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The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted the labor market in a strong aspect in the entire world. In this report, a strong overview of the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace culture in the context of ASDA. Development of the justified aim and research objectives are effective to provide a clear context for this research. Research rationale and significance are also provided here to evaluate the main contexts of this research.
Research aim :The aim of this present research is to identify the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace culture in refer to ASDA.
Rationale :Issue of this research is that ASDA is going to restructure the business on a strong aspect that raises the concern for job cutting. The incorporation of e-commerce culture majorly rather than offline expansion has developed this situation mostly. Based on the report, it has been identified that the restructuring concept put 5,000 jobs at risk in ASDA (Bbc, 2021). In another context, it has been also found that the creation of 4,500 jobs can be considered the positive consequence of ASDA in the online platform. In addition to this, implementation of the remote working culture is also considered an issue in ASDA that affects the business activities of the firm as well. Talent management aspects are geographically dispersed in case of remote working in ASDA (Popovici and Popovici, 2020). It is hard to maintain the work-life balance in remote work due to such work pressure that can affect the talent management aspects of ASDA severely. The main reason behind this is the lack of influence on employee engagement here.
It is an issue as not each of the workers is able to easily adopt the remote working culture in this organization. This culture is able to negatively impact the trust and well-being of the employees as well. As stated by Popovici and Popovici (2020), remote working is able to enhance the mental stress among workers more during the pandemic situation. From the below image, it has been observed that 22.96% of employees who are aged less than 26 years in the UK stated that home working affects their mental health, especially in the Covid-19 situation. Moreover, 22.22% of employees who are older than 60 years also feel the same (MacRae and Sawatzky, 2020). In this context, it can be stated that remote working or the home working affects the employees of ASDA in a similar way.
In the present era, it is considered as an issue as the impact of Covid-19 is not over yet. The new strains of Covid-19 such as SARS-Cov-2 and others have raised strong concerns for individuals. In the viewpoint of Wang et al. (2021), organizations prefer remote work mostly to maintain the level of productivity without having the concern for employee health. Focusing on ASDA, it has been found out that ASDA is going to adopt the hybrid working model even after the lifting of Covid-19 restrictions (Asda, 2022). It can raise the unsatisfactory potential for the workers on a strong aspect and as an impact, the organization can face a high employee turnover rate. ASDA keeps a strong focus to hire talented personnel and with the help of remote work, it is possible to maintain talent management with the aspect of the global workforce.
This research sheds light on the impact of the pandemic situation on the workplace culture of ASDA. Along with this, the focus is also provided on the existing changes and the issues which are raised in this context within the firm.
RQ1: What are the impacts of Covid-19 on the work culture of ASDA?
RQ2: What changes have occurred due to the pandemic within the firm?
RQ3: What is the necessity of remote working culture in the era of Covid-19?
RQ4: What are the suggestive ways through which it is possible to manage the changes in the work culture?
Based on the present consequences of the labor market, it is quite clear that Covid-19 has developed such changes within it. This research is effective to provide a clear overview of the changes in the workplace culture of ASDA in the post-Covid-19 era. It is also possible to evaluate the issues that are raised due to the changes and the required strategic actions which need to be undertaken for dealing with the issues. The positive and negative impacts of remote working, as well as a hybrid model, are also well identified from this research in refer to ASDA. In order to maintain the Covid-19 restrictions, the organizations show a strong willingness to adopt remote working whereas necessary actions need to be considered for managing the negative consequences as well.
An organization such as ASDA is noticed to be thinking carefully regarding the value proposition linked with allowing employees to report to their particular workplace. The formulation of remote working strategies of ASDA is done depending on the outcomes from all the stakeholders, such as customers, suppliers, and employees as well. The pandemic situation has provided an exceptional facility for the employees to work remotely as well as efficiently even without being present in the office. The remote working adaptation that occurred in a widespread and random manner due to Covid was only possible due to pandemics which could have happened decades later.
2.2.1 Conceptual Framework
2.2.2 Relationship between Covid-19 on the work culture of ASDA
The effect of Covid-19 on the work culture of ASDA is both swift and tremendous; as a result, both positive as well as negative impacts are noticed accordingly. As stated by Purwanto et al. (2020), the lockdown that occurred in all the nations, including ASDA, has overturned the assumptions based on the work nature of ASDA of talent management. Covid-19 has allowed people to realize the fact that even by working at home or remotely, it is possible for them to complete their office tasks accurately. On the other hand, Su?kowski (2020) stated the negative aspect of Covid-19 on work culture, which defined that the working hours increased in remote working. The lack of technical knowledge among the remote working individuals of ASDA created a challenging atmosphere for them as most software was used for communication purposes (Masri and Abubakr, 2019). During the pandemic situations, adjustments were made by ASDA employees as well as the organization regarding tackling the customers effectively.
