Strong Organizational Culture – An Effective Tool for Companies to Survive in a Pandemic World

Abstract

Recent events related to COVID-19 have shown that many companies are on the edge of crisis. The unpredictable situation in the world has given rise to a new phobia in people: the inability to control one’s life, the unpredictability of the future, anxiety for physical and financial well-being, fear of losing a job. The incident caused a state of mental and post-traumatic stress disorder, depression and other nervous diseases. These processes are particularly crucial in developing countries, where managers and staff of the companies have failed to collaborate and work coherently during the crisis. In many cases splitting of workforce and top-level management took place. Although people’s engagement has grown caused by fears of job losses, the decision makers has often abused the current situation: reducing wages, increasing work time and intensity, and treating staff unethically. In our view, this separation will deepen in the post-pandemic period especially in the organizations that do not have an organizational culture. Organizational culture is the most important tool for regulating interaction in a group, a lever for increasing the efficiency and productivity of its members. Forming a culture in an organization, we create thinking architecture, a common psychology and value system that creates physical changes in the brain. All that we believe in, what we strive for, all the actions that we physically perform over a long period of time, our goals and objectives, ideas, values and traditions that we follow form our brain. In this research the impact of the pandemic on the staff coherency, the measures that were taken by managers to maintain stability in the company and the role of the organizational culture in overcoming the crisis are analyzed and relevant recommendations suggested.