Assignment title: Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on Business- A Case

Study of LTR (Luton Town Residences)

Unit title: Foundations of Business Management

Unit code: BBS013-1

Assignment number: Assessment 2

Submission date:

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Executive Summary

Luton Town residences or LTR is a company that provides housing for many people and they

have been a successful company ever since they started operating but during this pandemic, they

have been facing issues within their workforce like economic, motivational and mental health

issues which is certainly decrementing their workflow and organizational performance. Their

employees are complaining about these issues constantly and to eliminate the issue they have to

take a subtle approach by providing employees with low-cost bandwidth, arranging social

meetings and embracing different motivational theories which will be applied to increase

individual performance of the employees. Finally, there will be a section containing the overall

personal reflection of the author where the development of competencies during this project will

be discussed briefly.

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Contents
Part One – Case study......................................................................................................................3

1.0 Introduction...........................................................................................................................3

1.1 Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on organizations...................................................................4

1.2 Key issues present at LTR.....................................................................................................6

1.2.1 Economic instability of employees at LTR....................................................................6

1.2.2 Issues concerning socially isolated employees...............................................................7

1.2.3 Mental health issues of employees at LTR.....................................................................7

1.3 Recommendations to annihilate the issues present at LTR...................................................8

Part Two – Reflective Learning.......................................................................................................9

2.1 Key skill development in different areas...............................................................................9

2.2 Personal reflection using Gibb’s reflective cycle................................................................11

3.0 Conclusion...............................................................................................................................12

4.0 References................................................................................................................................13

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Part One – Case study

1.0 Introduction
Strategic management and HR management are one of the major sectors of a business and covid-
19 pandemic has made it harder to manage both of them. This study will seek to find out the
complications that is faced by companies during this pandemic and then select a specific case
study in this case it is LTR (Luton Town Residences) company, how the company is impacted by
the pandemic and what are the issues faced by their staff members. The issues discussed
throughout the study will be mainly economic and psychological. There will also be a brief
discussion on the personal reflection of the learner.

1.1 Impact of Covid-19 Pandemic on organizations

A pandemic indicates such a state where a large number of people are affected severely and the
situation crosses borders of countries that is it is spread worldwide. Covid-19 is such a pandemic
and it has been present for more than a year which has resulted into impacting both persons and
organizations regardless of their sizes or structures. Now the impact of the pandemic on
organizations are mainly on some specific sectors like remote working, motivation, use of
technology and even profitability of an organization. Now let’s discuss briefly how these forces
have impacted the organizations.

Remote working

Remote working is basically a working style which enables the employees to work without
attending to offices and engaging from other places and in this case of pandemic it indicates
working from home. Covid-19 is such a virus that is continuously changing its genomes to
reform into another species altering its characteristics and one is more deadly that its previous
generations. For this reason, many countries have been under total lockdown for quite some time
which forced organizations to sustain their regular activities by enabling their employees to work
from home and it would not generate any issues if it was for a short period but the time period
has increased and remote working has become elaborated for many individuals (Alshurideh ET
al, 2021). Those living with families or partners may not face issues like social bonding or
people to talk with but those living alone in apartment or with roommates are facing mental
health issues due to not meeting and connecting with groups of people. As a result, there is a

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decrement in employee performance and overall workflow for any organization. Many of them
may even have started stress eating which resulted into young adulthood obesity and even other
diseases and eventually the number of leave of absence due to different diseases is rising for
organizations which certainly decrements organizational performance. So remote working has
become pain for most people and most organizations.

Motivational issues

The word motivation was originally elicited from motive which generally means desires, needs
or wants that drives a person to engage in any activities which would collaborate in fulfilling
those desires or needs. During this pandemic as people are remotely working from home, they
are certainly facing the issue of demotivation or apathy in work. The primary reason behind this
is certainly lack of social bonding and connecting with friends and colleagues. Some
organizations even have halved the wages of employees which can also be demotivating (Altig
ET al, 2020). When employees of an organization are demotivated, it surely impacts the
company in various ways like organizational performance decreases, organizational structure
may fall, order and management break down and the company can even encounter loss in
business (Ritter and Pedersen, 2020). Those employees with motivational issues may even
influence others and the entire workforce of an organization may become discouraged which will
definitely be the exact opposite of beneficial for an organization and these issues have been faced
by certain organizations during the pandemic.

