Is Organization Change a must in the Era of Pandemic COVID-19?
Dr. Musrrat Parveen, Ph.D
Associate Professor &
Faculty of Economics and Administration
Departmentof Human Resource Management
King Abdulaziz University, Saudi Arabia
Abstract
The major aim of this research study is to investigate and discuss about the three foremost dimensions for change (climate for change, process for change and readiness for change) pertaining to manufacturing and service sector in the Era of pandemic Covid-19 crisis. The Sampling of the survey was conducted during the period of July - December 2020 in the private manufacturing and service sector in Saudi Arabia. To test the research objective set in this study, firstly we performed the correlations between the variables on the items that measured the various dimensions for change .Based on the findings of one sample t-test in table 3,the current study showed that the manufacturing and service companies created the climate for change during the pandemic COVID-19 through having (1). General support by the manager, (2).Trust in their leaders, (3). Cohesion, (4). participatory management, and (5). Politicking among the employees in the workplace. In terms of the process for change, employees were involved in the change process during the pandemic. Their management was able to manage and lead the change because there is an impression among employees about their management leading ability. Thus, the overall level for the process for change is positive. Employees, who participated in the survey, were intentionally ready for change and willing to devote their energy to implement the change.
Keywords: Dimensions for change (Climate for change, Process for change and Readiness for change), manufacturing and service sector, changes in the Era of pandemic crisis, Saudi Arabia
Introduction
The word-wide pandemic COVID -19 has challenged organization to cope up their businesses, establishments and large and small enterprises in various innovative means. Currently, in the short term, they’re facing enormous changeability and fluctuations to their business plans; however in the long term, they must acclimatize and continue to make improvement on their set predefined goals. In today’s scenario, organizational change is a major concern in numerous businesses and organizations. It is a procedure in which the firm enhances performance by working towards its ultimate state. Organizational change emerges due to ever-changing environment and reaction to a current critical situation, or is proposed by a business leader. Organizational change is the actions which make many business enterprises to alter major factors and elements of its organization including culture, technologies or infrastructure to operate, or its internal processes and procedures. Hence, it is classified into three major stages: preparation, implementation, and follow-through. Practically, at some point, many organizations will, undergo a transition stage whether it's a planned well-structured change or a sudden, ex-temporary one like what the entire world confront in case of Covid-19. The Corona-virus pandemic has disrupted activities and businesses worldwide, and daily routine activities such as meetings or travel can no longer be easily practiced, supply chains have been disrupted, product development processes have been disrupted, and work at company sites has become impossible, but allowing and adapting work from home has become a feature to sustain in the dynamic environment. The COVID-19 pandemic has sent shock waves to the whole entire world and as a result, many people have believed that the world after COVID-19 is unlikely to return to the world that was.
COVID-19 has shown how many businesses were unprepared for the unanticipated. It's a massive failure for risk management process and implementation. Studies will be conducting on how different approaches can be applied differently for future ahead. As for recent time, organization can take advantage of time in planning stability for unforeseen events, which in turn will protect life and valuable assets and property. The real dilemma was that the virus was gaining momentum in China as early as January, and cases were started to appear in other countries. There were six weeks or so when it was fairly likely that it was going to be a pandemic and still many organizations were unprepared and the did nothing to minimize the expected negative impact that will occur. The majority of companies were not ready to deal with this circumstance, and the question here is, should companies be later in going along with this change? It can be said that factories and companies around the world have suffered from catastrophic effects as a result of the actions taken by the governments of different countries, and with the gradual opening of economic activities in the countries of the world, it can be said that organizational change has become imperative for the survival and continuation of companies. On the other hand, those organizations who anticipated the on-going pandemic were able to take advantage of time and start preparing their operation accordingly.
“However, there is always a positive side, the unanticipated circumstances generated by pandemic give rise to good philosophies, concepts, design and finally planning. It facilitated to accelerate business and commercial changes that have been under conversation for extensive period of time. Business dexterity is considered to be the upmost change to survive in this dynamic environment. Collaboration, technology, teamwork, leadership are attaining its significance in structuring of a “new normal” which is indispensable in sustaining the new routine of entities, individuals and various establishments”.
