BSS064 Leading and Managing Organisational Resources Assignment Sample
1. Discussion Forum: Leadership and Resource Management during COVID19
1.1 Introduction
The main intention of creating this forum is to generate a reflection based on leadership and resource management during COVID19. Getting started with a comparison between resource management theories is the major focus for creating this discussion forum. A decision in leadership and resource management is adequately useful for creating an argument hence it is described briefly in the following study. The forum includes suitable solutions regarding the arguments properly.
1.2 Reflection on Experience of Leadership and Resource Management
Good leaders are the main reason for a company’s success and I learned that from an experience in Leadership Management. I think that a good leader is capable of creating a positive environment in a company to increase productivity.It is particularly important in the situation of pandemic, where measurements such as social distancing and work from home has become new normal.A leader must be capable of motivating employees whenever an employee gets distracted.
I must agree that team-based performance is crucial for a company to increase productivity. A good leader must arrange a team properly for increasing a company’s performance effectively.I feelthat a leader plays an important role in resource management for a company. In the current circumstances of COVID19, the supply chain of most of the industries have been destroyed. Therefore, maximized utilization of current required resources must be an attribute trait for a leader. This helps direct employees to a proper way of working and following the company’s regulations (Alzahrani, 2017).
Leaders are the link between employees and hierarchy of a company. I think that the overall morale of a team is dependent upon performance of a leader. The COVID19 has does not only affect the business operations but also affected the moral values of employees. Decline in the morale values and confidence of employees lead to decrease in their performance. Motivational strategies of a leader help increase Motive Powerin an organization and increased group efforts. I learned that setting up organizational goals, team achievements and professional goals is a crucial aspect of leadership traits. A good leader must be capable of positive decision making and handling of mistakes properly. I think that a leader must enhance self-development methods as well as a team development method. Increased ethical practices and strategic thinking are necessary for a leader to increase innovation in a company (Delmonico et al. 2018).
A leader must be capable of managing resources properlyin the situation of pandemic, which includes planning, allocating, and scheduling of given resources of a company. The major intention of conducting resource management is to increase the efficiency of resources and project work. I think that success of project work is dependent upon suitable management of resources and tasks (Gelsthorpe, 2016).
1.3 Comparison of Theories
A comparison between three different theories of leadership is briefly discussed in this study with the help of Trait Theory,Behavioural Theory, and System Theory of Resource Management. According to Day et al. (2017), the major difference between Trait Theory and Behavioural Theory is that Trait theory represents personal traits of a leader. However, Behavioural Theory represents a leader’s professional qualities towards an organization. Trait Theory indicates several inborn traits of a leader, Behavioural Theory rejects inborn virtue of a leader, and leaders could be trained. Trait Theory defines characteristics of a leader, which could include successful and unsuccessful traits (Hazarika et al. 2018).
Figure 1: Comparison of Theories
(Source: Learner)
According to the Trait Theory, a leader must take control of a project job and guide a team properly to fulfil project requirements. The effectiveness of leadership traits is briefly discussed in the Trait Theoryhowever;Behavioural Theory explains possible terms to enhance the professional traits of a leader. Trait Theory represents different professional traits such as; Cognitive Ability, Self-Confidence, Business Knowledge, and Emotional Maturity of a leader. Inborn Potential of leaders such as training for employees defines positive leadership qualities to improve. The theory focuses on specific behaviours of a leader rather than overall characteristics. Flexibility for changes in leadership behaviours is briefly discussed in Behavioural Theory (Jordens, 2016).
Resource Management is a must-have trait for a leader, which can help them to be efficient in the situation of crisis.There are major differences between System Theory and Trait Theory. System Theory represents a complex process of resource management of an organization for completing project work. The theory is divided into separate parts such as Planning and Execution of resources and a proper arrangement of resource elements. However, resource management is a professional trait of a leader, and Trait Theory has already briefly described this topic (Kimaru, 2019).
System Theory also represents an interaction between the employees and the external environment of a company through a theoretical approach.As the working environment has changed during COVID19, interaction or communication between management to employees has been disrupted. Applying System Theory in project work is suitable for a leader to use maximum resources allowed by an organization. This theory is useful for a leader to assess a project work properly and it is suitable for project development purposes. System Theory is adequately useful for relativity in resource perception whether Trait Theory only discusses leadership traits. A systematic approach is useful for developing organizational patterns and directs a company to a positive future (Lenkume, 2019).
1.4 Argument Regarding Leadership Challenges and Opportunities
Specific
A leader must have the ability to come back from a tough situation during a project period and it is one of the major challenges for a leader. Appropriate Decision-Making is helpful for this process to lead changes in the project work for a leader. It can be said that challenges are a common term in project work and a leader must follow proper guidelines to finish a project work perfectly.
Measurable
The potential of the employees is measured based on the ability to seize the opportunity or counter challenges of COVID19.Challenges are a crucial aspect for a leader and it is useful for opening up creating discussions for management roles and leadership skills. According to a leader’s perspective, a leader must be capable of applying multiple leadership traits to improve professional qualities. Potential development in professional qualities of a leader will be useful for indicating a positive direction of an organization.
Achievable
According to Behavioural Theory, a leader must seek opportunities in a business process of an organization to understand the significance of leadership roles. On the other hand, it can be said that Trait Theory is only useful for defining leadership traits, not leadership styles or approaches (Linde and RabeGundersen, 2020). The approach of the leaders to deal with different situations of COVID19 make the opportunities achievable.
