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ORGANIZATIONAL PREPAREDNESS AND BUSINESS DISASTERS OF SMES DURING COVID-19 PANDEMIC IN SOUTH WESTERN UGANDA (issue 8)

The outbreak of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has severely affected the global and Uganda economy with major
victims being small, and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). The study examined and developed a model for
organizational preparedness and business disaster of SMEs during COVID-19 pandemic in Kigezi sub-region in
South Western Uganda. The specific objectives were to (i) determine the characteristics of decision makers of SMEs
during the COVID-19 pandemics; (ii) assess organizational features of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemics; (iii)
examine government response and preparedness of SMEs during the COVID-19 pandemics; and (iv) model the
relationship between those factors identified with organizational preparedness and the management of SMEs during
the COVID-19 pandemic. A cross sectional survey research design was employed and interviewer-administered
questionnaire as research tool was used to elicit information from the managers of SMEs across the six (6) districts
of Kigezi sub-region. Two-stage cluster sampling technique was used and the sample size was computed using
Yamane’s sampling formulae based on a 5% level of precision. The value of CVI obtained was 0.840 while the
value of reliability obtained was 0.770, which indicates that the questionnaire items were relevant and suitable for
the study. Five hundred and ninety one (591) questionnaires were administered to the SMEs owners/managers while
four hundred and seventy six (476) questionnaires were returned giving the overall return rate as 81%. The study
identifies the factors who were significant with organizational preparedness and the management of business during
COVID-19 pandemics in Kigezi sub-region in South Western Uganda as firm size, firm financial condition, risk
perception, government subsidy, help received from NGOs and the loan received from the bank/SACCO while
other factors: firm year of existence, source of initial capital, and gender of owners/managers were found to be
insignificant. The results showed that organization features, characteristics of decision makers and government
response accounts for a total of 27.9% improvement on the management of business disaster in Kigezi sub-region.
The results further indicate that organization features (β= 0.163, p-value=0.000) and characteristics of decision
makers (β= 0.021, p-value=0.648) have positive but significant effect while government response (β= -0.780, p
value=0.682) has negative but no significant effect on the management of business disaster. The study concludes
that organization features and characteristics of decision makers are important factors that affect the organizational
preparedness and the management of business during COVID-19 pandemics in Kigezi sub-region in South Western
Uganda. The study recommends that SMEs owners/managers should focus on improving their firms’ features;
perfect the way they make decision by providing a critical dynamic resilience strategy framework to manage their
SMEs during the crisis period; and there is a need for government/NGOs interventions in the area of subsidy for
SMEs owners/managers during the pandemic to boost their businesses.

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