Impact of COVID-19 on Organizational Structure
Adopting a new organizational structure is a drastic change for an organization. When the organizational structure is no longer supportive, then changes are necessary to be implemented in the organization. Changes made both in the internal factors like employees, cultures & technologies and external factor like customers, competitors, stakeholders & economy can affect the effectiveness of the organizational structure. When the organization demands for the new employees for inclining the growth of it, then the organizational structure of the organization needs to be changed otherwise no coordination will exist in the organization. Organizational structure in the organization should change as per the need of the market (Neise, & et.al 2021).
The impact of covid-19 has introduced a strong platform of changes in the organization. Organizations were forced to change their business process rapidly in order to survive in the market during pandemic time (Obrenovic, & et.al, 2022). Globally, covid-19 pandemic has challenged the organization to manage their business in the newfound ways. Organization has adapted relevant changes to achieve the future goals of it. Covid-19 has a biggest impact on human resources of an organization and hence it has to focus on the safety and well-being of the employees. The pandemic has offered both challenges and opportunities to the business leader of the organization (Neise, & et.al 2021). The organization has used multiple change management strategies like empowering employees, effective communication, automation, budget control etc., to implement changes in the organizational structure of the organization. During covid-19, organizations have experienced a pause in the growth while adapting different strategies to survive in the tough times (Wanasida, 2021). The pandemic had tremendous swift and the same had an effect on organizational cultures. During the pandemic time, the organization has faced new challenges like adopting technical tools to enhance the work productivity from home and also adapted various business processes achieve the organizational goals. The pandemic has bought new ways of doing business according to which organization has changed their operations in different ways. Covid-19 has exposed many weaknesses and issues that have been faced by the organization like lack of workforce, lack of availability of technology, less production in the employment, economical challenges etc. which had hampered their business. After the pandemic it became difficult for the employees to shift from work from home to office, which results in the failure of adjustability in the workplace environment as they were habitual of working remotely during the pandemic. A survey showed that 48% of the employees liked to work remotely during the pandemic time (Mont, & et.al, 2021). Organizational changes occur when changes are implemented in the structure of the organization and business operations like strategies, policies, technology, core values, work culture etc. to improve the business growth and performance. Changing organizational structure plays a role in shaping the cultures of the organization. It might find it necessary to change organizational structure to compete in the market. Organization like Xerox Holdings Corporation, Telecom, Huawei technologies which has implemented organizational changes to support their new plan and business strategy to meet the organizational goals (Li, & et.al, 2021).
Adapting to Changes in Organizational Structure During COVID-19
After the pandemic, organization has to change its structure of management and organizational culture by speeding up in decision making process, improving the productivity of their business, using new technology and updated data in the business. The organization has to launch new business models and new products to improve the productivity level. Accordingly they need to shift their operations. After the pandemic, it is crucial to introduce new business strategies as more than 5,800 small businesses globally have faced failure in sustaining their business in the market. Adapting new business strategy involves risk because there was no guarantee whether the new business strategy will succeed or fail in prospect of the organization (Li, & et.al, 2021). The pandemic has impacted production and consumption pattern of the organization. The pandemic has changed the way an organization works and had also changed certain decisions of the organization. Bureaucratic organizational structure of an organization is a formal and highly organized structure of an organization. The bureaucratic structure is most likely a pyramid structure of an organization which reflects every departments of an organization in a hierarchy pattern which states that the structure of the organization will flow from top management to bottom management (Ancillo, 2021).
Before pandemic, organizations used to follow a bureaucratic organizational structure. Every department was organized in a formal and systematic structure. Employees of all the departments of the organization understand their roles and responsibilities towards the organization. Bureaucratic organization structure has a clear hierarchy, division of labor, standard operating procedures in the organization. This change in the structure can be effective for the organization as it allows business to deal with a large number of people in short span of time which helps them to run their business smoothly in the market (Sharma, & et.al, 2021). Post pandemic, there was no bureaucratic system followed by any organization. There was no flexibility in the organization. The pandemic has forced many organizations to shift on work from home option (Yang, 2022). The covid-19 pandemic has created huge demands in immediate implementation of change management in the organization. During the pandemic, no organization has followed the bureaucratic organization structure which has hampered their business on a large scale. Post pandemic, the potential to reduce the real estate cost of the organization to became more significant. The changes that were associated with working remotely have impacted the employees both technically and mentally. Many employees have to adapt technical tools like Zoom, WebEx any many other digital platform to work remotely during the pandemic time (Anthony & et.al, 2021). Organizations followed several technical ways for working remotely during the pandemic and consequently they could not follow systematic bureaucratic organizational structure.
Hence, organizations faced lots of difficulties in coordinating and managing the workforce. Post pandemic, everything was messed up and it became tough for the employees to return to office. It became difficult for them to set the same bureaucratic and systematic organizational structure. The pandemic has left permanent traces on the organization in terms of sequencing and bundling proper management in the organization.