Saudi Government backing to the Manufacturing sector
The rapid spread of Covid-19 has introduced new challenges across the business landscape. According to research and markets (2020), The Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA)'s a collapse in the oil prices and lock downs to mitigate health crises has combined to put the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) in a predominantly challenging position in 2020. In Saudi Arabia, the manufacturing sector is one of the world’s fastest growing about 7.5% per year (Mordor intelligence,2021-2026). Currently, the manufacturing sector contributes roughly 10% of Saudi Arabia’s GDP. A huge amount of financial and administrative support is being provided by the government of Saudi Arabia to the manufacturing sector. This is, in fact inclusive of (building of new industrial cities such as Jubail and Yanbu, implementation of the infrastructure needed,establishment of SIDF (Saudi Industrial Development Fund) as well as other inducement that are contributive to industrialization). Apart from financial and administrative back up, Thus, Alqahtani (2006) postulated that due to lack of a strategic organizational development plans,it has raise to several and particular glitches and difficulties in the Arab region such as (1). Country’s dependence on international workers, (2). High unemployment rates among indigenous populations, (3).Lack of fidelity and dedication towards organizations, (4). The extreme influence of tribal systems and family relationships within companies, (5). Dispersed of administrative corruption& wrongful conduct, (6). Lack of uniformity among ministries in terms of their responsibilities and lack of physical phenomenon and collaboration with global participants. Against this contextual, Alqahtani (2006) stresses the importance of change management as an influential approach in reorganizing public sector and dealing with the subject matter. A series of studies (Abu-Hamdieh’s study, 1994; Alamri and Alfawsan, 1997; Alzuadat, 1999; Alomari, 2000; Alharbi, 2002) have emphasized on critical review of organizational change management in Arab region including Saudi Arabia. My goal in the following section is to explore various dimensions of change that are likely to affect both manufacturing and service sectors in a positive manner.
Literature Review
According to Charbonnier- Voirin et al., (2010), defined that “Climate for change refers to employee perceptions of organizational policies, practices, and procedures that support, encourage, and value organizational change activities”. Climate for change is the message the employees resaved from their supervisors and help them to adapt new tasks to be a part in changing process in the era of pandemic (Bouckenooghe, Devos, and Van den Broeck, 2009). It also contributes to advancing the development of organizations in order to achieve competitive advantage and sustainable development as it is one of the most important elements of survival in our current era of pandemic COVID- 19 crisis. The five major variables includes: firstly, General support by supervisors: Supervisors are the link between the employees and the upper management; therefore, they build a good relationship with the employees to guide and lead their teams’ members to drive the change as planned. Secondly: Trust in leader: The leader, who is able to gain trust of the employees, will definitely increase employee’s satisfaction and loyalty. During the change, managers must clarify the goals of the change and the direction to build trustful interactions for their employees on the onset, especially during the pandemic (Bouckenooghe et al., 2009). Third: Cohesion, “Cohesion is a term meant to capture the sense of belongingness individuals feel toward groups they participate in. It is the force of “we-ness” that binds members in the pursuit of a common goal” (Frank, 1957). “It has been positively associated with the completion of therapeutic tasks, improvements in psychological well-being, and improvements in interpersonal functioning (Joyce, Piper and Ogrodnicuk, 2007)”. As tasks become more interdependent, it is necessary to trust co-workers to ensure effective synchronization and teamwork (Groysberg et.al, 2006). Fourth: Participatory management, as study illustrated that when employees are involved in decision making; the decision yields have high results concerning every party's satisfaction (Turner et.al, 2017). Fifth: Politicking, the current pandemic shows that political leaders have a tendency to react slowly in the face of unprecedented threats (Klenert et. al, 2020). Organizational Politics is referred to a certain behavior or actions of individuals working within the organization which involves informal and intentional moves in order to influence definite decisions of the higher level management to protect or increase the professional career of a particular individual(s) within the organization (Drory, 1993).
RQ1: How Climate for change is one of the survival in the Era of pandemic COVID-19?