2.2.3 Impact of Covid-19 on work culture
The covid-19 has provided a special facility to the employees of ASDA that there is no need for computation in their tasks. As mentioned by Savi? (2020), in addition to this, the business has faced positive as well as negative effects due to the covid situation. The coordination among talent management of ASDA and its employees allowed it to overcome the difficulties faced during the pandemic, such as a decrease in customer’s loyalty. In contrast to this, Sá and Serpa (2020) declared that the changes in the organization due to the impact of covid 19 were made based on the gain of maximum profitability for talent management due to online recruiting methods such as recruiting appropriate employees. The change in the culture of the workplace is noticed to be staying constant unless a critical and uneven situation such as Covid-19 occurs, and therefore the rapid change in workplace culture is responsible for developing issues.
2.2.4 Challenge faced by work culture due to Covid-19
The challenges that are faced by ASDA work culture during the Covid period are lack of job security, an increase in employability rate, and enhancement in remote working hours. According to Sá and Serpa (2020), one of the most practical challenges faced is the unhealthy economic situation of ASDA due to a decrease in sales and an increase in loss of customer engagement in ASDA. Furthermore, as the new employees are hired, talent management issues are faced, such as the employee's qualifications cannot be checked properly in the online process. On the other hand, defined that Kniffin et al. (2021), not all the employees, yet the lower level staffs were not able to continue their employability with ASDA due to sustainability issues and cutting down their salary. In some cases, it has been noticed that the employees of ASDA had to leave their job due to health issues faced due to Covid-19 as they could not recover completely, which occurred due to the lower capability of talent management.
2.2.5 Mitigation of Challenges in work culture due to Covid-19
The challenges that are faced by ASDA as a result of the pandemic are effectively mitigated to a certain extent by them by the application of appropriate strategies. As per the view of Spicer (2020), the employees were recruited after the unhealthy situation was tackled by ASDA; they were recruited based on their working ability through a proper recruitment process. Furthermore, in order to grab the attraction of customers, the sustainability of the workplace is improved by ASDA themselves. The food product is delivered to the customers at their doorsteps without making any kind of direct contact with the products. In contrast to this, Mustajab et al. (2020) depicted that the temperature of the employees was checked before entering the organization along with proving their medication facility.
2.2.6 Theoretical framework
Maslow’s hierarchy of need : Maslow's hierarchy of needs consists of five important sections depending on the need of an employee, which are psychological, belongings, self-actualization, esteem, and safety. According to the view of Bahuwa (2019), the employees are motivated using Maslow's hierarchy of needs in ASDA as it allows them to serve appropriately in a pandemic situation. Talent management used the same model during the recruitment process as well. The first need is the psychological need which states the reality that primarily there is a need for a physical requirement which includes shelter, air, sleep, food, drink, clothing and warmth.
The second most important need of an employee is termed safety need. In the case of ASDA employees, the safety needs are financial security, liberty from fear, emotional security, order, law, social stability and wellbeing. As argued by Sarda et al. (2018), the belongingness needs of an individual in ASDA are acceptance, trust, and friendship, receiving affection and giving affection. One of the most important needs is esteem needs which declares the necessity of a good reputation and respect from the colleagues of ASDA (King and Vaiman, 2019). The ultimate need is self-actualization need, which is the main goal of individuals, such as performing all the activities affectionately and appropriately.
Herzberg two factor motivation theory :The two-factor motivation theory of Herzberg states that there is the presence of job factors that are responsible for developing as well as preventing the creation of satisfaction in job tasks of ASDA. As mentioned by Holston-Okae and Mushi (2018), the two important factors of the respective motivation theory that are used for motivating the people working for ASDA are motivators and hygiene factors. The hygiene factor is used by ASDA as a job factor that is responsible for motivating the workplace (Wiblen and McDonnell, 2020). In the case of the long term, the following factor is counted to be a negative factor for satisfying the customer.
2.2.7 Literature gap
In the previous research, there is no presence of detailed information related to changes that occurred in the workplace culture of ASDA. Apart from this, it has been noticed that the old studies did not contain any kind of prominent information related to talent management. All the changes that occurred in ASDA’s work culture during Covid-19 are not mentioned in detail in past research and are therefore counted as the literature gap. It was not possible to collect all pieces of information related to challenges faced during the Covid situation in the work culture of ASDA due to a lack of resources and proper research tasks.
