ASSESSMENT 1

Prepared by: PRAKASAM THATCHINAMURTHEE

Preparation for MICRO-MBA S4 June 2021

Veritas University College

Lecturer: DR.GARY

28th June 2021

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS

Summary 3

1. Introduction 4
2. Findings 4
2.1a Shortage of Money or Profit 4
2.1b Loss of Job and Increase of Unemployment 4
2.1c Change to a new era of digital world 5
2.2a Downsizing organisation 6
2.2b Pros and cons of downsizing 6
2.2c Agree to disagree 7
2.3a The needs of leaders and roles of leaders 8
2.3b Perseverance traits in a leader 8
2.3c Adaptability traits in a leader 9
2.3d Understanding the challenges that their 9
subordinates are faced with Traits In A Leader

2.4 Long term effects 10

3. Conclusion 11
4. Reference List 12

Summary

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This report discusses the types of changes that organisation in the COVID-19 era are facing
(2020-2021). A review of some of the insights are loss of income, the change to new era for
cashless businesses to a more digitalised era and finance management.

Key findings include:

 There has been a need for businesses to go Digital and see a new face of business
elevation.
 The impact of poor money management in business when COVID-19 arise, which
also was the cause of retrenchment.
 Understanding the core values and choosing leaders that will uplift and bring the
organisation or business to the next level
 Changes due to COVID-19, also the effects towards Organisation and consequences
to a business in a long run.

The report has been prepared for submission as Assessment of the Micro-MBA course at
Veritas University.

1. Introduction

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The pandemic that shook the globe COVID-19 has alter the nature of business drastically and
brought upon Changes and challenges that needed urgent considerations. Many individual
have suffered unemployment due to the consequences of organisation closing down due to
the effects of the pandemic situation. There are ways to overcome this current affairs in order
to continuing growing and gaining betterment from the COVID-19 organisational changes.
This report also consider the positive changes that has occurred.

2. Findings

2.1a Shortage of Money or Profit

COVID-19 have brought organisations and business a lot of unexpected challenged

and took everyone by a series of waves of shocks. One of the main challenges faced
by almost everyone was money management/finance management. Businesses
suffered shortage of finance and unable to roll their finances due to the lockdown.
Small business owners like food vendors or street hawkers and also non-essential
businesses, gain their profit on a daily basis and with lockdown imposed, it was nearly
impossible to generate income to sustain their daily livelihood (idea from Deloitte,
2021). Our community consist of majority small business that aid them in meeting
their ends to find money to sustain their families. Safe to say most business was
impacted with loss of profit and shortage of cash float.

2.1b Loss of Job and Increase of Unemployment

Due to shortage of finance or profit in organisation and businesses, a lot of business

have decided to close their door for good. The widespread commitment to public
safety, in many instances SOP mandatories and lockdown, has had a catastrophic
impact on the economy and resulted in massive job losses (Rita Zeidner, 2020).
Some organisation have taken upon their decision to let go some members of their
organisation to help with their financial burden. Unemployment increased to 772.9
thousand person with a rate of 4.8 per cent in December 2020. Globally working
hours have been declining throughout the pandemic period(International Labour
Organisation 2020).l
Chart 1. Appendix A

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 According to (Department Of Statistics Malaysia, 2021) referring to the chart above,
we can see the effects that has lasted for a substantial period on certain individuals.
Businesses have also effected from the pandemic and was forced to shut down due to
lockdown (Eileen Ng, 2021). Almost 30,000 businesses have folded in Malaysia since
the government imposed the first movement control according to the Entrepreneurship
Development and Cooperation Ministry (MEDAC., 2020).

2.1c Change To A New Era Of Digital World

With businesses closing doors and lack of employees, COVID-19 have taken the
digital era to a different level (Jack M. Germaine, 2021). Cashless payment, Online
delivery and Online Sales has become very crucial for organisations to run their
business.

A variety of business is operating homebased during pandemic with no physicals

shops and utilising the digital platform to operate. Those businesses include home
bakers, homemade meals and even marketing needs are being done via digital
platform.

Usage of Cash is slowly decreasing, replacing with cashless payment which can be
carry out by utilizing debit, credit, smartcard, payment apps such as Touch N Go,
Grab Pay, Boost and also payment devices (Jack M. Germaine, 2021). In addition to
this new digital platform is coming up in creating a digital world which requires no
physical stores.

2.2a Downsizing In Organisations

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 Multiple organisational did reconstruction in structure due to a main factor loss of
income and the needs to sustain their business. Some organisation such as the Flight
Industry, Recreational, Especially Hoteliers have suffered this as their business nature
requires customer to generate income to pay for their staffs. As per that they were
forced to close door on this businesses especially hotel industry. But there are certain
industry that downsize as well just to release themselves from paying wages and
saving on their finances.

