Acta Univ. Agric. Silvic. Mendelianae Brun. 2015, 63(3), 1043-1050 | DOI: 10.11118/actaun201563031043

Employee Development in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Light of Demographic Evolution

Hana Urbancová1, Monika Hudáková2
1 Department of Management, Faculty of Economics and Management, Czech University of Life Sciences Prague, Kamýcká 129, 165 21 Praha 6-Suchdol, Czech Republic
2 Department of Small and Medium Enterprising, School of Economics and Management in Public Administration in Bratislava, Furdekova 16, 851 04 Bratislava, Slovak Republic

Trends in the job market taking worker knowledge, abilities and skills into account show that the demand for qualified, experienced workers has been rising and that the trend will continue into the future. Accordingly, companies must put a life-long learning and development strategy in place so that even older employees (55+), the proportion of whom has been rising in organizations and in the marketplace, may maintain their positions in the job market for as long as possible. This paper aims to assess how small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic reflect current demographic developments in terms of age management support and employee development. The data was obtained from small and medium enterprises in the Czech Republic (n = 432). The results show that age management is not an official primary focus of small and medium enterprises; but they naturally act in line with age management practices nevertheless. Any efficient solution to demographic development in the enterprises studied here, however, must be based upon an overall change of attitude coming from both entrepreneurs and company leadership focusing on young employees, as well as older employees themselves, where their ability to pass on their experience to younger coworkers is stressed. To maintain economic prosperity, continuous development is important for both categories.

Keywords: development, SME, age management, competencies, knowledge continuity, Czech Republic, organizations, survey
Grants and funding:

This paper was supported by Czech University of Life Sciences Prague - wide internal grant agency [No. 20141002 - Human resource branding using of the new strategic trends in organizations in the Czech Republic].

Prepublished online: June 28, 2015; Published: August 1, 2015  Show citation

ACS AIP APA ASA Harvard Chicago IEEE ISO690 MLA NLM Turabian Vancouver
Urbancová, H., & Hudáková, M. (2015). Employee Development in Small and Medium Enterprises in the Light of Demographic Evolution. Acta Universitatis Agriculturae et Silviculturae Mendelianae Brunensis, 63(3), 1043-1050. doi: 10.11118/actaun201563031043
Share...
Download citation
  • BibTeX (.bib)
  • Bookends (.ris)
  • EasyBib (.ris)
  • EndNote (.enw)
  • EndNote 8 (.xml)
  • ISI WoS (.isi)
  • Medlars (.medlars)
  • Mendeley (.ris)
  • MODS (.xml)
  • Papers (.ris)
  • RefWorks (.txt)
  • RefManager (.ris)
  • RIS (.ris)
  • MS Word (.xml)
  • Zotero (.ris)
    • Open full article

