The global coronavirus pandemic has dramatically affected people’s perspectives on their professional activity. Up to this day, more and more individuals decide to work from home (WFH) (Chen, 2021). However, this way of working has numerous impacts on the organization and employers. Hence, this paper aims to assess the influence of WFH on employee involvement, communication, and some processes such as mergers and acquisitions.
WFH occurred as a response to the coronavirus outbreak and commenced spreading its influence right away. The primary effect of WFH took a toll on the employees’ engagement in the working activities. The majority of online office skills had to be self-taught. Additionally, WFH has created issues in adapting to the new environment making the workers feel out of place (Awada et al., 2021). Moreover, people lacked face-to-face communication and could not adjust to solving problems online. The attempts to resolve conflicts via video calls or email led to increased stress (Galanti et al., 2021). Conversations lacked clarity and frequency because people were isolated from each other without having live conversations. That resulted in reduced productivity and more conflicts.
WFH also has a possible influence on merger and acquisition deal-making (MA). For instance, it can slow down the entire process by delaying the plans. What is more, it is impossible to use collaborative tools and technologies while working remotely (Kooli & Lock Son, 2021). Due to new diligence issues, the buyer will unlikely want to get deals in the short term (Kooli & Lock Son, 2021). Ultimately, there is a significant financial strain because numerous companies go bankrupt.
In summary, the pandemic has caused numerous limitations on working from home. It has significantly reduced the practical skill obtained, slowed down the conflict-resolution process, and increased the stress level of employees. Moreover, WFH has become an impediment to making merger and acquisition deals. The buyers would not prefer to sign contacts via online platforms and make long-term plans, especially with companies with no financial stability.
References
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Chen Z. (2021). Influence of working from home during the COVID-19 crisis and HR practitioner response.Frontiers in Psychology, 12, 710517. Web.
Galanti, T., Guidetti, G., Mazzei, E., Zappalà , S., & Toscano, F. (2021). Work from home during the COVID-19 outbreak: The impact on employees’ remote work productivity, engagement, and stress.Journal of occupational and Environmental Medicine, 63(7), e426-e432. Web.
Kooli, C., & Lock Son, M. (2021). Impact of COVID-19 on mergers, acquisitions & corporate restructurings.Businesses, 1(2), 102-114. Web.