Making things work–In spite of a pandemic small scale enterprise managers’ approach to business changes and health issues

PLOS ONE RESEARCH ARTICLE Making things work–In spite of a pandemic small scale enterprise managers’ approach to business changes and health issues Bodil J. Landstad ID1,2*, Marianne Hedlund ID3, Åsa Tjulin4, Mikael Nordenmark4, Stig Vinberg4 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 a1111111111 1 Faculty of Human Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden, 2 Unit of Research, Education and Development, Östersund Hospital, Östersund, Sweden, 3 Department of Social Work, Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Trondheim, Norway, 4 Department of Health Sciences, Mid Sweden University, Östersund, Sweden * Abstract OPEN ACCESS Citation: Landstad BJ, Hedlund M, Tjulin Å, Nordenmark M, Vinberg S (2023) Making things work–In spite of a pandemic small scale enterprise managers’ approach to business changes and health issues. PLoS ONE 18(7): e0288837. https:// doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288837 Editor: Peivand Bastani, The University of Queensland, AUSTRALIA Received: December 8, 2022 Accepted: July 5, 2023 Background Covid-19 is one of the worst crises in modern working life with a direct negative impact on many enterprises and organizations. The aim of this study is to explore what managers in Small Scale Enterprises (SSEs) changed in their business during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly addressing health issues. Methods A longitudinal qualitative research methodology was used, interviewing 16 managers of SSEs in the Norwegian and Swedish manufacturing and service sector both before (round 1) and during the pandemic (round 2). In this approach, time is designed into the research process, making change a key focus for analysis. Published: July 20, 2023 Copyright: © 2023 Landstad et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. Data Availability Statement: Our study analyses qualitative data, and the participants in the study did not consent to other studies or analysis. They need to be contacted to agree to be part of new studies and analysis. Requests can be made to administrative responsible (the dean) Anna Olofsson at Mid Sweden University (anna. ). Funding: The authors want to express their gratitude to AFA Försäkring, Sweden (grant number: 200235) for financing the study. The Results The analysis resulted in two main themes, resilience and demanding occupational health and safety conditions, and five sub-themes. Results show how managers in SSEs changed their business during the Covid-19 pandemic and the impact of these changes. Although, the enterprises were heavily affected in the beginning of the pandemic, several managers found new solutions for their businesses to maintain and reach new customers. They applied a socially responsible management which addressed different health issues. Conclusion Crises like the Covid-19 pandemic will have future impact on SSEs making it important to understand how managers in such enterprises address business and health issues. This knowledge may have practical implications for supporting managers in SSEs in how to perform a socially responsible management and maintain occupational health and safety measures. The managerial implications from this research are that they need to be flexible, PLOS ONE | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0288837 July 20, 2023 1 / 18 PLOS ONE funder financed the entire research process, from study design to submission. Competing interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist. Small scale enterprise managers’ approach to business changes and health issues reorientable and, at the same time, be loyal to the core business. This study shows the importance of doing longitudinal studies about business and health issues among mangers in SSEs. Introduction Covid-19 is one of the worst crises in modern working life with a direct negative impact on many companies and organizations [1–5]. Until the pandemic, the Nordic work-life model has been given positive attention globally as the Nordic countries have shown good results in terms of growth, employment, gender equality, competitiveness, living conditions, and equality in relation to other countries [6]. The reason that is often cited is that the Nordic work-life model gives tools to deal with events such as economic and social downturns. However, the Covid-19 crisis hit the Nordic countries hard [5]. The aim of this study is to explore what managers in small scale enterprises (SSEs) changed in their business during the Covid-19 pandemic, particularly addressing health issues. By using interview data from two Nordic countries (Sweden and Norway) before and during the pandemic, this study addresses how the pandemic influenced these managers and what was essential for their health issues. Research shows that occupational health and safety issues are less developed in SSEs compared to larger enterprises due to limited time and competence [7–9]. However, researchers argue that SSEs have organizational characteristics that are ideal for implementing workingcondition improvements [10]. In a recent study [11], the findings showed that employees in small businesses reported better well-being during the pandemic if they perceived their employing business to have a strong safety and health climate. A study of enterprises in Sweden during the pandemic showed that SSEs applied hygiene measures to a higher degree, and social distancing measures to a lower degree, than larger enterprises [12]. The article is structured in the following way: first, research of relevance related to consequences of the pandemic for SSEs, prerequisites for the managers and a conceptual framework are presented. Thereafter follows the background to the study, the used materials and the method. In the result section, main findings are presented. Finally, the results are discussed in relation to other studies followed by conclusions, implications, strengths and limitations of the study. Consequences of the pandemic for SSEs One group that face specific challenges is SSEs with less than 20 employees [11, 13–15]. They have fewer personnel and economical resources as well as a higher risk for income loss and may experience challenges working with occupational health and safety issues compared to larger enterprises [16, 17]. Exploration of how SSE managers and their enterprises have been affected by the pandemic is of great importance. SSEs are on the rise in many countries and are seen as key drivers of labor employment and economic development [18]. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, around 99 percent of the enterprises in Sweden were SSEs [19] whereas the corresponding figure for Norway was 98 percent [20]. In some countries there has been extensive governmental actions to assist the SSE managers during the Covid-19 pandemic. Income protect (...truncated)