Impact of COVID-19 on Businesses and Employees: A Study on Transformation of New Business Models and Employee Engagement

This report covers the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and employees, focusing on the transformation of new business models and employee engagement. It includes literature review, research questions, and identifying a philosophical position and methodological orientation.

Research Philosophy and
Practice

Table of Contents
1- INTRODUCTION.......................................................................................................................3
Background of the topic..............................................................................................................3
Research Aim and Objectives.....................................................................................................3
Importance and relevancy of the topic........................................................................................3
2- IDENTIFYING LITERATURE REVIEW.................................................................................4
3- RESEARCH QUESTIONS.........................................................................................................5
4- IDENTIFYING A PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION AND METHODOLOGICAL
ORIENTATION..............................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................7

1- INTRODUCTION
Background of the topic
COVID-19 is a virus that has grown stealthily and become one of the deadliest viruses. It
has killed many people world and declared as global pandemic. This is the virus which has taken
birth in Wuhan, China and since then it has travelled more than 160 countries. World Health
Organisation is the institution which has declared COVID-19 as pandemic(Bartsch and et. al.,
2020). It has created mass scare and led thousands of deaths in several countries. COVID-19 has
disrupted the business operations as Indian Government put sudden restrictions on the movement
of people. Global pandemic has impacted businesses because they have moved towards remote
working and switched to virtual for connecting with employees and customers. The existing
report covers the detailed information about the impact of COVID-19 on businesses and the role
played by it to accelerate new business models and increasing engagement of employees directly
from their home.
Research Aim and Objectives
Research Aim:
To identify the impact of COVID-19 in accelerating transformation of new business
models and improving employee engagement within an organisation. A study on
Research Objectives:
 To discern the ways COVID-19 have affected employees and business operations within
an organisation
 To determine the impact of COVID-19 to accelerate transformation of new business
models and improve employee engagement within Shoppers Stop
 To evaluate the benefits experienced by Shoppers Stop through digital transformation at
workplace
Importance and relevancy of the topic
The topic impact of COVID-19 on businesses and employees is quite important because
COVID-19 is the external event that is currently happening in the whole world. By covering
information about this topic, exact situation of COVID-19 is carried out. As per the business
perspective also COVID-19 topic is relevant because it highlights the positive impact as well as
negative impact created by the emergence of global pandemic.

2- IDENTIFYING LITERATURE REVIEW
It is the chapter that covers second-hand information about the topic of impact of
COVID-19 on business operations. This gives detailed information about the topic from different
secondary sources such as books, newspapers, articles, publications, journals etc.
Ways COVID-19 have affected employees and business operations within an organisation
According to Kylili and et. al., (2020), due to large impact of this global pandemic,
Indian Government had taken several measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The
Government has put lock down restrictions which has eventually put restrictions on the
movement of people as well as business operations. Companies in India have experienced
unprecedented employee disruption. Organisations were forced to shut down its operations or
decrease its production and working capacity. It was challenging for company to manage and
control its every business operation virtually because this was the situation they were facing for
the very first time. Companies were determining the way they will work in long-term and short-
term as communities and workforces were trying to perform and function. Due to the occurrence
of global pandemic COVID-19, organisations have seen major change in the behaviour of
consumers, supply chains etc. Companies have seen major shift in the behaviour of customers as
they have developed mind-set of saving their funds and spending it on essential items and needs.
Organisation has also faced issue of managing and dealing with employees who are working
directly from their home because many employees struggled to work with new virtual
technology.
Impact of COVID-19 to accelerate transformation of new business models and improve
employee engagement within Shoppers Stop
According to MGrossman and et. al., (2020), it is determined that COVID-19 has created
many opportunities for the company to come up with new business models, agile ways of
working and advance technology. Companies like Shoppers Stop had taken “no regret” actions
for emerging from the global pandemic stronger. These leaders have faced the crisis with a great
spirit of reinvention- accelerating digital transformation, forming variable cost structures and
establishing agile operations. Companies have adopted virtual communication channels for
communicating with employees so that information can be provided to them at right time.
Organisations have given work from home to their maximum employees so that gatherings at
offices can be reduced and the spread of COVID-19 can also be decreased. This has given the

