Leading talent through the COVID-19 crisis
The COVID-19 pandemic originated in China in late 2019 which challenged the supply chains of every business since early 2020 (Keshky et.al, 2020). The World Health Organization declared COVID-19 as global pandemic on 11 March 2020. Although the outlook for 2021 looks promising with the introduction of vaccines, the pandemic has resulted in continuous profound changes for countries, organizations and individuals.
According to Leavitt’s proposed
model of organizational change, organizations are made of complex interrelated
variables such as human, task, technology and structure (Hartmann &
Lussier, 2020). The correlates of human variable are people which relates to
number of employees, employee knowledge, competencies, personalities and other
attributes. The task variable relates to the activities performed within
organizational capacity (D’Auria et. al, 2020). These include marketing, sales,
procurement of raw materials, production, financing operations, hiring and
managing workforce and many more. The technology variable is composed of tools
and devices required to effectively perform the tasks including software,
hardware, network and websites. The structure variable corresponds to the
systems that organize and direct people, their tasks and the technologies in
use. The correlates of structure are compensation, incentive plans, rules,
reporting lines and many more (Hartmann & Lussier, 2020). Any change in one
of these variables such as human, task, technology and structure will result in
compensatory change in others.
Based on the above model, one of
the major challenges that organizations had to address in pivoting workspaces
to virtual and remote environments. This required organizations to undergo
substantial digital transformation resulting in substantial changes in
technology (Dirani
et. al, 2020). It was
fundamental to redesign the technology and work processes to ensure that tasks
can be performed virtually before reskilling and upskilling the employees to
adapt to the new normal. These structural changes challenged the key areas of
HR such as internal communications, onboarding, performance management,
succession planning, leadership development and global mobility (Collings et.al,
2021). The change in human variable resulted compensatory change in other
variables such as technology, task and structure (Collings et.al, 2021).
Although large number of
organizations have offered their employees to work from home for the
foreseeable future, businesses in essentials sector required their employees to
return to workplace. For instance, at Seylan Bank, employees had to return to workplace to facilitate financial services. The return to workplace created anxiety among employees
and this requires HR professionals to apply careful management to ensure safer
workplace for everyone (Kirchner et.al, 2021). Therefore, Seylan Bank had to provide necessary transport facilities and safety measures in the workplace to avoid anxiety among employees and ensure a safer work environment.
In addition, HR leaders were faced
with the dilemma of reducing cost whilst sourcing the right talent to navigate
through the tough times. For long, low cost industries such as retailing have
conceptualized employees as cost to be minimized (Dirani et. al, 2020). However, COVID-19 transformed
this perspective. Retailing businesses such as Supermarkets had to retain their
employees and hire more as they were required to be on the frontline as part of
essential services. Many businesses increased the wages of these front line
employees and provided them with bonus Keshky et.al, 2020). However, these are
defensive responses to the paradox hence would help an organization motivate
its employees to return to work for a short term during the pandemic.
Organizations need to adopt a wider approach to actively respond with adequate
number of sick leave, sick pay, health insurance and over-time pay (Kirchner
et.al, 2021).
Knowledge based organizations have
seen a tremendous growth in productivity from work-from-home arrangements. The
productivity of call centre employees increased by 13% from remote working. (Collings
et.al, 2021). On contrary, researchers suggest that impact of remote working on
employee productivity and wellbeing share a complex relationship. It has been
found out that the remote working has less positive impact on employee
wellbeing. The companies had to focus on the psychological health of the
employees due to prolonged remote working conditions. (Keshky et.al, 2020).
Leaders need to develop four traits
to effectively manage the workforce and overcome the crisis. They are
awareness, displaying vulnerability to lower themselves to employees to connect
with them, showing empathy to make subordinates feel what they feel and ensure
that employees are genuinely cared for. (Dean, 2020). In a crisis, the leaders
should develop awareness of the external environment. Neuroscience terms such
as “interoception” and “exteroception” which refer to integrative awareness
should be at the core of leadership during crisis. The leader should develop
situational awareness aligned with the inner awareness. This will help a leader
to analyze the situation when faced with crisis, reflect and make an effective
decision. Adopting situational leadership can benefit the organization and
navigate through the crisis by addressing the risks to achieve desired
objectives (D’Auria et. al, 2020).
References
Dean, S. (2020). Future
of Work: Managing Employees Effectively Through the Covid-19 Crisis.
