The Impact of COVID-19 on McLeod & Partners' Workplace Transformation

This report investigates the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the workplace transformation and organizational performance of McLeod & Partners, a chartered accounting firm specializing in restructuring and insolvency services. The study examines how the pandemic has transformed the workplace environment, affected the company's profitability and employee turnover, and presented various challenges. Qualitative research methods, including thematic analysis of primary and secondary data, are employed to explore these impacts. The report identifies key themes related to remote work, communication challenges, profitability decline, and employee turnover. Ultimately, the research aims to provide recommendations for organizations to develop better transformation strategies in response to external events like COVID-19.

UNIT 6 MANAGING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS
PROJECT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
Background..................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................4
Project management plan.............................................................................................................4
WBS and Gantt chart..................................................................................................................5
Literature review..........................................................................................................................5
Research methodology.................................................................................................................5
Data analysis................................................................................................................................7
Recommendation.......................................................................................................................15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1
Appendixes......................................................................................................................................3

Title: To investigate the impact of external event, particularly COVID- 19, on
workplace transformation of McLeod and partner’s organizational performance.
INTRODUCTION
Background
Workplace transformation is known as rethinking of flexible workspace so that various
kind of services can be provided to company Along with this, every business faced various
challenges due to impact of external factor present in market. It impacts both in positive as well
a negative way on the performance of company. Although in current time many organization has
faced issues related to Covid – 19 that has negatively impacted on the various aspect of
functional unit of company (Müller and et.al., 2019). Moreover, the present report will discuss
on the external events and the way it transforms the company as well as it overall growth. Thus,
in order to sustain in the competition, it is important for organization to deal with this challenges
and find appropriate ways to enhance their performance. The present report is based on McLeod
and partners is a chartered accounting firm that have speciality in restructuring corporate and
insolvency services. The headquarter of the company is located at Queensland Australia.
Aim: To analyse the impact of external events like Covid- 19 pandemic on
transformation of company's organizational performance particularly in McLeod.
Objectives:
 To investigate the emergence of Covid- 19 as an external event and transformation
arising at workplace due to this.
 To analyse the impact of Covid- 19 on McLeod’s performance regarding profitability and
employee turnover.
 To evaluate the challenges arising due to such external events as Covid- 19.
 To recommend appropriate solutions helping organizations in better transformation
strategies during Covid- 19.
Research question
1. How does Covid- 19 has transformed the workplace environment?

2. What is the impact of Covid – 19 on organizational performance of McLeod?
3. What are the different challenge faced by company due to arising external events?
MAIN BODY
Project management plan
In order to successfully completing the project a proper plan will be implemented by the project
manager. In other words, it is known as process of monitoring and executing task and it should
consist of elements like cost, scope, time, quality, communication, resources and risk.
Project cost: To accomplish the project cost is major element that need to be considered for
achieving aim in limited time (Stanitsas, Kirytopoulos and Leopoulos, 2021). Along with this,
the overall cost required by Mc Leod will be around 40000 £ in order to conduct and completing
various research related activities.
Scope: The research will be based on UK market area and the scope of the study will be that it
will analyse external events and the way it transforms the workplace.
Time: This factor is helps in. However, in this set time limit it will be able to accomplish the
aim of project effectively. analysing the time that will be required in order to complete the
research successfully. Along with this, in the current study scholar will be requiring approx. 6
weeks and 42 days in order to complete the research activities
Quality: It mainly related to validity and relevancy of the entire research project. Although the
scholar should ensure that data has been gathered is relevant and it will contribute in completing
the research.
Communication: It is one of the most important aspect in completion of successful research.
Moreover, it is crucial to communicate with various parties like stakeholders, customer and
manager of company in order to maintain effective communication (Lee and et.al., 2018). It will
result in making the research more accurate so that main aim can be accomplished.
Risk: There are various types of risk factor which can create challenges while completing the
project. Along with this, risk register will be maintained in order to take appropriate actions for
mitigating risk. However, reliability of data is the crucial risk that can be faced by the current
researcher.

