises implement and adapt human resource management practices according to their capabilities and limitations, it is evident that fostering and empowering employees is embedded in their organizational culture.

Effects of occupational health promotion interventions on health-related outcomes among employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals: A systematic review

BACKGROUND: Compared to workers of larger companies it is less clear what health promoting interventions might be beneficial for employees of small businesses and self-employed individuals. OBJECTIVE: Our aim was to critically appraise trials investigating health promotion programs among small business workers and self-employed individuals, by means of a systematic review. METHODS: We conducted a search of primary studies using MEDLINE, Web of Science, LIVIVO and the Cochrane library. Our assessment followed the recommendations of the Cochrane Handbook for Systematic Reviews of Interventions and PRISMA. RESULTS: We identified six trials including 5,854 participants from Asia, North America and Australia. Most were of moderate methodological quality, only one was of low quality. Some of the supervised psycho-educational lifestyle programs focusing on individual behavior changes showed benefits in terms of stress reduction and increased physical activity levels among small enterprise employees. CONCLUSIONS: There is a huge knowledge gap on evidence-based health promotion interventions for self-employed and for small business workers, especially in Europe.

Psychological well-being of small enterprise employees: a multi-theoretical perspective

PurposeThis paper aims to suggest a multi-theoretical explanation using a success story to explain psychological well-being (PWB) among employees of K.C, a small enterprise found in Uganda, a developing country in Africa.Design/methodology/approachThe study used qualitative methodology. Based on in-depth interviews with K.C employees, a story was developed describing the practical experience, focusing on the context, actions, results and lessons learnt. Regarding the sample size, the saturation point was attained on the seventh participant.FindingsFindings reveal that employees that possess psychological capital set targets and generate avenues that allow them to achieve set goals, with personal initiative that makes them proactive to accomplish work tasks and individual adaptability that enables them to adjust their emotions and behavior to fit in a complex working environment, which makes them to think, feel and act positively. Furthermore, several theories, including broaden and build, personal initiative and complex adaptive systems theory, explain the manifestations of PWB of employees in small enterprises.Research limitations/implicationsThe study was limited by focusing on the context of a small enterprise. Future research may investigate other study contexts whose findings might be different. In addition, the study being hypothetical lacked statistical testing. It would be a meaningful effort if future studies statistically tested the suggested model. Irrespective of the limitations, the findings of this study remain significant.Practical implicationsIn practice, employees may replicate these findings to nurture PWB which eventually contributes to enterprises’ success. This could provide answers to the psychological challenges experienced by employees of small enterprises, especially in the African developing countries like Uganda where this is a major challenge. Specifically, the workers of K.C enterprise may depend on their PWB to deal with workplace challenges and sustain the enterprise’s performance.Social implicationsSocially, there is need to embrace positive social relationships among employees at the work place which will translate into well-being of society.Originality/valueThis paper is exceptional because it uses a success story showing practical experiences of how PWB of employees in small enterprises is nurtured in Uganda. In addition, a multi-theoretical perspective is used to explain the manifestations in the story, which is the greatest contribution of this paper. Further, a conceptual model is still proposed, depicting psychological capital, personal initiative and individual adaptability as antecedents of PWB.

Особенности оценки профессиональных рисков на малых предприятиях

Due to their economic and productive instability, the small businesses very rarely become the objects of control by the state inspection services, in particular, in the field of ensuring occupational safety. Newly created enterprises are provided by the state with tax benefits and other types of state preferences aimed at support and development. Under various government programs, small businesses can be exempted from any inspections for up to three years. At the same time, due to concessions, the occupational safety system in these enterprises often suffers, such a superior attitude can lead to the following consequences: complete lack of understanding and responsibility for occupational safety in their organization; getting used to and subsequently ignoring the rules of occupational health and safety; gaps in knowledge in matters of ensuring the safety of their employees; increasing risks to the life and health of the employees. The authors of the article came to the conclusion that in order to eradicate the above consequences, one should start with the latter, namely, the study of risks for employees in small enterprises. The purpose of the article is to analyze the existing methods for assessing production risks for the life and health of employees and their application in small businesses entities. It is determined that the risk assessment system has improved in recent years. A large number of different methodologies and methods of risk analysis was developed and practically proven, but at the same time it was found that their use in small enterprises due to their characteristics is not always possible. As a result, a methodology was recommended for assessing production risk in the small enterprises synthesized based on other methods. This methodology considers the quantitative indicators of dangerous actions, hazardous working conditions and their ratio to the number of implemented events based on the severity of the harm caused to health. The proposed risk analysis methodology was practically tested in several small enterprises with various types of activities and confirmed its efficiency.

