Victoria Gatty
A hot topic within BAE Systems currently is the number and quality of leaders and how they have been impacted by COVID-19. Therefore, this research will investigate the types of leaders we have in the business and initially how COVID-19 has impacted their leadership styles and approaches from pre-pandemic to now. I have a desire to understand the issues within the organisation and I’ll be developing my relationship with the HR function to help improve the processes and procedures for identifying and developing leaders going forwards.
As this is inductive research, I have conducted informal interviews with a mix of genders, experience and cultures, to collect qualitative data. My initial findings show that communication between leaders and their teams was a key issue at the start of the pandemic, thematic analysis will allow me to identify further key themes.
To conclude, my findings will be beneficial for all organisations as they will be able to understand the key issues and blockers which arose as a result of the pandemic and how to prepare for future pandemics. We need to assist our leaders and teach them how to deal with such situations to ensure high levels of productivity and efficiency continue.
Victoria Gatty
Background
COVID-19 has affected organisations around the world, with the various strategies to limit to risk of transmission of infection such as home working and isolation periods, honesty, trust and communication were key factors which determined the success of businesses (Chen and Sriphon, 2021). Without reliable leaders, businesses could easily crumble therefore it is essential to reflect on the issues caused by COVID-19 and how these can be prevented in the future.
Methodology
- Understand the current status of the COVID-19 pandemic within the business, policies and procedures in place along with any future steps
- Initially conduct 5 interviews with a range of senior and junior level employees
- Conduct a further 5 interviews based on my findings from the first batch and any further detail required to aid my research
- Data collection and data analysis will be conducted simultaneously
- Latent coding carried out once the interviews have been transcribed
- Semantic coding carried out to identify any codes not identified by the latent coding
Aims and Objectives
- Identify the factors impacting the identification of new and emerging leaders
- Identify the barriers faced during the COVID-19 pandemic and lessons learnt for future pandemics
Findings
- 10 interviews carried out
- 2 batches of 5 interviews were conducted to ensure any further questions were asked in the second batch
- Participants were asked 10 open ended questions regarding the barriers faced as a result of COVID-19 and further questions around the leadership styles within BAE Systems
Identification of New Leaders
Pre pandemic employees were on a level playing field where they were able to make their mark and it allowed for easy identification of new leaders due to all employees physically present in the office environment. However since the pandemic began, barriers have been faced as individuals have responded differently to the change in environments. The shift of working from office to home has impacted individuals confidence levels, and has negatively affected participation levels in meetings from a few employees where others may thrive.
COVID Barriers
The interviews conducted highlighted a few issues that were faced when the UK first went into Lockdown March 2020;
- Communication – over faced at the start
- Lack of organisation – watercooler chats became 30 minute meetings causing diaries to become backed up – data collected by Kirchner, Ipsen and Hansen (2021) shows an increase of 12.9% per person
- Initial flexibility – fear of being inactive on the laptop when taking breaks as in the office you could be offline all day dealing with on site tasks without the guilt
Adaptability
Not only as a business but also as a company we needed to be adaptable and flexible in the ways we worked. As a result of uncertainty around the pandemic, results of the interviews conducted found morale was low to begin with and individuals struggled with adapting to the situation. This is supported by Talu and Nazarov (2020).As leaders influence others through their own ‘character and competence’ it was essential for them to stay professional and lead their team through this pandemic by building strong relationships and having a high level of trust as this is a situation of the blind leading the blind (Talu and Nazarov, 2020).
Future Ways of Working
A key aspect which has been looked into and BAE Systems are currently in the process of finalising are the ‘Future Ways of Working”. This refers to three categories; home based, office based and hybrid workers. The assumption here is to be able to utilise our workforce and gain high efficiency and productivity levels, if the business works around the individuals personal choices and work life balance, we will be able to continue operations whilst adapting to the new ways of living that the pandemic has brought about.
Conclusion
This research has highlighted the barriers faced by both the business and its employees and shown not only the physical impacts of a global pandemic but also the mental/emotional impact it can have on individuals. Adaptability has been key during this pandemic, adapting to new ways of working, communicating and bonding with team members. Highlighting such barriers and effects of this pandemic can allow for not only BAE Systems but other businesses around the world to focus on developing plans for future pandemics to ensure little to no disruption to business as usual in the future.
References
- Chen, J.K. and Sriphon, T. (2021) ‘Perspective on COVID-19 pandemic factors impacting organizational leadership’, Sustainability, 13(6), p.3230.
- Kirchner, K., Ipsen, C. and Hansen, J.P. (2021) ‘COVID-19 leadership challenges in knowledge work’, Knowledge Management Research & Practice, pp.1-8.
- Talu, S. and Nazarov, A.D. (2020) ‘Challenges and competencies of leadership in Covid-19 Pandemic’, Advances in Social Science, Education and Humanities Research, 486, pp.518-524.
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