Issues with demeanor of technology

As mankind stepped into the 21st century technological advancements reached a whole new level
and nowadays communicating and engaging in other activities using technology has become
easier than ever. Due to the covid-19 pandemic employees of every organization is working from
home and this has been possible because of technological supporting. But issues have also risen
because of this and the primary issues here are first of all internet connectivity as all of the
employees do not have proper broadband connection or most of them are not happy with the fact
that they have to increase their broadband connectivity with their own cost and even have to use
personal devices for official works (Bartik ET al, 2020). Lack of proper connection or proper
devices causes inefficiency at work and many organizations are victims of this situation. There is
also the fact of usability because some of the employees are not familiar with zoom cloud

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meetings and online other platforms and this may also cause workflow decrement. So overall it is
quite lucid that technological issues are causing some organizations and employees to rethink
this remote working situation.

Covid-19 has impacted largely on organizations, their performance, profitability and

sustainability because on one side the sales have decremented as people are not engaged as much
as they were before pandemic and on the other hand the employees are having issues working
from home because for some employees it may be beneficial as they are spending more time
with family (Craven ET al, 2020). But the situation continuing for a long period can be
frustrating for all family members and those living alone or with roommates are facing many
complications and both of these employees are unable to provide their full attention to work or
having mental health issues which is surely bad for organizations and they are encountering these
complications ever since the pandemic started.

1.2 Key issues present at LTR

There are some positive and negative impacts of pandemic on employees of LTR and the
negative impacts are more severe than the positive ones because employees are having economic
and mental issues regarding office works and it is becoming harder for them to wholly
concentrate on their work which is certainly not beneficial for the company. The issues present at
LTR currently can be divided into three sections which are economic instability, socially isolated
and mental health issues.

1.2.1 Economic instability of employees at LTR

There was a meeting arranged through an online platform where many of the staffs raised a
common issue, they were facing regarding the fact that they had to use their own phones to make
official calls and even had to increase their monthly broadband connection which cost surely
extra money and during this pandemic to reduce loss of the company, wages of some of the
employees has decremented. Some of the staffs even did not have sufficient enough
technological devices to work in an online platform which cost them even more to buy an
updated one and even zoom meeting subscription costs extra for the employees (Donthu and
Gustafsson, 2020). When the pandemic started, employees obviously had in mind that for a short
period of time it would not be an issue to use own devices and broadband connection to conduct
official work but when the uncertainty of whether or when they will be able to work at offices

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again outset, they began to think that it would be extra cost for them to use personal devices and
broadband connection. That is chiefly why the staffs raised this issue and there even other
technological issues like with email and other communication and working tools like MS office
(Fairlie, 2020). So, all of this extra cost during this pandemic have created economic instability
for some employees as there was no raise in salary during pandemic rather a descent for some
staffs. This is certainly a major issue faced by staffs of LTR which forced them to speak up about
it and made them be heard.

1.2.2 Issues concerning socially isolated employees

Human beings are socially evolved species which forces them to be connected with other social
beings and create a bondage among one another and remote working during the pandemic has
been favorable to those who live with their family or partner because they can spend more time
with kids and partners but on the other hand those living in flats alone, in hostels, motels or even
with roommates are definitely going through midlife crisis because they are unable to connect
with others but compared to before pandemic situation they could hang out or gossip with
colleagues and even had the chance to meet with someone at a bar or club or through a friend
(Kaushik and Guleria, 2020). But for this pandemic now those people can only stay at home,
work, maybe scroll social media or stream movies online but that’s it. They do not even get
enough chance to have a proper in-person conversation with other people and this is certainly
frustrating for most people. So, this is also a major issue elevated at LTR and employees living
isolated from families or loved ones are suffering from this complication and it is certainly
affecting their everyday work. This is also a downside for the company too as they are not
achieving the level of workflow or are not able to meet the organizational expectations of goals
that they set up in the beginning of each year (Kumar ET al, 2020). Those employees do not get
motivated to get up from bed and check their emails or other office works and some of them
even have started stress eating which is also creating a bad impact on their health. Hence
employees are taking a lot of leave of absence due to various diseases which is also decreasing
organizational performance for LTR company.