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that Covid-19 has a negative as well as a positive effect on the talent management of the ASDA. One of the positive sides is that employees have improved their capability of working remotely with proper efficiency and involvement in their tasks. Whereas the scenario is not always the same, as difficulties and challenges have been faced, such as not being able to use all technical tools appropriately. As the sales and growth of ASDA decreased by a considerable amount yet, it was difficult for ASDA to keep a huge amount of employees, and therefore had to terminate limited employees.
Research methodology is the systematic pathway for gathering the essential information regarding particular research. In this research, the selection of a proper research approach, strategy, methodology, tools, and sampling method is effective to gather the required information related to the research topic.
The research approach is helpful enough to evaluate each aspect of the data collection procedure. There are two types of research approaches used for the methodology section such as inductive approach and the deductive approach. The inductive approach is based on the development of the existing contexts whereas the deductive approach helps to develop logical concluding statements at the end of the research.
Justification: The researcher has used the deductive approach here as it helps to provide the simplest explanations of the critical matters such as the issues related to changing workplace culture in the Covid-19 situation. With the help of the scientific investigation of this approach, it is also possible for the researcher to measure the employee satisfaction of ASDA in the case of remote working (Alcadipani et al. 2020). It is also possible to develop explicit declarations regarding the strategic actions that need to be undertaken for dealing with the issues of remote working.
Research strategy indicates the "step by step action plan" through which it is possible to develop the research systematically. Three types of research strategies can be used such as qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods.
Justification: For this research, the researcher has used a mixed method. Through this, it is possible to provide stronger evidence regarding the benefits of cultural change in the workplace of ASDA in order to enhance talent management (Kaushik and Guleria, 2020). It is also possible to enhance the validity of research to demonstrate the significant ways of talent management in ASDA in a changing cultural context.
Research methodology indicates the data analysis perspectives of particular research. For the methodology section, primary qualitative and quantitative as well as secondary qualitative and quantitative research methods are used.
Justification: The researcher has used the primary quantitative method (Survey) and secondary qualitative method (Thematic analysis) for this research. Through the survey, it is possible to gather realistic information about the cultural changes of ASDA and its impact on talent management mostly (Oliva, 2019). Thematic analysis is helpful to analyze the essential concepts regarding the impact of Covid-19 on workplace culture.
The researcher has used Microsoft Excel for analyzing the result of the survey. Moreover, for the thematic analysis, journals have been collected from Google Scholar and ProQuest.
3.6.1 Identifying population and research site
The size of the population is 20 and for the sample size, 6 questions have been prepared under which two are the demographic questions. The participants of the survey are the employees and managers of this firm who have a minimum of 3 years of working experience here. In the case of thematic analysis, 3 themes have been developed in relation to the research topic. As the research site, the ASDA organization has been used to conduct the survey properly.
3.6.2 Sampling strategy (Random)
The sampling strategy is a reliable method for identifying the preferable information from a large set of data. Mainly three types of sampling strategies are used for the methodology purpose such as random and non-random sampling as well as purposive sampling.
Justification: The researcher has used a random sampling method here as through this, it is possible to conduct the data analysis process with less error. This aspect is beneficial enough to evaluate the impact of cultural changes in the talent management of ASDA (Li et al. 2021). Moreover, it is also possible to gather reliable information regarding the benefits and issues of the remote workforce which is the core cultural change of ASDA.
Demographic questions
Q1: What is your age?
Q2: What is your gender?
Survey questions
Q1: Is the Covid-19 situation able to raise issues for maintaining workplace culture in ASDA?
As per the above figure, it has been identified that 35% of the participants strongly agreed with the fact that the Covid-19 situation raises issues to maintain the workplace culture in ASDA. On the other hand, it has been also found that 10% of the participants strongly disagreed with the fact. Based on their opinion, the changing circumstances are not accepted by most individuals frequently. It can affect their work performances as well.
Q2: Do the remote working culture affect the talent management context in ASDA?
It has been observed from the above figure that 20% of the respondents strongly agreed with the fact that remote working culture affects talent management in ASDA. Moreover, 20% of them strongly disagreed as well as according to them, remote working provides such flexibility to the workers. It is helpful for them to maintain a high satisfaction level as well as retain them severely.
Q3: Are employees of ASDA able to adopt the changing workplace culture?
Based on the above figure, it has been identified that 25% of the respondents strongly agreed with the fact. As per their opinion, the changing workplace culture is frequently accepted by the workers of ASDA. 20% of the respondents strongly disagreed with this fact as old-aged employees of ASDA are not able to adopt this concept.
Q4: Does remote working culture affect the work-life balance of employees in ASDA?
