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MBA-7000 P&O Assignment 2 - Edited
MBA-7000 P&O Assignment 2 - Edited
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Assignment Type & Title:
For student use: Critical feedback on the individual progression towards achieving the
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Critical Evaluation of Challenges faced by Dialog Axiata PLC in handling
it’s workforce during the post-COVID-19 Pandemic and
Recommendations to improve and resolve these Challenges
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TABLE OF CONTENTS
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To : Group Chief Corporate and People Officer -Dialog Axiata PLC
Date : 17-01-2022
Subject : Critical Evaluation of Challenges faced by Dialog Axiata PLC in handling its
workforce during the Post COVID-19 Pandemic and Recommendations to
improve and resolve these Challenges.
1. Executive Summary
The COVID-19 global pandemic hit Sri Lanka On 27th January 2020. With a fast-tracked
vaccination programme and under the “New normal” economy and general lives are slowly
beginning to live with Covid-19recovering. The pandemic compelled organizations to change
and adapt to rapid changes in the market and ensure their sustainability. This research intends
to address the top challenges faced by Dialog Axiata PLC during the post-pandemic era in
relation to its workforce and organizational management.
An introduction to Dialog Axiata PLC is provided in this report along with the vision,
mission, values and structure of the corporate management. Thereafter, the organizational
change management strategy is analyzed, followed by a critical evaluation on the top
challenges faced by the company during post-COVID-19 pandemic in the field of people and
organization. These challenges are ranging from getting employees to return to work
normally, employee reluctance to adapt changing organizational environment and adverse
impacts created by working from home culture.
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Vision, Mission and Values
Company’s vision statement along with the Mission statement and its core values have been
analyzed in below table 1(Company Aannual Rreport, 2020).
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3. Critical Analysis of Change Management Process in aligning Dialog Axiata PLC
towards the post-COVID-19 pandemic.
A critical analysis is carried out in Dialog Axiata PLC in undergoing change and how the
company needs to adjust itself to the post pandemic era by incorporating an emergent strategy
in opposition to a planned strategy (Mintzberg & Waters, 1985).
Step Analysis
Create Urgency The corporate management was requested to initiate and decide
on measures to drive the organization through the post-
pandemic and create employee awareness and change mindsets.
(Sanjaya, 2022)
Form a powerful Establishing a Crisis Response team to coordinate and respond
coalition to efforts and defined goals and objectives. The primary task of
the team is to ensure business continuity and provide effective
solutions to enable smooth organizational operations (Piris,
2022).
Create vision for The team requires sharing guidelines to achieve its intended
change targets by winning employee trust and support while ensuring
employee and customer safety (Goonathilake, 2022).
Table 1 – Change Management Process based on Kotter’s 8 Steps model (Kotter, 1995)
(Source: Authors work based on research, 2022)
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4. Critical Analysis of Challenges faced by Dialog Axiata PLC in post-Covid-19 pandemic
in relation to handling its workforce.
The Top 3 Challenges organization could face during change process aligning the new
normal and the effects of the identified challenges are evaluated under this section.
During the second wave of the Covid-19 outbreak, company had a delayed approach in
implementing employee safety measures. This created uncertainty on health and
Challenge1
With the initial outbreak of the Covid-19, the majority of the workforce shifted to
WFHM. Though it was initially challenging during the transition, at present employees
Challenge 2
are well adapted to working remotely (Peiris, 2022). With the implementation of the
organizational change process, management has requested employees to return to the
office working environment. This resulted in employee reluctance to break free from
WFHM citing they are well capable of working remotely, despite the management’s
views of streamlining operations. As per big five personality model agreeableness,
openness and conscientiousness of these employees scored low and neuroticisms scored
high (Digman, 1990).
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4.2 Employee’s reluctance to adapt Changing Organizational Environment.
adapting to these new changes due to fear of failure and lack of required skills and IT
knowledge (Goonathilake, 2022). Work practices and processes used by some
employees were outdated and they were incompatible with the new policies. This will
hinder the expected outcomes of the change model. According to Lewin’s force field
analysis, restraining factors for change among employees remain high shifting the
status quo towards opposing change (Lewin, 1940).
