What HR decisions are crucial in turbulent times? An analysis of differences in manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies

The world finds itself facing unprecedented conditions as the global pandemic of the COVID-19 virus has led to fundamental changes in the global supply chains. This paper aims to assess the initial response undertaken by Central European companies in the early stages of the outbreak. The survey was conducted as a research method to collect data from a large number of companies. Since it takes time to assess long-term effects of the pandemic and related measures, various changes in supply chains are examined as the early results of the COVID-19 crisis and measures implemented by companies. The study examines how different economy sectors were changed due to this situation. The changes in operating volumes were identified as the most commonly used measures to accommodate new market developments. However, developing the new supply chain partnership was the most successful measure. This measure correlates with an increase in revenues and an increase in the number of customers. In some cases, disruptions in supply chains had positive effects on revenues as a reaction to the COVID-19 epidemic outbreak. Cross-country examinations found that all Polish companies implemented at least one new measure to tackle this crisis. Nearly 20% of Slovak companies and nearly 30% of Czech companies made no changes in their operations during the early stages of the crisis. However, overall, the supply chains in Central European countries turned out to be quite resilient, since most companies managed to survive the supply chain disruptions and in some cases even show signs of overcoming them completely.

Acknowledgement
This contribution was supported by the project No. 1/0757/18, “Consumer behavior in buying goods of daily consumption with an emphasis placed different contents of goods offered on markets of selected EU countries”.

Talents play a critical role in achieving organizational strategic goals and a higher level of performance in the healthcare industry. Therefore, the UAE government, which strives to provide world-class healthcare services, encouraged the adoption of talent management strategies and creation of essential capabilities for talent recruitment, development, and retaining. This study explores the talent management strategies, policies, and practices in multiple departments of a public UAE hospital. Moreover, it investigates required skills, competencies, and programs for those departments in the context of Industry 4.0. The study adopted a case study approach and qualitatively surveyed a purposive sample of 13 departmental managers, section heads, and supervisors who are experienced in employee management. The study found that talent management at the studied hospital is undefined and unclear in terms of strategies, policies, and practices. Furthermore, the study highlighted the need for employee encouragement, motivation, and engagement, as well as confirmed the critical role of management and leadership in facilitating talent management in the hospital. Accordingly, a UAE hospital could benefit from this study to develop its talent management policy and strategies that will guide managers in the Industry 4.0 era.

Acknowledgment
The nursing administration, nursing research committee at Tawam hospital and managers who responded to the study survey are acknowledged for the extension of support for the study.

This paper seeks to examine the role of factors originated from outside (economic, political, competitive environment and relationships) and within (entrepreneur’s attitude) the organization on the business risk perceived by entrepreneurs. To test the hypothetical relationships, an ordinal regression with two link functions was applied on an original dataset of 641 small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) operating in Slovakia and Czech Republic. The analysis revealed that not only economic factors can predict business risk, but along with them are political and competitive environments, relationship with supply chain actors and entrepreneur’s attitude. Consistent with prior research, it is found that an unstable economic environment leads the business to expose themselves to business risk. Also, a friendly regulation framework and quality education contribute significantly to reducing the level of risk. The research triggers the interest of policymakers who design policies aimed at improving the business environment by reducing the level of risk that firms face in doing business. Also, this paper is useful for managerial perspective, since entrepreneur attitude was found to be a predictor of business risk.