COVID-19 changes

President Gotabaya Rajapaksa this week went on record calling on heads of both private and public institutions to take the leadership in containing COVID-19, and insisted it remains their responsibility to ensure that social distancing and other virus mitigation measures are adequately implemented. This has created new challenges for institutional hierarchies and a change in the way managerial-level decisions are made. 

Across many companies and other institutions in Sri Lanka, the generally accepted ideology is that staff have to come to work in order to work. Many social-distancing measures that were implemented in May and June have been gradually rolled back, because heads of departments and above find it easier to engage with the staff when they are at work. This also triggered proposals from the Government to change work times to reduce traffic congestion, which received minimal support from the public because they are impractical. Only a handful of companies took the opportunity offered by COVID-19 to change the way their companies work at an in-depth level and change structures, so that there is genuine flexibility offered to employees. 

This fundamental issue of inflexible structures and decision-making processes also makes it difficult to implement decisions quickly. If there is need to respond to a genuine COVID-19 threat, many companies are not nimble enough to make decisions quickly. There is the danger that the top-down systems generally favoured by most companies can exacerbate vulnerabilities rather than create reassurance among staff members, because responding could well call for taking permission from a dozen different people.  Even Human Resource divisions of some companies are not equipped with the ability to take decisions quickly, and such protocols need to be established at company or institution level, rather than awaiting an order from the Government to implement. 

Working from home should not be considered as a fad or a temporary adjustment that has been brought on by COVID-19. Humans are in general social creatures and averse to change. This is why implementing social distancing guidelines have proved to be so difficult, because it is expecting human nature to swim against the tide. Loosening of restrictions is embraced more readily and many would argue that despite all the talk of a “new normal”, many people returned to their “old normal” or “average normal” with no other change than a mask; sometimes, not even that. 

Companies grappling with the economic impact of COVID-19 as well as with their multiple layers of power and authority may find it tough going to give leadership to strategies that will effectively change the way the world works. Companies are made up of humans, and pushing people out of comfort zones is among the hardest things to do in the world. It takes ceaseless vigilance and willingness to embrace genuine change. 

The responsibility of protecting employees is deeply tied into trusting them and allowing for change to happen within organisations. It means allowing workers to grow and accepting ideas even from the most junior employee. The average company in Sri Lanka is not known for its dedication to promoting a decent work-life balance, but working from home demands that these long-delayed considerations also enter into the consciousness of people running companies. COVID-19 is demanding that corporate leadership and structure change. The key question is: will it?