Occupational Hazards encountered by employees in Small Enterprises in Bengaluru

In today’s industrial scenario we see that small industrial businesses are those struggling to follow all the safety mechanisms given in The Karnataka Factories Rules,1969.This is because post privatization its been observed that many small welding shops, car garagesand two wheeler repair shops small eateries doing open air tandoor, tanning and treatment of leather, Dye manufacturers all employing five to twentyfive labourers fall under the employment in small bnusinesses( as per 1955 Small Scale Industry Act not employing more than 50 workers ) Today SSI is known as the MSME micro small and medium enterprises, falling under the purview of enterprises under the MSME Act of 2006.The sample size taken was 150 and simple random sampling was done. The areas taken for study were JC road, Tannery Town,Yeswanthpur ,Yelahanka and PeenyaDasarahalli Industrial area. The research gap showed that regarding the nature of work using harmful chemicals, dyes, high risk machinery such as welding was a part of the job. Occupational safety was mandatory but was it enforced? Most of the smaller shops showed that medical facility was nil and all the protective gear was mostly compromised. Only bigger enterprises footed medical bills and provided basic protective gearfor their employees. The research methodology consisted both primary and secondary data. The study was basically a primary data analysis.Conclusion indicates that providing basic protective gear for workers will go a long in saving life and limb from hazardous chemicals and accidents during work.

Supporting users in data disclosure scenarios in agriculture through transparency

ABSTRACT Business collaboration in the era of digital transformation requires the exchange of operational data. Since data are hardly controllable once they have been published or shared with others, it is highly important that users are clearly informed about who has access to which data and how certain settings can prevent the disclosure of sensitive data. However, giving end users more control over their data through increased transparency could also lead to information overload. This is particularly true in the field of agriculture, where tight schedules put pressure on employees of small enterprises. We conduct an empirical prestudy with 52 German farmers to investigate current data sharing scenarios. From these insights, we derive requirements and a concept for data sharing solutions providing data flow transparency for users. To investigate the behavior of users and the effects of transparent UI controls, we evaluate a prototype with 18 persons. Our evaluation shows that farmers demand flexible and secure tools that adjust to their workflows. Also, data should be stored and processed locally, granting farmers data sovereignty. Although the controls require additional effort, the evaluated transparent controls for data disclosure are easy to use and raise user awareness.

ОЦІНКА РІВНЯ РОЗВИТКУ МАЛОГО ПІДПРИЄМНИЦТВА В РЕГІОНАХ

The article offers a methodical approach to determining the level of small business growth in the regions of Ukraine, based on the calculation of the integrated index. Small business is an important component of region’s economy, but its role and importance in socio-economic development vary depending on the heterogeneous industrial development of the regions. There is a need for a comprehensive assessment of the level of small business development to identify growth points and areas of support. In author’s opinion, the indicators of small business development currently used to determine the effectiveness of the implementation of regional programs to support small business do not reflect the impact of small business activities on the regional development at all. The author focuses the reader’s attention on determination of the level of development of small business and its role in the economy of the regions using the method of integrated index. This index is taken into consideration the extensiveness, intensity and social significance of small business. The coefficient of extensiveness is the share of small enterprises in the total number of enterprises in the region; the intensity coefficient is the share of the volume of products (goods, services) sold by small enterprises in the total volume of products (goods, services) sold in the region. The social significance of small business is calculated as the geometric mean of the product of the share of employees in small enterprises in the total number of employees in enterprises of the region and the share of personnel costs of small enterprises in total personnel costs of all enterprises in the region. The calculation of the general index of small business development in the regions is provided in the article. It allows to draw conclusions that small business has the greatest impact on the development of Kherson, Chernivtsi and Kirovohrad regions, and the least - on the development of Donetsk and Dnipropetrovsk regions. The article concludes by outlining prospects for further research. The analysis of indicators of extensiveness, intensity and social significance of small business makes it possible to highlight the problems that hinder its successful growth in the regions and require concentration of efforts for urgent solution.

