Effective small and medium enterprise (SME) leadership demands creative solutions to ensure organisations survive and thrive during the turbulent times that COVID-19 continues to bring. This paper explores how SME leaders (in micro and small organisations) prioritise and access the skills and development needed to provide effective and sustainable leadership to organisations, focusing on the role of resilience and the benefits it provides. Participants were selected through purposive and snowballing sampling. Online surveys and semi-structured interviews were conducted and provided qualitative data that contributes to an understanding of the role of resilience and the view of participants as to what is needed to effectively respond to a dynamic environment. Evidence shows that SME leaders prioritise learning and development opportunities that provide demonstrable benefits throughout the organisation. Building business resilience remains a fuzzy concept; however, viewing resilience as a multi-level construct offers benefits when designing and delivering development opportunities. It has been found that networking, partnerships, and relationship building promote resilience and may offer a solution to how to embed resilience building into development opportunities that SME leaders value and wish to engage with. This article contributes by illustrating and exploring leadership development within SMEs during a period of unexpected and untested uncertainty. The pandemic caused major shock waves within business communities, and SMEs were significantly affected. The research is limited in that it is expected to be a once-in-a lifetime event, and as such conditions may not be replicable, learning opportunities for other ‘shock’ events are possible. The findings of this paper have relevance to practice in that, while the event may be one-off, shocks to the business environment are not.

Modern technologies have intensified innovations and necessitated changes in public service processes and operations. Continuous employee learning development (CELD) is one means of the molecule-atom that keep employees motivated and sustain competitiveness. The study explored the efficacy of CELD in relation to modern technology in the South African (SA) public service departments between 2014 to 2023 era. Departments are faced with challenge of equipping their employees with adequate professional and technical skills for both the present and the future in order to deliver specific government priorities. Data for the study were gathered utilizing a qualitative semi-structured e-questionnaire. The study sample consisted of 677 human capital development practitioners from national and provincial government departments in SA. The inefficacy CELD and the inadequacy of technological infrastructure and service delivery can be attributed to the failure by executive management and senior managers to invest in CELD to prepare employees for digital world. It is recommended that departments should use Ruggles’s knowledge management, Kirkpatrick’s training, and Becker and Schultz’s human capital models as sound measurement tools in order to gain a true return on investment. The study adds pragmatic insight into the value of CELD in the new technological environment in public service departments.

Orientation: Rewards are integral to keeping employees happy, efficient and engaged in their work. Thus, the engagement of academic staff within higher education institutions has become a top priority for organisational productivity and competitiveness. Research purpose: This study investigated the impact of total rewards on work engagement among the academic staff at a South African higher education institution. Motivation for the study: Engagement of academic staff is vital as higher education institutions are influential in the country’s development. Literature, however, has shown that most studies on total rewards and work engagement focus on sectors such as financial institutions, the mining industry and others. However, few reports have been on total rewards and work engagement in higher education. Research design, approach and method: This study employed a cross-sectional survey design, following a quantitative approach. From a population of 100 academic staff, 74 respondents responded to a self-administered questionnaire. Main findings: The results show a positive relationship between two dimensions of total rewards (work-home integration and quality work environment) and work engagement. However, no relationship was found between base pay, benefits, performance and career management, and work engagement. From the five dimensions of total rewards, a quality work environment was the only significant predictor of work engagement. Contribution: The study provides theoretical contributions through new literature and possible recommendations. The study may guide management in developing a rewards strategy that can promote staff work engagement.

This paper aims to investigate the factors of competitive success and examine the relationship between Strategic Management Accounting, management accounting information systems and sustainability performance. This research was conducted with a quantitative approach. The survey involved 125 managers of 4- and 5-star hotels in Bali, Indonesia, a research sample of 154 managers was determined to be given a research questionnaire. Analysis of research data was carried out through Structural Equation Modeling. The results showed that strategic management accounting and Information Management Accounting System had a positive effect on sustainability performance. MAS information also mediates the relationship between strategic management accounting and sustainability performance which can involve a variety of factors. This study only focuses on competitive strategy and MAS information variables, so further research is needed on the sustainability performance of the hospitality industry. The positive relationship between strategic management accounting and social and environmental performance supports the argument that hotels use socio-environmental aspects for their strategic management accounting. Hotel managers also need government regulations and information related to social and environmental issues such as the Indonesian occupational health and safety management system and the Indonesia Green Hotel Award.