Analyzing COVID-19's Impact on Leadership and Management in Modern Organizations

Analyzing COVID-19's Impact on Leadership and Management in Modern Organizations

Introduction: Analyzing COVID-19's Impact on Leadership and Management in Modern Organizations

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Leadership and management practices have been changed due to the pandemic situation. Pandemic has created a crisis situation which has led to an economic fall. Therefore, various organizations have changed their leadership and management process due to pandemic situations. In this report, British Telecom has been considered based on which management practice change and leadership style change have been discussed. 

Project Aim

The report aims to understand the impact of COVID-19 on the management and leadership practices within British Telecom, a telecommunication company. The current project also aims to analyse the internal and external situations of the company due to the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Background of the Organisation 

British Telecom is one of the leading multinational telecommunication companies in the United Kingdom. The company was established in the year 1846. There are lots of technological changes passed through the company due to the changes of and invention of new technologies and technological gradation. Headquarter of the company is established in London, England. The company is operating its telecommunication service within approximately 180 countries of the world. Previously the company emerged as a Telegraph company in the year 1846. According to the annual report of a company, there are more than 8 million people all around the world who are using the service of company (Bt, 2022). According to the company, the company has started its 5G internet service, which is covering 55% of users of the company (Bt, 2022). The company provides broadband, Internet and mobile telecommunication service all over the world. There are lots of potential risks faced by the company from the wave of COVID-19 and at least 6500 cyber-attacks by unethical hackers (Bt, 2022). The company aims towards zero carbon emissions within the year 2031. 

CHAIRMAN	Adam Crozier
CHIEF EXECUTIVE	Philip Jansen
CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER	Simon Lowth
Non-executive directors	Sabine Chalmers Sara Weller Allison Kirkby Matthew Key Isabel Hudson Steven Guggenheimer Iain Conn Sir Ian Cheshire Adel Al-Saleh

Table 1: BT Leadership Structure

There are 100,000 dedicated employees are working with the company as one team. The company leaders are continuously improving their standards and position with the help of its R&D and innovative technological invents and inclusion. The organisational structure of the company follows diversities within the organizational culture of the company. The leaders of the company want to create a better workplace where there will be no exploitative cultures. The leaders of the company have ensured gender equality, equal pay for equal work, and justice within the organisation structure. The organisational culture of the company has discouraged gender biases based on racial superiority, religion, race, ethnicity, caste, culture etc. Liberal ideology is followed within the organisational structure of the company. The leaders of the company have created better communication and collaborative cultures among the colleagues and customers of the company (Bt, 2022). 

The company has started to promote green technology with new sustainable solutions after and during a pandemic situation. For this reason, the leaders of the company have decided to zero carbon emissions target within the year 2031. The company also acts as a better newsroom service and Television service. 

Projects Methods

The secondary qualitative research method has been followed in this project. 

Based on the topic of the research search engines have been selected. Google Scholar, ProQuest etc. has been considered to collect secondary data. Bullion operators, such as “AND/OR and NOT” have been used in this research.  

Keywords: Leadership, COVID-19, Management practice. 

Discussion of the Impact of Covid-19 on Leadership and Management Practice in BT 

The leadership of the company has decided to provide continuous service of internet, mobile and television service from the consideration of their corporate social responsibilities. The company has decided to provide data and call plan offers to the service users of the company. COVID-19 had created lots of financial crises within human societies all over the world (Dwivedi et al., 2020). The leadership of the company has decided not to take advantage of the situation of the COVID-19 pandemic; rather the leadership of the company has decided to provide possible support to the citizens of the UK as well as the service users of the world. 

Situational Analysis (Internal and External Factors) 

Internal factors (Swot Analysis)

The strength of BT is an impact positively on the BT organisation. High-graded customer satisfaction, a trained and qualified workforce, strong type of distribution network can affect positively the industrial business. There are some weak points which can hamper negatively the growth of BT’s business management. But also there are a few types of opportunities to improve the reason for the weakness. These opportunities can impact positive business. On the other hand, Vodafone, and Telenor are the competitors of BT, which is also a threat to the growth of the business.

Strength: 

British Telecommunication has a high grade of client satisfaction (BT, 2022). The industrialisation of all the actions and assignments. Industrialisation gives an advantage to BT to rise according to the demand. The workforce of BT is highly trained and qualified. The skills of employees are highly motivated to fulfil the goals of the company (BT, 2022). BT created a “strong distribution network” which is important for the customers. The “strong brand portfolio” of BT helps to launch the type of business products.