1.2.3 Mental health issues of employees at LTR

Mental health can be compared to a state of well-being where a person can spontaneously cope
with difficult situations of life, handle minor stresses encountered regularly, be confident with

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own skills and abilities, always stay productive and fruitful and finally can contribute to society
and own community. This pandemic has cost mental health issues either major or minor for
maximum people around the globe because people are unable to get out of home and meet
friends and colleagues, unable to travel to places that would cheer them up and could not even go
to bars and clubs to meet new people (Lalonde, 2021). As a result, many people have become the
victim of stress, anxiety and other psychological disorders. As for the LTR company, their staffs
are also going through these complications and in a meeting this issue was raised by their staffs
because this was the primary reason behind the decrement of their performance. The primary
concern of some of the employees during this time of crisis is that they are lacking motivation to
start work everyday morning. Another major issue arises when the company has to deliver
bigger projects in time and this is when the employees do not get the mental support, motivation
or dedication towards their work due to living alone (Meyer ET al, 2021), feeling loneliness or
living in a muffled place. As a result, the company faced delays in delivering large projects
throughout the year and it certainly cost them more reducing their overall profit in the
competitive marketplace.

So, the primary issues faced by the company pertaining the fact of lockdown or pandemic is that
organizational performance has reduced as employees are not getting all the privileges that they
would get working at a office and that working environment is also missing for them which is
why the company is going through a tough time and employees are even demanding mental
health support which is also extra cost for them. Which is why the company has to embrace new
systemic strategy to tackle this pandemic situation and eventually increase workflow to gain
competitive advantage in the marketplace.

1.3 Recommendations to annihilate the issues present at LTR

This pandemic has had an impact like no other phenomenon ever had on organizations and
employees or employers both are victim of this current situation. But there is no exact probable
time to the extent that this pandemic will be present and organizations have to think outside the
box to figure out solutions to go through the process and meanwhile improving organizational
performance and tackle the losses that they may encounter in their path (Morphet, 2021). The
primary issues with the company LTR are with their employees as they are suffering from both
economic and personal or mental health issues and losing motivation to work towards

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organizational goals and objectives. The situation needs to be handled very carefully as it is quite
a fragile one and to achieve that the company surely has to follow and effective methodology
which will be discussed in this section.

The first problem to be solved by the company is networking issue and to do that the company
can have a deal with a broadband company to provide internet connection to their employees at a
reasonable price point and can even provide some loan with no interest for employees to buy
new devices because it is not quite possible for the company to provide new devices for each
employee right now reckoning the fact that the company’s annual revenue has decreased due to
pandemic (Qiu ET al, 2019). The next thing to do is use an online platform that most of the
employees are familiar with so that they would not have to spent more time on learning them.
There are some employees who live alone and feel lonely at home and to get rid of their
loneliness, the company can subdivide their employees in groups so that they can work together
simultaneously bond with each other and maybe build friendship rather than just being
colleagues. Leaders of the company can even follow some motivational theories to motivate the
employees like McClelland’s need theory which can be appropriate in this manner because in
this case the need of employee is required to be learned or acquired as employees living in
different states are experiencing the pandemic differently (Seetharaman, 2020).

