创业与组织管理

Impact of Covid-19 on a Small-Medium Businesses

Abstract

Siddhi Bhagat, Abbott J Haron and Hassan Shakil Bhatti

Change is essential for the survival of businesses. Change management professionals have underlined the need for organisational change and the need to involve employees in the decision-making process. Although change management is a relevant issue in today’s literature, the success or failure of change management processes depends on the choice of leadership style. The success rate of the change process has significantly been lower than expectations. This study focuses on studying communication withinSMEs (Small and Medium Enterprise), examining change readiness, and the choice of leadership style to justify the success or failure of change management. The main goal of this qualitative study is to explore change management strategies adopted by SMEs,because of the impact of COVID-19. The conceptual framework for this study is based on transformational leadership. This framework applied in the past would encourage and motivate employees towards achieving common organisational goals. Based on this notion, it is deemed that this framework can benefit change processes within SMEs. The target population consists of 15 participants. These participants will be interviewed using semi-structured questions through an online platform to maintain social distance. The data collected through the interviews will then aid data analysis process to derive a positive or a negative outcome of the study. The study also intended to make use of NVivo software for data analysis; however, a lack of experience in using the software can be a potential limitation of the course. The narrow scope of study focuses specifically on communications within SMEs to explore this phenomenon. As a result, the research only revolves around factors and themes affecting small and medium businesses.The findingsof this study will assist in identifying strategies that help SMEs survive and successfully implement organisational change. Furthermore, the study intends to explore areas of growth such as a change in leadership styles, structural changes in SMEs, technological improvement, and process developments.