Essay: Covid-19's Impact On Culture And Space Management In Organizations.

Management of culture and management of space

This essay aimed at analysing the impact of management of culture and  space on the control and resistance in the organisation during Covid-19 situation. This paper will discuss in detail the concept of management of culture and management of space. This paper will also discuss the changes in the management of culture due to Covid-19. In addition, this paper will also explain the impact of this management of culture on the control and resistance in the organisation. This essay will also discuss, the changes in the management of space due to Covid-19. Furthermore, this paper will also discuss the impact of management of space on the management control and employee resistance.

Management of culture or culture management at workplace can be regarded as the procedure of fostering as well as scaling the work culture within a company. This incorporates keeping the pulse on various aspects of the culture of an organisation while evaluating the effect of such culture on overall productivity and morale. The managers and leaders are generally advised to develop the overall strategy, build up cultural leaders, share the culture by interacting efficiently with the employees, evaluate the performance and communicate the culture in every dealings with the customers. Cultural managers are generally focused on introducing a workplace environment which enables the people to collaborate and contribute at their respective potential.

Organisational space generally defines the impact of the overall spactial environment on the behaviour, mind, and the health of employees working in an organisation. The management of organisational space or space management can be defined as the procedure of controlling and administering the distinct physical workspaces which is occupied by  the business (Harris 2015). It allows strategic planning so as to provide certain cost-effective solutions and enables to optimise the inventory of space of the company which is available for its employees to perform all their duties more efficiently and effectively (Kim 2016). Moreover, it is observed that managing the organisational space is quite important as it can significantly affect the performance and productivity of the organisation.

The advent of the Covid-19 epidemic has led in a number of cultural and workplace management changes. The implementation of travel bans and lockdowns throughout the world has flipped the control dynamics and relationships within corporations on its heads (Hutchinson 2021). Organizational leaders throughout the world are now faced with the difficult challenge of evaluating the impact and significance of these changes and deciding whether or not to keep them.

Corporate culture has long been seen as a significant component in determining an organization's success or failure. Many sectors and organizations have prioritized the creation and growth of a productive culture throughout the business (Vantage Circle 2021). Workplace culture is said to be resistant to frequent changes and to stay stable over time. In the real world, face-to-face engagement has shown to be the most effective way for workers to form ties. However, with the outbreak of the covid-19 epidemic, a work-from-home culture had to be implemented, emphasising the need of employee interactions within an organization and operational efficiency. Employees now rely on digital tools like as video conferencing tools and a variety of other internet services to stay informed and continue connecting with one another (Thomas 2021). Given the current corporate and organizational attitudes toward remote working, it's reasonable to predict that these developments are here to stay for much longer than previously anticipated. In that situation, the capacity of enterprises to create a virtual environment that aids in the establishment of a common purpose, cultural goals, mutual respect among workers, and attempts to assure the existence of a fun factor is critical to the future of work.

Changes in management of culture due to Covid-19

Corporate efforts to adapt to these shifts are gaining traction, since the economy must continue to function even in difficult circumstances. Another issue that businesses are facing is bringing new personnel on board. The difficulty of newly hired workers attempting to acclimatize to the organizational culture without prior knowledge of the culture offers a challenge to management and puts the current organizational culture to the test. When employees do not get in-hand experience of the organizational culture, it is difficult for them to understand and adapt resulting in inefficient exhibition of service and eventually being unproductive for the organization. Thus, as discussed earlier, it is observed that the entire organisational culture has changed drastically due to this Covid-19 crisis. During pre-covid situation, people used to work at their respective office and had a completely different organisational culture which has little or no existence in current times.

Happy and satisfied employees are more productive for any organization and are an important asset for an organization to achieve success in the longer term (Swetta 2021). Some of the changes brought in due to the impact of covid-19 were forced and needs to be assessed for continuation, but it also has given the opportunity for management of an organization to change things for the betterment of the organization. Advent of new set of technologies which are crucial for smooth functioning of organizations requires up skilling of employees. These changes might benefit the employees as they would be trained for a change in mindset, behaviors and values in rapidly changing workplace environment.

Employees can benefit from reskilling and up skilling during Covid because the firm recognizes that working remotely or working from home will continue to exist, it is education and training and reskilling its employees by providing them with technical and digital competency training. Honing digital skills and improving infrastructure is a matter of utmost importance in these COVID times, Skills Development Programmes (SDP) are needed to reduce the effects of the COVID 19 pandemic, therefore leadership teams are receiving training through SDP (World Economic forum 2020). Today, the companies around the globe are on an average working with 20% of its workforce, with the remaining workers working from home. It has been observed that few entrepreneurs find working from home challenging. As a result, the organizations are developing a hybrid model for such employees that combines physical, spatial, and interpersonal context in order for them to deal with work in the midst of the epidemic (Carnevale and Hatak 2020). During the lockdown, certain mid-level management personnel are experiencing stress, and the organization is taking initiatives to help them build tolerance and control their work stress.

The management also has been taking actions to ensure safety and sanity in the workplace with implementing rules and regulations for the employees to follow. Ensuring a safe and healthy workplace environment has enhanced the confidence of employees and has seen employees returning to workplace following all the covid induced protocols put in place. Several organisations have made employee, staff, and other office personnel screening mandatory. Maintaining safe working distances — allowing for a 5-6 foot interpersonal gap for everyone at all times. By decreasing the possibility of contact transfers and removing human interaction points, the contact transfer is fully averted. The companies are making t necessary for employees to practice cleanliness in all they do. In many organisations, wearing personal protective equipment has become mandatory. In many companies, washing hands and sanitizing at periodic intervals were required (Ozenen 2020).