It has been identified from the above figure that 50% of the respondents strongly agreed with the fact that remote working culture affects the work-life balance of the employees mostly. Additionally, 15% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the fact that remote working helps to enhance workplace flexibility.
Theme 1: Responsibility of Corporate culture of ASDA in Covid time
The article is responsible for depicting the knowledge of whether the effect of Covid-19 on organizations' operations is temporary or permanent. Not only ASDA, yet the entire industry, such as the retail industry, is seen to be exposed in a negative way due to the life-taking disease. As stated by Li et al. (2021), the employees involved with ASDA are not taken proper care of during pandemic situations by ASDA. From the article, it is noted that identification of mechanism for working is made along with an examination of the corporate culture change such as shifting from traditional cultural mechanisms to remote mechanisms.
Theme 2: Collision of Covid-19 on ASDA work culture: Digital Sale Preparation
Covid-19 has not only affected the lifestyle of employee yet has forced organizations to allow the employees to work remotely and bring change to workplace culture. As per the view Kim (2020), as a consequence of this, a lockdown occurred during the pandemic, which slowed down the business operations of ASDA as the stakeholders, such as suppliers, were not able to deliver the raw materials within time to ASDA. Due to the fear of starting corona virus disease, the customers were fonder of consuming homemade food rather than consuming the packed food of ASDA.
Theme 3: Impact of retailer’s legitimacy and service quality of ASDA on behavioral purpose: role of reaction during a pandemic
The respective article has focused on the identification of the dimension of service quality that is responsible for developing special legitimacy and pragmatism. As stated by Yang et al. (2021), both social legitimacy as well as pragmatic has an impact on the intention that is revisited and behavior that is health-focused in ASDA during Covid-19. The reaction of stakeholders such as customers and employees plays a moderation role in coordination with the dimension of service quality, the intention of customer behavior, and legitimacy. From the study, it is noticed that determinants of social legitimacy altogether with pragmatic are empathy, hygiene practice, safety assurance and reliability.
Q1: Analyzing the Impact of COVID-19 on the Labour Market?
It is quite clear that the Covid-19 situation has changed the aspects of the labour market severely. The organizations which are not able to handle the changes face such competitive threats as well (Chung et al. 2021). Based on the opinion of the 35% of employees of ASDA, it is clear enough that the organization faces issues such as lack of collaboration, cultural barriers, and others. 10% of the employees strongly disagreed with this fact as they think remote working provides greater scope to the employees for managing work life balance mostly. Moreover, it also develops unity among team members rather than dividing them.
Q2: How does the adoption of remote working impact stress levels and employee retention?
Remote working culture is able to enhance a higher level of stress on the workers which affects their retention level mostly. In the viewpoint of Allas et al. (2020), embracement of the hybrid model, the reimagination of the physical space, and management of the "fundamental human needs" are the key actions to manage changes in the pandemic era. Through these, it is also possible to conduct effective talent management that can help ASDA to maintain a smooth business in such a crisis. 20% of the survey participants think that remote working is able to support the talent management potential as it delivers flexibility and a better working approach to individuals.
Q3:How do ASDA employees perceive and adapt to the evolving workplace culture, particularly in the context of remote work?
A strong percentage of participants agreed with the fact that employees of ASDA are able to adapt to the changing workplace culture mostly. Presence of the skilled workers is able to adopt the remote working culture and it is also helpful to deliver quality customer service as well (Lee and Clarke, 2019). 20% of the participants strongly disagreed with the fact as according to them, old aged employees such as 40 years and above are not able to get accustomed to this. As an impact, they are feeling frustrated enough and their work performances are also affected.
Q4:How do survey participants perceive the impact of remote working culture on the present-day scenario?
A high percentage of survey participants stated that remote working culture can be considered a burden in present days. It also affects the mental health of the individuals mostly and their work life balance is also not well maintained (Ferreira et al. 2021). 15% of the respondents strongly disagreed with the fact as according to them, remote working or the hybrid work culture of ASDA gives the employees enough advantage in choosing their workplace. It is relevant enough to influence the workers for providing their best possible efforts to meet business objectives.
Theme 1:The sustainable transformation in the business operation of ASDA occurred as there was a rise in pandemics in 2020. As per the view of Li et al. (2021), the concept of virtualization increased at an enormous rate for performing the business operation of ASDA. In the article, there is a clear mention of the impact of digital transformation on corporate culture and productivity; in contrast to this, the negative influence of Covid-19 on consumer culture and customers are not mentioned in detail. Therefore, the approach that is used by managers to get an overview of the sales situation in Covid-19 is a wait-and-see approach.