Relevant
Relevancy of the sizing opportunity of a leader is depend upon the systems theory.Suitable and strategic planning will be more effective for a leader to assess these tasks correctly as stated as per the System Theory. On the other hand, a poor vision and lack of project execution work will lead a company to a negative impact (Lynch, 2019).
Time Bound
Time bound of dealing with challenges and using opportunities is entirely depend upon traits, behaviours and skills of leaders. The more a leader would spend time in an adverse situations, the more he or she will get the ideas of dealing with the situations.
1.5 Discussion of Leadership and Resource Management
Leadership is adequately important for project development and resource management purposes. A good leader must focus on strategic thinking in tough situations to overcome future errors. A leader must enhance ethical practices in an organization to improve personal skills as well as professional traitsduring the pandemic. Employees of a company are likely to follow a leader and focus on the way of guidance from the leader. In COVID19 pandemic,a collaborative approach in an organization is adequately effective to increase workability as well as efficiency of the workers. Achieving organizational goals is the major reason for practicing leadership approaches in a company (Mendy, 2017).
Resource Management is a crucial term for business development purposes of a company in the present circumstances. A leader must arrange resources properly and must know about the right of using itas supply chain of most the companies have been disrupted. Appropriate resource management methods are necessary for finishing a project work before the deadline. Both of the terms are related and a leader must be capable of planning, selecting team members, and budget allocation. Pricing strategy is an important term in resource management; a leader must create a layout of pricing methods to use resources properly. Managing payrolls of employees and employee training is necessary for this stage to fulfilstakeholder’srequirements in COVID19 (Odor, 2018).
1.6 Solution of the Challenges
A leader must develop their traits as well as professional traits to improve a company’s business aspects. An appropriate business development strategy is required for a leader to implement personal and professional changes. A leader must focus on a particular vision to enhance the employees towards an organization.
Setting up a specific goal is the initial stage of a trait development plan. A leader must sort out changes that the person needs to be changed. An effective communication system is adequately necessary inside of an organization to interact properly between the employees. The ability of the communication system is adequately necessary for enhancing trusted relationships between employees in the situation of corona pandemic. Resource alignment is necessary for a leader to arrange resources for separate project works. A leader is likely to distribute workloads respectively to different teams, which is helpful to finish project work even faster (Senaratne and Wang, 2018).
Positive workplace culture is essential for promoting new methods. A leader must ensure employees towards a safe environment in the workplace even when employees work from home. Giving feedback to employees could also be a positive solution for enhanced leadership and resource management. Employee encouragement would be necessary to implement new changes in a company and it could be a proper solution to enhance leadership practices (Sobratee and Bodhanya, 2018).
1.7 Conclusion
Based on the above discussions, it can be concluded that effective leadership and resource management methods are useful for organizational development purposes in the circumstances of COVID19 pandemic. A leader must apply new techniques and methods to improve business practices in an organization. A positive leadership approach will help an organization build a positive workplace culture as well as increase employee motivation. A positive attitude towards the workplace helps build organizational reputation and useful for enhanced employee performance.
1.8 References
Alzahrani, M.G., 2017. The Effect of Using Online Discussion Forums on Students’ Learning. Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology-TOJET, 16(1), pp.164-176.
Day, A., Crown, S.N. and Ivany, M., 2017. Organisational change and employee burnout: The moderating effects of support and job control. Safety science, 100, pp.4-12.
Delmonico, D., Jabbour, C.J.C., Pereira, S.C.F., de Sousa Jabbour, A.B.L., Renwick, D.W.S. and Thomé, A.M.T., 2018. Unveiling barriers to sustainable public procurement in emerging economies: Evidence from a leading sustainable supply chain initiative in Latin America. Resources, Conservation and Recycling, 134, pp.70-79.
Gelsthorpe, J., 2016 TURNING TIDES:(MIS) LEADING AND (MIS) MANAGING A CHANGE IN ORGANISATIONAL CULTURE.
Hazarika, D., Poria, S., Gorantla, S., Cambria, E., Zimmermann, R. and Mihalcea, R., 2018. Cascade: Contextual sarcasm detection in online discussion forums. arXiv preprint arXiv:1805.06413.
Jordens, J.W., 2016. Building a Collaborative Advantage within a Circular Economy: Inter-Organisational Resources and Capabilities of a Circular Value Chain (Master’s thesis).
Kimaru, I.W., 2019. ORGANISATIONAL RESOURCES AND PERFORMANCE OF SELECTED CREDIT ONLY MICROFINANCE INSTITUTIONS IN NAIROBI CITY COUNTY, KENYA (Doctoral dissertation, KENYATTA UNIVERSITY).
Lenkume, J.N., 2019. Strategic Leadership and Organisational Performance Of Saccos In Kenya (Doctoral dissertation, University of Nairobi).
Linde, E. and RabeGundersen, H., 2020. ORGANISATIONAL SUPPORT RESOURCES-A PRECONDITION FOR PRACTICING HEALTH PROMOTING LEADERSHIP? A questionnaire study.
Lynch, M., 2019. Failure to manage organisational change–a personal perspective. Loss Prevention Bulletin, 267, p.3.
Mendy, J., 2017. Creating objectives-based knowledge to resolve organisational change dysfunctionality.
