APO Global People Management

Article overview and summary

The world of business has been entirely hit hard by the devastating appearance of Covid-19. Lily Zheng has mentioned in her article that at the primary instance, the effect of Covid-19 was slow, but it grew faster eventually. The workplaces were forced to close and all the workers had to do their job from their homes. On the other hand, all the workshops as well as DE&I planning’s had to cancel or postpone their functions for indefinite periods. It has been established someway that the people of the world need to stick to their essential belongings, besides this, diverse work culture is aesthetically well but that is not essential. Zheng has also identified that the business world is facing two crises simultaneously, one of them is an economic crisis and the other one is a “people crisis”. The organizations which are performing have stated that the two crises are making each other worse. In the article, Zheng has stated that the efforts of DE&I can solve both of the issues, but it is imperative to set a different benchmark of diversity work. She mentioned that the aspect of DE&I must be broader so that the issues which are new to the market of business can be overcome in this world pandemic. The issues must be resolved by really focusing on them.

So many managers and leaders are there who interpret the DE&I program as a trifling set of works. The procedures of DE&I are limited as the function of this program is to hire as well as to create a basic sense of equity among the people of particular work culture. That is why this entire program can be deducted as there are many more important programs to follow. On the other hand, it is imperative to understand that there are so many functions of the DE&I program that can be performed at this critical time of the pandemic. The article strongly says that these obstacles which are being faced by various organizations can be included in DE&I challenges. Some of the examples are given below:

• Communications in crisis
• The function of middle managers
• Distant work

All of the mentioned hindrances can be resolved by thinking in strategic ways. Therefore, information must be gathered as per the need. There are so many companies which are fighting in this pandemic to sustain. Information can be collected from these companies which will be helpful to derive solutions in many ways. Specialists must be included to resolve issues in this crisis. Zheng has given an example for this in her article, Mindy Gulati who is a DE&I consultant has resolved the issues of a “scientific glass company”, Grave. It is important to stay focused in this world pandemic, people need to sustain in this massive challenge by being strategic and executive by nature.

 

Introduction

As it has been said earlier that many managers, as well as leaders, think of the DE&I program as a primitive kind of work whereas it is important to strategize the field of work despite a pandemic that has broken out there (CA duff, 2015). The obstructions due to the pandemic can be taken care of by the function of DE&me. The only function of DE&I is not to hire or create a basic sense of working together in the field of work but in the situation of the pandemic, DE&I can function to resolve some of the issues too. Strategic thoughts are important to resolve this severe problem. Two ways must be mentioned. First of all, it is important to train and coach the employees to grow their sense of work in a world pandemic. They must be resilient by nature to face the issue (Adhering et al. 2017). Besides this, a small number of employees who will work full-time must put their eyes on essential work. A third model which is equally important to adopt is gathering information from the workplaces. Surveys must go on which will gather information such as the coping capacity of employees of particular demography. There are different kinds of surveys though; one can choose to survey through the companies or by making small teams that will account for the information (Kaufman et al. 2020). But the procedure of survey is not the only way of gathering information, but there is a software company which works for educational purposes, named Renaissance Learning has been capable of making distant communication with their workers at the New York office. This communication enlightened the survey by providing different stories of them as they are locked down in the hotspot zones of coronavirus (Anguelovski et al. 2016). On the other hand, it is also imperative to provide importance to the specialists who can execute some methods to resolve some of the issues of those crises, made by a world pandemic. The issues which are enlightened in the article of Zheng have been mentioned previously, which are; communications in a crisis, issues of middle managers and distant work culture. These issues will be discussed in definite ways in the following study (Pearson and Schuldt, 2014).

 

Findings

In the case of findings, several issues have been identified, which have been mentioned though. In this segment of the study, those issues will be discussed in brief:

Communications in crisis: Not only the employees but the customers also have been impacted by the severity of Covid-19 in different places (Spinelli and Pellino, 2020). Some of the people are distant from their families due to their work and some are at this much inconvenience that they are not able to communicate with their families. On the other hand, some are with their families, taking care of them and trying to make them safe. The preferences of people are different at the same time, such as some of them are concerned about their favourite brands as, if these brands are still working in the crisis (Coombs, 2015). Whereas some of the people are worried about their businesses if they can cope up with the situation as well. The frontline managers, as well as leaders, need to focus on these during this period of crisis and after this crisis as well to compete with the cultural changes and provide genuine, evaluative, and definite information to several groups who will further work with them (Bartik et al. 2020).

Issues of middle managers: During this pandemic, it is not only the severity of human health that is being highlighted but also the harsh truths of society, such as racial and sexual discrimination are being brightened in this dark situation of humanity (Heyden et al. 2018). The middle managers are being compelled to face such inequalities and discriminations that are continually increasing in the crisis of Covid-19 (Dubey and Tripathi, 2020). Other than this, some people already have mental stress and their anxiety is being increased due to this severe period. And some people need to work as they are paid daily wages so that these people are risking their health (Darkow, 2015).

Distant work: Now it is very difficult to communicate without physical presence. People are compelled to interact through messages and emails. Other than these, there are teleconferences which some of the companies can afford. Then there come those organizations which cannot overcome these issues regarding people as well as communication crisis (Bozkurt and Sharma, 2020).

