Abstract
Contemporary enterprises can choose one of the two approaches to cope with the increasing changeability of environment. The first, used mostly in big sized enterprises that present high technological and organizational culture, is lean management. By implementing it the enterprise protects itself against the disturbances generated by the environment by elimination and reduction of waists. The second approach is to be agile enterprise what means to be able to identify and use short life time opportunities. One of feature of agile enterprise is its flexibility. Flexibility is meant as the ability of enterprise to extend the repertoire of undertaken opportunities (performed tasks or manufactured products and provided services). In this paper some results of research on flexibility of Polish SMEs are presented. The results include evaluation of both the environment’s changes and how Polish SME’s adopted themselves to the changes. The considered period of the adaptation is 5 years.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
- 2.
The three priorities are: Smart growth, developing an economy based on knowledge and innovation; Sustainable growth, promoting a low-carbon, resource efficient and competitive economy; and Inclusive growth, fostering a high employment economy delivering social and territorial cohesion.
- 3.
Some results of the research on flexibility of medium sized enterprises was published in work [9].
- 4.
Sten scale or sten scores consist of 10 units (stens), have a mean of 5.5 and a standard deviation of 2.
References
Dalkir, K.: Knowledge Management in Theory and Practice. The MIT Press, Cambridge (2013)
Grant, K.: Knowledge management: an enduring but confusing fashion. In: Grant, K.A., Dumay, J. (eds.) Leading Issues in Knowledge Management, vol. 2, pp. 1–26. Academic Conferences and Publishing International Limited, Reading, UK (2015)
Trzcielinski, S.: The intelligence of polish enterprises during the period 2007–2011. In: Teczke, J., Djakeli, K., Bula, P. (eds.) Management Science During Destabilization: Local Insight. International Management Fundation, Cracow University of Economics, Cracow (2015)
OECD: The Knowledge-Based Economy. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, Paris (1996)
Powell, W.W., Snellman, K.: The knowledge economy. Ann. Rev. Sociol. 30, 190–220 (2004)
Lisbon Strategy, http://www.europarl.europa.eu/summits/lis1_en.htm#b
Europe 2020, http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-10-225_en.htm
Trzcielinski, S., Trzcielinska, J.: Some elements of theory of opportunities. Human Factors Ergon. Manuf. Service Ind. 21(2), 124–131 (2011)
Trzcielinski, S.: Agile enterprise—research on flexibility. In: Proceedings of the 10th International Workshop on Robot Motion and Control, pp. 213–216. RoMoCo10th Anniversary Edition, Poznan (2015)
Włodarkiewicz-Klimek, H., Kałkowska, J., Trzcieliński, S., Pawłowski, E.: External conditions of enterprise’s development in a knowledge based economy. In: Marek, T., Karwowski, W., Frankowicz, M., Kantola, J., Zgaga, P. (eds.) Human Factor of a Global Society. A System of Systems Perspective, pp. 625–634. Tylor & Francis, Abingdon (2014)
Trzcielinski, S., Wypych-Zoltowska, M.: Toward the measure of virtual teams effectiveness. Human Factors Ergon. Manuf. 18, 501–514 (2008)
Motala, D., Pawlowski, E., Pawlowski, K., Trzcielinski, S.: Designingan effective management system for enterprises: concepts and verification. Human Factors Ergon. Manuf. 18, 525–5547 (2008)
Włodarkiewicz-Klimek, H.: The influence of human capital on shaping agility of a knowledge-based organization. In: Chachibaia, T., Łyszczarz, H., Żak, A. (eds.) Management Science during Destabilization Global Perspective, International Management Foundation. Cracow University of Economies (2015)
Pawlowski, E.: Organizational structure designing and knowledge based economy. The research framework for polish enterprises. In: Karwowski, W., Salvendy, G. (eds.) Advances in Human Factor, Ergonomics, and Safety in Manufacturing and Service Industries. CRS Press, Boca Raton pp. 52–61(2011)
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2016 Springer International Publishing Switzerland
About this paper
Cite this paper
Trzcieliński, S. (2016). Flexibility of SMEs. In: Schlick, C., Trzcieliński, S. (eds) Advances in Ergonomics of Manufacturing: Managing the Enterprise of the Future. Advances in Intelligent Systems and Computing, vol 490. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41697-7_37
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-41697-7_37
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Cham
Print ISBN: 978-3-319-41696-0
Online ISBN: 978-3-319-41697-7
eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)