The effect of the covid-19 pandemic process on the management and organization practices and business performance of SMEs: A research application on manufacturing enterprises in Tokat province

The COVID-19 pandemic is a flu infection that emerged in the Wuhan province of China in 2019, and the negative impact of the pandemic has spread rapidly around the world. Covid-19 is a disease that spreads extremely quickly. The first case in Turkey was announced by the Ministry of Health on March 11, 2020. The pandemic, which affected the whole world in a short time, was first considered a health crisis, but immediately afterward it was reflected as an economic crisis. The resulting pandemic has affected social life and economic life in many aspects. The fact that people did not leave their homes as a precaution may have slowed down the transmission of the virus, but it had various negative effects on the economy. Closing of workplaces, disruptions in supply networks, interruptions in production, slowdown in trading activities and finally disruptions in production activities have had negative effects in the short and long term. In this study, the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on the management and organizational practices and business performance of 107 participating SMEs operating in the field of manufacturing in Tokat province are examined. In the study, how SMEs were affected during the pandemic process and what the situation was in the manufacturing sector were examined in a broad framework with survey questions. With this research, the negative effects on SMEs caused by the Covid-19 pandemic crisis are stated. As a result of the research, the COVID-19 pandemic process caused disruptions in the management and organizational activities of SMEs, negative effects on business performance, and generally had a negative impact on the functioning of SMEs.