Analysis of Practices to Increase the Workforce Agility and to Develop a Sustainable and Competitive Business

The current business environment is volatile and complex. Companies must constantly identify creative and environmentally friendly solutions. The emphasis on employees and workforce agility has become an attribute of sustainable and competitive organizations simultaneously. The purpose of our study...

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Published inSustainability Vol. 12; no. 9; p. 3545
Main Authors Munteanu, Anca-Ioana, Bibu, Nicolae, Nastase, Marian, Cristache, Nicoleta, Matis, Cosmin
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published Basel MDPI AG 01.05.2020
Subjects
Business competition
Chi-square test
Competitive advantage
Decision making
Employees
Human capital
Human resources
Hypotheses
Intellectual capital
Ranking
Social sciences
Statistical analysis
Statistical tests
Statistics
Success
Sustainability
Sustainable development
Talent management
Workforce
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Summary:The current business environment is volatile and complex. Companies must constantly identify creative and environmentally friendly solutions. The emphasis on employees and workforce agility has become an attribute of sustainable and competitive organizations simultaneously. The purpose of our study is to validate the hypothesis that there is a direct positive relationship between ranking as important top position of human resources in a company and the extent to which specific practices to increase workforce agility were adopted. Our survey is based on an original questionnaire, with a 92% response rate. We focused on large, independent decision-making companies from Western Romania, for which the implementation of sustainable principles is more difficult than for multinationals. The statistical analysis was performed using SPSS23 (Statistical Package for the Social Sciences). The results indicate an average extent of the adoption of management practices aiming to increase workforce agility (45%) and a ranking of human resources in first place as the most important resource (31.7%). Using the Pearson Chi-Square Test, the hypothesis was confirmed (significance = 0.026). Our main conclusion is that if managers intend to develop a sustainable and competitive business, they should attribute a strategic role to employees and adopt practices to increase their agility.
ISSN:2071-1050
2071-1050
DOI:10.3390/su12093545