II Process for change
The psychological and sociological realities are also an important factor in the change process which should be addressed by regular communication and transparency. An additional fact that should be considered is people natural tendency to resist the change which could be a real obstacle if it doesn’t address appropriately. As much as change is difficult and even painful, in fact, it’s also an on-going process which needs to be regularly reviewed, revised and improved.
Involvement in the change process
Unquestionably, the world has been trying to cope with this unprecedented appearance of the ‘invisible’ adversary called COVID-19 crisis. Clearly, this sudden change affected the daily lives of millions of people around the globe stated by (Kafa and Pashiardis, 2020). According to Morgan and Zeffane (2003), proclaimed that where employees shows higher involvement in the formal hierarchy - via consultation by higher managers - they verbalized higher trust in management and therefore this trust will be reflected in the process outcome. When considering the private manufacturing/service sector, the hard core reality is that the organizational leaders were taken aback for the sudden or abrupt transformation. In all, they have a limited amount of time to come up with viable strategies. With reference to the COVID-19 pandemic, organizational leaders have taken united attempts to interact with stakeholders/shareholdersperiodically.
Management ability to lead the change
During the period of pandemic crises, organizational leaders from several business sectors had to takedifficult decisions and choices: many business/commercial enterprises were shut down, workers/employees were laid off, and many companies projects were left uncompleted, among many other drastic changes (Marshall et al., 2020). Leadership should seldom be a lonely endeavour. When leading during emergencies, leaders need to work together. This collaborative and collective attitude was evident in many nations, particularly with the several committees that were constituted to address the diverse issues/challengesbrought on by the unaccustomed/unfamiliar natureof the COVID-19 widespread.
Attitude of top management towards change
In times of Covid-19 crisis, a vision is required. When leaders have a solid crisis management and crisis management strategy in place, stakeholders and shareholders feel more secure. Leaders must be ready to immediately abandon and revise plans if necessary. They must be able to accept uncertainty, have the insight to anticipate problems before they happen, and be ready to implement backup plans if necessary.
RQ2: Does involvement, attitude and ability of top management can lead to the change in the Era of pandemic Covid-19?
III Readiness for change
After developing climate for change and implanting the process for change, then the employees’ readiness for change must be considered. “Readiness for change is reflected in organizational members’ attitudes,beliefs and intentions pertaining to the extent to which changes are required and the organization’s action capability to opportunely implement those changes in the environment” (Armenakis et al., 1993, p. 681). Readiness for change has a positive and significant effect towards worker’s performance and through readiness to change of the workers in an industry as proved via the empirical study done by (Novitasari et al., 2020). According to (Bouckenooghe et al., 2009) stated that readiness for change has multifaceted reaction toward change, which is inclusive of intentional (how you act), cognitive ( How to think), and emotional (How to feel) readiness for change. The three detailed of these dimensions are as follow:
Intentional for Readiness for change: How you Act.
Intentional dimension is one of dimensions for readiness to change. This dimension reflects how employee’s acts towards change as stated (Çelik and Atik, 2020). Oreg (2013) stated that “The extent to which employees is willing to put their energy into the change process”. A recent study on readiness for change by (Rafferty and Minbashian in 2019) had concluded that readiness of change could be formed by considering the both emotional and cognitive aspects of change as well.
Cognitive Readiness for change: How to think
Oreg (200), specify that “Cognitive readiness to change pertain to the notions and thoughts that people hold about change.Many scholars (Armenakis and Harris, 2002; Armenakis et al., 1993, 2007a) have investigated when communicating for change; the cognitive beliefs are a vital characteristic. In 2019, Rafferty and Minbashian had cited different scholars who classified cognitive beliefs into five beliefs. These classifications had also supported in the study of (Novitasari et al., in 2020) which was conducted after the pandemic of COVID-19 has occurred. The five believes of change readiness are: Discrepancy; Appropriateness; Change Self- Efficacy; Principal Support; and Valence Belief.
Emotional Readiness for change: How to feel.