Weakness:

High competition with another brand can affect the marketing process (BT, 2022). The financial plan of BT is not scheduled and efficient. BT try to develop new technology to compete with other industry. BT cannot utilise cash appropriately in the business (BT, 2022).

Opportunities:

The new types of environmental policy can provide opportunities to buy new types of technology. The new types of technologies acquire market share for new outcome categories (BT, 2022). A stable cash flow can reduce the un-planning financial side. Expansion of business in another country can improve the growth of the management. The strong economic system can recover all issues of this company (BT, 2022). It is needed to improve client satisfaction. Good quality products and services are an opportunity for success.

Threat:

New types of policy can affect the business. Strong competitors can hamper the growth of the business. Competition always puts pressure on the workforce (BT, 2022). Some advanced technology can reduce the overall share of the market of the industry BT. Unstable political conditions can slow down the development of business marketing BT (BT, 2022). There are Vodafone, Virgin Group, and Telenor is the threat competitors of BT (BT, 2022).

External Factors (Pestle Analysis)

There are 100,000 potential and dedicated employees working in the company (Bt, 2022). However, due to the declaration of worldwide lockdown and for the purpose of social distancing to save people from the spread of the pandemic, the leaders have decided to start work-from-home facilities for their employees.

Political: 

The UK is a politically sturdy nation which includes a favourable impact on administrative evolution (Gov, 2022). Robust collaboration and the procedure of Organizational outcome is classified within the “United Kingdom”. Powerful supporters have been kept in the UK. “Brexit” includes existing instigated in the UK which has affected administrative growth (Gov, 2022). 

Economical: 

The country is 6th positioned economically in the world. The “Per-capita” is “41030 dollars” in 2022. The nation’s GDP existed “2.744 Trillion” in 2019. The covid-19 pandemic hampered the economic status of the UK. Similar possibility for development and also growing in industries. Tax rates of Businesses are just “16%” which is reported in 2020. 3% is the employment rate in the UK in February 2022 (Gov, 2022).

Environmental

The COVID-19 pandemic impacts the environment of the UK. Pollution is the problem here as low usage of plastic in the UK. Products are environment-friendly as Initiative on summer tourism is increased, likely “127 billion pounds” every year. The recycling process proceeds here (Gov, 2022).

Legal

Different legal systems such as: “Payment of wage act 1936” presently exists. “Employments right act 1996” is functional. “Company act” is currently in the UK. “Wage act 1936” is utilised in the UK.

Technological

Premier possibility for effective entrepreneurs. Globally directing the analysis and even the development of institutes. The technology domain is positively advanced. Exclusive opportunities in the technology of the UK. Unique types of technologies are developed in this country.

Social

The huge size of the consumer market is situated here. As there is an excellent policy of health care in the UK. The education system of the UK is globalised. The yearly income of the citizen of the UK is high. The population of the UK is 67,508,936 and it is increased by 0.35% in the year 2022.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost all the activities and active sectors related to Education, Health and Job sectors all over the world. A number of external factors have affected the business of the company British Telecom. The leaders of the company have introduced a number of potential changes within the business strategy of the company (Indrasti and Karlina, 2020). 

Crisis Management

Pre-Crisis management	During Crisis management	Post-crisis management
Measured response to network incidents/event. Methodology for managing incidents across all platforms and technologies.	Engaging with the Central UK Government, Ofcom and the Devolved Administrations in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland during crisis for sustainable team handling	Providing a Civil Resilience team

Table 2: BT Crisis Management

Socio-economic and technological drivers in the BT 

Socio-economic drivers:

During the sudden onset of the coronavirus, the pandemic scenario was seen across the world and the business sectors were widely affected by the prolonged isolation and the lockdown phase. At this time the UK broadband and pay-tv organization British telecom were also affected according to the socio-economic aspect. The effect was seen in the case of the revenue and that affected the leadership and management approach of the company. The pandemic caused the severe cancellation of the live streaming of sporting events on television. At that time it was seen that the revenue dropped by 8% and it became £10.59 billion from £11.47 billion (Tomaszczyk, 2020).