International Journal of Engineering Applied Sciences and Technology. Vol. 5
(3).
Dirani, K., M., Abadi,
M., Alizadeh, A., Barhate , B., Garza , R., C., Gunasekara , N., Ibrahim, G.
& Majzun, Z. (2020). Leadership
competencies and the essential role of human resource development in times of crisis:
a response to Covid-19 pandemic. Human
Resource Development International. Retrieved on March 28, 2021 from DOI:10.1080/13678868.2020.1780078
D’Auria, G. & Smet,
A., D. (2020). Leadership in a crisis: Responding to the coronavirus outbreak and
future challenges. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved on March 25, 2021 from https://www.mckinsey.com/~/media/mckinsey/business%20functions/organization/our%20insights/leadership%20in%20a%20crisis%20responding%20to%20the%20coronavirus%20outbreak%20and%20future%20challenges/leadership-in-a-crisis-responding-to-the-coronavirus-outbreak-and-future-challenges-v3.pdf
Collings, D., G.,
Nyberg, A., J., Wright, P., M. & McMackin, J. (2021). Leading through
paradox in a COVID‐19 world: Human resources comes of age. Human Resource
Management Journal. Retrieved on March 25, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.1111/1748-8583.12343
Hartmann, N., N. &
Lussier, B. (2020). Managing the sales force through the unexpected exogenous
COVID-19 crisis. Industrial Marketing Management. Industrial Marketing
Management. Vol. 88. Retrieved on March 24, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.1016/j.indmarman.2020.05.005
Keshky, M., E., S., E.,
Sawzan Sadaqa Basyouni, S., S. & Sabban, A., M., A. (2020). Getting Through
COVID-19: The Pandemic’s Impact on the Psychology of Sustainability, Quality of
Life, and the Global Economy – A Systematic Review. Organizational Psychology.
Retrieved on March 23, 2021 from https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.585897
Kirchner, K., Ipsen, C.
& Hansen, J., P. (2021). COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge work. Knowledge
Management Research & Practice. Retrieved on March 24, 2021 from DOI:
10.1080/14778238.2021.1877579
I agree with you that with the COVID-19 pandemic, companies in the whole world had to change or adapt new methods in order to survive in the challenging times. In addition, as asserted by (Amis and Janiz, 2020) during the ‘unplanned change’ it is vital that the companies communicate their strategies to the employees to build their trust as employees feel insecure about their jobs and are resistant to do the unknown.
ReplyDelete(Hassan and Kaldeen, 2020) asserts through their research in Sri Lanka that there are positive and negative impacts of ‘work from home’ concept to professional life, family life, physical and mental health which needs to be taken in to consideration by organizations when improvising strategies to initiate and maintain ‘work from home’ concept.
References
Amis, J. and Janz, B. (2020). Leading Change in response to COVID-19. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science. 56(3), pp. 272-278. doi: https://doi.org/10.1177%2F0021886320936703.
Hassan, N. and Kaldeen, M. (2020). Work-From-Home (WFH) Benefits and Challenges: Evidence from State Higher Education Sector in Sri Lanka. International Journal of Science and Technology. 29(8), pp. 4181-4192.
Hi Arjun, thank you for your valuable feedback. I agree with you that working from home had significant positive and negative effects on the workforce. However, with special reference to banking sector which is considered an essential service, employees were requested to come to work on a roster basis. Only a handful of employees were working from home. Leading these employees to work during COVID-19 was a challenge due to anxiety related to safety (Knowles et. al, 2021) . Unlike other businesses, banking sector did not face large downsizing in Sri Lanka hence the employees felt confident except the fact they might contract the virus due to human interaction (Yasmin et. al, 2021). It was vital to address their safety concerns than job insecurity.
DeleteReferences
Knowles, K., A. & Olatunji, B., O. (2021). Anxiety and safety behavior usage during the COVID-19 pandemic: The prospective role of contamination fear. Journal of Anxiety disorders, Vol. 77, doi: 10.1016/j.janxdis.2020.102323
Yasmin, S., Alam, M., K., Ali, F., B., Banik, R. & Salma, N. (2021). Psychological Impact of COVID-19 Among People from the Banking Sector in Bangladesh: a Cross-Sectional Study. International Journal of Mental Health and Addiction, https://doi.org/10.1007/s11469-020-00456-0
Yes Sathaharan, I gave my opinion with a general view of the impact to industries during COVID-19 not particularly to the banking sector as you have also mentioned in the article about different industries (Eg: knowledge management organizations). In particular, I agree with your opinion about the banking industry as I'm also working in the banking industry and banking was considered as an essential service during the pandemic in Sri Lanka.
