Normalising the “new normal”: Changing tech-driven work practices under pandemic time pressure

Abstract

Highlights COVID-19 has forced organisations into rapid ‘big bang’ adoption of ‘tech-driven’ practices under severe time pressure. More reflection and considered approaches are needed for long-term sustained use of practices. This paper introduces a selection of concepts from normalisation process theory. This paper critiques current approaches and develop a set of recommendations for research and practice.

Coping with the New Normal Imposed by the COVID-19 Pandemic: Lessons for Technology Management and Governance

“…The pandemic necessitated a sweeping transformation, which is likely to influence our life for the foreseeable future in the way people interact and operate in their daily routine lives as well as workplace (Griffin & Denholm, 2020;Sahadi, 2020). While many businesses were forced to close down, some others were forced to severely reduce operations or rethink their business models to adapt to new realities of the COVID-19 environment (Carroll & Conboy, 2020). Other organizations that could continue were forced to adopt new ways of remotely working, utilizing new systems for communication and altered practices to meet social distancing requirements and modified work patterns (Leidner, 2020;Richter, 2020).…”

“…COVID-19 is anticipated to permanently normalize the use of digital technologies (Carroll & Conboy, 2020;Guyot & Sawhill, 2020;Sahadi, 2020) for education, social interactions, healthcare services, business operations, religious activities, and interaction with government (BBC News, 2020;Woods, 2020). As all citizens, employees, students, and public-and private-sector organizations are forced to adapt to alternate ways of doing things, several technology use facets become more prominent and relevant (Table 1).…”

Social Media Users’ Opinions on Remote Work during the COVID-19 Pandemic. Thematic and Sentiment Analysis

“…It was originally proposed by May and Finch (2009). As COVID-19 generates new technologydriven processes (Carroll & Conboy, 2020), companies and institutions should standardize them to accomplish goals through these practices. The NP theory gives guidelines for practitioners to build better plans and manage these new normalized processes.…”

“…Within a few weeks, COVID-19 made a radical breakthrough from traditional office work to the remote type. Carroll and Conboy (2020) call it a "big bang" for organizations to be forced into a rapid change of technology. Even stronger, almost prophetically sound the words of Agerfalk et al (2020), who stated that "the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) has changed our world forever."…”

Yonder: New normal, dental risk, shared decision making in China, antidepressants on Instagram, and podcast of the month

“…A recent paper from Ireland argues that there is a need for a more reflective 'normalisation' of work practices and the role technology plays. 1 It suggests that planning for, implementing, embedding, and integrating technology to facilitate new norms is incredibly challenging. This is further exacerbated, the authors argue, by a lack of any guidance from governments or policymakers on how to best facilitate these unprecedented changes to work practices.…”