One of the facts that have been discussed in the article is that there is a presence of huge uncertainty in the return of the customers after the pandemic is over. As mentioned by Pinzaru et al. (2020), the customers have led a different lifestyle during a pandemic; hence their purchasing pattern changed, which is counted to be long-term and might not chase after the situation is ceased. Therefore, pandemic is considered as the structural changes accelerator for assumption purposes as well as digitalization in the marketplace. The digital transformation is adopted by the avengers of ASDA in order to recover the loss faced during the pandemic by ASDA altogether with increasing growth.
Theme 2:In the article, corporate culture is known as a system consisting of shared values as well as beliefs in an organization such as ASDA. As argued by Kim (2020), on the other hand, in the case of formal control procedures, the mechanism is completely different from corporate culture; as for formal control, the codification is done based on rules as well as regulations within other retail of the UK, unlikely ASDA. As corporate culture is followed in ASDA, therefore the regulation of the respective culture is made in the form of peer influence and reality social construction. The outcome gained by ASDA due to corporate culture is positive in terms of solidarity feelings (Salem and Nor, 2020). In addition, a higher autonomy sense is gained within ASDA employees as a result of the implementation of the corporate culture.
Corporate culture is claimed to be an asset that is of intangible nature and is designed for meeting unforeseen contingencies as they are noticed to be growing enormously. According to the view of Baicu et al. (2020), the concept of corporate culture is posited by ASDA itself during the operational environment that is more challenging for ASDA, which includes the Pandemic situation. One of the main positive aspects gained through the respective culture is strong empowerment of culture among employees and allows employees who are rank-and-file to make consistent decisions. In addition to this, appropriate efforts are made by rank-and-file individuals of ASDA depending on perspectives that are long-term.
Theme 3:The pragmatic as well as social legitimacy determinants are used for encouraging the intention of customers for fostering the behavior that is focused on health as well as revisiting the retailer of ASDA. As mentioned by Yang et al. (2021), the diminishing behavior of emotion is investigated in casual coordination shared among behavioral intentions, legitimacy and service quality. In addition to this, it is responsible for the implication of the way retailers have the capability of serving the targeted customers depending on their emotional behavior, which is related to the intensity of pandemics. One of the main reasons behind the occurrence of changes in purchasing behavior of customers of not only ASDA yet of other retail companies is Covid-19.
The impact of Covid-19 is detrimental, and as a result, there is an increase of emerging change in clients' behavior as they became more health-conscious due to the emergence of Covid-19 on the global platform. In the respective article, it has been found that Covid-19 has created restrictions for the customers in in-store shopping in order to avoid exposure to threats of Covid. According to Alflayyeh and Belhaj (2020), one of the main duties of retailers of ASDA is to take certain steps to decrease the health risks of not only the customers yet the employees of ASDA as well. Furthermore, safety reaction rules and regulations are provided by ASDA for their stakeholder, namely customers, which includes wearing a face mask during working hours, using gloves and using sanitizers after a certain small interval of time.
Based on the above discussion, it can be concluded that Covid-19 has created both positive as well as negative impacts on the work culture of ASDA. The study is responsible for providing information and knowledge regarding the difficulties faced by ASDA, such as deficiency in technical knowledge in recent times for Covid, and the mitigation strategy such as providing training to employees. The first chapter of the study has provided a clear declaration of the aim and objectives of the research in detail.
Recommendation 1: The talent review process needs to be standardized in ASDA to enhance talent management.
The talent review process in ASDA needs to be well designed enough in order to identify talented workers and retain them properly. As stated by Järvi and Khoreva (2020), proper tracking and measuring of the performance level of the individuals help to identify their skills level for achieving the business goals. Moreover, by providing them the financial rewards, it is also possible to retain the workers in ASDA on a long-term basis. A developed talent review process helps ASDA to mitigate the concern regarding labour shortage. It is also helpful for better talent management by managing the satisfaction level of the workers severely.
Recommendation 2: Training in the technical field for upgrading the quality and quantity of work in remote working
The employees are needed to be trained regarding the use of software such that they can perform their tasks accurately in remote work. According to Soto-Acosta (2020), the training can be provided to them in both online and offline fields by highly technical experts. Exams are to be taken by the experts, and depending on the expert's perspective, further decision related to the allowance of remote working is to be made in ASDA.
This research is helpful for future researchers in identifying the necessity of talent management in changing workplace culture. Future researchers will also be able to develop a comparative study between ASDA and the other renowned retail firms on how they maintain talent management in such a crisis. The comparative study will be helpful for the management of ASDA to gain a clear overview of the essential changes within the business process. It is also essential to conduct research on the essential strategic changes for ASDA to manage both changing workplace culture and talent management equally.
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