Covid-19 and digital innovation

Article Review: “Innovation Catalyst: Covid-19 has supercharged digital innovation as banks, financial services and many other sectors adopt workarounds that are pushing them more rapidly into a virtual future” by Anita Hawser (June 2020)
As the Covid-19 global pandemic continues to ravage the nations of the world, businesses of all sizes and types are scrambling to identify viable alternatives to their conventional working arrangements. Given the proliferation of innovations in telecommunications in recent years, it is not surprising that one such alternative has been the use of digital workplaces. Although these alternatives are not new, they have become the option of choice for many companies due to the lack of other communications strategies. The purpose of this paper is to provide a critical review of a peer-reviewed article that was published after the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic to evaluate its credibility and the effectiveness of the arguments that were presented by the author. In addition, an analysis of criticisms or reservations that readers may have about this article, and how these criticisms should be addressed is followed by a discussion concerning whether this article would be useful in class. Finally, the paper presents a summary of the research and important findings concerning the foregoing issues in the conclusion.
Review and Assessment
The author of this article is a staff writer for Global Finance who specializes in technology-related trends that affect the workplace. Moreover, the Global Finance periodical has been published nonstop since its founding in 1987 and this publication has become a trusted source of financial advice which suggests that this information is credible. In addition, the author provides the results of a series of first-hand interviews with recognized telecommunications industry leaders in support of her respective points. In sum, Hawser makes a credible case for her assertions concerning current and future trends in redesigning and rethinking the traditional workplace.
In addition, the author is also effective in the manner in which the information is presented using the same methods that enhanced the article’s credibility. By drawing on first-person interviews with business leaders in the public and private sectors, Hawser makes it clear that the Covid-19 pandemic is compelling organizations of all sizes and types to reevaluate their workplace arrangements in order to minimize threats to employees and the public while simultaneously operating as normal to the maximum extent possible. For instance, according to Hawser, “The novel coronavirus has upended global travel, put governments on a quasi-wartime footing, forced economies and businesses into lockdown and caused global supply chains to screech to a halt. The crisis has impacted a vast range of areas: work, health, finance, education and more” (14). This focus was also regarded as being highly congruent with a growing body of scholarship that is investigating these issues at present due to the exigencies of the ongoing pandemic (Akingbola 2020).
Furthermore, unlike many business management authorities that continue to research, write and publish articles concerning ways to keep employees motivated in a traditional workplace, the niceties of various perquisites versus others, or analyzing the respective pros and cons of a different management fads in a business-as-usual fashion, Hawser’s article is especially timely because it focuses on the problems that are facing organization right now. Indeed, many smaller and even large organizations are struggling to stay afloat, and the outcome of the Covid-19 at present remains uncertain at best. Exacerbating the challenges even further has been the haphazard fashion in which local and state authorities have implemented business closures, so the future of many types of businesses remains unclear irrespective of the Covid-19 pandemic’s outcome.
Against this backdrop, it is also clear that it just makes good business sense to try something, even if it is wrong in order to identify what might just actually work in the future. In this regard, Hawser cites a professor of strategic foresight at the NYU Stern School of Business and the founder of the Future Today Institute to make the point that, “Workplace conventions and strategic plans are being completely reconsidered. Sudden disruption, especially when it is catastrophic, often acts as a catalyst. Managers are more likely to endorse seemingly risky ideas if they lead to short-term survivability” (15). This emerging “let’s try something even if it’s wrong” approach was not cost effective for the vast majority of private sector enterprises in the past, the circumstances have forced organizational leaders to find something – anything – that works at least for now. As Hawser concludes, “That may explain why, suddenly, innovations that seemed blue sky thinking are now being greenlit by governments and businesses willing to try anything” (15).
