VOLUME 6. ISSUE 1. APRIL 2021
Rethinking the role of HRM during COVID-19 pandemic era: Case of Kuwait
Nino Nutsubidze & Dusana Alshatti Schmidt
Pages: 1-12
Published Online: 15 March 2021
Abstract
The recent pandemic in a shape of the new coronavirus COVID-19 has disrupted global economies and businesses and had unprecedented implications on organizations around the globe. The dramatic changes that were introduced due to the pandemic have influenced human resources management extensively. HR professionals were asked to navigate in the ambiguous present and unpredictable future by managing and guiding employees to cope with stress and adjust with the new remote working practices in an unprecedented speed, rate and scale. The coronavirus pandemic has forced HR professionals to rethink and redefine their role as the organizations started adjusting to enforced social distancing and a new working environment that they may have never imagined. The paper uses qualitative HR expert interviews as a research method. The article tackles to unveil the challenges HRM has been facing in Kuwait, determines the influence the crisis has on HRM and introduces the recommendations for managing the crisis from HRM point of view. The qualitative research findings indicate that organizations, alongside the HR professionals, should channel their efforts towards driving people transformation and enabling change, introducing flexible working practices, relying on new, innovative technology and developing the culture of trust & empathy to deal with the current or future crises.
The recent pandemic in a shape of the new coronavirus COVID-19 has disrupted global economies and businesses and had unprecedented implications on organizations around the globe. The dramatic changes that were introduced due to the pandemic have influenced human resources management extensively. HR professionals were asked to navigate in the ambiguous present and unpredictable future by managing and guiding employees to cope with stress and adjust with the new remote working practices in an unprecedented speed, rate and scale. The coronavirus pandemic has forced HR professionals to rethink and redefine their role as the organizations started adjusting to enforced social distancing and a new working environment that they may have never imagined. The paper uses qualitative HR expert interviews as a research method. The article tackles to unveil the challenges HRM has been facing in Kuwait, determines the influence the crisis has on HRM and introduces the recommendations for managing the crisis from HRM point of view. The qualitative research findings indicate that organizations, alongside the HR professionals, should channel their efforts towards driving people transformation and enabling change, introducing flexible working practices, relying on new, innovative technology and developing the culture of trust & empathy to deal with the current or future crises.
Interrelation of working capital management and efficiency of the company
Sabina Mammadova
Pages: 13-22
Published Online: 15 March 2021
Effective management of working capital gives the company the opportunity to create its value by reducing the need for additional funding, increasing profitability, improving liquidity, and increasing the efficiency of operations. Working capital acts as a lever for the creation of value and value for its owners. An effective management model of working capital allows a company to gain competitive advantage and increase the well-being of shareholders. The relevance of the study is due to the need for quality management in the short-term aspects of the company's activities to achieve its maximum effectiveness. The purpose of this article is to determine the nature of the relationship between the components of working capital and the effectiveness of the company in the Azerbaijan market. Working capital management is an important aspect of management aimed at increasing the competitiveness of a company and creating value for business owners and key stakeholders in the long run. To achieve long-term goals, the company must be paid and provide a level of profitability, satisfying stakeholders. As part of the study, as an indicator of the quality of working capital, the length of the financial cycle of the company was used, as well as the period of turnover of reserves, accounts payable and accounts receivable. There was also a criterion for the effectiveness of the company - an indicator of return on assets (ROA). As a basis for research, a selection of Azerbaijan small and enterprises of various industries, except for companies involved in the financial sector and the service sector, from 2015 to 2019. The course of the investigation showed that there is a significant reciprocal relationship between the long financial cycle of the company and the effectiveness of its activities. In the period between the turnover of the creditor's indebtedness and the effectiveness of the company's activity, a reciprocal relationship was also identified. With the growth of the period of turnover of receivables, the efficiency of the company's activities falls. The periodic turnover of the company's stocks and the effectiveness of its activities are also reflected in the reciprocal relationship.
Economic globalization in the 21st century: A case study of India
Sonia Mukherjee
Pages: 23-33
Published Online: 17 March 2021
Globalization has integrated the economies of the world, especially the developing countries. With that, there has been considerable progress in economic globalization. Economic globalization, is defined as increased interconnectedness through higher trade volumes and enhanced capital flows. Factors such as better transport and communication facilities, relaxation in government policies, and advancement in technology (digitally and physically) have led to rapid economic globalization. In case of India, Multinational Corporations (MNCs) have contributed a lot towards the globalization process. The MNCs have attracted non-debt creating flows and imported technology for the benefit of the country. The liberalized government foreign trade policies have helped in increasing trade openness. In spite of the progress, numerous challenges in various forms such as lack of strong and efficient institutions, favorable redistributive and regulatory policies, domestic companies unable to compete with foreign MNCs, increase in the volume of foreign portfolio flows and MNCs adopting oligopolistic practices. Suitable policies and corrective measures can help the economy in matters of further progress in globalization.