Odor, H.O., 2018. Organisational Change and Development. European Journal of Business Management, 10(7), pp.58-66.
Senaratne, C. and Wang, C.L., 2018. Organisational ambidexterity in UK high-tech SMEs. Journal of Small Business and Enterprise Development.
Sobratee, N. and Bodhanya, S., 2018. Leading in a global context: The balancing act between leadership and management. Journal of Business and Retail Management Research, 12(4).
2. Mind map and Briefing
Figure 2: Mind map
(Source: Created by author)
2.1 Introduction
A reflection based on resource management and leadership has been established in the discussion forum of the assignment. The discussion forum has been developed based on the comparison between different theories of leadership and resource management. Challenges and solutions associated with leadership and resource management have been analysed in detail in this discussion forum.
2.2 Body
It has been found from the discussion forum that leadership management is one of the most significant aspects to ensure organizational success. As cited by Chen et al. (2016), the leadership approach of an organization is considered as the driving factor for developing a positive workplace environment. Leaders not only outline the organizational strategy but also enlarge the colleagues and employees to perform better to meet organizational objectives. Besides, it is the responsibility of the leaders to develop an effective resource management strategy to enhance the planning and management of a project.
The discussion forum of the present research included a comparative analysis of theories such as Trait Theory, Behavioral Theory and System Theory of Resource Management. It has illustrated that the trait theory of leadership mainly deals with the personal trait of leadership in organizational management. As mentioned by Prentice et al. (2019), the trait theory of leadership suggests that the skills of leaders are crucial for improving their efficiency of developing an effective strategy.
However, the behavioural theory of leadership is dependent upon the ideas that effective leadership is the result of the behaviour of leaders (De Graaf, 2019). Behavioural leadership theory believes that competence and skills can be learned by the leaders from others. However, traits theory suggests that competence and skills are gained by the leaders since their birth. Apart from this, the system theory of resource management focuses on the strategy of paying attention to organizational needs (Zainiet al. 2018). The discussion forum has illustrated that system theory allows an organization to collaborate with different departments to pursue a single organizational objective.
The discussion forum of the present study has further been developed based on the analysis challenges and opportunities associated with leadership. It has been found from the discussion that leaders are solely responsible for ensuring organizational efficiency (Shamim et al. 2019). However, they may face issues within the workplace related to employee or resource management. The issues and challenges of present within the workplace are required to be countered with the help of personal and professional qualities of leaders.
Leaders have the opportunities to use their own skills and competence in improving their calibre to handle adverse circumstances. In certain cases, they can improve their skills and competence by learning from others. The study has demonstrated that behavioural and trait theory of leadership is essential for using skills and competence to deal with organizational challenges. As per Song et al. (2020), the most significant factor of leadership is the decision-making process, which helps leaders to ensure changes. Decision making based on a strategic plan is crucial from dealing with existing challenges within an organization (Diraniet al. 2020).
It has further been found from the assignment that leadership strategies are crucial for improving the overall resource management process. Resources are considered as the main components that ensure organizational efficiency (Tasouliset al. 2019). The assignment has illustrated that leadership must use their critical thinking skills to combine the resources for meeting the organizational objectives. Analysis of the system theory has demonstrated that leaders are required to use the most essential resources to enhance their overall productivity. It is important for leaders to improve resource management skills to enhance organizational performance (Sahuet al. 2018).
In order to deal with organizational challenges, leaders are required to have personal and professional traits. As cited by Torasa and Mekhum (2020), the vision of leaders regarding organizational success allows them to develop an effective strategy to deal with adverse circumstances. The trait development of the leaders must include a specific goal at the initial stage. It is further important for leaders to develop effective communication with the workplace. Effective communication ensures transparency in organization management practices. The assignment has demonstrated that leaders must ensure the safe and positive work environment to encourage the employees to perform better (Leitch and Volery, 2017). Positive workplace culture is essential for promoting innovation and creativity. Moreover, the leadership must acknowledge the necessity of engagement and appraisal for employees.
2.3 Conclusion
Based on the analysis of a given assignment, it can be briefed that the success of an organization is dependent upon leadership style and organizational management strategy. The performance and productivity of an organization are dependent upon the personal traits and skills of employees. In order to understand the role of leaders, theories such as trait theory, behavioural theory and system theory have been included in the forum. Moreover, solutions and challenges of leadership in the workplace have been discussed in the study.
2.4 References
Chen, L., Zheng, W., Yang, B. and Bai, S., 2016. Transformational leadership, social capital and organizational innovation. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
De Graaf, F.J., 2019. Ethics and behavioural theory: How do professionals assess their mental models?. Journal of Business Ethics, 157(4), pp.933-947.
Dirani, K.M., Abadi, M., Alizadeh, A., Barhate, B., Garza, R.C., Gunasekara, N., Ibrahim, G. and 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, 23(4), pp.380-394.
Leitch, C.M. and Volery, T., 2017. Entrepreneurial leadership: Insights and directions. International Small Business Journal, 35(2), pp.147-156.
Prentice, M., Jayawickreme, E. and Fleeson, W., 2019. Integrating whole trait theory and self‐determination theory. Journal of personality, 87(1), pp.56-69.
Sahu, S., Pathardikar, A. and Kumar, A., 2018. Transformational leadership and turnover. Leadership & Organization Development Journal.
Shamim, S., Cang, S. and Yu, H., 2019. Impact of knowledge oriented leadership on knowledge management behaviour through employee work attitudes. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(16), pp.2387-2417.