For the organizational change the positive emotions among employees are a vital aspect. Accordingly, empirical evidence has supported that the vital factor for expecting readiness for change is the positive emotion about the change; indeed, it is more crucial than any of the five cognitive believes mentioned above (Rafferty and Minbashian, 2019). Additionally, the study claims that intentional and emotionalreadiness for change have the same responses toward a particular change (Bouckenooghe et al., 2009).
RQ3: How well the employees have readiness for change in the Era of pandemic Covid-19?
Depending on the research questions following research objective has been set.
The main aim of this research study is to investigate and discuss about the three foremost dimensions for change (climate for change, process for change and readiness for change) pertaining to (manufacturing and service sector) in the Era of pandemic Covid-19.
Research Methodology
The survey consisted of three sections (climate for change, process for change, and readiness for change). Each section had different variables and questions to measure the main independent variable. The study was conducted from July - December 2020. The survey/instrument was adopted from (Bouckenooghe, D; Devos, G; and Van de Broeck, H, 2009) and questionnaires were distributed directly to the employees. Therefore, the questions were designed for employees, who encountered the changes in manufacturing and service companies occurred during COVID-19. We have finally applied the questionnaire on a five point likert scale ranging from “Strongly agree to strongly disagree”.
Results Analysis
The responses received from the survey of 250 employees form manufacturing and private companies are first put to a reliability test as shown in table 1. The results shows that the questionnaire was more than adequate in terms of its reliability (Kline, 1998), that is (between 0.83 to 0.90) as shown in Table 1. To test the research objective set in this study, firstly we performed the correlations between the variables on the items that measured the various dimensions for change. And it was found that the correlation coefficient is called statistically significant at 5% level of significance as shown in table 2. In addition to the above descriptive analysis, a One Sample t-test was performed to determine whether differences exist between the sample mean and the population mean (that is, 2) as shown in table 3.
To measure Climate for Change via measuring the five main dimensions 1.General support by supervisors, 2. Trust in leaders, 3.Cohesion, 4.Participatory management and 5.Politicking) at manufacturing and service companies of different range.
General support by supervisors
As shown in table 3, that the employees working in manufacturing and service companies believe that, favouritism is an important way to achieve something in the organization with a mean score (3.87), (t-31.09, p=.000), and that the manager encourages and inspires to do things that they have never done before with a mean score (3.85), (t-30.10, p=.000), thirdly the employees also believes that department is open with a mean score (3.84), (t-29.29, p=.000), and many a times staff members take undue advantage in the organization with a mean score (3.69), (t-26.65, p=.000). This explicated that during pandemic, favouritism turned out to be an important tactic to achieve to some degree in the organization. At times, it is also seen that manager encourages the employees to come up with innovative and creative ideas and that the department is all open to accept it. On the contrary, it was felt that staff members take undue advantage in the organization during the Covid-19 crisis.
Trust in leaders
It has been noted that employees considered that their manager doesn’t show keen interest to be cooperative and supportive in seeking or providing a valuable solution if they encounter anyissues/concerns with a mean score (4.07), (t-32.00, p=.000), and they strongly believe that higher level of management team succeed in fulfilling its promises with a mean score (3.86), (t-29.59, p=.000), and if they face any issues or concern they can turn on the manager to seek help with a mean score (3.77), (t-29.67, p=.000). This elucidated that managers in manufacturing and service companies does not seem to be very intense in helping the individual working employees, in case, if they need to find a solution for a problem. On the other hand it clearly stated that corporate management team fulfillsits assurances and promises during the pandemic Covid -19 crisis.
Cohesion
According to table 3, it is indicated that employees believe that interpersonal communications amid higher level of management team and various departments is excellent with a mean score (3.94), (t-36.72, p=.000), secondly they also believe that there is a strong competition/clashes between department colleagues with a mean score (3.92), (t-32.13, p=.000), and that they are also uncertain whether all their colleagues/staff members are adequately competent with a mean score (3.86), (t-31.71, p=.000). This clarified that the manufacturing and service companies enhances communication between organization and team, and between colleagues in the various departments which in turn was very helpful during the crisis.