2.2b Pros And Cons Of Downsizing

Downsizing bring an argument which includes the advantages and disadvantages of

this decision. Advantages will be companies will be able to sustain, reduce their
financial burden, get a chance to evaluate the employees and remove unneeded
manpower, improve their workflow and condition. Sometimes an organisation needs
to reorganise their business needs and work flow to achieve optimum profit with a
systemic and calibrated work force. This also gives the organisation to fully upgrade
their business operations to a more optimal level, thus making their organisation better
then before.

The negative side of retrenchment is employees tend to lose the means of income to
manage their family which creates stress and sometimes lead to suicidal cases which
has significantly increased in this pandemic. So many emotions could be possibly
trigged on effected individuals.
This action also leads to a probability of losing loyal staff, creates negative image as
though the company is trying to save their finances and letting go years of effort and
business that was contributed by employees.

2.2c Agree To Disagree on Organisational Reconfiguration

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 Before laying-off any individual’s, an organisation must take important alternative.
Starting from wages deduction which most employees will agree with rather than
facing retrenchment(Claire Camphell, 2021). Trying to change department or training
employee to fit in to another division or department. Restriction to working hours and
deduction of overtime or a revised working schedule. Introduce schemes for voluntary
retrenchment [VVS] (AinulAzam & Co, 2021).

And if retrenchment is necessary, it is advised start with workers who are beyond
retiring age, establish clear selection and criteria in the process and also follow the
well-established principle of “Last In, First Out” which will see rather fair.
Organisation should also give retrenchment benefit for employees by following the
Regulation 6 of the Employment (Termination and Lay-Off Benefits)
Regulations 1980 and also Employment Act 1955 (“EA 1955”)

2.3a The Needs Of Leaders and Roles Of leaders

With changes happening is a drastic pace, a skilful leader with good traits is needed to
lead the people and organisation to greater growth and height. Strong leaders play an

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 important part in the puzzle and leaders often use a variety of styles, approach and
theory. Positive leadership are more likely to have effective management, rewarding
cultures and productive teams. All practice owners and managers can learn to become
better leaders and it is a best way according to Social-learing theory in understand
learning can be from both observation and direct experience (Pearson Education Inc,
2021).

2.3b Perseverance Traits In A Leader

With COVID-19 bringing so much changes and obstacle to the whole globe and
organisations. A leader with this traits is very important, especially is challenges
facing organisation changes, challenges and reconfiguration. This leader will be able
to pull through the COVID-19 situation and also show tremendous ability in people
management and bring the entire organisation across this pandemic. Perseverance
bring in the Goal-Setting Theory in a leader, whom understands the goals and puts in
the result to achieve the needed in the organisation Pearson Education Inc, 2021.
Not only is this an amazing trait for a leader, this are the important traits to look for
when hiring for a leader in an organisation or businesses, Operant conditioning
theory must be applied so that the process goes well and to avoid getting the wrong
leaders (Pearson Education Inc, 2021). When everyone is weakened by this pandemic,
a leader with this traits will show steadfastness in doing something despite how hard it
is or how long it takes to reach the goal.

2.3c Adaptability Traits In A Leader

Adaptability is something that is not easily done by anyone. Most leaders are afraid to
adapt to new changes or situation and want to carry on with the old ways in which can
lead to the end of an organisation or business. Which co-related to Self-efficacy

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 theory in which a leader must be able to adapt to unpredicted changes and work
around the changes to come up with new ways to elevate the organisation or business.

In references to the lockdown imposed, these leaders will quickly come up with a
solutions or new practices to continue their business, for example bringing their
organisation to digital platform or era. Coming up new concepts and openmindedness
to see the challenges as a stepping-stone for new business opportunity and growth and
Self-Determination Theory plays a part here. These leader also inspire, motivate and
be an effective role model to their organisation (Pearson Education Inc, 2021).

2.3d Understanding the challenges that their subordinates are faced with Traits In A
Leader

Empathy plays a remarkable role in an organisation, a leader with these traits will
never act unjust and always strive to communicate professionally to the employees, as
per the McClelland’s Theory of Needs. Need for affliation (nAfl) will be those
whom put importance for a good personal skills with the employees or organisation
(Pearson Education 2017). Which is one of the ways to get our subordinates
motivated and push them to the next level.
With new challenges that arrive such as the pandemic, these leaders will be highly
effective in ensuring that the organisation doesn’t go through a sudden lapse and try to
overcome the situation.
By understanding this can help push the organisation to overcome the challenges they
must have prevention focus approach so that the organisation or business can move
forward. Understanding certain unwanted mishaps in important to come up with a
solution or a way around the problem faced, so that the organisation could move
smoothly with no setbacks.

