Question

The coronavirus is hitting businesses and their employees. Some businesses are still open and millions of employees are working to serve customers. Some of the employees work in their workplaces while some others work from home. Almost all employees worry whether they will lose their jobs or if they will have a pay cut. It is obvious that unemployment will rise because millions of employees will lose their jobs and the remaining employees may have a pay cut (10, 20, 30, 50%) depending on the position in his/her workplace. Because of the coronavirus, the business environment has started to change. It is becoming a challenging fast-changing environment. Currently, many managers are faced with difficulties. In the near future and in the long run, they will need to deal with important issues. Lastly, you have to remember that one can easily manage firms during prosperous times but effective managers flourish during difficult times.Below is a sample list of terms that you can use when answering the questions. Job security and protection; Employee morale; Employee stress; Anxiety; Employee wellness; Effective decision making; Work performance; Key competencies; Productive employees; Quality of work produced; Work-life balance; Mental health; Employees in a high-risk health category; Illness; Government sector; Health sector; Security forces.

Q1-What should managers do to manage employees and minimize the negative effects of the coronavirus on employees? Discuss the major OB issues faced by managers when dealing with employees who are currently working and the major OB issues that managers need to handle in the near future. (2page)

Q2-What would be the possible changes and developments in the workforce and workplace diversity in the near future and in the long run? Discuss.

Q3-How should managers handle an employee that is unable to work due to age or health issues? (2page)

Q4-What kind of expertise, knowledge, skills and abilities will be needed from employees in the near future and in the long run? Discuss. (2 page)

Q5-What should managers do to increase the job satisfaction of currently working employees? Discuss.(2page)

Q6-Discuss how to deal with emotions that can arise from the current situation and how to stay emotionally healthy during the coronavirus outbreak. (2page)

Answer 1

1) Corona virus an ongoing Pandemic with a total number of cases reported has risen 3,013,840 globally in this scenario to reduce/minimize adverse impact on the employees the managers can go for a supportive/system OB model

The mangers could

1) Adopt the proper physical distancing policy between the current physically present workforces in communicating each other or recommend the usage of inside intranet communication devices/platforms/tools

2) Adopt usage of hand gloves, sanitizers, hand wash and take most care in transacting of files/papers each other

3) Enabling the work from home facility for most of the employees and maintaining only the required number of physical presence in the office

4) Usage of video conferencing platforms for urgent group meetings

5) Could use different AI based tools based on business nature/type if available to smoothen and enhance the work flow

There could be different kinds of employees who may respond bravely, fearful, tensed, cool, active, inactive, confused, ambiguous etc. in these kind of Pandemic scenarios so in such cases the organization being a collective group of employees and systems in design at place may not be moving in a stabilized progressive way there could be a super shift in organizational responsiveness or behavior at different levels, for example mindset of an employee in a severe virus affected area and that of an employee from a less vulnerability space may differ.

There could be a different emergence and shift in the usage and access of technology/AI Platforms for business in the future. The organizational behavior may shift from current form to a different one with relation to changing environment and technology. So the manager’s main aim will be to streamline the process with accordance to it and generate an optimal performance

2) In the long run with respect to current scenario

*There could be lot of technological/AI systems developments taking place which may help in completion of works from home without physical presence

*There could be a rise in AI platform which may reduce the requirement of fresh new personnel in some domains

*The workforce physical requirement at office may be reduced so that the diversity may increase in a different level

*There could be an ease in building global workforce for a company with optimized office infrastructure cost

*The investment made by companies in maintaining and creating workspaces/platforms for each and every employee physically could be diverted partially to digital workspaces   

3) If an employee is unable to work due to age or health issues

1) Manager can assist him providing leave and treatment benefits from the company according to its policies to a certain period, allocating his work to some other workstations temporarily which has certain level of promising CPK

2) If the Manager is sure that he is near to his retiring age and facing health issues, moreover employee also looks for an early retirement the manager could facilitate the early retirement and benefits to him in discussion with his employer