Participatory management
As noticed in table 3, all employees working have confidence in their colleagues with a mean score (3.93), (t-35.39, p=.000), they also believe that front-line employees and office workers can raise any issue/ topics for any kind of conversation and dialogue with a mean score (3.88), (t-35.98, p=.000), and also judgement’s and decisions in relation to line of work are interpreted in consultation with the staff members who are affected with a mean score (3.81), (t-31.33, p=.000), and they also believe that manager can also assume to place herself or himself in any of the critical situation/ position with a mean score (3.79), (t-33.84, p=.000), and finally any modification/ changes are always discussed and analyzed with all people concerned with a mean score (3.72), (t-26.99, p=.000). This means discovering the element of desire that drives employees to respond positively to change, and feel more excited when it is part of the change process or to have an important role in the process.
Politicking
Lastly, it has been noted that employees considered that corporate management team informed about its decisions to all departments uniformly with a mean score (3.98), (t-36.93, p=.000), and they also believe that power games between the departments play an important role within the organization with a mean score (3.90), (t-34.71, p=.000), and finally employee believe that corporate management team are consistent in implementing its policies, standards and norms with all departments with a mean score (3.89), (t-35.37, p=.000). This explicated that the employees were regularly informed about the policy in all departments during the pandemic. This shows the crucial role of change which enhances the organization growth rapidly. However, this change is a state of continuous improvement that comes in response to changes in the work environment of the organization. All managers at various managerial levels will face it. Managers who have the ability to know the appropriate type of change to introduce make the organization more creative and flexible in response to the changes surrounding it. Therefore, working managers are encouraged to search for new ideas to bring about beneficial changes in any of the organization's work.
To measure Process for Change via measuring the three main dimensions (Involvement in the change process, Management ability to lead the change, and Attitude of top management towards change).
Involvement in the change process
According to table 3, it shows that employees working in manufacturing and service companies were adequately informed regarding the process for change with a mean score (4.08), (t-30.43, p=.000), and that the information sharing and provided was very specific and clear with a mean score (3.96), (t-29.03, p=000), thirdly the employees had good social interactions and interpersonal communication between project leaders and staff members in relation to organization’s policy toward changes with a mean score showing (3.92), (t-36.06, p=000), and on the regular basis, they were informed regarding the current change happening with a mean score as (3.85), (t-32.58, p=000), all updates were informed pertaining to change progress in regard of COVID-19.
Management Ability to lead the change
Table 3, demonstrates that there is a positive impression among employees about their management leading ability. It also indicated that their department’s executives have concern in acclimatizing their leadership styles to the changes and they were focusing on current problems rather than the possible remedies with a mean score (4.13), (t-33.85, p=000), though they are competent enough tofulfill their new role/function with a mean score (4.12), (t-34.12, p=000), and that departments and staff were consulted regarding the change, managers realized the consequences of the change at their employees, management spoke up for their employees and coach them about how to implement the change overall with a mean score (4.06), (t-30.07,p=000), and it has also been noticed that the senior managers in various departments pay adequate consideration to the individual concerns that the changes could have for their staff members with a mean score (4.00), (t-32.21,p=000), on the other hand the executivesdepartment’s raise their voice for all the employees during the change with a mean score (3.94),(t-30.61,p=000), and the consultation within the departments about the change was made sufficiently with a mean score showing as (3.86), (t-25.85,p=000), and every time organizational members were confer with the reasons for change with a mean score (3.80), (t-24.72, p=000).
Attitude of top management towards change
The top/higher level of management attitude during the pandemic clearly indicates that the majority of employees working in manufacturing and service companies agreed that top/higher level of management team has an optimistic and bright vision of the upcoming future with a mean score (4.07), (t-30.95,p=0000), and secondly top/higher level of management team are passively involved with the changes with a mean score (3.86), (t-28.34,p=000), and finally top/higher level of management team assist the change process categorically with a mean score showing as (3.81), (t-25.75, p=000). Therefore, it is clearly stated that the employees felt involved and they trusted their management ability and appreciate their attitude for the overall process of change during the COVID-19 pandemic.
III. Dimension three: Readiness for change
To measure Readiness for Change via measuring the three main (Intentional, Cognitive, and Emotional readiness for change) components.