Сравнительный анализ показателей средней численности работников малых предприятий (включая микропредприятия) в Российской Федерации за 2011-2019 гг. по отраслям

Сравнительный анализ показателей средней численности работников малых предприятий (включая микропредприятия) в Российской Федерации за 2011-2019 гг. по отраслям

Methods of Machine-Aided Training in Small Business: Content and Management

The article provides key characteristics of standard methods of machine-aided training used by companies in operative business processes. Within the frames of home orientation to the innovation business development, digital economy and infrastructure for data storage the human factor becomes essential. The use of methods of artificial intellect by employees of small enterprises faces obstacles that imply personnel ignorance concerning strategic functionality of available today algorithms of business processes. Small commercial enterprises encounter the problem that they do not know the key instrumental principles of functioning and use of machine-aided training algorithms. At the same time business processes of the enterprise could be seriously improved through implementing algorithms of machine-aided training. The authors conducted a formal and analytical review of potential means for small business optimization. They described types of algorithms and models of machine-aided training, such as multiple regressive model, logistic regression, etc., as well as instrumental problems of their use by enterprise analysts and developers. Recommendations were prepared aimed at use of these models in order to raise the efficiency of small commercial enterprises.

Analysis and Implementation of Intelligent Commuter Bus System and Its Application Perspectives

At present, many enterprises are continuously facing the problem that commuting costs are high and some employees of small enterprises have no commuter buses to use. In this paper, we proposed the intelligent commuter bus system by integration of intelligent community and industrial park resources to utilize commuter buses more effectively and conveniently. This system was developed for intelligent commuter demand. We designed the five-layer architecture to achieve intelligent commuter platform. To effectively reduce the influence of the stochastic ant colony algorithm on the commuter bus route optimization and reduce the complexity of solving the commuter bus optimization problem, this paper designed a commuter bus route optimization algorithm based on Dijkstra and ant colony algorithm. For comparison, this paper made concurrent testing of the developed system, and evaluated its application effect, adaptability, which helps to further validate the approach and application system development and estimate its perspectives.

Health problems among employees in small enterprises as a result of improper OHS management

Occupational health problems are rarely underestimated both by employers and employees themselves. Lack of awareness about the impact of the environment on the health of the human body results in more frequent accidents, the sources of which are seen in the health problems of employees. Lifestyle, as well as the management of occupational health and safety, affect work quality and safety. It this paper ailments that have a significant impact on the health of the employee, which are the result of improper management of occupational safety and health in small enterprises, have been presented. The obtained results also indicate factors that cause various health problems among employees, with particular emphasis on stress symptoms.

Organizational structure design of controlling investment and innovation processes in the subjects of small entrepreneurship

The paper investigated the possibilities of using the traditional organizational structures of economic entities for solving the functional issues of investment and innovation. It was revealed that the greatest challenges of innovation and investment processes in small enterprises, corresponds matrix structure that allows use of the potential owners, managers and employees of small enterprises, which can act in one person, within not one but several innovative and investment projects. It is proved that the formation of matrix organizational structures in small enterprises should be carried out in the direction of selection and subordination linear functional elements and design of organizational structures, establishment of a mechanism of dual subordination on the basis of bilateral ties and orientation to minimize risks and ensure the best innovative features of the investees. To modify the basic linear structures investment management innovation in the subjects of small business prompted the creation of micro focus groups among owner-managers of small companies and key line departments.

A Review of the Literature on Preventive Occupational Health and Safety Activities in Small Enterprises

The scientific literature regarding preventive occupational health and safety activities in small enterprises has been reviewed in order to identify effective preventive approaches and to develop a future research strategy. During the last couple of years, there has been a significant increase in the number of studies of small enterprises, but the research community is scattered between many different disciplines and institutions. There is a lack of evaluation of intervention studies, both in terms of effect and practical applicability. However, there is sufficiently strong evidence to conclude that employees of small enterprises are subject to higher risks than the employees of larger ones, and that small enterprises have difficulties in controlling risk. The most effective preventive approaches seem to be simple and low cost solutions, disseminated through personal contact. It is important to develop future intervention research strategies which study the complete intervention system: from the intermediaries through dissemination methods to the resulting preventive activities of the small enterprises.

Preventive services in occupational health and safety in Europe: developments and trends in the 1990s.

This article outlines the legislative requirements for preventive services in health and safety in 13 European countries and considers the implementation and coverage of such services. The author identifies the predominant models of preventive services operating in the European Union, then assesses the influence of the E.U. Framework Directive 89/391 on the development and integration of preventive services and the role of workers in their organization and accountability. Significant differences exist in the extent and functions of preventive services in European countries, including differences in coverage between southern and northern European countries, different degrees to which employees in small enterprises and large enterprises are covered by preventive services, and overall differences in legislative approach.