Reduced managerial and executive support.
Some team leaders and managers are less experienced and motivated to recognize and
Challenge 2
adapt to the urgency of change (Erwin, 2009). They are quite comfortable with existing
planned organizational strategies and show reluctance to deviate from their present
management style (Mintzberg &Waters, 1998). This may result in the emergence of
interdepartmental conflicts. Among these managers and team leaders clear mix of A
and B personalities could be identified (Houghton, 2004). During the restructuring,
process the company needs to address this matter as a top priority unless widespread
operational issues are inevitable.
Employee fear for Innovation
During the first phase of the pandemic, to safeguard company cash flows a salary
deferment was introduced for six months. This made employees think that their job
security is at a stake (Goonathilake, 2022). This resulted in proportionately lower inputs
Challenge 4
from employees for the revised base- pay received, as explained by the equity theory
(Adams and Freeman, 1976). With the current economic recession and increasingly
high operational costs in the company, employees might be in view of their Jobs will be
affected once more. Leading employees to look for new avenues to safeguard their jobs.
This can lead to a surge in staff resignations, losing skilled and experienced employees
will bring an adverse impact to the change process. As per Herzberg’s two-factor theory
job security is a key hygiene factor, when employees feel their jobs security is in
danger; they tend to leave (Herzberg, 1973).
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The reduced team spirit of employees.
During the WFH period, employees got used to working unsupervisedalone. Even
though teams exist in the company, they were just nominal and were more of groups,
not teams (Sanjaya, 2022). This will result in a ‘reduced to lack’ of teamwork among
Challenge1
employees, which will hurt the organizational performance and overall operations.
Teams are made with the ability of team members to gel with each other which
consumes reasonable time. Existing teams will have to go through team-building stages
of forming, storming, norming and performing (Tuckman, 1965) to restore the
cohesiveness they had before the pandemic (Pepitone and Reichling, 1963) which is
time-consuming and will cause a negative impact when going through the change
process.
Dealing with employees’ negative mindsets
The WFH culture has caused behavioural and mental changes among employees,(Piris,
2022). Psychological distress and anxiety, driven by the lack of human interaction and
Challenge 2
the uncertainties related to job security and physical health, have affected employees’
mental health adversely (Chieu et al, Lai et al, 2020). These mental stressors will pose
long-lasting effects on employees’ mindsets even during the post-pandemic (Brooks et
al, 2020). Due to fewer carrier development opportunities and lack of training and
development, most of the workforce’s mindsets have moved to fixed mindsets (Dweck.
C, 2006) which will affect the overall performance of the organization.
Loss of managerial control over employees
Planning, organizing, lead and controlling are the four main functions of managers.
During the WHF managers were capable of planning and organizing but they were not
in a position to lead and control (Kapur, 2018) due to WFH. Most of these employees
Challenge 3
were not part of self-managed work teams (Appelbaum, Bethune and Tannebaum,
1999) and were depending on managerial supervision in large. When employees
realized that their managers are not in a position to supervise them as earlier, they
began to work on their own by showing greater reluctance to listen to their managers.
This trend will bring serious negative impacts during the change process. Frequent
clashes between managers and employees are expected, which will hinder the overall
organizational operations.
Table 4 – Dealing with adverse impacts created by the working from home culture
(Source: Authors work based on research, 2022)
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5. Recommendations to Overcome Challenges faced by Dialog Axiata PLC in post-Covid-
19 Pandemic in relation to Handling its Workforce.
The company must consider employee safety as the top priority. Access to basic health
requirements like hand sanitiser, face masks and water to wash hands should be made
Recommendation 1
Managers and team leaders should be advised to effectively communicate with their
team members and convince them to return to work. And made employees feel their
physical presence is mandatory for the program’s success in achieving the targets. It is
advised to gradually increase the number of days required to report to work rather than
asking employees to return to the office at once. Further management should take
necessary steps to create a pleasant work environment for employees by eliminating
toxic work conditions, which stimulate employees to return to work normally.