Fiscal decentralization and economic growth in Ecuador: Panel data on provincial council and municipalities since a heterodox vision
Amílcar Marcelo Varela Enríquez & Gustavo Adrián Salazar Espinoza
Pages: 35-51
Published Online: 18 March 2021
The objective of the present investigation tries to determine the nature of relationship between fiscal decentralization and economic growth for Ecuadorian case from heterodox perspective. A panel data model is used, where the dependent variable being GDP pc (proxy for economic growth), and variables of interest and control (proxies of fiscal decentralization) are public investment, public consumption, the export ratio, poverty and inflation. The results indicate that greater fiscal decentralization affects economic growth, in which the public investment of the Decentralized Autonomous Governments (GADs) from the application of Organic Code of Territorial Organization, Autonomy and Decentralization (COOTAD) since 2010 has allowed its impact on the provincial GDP per capita to be stronger.
Adapting macro-prudential instruments to achieve monetary policy objectives
Victoria Cociug
Pages: 53-58
Published Online: 20 March 2021
Monetary policy is used by governments to adjust financial market conditions to the needs of economic growth. But its application has certain limits, the biggest one being the interest rate limit on monetary policy instruments, which cannot be lesser than zero (although, at least in the euro area, this is already the case). Can monetary authorities use other instruments under these conditions? Currently, in the context of the COVID-19 crisis, most countries have injected huge sums of money into the financial market to maintain the consumption capacity of the population. Can macro-prudential policy instruments manage the existence of money supply to prevent it from entering the financial speculation market and inflate speculative bubbles / this article aims to analyze the behavior of macro-prudential policy, which can be used to achieve monetary policy objectives. The research is theoretical and contains reflections on the need for efficient use of macro-prudential policy instruments in optimizing monetary policy.
The causes of school drop-out among scholars in rural areas
Bianca Bosoanca
Pages: 59-65
Published Online: 20 March 2021
One of the problems facing European countries is that of early school leaving among young people, especially those from rural communities. The phenomenon of school drop-out among school pupils is a reality that we are facing today’s Romania and is constantly increasing. The health crisis generated in the pandemic context of SARS COV-2, as well as the measures taken by Member States to reduce the spread of the virus, has been the context for intensifying this phenomenon. Romanian schools have become unable to have the infrastructure necessary to carry out normal school hours, because the space is an improbable one and does not obey the necessary measures of social distance. The passage of schools into the online regime in Romania has made the shortcomings of the Romanian school went worse. I will analyze this topic from the perspective of a qualitative analyses based on some interviews realized. The general objective of the research is to identify the causes of school drop-out among the existing rural schools and how was affected the rural pupils of moving school courses in an online system of teaching.
Economic analysis of fish traders access to formal finance in Cameroon
Mvodo Meyo Elise Stephanie, Fogne Mafongang Eden Herna, Ndam Lawrence Monah, Joe Assoua Eyong
Pages: 67-78
Published Online: 25 March 2021
One of the major constraints to fish trading is limited access to formal credit. The main goal of this research was to carry out an economic analysis of fish traders’ access to formal finance in Cameroon. This research makes use of primary data on total weekly income of traders, availability of surety, interest rate charged, loan payback period, experience, market information, and fish traders’ access to formal credit collected with the use of a questionnaire. The Logit model was used for analysis and the logistic regression done using STATA. Descriptive statistics and econometric estimation revealed that, educational level, total weekly income of traders, availability of surety, interest rate charged, loan payback period and experience are significant determinants of fish traders’ access to formal finance. This study therefore, recommends that government should intervene through the use of its specialized tools in creating agricultural banks with low interest rate and adequate loan payback period so as to improve financing of agricultural activities.
Causes and consequences of higher COVID-19 cases in India
Sabyasachi Tripathi
Pages: 79-90
Published Online: 29 March 2021
As of February 5, 2021, India ranks second in terms of total Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) with more than 10 million positive cases in the world. This has a huge negative impact on the poorer almost 30% of its population severely. In this backdrop, the present study tries to understand why the spread of COVID-19 cases is higher compared to other countries and its consequences on the economy. The study suggests that state-level higher total urban population has a positive impact on the total confirmed (or total active or total deaths) COVID-19 cases. However, the relationship between the state-level percentage of urban population and urban population densities with total COVID-19 cases are not robust. The relationship between state-level urban population and the total number of returned migrants is positive but the relationship between the state-level percentage of urban population and the total number of returned migrants to that state is negative. This indicates that states with the percentage of the higher urban population received a lower number of reverse migrations from urban to rural. Festivals such as Onam and the Vande Bharat Mission are also responsible for spreading COVID-19 cases in India. Furthermore, the lack of remote work opportunities is also supportive for the same. The consequences of higher COVID-19 cases are enormous that includes the significant number of job losses, an increase of higher poverty, and reduction of a higher amount of GDP. Therefore, for a quick recovery of the Indian economy, we need to promote higher state-level urbanization with higher opportunities for formal jobs and remote work opportunities.