COVID-19: Challenges and Changes for Human Resource Management Professionals
Keywords:
Career development, Virtual work environment, Career resilience, Work-life balance, Learning, Mentoring, Conservation of Resources theoryAbstract
The COVID-19 pandemic caused many adverse situations and uncertainty. It made many workers move from brick-and-mortar buildings to virtual remote environments. This also made employees work alone without the support of anyone. The lack of physical contact with others has likely to impede the career development and progress of employees. Hence, the roles of HRD professionals have gained significance. HRD managers could provide virtual mentoring, work-life balance, learning, support etc., for enhancing an overall sense of well-being and belongingness for employees working in remote environments. It not only made employees show resilient behaviour but also witnessed organizations adopt resilient work culture. Besides these, the pandemic offered some new strategies for organizations and HR managers. It made a revolutionary change in employment that provided insights into HRM interventions.
References
References
Adler, A. B. (2013), “Resilience in a Military Occupational Health Context: Directions for Future Research.” In Building Psychological Resilience in Military Personnel: Theory and Practice, edited by R. R. Sinclair and T. W. Britt, 223–235. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.
Aitken-Fox, E., Coffey, J., Dayaram, K., Fitzgerald, S., Gupta, C., McKenna, S., & Wei Tian, A. (2020), “The impact of Covid-19 on human resource management: avoiding generalisations”, LSE Business Review, retrieved from https://blogs. lse.ac.uk/businessreview/2020/05/22/the-impact-of-covid-19-on-human-resource-management-avoiding-generalisations/
Akkermans, J., Richardson, J. and M. Kraimer. M. (2020), “The COVID-19 Crisis as a Career Shock: Implications for Careers and Vocational Behaviors”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, pp. 1-15.
Akkermans, J., Seibert, S. and Mol, S.T. (2018), “Tales of the Unexpected: Integrating Career Shocks in the Contemporary Careers Literature”, SA Journal of Industrial Psychology, Vol. 44, pp.1-10.
AM, E. N., Affandi, A., Udobong, A. and Sarwani, S. (2020), “Implementation of human resource management in the adaptation period for new habits”, International Journal of Educational Administration, Management, and Leadership, Vol. 1, pp.19–26.
Bennett, E. E. (2010), “The coming paradigm shift: Synthesis and future directions for virtual HRD”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol.12 No.6, pp.728–741.
Bennett, E. E. and McWhorter, R. R. (2021), “Virtual HRD’s role in crisis and the post Covid-19 professional lifeworld: Accelerating skills for digital transformation”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 23 No.1, pp.5–25.
Bimrose, J., Brown, A., Mulvey, R., Kieslinger, B., Fabian, C. M., Schaefer, T., Kinkel, S., Kopp, T. and Dewanti, R. T. (2019), “Transforming Identities and Co-constructing Careers of Career Counselors”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, pp.7–23.
Britt, T. W., Shen, W., Sinclair, R. R., Grossman, M. R. and Klieger, D. M. (2016), “How Muchdo We Really Know about Employee Resilience?” Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Vol. 9, pp. 378–404.
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, Vol.51, pp.697–713.
Campello, M., Kankanhalli, G., & Muthukrishnan, P. (2020), “Corporate hiring under Covid-19: Labor market concentration, downskilling and income inequality (No. w27208)”, National Bureau of Economic Research.
Carnevale, J. B., & Hatak, I. (2020), “Employee adjustment and well-being in the era of COVID-19: Implications for human resource management”, Journal of Business Research, Vol. 116, pp.183–187.
Caza, B. B. and Milton, L. P. (2012), “Resilience at Work: Building Capability in the Face of Adversity.” In The Oxford Handbook of Positive Scholarship, edited by K. S. Cameron and G. M. Spreitzer, pp.895–908.
Chudzikowski, K., Gustafsson, S. and Tams, S. (2020), “Constructing Alignment for Sustainable Careers: Insights from the Career Narratives of Management Consultants”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, pp.1-13.
De Vos, A., B. I. J. M., Van der Heijden, and J. Akkermans. (2020), “Sustainable Careers: Towards a Conceptual Model”, Journal of Vocational Behavior, pp.1-13.
Elsafty, A. S., & Ragheb, M. (2020), “The role of human resource management towards employees retention during Covid-19 pandemic in medical supplies sector – Egypt”, Business and Management Studies, Vol. 6 No.2, pp.5059–5059.
Epstein, D. 2019. Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World. New York: Riverhead Books.
Financial Times (2020), “Virus lays bare the frailty of the social contract”, retrieved from https://www.ft.com/content/7eff769a-74dd-11ea-95fe-fcd274e920ca (accessed on 2nd December, 2022).
Friedman, Z. 2020. “How COVID-19 Will Change the Future of Work.” Forbes, retrieved from https:// www.forbes.com/sites/zackfriedman/2020/05/06/covid-19-future-of-work-coronavirus /#5b1320a273b2 (accessed on 20th February, 2023).
Garavan, T. (2007), “A strategic perspective on human resource development”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 9 no.1, pp.11–30.
Graves, L. M., & Karabayeva, A. (2020). Managing virtual workers—strategies for success. IEEE Engineering Management Review, Vol. 48 No.2, pp.166–172.
Hammer, E. (2021), “HRD interventions that offer a solution to work-life conflict”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 23 No.2, pp.142–152.
Hite L.M and McDonald K.S. (2020), “Careers after COVID-19: challenges and changes”, Human Resource Development International, pp. 1-11.