emergence of new and advance technologies in the organisation so that human resource of the
organisation can be connected with the company. Companies have focused towards becoming
Intelligent Enterprise which clearly shows shift from top-down decision-making, empower teams
guided by motive, driven by information, powered by technology etc. This has created
environment of dynamic self-management and constant adaptation.
Benefits experienced by Shoppers Stop through digital transformation at workplace
According to Bereitschaft and Scheller (2020), digital transformation is referred as the
method that has changed the way company operates. During global pandemic, companies have
adopted different digital technologies so that they can continue their business operations. With
the help of digital transformation, some of the benefits are: stronger resource management, data-
driven customer insights, better customer experience, encourage digital culture, increased agility,
increased profits, improved productivity etc.
3- RESEARCH QUESTIONS
It is determined that developing research questions for a study is quite important because
it helps in setting out what is that need to be answered. This assists in planning the research and
also helps in foreseeing potential problems or challenges. It also helps in saving energy, efforts
and time. In simpler words, it provides right direction so that purpose of the investigation can be
accomplished. Basically, the questions of research assist in identifying the sources required for
fulfilling the main objective of the research. When good research questions are developed then
interest of readers is kept, make researcher focused on topic etc. When research questions are
completed and addressed correctly then it is believed that whole study is relevant, reliable and
accurate.
Research Questions:
 What are the ways COVID-19 have affected employees and business operations within
an organisation?
 What is the impact of COVID-19 to accelerate transformation of new business models
and improve employee engagement within Shoppers Stop?
 What are the benefits experienced by Shoppers Stop through digital transformation at
workplace?

4- IDENTIFYING A PHILOSOPHICAL POSITION AND
METHODOLOGICAL ORIENTATION
Research methodologies are significant because it provides appropriate methods for the
collection and analysis of content in a systematic way. These methods guide and give direction to
researcher about the sources that need to be considered for assembling information.
Research Philosophy
Research philosophy defines certain belief about the method in which information about
a phenomenon must be accumulated, evaluated and considered. The philosophy is mainly
categorised into three significant kinds that are: epistemology, ontology and axiology.
Epistemology is the philosophy that highlights the information which is actually true and has
great relevance (Babii, 2020). So, epistemology philosophy will be considered by researcher as it
gives two important kinds that are: positivism and interpretivism philosophy. Interpretivism
philosophy will be used by investigator so that collected qualitative and secondary information
can be evaluated and analysed in a systematic and proper way. The advantage of interpretivism
methods is that it does not concentrate on statistical information which eventually assists in
saving the time. Interpretivism philosophy is considered for answering the research questions
because these questions are generally addressed with the assistance of secondary and theoretical
data. This is a good choice to choose interpretivism philosophy because this accommodates in
analysing published and second-hand data. For answering the research questions, different kinds
of secondary sources will be used such as books, articles, journals, newspapers etc.
Reason of chosen paradigm different from other paradigms
Epistemology philosophy will be selected and used by researcher because it is quite
significant for influencing the way investigators frame investigation in their attempts of
discovering knowledge. It clearly looks at the relationship between an object and a subject
researcher explores the idea of epistemology and the way it influences the research design in a
systematic way (Larshin and Lishchenko, 2018). In simpler words, it helps in evaluating
researcher see and perceives by considering information gathered by different authors. On the
other hand, ontology and axiology philosophies are not chosen because they do not focuses on
establishing relationship between objects and subjects as well as it does not assist in collecting
and analysing theoretical piece of information. The chosen philosophy has positive impact over

the study because this had accommodated in the collection of relevant and accurate theoretical
data.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Babii, A., 2020. Important aspects of the experimental research methodology. Вісник
Тернопільського національного технічного університету, 97(1), pp.77-87.
Bartsch, S and et. al., 2020. Leadership matters in crisis-induced digital transformation: how to
lead service employees effectively during the COVID-19 pandemic. Journal of Service
Management.
Bereitschaft, B. and Scheller, D., 2020. How might the COVID-19 pandemic affect 21st century
urban design, planning, and development?. Urban Science, 4(4), p.56.
Grossman, S .N and et. al., 2020. Rapid implementation of virtual neurology in response to the
COVID-19 pandemic. Neurology, 94(24), pp.1077-1087.
Kylili, A and et. al., 2020. The role of Remote Working in smart cities: lessons learnt from
COVID-19 pandemic. Energy Sources, Part A: Recovery, Utilization, and
Environmental Effects, pp.1-16.
Larshin, V. P. and Lishchenko, N. V., 2018. Research methodology for grinding
systems. Russian Engineering Research, 38(9), pp.712-713.