Factors impacting SME business resilience post-COVID-19

The ability of an organization to respond to a crisis with agility is vital for business leaders to maintain business continuity. Our paper examined how business owners responded to the challenges caused by the pandemic. Using online surveys for data collection, we investigated a critical agility issue of supply chain risks through understanding the interrelationship of various business capability factors. Partial least squares path modeling (PLS-PM) was applied to a sample of 220 participants who were owners of micro, small, and medium businesses in Western Australia. The findings showed that the businesses’ efficiency, financial strength, and flexibility in sourcing affected the businesses’ supply chain risks negatively. More support for labor productivity, asset utilization, waste elimination, financial reserves, portfolio diversification, and credit access needs to be introduced to enhance the resilience of the business supply chain. This paper is novel, as we used the data collected in Western Australia, where the SMEs were still affected by the global supply chain disruption but lacked protracted lockdowns, as had occurred nationally and globally during the COVID-19 period

Flexible work arrangements: Accessibility in a university environment

Attraction and retention of highly qualified employees has become an area of concern for Australian universities. It has been suggested that flexible work arrangements can be utilised to achieve this goal once the factors affecting their uptake have been identified. This mixed-method study of 495 academic and general staff at an Australian University investigated the utilisation of flexible work arrangements. The findings indicate that employee job type is significantly related to the take up of flexible work arrangements as well as employee satisfaction with current work-life balance. Academic staff appear to have limited ability to access flexible work arrangements due to their increasing workload, and were significantly less satisfied with their current work-life balance than their general staff colleagues. There are implications arising from this research for all stakeholder groups

Développement des associations fixes de médicaments dans l'Union Européenne (aspects réglementaires)

CHATENAY M.-PARIS 11-BU Pharma. (920192101) / SudocSudocFranceF

‘Shut up and bill’: Workplace bullying challenges for the legal profession

Competition, work intensification and requirements for efficiency are some of the hallmarks of the modern work environment. Pressures in such settings can result in stress caused by long work hours, a lack of work–life balance and interpersonal conflict. The legal profession is prone to negative impacts due to its highly competitive environment. This, coupled with established hierarchical structures, significant power imbalances and pressure to measure work input rather than output (billable hours), can create ‘toxic’ settings. This paper reports the findings of a study of dignity and respect in the legal profession. Results indicate that many of the issues arise due to negative workplace cultures brought about and perpetuated by work practices and the leadership of the firm. Often the prevailing culture of intense competition, and a win-at-all-costs mentality, has negative repercussions for the security and standing of individuals. Those with position and power use work practices such as billable hours to push others to perform at extraordinary levels, in turn adversely affecting their well-being, quality of work life and tenure in the organisation or profession. The way forward would require a multi-pronged approach and cooperation and collaboration by the relevant stakeholders: regulators, professional associations, institutions and individuals