Impact of COVID-19 on Organizational Culture
Change management and organizational cultures are two important elements of an organization. Business environment is constantly changing. Strategy sets the direction and focus on the formal environment for employees to understand the organizational goals. The organization’s specific culture can impact the overall effectiveness of the organization performance level. Organizational culture is the set of core values, beliefs; norms, attitudes that may not have been uttered but it shapes the behaviour of a person (Collin, & et.al, 2021). Culture shapes the way an employee interacts in the workplace and change is inevitable. The strategic plan and management of the organization is necessary to run the business smoothly in the market (Fenwick, 2021). Strategic changes always seek to achieve advancement in employee performance and business. The organizational culture is being influenced by the change management of the organization as not everyone in the organization can adapt the rapid changes made by the organization. Coca-Cola and Domino’s Pizza has also implemented change in their business to run it in the market successfully (Anthony & et.al, 2021).
The primary goal of change management is to implement new products, processes and business strategy in the organization without having any negative outcomes like failure in adaption of changes, by the employees (Lam, & et.al, 2021). Effective change management provides lots of positive impacts on organizational cultures like effective growth of the business, environment friendly work cultures etc. If the changes are implemented in the right manner. Organizational culture can strongly affect the strategic direction of the organization as it is an important aspect for the organization success. The efficient way to ensure success in the organization objectives is to establish clear organizational cultures in the organization Implications of strategic changes lead in fostering an environment in which employees will feel safe and will prioritize enough to speak up in the areas where they feel that they need improvement or changes being required (Ali, & et.al, 2021). Organization must build environment friendly cultures in the workplace to encourage the employees to adapt the changes and utilize the available resources for the business production. Lack of authenticity stands as a barrier to change management in the workplace (Kitsios, & et.al, 2021). Change management in the workplace is adopting and implementing relevant strategies, procedure, structures and technologies to assess changes in the business environment (Jufrizen, & et.al, 2021). To maintain peace in the business world, organization often needs to implement changes affecting the business processes, people and products required to run the business efficiently in the business market. Globally, changes are the parts of the business, sometimes it becomes difficult to implement changes in the organization as it affects the work cultures, the workforce of the organization because they needed time to get familiar and adjustable with the change work culture (Kitsios, & et.al, 2021). A healthy workplace culture encourages employees to be motivated and also increases the morale of the employee and further they stay loyal towards the organization. Change management is driven by the adoption and usage of the changes within the organization. Organizational cultures also influence the managerial decision-making, human resource management practices and the leadership styles of the organization. Managerial functions of the organization such as organizational design, motivation of employees, communication and people’s expectation etc. are also influenced by the change management in the organization. When the changes in the organization are well planned and implemented, then it helps in assuring the continued survival of the organization. Globally, 80% of the organization has implemented strategic changes in the organization which has impacted their cultures both in a positive like healthy work environment and negative prospect like adjusting in the new work cultures. An organization which follows the best strategy in the world but the organization’s culture does not allow the organization to adapt and follow the changes that are being implemented in the business of the organization. Changes in the management and the organization cultures are inter-related as it shows how the employee perceives and react upon the changes made in business strategy of the organization and how they adopt the changes (Vaska, 2021). Change in the organization affects people’s behaviour in different ways. For instance, some changes encourage innovation and creativity while some will hamper the environment of the organization. Organizational culture is an important aspect of strategic thinking which impact customer, supplier, especially employees of the organization. Organizational cultures significantly influence the performance of an organization whereas implemented strategic management helps in making the cultures of the organization. So, the implementation of appropriate strategic management improves the formation of a culture of integrity, ethic, and value creation for customers and stakeholders in an organization. An organization need to consider a corporate strategy in the organization which will provide a people-oriented friendly environment to the high performing team in the organization (Azizi, & et.al, 2021). A good organizational culture in the organization promotes a healthy relationship environment amongst the employees in an organization. After the implementation of various change management process within an organization, it leads to several impacts on the organization cultures (Valeri, 2021). It happens often that the managers and leaders of the organization are not willing to implement changes in the organization as they have fear about the success and failure of the implemented changes in an organization. Adaptation of relevant new changes in an organization makes difficult for the employee to adjust and move with the implemented changes. Change management improves the service stability and availability of resources in the organization (Kristen, 2022).Thus change management is inter-related with the organizational cultures as new changes adapted by the organization directly impact the culture of the organization (Polinkevych, & et.al, 2021). There are many cultural impacts for change management process as every organization has its unique cultures so the management system has to adapt the implemented change process with their existing cultures otherwise they have to change the culture of the organization.
Change Management and Organizational Cultures
Hence, the changes that are done in an organization are never implemented alone as it involves every aspects of an organization like leaders, managers, individual contributors, technology, employees , organizational cultures and many more to make the implementation of change management in the organization successfully. The theories of management like Kotter’s change management theory which states that changes should be done in an organization with the support of the leaders of various departments of the organization to recognise the cultures, values, norms and ethics as a strong force as it effects diverse changes in the organization.
