ABSTRACT
The COVID-19 pandemic caused a continuous health crisis from March 2020 until today. The health crisis due to the imposed restrictions caused socio-economic crisis and disorders in almost all over the world. Greece is not an exception in these new conditions that the health crisis has imposed. Through a structured questionnaire, distributed to young people, we investigate how the health crisis affected Greek people. Specifically, we study the respondents' opinions regarding the anti-dispersion prevention measures, their feeling of security and who is responsible for the pandemic. By means of descriptive statistics and more advanced statistical techniques, we aim to verify or disprove the view of Naomi Klein that a society in deep crisis is in a ‘state of shock', unable to react. © 2022, Bucharest University of Economic Studies. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
In today's rapidly changing environment, leadership style and employee motivation are considered as crucial factors for organizations to operate effectively and achieve their missions and objectives. The pharmaceutical industry makes a major contribution worldwide, and in Greece particularly, not only to public health and welfare but also to the economy and employment. The annual turnover of pharmaceutical production in Greece was estimated over one billion euros for the years 2018-2019 (Tsakanikas et al., 2020), and more than 23,300 employees were employed in the sector in 2020, demonstrating a significant increase (9.8%) compared to the previous year (SFEE-IOBE, 2020). In this study, leadership and motivation in the Greek pharmaceutical industry is studied via an empirical analysis. The primary data, collected via questionnaires answered by pharmaceutical industry employees located in Greece, aimed at identifying the impact that leaders, communication, and motives have on employees' performance in the context of the altered and volatile environment the COVID-19 pandemic - which unavoidably changed people's attitude, needs, and ways of communication - has shaped. A general framework was indeed identified (democratic and transformational leadership);however, characteristics of other distinct leadership styles were also observed. Managers' opinions about themselves regarding their contribution to employees' effectiveness were positive but did not achieve the highest grade. Subordinates were positive in this regard, albeit with more tending to agree than strongly agree. Similar findings were extracted regarding motivation. Communication was affected by the new environment that the COVID-19 pandemic has shaped. Face-to-face communication was considered more effective than distance communication;however, employees had positive feelings when they worked remotely and felt more flexible. Finally, according to the above, the overall outcome was positive, yet still indicates that there is room for improvement or for adaptation to the new situation. © 2022 Mykolo Romerio Universitetas. All rights reserved.
ABSTRACT
The purpose of this research is the study of the effects of digital transformation on employment and their possible correlation with the labor deficit. The labor deficit in European countries, and especially those of the European Union, is studied. Secondary data regarding Information and Communications Technology (ICT) specialist skills, the employment rate, and the Digital Economy and Society Index (DESI) are collected and analyzed. Data analysis reveals that, on one hand, the labor deficit is undeniable;however, the greatest deficit relates to the lack of digital competences. On the other hand, with rapid technological advancements and the introduction of Artificial Intelligence to the production process, a new environment will be formulated both at the economic and social level. This study is based on the secondary data of specific indexes;in future research, an empirical study will be conducted in European countries to study labor digitalization in depth, especially in the post-COVID-19 era, as this pandemic has increased digitalization in all countries. The adoption of new legislative and prescriptive frameworks is necessary to address the labor deficit. It is necessary to take measures both at the European and national level, as well as to effectively utilize programs and initiatives that will protect the preexisting workforce and will establish the ground for new employees. This can be activated mainly through training, either in the form of new education (reskilling) or re-education (upskilling). The originality of this research is based on the fact that it explores the impact of ICT Skills on employment and the dependence between ICT Skills and DESI. Its value is in revealing the structural problems of the labor market in Europe and the cross-country comparison of how digitalization can help to solve the labor deficit problem in European countries. © 2022 Mykolo Romerio Universitetas. All rights reserved.