McGregor’s precipitating theory of motivation can also be of help in this case because this is the
best time to enable employees to participate in new things to cheer them up or to create a
bondage between them so that they would not feel bored all the time and the company can even
arrange online social grouping where people would just try to spend a quality time with
colleagues. This may not be like an actual meeting but it would be better than nothing. Another
approach which can be embraced by the company is mental health support and this might be the
last thing that they need to consider if all else fails and for this they need to hire a professional
psychologist and employees would talk to that person when they would feel demotivated, lonely
or in need of someone to talk to and share the issues faced (Sharma ET al, 2020). Thus, some of
the employees may be able to go through this tough time and provide their full attention to work
and increase their performance. Hence overall organizational performance would increase which
is certainly good for the company in the current situation. So, to present the recommendations in
one place,

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  Solve networking issue by making a contract with a broadband company.
 Bear at least half of the broadband connection cost and phone call bills of employees.
 Arrange informal meetings in zoom cloud to cheer people who are living alone.
 Apply motivational theories McClelland’s need theory and McGregor’s participation
theory to ensure productivity increment.
 Finally provide mental health support by hiring a professional for those who need it.

So, these will be the best recommendations for the company to improve their current state by the
author.

Part Two – Reflective Learning

2.1 Key skill development in different areas
While I was conducting the study on LTR, it enabled me to explore new things both
technological and non-technological and I learned many aspects as well as developed new
competencies. The areas that I developed my competencies are communication both verbal and
written, numeracy, ICT, problem solving and working with others that is team working.

Communication skills (verbal and written)

Communication skills is a must have in this era of competition and technological advancements
and while I was making this individual report, I had to speak with people working is such
conditions that is remote working and my peers to discuss about the outcomes and reasons. I
talked with them definitely via zoom meeting for safety reasons obviously but I am realizing
now that before this I was not good at asking the right set of questions or felt free to ask any
questions but this time, I was able to create a friendly environment where I was able to learn
about the complications of remote working and those issues can be eliminated (Griggs ET al,
2018). They provided me with information that would not get from any articles or blogs so I
have learnt to communicate efficiently while doing the project. I also developed my written
communicative skill while writing the report.

Numeracy

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I had to collect data based on my learning from my peers and professionals working remotely
and then I had to analyze the data to reach a conclusion and for that I had to do some calculations
to see which decisions favored the most and thus I had developed my skills on numeracy which I
did not have before I conducted the study (Jacobs, 2016). I even learned about MS excel as I had
collected the data through that tool.

ICT

ICT stands for information and communication technology and to finish this report I had to use
MS word, PowerPoint and other MS office tools and also zoom could meeting to have
discussions with peers or to take help from professionals working from home. So I learned about
the demeanor of these technological tools that collaborated consistently in finishing this project
in time and helped me developed my ICT skills.

Problem Solving

Problems occur in our daily lives and solving those problems is a part of living but there are
some people with extra abilities to solve those issues quickly than others and those persons are
given priority while recruiting for a job or even for selecting to engage in a task. So, the
significance of problem solving is without a doubt very much which is why I always try to
develop this skill whenever I face an issue (Perusso ET al, 2020). This study helped me to
developed that skill further by providing me with a problem that the LTR company is facing and
tasked me with the job to find solutions to the problem. I analyzed the data from the case study,
discussion with peers and real-life people having those same complications at work. Finally, I
analyzed the data to figure out a solution for the company, hence I was able to develop my
problem-solving skills to a new level through this study.

Working with others

I was not really good at working with others as I was not good at following others or taking
criticism from others but I knew that this is not a good thing so I had to develop this skill set and
through this study I was finally able to work with others as I had to discuss my ideas and
methodologies with my peers (Bruno and Dell’Aversana, 2018). I also listened to them
attentively what they have to say and what their perspective was on the matter and I think I was
able to develop my team working skills while conducting this research.

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So overall during this research I was able to develop some great skill sets and I will continue to
do so throughout my study period and I will try to develop more competencies in future.

2.2 Personal reflection using Gibb’s reflective cycle

Now let’s discuss my personal reflection using the famous Gibb’s reflective cycle which is
divided into six parts which are description, feelings, evaluation, analysis, conclusion, action
plan. Now let’s discuss them broadly.

