THE PERCEPTION OF SIGNIFICANT ASPECTS OF PERSONNEL RISK IN THE MANAGEMENT OF SMEs

Research background: The issue of personnel risk management has received less attention from scholars than other types of managerial risks. Employees represent important capital for an enterprise, which can significantly influence its performance and success Purpose of the article: The aim of the study is to present and quantify significant factors of personnel risk in the SME sector. Part of the goal is to compare entrepreneurs’ approaches to these factors based on company size and the entrepreneurs’ education and age. Methods: The empirical research was conducted on a sample of 250 respondents from Slovakia via an online questionnaire. The statistical hypotheses were tested using descriptive statistics (percentages) and Pearson’s statistics (chi-square and Z-score). Findings & Value added: The research confirmed that personnel risk posed a significant business risk for SMEs, as up to 32 % of all the respondents rated this risk as unacceptable. Neither employee turnover nor employees’ error rate level represented a significant problem for SMEs at the time of the study. Only a small proportion of the respondents agreed with the opinion that their employees attempted to improve their performance, and that competition prevailed among them. The research demonstrated that some differences in entrepreneurs’ overall attitudes related to their age and education. Additionally, differences were identified in the entrepreneurs’ positive attitudes towards individual claims based on their education and age. Meanwhile, the results show that the issue of personnel management in the effective management of personnel risks in the SME environment could be an exciting issue for scientific research.

Analysis of institutional factors that cause gender pay gaps in Ukraine

Despite Ukraine’s commitments regarding non-discrimination and ensuring gender equality, the issue of gender pay gaps remains relevant. The aim of the study is to identify factors that cause gender pay gaps and assess their impact on wage differences at the institutional level in Ukraine. Based on the generalization of the research results, macroeconomic and microeconomic approaches to the grouping of factors that cause gender pay gaps have been identified. Based on the analysis of statistical data, it has been determined that gender occupational segregation exists in Ukraine, as most women work in low-wage economic activities; women are more likely to lead businesses with a lower level of wages. As the result of the assessment of the impact of various factors on wage differences, it has been found that gender pay gaps are the smallest in the public sector. Part-time employment in 2018 affected gender pay gaps by 3.8%. Based on the correlation factor analysis, the positive impact of increasing the minimum wage and innovative development on reducing gender pay gaps has been substantiated. The hypothesis regarding the impact of collective bargaining on gender pay gaps at the organizational level has been refuted. Promising measures have been identified that would help to create equal opportunities and reduce gender pay gaps, and thus to fulfill Ukraine’s commitments in the context of European integration.

Functional Unit for Impact Assessment in the Mining Sector—Part 1

More and more efforts are directed towards the standardization of the methods of determining the functional unit (FU) in a Life Cycle Assessment (LCA). These efforts concern the development of theories and detailed methodological guides, but also the evaluation of the quality of the FU obtained. The objective of this article is to review this work in order to propose, using a multiscale approach, a method for defining the FU in the mining sector, which takes into account all the dimensions of the system under study. In this first part, the emphasis is on identifying the shortcomings of the FU. The absence of a precise normative framework specific to each sector of activity, as well as the complex, multifunctional and hard-to-scale nature of the systems concerned, are at the origin of the flexibility in the selection of the FU. This lack of a framework, beyond generating a heterogeneous definition of the FU for the same system, most often leads to an incomplete formulation of this sensitive concept of LCA. It has been found that key parameters such as the end-use of a product or process, as well as the interests of stakeholders, are hardly taken into account in the specification of the FU.