Job challenges are hindrances too: examining experiences of managers and employees in Finnish SMEs
Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development
ISSN: 1462-6004
Article publication date: 13 January 2022
Issue publication date: 20 September 2022
Abstract
Purpose
The study aims to explore job demands experienced by employees and managers in micro-enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). Drawing on the job demands framework, the study discusses the experienced demands from the perspective of challenges that create opportunities for learning and achievement and hindrances that create obstacles for work. The study builds on the idea that the same demand can be perceived both as a challenge and a hindrance. That approach opens a path to responding to challenges by reformulating working practices and removing hindrances by designing, developing and crafting jobs and tasks.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors analyzed open-ended survey responses (N = 306) to study experienced job demands in 50 micro-enterprises and SMEs, how the perceived demands differ between employees and managers and whether they represent challenge or hindrance demands.
Findings
The authors identified 17 job demand categories most including both challenge and hindrance demands. Time management and prioritization was the most central challenge and hindrance category for both employees and managers. For employees, sales and stakeholder relationships represented the second largest challenge category and communication and information flow was the second largest hindrance category. For managers, the second largest challenge and hindrance categories were organization and management of activities and the fragmentation of work, respectively.
Originality/value
By focusing on employee experience, the achieve a more nuanced understanding of the SME context, which has been dominated by managerial evaluations. The study also advances the discussion on job demands by extending our knowledge of demands that may be experienced both as a challenge and a hindrance.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
Funding: The study was funded by the European Social Fund.
Citation
Vanharanta, O., Vartiainen, M. and Polvinen, K. (2022), "Job challenges are hindrances too: examining experiences of managers and employees in Finnish SMEs", Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development, Vol. 29 No. 6, pp. 975-992. https://doi.org/10.1108/JSBED-07-2021-0274
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
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