Heslin, P. A., L. A. Keating, and S. J. Ashford. 2020. “How Being in Learning Mode May Enable a Sustainable Career across the Lifespan.” Journal of Vocational Behavior, pp.1-17.
Hobfoll, S. E. (1989), “Conservation of Resources: A New Attempt at Conceptualizing Stress”, American Psychologist, Vol 44 No.3, pp.513–524.
Hobfoll, S. E. (2001), “The Influence of Culture, Community and the Nested-self in the Stress Process: Advancing Conservation of Resources Theory”, Applied Psychology, Vol. 50 No. 3, pp.337–421.
Hughes, C. (2020), “The changing learning technological landscape for trainers in the wake of COVID-19”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 23 No.1, pp.66–74.
International Labour Organization (2020), “COVID-19 and the world of work: Impact and policy responses”, retrieved from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---dcomm/documents/briefingnote/wcms_738753.pdf (accessed on 14th March, 2023).
Kossek, E. E. and Perrigino, M. B. (2016). “Resilience: A Review Using A Grounded Integrated Occupational Approach” The Academy of Management Annals, Vol. 10 No.1, pp.729–797.
Krumboltz, J. D., Mitchell, A. M. and Jones, G. B. (1976), “A social learning theory of career selection”, The Counseling Psychologist, Vol. 6 No.1, pp.71–81.
Lepak, D. P., Bartol, K. M., & Erhardt, N. L. (2005), “A contingency framework for the delivery of HR practices”, Human Resource Management Review, Vol. 15 No.2, pp.139–159.
Liu, Y., Lee, J. M., & Lee, C. (2020), “The challenges and opportunities of a global health crisis: The management and business implications of COVID-19 from an Asian perspective”, Asian Business & Management, Vol.19, pp.277–297.
Lund, S., K. Ellingrud, B. Hancock, and J. Manyika (2020), “COVID-19 and Jobs: Monitoring the US Impact on People and Places.” McKinsey Global Institute website, retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/industries/public-sector/our-insights/covid-19-and-jobs-monitoring-the-us-impact on-people-and-places (accessed on 5th January 2023).
Lund, S., Madgavkar, A., Manyika, J., Smit, S., Ellingrud, K., Meaney, M., & Robinson, O. (2021), “The future of work after COVID-19”, retrieved from https://www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-after-covid-19 (accessed on 3rd April 2023)
Miller, B. and Morris, R. G. (2016), “Virtual peer effects in social learning theory”, Crime & Delinquency, Vol. 62 No.12, pp.1543–1569.
Mishra, P. and K. McDonald (2017), “Career Resilience: An Integrated Review of the Empirical Literature”, Human Resource Development Review, Vol. 16 No.3, pp. 207–234.
Ngoc Su, D., Luc Tra, D., Thi Huynh, H. M., Nguyen, H. H. T., & O’Mahony, B. (2021), “Enhancing resilience in the Covid-19 crisis: Lessons from human resource management practices in Vietnam”, Current Issues in Tourism, pp.1–17.
Perren, L. (2003), “The role of e-mentoring in entrepreneurial education and support: A meta-review of academic literature”, Education + Training, Vol. 45 No.8–9, pp. 517–525.
Prasad, K. and Vaidya, R. W. (2020), “Association among Covid-19 parameters, occupational stress and employee performance: An empirical study with reference to agricultural research sector in Hyderabad Metro”, Sustainable Humanosphere, Vol. 16 No.2, pp.235–253.
Przytuła, S., Strzelec, G. and Krysińska-Kościańska, K. (2020), “Re-vision of future trends in human resource management (HRM) after COVID-19”, Journal of Intercultural Management, Vol. 12 No.4, pp.70–90.
Ren, G. 2020, April. “COVID-19: Exposing & Exacerbating Global Inequality.” Health Policy Watch website, retrieved from https://healthpolicy-watch.org/covid-19-exposing-worsening-global-inequality/ (accessed on 11th December 2022).
Rochat, S., Masdonati, J. and Dauwalder, J. P. (2017), “Determining Career Resilience” In Psychology of Career Adaptability, Employability and Resilience, edited by K. Maree, 125–141. Cham, Switzerland: Springer.
Sagan, A. and Schüller, C. (2020), “Covid-19 and labour law in Germany”, European Labour Law Journal, Vol. 11 No.3, pp.292–297.
Seibert, S. E., Kraimer, M. L. and Heslin, P. A. (2016), “Developing Career Resilience and Adaptability”, Organizational Dynamics, Vol 45, pp.245–257.
Sevilla, C., & Wells, T. D. (1999), “Six wins to foster peak performance”, Performance Improvement, Vol. 38 No.9, pp.8–12.
Skovholt, T. M., Grier, T. L. and Hanson, M. R. (2001), “Career Counseling for Longevity: Self-care and Burnout Prevention Strategies for Counselor Resilience”, Journal of Career Development, Vol. 27 No.3, pp.167–176.
Yarberry, S. and Sims, C. (2021), “The Impact of COVID-19-Prompted Virtual/Remote Work Environments on Employees’ Career Development: Social Learning Theory, Belongingness and Self-Empowerment”, Advances in Developing Human Resources, Vol. 23 No.3, 237–252.
Downloads
Published
How to Cite
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2023 Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change (JSDC)
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Readers and users of the Journal of Studies in Dynamics and Change (JSDC) are free to Share — copy and redistribute the papers published in the journal in any medium or format. However, the user (1) must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. (2) May not use the material for commercial purposes (3) Must distribute your contributions under the same license as the original if any remix, transform, or build upon the material is done.