Song, Z., Gu, Q. and Cooke, F.L., 2020. The effects of high‐involvement work systems and shared leadership on team creativity: A multilevel investigation. Human Resource Management, 59(2), pp.201-213.
Tasoulis, K., Krepapa, A. and Stewart, M.M., 2019. Leadership integrity and the role of human resource management in Greece: Gatekeeper or bystander?. Thunderbird International Business Review, 61(3), pp.491-503.
Torasa, C. and Mekhum, W., 2020. The Impact of Knowledge Sharing, Human Resource Management Team Efficacy and Performance on the Financial Performance: Mediating Role of Leadership Empowerment. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(1), pp.389-397.
Zaini, M.K., Masrek, M.N., Johari, M.K., Sani, A. and Anwar, N., 2018. Theoretical Modeling of Information Security: Organizational Agility Model based on Integrated System Theory and Resource Based View. DEVELOPMENT, 7(3).
3. Business report
3.1 Introduction
3.1.1 Purpose of the report
The purpose of the report is to analyse the changes in the workforce management made by the COVID-19 pandemic. The report is going to analyse the issues and symptoms of the ‘new normal incorporated due to the outbreak of coronavirus. Besides, the solutions of the issues will be provided along with certain recommendations for the development of the leadership approaches and resource management.
3.1.2 Background of the report
In early 2020, the COVID-19 outbreak changed the business dynamics in the world by enforcing complete lockdown in the UK and other countries. This lockdown forces employees to work from home and organizations changed their leadership management style as communication over phone and internet rapidly increased (Caligiuri et al. 2020). This changed management has multiple issues to handle the employees however, in the ‘new normal’ environment, this working dynamic has to be adopted.
3.2 Main body
3.2.1 Problem identification
The forced lockdown due to COVID-19 generates multiple issues for organizational management. These issues are addressed below:
- Human resources management- Most of the companies started work from home for the employees who have the facilities to continue their work. As discussed by Zhao et al. (2020), others could not perform their daily tasks and as a result, they had to be terminated from their job or they requested to join after office reopening. This generates plenty of bias in the organization as the categories of employees have increased and thus organizational complexities ramped up. The leadership management faced issues in tracking the employees and the tasks due to this complex structure which is a major problem.
- All organizations face immense financial issues due to the lack of work pressure and sales in this COVID-19 pandemic period (Hamilton, 2020). Most of the contracts have been cancelled and the project is on hold due to the lockdown situations. The threat of coronavirus reduces the number of customers in the market which deteriorates the overall sales and thus has a major negative impact on the business revenue.
- The working dynamics have to be changed as multiple hierarchy changes have been implemented in the organizations. As per Gössling et al. (2020), there are changes in leadership as based on the present situation; the requirement of employees has been reduced. The employees have to adapt to the new working environment where communications issues are a key problem for both leaders and employees.
3.2.2 Cause of the problem
The outbreak of COVID-19 is the major cause behind the problems faced by the organization worldwide. As depicted by Amisand Janz (2020), this generates major health concerns as this disease is highly contagious and strict rules and regulations have been imposed by the government and worldwide health organizations. This pandemic situation forced employees to work from home as there is no available transportation in the lockdown period. Besides, the health concerns are another major reason behind these issues. The financial slowdown has already started from the beginning of 2019 and the OCVID 19 enlarged this issue which forces GDP growth of the UK at -12.4% in the first quarter of 2020 (Lee et al. 2020). Therefore, these reasons caused this long term issue for the organizations in this coronavirus situation.
3.2.3 Symptoms
The work from the home facility for most of the employees is the first’s symptoms of this ‘new normal’. The health concerns such as social distancing, use of masks, sanitizers and other healthcare protocols are other symptoms of this situation. Besides, the reduction in the total sales and earnings of the organization is a symptom of COVID-19 pandemic. As argued in the study by Myers et al. (2020), there are changes in the organizational hierarchy where the tasks of management have increased due to the complex work structure. The role of communication has ramped up as removing the communication barrier has become a new objective for every employee in the organization.
3.2.4 Theoretical background
Situational leadership theory
The theory states that leaders should have different leadership styles and based on the situation, leaders should apply the appropriate leadership approach. As mentioned in the study by Meier (2016), the leaders should learn the different approaches and the situation in which they should apply the approach leadership styles. This theory states that the team members and the situation of the tasks are the two cardinal aspects for analysing the leadership. In this COVID-10 pandemic situation, the leaders should apply the supportive approach where the employees need support to adjust their psychological disturbance due to the coronavirus pandemic. Besides, the directional approach can be applied as the ‘new normal’ working system requires initial guidance from the leaders.
Figure 3: Situational leadership theory
(Source: Meier, 2018)
Herzberg’s two factor theory
Herzberg has identified two job satisfaction factors for the employees, one is hygiene factors and the other is motivational factors. As per this theory without hygiene factors, an employee cannot continue the job and motivational factors provide further job satisfaction to their employees. As stated in the study by Alshmemri et al (2017), hygiene factors include working environment, organizational rules, support from the company, attitude of colleagues and wage salary that provide employees with the basic requirements from the job. Besides, there are motivational factors such as recognition, achievements, responsibility, a professional growth rate that gives job satisfaction. In this situation, organizational leadership should focus on both of these factors to manage the human resources in the organization.
