1.1 Introduction
The COVID-19 outbreak is a sharp reminder that pandemics, like other rarely occurring catastrophes, have happened in the past and will continue to happen in the future. Even if we cannot prevent dangerous viruses from emerging, we should prepare to dampen their effects on society. The current outbreak has had severe economic consequences across the globe, and it does not look like any country will be unaffected. This not only has consequences for the economy; all of society is affected, which has led to dramatic changes in how businesses act and consumers behave. This special issue is a global effort to address some of the pandemic-related issues affecting society.
As a prelude to other parts of this study, this chapter will discuss the background upon which this study was initiated, the statement of problems that led to this study, the Aim and Objectives of the study. Others are Significance of the study, Scope of work, Limitations of the Study and Definition of technical terms.
1.2 Background of Study
The global economy has contracted significantly due to the COVID-19 pandemic. During the second quarter of 2020, the U.S. economy dropped 35% compared to the same period of time last year (Reinicke, 2020), and the Eurozone economy decreased by 12.1% on average compared to the first quarter of the year. Spain experienced the largest drop at 18.5% (Amaro, 2020).
These financial hardships are affecting talent management in significant ways. First, many companies have implemented hiring freezes and layoffs. For example, as of the end of March 2020, 42% of companies in the United States and Canada froze or reduced hiring, while another 28% were considering doing so (Willis Towers Watson, 2020). In the United States, the leisure and hospitality industry lost 7.7 million jobs alone in April 2020, which represents 47% of total positions (Franck, 2020). Similarly, about 397,000 people across the European Union lost their jobs in April (Davies, 2020). Even industries traditionally perceived as secure such as high tech experienced unprecedented layoffs. In fact, tech companies in Silicon Valley have cut more than 40,000 jobs between March and May, 2020 (McBride & Cannon, 2020). In the United Kingdom and Europe, about 38% of tech companies have frozen most of their recruitment (Wauters, 2020).
As a second set of talent management challenges, many workers who are able to keep their jobs face pay freezes, canceled bonuses, and pay reductions. Globally, 29% of employers have implemented salary cuts, 42% a salary freeze, and 37% a bonus reduction (Korn Ferry, 2020). Across the world and in all industries, 67% of executives, 56% of middle managers, and 49% of professionals and supervisors experienced cuts in pay (Korn Ferry, 2020).
A third significant talent management challenge directly attributed to the pandemic is how work is done. Teleworking has become a norm for many employees, and as of May 2020, 76% of companies require that all or most employees work from home (McKinsey, 2020). Before the pandemic, only 5.4% of the workforce in the EU-27 countries regularly worked from home, and only 15% of the workforce had ever teleworked (European Commission, 2020). During the pandemic, it is estimated that about 25% of employment took place in sectors that were “teleworkable” (Fana et al., 2020). In addition, under teleworking, spontaneous interpersonal communication is reduced to a minimum; organizations need to rely on informal communication networks to disseminate knowledge, facilitate innovation, and increase productivity (Nonaka, 1994; Rogers, 1983).
Finally, the pandemic has exacerbated employee stress and burnout. In the United States, 45% of employees reported that they were burned out in May 2020. COVID-19 has contributed to this unusually high level of stress because of increased workloads (45%); the need to juggle personal and professional life (35%); lack of communication, feedback, and support (32%); increased time pressures (30%); and unclear and changing performance expectations (26%) (Eagle Hill Consulting, 2020). In addition, contrary to a commonly held belief, working from home can contribute to stress, which has a negative impact on employees’ wellbeing and performance (Al-Badarneh et al., 2019; Demerouti et al., 2014) and consequently, the performance of the organization. The reason is that the reduced commute time and flexible hours are often canceled out by the expectation that more should be done with less. For example, before the pandemic, 66% of remote tech professionals believed they were burned out, compared to 64% of employees who went into an office daily (Swanner, 2019).
Performance management is poorly understood and therefore often underutilized talent management functions that can help organizations navigate crises such as the COVID-19 pandemic.
1.3 Statement of Problems
Investigation reveals the following problems of the Managing Performance Admist Covid 19 in Olabisi Onabanjo University research work;
The COVID-19 pandemic has resulted in significant talent management challenges including;
(a) Hiring freezes and layoffs;
(b) Salary freezes, canceled bonuses, and pay reductions;
(c) How work is done (i.e., teleworking); and
(d) Increased employee stress and burnout.
COVID-19 has made it evident that many organizations do not implement state of the science performance management systems and, instead, have just performance appraisal systems that typically involve a once-a-year evaluation and review, little effort to provide feedback and coaching on an ongoing basis, little alignment between employee performance and the organization’s strategic goals, a focus on past performance only, and ownership by the human resources function instead of those rating and being rated.
Thus, the lack of value contributed by the usual performance evaluation and review process is the reason why so many organizations are postponing or even completely discontinuing performance evaluations.
1.4 Aim and Objectives of Study
The aim of the study is to investigate the managing performance admist COVID 19 in Olabisi Onabanjo University. In achieving this aim, the following objectives of study were set out as follows;
- To investigate the negatively impact of managing performance in Olabisi Onabanjo University during COVID 19,
- To investigate the precautionary measure used during COVID 19.
- To examine the managing performance admist COVID 19.
1.5 Research Questions
The following are the questions of the research work;
- Did COVID 19 negatively impact the managing performance of Olabisi Onabanjo University?
- Is COVID 19 present among the students in Olabisi Onabanjo University?
- Is there any effect of managing performance in Olabisi Onabanjo University during COVID 19?
- Is a large part of OOU employee population still working?
- What are the precautionary measures adhered to, during COVID 19?
1.6 Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis One
H0: There is negative impact in the managing performance of Olabisi Onabanjo University
H1: There is positive impact in the managing performance of Olabisi Onabanjo University
1.7 Scope of Study
This study focuses on the managing performance admist COVID 19 using Olabisi Onabanjo University as a case study
1.8 Limitations of the Study
During the course of this study, many things militated against its completion, some of which are:
- Time Constraint: The time frame given to accomplish this project was very short due to school academic calendar and it was carried out under pressure which made the researcher not to implement some necessary features.
- Establishment Policies: Establishment policies posed a serious limitation as most staffs are not ready to release information needed for this project work. There were lots of information needed from the staffs of this institution to enhance the study which took them time to release or they did not release at all for security purposes, hence the scope was reduced.
- Research material: availability of research material is a major setback to the scope of the study.
- Frequent power failure: This made the researcher append more money on fuel to ensure sustainable power.
- Financial Constraint: Insufficient fund tends to impede the efficiency of the researcher in sourcing for the relevant materials, literature or information and in the process of data collection (internet, questionnaire and interview).
1.9 Significance of Study
This study when completed, will serve as reference material for subsequent researcher in the field or related topics.
1.10 Research Methodology
The researcher adopts a multi-dimensional approach in her efforts to get at the substance of this work. The researcher made use of both primary and secondary sources of obtaining pieces of information. Books, journal articles, encyclopedia, dictionaries, magazines, unpublished project works etc were consulted as secondary source materials. Questionnaire schedule was designed as a primary source of obtaining oral information from the respondents. Both structured and unstructured questionnaire items were designed for eliciting information out of these respondents. People from the age of twenty were considered qualified as respondents. In interpretation of the data collected, the researcher made use of descriptive and analytical approaches.
