Organizational Change Impact on the Employees’ Work-Life during and After Pandemic

THE IMPACT OF ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE ON THE QUALITY OF EMPLOYEES’ WORK-LIFE DURING AND AFTER THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: A CASE STUDY OF TESCO
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The Impact of Organizational Change on the Quality of Employees’ Work-Life during and After the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Case Study of Tesco
Introduction
1 Background. The first case of Coronavirus (COVID-19) was first reported in Wuhan, China, in December 2019. On 30th January 2020, the World Health Organization (WHO) recognized COVID-19 as a Public Health Emergency of International Concern (PHEIC). On 11th March 2020, COVID-19 was declared a pandemic. Since the disease became an issue of international concern, the WHO, governments, companies, and an array of stakeholders have been working to limit the spread of the virus, develop tests, develop vaccines and treatment procedures, and address the impacts the pandemic has had on the social-economic aspects (Gupta et al., 2020).
2 Thesis statement. This research seeks to investigate how organizational change influenced by COVID-19 has impacted the quality of employees’ work-life during and after the COVID-19 pandemic by focusing on a case study of Tesco, a company in the retail sector.
Argument 1: COVID-19 has affected people across the world, leading to compromised health and loss of life. It has been a major threat to the global and national economies. According to Mhalla (2020), COVID-19 has had major impacts across all industries as it spread across the world.
* The measures taken to prevent the spread of the virus included lockdowns, restrictive movement of people, curfews, and social distancing, among others, which led to the closure of most institutions, including schools and religious places as well as nonessential businesses such as entertainment and leisure facilities and hospitality services. This was coupled with a ban on public and private gatherings and events that limited social and economic interactions in many areas globally.
* In response to the measures taken to prevent the spread of COVID-19, businesses across the globe adopted innovative and alternative measures of conducting business. In addition, human resources departments across all sectors have adopted new measures to ensure that productivity is relatively sustained during the pandemic as well as ensure that there is effective recovery from the pandemic.
Argument 2. The COVID-19 pandemic has had substantial impacts following the slowdown in global economics. Moreover, a consensus emerges from reports and research that COVID-19 has transformed organizations’ and employees’ perspectives concerning workplace engagement (Gupta et al., 2020).
* While in some contexts, the pandemic has led to increased unemployment, increased teleworking, and changes in human resource management (HRM) practices have facilitated new approaches in how individuals and teams engage at the workplace. Businesses that had been crippled by the pandemic are currently on the way to recovering from the economic shock. For instance, travel, tourism, and hospitality business are reopening across the globe but under new rules and health guidelines such as physical dist...