Translation, adaptation, and validation of instruments for cross-cultural investigation requires a rigorous methodological procedure that should be carefully planned to deliver instruments with adequate reliability and validity. This process was applied to a questionnaire measuring Organizational Citizenship Behavior toward the Environment (OCBE), Organizational Identification (OI), Environmental Responsibility (ER), and Green Human Resources Management (GHRM) in Portuguese and Slovak organizations. Several methodological procedures for cross-cultural adaptation and validation of questionnaires were analyzed, most of which used independent translators, experts’ analysis, and backward translation to the original language. In the present study, a procedure adapted from Beaton et al. (2000) was applied successfully, and the blind backward translations; expert committee; and the two pretests to assess content validity, functional equivalence, and clarity proved to be worthy. The psychometric properties were measured using a sample from Portugal (N = 122) and Slovakia (N = 269). Although employees were perceiving neither a strong environmental responsibility of their organizations nor strong green human resources management, they identified themselves with the organizations and engaged in OCBEs. Comparing both countries, the factorial structure was remarkably similar, highlighting the eco-helping actions and eco-civic engagement of OCBEs. Comparing both countries, the factorial structure was remarkably similar, highlighting the eco-helping actions and eco-civic engagement of OCBEs. The results indicated that the translated instrument was functionally equivalent to the original one, valid (scale CVI/Ave > 0.83), and reliable (Scale Alpha > 0.733) for evaluating the effect of employee practices and organization management in promoting and supporting environmental sustainability.

The present study assesses hotel workers’ perceptions regarding their soft and hard skills, during COVID-19 pandemic. To this end, data were collected through a survey applied to 4 and 5 star hotel workers in the Historical Center of Porto (Portugal). The results show that workers have a generally positive perception on their skills, especially in the case of teamwork, interpersonal relationship and flexibility (soft skills). Digital competencies (hard skills), present the lowest level of confidence. Data also show that essential competencies are rarely provided by the employer. Moreover, the evaluation of workers with a higher education degree only differs significantly regarding hard skills (linguistic).

The present research aims to compare hospitality workers’ confidence about the perceived need to improve their soft and hard skills during and after the lockdown period. With this purpose, a questionnaire was applied to a sample of workers from four- and five-star hotels located in the historic centre of Porto (Portugal). Data collection took place in two different time periods: April 2020 and April 2022. The findings evidence that workers are more confident of their skills but are also more aware of the need to develop them, particularly their soft skills. This is likely related to the context of remote work, which intensified the need to learn, and evidenced the necessity of skills such as teamwork and adaptation or flexibility, which showed the greatest increase in perceived need to improve. Despite such an increase, the competencies workers feel like they need to improve the most are still hard, i.e., linguistic and digital. Accordingly, those in which workers are the most confident are soft, i.e., teamwork, interpersonal relationships, and adaptation or flexibility, which is likely because those were the most developed during the pandemic. The findings provide useful insights for human resources management in the hospitality sector. The study points to good practices aiming to address the real development needs of hospitality workers.

Despite the importance of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) for the growth and development of companies, the high failure rate of these companies persists, and this correspondingly demands the attention of managers. Thus, to boost the company success rate, we may deploy certain approaches, for example predictive models, specifically for the SME innovation. This study aims to examine the variables that positively shape and contribute towards innovation of SMEs. Based on the Spinner innovation model, we explore how to predict the innovation of SMEs by applying the variables, namely knowledge creation, knowledge transfer, public knowledge management, private knowledge management and innovation. This study applied the data mining technique according to the cross industry standard process for data mining (CRISP-DM) method while the Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS_Version28) served to analyze the data collected from 208 SME employees in Oporto, Portugal. The results demonstrate how the Spinner innovation model positively influences the contributions of the SMEs. This SME-dedicated model fosters the creation of knowledge between internal and external interactions and increases the capacity to predict the SME innovation by 56%.

In this study, we analyzed the feeling of loneliness in leadership in the Portuguese banking sector, seeking to identify variables that may instigate this feeling, such as gender, age, academic qualifications, function/position, number of working hours per week, and years of work/seniority, and the consequences that it may have, namely in terms of the decision-making process and the motivation of leaders. For this study, a quantitative research tool was used in the form of a questionnaire, which was applied to a group of collaborators, with leadership responsibilities, of the financial institutions authorized to operate in Portugal. We concluded that while some variables influence the feeling of loneliness in leadership (years of work, position, and academic qualifications), others do not (gender, age, and hours of work per week). We also found a relationship between loneliness and demotivation and proved that the feeling of loneliness affects leadership but does not affect decision making. The results are relevant, especially for the banking sector, which has undergone major restructuring in the Portuguese economy and needs guidance to face the country’s financial challenges.