    References

    1. BEJKOVSKÝ, J. 2012. Age management and its position in the Czech and Slovak organizations. In: 18th IBIMA Conference on Innovation and Sustainable Competitive Advantage: From Regional Development to World Economies, 9-10 May. Istanbul: Bogazici University, 2212-2220.
    2. BERG, P. 1994. Strategic adjustments in training: A comparative analysis of the US and German automobile industries. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
    3. BERTSCHEK, I. and MAYER, J. 2009. Do older workers lower IT-enabled productivity? Firm level evidence from Germany. Jahrbűcher fűr Nationalőkonomie und Statistik, 229(2/3): 327-342. Go to original source...
    4. BOOKMANN, B. and ZWICK, T. 2004. Betriebliche Determinanten der Beschäftigung älterer Arbeitnehmer. Zeitschrift für Arbeitsmarktforschung, 37(1): 53-63.
    5. CIMBÁLNÍKOVÁ, L. et al. 2012. Age Management pro práci s cílovou skupinou 50+. Praha: Asociace institucí vzdělávávní dospělých ČR.
    6. CZECH STATISTICAL OFFICE. © 2014. Official web site. [Online]. Available at: http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu/statistics_explained/index.php/Employment_statistics/cs. [Accessed: 10. 4. 2014].
    7. ČADIL, J., PAVELKA, T., KAŇKOVÁ, E. and VORLÍČEK, J. 2011. Odhad nakladů nezaměstnanosti z pohledu veřejnych rozpočtů. Politická ekonomie, 59(5): 618-637. DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.811 Go to original source...
    8. EUROPEAN COMMISION. ©2009. Průvodce školením v malých a středních podnicích (MSP). Generální ředitelství pro zaměstnanost, sociální věci a sociální začleňování, Oddělení C.2. [Online]. Available at: http://ec.europa.eu/progress. [Accessed: 2014, April 10].
    9. FOJTŮ, M. 2011. Starší zaměstnanci jsou obohacením. Firmy si to jen musí uvědomit. [Online]. Available at: http://www.online.muni.cz/tema/2562-starsi-zamestnanci-jsou-obohacenim-firmy-si-to-jen-musi-uvedomit. [Accessed: 2011, September 1].
    10. GŐBEL, C. and ZWICK, T. 2012. Age and Prodictivity: Sector differences. De Economist, 160(1): 35-57. DOI: 10.1007/s10645-011-9173-6 Go to original source...
    11. HERTEL, Q. et al. 2013. Facilitating age diversity in organizations - part I: challenging popular misbeliefs. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 28(7-8): 729-740. DOI: 10.1108/JMP-07-2013-0233 Go to original source...
    12. LALLEMAND, T. and RYCX, F. 2009. Are older workers harmful for firm productivity? De Economist, 153(3): 273-292. DOI: 10.1007/s10645-009-9126-5 Go to original source...
    13. LIŠKOVÁ, S. and TOMŠÍK, P. 2013. Competency-based approach to human resources management. Agriculture Economics, 59: 496-504. Go to original source...
    14. LUO, L. 2012. Attitude towards aging and older people's intentions to continue working: a Taiwanese study. Career Development International, 17: 83-89. DOI: 10.1108/13620431211201346 Go to original source...
    15. LOVE, L. F. and SINGH, P. 2011. Workplace Branding: Leveraging Human Resources Management Practices for Competitive Advantage Through "Best Employer" Surveys. Journal of Business and Psychology, 26: 175-181. DOI: 10.1007/s10869-011-9226-5 Go to original source...
    16. MOHR, D. C., YOUNG, G. J. and BURGESS, J. F. 2011. Employee turnover and operational performance: the moderating effect of group-oriented organisational culture. Human Resource Management Journal, 22: 216-233. DOI: 10.1111/j.1748-8583.2010.00159.x Go to original source...
    17. MOHRENWEISER, J. and ZWICK, T. 2009. Why do firms train apprentices? The net cost puzzle reconsidered. Labour Economics, 16(6): 631-637. DOI: 10.1016/j.labeco.2009.08.004 Go to original source...
    18. NÁRODNÍ VZDĚLÁVACÍ FOND, o. p. s. ©2014. Projekce zaměstnanosti v odvětvích v období 2009-2020. [Online]. Available at: http://www.budoucnostprofesi.cz/chybejici-profese/zdroje.html. [Accessed: 2014, April 10].
    19. NG, E. S. W. and LAW, A. 2014. Keeping Up! Older Workers' Adaptation in the Workplace after Age 55*. Canadian Journal on Aging-Revue Canadienne Du Vieillissement, 33: 1-14. DOI: 10.1017/S0714980813000639 Go to original source...
    20. SILVERSTEIN M. 2008. Meeting the Challenges of an Ageing Workforces. American Journal of Industrial Medicine, 51(4). Go to original source...
    21. SKIRBEKK, V. 2008. Age and productivity capacity: Descriptions, causes and policy options. Ageing Horizons, 8: 4-12.
    22. SMRČKA, L. and ARLTOVÁ, M. 2012. Ekonomické aspekty stárnutí populace ve vyspělých zemích. Politická ekonomie, 1: 113-132. DOI: 10.18267/j.polek.826 Go to original source...
    23. UNIE MALÝCH A STŘEDNÍCH PODNIKŮ. ©2014. Official web sites. [Online]. Available at: http://www.sme-union.cz/index.php?p=kdo-je-SMEMSP. [Accessed: 2014, August 7].
    24. URBANCOVÁ, H. and VNOUČKOVÁ, L. 2014. Impact of demography on the knowledge continuity in organizations in the Czech Republic. Scientific Papers of the University of Pardubice - Series D, 1(30): 170-184.
    25. VETRÁKOVÁ, M., POTKÁNY, M. and HITKA, M. 2013. Outsoucing of Facility management. E + M Journal, 1: 80-92.
    26. ZACHER, H. 2013. Older job seekers'job search intensity: the interplay of proactive personality, age and occupational future time perspective. Ageing and Society, 33: 1139-1166. DOI: 10.1017/S0144686X12000451 Go to original source...

    This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License (CC BY NC ND 4.0), which permits non-comercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.


    Return to the content