Figure 4: Herzberg’s two factor theory
(Source: Alshmemri et al. 2017)
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
The theory identifies three needs of the employees such as basic needs, psychological needs and self-fulfilment needs to be completely satisfied with the organizations. As discussed in the study by Bouzenita and Boulanouar (2016), the management of the organization has to understand the demand of the employees in this pandemic situation and should provide at least the basic needs to get standard performance from the employees. In order to enhance their efficiency, leaders should focus on the psychological and then self-fulfilment needs which can make the employees highly satisfied. Therefore, to mitigate the issues of the COVID-19 pandemic employees efficiency increment and the application of this theory is utmost significant.
Figure 5: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
(Source: Bouzenita and Boulanouar, 2016)
3.2.5 Possible solutions
The solutions to the major issues faced by the organizational leaders are mentioned below:
- Health care protocols have to be followed by the organization to remove the threat of this coronavirus pandemic. Social distancing, hand sanitation, and using masks are highly required to protect the employees from being affected by the coronavirus.
- Virtual workplace and the usage of software to conduct virtual meetings are required to solve the issues of work from home. As discussed by Obrenovic et al. (2020), organizational leaders need digital equipment for employees such that they can continue their work from home. It can mitigate the issues of communications in the organizational working structure.
- Virtual arrangement of coffees’ employees’ connectivity, chatting facilities should be provided by the organization to ramp up their employees’ working efficiency.
- Flexible working schedules can be the solution for the issues regarding employee engagement and human resource management of the organization (Strielkowski and Wang, 2020).
- Organizations need financial support to revive the economic condition of the company. They have to contact the investors with an adequate investment-return plan along with multi-stage investment such that they can increase their sales rate by investing in marketing activities (Cavallo and Forman, 2020).
3.3 Conclusion
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that the COVID-19 pandemic brings multiple issues such as financial, resource management and communication issues for business organizations. It has been found that situation leadership theory, Herzberg’s two factor theories and Maslow’s hierarchy of needs are the essential theories for human resource management. Besides, it has been analysed that heath protocols, maintenance is significant for the organizations along with flexible and employees supported work structure to resolve their resource management issues. It has been evaluated that investment is required in marketing sectors to increase the sales rate and the financial stability of the organization.
3.4 Recommendations
Certain recommendations for the improvement of leadership and resource management in the organizations are described below:
- Crisis situations should be managed by the organizational management with critical thinking and consequence measurement such that the organization can remain in the market competition (Lee, 2020).
- Organizations are highly recommended to maintain the integrity of the company by removing the conflict of interests and disagreement among the employer and the employees.
- Working of the organization should be flexible such that they can adopt adverse situations for the sustainability of the company. As discussed in the study by Catalyst (2020), they are recommended to understand the basic requirements of their employees in this pandemic situation.
- They are highly recommended to invest in the new communication tools such as meeting conduction tools, group video calling tools and devices such that communication barriers in the organizations can be eliminated.
3.5 References
Alshmemri, M., Shahwan-Akl, L. and Maude, P., 2017. Herzberg’s two-factor theory. Life Science Journal, 14(5), pp.12-16.
Amis, J.M. and Janz, B.D., 2020. Leading change in response to COVID-19. The Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 56(3), pp.272-278.
Bouzenita, A.I. and Boulanouar, A.W., 2016. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs: An Islamic critique. Intellectual Discourse, 24(1).
Caligiuri, P., De Cieri, H., Minbaeva, D., Verbeke, A. and Zimmermann, A., 2020. International HRM insights for navigating the COVID-19 pandemic: Implications for future research and practice. Journal of International Business Studies, p.1.
Catalyst, N.E.J.M., 2020. Lessons from CEOs: health care leaders nationwide respond to the Covid-19 crisis. NEJM Catalyst Innovations in Care Delivery, 1(4).
Cavallo, J.J. and Forman, H.P., 2020. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on radiology practices. Radiology, p.201495.
Gössling, S., Scott, D. and Hall, C.M., 2020. Pandemics, tourism and global change: a rapid assessment of COVID-19. Journal of Sustainable Tourism, pp.1-20.
Hamilton, J., 2020. The Strategic Change Matrix and Business Sustainability across COVID-19. Sustainability, 12(15), p.6026.
Lee, C.I., Raoof, S., Patel, S.B., Pyatt Jr, R.S., Kirsch, D.S., Mossa-Basha, M., Recht, M. and Carlos, R.C., 2020. Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and your radiology practice: case triage, staffing strategies, and addressing revenue concerns. Journal of the American College of Radiology, 17(6), pp.752-754.
Lee, D.M.M., 2020. Covid-19: agnotology, inequality, and leadership. Human Resource Development International, 23(4), pp.333-346.
Meier, D., 2016. Situational Leadership Theory as a Foundation for a Blended Learning Framework. Journal of Education and Practice, 7(10), pp.25-30.
Myers, K.R., Tham, W.Y., Yin, Y., Cohodes, N., Thursby, J.G., Thursby, M.C., Schiffer, P., Walsh, J.T., Lakhani, K.R. and Wang, D., 2020. Unequal effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on scientists. Nature human behaviour, 4(9), pp.880-883.
Obrenovic, B., Du, J., Godinic, D., Tsoy, D., Khan, M.A.S. and Jakhongirov, I., 2020. Sustaining enterprise operations and productivity during the COVID-19 pandemic:“Enterprise Effectiveness and Sustainability Model”. Sustainability, 12(15), p.5981.
