Introduction
Is any facet of the economy that was not adversely affected by the coronavirus pandemic? The business world encountered a dramatic change after the lockdown, and travel bans were declared in most nations worldwide. Most businesses temporarily shut down before working at home was discovered, which birthed all other technological advancements like virtual meetings and online marketing. The new changes transformed organizational culture, structure, and systems into different and almost opposite ones. Most organizations had never encountered those changes, yet there was no resistance since it was a matter of ‘survival for the fittest.’ Therefore, the impact of the COVID pandemic transformed the organizational structure, culture, and systems to incline technological advancements.
Change of Organizational structure
The coronavirus pandemic necessitated long-term and short-term organizational modifications that were not present during the pre-pandemic era. The jolts resulted from different reactions from individuals and the government to contain the health threat like the lockdown and the social distancing. The on-site work was replaced by remote working for numerous employees, which required more delegation of duties than before. Virtual meetings replaced the physical meetings through Zoom, which had not penetrated the market by the end of 2019, empowering the techno- structure model (Spicer, 2020). The impact of coronavirus brought about a new economic design where payment of salaries was based on performance, unlike the previous one where salaries were predetermined even before a performance where independent contractors like freelancers replaced employees. Resultantly, the issue of reward and ownership drastically changed due to the demands of organizational shift necessitated by the COVID-19 pandemic. The short-term effect of the pandemic on the organizational structure was physical changes alongside the techno-structure model.
Secondly, the pandemic brought new long-term organizational structure changes, which were different from the pre-pandemic structures. It led to minimized international labor mobility due to demands laid by immigration and emigration from one nation to another. Several features of the business landscape changed after the emergency of the coronavirus even after everything went to ‘normal’ after the discovery of the vaccines since there was no asymmetry in organizational structures before and after the pandemic. There was a permanent mark left in areas of economic fundamentals: technologies, preferences, and scarcities ( Triemstra et al., 2021). It brought new work organizations with technology at its peak to facilitate the new reforms like the time of the Great Depression, whereby technology played an integral role in changes in the organizational structures. Hence, the long-term impact of the COVID pandemic on organizational design is a change in work organization, work independencies, and technological advancement to support the new changes.
Change of Organizational Culture
COVID-19 pandemic has revolutionized organizational culture across the globe, whereby the jolts have brought positive and negative effects. According to Bragatto et al. (2021), some cultural traits have been over-emphasized, like flexibility, accountability, supportiveness, and confronting challenges, whereas others were downplayed, like individualism and customer and work orientation. Consequently, there was a shift of focus of the leadership from organizational culture to more pressing questions like how to navigate amid the prevailing economic drawbacks. The global lockdown was an eye-opener to new opportunities of working from home and not necessarily on the business premises. People had to adjust and learn to work from home at their own pace, which demanded high discipline since there was no supervision. The business people and employees realize they can be connected in different geographical locations virtually through online platforms, and the impact is almost the same.
In contrast, organizational culture amid the coronavirus pandemic changed for the worst due to the rate at which the changes happened. There was no time for peaceful transition and transference of the good norms. Naturally, culture is developed slowly by incorporating norms that govern a setting instead of the dramatic changes witnessed during the coronavirus era. Organizations witnessed company norms and culture scrapped away to accommodate new norms, creating compatibility challenges and negatively impacting the organizations. For instance, the face-to-face formal way of doing business was replaced by the new sophisticated video conferencing technology (Foss, 2020). While working remotely seems convenient and cost-effective, it has several disadvantages of deteriorating mental health, which is rising in the post-pandemic era. Therefore, some of the changes in the post-pandemic cultural changes are a recipe for crisis.
Change of Organizational Systems
There was an emergency of new organizational systems from post-pandemic implications resulting from the institutions’ response to the outbreak. The remote working depended on electronic devices for communication with other employees and administration, which led to a system of cyber security threats and protection. Businesses had to pay attention to the new post-pandemic system to protect their data from malicious manipulation since the organization’s success depended on it. Another organizational system that resulted from COVID pestilence was adaptability to changes which acted as the determining component for businesses that survived the pandemic era. The disease struck the globe unceremoniously, and not even one business was prepared for the change. Thereby, its impact was felt in every facet of the economy. Fonseca and Ezevado (2020) argue that organizations that were fast to adapt to the new changes had a competitive edge over those with a longer time to adjust. Since then, most businesses have been open to change and can take the shortest time to adopt new opportunities since the pandemic era was a training ground. Therefore, cyber security and adaptability to new changes are organizational systems developed as by-products as businesses try to overcome the pandemic threat.