2.4 Long Term Effects

Transitioning to digital world is a foreseen events that is ongoing, there a possibilities

of entering an era with no physical stores or establishment, and going to a world of
digital shopping. Everything from payment, shopping, basic necessity is growing into
digital platform and its changing the ways of business and organisation. Everything is

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 slowly transitioning to digital world, with a click of a button anything is accessible
with no means of travelling or physical transaction.

Second long term effect would be the unemployment rate which is drastically
increasing alongside the duration of the pandemic. If this carries on the supply and
demand order of employment may face tremendous issues. With companies shutting
down and with everything going digital, the needs for workforce will decline as there
is demand for employees. Only candidates that fits perfectly for the digital platform
will get hired and yet the margin of hiring is very alarming.

Third long term effect that is close to catastrophic will be the ability to earn money
to sustain life. With high retrenchment rate and organisation moving to digital era,
work force decline with equals to no salary. This is very serious as this corelated with
mental health, when an employee is set to faced retrenchment and some will unable to
handle the situation causing them stress. Due to this huge spikes of suicides cases
have been documented during COVID-19 (Sandhya Menon, 2021). Each effect co-
relates with one another and causing a string of domino effects.

To overcome this, good leaders or managers are important to carefully evaluate and
understand their business and employees. In order to ensure fair and just is upheld
when it comes to employees and organisation. By doing this they will be able to
sustain a balance not only in the organisation but also for the employees. The
important key detail is to have Good leaders to bring the company and employee
towards a growing organisation.

3. Conclussion

No doubt COVID-19 has created an undeniable change which is truly challenging for
all types of business owner and organisation and also employees which was
unpredicted by anyone. There are changes that will be beneficial and many can use
this as a learning curb to well prepare for the unexpected. It is important to constant

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 improve on the business or organisation and even more the mood of operandi of a
business.
It is also undeniable that negative side effect do occur when the pandemic suddenly
arise, but we must always find ways to overcome unwanted negative situation with
positive mindset to understand ourselves better and try to improve ourselves and also
to bring the organisation to greater heights. Changes can’t be inevitable because
organisation is constantly changing and adapting and as stated in paradox theory,
that there is no final optimal status in an organisation.( Pearson Education Inc, 2021)

4. Reference List
AinulAzam & Co (2021). Retrenchment due to Covid-19 outbreak. Available from
https://www.azamlaw.com/publications/?a=26.

Claire Campbell (2021). The impact of coronavirus: pros, cins and next steps for flexible
workplaces. Available from https://timewise.co.uk/article/the-impact-of-coronavirus-next-
steps-for-flexible-workplaces/

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Department Of Statistics Malaysia Official Portal (2021). Available from
https://www.dosm.gov.my/v1/index.php?r=column/cthemeByCat&cat=124&bul_id=RDllTk
pHejRFNGlRdlRLWWJzMi91QT09&menu_id=Tm8zcnRjdVRNWWlpWjRlbmtlaDk1UT0
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Doleitte (2021). Managing business continuity and finance during Covid-19. Available from
https://www2.deloitte.com/ch/en/pages/financial-advisory/articles/managing-business-
continuity-finance-covid-19.html

Doleitte (2021). How to reduce the pandemic impact in employees: A guide for company
leaders. Available from
https://www2.deloitte.com/ua/en/pages/human-capital/articles/impact-of-covid-19.html

Eileen Ng (2021). Business shut as Malaysia enters second virus lockdown. Available from
https://apnews.com/article/malaysia-coronavirus-pandemic-health-business-
5911f6922f4ff17f8bfb98b273281fe6

Financier WorldWide (2021). Cashless society: the future of digital payments. Available
from https://www.financierworldwide.com/cashless-society-the-future-of-digital-
payments#.YN7xUS0RpO1

International Labour Organisation (2020). The impact of Covid-19 pandemic on jobs and
incomes in G20 economies. Available from https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---
dgreports/---cabinet/documents/publication/wcms_756331.pdf

Jack M. Germain, E-commerce Times (2021). The new era of cashless, invincible payments.
Available from https://www.ecommercetimes.com/story/86989.html

Pearson Education Inc, (2021). Self-determination theory vs goal-setting theory. 7, 7-21.

Rita Zeidner, (2020). Cutting staff in times of crisis. Available from

https://www.shrm.org/hr-today/news/all-things-work/pages/cutting-staff-due-to-coronavirus-
fallout.aspx

PLOS Global Public Health (2021). Escalating progression of mental health disorders during
the COVID-19 pandemic: Evidence from a nationwide survey. Available from
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0248916

Sandhya Menon, (2021). The Star : Youth suicide. Available from

https://www.thestar.com.my/news/education/2021/04/04/youth-suicide

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