Covid and business: Irish organisations show great resilience in a crisis

Most businesses rose to the occasion as we emerge from the pandemic

Research showed that organisations were able to lean on their people through the challenges brought about by the pandemic.

Covid-19, and the associated public health measures to tackle the spread of the virus, created unprecedented disruption for organisations. While some faced uphill struggles to reimagine their businesses, others were able to adapt and transform.

This summer, my colleagues and I at the Irish Management Institute (IMI), in conjunction with Cork University Business School, conducted a comprehensive study on the response of Irish businesses to the crisis. We received approximately 400 responses from a cross-section of sectors, with 29% of respondents middle managers and the other 71% at senior to C-level.

Organisational resilience can be defined as a company’s ability to absorb stress, recover critical functionality, and thrive in altered circumstances. The survey provides a snapshot of organisational resilience in Irish businesses both during and as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. Here are some of our key takeaways:

An agile response, powered by people

The research revealed that organisations were able to lean on their people through the challenges.

Respondents cited the idea of ‘working together to achieve a common goal’ and the benefits of a burning platform ‘to achieve agility, new ways of working and new products.’ When we asked about the ability of organisations to react to the crisis, an overwhelmingly positive picture emerged. In all, 86% of leaders felt their organisation responded ‘well’ or ‘very well’ to the pandemic. Just 2% of respondents felt that their organisation responded ‘badly’ or ‘very badly’.

The findings suggested that people’s efforts were crucial in the agile response. One respondent said: “People adapt and at times we do not give enough credit to the speed at which they are capable of adapting.”

Whitney Johnson, one of the world’s foremost thought leaders on strategic resilience, said of the Irish response: “One of the beauties of the past 18 months is that we’ve realised that we were more able to bounce back and adapt than we thought. This was a wonderful stress test for us — and in many respects we succeeded with flying colours.”

Trust gains felt more in public sector

Building and maintaining trust were pivotal for leaders as they dealt with the most serious repercussions of the pandemic on their organisations. Interestingly, what we discovered was that the increases in trust were eight times higher in the public sector compared to the private sector. This could reflect the immediate response from public sector bodies and frontline workers in tackling the society-wide ripple effects that the pandemic caused.

Our survey asked leaders to describe the level of trust between staff and senior managers, both at the time of the survey and prior to the pandemic. The data revealed an increase in levels of trust at the time of the survey against the pre-pandemic sentiment, with 79% of respondents providing positive responses compared to 76% prior to the crisis. We noted these gains in trust across both the public and private sectors, where we saw a combined 3% increase.

One respondent told us: “Staff can be trusted more to overcome obstacles to deliver. The office is useful for collaboration, support and maintaining culture; it is not needed for supervision purposes.”

Leadership practices

Our findings painted an encouraging picture in terms of leadership practices. We asked leaders about the practice of leadership within their organisations throughout the crisis. The numbers showed that 77% of leaders felt there was a positive level of improvement in this area. However, 23% of leaders felt the practice of leadership weakened or experienced no discernible improvement.

One respondent told us: “Work practice changes previously considered impossible can be delivered with management support and leadership.”

It could be reasoned that the evolution of leadership practices was central to implementing the rapid change that businesses had to prioritise during the crisis.

Optimism and challenges abound for the future

The results we collated presented an optimistic outlook. When we asked leaders about their hopefulness regarding their organisation’s future, 86% said they were hopeful, while 62% reported that they had built up some level of positive resilience in their organisation during the pandemic.

A respondent told us: “Our people really delivered when ‘backs were to the wall’ and this gives great confidence as we look to the future.” We also asked respondents, having come through the crisis, how well they were set up to handle any further challenges. More than a fifth (21%) felt that their staff would be unable to face additional disruption because of the pandemic.

As we emerge from the crisis, the survey results show that Irish leaders largely navigated the period of disruption well, with improvements in trust, leadership practices and organisational agility. While there were many positive takeaways in the research, several issues surfaced, notably the ongoing mental health battles in the post-Covid era, providing food for thought as we move forward.

• Dr Colm Foster is the Director of Executive Education at the Irish Management Institute. The findings presented in this article are based on a cross-sector survey conducted by the Irish Management Institute and Cork University Business School, University College Cork. The survey examined the views of Irish business leaders relating to their organisations’ resilience during and as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.