Rozália Sulíková’s research while affiliated with Comenius University Bratislava and other places

The prevention of occupational accidents is not only an important factor for productivity and profitability, but also for the job satisfaction of employees in any company. Striving for a high level of occupational safety is therefore crucial, as the shortage of skilled workers has not significantly abated permanently because of the Corona crisis and preventing accidents and maintaining the working capacity of existing employees ensures the functioning of the company. Organizations use various strategies to improve occupational safety performance, but not all strategies succeed. In particular, it also shows that there are differences in the average frequency of accidents among organizations with different numbers of employees. This paper explores the question of whether small and medium-sized enterprises, in contrast to large enterprises, pursue different strategies in occupational safety and whether these different strategies have an influence on the number of occupational accidents. To answer the research questions, the authors used the methods of standardised questioning according to Reinecke, literature analysis according to Webster and Watson, deduction, comparison, and synthesis. Based on a survey of 118 companies in the Federal Republic of Germany, it was found that the strategy of small and medium-sized companies differs significantly from the strategy of large companies. The strategies in the respective size classes differ above all in the aspects of degree of organisational structure, systematics, investigation of occupational accidents and existence of continuous improvement.

Fast changing businesses and developments such as the shortage of skilled workers, the Corona pandemic and the consequences of political instability are putting the needs of employees once again in the spotlight. And here also—and especially—the needs of the youngest generation, which is already conquering the labour market. The Organizational Culture makes a major contribution to motivating and retaining employees and the consideration of an Ethical Organizational Culture is becoming more and more interesting as the return to values and meaning is gaining relevance in these turbulent times. The importance of an Ethical Organizational Culture for young employees is in the focus of attention as this cohort seems to have special requirements to their employers.

The Covid-19 crisis has been changing the whole life and business world. Previous fixed structures used in the companies before the Coronavirus Pandemic were followed by improvisation. Home office, short-time work, hygiene rules and social distancing were enforced by governmental corona regulations.

Human and social relations, as well as organizational human resource activities are connected to each human constitution, cognition and psyche. Psyche, as part of human control center, called central nerve system if balanced is the basis of physical and psychological health, well- being, performance and productivity. Balancing is tangential issue in organizations, especially workplace, and helps managing at all levels of organizations in terms of selecting, supporting, motivating and training employees optimally and helps businesses designing products, building better workspaces and fostering healthy behavior (Oxford Economics: The future of work arrives early [1]). In a changing business world companies need the ability to assess which trends and developments are essential to sustain own workforce and accomplish the goal of staying competitive, and of being connected to employees and customers. Planning strategically with right stuff, qualitatively and quantitatively, is sufficient for the future. Previous fixed structures used in the companies before the Coronavirus Pandemic were followed by improvisation. Home office, short-time work, hygiene rules and social distancing were enforced by governmental corona regulations. Accomplishing goals requires personnel motivation, a process that is cross functional and goal directed while acting voluntary, moreover crisis requires motivation, based on consistency (Rump and Eilers in Strategy for the future—from trend scanning to strategic personnel planning, Springer, Berlin Heidelberg, [2]). It is the aim of the present publication to point out the possibilities of how to achieve this. © 2022, The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG.

Human error is considered to be the main cause of occupational accidents, accounting for up to 96%. Four models are currently cited in the german-speaking world to explain human error in the area of occupational safety. With the exception of the ABC model, which is regarded as the only holistic, scientifically proven and practicable model for explaining the causes of human error in occupational accidents, the other models are controversial or are not considered adequate when used in isolation. A quantitative literature analysis of 56 legal texts, regulations and official notices from the field of occupational safety made it possible to investigate which methods are currently required by law to prevent the causes of occupational accidents in companies. It can be seen that the elements of the qualification method, with a share of approx. 76%, are the measures most frequently required by law.

Accidents at work not only cause personal suffering for the employees affected, but also cause a great deal of damage to companies. The aim of the study was to find out how companies react to accidents at work, to what extent they investigate the causes and which models and methods they use to prevent accidents. In a survey of 92 companies with more than 50 employees, it was confirmed that although occupational accidents cause the loss of 29.6 million working days every year and the associated costs of approx. 11.85 billion euros, only approx. 73% of the companies investigate all occupational accidents with injuries in accordance with the legal requirements in their company. 76% of the companies record the causes of occupational accidents in accordance with the TOP principle, finding that 57% of accidents are caused by direct human error, 22% are due to organisational failure, 12% of accidents are due to technical failure and 9% of accidents are due to so-called fundamental conditions. The fact that 30% of the companies surveyed do not record any different variants of human error at all and only 33% record all variants of human error as the cause of occupational accidents shows that the in-depth analysis of the causes of occupational accidents in the area of human error is not yet widespread in German companies. In addition, the survey was able to determine that only about 50% of the companies purposefully apply scientific models and methods to prevent the causes of human error. Furthermore, it could be determined that approx. 25% of the companies do not sanction rule-breaking unsafe behaviour at all and only 2.2% of the companies state to sanction such behaviour with defined measures according to standardised escalation levels, although human error is considered to be the main cause of occupational accidents, shows that the systematic planning of positive and negative consequences as a consequence of human unsafe behaviour is hardly present in German companies.

Job satisfaction of employees of organizations is a determinant of their success, high productivity of employees. Creating such a positive work environment require high demands on the work of managers - on their approach to their subordinates, on the style of leadership. An individual approach, knowledge about the differences of the individuals requires a high level of emotional intelligence.

This paper attempts to address and critically examine a current concept of leadership in business studies: digital leadership. Researchers often say that this is a new leadership style and that there is a necessity for such a new style because the entrepreneurial environment has changed considerably with digitisation, but also with Industry 4.0, which to a certain extent coincides with digitisation, and the concept of a so-called vuca (Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous) world. The conclusion drawn here could be summarised as follows: a changed business environment forces companies to react, namely with a new way of leading – digital leadership. This study will show that such a concept is by no means new, as research claims, but rather hasbeeninexistence formorethan150years. What many researchers understand by digital leadership, apart from the demand for driving forward digitisation, coincides with the leadership principle introduced by Prussian General Moltke, known as ‘mission-type tactics.’ One of the aims of this paper is to demonstrate this. It will also be shown that digital leadership, in contrast to transformational leadership, can be acquired and that digital leadership cannot be classified in the opposition to transformational or transactional leadership, but is rather to be held and understood as a third variant. Only a prescriptive method based on under-standing seems to be a suitable method.

The effectivity of work performance is affected by the job satisfaction of employees. Most important determinants of this satisfaction include physical working conditions, social relationships, possibility of open and direct communication, etc. Shortcomings in this regard will be reflected in the quality of work performance.

In today’s economy, organizations are distinguishing themselves by qualified leaders. These decisively determine the success or failure of an organization and thus are an elementary part of personnel development. But before leaders can be effectively deployed, they need be identified as potentials and further developed. Hereby, it is of importance to identify the professional and interdisciplinary qualifications of leaders and to prepare them to success-fully meet future organizational requirements and thus to contribute to its success. The present work examines which modern approaches to leadership development predominate in both theory and practice. The result shows that there is an enormous wealth of opportunities that organizations can embrace. It would therefore make sense for further research to empirically investigate whether and which measures are known to the organizations and, above all, if they are actually being used effectively. This article is an excerpt from the author’s dissertation, with the subject “Modern Leadership Development as a Competitive Advantage of Organizations—Analysis of Approaches to Developing Leaders in Selected Financial Institutions”, published in 2020 at the Comenius University in Bratislava.