Managers and team leaders should be provided with adequate learning and skills
Recommendation 2
The company requires adapting and building a culture that encourages innovative ideas.
Recommendation 3
Individuals with innovative ideas are required to be recognized and teaming them up
with employees who share similar views and passion is required. These teams should be
given time to discuss and come up with ideas and development processes for new
products innovations. Further, these employees should be empowered and made
accountable for their decisions. A feasible and realistic time frame for the development
process should be given which will reduce the stress of tight deadlines. To encourage
more employee participation for innovations, competitions and attractive rewards for
innovative ideas are recommended. Carrier development opportunities and proper
recognition based on these employees performance are mandatory.
Addressing possible staff turn-Over
Job safety is paramount for employees; management should take adequate measures to
Recommendation 4
convince employees that their jobs are safer. Further, it is recommended to implement a
rewards scheme to felicitate hard-working employees and special achievements. Team
leaders and managers must be instructed to communicate with their team members to
uncover issues they are facing at work. These issues must be dealt with top priority.
Additionally, it is recommended to bring employee salaries on par with the industry
standard. The company should provide employees with carrier development
opportunities recognize top performers and groom them to be future leaders.
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Restoring reduced team Spirit
employees should be given a designated time and space for networking. Managers and
team leaders should be instructed to involve their team members in the process of
decision making. Often involve team members in “what’s your opinion” meetings. This
enables open forums for employees to ask questions, share opinions and thoughts.
Additionally, team members are required to be assigned new responsibilities, such as
taking on managerial duties and mentoring their co-workers. This will grow employees’
confidence and provide opportunities to get to know each other better, making team
members feel that they are important towards the group’s success and increasing team
cohesion.
Rebuilding employees mindsets
Managers and team leaders should be advised to conduct regular checks with
Recommendation 2
employees for any issues they are facing related to work and family. These issues must
be addressed and solutions are required to be provided with the top priory. Online
platforms like Zoom, Microsoft Teams and WhatsApp should be fully utilized to
maintain strong and effective communication with employees. Additionally, it is highly
recommended to take time to appreciate employees for their hard work, dedication and
efforts. Sending appreciation emails can be implemented. Further company should
provide employees with equal carrier building opportunities and training to keep
employees up to date.
Recommendation to restore supervision
Managers and team leaders should prepare weekly work schedules and team members
are required to be briefed on each one’s task. Additionally, daily short briefing meetings
Recommendation 3
are encouraged. Managers are required to set team and individual targets. Progress of
given targets required to be reviewed in regular intervals. Furthermore, It is
recommended to adopt a collaborative approach when setting targets. Managers and
team leaders are required to be readily available to employees when they encounter
problems and need clarifications, this will build employee trust in their superior.
Building a strong alliance and effective forums with employees are highly
recommended. Additionally, employees should be made aware of organizational
changes and new developments.
Table 6 – Recommendations to deal with challenges created by working from home culture
(Source: Authors work based on research, 2022)
6. Conclusion.
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The change management process at Dialog Axiata PLC aiming at the post-Covid business
environment has been analyzed. Based on the analysis potential top three challenges namely,
getting employees to return to work normally, Employee fear to adapt to changing
organizational environment and dDealing with adverse impacts created by the WFHM culture
were identified. The effects of identified challenges and their courses were critically
evaluated (Peiris, Goonathilake, Sanjaya, January 2022).
The company must draw its plans to ensure Organizational Sustainability, where success is
achieved today without compromising the needs of the future (Boudreau and Ramstad, 2006).
Ensuring employee safety is a top priority for the company. Training and development is
crucial for employees to acquire new skills and build a strong alliance with their co-workers.
Whilst most of the companies’ identified issues can be addressed with strong ream
performance, spending time with team building activities are crucial.
The threat of an emerging a new Covid-19 wave is still a high possibility. Hence, the
company should implement a proper contingency plan to deal with future Covid waves.
Recommendations given in this report requires to be implemented within the given time
frames to ensure uninterrupted and smooth organizational operations. Which will enable
Dialog Axiata PLC to achieve its’ intended targets of the change process towards the new
normal with minimal to less resistance in time to come.
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