Cultural Values as Strategic Support to Organizational Sustainability in Times of Pandemic

Abstract

The presentation of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has led all organizations worldwide to rethink their strategies and even the products and services they offered, with the aim of surviving and overcoming the economic and social difficulties that guarantee their permanence in the market. The practices framed in the Sustainable Development Goals are more current than ever, given the need to respond to the demands imposed by healthcare, while humanity's battle against the virus is taking place. This chapter details the results found in a case study investigation in a Colombian organization of the textile sector that accesses the national and international market. Its objective was to determine the values of the culture that have guided the management of the company during the COVID-19 pandemic, allowing them to achieve economic and social sustainability. It was evident that values such as solidarity promoted by the founder and integrated into the organizational culture have directed the management of the company in times of pandemic, avoiding the dismissal of its workers.

Weathering the storm: A case study of organizational culture and effectiveness in times of disruptive jolts and crisis

“…Fourth, the results draw our attention to the significance of system connections and coordination during a crisis, answering the call for studies to analyse the impact of COVID‐19 quarantine restrictions and disruption of work (Alonazi, 2021; Ariza, 2021). Corroborating the findings of Gogheri et al (2013), if people's cultural and commitment controls of the elements of OC are severe and increasing, it will create prevention from cultural methods, hampering the efforts to adapt to the jolt.…”

“…Fourth, the results draw our attention to the significance of system connections and coordination during a crisis, answering the call for studies to analyse the impact of COVID-19 quarantine restrictions and disruption of work (Alonazi, 2021;Ariza, 2021).…”

“…Analogous to the economic jolts that caused companies to adapt to new environmental realities (Meyer, 1982), organizations facing the threat of the COVID‐19 pandemic have been forced, almost universally, into programmes of rapid and radical transformation (Amis & Greenwood, 2020). The coerced changes include dislocation of workforces, disrupted supply chains, uncertainty in work planning due to ongoing government closures, employee payroll compensation in the absence of income (Ariza, 2021), widespread unemployment and increased risk of employee job burnout (Kniffin et al, 2021), which have resulted in a shift in how people see and value work (Amis & Greenwood, 2020; Amis et al, 2020) and the landscape of human resources (Harney & Collings, 2021).…”

“…Previous research has highlighted that significant environmental jolts (e.g., an economic crisis) compelled organizations to readjust their culture to align with new realities (Gond et al, 2014; Meyer, 1982). During disruptive situations such as pandemics, core values of OCs will determine the adaptive actions of executives (Ariza, 2021). However, jolts can also make organizations hypocritical when external pressure coerces them to change only the outer aspects of their culture but not the deeper ones (Gond et al, 2014).…”

“…The overwhelming effect crisis or jolt has on the elements of an organization, such as its effectiveness, strategy or daily operation, has been asserted by prior research (e.g., Ariza, 2021;Lee & Harrald, 1999;Mahara et al, 2021). However, it is claimed that researchers have spent most of their energy exploring the causes, dynamics and aftermath of these occurrences rather than trying to understand whether organizations preserve their cultures and effectiveness during one (Comfort et al, 2010).…”