References
Kristen, H., (2022). Organizational change management: Proven models to help navigate change. Zendesk.
https://www.zendesk.com/in/blog/change-management-models/#:~:text=Kotter’s%20change%20management%20theory&text=Build%20your%20change%20team%20with,sure%20they%20know%20their%20role
Mont, O., Curtis, S. K., & Palgan, Y. V. (2021). Organisational response strategies to COVID-19 in the sharing economy. Sustainable Production and Consumption, 28, 52-70.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352550921000981
Su, R., Obrenovic, B., Du, J., Godinic, D., & Khudaykulov, A. (2022). COVID-19 Pandemic Implications for Corporate Sustainability and Society: A Literature Review. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 19(3), 15-92.
https://www.mdpi.com/1660-4601/19/3/1592
Neise, T., Verfürth, P., & Franz, M. (2021). Rapid responding to the COVID-19 crisis: Assessing the resilience in the German restaurant and bar industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 96, 102-960.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0278431921001031
Li, J. Y., Sun, R., Tao, W., & Lee, Y. (2021). Employee coping with organizational change in the face of a pandemic: The role of transparent internal communication. Public Relations Review, 47(1), 101-984.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0363811120301119
Wanasida, A. S., Bernarto, I., Sudibjo, N., & Purwanto, A. (2021). The role of business capabilities in supporting organization agility and performance during the COVID-19 pandemic: An empirical study in Indonesia. The Journal of Asian Finance, Economics and Business, 8(5), 897-911.
https://www.koreascience.or.kr/article/JAKO202112748675253.page
Ancillo, A., del Val Núñez, M. T., & Gavrila, S. G. (2021). Workplace change within the COVID-19 context: a grounded theory approach. Economic Research-Ekonomska Istraživanja, 34(1), 2297-2316.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/1331677X.2020.1862689
Sharma, M., Luthra, S., Joshi, S., & Kumar, A. (2021). Accelerating retail supply chain performance against pandemic disruption: adopting resilient strategies to mitigate the long-term effects. Journal of Enterprise Information Management.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JEIM-07-2020-0286/full/html
Yang, L., Holtz, D., Jaffe, S., Suri, S., Sinha, S., Weston, J., Teevan, J. (2022). The effects of remote work on collaboration among information workers. Nature human behaviour, 6(1), 43-54.
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-021-01196-4
Anthony Jnr, B., & Abbas Petersen, S. (2021). Examining the digitalisation of virtual enterprises amidst the COVID-19 pandemic: a systematic and meta-analysis. Enterprise Information Systems, 15(5), 617-650.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/17517575.2020.1829075
Collin, K. M., Keronen, S., Lemmetty, S., Auvinen, T., & Riivari, E. (2021). Self-organised structures in the field of ICT: challenges for employees’ workplace learning. Journal of Workplace Learning.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/JWL-10-2019-0124/full/html?skipTracking=true&utm_source=TrendMD&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Journal_of_Workplace_Learning_TrendMD_0&WT.mc_id=Emerald_TrendMD_0
Fenwick, J. (2021). Structure and Culture. In Organisational Behaviour in the Public Sector: A Critical Introduction. Emerald Publishing Limited.
https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/978-1-80071-420-520211005/full/html
Lam, L., Nguyen, P., Le, N., & Tran, K. (2021). The relation among organizational culture, knowledge management, and innovation capability: Its implication for open innovation. Journal of Open Innovation: Technology, Market, and Complexity, 7(1), 66.
https://www.mdpi.com/1004898
Ali, B. J., & Anwar, G. (2021). Strategic leadership effectiveness and its influence on organizational effectiveness. International Journal of Electrical, Electronics and Computers, 6(2).
https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=3835697
Jufrizen, J., Mukmin, M., Nurmala, D., & Jasin, H. (2021). Effect of Moderation of Work Motivation on the Influence of Organizational Culture on Organizational Commitment and Employee Performance. International Journal of Business Economics (IJBE), 2(2), 86-98.
https://journal.umsu.ac.id/index.php/ijbe/article/view/6710
Valeri, M. (2021). Organizational Studies: Implications for the Strategic Management. Springer Nature.
https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=l21LEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PR5&dq=strategic+implications+of+change+management+with+specific+reference+to+the+impact+of+organisational+culture.+&ots=tKUO-Nx8Ct&sig=N2OQTmAM3zRhRtOwmD0mf2JXudc
Kitsios, F., & Kamariotou, M. (2021). Artificial intelligence and business strategy towards digital transformation: A research agenda. Sustainability, 13(4), 20-25.
https://www.mdpi.com/997602
Polinkevych, O., Khovrak, I., Trynchuk, V., Klapkiv, Y., & Volynets, I. (2021). Business risk management in times of crises and pandemics. Montenegrin Journal of Economics, 17(3), 99-110.
https://mnje.com/sites/mnje.com/files/currentissue/mnje_vol._17_no._3_1.pdf#page=99
Azizi, M. R., Atlasi, R., Ziapour, A., Abbas, J., & Naemi, R. (2021). Innovative human resource management strategies during the COVID-19 pandemic: A systematic narrative review approach. Heliyon, 7(6), 07-233.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844021013360
Vaska, S., Massaro, M., Bagarotto, E. M., & Dal Mas, F. (2021). The digital transformation of business model innovation: A structured literature review. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 35-57.
https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fpsyg.2020.539363/full
Order an Essay Now & Get These Features For Free:
Turnitin Report
Formatting
Title Page
Citation
Outline
