Many organizations choose business sustainability to meet environmental, social, and financial demands to ensure responsible and long-term success. In order to achieve this, enterprises have to fully and optimally apply their resources. Intellectual capital is one of their most important resources creating market value and reinforcing sustainable competitive advantages. The main goal of the paper is to indicate which elements of the intellectual capital of small and medium-sized enterprises in Poland have the greatest impact on their sustainable development in the opinions of managers. The study took into account 1041 economic entities. Managers of small and medium enterprises operating in Poland have been asked to assess the elements of intellectual capital. The paper utilizes a new approach to the importance assessment of the impact of each characteristic on business sustainability. It is based on intuitionistic fuzzy sets. The proposed method is especially useful when variables are measured on an ordinal scale. In accordance with the classical theory of measurement, it does not allow the majority of arithmetic calculations to be performed. Based on the results of the research it has been determined that the most important factors are those which constitute human capital. Moreover, the observation has been made that there is a high degree of coherence of opinions expressed by managers of small and medium enterprises. The results of the research can be applied by both managers of enterprises in managing intellectual capital and employees of companies, by increasing their awareness of the topic of the influence of intellectual capital on business sustainability.

(1) Background: In this article, we explore the ever-present problem of achieving better results in the area of creating innovative and diverse human resources in the workplace environment through learning and inference from past actions. (2) Methods: An original proposal of five synthetic indicators was developed, corresponding to individual areas of the 5P architecture. In order to test the homogeneity of the index, exploratory factor analysis was used. The reliability of the new indicator was also assessed, both in total and in selected sub-areas. The value of the synthetic index was determined as a summary score in the selected areas (the sum of the values of individual diagnostic variables). Finally, the distribution of synthetic indicators WP1–WP5 was analyzed. (3) Results: By assumption, this analysis was performed to enable an empirical verification of the theoretical model, which combined the strategic, tactical and operational levels, delineating five steps (areas) that should be taken to create an organization open to diversity and its management. The presented approach also allowed for the visualization of the implementation of the organization’s activities in individual areas of diversity management expressed in the proprietary 5P architecture in many dimensions (planning, implementation and monitoring). In addition, the analyses confirmed that the individual dimensions of the diversity management architecture interacted with each other and that the direction of this correlation was positive: the development of diversity management in different areas occurred in parallel, but nevertheless, as can be seen from the values of the correlation coefficients, at a different pace/range. (4) Conclusions: The use of quantitative methods in the decision-making process of an organization can have a significant impact on the quality of its management. In the case of building an inclusive environment and implementing activities for diversity management, the proposed 5P architecture could significantly support this process. Therefore, it is recommended to use the proposed 5P architecture in practice, for example, to diagnose the scope and quality of actions taken for diversity management, as well as to build a diverse working environment in key areas of the organization.

This chapter explores diversity management as a strategic approach to address social inequalities in the context of globalization and demographic change. It focuses on the complexity of the concept of diversity, taking into account various aspects such as gender, race, age, nationality, sexual orientation, physical and mental abilities, cultural background, education, and life and work experience. The chapter explores the impact of diversity management in creating more equitable societies, promoting a broad understanding and acceptance of differences. It also analyses the challenges and barriers to implementing effective diversity management in organizations, highlighting its role in shaping equitable and inclusive work environments. The aim of the chapter is to inspire further research on diversity management as a tool to reduce social inequalities.

Wydawnictwo SIGMA-NOT wydaje czasopisma fachowe informuj?ce swoich czytelnik?w o najnowszych osi?gni?ciach naukowych i nowoczesnych rozwi?zaniach technicznych w Polsce i na ?wiecie, popularyzuje problemy techniczne oraz poszerza wiedz? i kultur? techniczn?.

The main goal of this article is to analyze the level of differentiation of awareness and knowledge among managers of small, medium and large enterprises in the scope of the essence and meaning of intellectual capital as well as the influence of its elements on the sustainable development of enterprises in Poland. Intellectual capital is perceived as a key resource of an enterprise. It is also one of the most valuable resources of an enterprise, which enables its sustainable development. It is critical base of organization’s innovative and strategic sustainability. This article is based around the results of a survey conducted in 2019 among 1,067 enterprises operating in Poland. For the purposes of the verification of the statistical hypothesis, the classical chi-squared test of independence has been applied along with the analysis of variations for fuzzy numbers (FANOVA) with an assumed level of significance α = 0.05. The assessment of the influence of the elements of intellectual capital on the sustainable development of enterprises has been conducted with the application of fuzzy conversion scales. In fuzzy conversion scales, points are most often expressed as triangular or trapezoidal fuzzy numbers. The conducted research indicates a difference between theory and practice in the field of intellectual capital management among enterprises in Poland. On the one hand managers declare awareness of the importance of the influence of intellectual capital on the development of enterprises in Poland, whereas on the other hand, a significant majority of them state that they have not implemented an intellectual capital management strategy at their enterprises and neither identify nor measure this capital or its elements.

The growing importance of family businesses in the global economy is related to the specificity of their activities, the increase in their contribution to GDP creation or providing jobs. It prompted the authors of this article to research these particular entities belonging to the small business. Considering the different economic conditions caused by the crisis of the COVID-19 pandemic, the aim of the work was to examine and identify the strategies implemented among family enterprises from the SME sector in Poland in the period immediately preceding the COVID-19 pandemic (2018–2019) and during this pandemic (2020–2021). It was achieved through analyzing the literature of the subject, development of our own research method, analyzing the results of primary research, presenting conclusions and making recommendations for science and economic practices. The authors formulated research hypotheses verified within the framework of the conducted research. The research is of a pioneering nature and was designed in such a way as to present the similarities and differences between the classes of enterprises under study (micro, small and medium-sized), as well as the research periods in terms of the development strategies applied by them. In this respect, appropriate research methods were selected. The study combined qualitative methods (critical analysis of existing explanations of the concept and essence of family enterprises; review of the literature on enterprise development in the light of Industry 4.0) with quantitative methods (analysis of the taxonomy of structures based on the similarity index of the studied structures; comparative analysis by cross-tabulation). To perform the research thus planned, the authors’ study on the systematization of development strategies in family enterprises was adopted. Implementing strategies among family enterprises in the SME sector seems to be crucial in their development. As the results show, this is of particular importance in crisis periods. The pandemic crisis was particular, and the functioning of enterprises during it was problematic. Some of them had to suspend their activities, some ceased their operations altogether, and those that survived were successful. The path leading to this success was the specific development strategies that were implemented by the family businesses in the SME sector surveyed. It is therefore worthwhile, both from an academic point of view and from a business practice point of view, to learn about these strategies. The authors have identified and described them and presented the resulting conclusions for the future.