 The uncertainty about the sales and the profit of the British telecom was visualized during this time. The impact on the global sales of BT was drastic, falling by 13%. The scenario resulted in the short time spent and the negative effect on the revenue of EBITDA was also seen in the second half of the year (Newsroom.bt.com, 2020). In addition, the net profit of the British telecom was drastically reduced by 20% and in one year the amount of profit reduced to become £1.06 billion from £1.33 billion (O’Halloran, 2020).The situational leadership theory has been found very important in this case as it helps in handling the post-COVID situation in a new frame. Through this leadership approach, the leaders of BT Company has helped the new batch of employees with directional motivations. The broadband service of the UK needed to be improved and that was necessary for long-term communications. 

The British telecom company also faced major challenges of the unpredicted situations in the country and the network traffic and increased demands. In the telecommunication industry specifically in the government, private sectors and medical platforms the problems were increased. The sudden economic tensions in the BT Company affected the management of the teams and the staff (Newsroom.bt.com, 2020). The lockdown procedure prohibited the company employees to come into the office physically and work during the critical condition created by Covid-19. The work hours of the employees were affected along with the quality of work in the office. The security threats and data breaches possibility in the4 management of the telecommunication industry increased during the pandemic.

The leadership practices in the British telecom company were also affected by the poor socio-economic condition. The motivating procedure of the employees in the company has not been fulfilled from the end of the team leaders and the management heads (Reuters.com, 2020). The transparency among the leaders and the employee relation was not kept stable and for that reason, the communication among the hierarchy was disrupted and for the miscommunication and misunderstanding, the leadership skills were not applicable to the team members. 

Technological drivers: 

The technological problems were also seen during the pandemic in the case of British Telecom.  The company is the leading communication service in the United Kingdom and other 180 countries. The company provides fixed voice and broadband providers and along with that TV and mobile services are also given to the consumers of the United Kingdom (Statista, 2022). Based on that, the pandemic session in the telecommunication industry left a drastic impact on the quality of the communication procedure. The procedure of communication created great traffic for the huge demand of the customers. 

Sometimes, for the high demand and requirements in the telecommunication industry, the load on the communication systems was large and for that reason, the consumers faced a major problem in communicating with others for personal or professional reasons. In that case, the British Telecommunication company also experienced a similar kind of problem in the office or the organizational platform (Ifc.org, 2021). For crisis Management, Transformational leadership theory has also been found helpful to motivate employees with new hopes and strategies. In this scenario, employees have been helped with proper guidance and direction that serves both their personal as well as organisational goals. The usefulness of cloud-based applications, the internet and online transmission tools have been prompted exponentially since the pandemic appeared in 2019. The telecom sector, in precise, has demonstrated to be rudimentary for interactions and people during this exceptional time, and it has benefited society to thrive.

For the disruption in the technological; aspect the problems were seen in the management practices, the quality of the communication program was also disrupted and the quality of the communication procedure declined. In addition, security and personalized data breaching were evident in the time of the pandemic (Khan, 2022). The turmoil situation was seen in the time of the pandemic for the technological breakdown. The high traffic in digital communication was seen as the main reason behind the problem of flawless communication. 

The editorial and the review tasks in the social distancing and the working from home were not possible in a proper manner. In addition, motivating and monitoring the employees from home was a little difficult for the leaders (Scott, 2020). In that case, the survival in the professional sector of the employees, as well as the leaders, was affected by the sudden technological issues in the telecommunication procedure.

Conclusion 

It can be concluded that the researchers of the project have reached their goal according to the set aims and objectives of the project. The researchers have identified lots of external and internal factors which affected the organisational structure and business strategy of the company. The leadership of the company has taken numerous mitigation strategies to save the business flows of the company. The researchers have taken secondary qualitative analysis to evaluate the potential effect of COVID-19 on the business strategy and organisational structure of the company. 

The researchers have found a particular change management ADKAR model to understand the leadership change management of the company. The leaders of the company have made lots of socio-economic considerations by applying corporate social responsibilities towards its users. 

Key practices 

The leadership of the company has started several key practices due to the impact of the covid-19 pandemic. The important key practices that are identified by the researchers are:

• The leadership management of British Telecom has decided to provide work-from-home services to its potential employers. 
• The leadership management of the company has decided not to cut the salaries of the employees who are migrated to work-from-home services. 
• The company has decided to provide continuous services to its users (Kutieshat and Farmanesh, 2022). 
• The company has decided to provide attractive data and call pack plans to its users so that the demand of the company retain stable.

Key emerging trends

Work-from-home service is one of the most recent keys emerging trends of British Telecom and other companies of the world. 

References

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 Gov, 2022, Welcome to Gov.UK, available at:https://www.gov.uk/ [Accessed on: 25 November 2022]

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