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ЭКОНОМИЧЕСКИЕ НАУКИ
Efficient human resource management - a problem for small companies from
Republic of Moldova Birca A.
Эффективное управление человеческими ресурсами - проблема для малых предприятий Молдовы Быркэ А. П.
Быркэ Алик Петрович /Birca Alic — доктор экономических наук, доцент,
кафедра социального менеджмента, Молдавская экономическая академия, г. Кишинёв, Республика Молдова
Abstract: this scientific endeavor examines the issue of efficient human resource management within small enterprises in Moldova. Although in the SMEs activate a sufficient number of employees, there are issues related to the efficiency of human resource management.
Аннотация: эта статья посвящена эффективному управлению человеческими ресурсами в малом бизнесе Молдовы. Несмотря на то, что на малых и средних предприятиях Молдовы работают большое количество сотрудников, существует достаточно много проблем эффективного управления человеческими ресурсами на них.
Keywords: human resource, human resources management (HRM), Small and medium-sized enterprises (SME).
Ключевые слова: человеческие ресурсы, управлению человеческими ресурсами, малый бизнес. 1 Introduction
SMEs are believed to be the "engine" of economic development that contributes to the fulfillment of national performance. The words above can be related to an economy of any country, including Republic of Moldova. Considering the impact of SMEs on the state's welfare, European Union adopted in 2008 the Small Business Act. This motion helped out to frame the strategies that will guarantee a favorable background to this sphere. Moreover, the Strategy 2020 promotes the idea of equality of all entrepreneurs within EU.
According to the Law, there are certain types of enterprises in Republic of Moldova, which are classified by the number of employees and turnover. Therefore, there are:
• Micro enterprises: up to 9 employee;
• Small enterprises: 10-49 employees;
• Medium enterprises: 50-249 employees.
The companies that have more the 250 employees are considered to be big sized enterprises. Table 1 presents the evolution of the number of SMEs and employees between 2010 and 2014.
Table 1. The evolution of SMEs' number and the number of employees between 2010 and 2014
N. o. Year Number of enterprises Number of employees, thousands persons Average number of employees within SMEs, persons
Total SMEs Total SMEs
1. 2010 46,7 45,6 526,2 309,4 6,8
2. 2011 48,5 47,3 510,2 294,2 6,2
3. 2012 50,7 49,4 519,9 300,2 6,1
4. 2013 52,2 50,9 524,5 298,4 5,9
5. 2014 53,7 52,3 519,4 291,7 5,6
Sourse: Created by author.
Between 2010 and 2014, the total number of enterprises has changed from 46,7 thousands to 53,7 thousands, so the number of enterprises has risen with 7 thousands, 6,7 of which are SMEs (Table 1).
Also, we notice a decrease of the number of employees within enterprises with 27 thousands persons, 17,7 thousands of which were employed by SMEs. It caused the reduction of the average number of employees within SMEs from Republic of Moldova from 6,8 to 5,6 persons.
II. Literature review
Due to the importance of the SMEs in the development of national economy, in the last decades many researchers based their studies on the Human Resources Management (HRM) in this field. They consider that HRM should be an important layer of the integral management of a big sized company, as well as of a SME. If an enterprise applies efficient practices in HRM, it is able to avoid traditional practices that impedes the achievement of its goals [13]. M. Armstrong defines the HRM as a strategic and coherent approach to the management of an organization's most valued assets - the people working there who individually and collectively contribute to the achievement of its objectives [1].
American experts Hornsby and Kuratko while assessing the activities of HRM in the small enterprises from USA found out that the bigger the company is, the more diverse these activities get. On the other hand, Jennings and Beaver remarked that the owner of a big sized company isn't able to handle all the tasks regarding HRM, so he delegates some of the responsibilities to the professional managers [10].
An efficient HR management is a key to the company's success. According to some writers, initially, the owners of small enterprises pay less attention to the HRM [3] and [14]. Therewith, it's considered that marketing prevails any other entity's activities, including the administration of human resources [11].
Singh and Vohra mention that the SMEs achieve success easier and safer if they correlate their staff personnel with the culture and the core objectives of the company [10]. According to Chang and Huang, human resources are treated as a strategic asset which is valuable when incorporated in the operational system and improves the company's skills to face an uncertain and challenging environment [10]. Some specialists studying HRM defined 4 branches of it: personnel administration, professional formation, performance assessment, and staff compensation [3] and [12]. Sometimes they are interpreted in a different way, but anyhow they are linked to each other.