Intentional readiness for change
As shown in table 3, the employees working in manufacturing and service companies agreed to dedicate themselves to the process change with a mean score showing as (4.07),(t-32.00,p=000), and they are willing to put energy into the process change with a mean score (3.79), (t-33.84,p=000), finally their willingness to providenotable contribution to the process change with a mean score (3.77), (t-29.67, p=000).
Cognitive readiness for change
It has been noticed in table 3, that the responses to the negative thoughts that employees are holding towards change, Item 2 (Plans for future improvement will not come too much with a mean score (3.89), (t-35.37, p=000), and Item 3 (Most change projects that are supposed to solve problems around here will not do much good) with a mean score (3.86), (t-29.59, p=000), clearly shows that majority of employees have a positive thinking to change brought to the organization during the pandemic and minority of the employees have a negative thought that most ups and downs will have a negative impact on the clienteles we serve with a mean score (3.85), (t-30.10, p=000).
Emotional readiness for change
Finally, in terms of emotional readiness for change, the employees have a good feeling about the change project with a mean score (3.98), (t-36.93, p=000), by having experience the change as a positive process with a mean score (3.93), (t-36.30, p=000), and also find the change as refreshing with a mean score (3.89), (t-31.31, p=000), in terms of positive emotion toward the change in their organization during the pandemic. This clearly states that majority of employees shows a great sign which indicate that they are ready to change in the Era of pandemic Covid-19 crisis.
Discussion
In this context, this study attempted to analyze managers role in supporting, leading, and participating in the change to determine the extent to which the level of which these relationships could affect the success of organizational change. The company’s management efforts in change management implementations are recognized, as an aspiration for a positive impact on employees. Our findings point out that a well-established climate of change would work as a foundation that provides employees with the guidelines for developing insight into the challenges that accompany organizational changes and would manage perceptions of employees towards change. The results of the study provided significant insights into answering the research questions and achieving the research objectives. Table 3, findings indicate that there is a positive impression among employees about their management leading ability and appreciate their attitude. As majority agreed that departments and staff were consulted regarding the change, managers realized the consequences of the change at their employees, management spoke up for their employees and coach them about how to implement the change and overall they were perfectly capable of fulfilling their role in the process of change. In align with result of Fernandez and Shaw (2020) who state that ‘Academic leaders should allocate leadership responsibilities to a network of teams throughout the organization to develop the quality of the decisions made in crisis resolution”.
In terms of the top management attitude during the pandemic, the findings reveal that the majority of employees working in manufacturing and service companies agreed that their corporate management team has an optimistic and bright vision for the forthcoming future.
As a result, the manufacturing and service companies had successfully changed during the pandemic; because employees have the intention to change process which supported by (Weiner, Amick, & Lee, 2008) conclusion. The last factor is associated with emotional readiness for change. The employees participated in this study, shows that they have positive emotion for a change, and linking these emotions and their intentional for change is of great interest. This finding supports Romadona (2019) claimed “when the organization has high readiness to change, it means having members who will be proactive and have or show behavior that supports change as a form of effort and adjust to the needs of the change” (p. 2310).
Conclusion
One of the biggest economic challenges that companies faced during the past and current year was pandemic Covid-9 crisis. This international contagious virus has leveled many companies to the ground and forced many others to consider downsizing, alternative pathways, and even manufacturing alternations. Firms confronting the realities of a COVID-19 crisis would be in a position to manage challenges and unprecedented demands: redeploying talent, forming remote workforce's, developing needed capabilities, sustaining up distraught supply chains, contributes to humanitarian efforts and hard work, selecting amongst dismissal/furloughing/ retaining employees, and planning for rejuvenating amid ambiguity. Participants also show a good level of harmony and understanding between their managers and themselves; however, there is a certain doubt about the competence of their colleagues and most of them raised some concerns about the existence of political games and favouritism which are the only two concerns that they have about a possible change in the organization. Further, the study highlights the employees’ high willingness to participate in the process of change due to the fact that their involvement is one of the key factors for a successful change as it will positively assist the organization to find more creative ideas for the change.
References