The companies are bound to face these issues in their field of work. To overcome the effect of Covid-19, DE&I implementations are really important, hence proved. As it has been said earlier in this study, leaders, as well as managers, need to think very strategically so that the problems can be handled within a shorter period. The authorities of the companies must provide coaching and mentoring for the employees so that they learn the ways to work in a world pandemic (Frandsen and Johansen, 2016). Besides this, there is a need for active workers who will work despite any challenges and reach the needfulness of the essentials. On the other hand, it is also important to find the right person who can resolve some of these problems with the help of some specialized methods. Despite having specialists at the organizations, those specialists have not played hitherto the role of a formal DE&me expert. These persons need to be assembled at their workplace. If the companies try for a third-party organization, then that third party must be capable of working in mix firms as well as smaller ones and they must work on the issues with a parallel way where the coordination is imperative (Brammer et al. 2020).

 

 

Conclusion

As the companies are in this jeopardized situation of world pandemic, DE&I strategies are imperative to sustain and survive from these circumstances. The consequences of the aftermath of the situation are not sure but an adaptation of DE&I endeavours can make some differences in this reality of the crisis. In this situation of uncertainty and economic downfall, the DE&I strategies can perform well for the sustainability of the company but not for too long. These endeavours can be strategic and effective. The functions of DE&I not only help the organizations to survive in this crucial situation but will be revitalized with more strengths.

Recommendation

As per the article, it is not that the working procedures of DE&I resemble any kind of hegemony. Nonetheless, supervision is imperative in this model. Sometimes the organizations are compelled to rely on the leaders who lead specific groups of the organizations, though these groups do not yield equivalent results simultaneously. In the case of some groups, implementations of DE&I strategy reflect better than some of the other groups. To resolve this inconsistency, all the managers and leaders must be able to circulate the information from top to bottom and execute that information as per they fit best (Coombs and Holladay, 2014).

The strategies of DE&I are to make the company a better place to work as well as reaching the goals of the company simultaneously strengthen the company as well. To provide some specific recommendations towards setting DE&me strategy, the following points are given in the study:

• It is imperative to secure the resources of the company along with working nearby of the leaders who are senior in the company.
• The managers need to be aligned to execute all the strategies and they also need to know about the pros and cons of the strategies (Coombs, 2014).
• All the leaders must be trained individually so that they can perform their best works with the help of their teams.
• It is important to make partnerships with the HR so that loops of feedback can be created as well as initiating metrics are also needed so that managers can measure their performances (Dewey et al. 2020).
   

References

Adhariani, D., Sciulli, N. and Clift, R., 2017. Financial management and corporate governance from the feminist ethics of care perspective. Springer.

Anguelovski, I., Shi, L., Chu, E., Gallagher, D., Goh, K., Lamb, Z., Reeve, K. and Teicher, H., 2016. Equity impacts of urban land use planning for climate adaptation: Critical perspectives from the global north and south. Journal of Planning Education and Research, 36(3), pp.333-348.

Bartik, A., Bertrand, M., Cullen, Z., Glaeser, E.L., Luca, M. and Stanton, C., 2020. The Impact of COVID-19 on Small Business Outcomes and Expectations. Harvard Business School NOM Unit Working Paper, (20-102), pp.20-102.

Bozkurt, A. and Sharma, R.C., 2020. Emergency remote teaching in a time of global crisis due to CoronaVirus pandemic. Asian Journal of Distance Education, 15(1), pp. i-vi.

Brammer, S., Branicki, L. and Linnenluecke, M., 2020. COVID-19, Socialization and the Future of Business in Society. Academy of Management Perspectives, (a).

Caduff, C., 2015. The pandemic perhaps: dramatic events in a public culture of danger. Univ of California Press.

Coombs, W.T. and Holladay, S.J., 2014. How publics react to crisis communication efforts. Journal of Communication Management.

Coombs, W.T., 2014. Ongoing crisis communication: Planning, managing, and responding. Sage Publications.

Coombs, W.T., 2015. The value of communication during a crisis: Insights from strategic communication research. Business Horizons, 58(2), pp.141-148.

Darkow, I.L., 2015. The involvement of middle management in strategy development—Development and implementation of a foresight-based approach. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 101, pp.10-24.

Dewey, C., Hingle, S., Goelz, E. and Linzer, M., 2020. Supporting clinicians during the COVID-19 pandemic.

 

Dubey, A.D., and Tripathi, S., 2020. Analyzing the sentiments towards work-from-home experience during covid-19 pandemic. Journal of Innovation Management, 8(1).

Frandsen, F. and Johansen, W., 2016. Organizational crisis communication: A multivocal approach. Sage.

Heyden, M.L., Sidhu, J.S. and Volberda, H.W., 2018. The conjoint influence of top and middle management characteristics on management innovation. Journal of Management, 44(4), pp.1505-1529.

Kaufman, K.R., Petkova, E., Bhui, K.S. and Schulze, T.G., 2020. A global needs assessment in times of a global crisis: world psychiatry response to the COVID-19 pandemic. BJPsych Open, 6(3).

Pearson, A.R. and Schuldt, J.P., 2014. Facing the diversity crisis in climate science. Nature Climate Change, 4(12), pp.1039-1042.

Spinelli, A. and Pellino, G., 2020. COVID?19 pandemic: perspectives on an unfolding crisis. The British journal of surgery.