DeleteAgree with you, Apart from your view Dahik et al., (2020 ) states as per a survey done by them it was observed that those employees who continued working, particularly those who could work from home, there has been some evidence of productivity and wellbeing improvements.
ReplyDeleteHi Pernalla, Appreciate your feedback. Although the survey identified productivity improvements, it was only on individual tasks (76% of the respondents). More people have reportedly experienced less productivity than pre-COVID on collaborative tasks (56% of respondents) (Dahik et. al, 2020). Also, the survey responses showed a correlation between mental health and productivity. Those who experienced better mental health during the pandemic were two times more likely maintained or improved their productivity on collaborative tasks. Based on this theory, since the productivity of majority declined on collaborative tasks, it is likely that employees experienced stresses and anxieties leading to mental health issues.
DeleteReference
Dahik, A., Lovich, D., Kreafle, C., Bailey, A., Kilmann, J., Kennedy, D., Roongta, P., Schuler, F., Tomlin, L. & Wenstrup, J. (2020). What 12,000 Employees Have to Say About the Future of Remote Work. Boston Consulting Group. Retrieved on May 14, 2021 from https://www.economiadehoy.es/adjuntos/62198/BCG-MEDIA-What-12000-Employees-Have-to-Say-About-the-Future-Aug-2020_(1).pdf
Agreed, The pandemic develops a conflict between earnings and safety. Organization has to stop its regular schedule and introduce a new system to communicate as well as to do its daily work. Managers have to take a critical decision in this crisis to save the organizations and the employee's interests (Van der Meer et al., 2017). The major challenge for the management to continue daily work as per the ‘new normal’ schedule with various new rules for everyone's safety purposes (Karin et al., 2020).
ReplyDeleteHi Nivethini, thank you for your comment. The pandemic has led to endemic situation of uncertainties and confusion relating to risks to employees. The organizations had to adopt best practices relating to health and safety management including social distancing (Boiral, et. al, 2021). Also banks had to ensure that the measures in place will gain best out of their employees while maintaining their mental and financial well being (Buehler et. al, 2020).
DeleteReferences
Boiral, O., Brotherton, M., Rivaud, L. & Guillaumie, L. (2021). Organizations’ Management of the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Scoping Review of Business Articles. Sustainability, Vol. 13 Issue: 3993, https://doi.org/10.3390/su13073993
Buehler, K., Conjeaud, O., Giudici, V., Samandari, H., Serino, L., Vettori, M., Webanck, L. & White, O. (2020). Leadership in the time of the coronavirus: COVID-19 response and implications for banks. McKinsey & Company. Retrieved on May 14, 2021 from https://currentexchange.ca/files/attachments/Leadership-in-the-time-of-coronavirus-COVID-19-response-and-implications-for-banks.pdf
I do agree with you. During a pandemic situation such as COVID-19, an organization should first do a self diagnosis of its activities. The organization should plan do’s and don’ts guide in the perspective of health, economic, logistics and corporate management to manage the pandemic situation once understanding its current state. Then the organization need to execute actions and innovative initiations to successfully manage the crisis challenges. Finally, monitor and evaluate the results (GlobalCAD, 2020).
ReplyDeleteHi Oshadee, thankyou for valuable input. I agree that organizations should perform a self-diagnosis of its safety measures to determine its effectiveness as studies have proven the adherence of individuals to such safety guidelines vary (Earle et. al, 2021). For instance some people are less likely to comply with safety measures. Therefore organizations must ensure they are vigilant and interpersonal distancing are monitored by marking lines 6 feet apart from each other for customers to stand in queue when visiting the banks to obtain services.
DeleteReferences
Earle, M., Prusaczyk, E., Choma, B. & Calogero, R. (2021). Compliance with COVID-19 safety measures: A test of an objectification theory model. Body Image, Vol. 37, pp. 6-13, doi: 10.1016/j.bodyim.2021.01.004
Agree with you. Crisis management has become a crucial aspect of business development and success especially in the world today, which has become very dynamic and more susceptible to crises as a result of globalization. Leadership plays a key role in crisis management and change management. In times of crisis, there is a need for organizational leaders to be visible within and beyond their organization, as this offers some stability to the situation and the organization (Fragouli, 2015).
ReplyDelete