Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight

Bodziany, Marek; Ścibiorek, Zbigniew; Zamiar, Zenon; Visvizi, Anna

doi:10.3390/su132111864

Open AccessArticle

Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight

¹

Faculty of Security Studies, Military University of Land Forces, 51-147 Wrocław, Poland

²

International University of Logistics and Transport, 51-147 Wrocław, Poland

³

Effat College of Business, Effat University, Jeddah 21551, Saudi Arabia

⁴

School of Business & Economics, Deree College, The American College of Greece, 153-42 Athens, Greece

^*

Authors to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Sustainability 2021, 13(21), 11864; https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111864

Submission received: 26 September 2021 / Revised: 20 October 2021 / Accepted: 21 October 2021 / Published: 27 October 2021

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Sustainability in International Business: Talent Management, Market Entry Strategies, Competitiveness)

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Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications have had a devastating impact on the business sector worldwide, especially on the SMEs’ sector. By highlighting the evolution, and so the specificity, of the Polish SMEs’ sector, by reference to the concept of learning organization, this paper queried the sources of the Polish SMEs’ unsatisfactory response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications. A survey (n = 147) conducted among a sample of Polish SMEs revealed that the Polish SMEs, in general, did not recognize the salience of managerial skills in building their capacity to withstand a crisis. Creating growth opportunities, rather than accumulating and operationalizing their organization’s knowledge, were stressed as the way of navigating challenges. This paper offers an insight into selected factors that influenced Polish SMEs’ sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggests some ways of addressing problems thus identified.

Keywords: COVID-19; SMEs; Poland; crisis; learning organization; resilience

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MDPI and ACS Style

Bodziany, M.; Ścibiorek, Z.; Zamiar, Z.; Visvizi, A. Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight. Sustainability 2021, 13, 11864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111864

AMA Style

Bodziany M, Ścibiorek Z, Zamiar Z, Visvizi A. Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight. Sustainability. 2021; 13(21):11864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111864

Chicago/Turabian Style

Bodziany, Marek, Zbigniew Ścibiorek, Zenon Zamiar, and Anna Visvizi. 2021. "Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight" Sustainability 13, no. 21: 11864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111864

APA Style

Bodziany, M., Ścibiorek, Z., Zamiar, Z., & Visvizi, A. (2021). Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight. Sustainability, 13(21), 11864. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132111864

Note that from the first issue of 2016, this journal uses article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

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Managerial Competencies & Polish SMEs’ Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic: An Insight

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