Although more than 55% of all employees work in SMEs, most of them do not prefer to activate in this domain. It is cause by: reduced opportunities for personal career, low wages compared to those offered by big companies, instability, lack of knowledge and expertise provided by the HR managers of SMEs.
III. Applied Methodology
To clarify the problem I made a sociological survey using a questionnaire that includes 45 enterprises with no more than 75 employees. Although small enterprises are those who have no more than 50 employees, the companies that have up to 75 workers are also included in the survey in order to show up the connection between the raising number of employees and the behavior of personnel functions.
As mentioned above, personnel activities within small sized entities are ran by regular managers. Some SMEs realize the importance of this matter and create a special work position called HR specialist, whose duties are to administrate all the activities regarding HRM. The results of the survey proved it. Figure 1 presents the general image of the companies that have up to 75 employees and how do the management administrate the personnel functions. Table 2 shows detailed information classified by types of enterprises and their number of employees.
General Accountant - 13
Vice director of the company -6,5
Director of the company - 32,(
Human Resourses Specialist - 47,9
Fig. 1. Responsible persons of staff issues within companies that have up to 75 employees, % Sourse: Created by author based on the research data.
According to Figure 1, 47,9% of the companies that participated in the questionaire, with up to 75 employees the personnel functions are admistrated by HR specialists. At the same time, other 32,6% of the entities have their director responsible of HRM, 6,5% - the vice director of the company and 13,0% - the general accountant.
Table 2. Persons responsible of HRM within companies that have up to 75 employees
Types of enterprises HR specialist Director of the company Vice dire the com :tor of pany General Accountant Total
Number % Number % Number % Number % Number %
Up to 20 employees 2 20,0 3 30 1 10,0 4 40,0 10 100
21- 49 employees 5 33,3 5 33,3 2 13,3 3 20,1 15 100
50 -75 employees 12 60,0 7 35,0 0 0,0 1 5,0 20 100
Sourse: Created by author based on the research data.
These results shape the fact than even entities with up to 20 employees have at least one person responsible for HR management. It is highly likely that this manager is administrating not only human resources, but also other functions. The bigger company is, the more obvious gets the presence of HR specialists. According to the survey, 33,3% from 15 enterprises with 21-49 employees show the presence of HR specialist, and those with 50-75 employees - 60% of 20 companies. Furthermore, we can see that within some entities that have up to 50 employees the issues regarding HR are held by general accountant, and within other by director.
Specific knowledge and skills are required in order to efficiently administrate and guide the staff. One of the objectives of our research is to identify the level of professional skills needed to manage the HR within small enterprises and those with 50 to 75 employees. The results are following:
Have no professional training in HRM
Had done some courses in HRM Had studied the subject HRM
Had studied HRM at higher education institutions
24
20
18,7
37,3
10
20
30
40
Fig. 2. The level of professional coalification possessed by persons responsible for staff personnel within entities with up to 75 employees, %
Source: Created by author.
The results of the survey bear out one more time the lack of professional skills possessed by people who administer personnel within our companies. The share of people who have no professional training in HRM and activate in entities up to 75 employees is greater than the one of those who are specialized in the field. Each 4th person which works in the position of HR specialist within companies included in the survey has no education or practice in HRM. 37,3% had done some courses related to HRM and only 18,7% of the HR specialists acquired the adequate coalification.
Regardless of the level professional coalification possessed by HR specialist within enterprises with up to 75 employees they consider HRM pretty important to any organization (Figure 3).
0
Fig. 3. The importance of HRM within companies with up to 75 employees Source: Created by author.
Looking at the Figure 3 we can see that only 12% of the entities consider HRM relatively important or less important, compared to other activities. Thus, we can say that this type of companies realize how important is HRM for their future development. Moreover, the owners of these entities are on the same side and have the proper attitude (Figure 4).
Fig. 4. Owners' attitude toward HRM within companies with up to 75 employees
Source: Created by author.
Most of the owners within companies included in the survey have a very positive attitude toward HRM - 41.18% and over 50% a positive one. Only 4,41% of the entities that participated at the survey consider that the owners have a relatively positive and 1,47% less positive attitude toward HRM. This might be cause by the fact that some owners do not acknowledge the importance of human resource in their company.
