The COVID-19 pandemic and its implications have had a devastating impact on the business sector worldwide, especially on the SMEs’ sector. By highlighting the evolution, and so the specificity, of the Polish SMEs’ sector, by reference to the concept of learning organization, this paper queried the sources of the Polish SMEs’ unsatisfactory response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications. A survey (n = 147) conducted among a sample of Polish SMEs revealed that the Polish SMEs, in general, did not recognize the salience of managerial skills in building their capacity to withstand a crisis. Creating growth opportunities, rather than accumulating and operationalizing their organization’s knowledge, were stressed as the way of navigating challenges. This paper offers an insight into selected factors that influenced Polish SMEs’ sector during the COVID-19 pandemic, and suggests some ways of addressing problems thus identified.

Włochy to państwo, w którym historia emigracji jest dłuższa od historii imigracji. W 1976 roku przypływ ludności z Azji, Afryki i Europy Wschodniej do tego kraju zrównoważył odpływ ludności włoskiej i od tego czasu zjawisko imigracji zyskiwało we Włoszech na znaczeniu. Artykuł prezentuje zatem proces kształtowania włoskiej polityki imigracyjnej, problemy związane z nazewnictwem migrujących cudzoziemców oraz obecną sytuację imigrantów i uchodźców we Włoszech. Autorzy starają się odpowiedzieć na pytanie, czy obecność „obcych” w tym kraju może być traktowana jako zagrożenie dla bezpieczeństwa społecznego państwa.

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Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify common and differentiating (external and internal) factors of motivation of the subordinates in the Polish uniformed services such as the armed forces, the fire service and the police. Moreover, this study aims to explore their relationship with the specificity of the profession and the selected socio-professional variables shaping their needs and value systems. Design/methodology/approach To achieve the research objective, the research problem has been specified: Which factors are universal and which significantly differentiate the strategies of motivating soldiers, firefighters and police officers? Therefore, the hypothesis assumes that motivating strategies in the examined institutions (uniformed services) depend not only on their structural and functional or legal and organizational culture specificity but also on the individual needs related to the position, corps (officer/noncommissioned officer), an individual system of values and social factors such as material and social. Methods were based on the survey research technique on a deliberately selected sample of soldiers and officers occupying different positions. Findings The research results have a dual character. On the one hand, they confirm the effectiveness of financial factors in the motivating process in the organization, and on the other hand, they show the specifics of total institutions, in which, apart from financial motivators, promotion and position in the hierarchy are important. Research limitations/implications The main limitation of this study was the availability of respondents and their willingness to consent to the study. It is probably related to the nature of the organizations surveyed. It aims to explore their relationship with the specificity of the profession and the selected socioprofessional variables shaping their needs and value systems. Five motivators were adopted for the study, including two material ones, cash prizes and material prizes, and three nonmaterial motivators, promotion, participation in training (upgrading qualifications) and vacation. Two premises justify choosing such a research subject. The first reason concerns the common specificity of this type of organization that is relatively closed, unified, with a high level of hierarchization and formalization. The second one relates to differences in organizational cultures and systems to motivate subordinates. Practical implications Research results provide the basis for identifying a change in value systems (subsequent studies) in total institutions and for assessing motivational preferences in the examined organizations. Social implications The examined uniformed services constitute an essential element of the social structure, which along with the 1989 political transformation transformed from closed and resistant to open and socialized institutions subject to similar laws that apply in other organizations. Also, the values and expectations of people serving in them changed radically. Service became a profession, and purely autotelic motivations turned into materialistic ones. This change provides grounds for conducting research in this area. Originality/value This research fills in the empirical gap in previous research on motivation in total institutions. They are justified by the changing sociopolitical and economic situation in Poland and the change in the value systems of Poles.

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