The Compensation and Benefits Package is considered the main employee’s motivator. As such, it plays a crucial role in determining successful recruiting, engagement, and retention strategies. Failing to offer the right package, will be translated into additional costs. This study aimed to identify what type of compensation and benefits Albanian employees receive and their relationship with job satisfaction, before and after COVID-19. We surveyed 127 employees and conducted 10 in-depth interviews, in different institutions in Albania. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data. The findings showed that most received benefits are medical insurance and bonuses, and employees are less than considerably satisfied with their package. The majority stated that it had great importance in their job satisfaction, and most would leave their current job for another one that offers more benefits. Findings related to the COVID-19 impact showed that employees’ lifestyle has changed and flexible working hours are the top benefit, followed by more paid time-off options. The conclusions of the study indicate that Compensations and Benefits packages should be redesigned to meet the needs of working in the “new normal”, for current and future employees, paying close attention to their preferences.

The paper explores “life skills” acquired and enhanced during an internship in preparation for the work of the future, identifies challenges faced and gaps between academic preparation and internship requirements, and explores the impact of the COVID 19 pandemic on the internship experiences of Generation Z students. This qualitative study involves cohorts from 2016–2021, including 50 students before the pandemic, and 47 students during the pandemic, majoring in the field of Economy and Business. Data are gathered through 97 semi-structured interviews and written reports from the students. Interestingly, the findings showed that job placement is not the main reason why students pursue an internship; acquiring skills and experience was identified as the major motivating factor. “Communication” was the top enhanced skill from internships in both periods before and during the pandemic, while “relationship building” and “ethical issues” ranked as the second and third most important skills before the pandemic, to be replaced by “critical-thinking and problem-solving” and “analytical and technical” skills during the pandemic. Lack of accountability and COVID-19 stress were reported as the main challenges experienced during internships, while lacking hands-on experience and social skills were identified as gaps. The foremost pieces of advice for future interns revealed in this study are to get involved seriously and show respect and integrity.

Family business is created when the family leads commercial activities. This intersection represents emotions and trade within the same entity, driving attention toward intangible resources. History has shown that families can gather together and run successful businesses. Non-financial topics are capturing the attention of the management field, and family firm identity (FFI) is an interesting topic for those who want to study more in-depth this type of business. This paper will give a review of the academic literature about the FFI identified as a field that needs to be explored more in depth. Interested researchers will find a general view of how this approach is developed from scholars around the world. The aim is to present how the family and business identity relate to one another, seen from different perspectives by scholars. Researchers’ invaluable contributions are used to design this review, using databases such as Emerald, ProQuest (ABI/INFORM), EBSCOhost and Science Direct. Keywords used for search are family business identity and family firm identity. The data are gathered during May and June 2019. The review shows that several dimensions can influence on the level of FFI. Some of the dimensions which resulted from this study are generations, boundaries, identity conflict, growth, communication and globalization.

Purpose: This study revisits the relationship between organizational learning culture (OLC), work engagement (WE) and innovative work behaviour (IWB) by examining whether the benefits of learning culture are realized uniformly across employees. Building on the established OLC–WE–IWB framework, this study aims to investigate the role of WE as a mediating mechanism and to explore employee-level boundary conditions shaping the learning culture–innovation relationship. Design/methodology/approach: Data were collected through a survey of 228 employees from organizations operating in Albania. Established multi-item measures were used to assess OLC, WE and IWB. Hypotheses were tested using regression-based mediation, moderation and moderated-mediation analyses. Exploratory analyses examined whether employee characteristics, including age, tenure, job position, gender and education, influenced the strength of the observed relationships. Findings: Results indicate that OLC is positively associated with IWB and that WE serves as an important explanatory mechanism linking the two. Importantly, this relationship is not uniformly distributed across employees. Exploratory analyses suggest that learning culture is more strongly associated with innovative behaviour among younger, lower tenure and non-managerial employees, whereas its association is substantially weaker among more organizationally embedded groups. Originality/value: Rather than proposing a new mechanism, this study demonstrates that a well-established learning culture–engagement–innovation relationship is unevenly realized across employee groups. The findings challenge assumptions of homogeneous learning-culture effects and suggest that the innovative benefits of learning-oriented practices depend on employee positioning within organizational structures.

Digital transformation is a must to remain competitive in today’s advanced technological environment. This study examines how digitalization influences the performance of SMEs in Albania, focusing on digital adoption, skills, training, and institutional support. Using survey data from SMEs in Tirana, based on the Technology–Organization–Environment (TOE) framework and Dynamic Capability Theory, the study aims to investigate the extent of digital service adoption by these organizations. The findings show a positive association between the degree of digital adoption by SMEs and various performance indicators. However, SMEs mainly adopt digital tools and processes without undertaking a complete digital transformation. Multiple barriers prevent SMEs from adopting digital technologies. Despite the digital training offered to SME employees, there is no correlation between the training and the adoption of these digital technologies. The study makes various contributions to the literature on the digital transformation of SMEs and has implications for policy making in the context of the transition economies.

Project management disciplines have been a part of IT for many years. Why then, are so many challenges still directly associated with how a project is managed? Many projects fail for a myriad of reasons; most, however, stem from poor or inadequate project evaluation and performance appraisal, while, improved project planning and direction is considered to be one of the key factors to IT project success. Eriona Shtembari arranges evaluation methods and techniques into three groups, managerial-financial-and-development. This book explores the process of project evaluation and the purposes of evaluation, given its strong relationship to the success of the project. It examines IT project evaluation; identifies methods and techniques to be used throughout the project life cycle; examines the benefits of project evaluation and proposes a systematic approach/framework of project evaluation to serve as a tool for successful project management. Shtembari analyses the most up-to-date research relating to the process and methods/techniques of project evaluation, throughout the project life cycle. From the systematic literature review, she identifies the most usable methods and techniques in project evaluation and focuses on the adequacy of these methods and techniques in the service sector. The theoretical underpinning of the book, serves as a base to interpret the interviews in the case study and build a theory as to how the project evaluation context relates to the proposed scientific theory. The findings in this book provide solutions for practitioners to help them boost the evaluation framework and consequently improve their IT project management.