 Description: Description of the given study was clearly explored by me when I was first
assigned the task and I thoroughly read all the data to comprehend the issue present there
(Husebø ET al, 2015). Thus, I was able to develop my attention to detail skill which
would definitely help me in future tasks.
 Feelings: I felt that this is an opportunity for me to develop some of my skillsets
regarding communication, technological skills and team working and as soon as possible
I prepared myself to engage in such tasks which would surely be beneficial for me.
 Evaluation: Evaluating my each and every decision and ideas suggested by my peers and
others collaborated in making an effective recommendation for the company and I can
assess anything better than I used to do before.
 Analysis: I analyzed the data which was given to me and the primary data that I
calculated when I discussed my individual report with peers and other professionals and I
even read books and articles regarding the issue to be discussed and this I was able to
analyze data through each step that I took. Clearly, I developed my analyzing skill.
 Conclusion: All the data that I found through my research and study I used them,
analyzed them to find a suitable solution that would help me amplify my argument and
provide strong evidence on my conclusion (Markkanen ET al, 2020). Thus, I learned how
to support my conclusion with suitable data.
 Action plan: The final step was the action plan and to build this I had to comprehend the
key issues present in the case study and how I will evaluate the issue to find solutions and
I developed my skills to build an effective scheme which would collaborate in finishing
the project before deadline. Thus I developed my time management and building strategy
skill.

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Using another reflective model

Now let’s discuss my reflective learning using another reflective model given by Schon which
states that the reflection is divided into two types which are during and after an event or an
activity and let’s explore this context in case of Luton Townhall Residence case study.

Reflection in action

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The given situation was to analyze the current state of LTR company, its employees and how
they are affected by working from home during this pandemic and I had to give my attention to
every detail to figure out what was the issues that they were facing and how they are reacting to
it. Then I had to make a plan on how I will make my action plan to figure out what is wrong with
the current system and figure out ways to solve it. Thus, I was able to develop my attention to
details and problem-solving skills and I even had to execute my plan very fast as I had to deliver
in a scheduled time which also helped developing my time management skills.

Reflection on action

As the company has faced the issues of decrement in organizational performance and employee
productivity, I had to figure out future initiatives that can be embraced by the company to assure
better result in future which is why I further analyzed their current situation and tried to find out
which areas required changes or reshaping. Hence, I could make a series of recommendations by
following which the company will be able to get back on track and meanwhile I was able to
develop my data manipulating skills and critical thinking skills. I also developed my
management skills as I had to recommend a proper management skill for the company.

3.0 Conclusion
Covid-19 is a global pandemic that has shook people to their cores because of its impacts on
people’s lives and it is not over yet rather is increasing. The primary victims of this pandemic are
surely the ones involved with any types of job or business because many employees have lost
their jobs during the pandemic and the rest that are working are going through mental stress and
pressure. Many companies are also going through a tough stage and LTR is such a company
where both the company and its staffs are going through both physical and economic issues and
to resolve this issue the company has to embrace new methods and use different motivational
and organizational management theories. The author has also developed various types of
competencies during the study.

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4.0 References
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(COVID-19) on business intelligence. Cham: Springer.

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B., Mihaylov, E. and Mizen, P., 2020. Economic uncertainty before and during the COVID-19
pandemic. Journal of Public Economics, 191, p.104274.

Bartik, A.W., Bertrand, M., Cullen, Z., Glaeser, E.L., Luca, M. and Stanton, C., 2020. The
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Bruno, A. and Dell’Aversana, G., 2018. Reflective practicum in higher education: the influence
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Craven, M., Liu, L., Mysore, M. and Wilson, M., 2020. COVID-19: Implications for
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Donthu, N. and Gustafsson, A., 2020. Effects of COVID-19 on business and research. Journal of
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Husebø, S.E., O'Regan, S. and Nestel, D., 2015. Reflective practice and its role in
simulation. Clinical Simulation in Nursing, 11(8), pp.368-375.

Jacobs, S., 2016. Reflective learning, reflective practice. Nursing2020, 46(5), pp.62-64.

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