Certainly, it is reasonable to posit that there will be volumes written about organizational responses to the Covid-19 pandemic in the coming years, and experts will invariably weigh in on why certain strategies worked better than others, but the here and now demands information and advice that business leaders can apply to their own situation immediately. While the current situation facing business leaders is so dynamic that even the most well-informed guidance may become obsolete or less relevant overnight, Hawser makes a valuable contribution by providing a snapshot of what is taking place right now and how these current trend can reasonably be expected to affect the workplace of the future.
Overall, this article was regarded as highly relevant to the circumstances facing companies of all sizes and types across the country and around the world today. For example, during a period in history when growing numbers of Americans are being forced to work from their homes, identifying constraints to employee well-being and strategies to avoid “screen time” burnout are also timely and valuable enterprises (Asarch n.d.; Aguilar, n.d.). Of course, these issues are not exactly new, but they have become far more pronounced in recent months as tens of millions of Americans have been forced to work from home, if they are fortunate enough to still have a job.
Although most essential workers must continue to perform their jobs in their physical workplaces (St. Denis 2020), increasing numbers of public and private sector organizations have recognized the viability and even desirability of having their employees telecommute. Notwithstanding the managerial oversight challenges that are involved, people working from home saves companies money on overhead and other facility maintenance expenses while minimizing the risk of additional community spread of the Covid-19 virus. In addition, there have been some other, less expected positive outcomes that are attributable to organizational responses to the Covid-19 pandemic. For example, according to Hawser, “[The Covid-19 pandemic] has also unleashed a wave of technological innovation. With the surge in infections rendering business as usual impossible, transformations that otherwise would have taken years are occurring in just a few months” (14).
Indeed, Hawser cites one industry analysts who suggests that the pandemic has generated the equivalent of 2 years’ worth of research and development into virtual workplace technologies in just a couple of months. For example, Hawser cites the World Economic Forum’s chief of artificial intelligence and machine learning, Kay Firth-Butterfield, who emphasizes that, “There is a new saying in Silicon Valley. Slingshot to 2023. Many think we’ve seen in the last two months the equivalent of two years of innovation.”
In sum, this article would be highly useful in this class and similarly focused courses, and the differing views concerning the negative and positive effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on traditional workplaces makes this article a useful source upon which to base an argument analysis. In fact, and not surprisingly, the overwhelming majority of articles that have been published in recent months have highlighted the adverse effects of the pandemic and the unique challenges this once-in-a-generation disaster has created for public and private sector organizations. In addition, by consistently including the credentials of her interviewee sources, the article also provides a useful framework in which to teach credibility assessment.
Conclusion
Given the rapid pace of innovation and change that is taking place today, the bar for gold standard business-related articles is going to be raised out of necessity, and industry best practices are being changed on a daily and even hourly basis. At present, though, tens of millions of American workers nervously await the outcome of the bold new 100-day plan that the president-elect has charted for the country and the Covid-19 virus continues to spread throughout communities in the United States at an uncontrolled rate, Therefore, in the final analysis, it is reasonable to conclude that the findings that emerged from the articles reviewed above will become dated at a far more rapid pace that in the past, and business analysts such as Hawser will have their hands full trying to keep up with innovations in technology that will have an effect on the traditional workplace.
Works Cited
Aguilar. (n.d.). “I Asked my Friends How Social Media is Affecting Their Mental Health and we ALL Need a Screen Break.”
Akingbola, Kunle. (2020, Spring). “COVID-19: The Prospects for Nonprofit Human Resource Management.” Canadian Journal of Nonprofit and Social Economy Research, vol. 11, no. 1, p. 16.
Asarch. (n.d.). “How to Use Zoom While We’re Trapped at Home for Online Classes and Meetings.”
Hawser, Anity. (2020, June). “Innovation Catalyst: Covid-19 has supercharged digital innovation as banks, financial services and many other sectors adopt workarounds that are pushing them more rapidly into a virtual future.” Global Finance, vol. 34, no. 6, pp. 14-17.
St. Denis, X. (2020, August). Sociodemographic determinants of occupational risks of exposure to COVID-19 in Canada. Canadian Review of Sociology, vol. 57, no. 3, pp. 399-403.