IV. Conclusion
The efficient administration of human resources is an essential element in any company's success, small ones included. However, HRM is not a priority to many of small sized enterprises. The owners of these enterprises focus on other economic activities, personnel functions are placed on a lower level of importance. This leads to many personnel troubles, such as staff fluctuation. Staff fluctuation within small enterprises from Republic of Moldova is higher than in big sized ones.
The issues related to the efficient administration of HR within small companies from Republic of Moldova are also a consequence of absence of an HR specialist. It's a clear thing why, because it is quite expensive to hire an HR specialist by a company with only 20 employees or even more. Also, the managers who administer personnel in these companies do not have adequate coalification and level of knowledge in the field. These managers try to empirically manage the personnel issues and often they can't find the necessary solution to the matter.
References
1. Armstrong M. (2003). Human resource management. Bucharest: Codecs.
2. Bacon N., Hoque K. (2005) HRM in the SME sector: valuable employees and coercive Networks.
In: The International Journal of Human Resource Management. November.
3. Baumback C. H. (1988). How to Organize and operate a Small Business, 8th edition. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Englewoud Cliffs.
4. Birca A. (2005). Human resource management. Chisinau: Edition ASEM.
5. Cole G. A. (2000). Personnel management. Bucharest: Codecs.
6. Delery J. E. (1998). Issues of fit in strategic human resource management: implications for research. Human Resource Management Review. № 8 (1). P. 289-309.
7. Dessler G. (2008). Human Resource Management, 11th ed., New Jersey: Pearson Prentice-Hall, Upper Saddle River.
8. Hornsby J., Kuratko D. K. (1990). Human Resource Management in Small Firms: Critical Issues for the 1990s. Journal of Small Business Management. P. 9-17.
9. Jennings P., Beaver G. (1997). The Performance and Competitive Advantage of Small Firms: A Management Perspective. In: International Small Business Journal. Vol. 15. № 2. P. 63-75.
10. Kao J. J. (1989). Entrepreneurship, Creativity and Organization. New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, Englewoud Cliffs.
11. Mathis R., Jackson I. (1994). Personnel / Human Resource Management. Seventh edition. Boston: West Publishing Corporation. 636 p.
12. Nankervis A., Compton R., Savery L. (2002). Strategic HRM in small and medium enterprise: A CEO's perspective? In: Asia Pacific Journal of Human Resources, № 40 (2). P. 260-273.
13. Picle H. B. and Royce L. A. (1988). Small Business management, 4th edition. New York: John Wiley & Sons.
Tax burden on labor and capital and indirect taxation in RF
Grigorov V.
Налоговая нагрузка на факторы производства и косвенное налогообложение в Российской Федерации Григоров В. Э.
Григоров Владислав Эдуардович / Grigorov Vladislav - научный сотрудник, Центр бюджетной политики, Научно-исследовательский финансовый институт, г. Москва
Аннотация: в статье рассмотрены представляющие практический интерес вопросы налоговой нагрузки на факторы производства в Российской Федерации. Приведены сравнения налоговой нагрузки со странами ОЭСР, а также сделаны выводы для формирования налоговой политики. Abstract: the article represents practical issues of tax burden on production factors. Article contains comparisons the level of tax burden with some OECD countries and conclusions for tax policy.
Ключевые слова: налогообложение, налоговая нагрузка. Keywords: taxation, tax burden.
Одним из важных факторов, оказывающих влияние на экономический рост, является налоговая нагрузка. Для целей разработки эффективной налоговой политики целесообразно оценить уровень и структуру налоговой нагрузки.
Оценка налогового бремени рассматривалась в частности в работах [1, 4]. Влияние на налоговое бремя льгот рассматривалось в [2, 3]. В настоящей статье акцент сделан на оценку налогового бремени на факторы производства и сравнение результатов со средним уровнем по ОЭСР.
В данной статье рассматривается налоговая нагрузка на факторы производств - труд и капитал, а также налоговая нагрузка от косвенного налогообложения [5].
Налоговая нагрузка оценивалась по номинальным ставкам, по эффективным ставкам, а также по соотношению поступлений с ВВП.
Под эффективными ставками в данной работе понималось соотношение налоговых поступлений с показателями, характеризующими налоговую базу.
Налоговая нагрузка на труд в Российской Федерации - это налоги, основной базой которых является заработная плата. К ним относят подоходный налог и страховые платежи в Пенсионный Фонд, Фонд занятости, Фонд социального страхования и Фонд медицинского страхования. В данном исследовании страховые платежи будут рассматриваться как один налог. Также не будут отдельно выделяться поступления по подоходному налогу и страховым