Strielkowski, W. and Wang, J., 2020, May. An Introduction: COVID-19 Pandemic and Academic Leadership. In 6th International Conference on Social, economic, and academic leadership (ICSEAL-6-2019) (pp. 1-4). Atlantis Press.
Zhao, F., Ahmed, F. and Faraz, N.A., 2020. Caring for the caregiver during COVID-19 outbreak: Does inclusive leadership improve psychological safety and curb psychological distress? A cross-sectional study. International journal of nursing studies, 110, p.103725.
4. Presentation
Introduction
COVID 19 pandemic has engulfed the entire world in a state of panic and chaos. The government across the world is forced to lockdown all activities making the organizations fall into a state of trance. In order to overcome the issue, organizations have enforced new policies and leadership approaches. In this study, the impact of COVID 19 on workforce management is discussed along with the changes incorporated by the organizations to counter COVID 19.
Purpose
The main purpose of the study is to discuss the organizational changes that took place during COVID 19 outbreak. It can be observed that COVID 19 has greatly affected the organizations around the world by hampering the workforce management. Countless organizations have enacted new changes and have been developing new leadership approaches and resource management options (Amol Soin and LaxmaiahManchikanti, 2020). Therefore, this study analyzes the key issues and presents the solution brought forth by organizations to fight against the COVID 19 impact.
Background
The year 2020 has brought dynamic changes in organizations and government policies. Due to restricted movement and lockdown of several countries, the supply and distribution channel of organizations is hampered. Organizations have lost billions of dollars due to the COVID 19 effect and are forced to enforce remote working to survive in the market (Venkatesh, 2020). The leadership and communication process had to be changed accordingly to encourage working in this remote working environment as well. Despite having internet technology, organizations are facing a lot of issues in handling the work remotely. In this study, the issues are discussed and solutions are presented for the issues.
Problem identification
- One of the major departments that face problems due to this change in working condition is human resource management. Due to remote working, keeping track of employees and performance appraisal has become difficult (Kumar et al., 2020). In many cases, employees have to be terminated due to lack of communication with the management.
- Leadership challenges due to the inability to bring the external and internal stakeholders together take a huge toll on the companies. In remote working, people get distracted easily, therefore, the decision-making capability of the leaders has also decreased significantly.
- Organizations all around the globe face a financial trance due to lack of sales and rising inflation rate. The economic recession and fear of COVID 19 have reduced the number of customers affecting the overall revenue of organizations (Tabish et al., 2020). Even big companies such as Starbucks, McDonald’s, Zara and others have lost millions of dollars and are forced to close down some shops.
- Due to the sudden change to remote working, employees are also facing a hard time to adapt to the situation. In countries like the UK, un-employability has risen by 4.1%, stating the difficulties faced by employees in the current scenario (Donthu and Gustafsson, 2020).
Challenges and issues
The main cause of the problem is the contagious virus that spreads through contact between substances. Due to this organizations have to enforce remote working environment and prevent people from coming into each other’s contact. The government has also imposed strict rules in isolating people and encouraging social distancing between people (Aguiniset al.2020). All this has led to low customer presence in shops and limited procurement of products and resources. The financial issues are being piled up rapidly and countries are experiencing economic recession.
Discussion of symptoms and leadership change
Some gradual changes in organization management and leadership are:
- Remote working to adhere to the social distancing policy
- Restructuring health protocols such as mandatory equipment of gloves and masks
- Reduction in sales and profitability is a symptom of COVID-19 pandemic
- Changes in work management to the complexity of work structure (Muscalu and Ciocan, 2016)
- Communication barrier between employees and management
- Need to install communication and collaboration tools such as Trello to foster interaction
Comparison of Theories
There are many theories and concepts that can be used to define the current scenario and changes in management. They can be illustrated as:
- Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs– According to Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs, the employees are motivated as long as their basic needs are being met (Imran et al., 2016).
- Situational Leadership theory– The situational leadership theory is useful in changing the leadership style according to the changes in the work environment.
- Herzberg’s Two-Factor theory– Herzberg’s Two-factor theory highlights the important points like motivation, leadership and communication which is needed for job satisfaction (Daddiet al., 2018).
- Behavioural Theory– Customers and employees have undergone a change in attitude during the COVID 19 pandemic; therefore, behavioural theory can be used to address the current behaviour of people.
- Trait theory– The trait theory can help to understand the new habitual patterns of the people (Prasad, 2020).
Possible solutions
- Setting up specific health protocols in the initial stage can be beneficial to influence the employees of an organization in maintaining social distancing (Sommerfeldt and Yang, 2017).
- In order to smoothly operate, organizations need to embrace digital transformation and use a virtual workspace.
- Enacting effective communication system within the structure of the organizations to interact properly between the employees and management can help to solve the problem of mismanagement
- Alignment of resources with job profile is helpful in managing the financial assets of the organizations (Asrar-ul-Haq and Anwar, 2016).
- Daily evolutions and feedbacks can help human resource management to appraise the performance of the employees.
Conclusion
The study sheds light on the changes in leadership and resource management of organizations. The COVID 19 pandemic has forced many business organizations to shut down and face a financial downturn. The study highlights the key issues that hamper the workforce management. Arguments are presented to describe the opportunities and challenges of this ‘new normal’ environment. It can be observed that there are many relevant theories and concepts that are used to define the current changes in management. In addition, solutions and recommendations are also provided in this study to make successful leadership and management change.