Impact of management of culture on control and resistance in organizations

It is observed that like organisational culture changed, the space management also has changed significantly during the Covid (Redlein, Höhenberger and Turnbull 2020). Prior to this Covid-19 pandemic, the capability to  operate remotely was regarded as the perk which certain companies used to utilse in order to attract or retain the talent but it was not a necessity (de Lucas Ancillo 2021). Moroever, most of the organisation even did not have formal work from home policy. In addition to that, before this pandemic, the major conventional wisdom were observed to be the offices which were quite crucial to culture, productivity and attracting talents. Organisations used to intensely compet for the prime office space in key urban centers across the world and most of them focused on the solutions which were seen to encourage collaborations (Hou et al. 2021). It is also found that the fundamental goal of an effective and successful space management was to maximise the utilisation of space at workplace. The organisations used to design strategies in order to optimise the usage of such office spaces. However, after the outbreak of COvid-19 pandemic, the organisations were not able to operate in the traditional manner and they have to implement certain drastic changes in order to survive and continue its operations during this uncertain time period. Thus, work-from home was the only option which was left with the companies and so they all have to adopt remote working strategy. This new working condition has reduced the need of workspace since the employees were operating from their respective homes. The employees are not required to report ot their respective offices during their official hours and so the companies do not need vast office spaces in recent times after the attack of unpredictable pandemic. Thus, the competition which the company used to have for spaces at key urban areas also reduced to a great extent.

It has been seen that before the coronavirus pandemic, the management of the company used to enjoy significant control or power over the working and activities of the employees especially during office hours. Moreover, the employees were accustomed to these system at office space and thus their mindset, behaviour are also accustomed to such controls. The management used to impose strict rules, regulation and policies within the office space in order to administer the working of the employee and ensure their focus and productivity during working hours. Moreover, the office space in an organisation was segregated in a systematic manner like department-wise or team-wise. Roles and responsibilities of every employee are defined and it was quite easy for the managers to observe the work of each department and each employee in a physical office. In addition to that, it is also observed that the resistance from the employees in an physical office setting was minimal. There was direct and face-to-face communication system available in an office space which enabled both the managers and the employees to communicate effectively regarding any official matters and resolve any kind of issue within the office space. It is also observed in an physical office space, it was quite easy for the manager to evaluate the determination of the employees via their behaviour and then discuss about the same with the employee. The management were also able to conduct physical meetings at the office space with the employees and discuss about certain important matters. In such kind of meeting, both the employees and management were able to participate in the discussion and it was quite easy for the company to avoid any kind of resistance in the office. The company was also able to control the motivation level and behaviour of the employees. In a physical space, it was quite easy for the managers to determine the motivation level of the employees and their behaviour towards their work. When the manager could find that his/her best talent is demotivated towards their work, he/she can held a meeting with the employee and know the reason for the demotivation. Accordingly, the manager can employ strategies to enhance the motivation of its employees. Thus, prior to this uncertain situation, the control of the management over the employees and their performance was significantly high and level of resistance was very low.

Changes in management of space due to Covid-19

Nevertheless, in the current scenario that is after the outburst of this pandemic, the situation has changed significantly. There were significant changes in the management control over the employees and employee resistance due to the change in office space. As discussed earlier, the employees are not able to operate via their physical offices and needs to operate from their respective home due to lockdowns, safety measures and most importantly their own health. Thus, in the virtual office space, the first change is that there is not a fixed place where the employees needs to go and work which means the overall working environement has changed. Moreover, the managers are not able to physically monitor the behavriour and workings of the employees during working hours. In a virtual setting, technology plays a major role and the management has to utilise technology to communicate, monitor and control the operations of the employees. However, it is quite difficult for the management to monitor the workings and behaviour of each and every employee in a virtual office setting especially in a medium or large scale organisation which has a quite huge workforce. Moreover, the manager is not able to understand whether the employee is actually engaged and motivate towards work or not in a work from home setting. Thus, the manager might not be able to communicate about the same with the employee and this might lead to loss of that talent. Thus, in case of a remote working setting, it is quite defficult for the organisations to understand and control the behaviour and actions of the employees which might lead to significant loss for the entire organisation. Moreover, in a virtual meeting, it is quite difficult that each and  every person gets a fair chance to participate due to technical issues and time constraint. In case of a target based company were the compensation is based on the employees, it is still quite possible to control the performance and productivity of the employees as the compensation of the employee is directly related to their productivity and performance. However, in case of audit and accounting firm where the salary is fixed, it is very difficult for the management to maintain and control the performance level of the employees and this would singificanlty affect the operations of the entire organisation. Thus, it can be said the control of the management has significantly reduced due to the change in the office space.

Furthermore, the employee resistance has also been significantly changed during the Covid-19  due to the change in the office space and overall working conditions. It is observed that since the employees have to operate from their home and the entire working environment has changed, their resistance has drastically increased. Since, the control of the management has reduced, the employees are resisting in most of the cases and taking advantage of such situations. Some of them are utilising office hours for their personal work. On the other hand,  some are not facing difficulty while working at home and so are resisting to attend meetings and avoiding them by making certain excuses like technical issues and all.

Conclusion:

From the above discussion, it can be concluded that the management control and employee resistance has changed drastically after the outbreak of this virus. The major two reasons for such changes in the overall management control over workings of the employee and the employee resistance are changes in the management of culture and management of office space. It was also known that there were some major changes in both these factors that is management of organisational cutlture and office space.

References

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