Another organizational system revealed during the coronavirus era that has increased its significance since then is a shift of business models from physical trade to information intensity matrix. Before the pandemic, the population relied on physical trading; however, with a ban on travel and lockdown, people were forced to move to digital online shopping, where they relied on available information about the product. It explains why telecommunications companies, online stores, and shipping companies made a fortune during the pandemic. There was a shift in business equilibrium which led hundreds of thousands of organizations to migrate to social media platforms for networking with existing and prospective clients to boost physical sales, which were incredibly low (pizzeria et al., 2020). The organizational system has become the norm in the current businesses, with high volume sales coming from online affiliation. Consequently, the pandemic resulted in a shift in business model from physical trading to online trading, which resulted from COVID-19 restrictions.
The Future of the Business World
The post-pandemic era resulted in new organizational structures, cultures, and systems that have become the new business norm in the foreseeable future. I concur with Foss (2020) that most businesses across all sectors of the economy have adapted and invested in new developments brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, and surprisingly, they are making huge profits out of it. Zoom meetings are preferred for internal and superficial purposes in the communication department. Unlike in the past, zoom meeting is esteemed as formal as any business summit and is mostly preferred since it is at par with technological advancements. Secondly, remote working is one of the discoveries that will continue infinitely even after the virus evolves into a less harmful variant. It is convenient for employees and employers and creates a sense of shared responsibilities and liabilities. The era ushered in techno-structure, which is the biggest discovery for the second decade of the 21st century and will last in the market for as long as it is relevant.
Currently, people live in the virtual world and can transact there; otherwise, the physical business is slowly dying a natural death. I believe that the pandemic somewhat forced people to migrate to digital markets where they are glued there, and there is no possibility of reversing back. Studies show the companies making voluminous sales are online oriented; thus, the future of any business relies on their proficiency in navigating virtual markets. Surprisingly, no business is too small or large to trade online, and most social media platforms create pages for the businesses’ large capacity to accommodate tons of fun. After critically surveying the current trends after the post-pandemic era, I conclude that organizational cultures, structures, and systems are aligned with the strategies enforced by a coronavirus, and there lies the future of the business world. It is impossible to retrogress to the era before the pandemic since technological advancements have determined the fate of businesses.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the COVID-19 pandemic facilitated cultural, structural, and systematic facets of business enterprise towards technological advancement, thereby bringing a new norm to the business world. It necessitated the long-awaited migration to the virtual world through remote working, social media trading, and zoom meetings. It has led to developing new systems compatible with technological evolution for new business models. The personal trends that enhance the new norm have been over-emphasized, while those that endanger the same are downplayed. There is no possibility of returning to the pre-COVID era even if situations return to normal. Consequently, I strongly believe that despite the negative impact of the epidemic, the business world evolved rapidly due to the constraints of coronavirus, without which the evolution would have been much slower.
References
Bragatto, P., Vairo, T., Milazzo, M. F., & Fabiano, B. (2021). The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the safety management in Italian Seveso industries. Journal of Loss Prevention in the Process Industries, 70, 104393.
Fonseca, L., & Azevedo, A. L. (2020). COVID-19: outcomes for global supply chains. Management & Marketing. Challenges for the Knowledge Society, 15(s1), 424-438.
Foss, N. J. (2020). The impact of The Covid‐19 pandemic on firms’ organizational designs. Journal of Management Studies.
Pinzaru, F., Zbuchea, A., & Anghel, L. (2020). The Impact of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Business. A preliminary overview. Strategic. Preparing for Tomorrow, Today, 721-730.
Spicer, A. (2020). Organizational culture and COVID-19. Journal of Management Studies, 57(8), 1737-1740.
Triemstra, J. D., Haas, M. R., Bhavsar-Burke, I., Gottlieb-Smith, R., Wolff, M., Shelgikar, A. V., … & Ellinas, H. (2021). Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the clinical learning environment: addressing identified gaps and seizing opportunities. Academic Medicine, 96(9), 1276.
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