Recommendations
- Enforcing critical thinking to handle crisis situations can help the management to handle important organization deals.
- Flexible management and transparency can help organizations to gain the trust of employees.
- Leveraging digital technology and effective collaboration tools such as Trello and video conferencing can help to foster interactions between employees and management.
References
Aguinis, H., Villamor, I. and Gabriel, K.P., 2020. Understanding employee responses to COVID-19: a behavioral corporate social responsibility perspective. Management Research: Journal of the Iberoamerican Academy of Management.
Amol Soin, M.D. and LaxmaiahManchikanti, M.D., 2020. The effect of COVID-19 on interventional pain management practices: A physician burnout survey. Pain Physician, 23, pp.S271-S282.
Asrar-ul-Haq, M. and Anwar, S., 2016. A systematic review of knowledge management and knowledge sharing: Trends, issues, and challenges. Cogent Business & Management, 3(1), p.1127744.
Daddi, T., Todaro, N.M., De Giacomo, M.R. and Frey, M., 2018. A systematic review of the use of organization and management theories in climate change studies. Business Strategy and the Environment, 27(4), pp.456-474.
Donthu, N. and Gustafsson, A., 2020. Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of business research, 117, p.284.
Imran, M.K., Rehman, C.A., Aslam, U. and Bilal, A.R., 2016. What’s organization knowledge management strategy for successful change implementation?. Journal of Organizational Change Management.
Kumar, A., Luthra, S., Mangla, S.K. and Kazançoğlu, Y., 2020. COVID-19 impact on sustainable production and operations management. Sustainable Operations and Computers, 1, pp.1-7.
Muscalu, E. and Ciocan, F., 2016. Attracting and motivating employees during changes in organization. The role of the human resources department. Journal of Defense Resources Management, 7(2), p.153.
Prasad, L.M., 2020. Principles and practice of management. Sultan Chand & Sons.
Sommerfeldt, E.J. and Yang, A., 2017. Relationship networks as strategic issues management: An issue-stage framework of social movement organization network strategies. Public Relations Review, 43(4), pp.829-839.
Tabish, M., Khatoon, A., Alkahtani, S., Alkahtane, A., Alghamdi, J., Ahmed, S.A., Mir, S.S., Albasher, G., Almeer, R., Al-Sultan, N.K. and Aljarba, N.H., 2020. Approaches for prevention and environmental management of novel COVID-19. Environmental Science and Pollution Research, pp.1-11.
Venkatesh, V., 2020. Impacts of COVID-19: A research agenda to support people in their fight. International Journal of Information Management, p.102197.
5. Poster Presentation
5.1 Introduction
5.1.1 Purpose of the report
- The purpose is to shed light on the organizational change due to the emergence of COVID19
- The report is going to analyse symptoms and issues of the new normal
- Effective strategies to deal with a pandemic is going to be included in the report
- Recommendations are going to be provided to enhance the leadership within the workplace
5.1.2 Background of the report
- Business dynamics of most of the organizations have been changed due to the emergence of COVID19
- Governments around the world including the UK has enforced lockdown to ensure the safety of people
- Organizations have forced to change the workplace infrastructure based on social distancing norms
- Leaders and managers are experiencing a rapid change in terms of organizational management
- The organizational management strategy has become new normal in the current world due to the occurrence of COVID19
5.2 Main body
5.2.1 Problem identification
- Human resource management has become a major challenge due to the implementation for work from the home strategy. It has led to high complexity in the employee management
- Due to lack of investment and work pressure, organizations are facing extreme financial issues. The number of customers has been reduced to the enforcement of lockdown and social distancing (Bartsch et al. 2020)
- The dimension of workplace management has been changed drastically due to the emergence of COVID19. Leaders are forced to change their style based on the changing circumstances
5.2.2 Cause of the problem
- The emergence of a pandemic is the major cause behind the rising issues within the workplace
- Major health concerns among the stakeholders have been created due to COVID19 (Bartsch et al. 2020)
- Employees were forced to work from home due to ensure health security and safety
- Lack of transportation challenges has further caused issues in the situation of pandemic
- Organizations have faced significant challenges in terms of a financial setback in this situation
- The challenges and issues of COVID19 has affected organizational management on the long terms
5.2.3 Symptoms
- Work from home and social distancing have become new normal in the business world
- The major symptoms of the situation are social distancing and health safety protocols such as usage of mask and sanitizer
- Business activities have changed due to the reduction of sales of products and services in the present situation (Bartsch et al. 2020)
- The task management of workplace has intensified due to compensation workplace structure
- Workplace patterns have become relied upon the communications between the managers and employees
5.2.4 Theoretical background
- Maslow’s hierarchy of needs has been analysed to understand the basic needs of the employees. The needs of employees are required to be prioritized to encourage them in this situation. Health and safety concerns of the employees should also be prioritized (Soni and Soni, 2016)
- Situational leadership theory mainly focused on the idea of changing leadership style based on different circumstances. In order to enhance organizational efficiency, leaders are required to be flexible to understand the employee concerns and expectations during this situation (Bosse et al. 2017). Based on the analysis of employees concern, effective strategies can be developed
- Employee satisfaction is an essential component that can help an organization to retain the employees during a crisis. Herzberg’s two factors theory has suggested the hygiene and motivating factors to enhance the experience and engagement of employees
- Analysis of the theories has illustrated the effective measurements for leaders to ensure the efficiency of organizational management
5.2.5 Possible solutions
- Health and wellness of employees is required to be prioritized by the management team and leaders
- An appropriate workplace infrastructure based on virtual activities needs to be established (Bartsch et al. 2020)
- The engagement and productivity of employees can be improved through virtual cultural initiatives
- The transparency of the work infrastructure required to be improved by treating communication as a two-way street
5.3 Conclusion
- The study has outlined to shed light on effective leadership during the circumstances of COVID19 (Bartsch et al. 2020)
- The purpose and background of developing the report has been included in the introduction
- The study has analysed the problems and issues caused by COVID19 to organizational management
- Theories such as Maslow hierarchy of needs, situational leadership theory, Herzberg’s two-factor theory have been used
- Possible solutions have been drowned out the enhance the leadership and management
5.4 Recommendations
- It is essential to be proactive to deal with the citation of crisis situations with the help of disaster management strategies.
- Leaders are required to keep the communities together during COVID19 to develop the sense of togetherness
- Flexibility and adaptability of using new strategies are needed to be used for improving the present circumstances (Torasa and Mekhum, 2020)
- Effective communication should be established to calm down the employees and other stakeholders
5.5 References
Bartsch, S., Weber, E., Büttgen, M. and Huber, A., 2020. Leadership matters in crisis-induced digital transformation: how to lead service employees effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Service Management.
Bosse, T., Duell, R., Memon, Z.A., Treur, J. and van der Wal, C.N., 2017. Computational model-based design of leadership support based on situational leadership theory. Simulation, 93(7), pp.605-617.
Soni, B. and Soni, R., 2016, July. Enhancing Maslow’s hierarchy of needs for effective leadership. In Competition Forum (Vol. 14, No. 2, p. 259). American Society for Competitiveness.
Torasa, C. and Mekhum, W., 2020. The Impact of Knowledge Sharing, Human Resource Management Team Efficacy and Performance on the Financial Performance: Mediating Role of Leadership Empowerment. Systematic Reviews in Pharmacy, 11(1), pp.389-397.
6. Reflective account
In accordance with the course of ‘Leading and Managing Organizational Resources’, the assessment was done over a period of 6 weeks to present an e-portfolio and a written business report. A Gibbs Reflective Cycle has been used to present the learning and professional development that I acquired during these 6 weeks. As mentioned by Adeaniet al. (2018), Gibbs reflective cycle is a cyclic framework that helps to portray the experience learnt from a particular subject. Therefore, through the aid of this cyclic framework, I am going to describe my progress and development briefly.
Figure 6: Gibbs Reflective Cycle
(Source: Wareing, 2017)
Description
In order to complete the assessment, I managed to make a discussion forum reflecting the impact of COVID 19 on workforce management. The new changes that are being initiated by the government and organizations are described in the forum. Business reports and ideas of leadership and change were collected during week 1 to 5 to prepare the forum with comprehensive arguments and ideas. I had to summarize the main findings after collecting the data, which helped me to improve my learning and development skills such as time management and organizational skill.
Feelings
The assessment brought forth a plethora of challenges that I had to overcome. I was subjected to a rollercoaster of emotions and feelings that helped me to gain many experiences such as how to manage resources collect information and analyze findings. Starting from the data collection to presenting the results in the discussion forum and business report; I felt anxious, desperate, afraid, happy and satisfied. Looking back now, except for a few circumstances, I am quite satisfied with my self-performance to handle the assessment. I was able to develop many skills and competencies such as time management, market research and organization skills which will be useful in my professional career.
Evaluation
There were many good and bad aspects I encountered during the evaluation of learning and professional development, which helped me to develop my learning experience. The collection of data and ideas was not easy as I had to scribble through a lot of industry reports, blogs and articles. There were many instances that I could not get my hands on information due to budget constraints. However, I managed to find some quality blogs and articles that helped me in my findings.
Analysis
I searched through the literature on the impact of COVID 19 and the new ways of working implemented by organizations. I was also able to underpin related theories and concepts related to the ‘new normal’ of organizations. I believe that the assessment was a boon to me as gathering all data and analyzing them thoroughly helped me to increase my researching skills. The skills I acquired during this assessment are problem-solving skills and the ability to make a quick decision to organize materials.
Conclusion
In a nutshell, I can state that this coursework was highly beneficial for my learning experience and developing my professional career. The amount of knowledge and skills I mustered throughout this module will be of great importance in my future. Moreover, I was able to improve my time management and organization skills with the help of this assessment. However, I believe that there is still a lot of things that I need to learn, and therefore, looking forward to future assignments.
Action Plan
The coursework helped me to develop knowledge regarding workplace change and management of resources. During the development of this e-portfolio, I encountered many problems and challenges. Therefore, in the future, I would like to consult others when doing the work and use the experience I gathered here to devise solutions against problems.
References
Adeani, I.S., Febriani, R.B., Syafryadin, S., Mangana, A.V., Kurniawan, E., Ananda, J. and Maryam, S., 2018. Using GIBBS reflective cycle in making reflections of literary analysis. Indonesian EFL Journal (IEFLJ), 6(2), pp.139-148.
Wareing, M., 2017. Me, my, more, must: a values-based model of reflection. Reflective Practice, 18(2), pp.268-279.
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