Resources: In order to complete the project on time it is necessary for the research to include
human, finance and technological resources.
WBS and Gantt chart
Task Mode Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Auto
Schedule
d
Identifying research topic 2 days Thu 4/14/22 Fri 4/15/22
Auto
Schedule
d
Project plan 6 days Mon 4/18/22 Mon 4/25/22 1
Auto
Schedule
d
Literature review 3 days Tue 4/26/22 Thu 4/28/22 2
Auto
Schedule
d
Drafting research
methodology 4 days Fri 4/29/22 Wed 5/4/22 3
Auto
Schedule
d
Designing questionnaire 2 days Thu 5/5/22 Fri 5/6/22 4,3
Auto
Schedule
d
collection of data 5 days Mon 5/9/22 Fri 5/13/22 5
Auto Analyzing data and 5 days Mon 5/16/22 Fri 5/20/22 6,5
MSBP
Introduction Research Methodology Data collection Recommendation and
conclusion
Designing aims and
objectives
Background of
research
Research proposal
Research design
Design questionnaire
Survey
Collection of
secondary data
Data Analysis
Develop Themes
Interpretation of data
Evaluation of report
Submission of final
report

Schedule
d interpretation
Auto
Schedule
d
Discussion and conclusion 2 days Mon 5/23/22 Tue 5/24/22 7
Auto
Schedule
d
submission 1 day Wed 5/25/22 Wed 5/25/22 8
Literature review
According to Gregurec and et.al., (2021) , emergence of Covid-19 has resulted into most
rapid transformation at the workplace. It was observed that more than half of the employees
started working from home during the early stages of the pandemic which introduced work from
home culture. On the contrary the Al-Fadly (2020) stated that employees faced various
challenges to communicate with their co-workers working remotely. With the increase in the
technology, leaders and managers can easily connect with their teams and give directions which
encouraged that leadership can be done from distance.
As per the Galanti, et.al., (2021) Covid-19 has greatly affected the Mcleod profitability as
due to lockdown, the normal work routines of the workplace was suspended, the production of
the company was stopped. Due to various restrictions of the government, supply of the materials
was suspended which affected the profitability of the company. On the other hand, the
Raghavan, et.al, (2021) stated that due to closure of the productions and low profitability, the
company lay off many of their employees resulting into increase in employee turnover.
According to the O Connor, et.al., (2021) The company faced various challenges and
problems and to ensure the continuity of the business, it was important for the firm prepare the

organisation so that they can overcome the issues and reduce the impact of the crisis and build
effective teams. On the other hand, The company also ensured safety of the employees by
introducing the work form home culture and also providing several employees health benefits.
As per the Liu, Chen, and Li (2021) stated that in order to reduce the spread of the infection, the
firm faces the challenges to create and arrange the flexible shifts to ensure minimal contact
among the employees.
Research methodology
Research type: Research methods are divided into two parts Qualitative data and quantitative
data. For the present study qualitative research has been used which is based on the theoretical
aspect of the impact of Covid-19 on the workplace in order to receive the reliable information
about the research(Liamputtong, 2020).
Research Philosophy: Research philosophy is the belief that establish on the effective
understanding with the ideas that helps in systematically completing the research study.
Concerning with the collection of detailed information about the research, there are two types of
research philosophy i.e. Interpretivism and Positivism(Alharahsheh, and Pius, 2020). In the
present study, interpretivism research philosophy has been adopted in which detailed analysis of
the present study is done systematically in order to collect the information about the challenges
and problems faced by McLeod during the pandemic.
Research approach: It includes the plans and procedure with the detailed research steps. There
are two types of Research approach such as inductive and deductive(Walter, and Ophir, 2019).
The present study is associated with the Inductive research approach that describes the general or
specific information and as the qualitative research has been used in order to accomplish the
aim of the study related to the impact of covid on the performance of the company.
Data collection: Data collection is the process of gathering, measuring and accurately analysing
the information for the research with the help of several techniques. Basically, there are two
methods of collecting the data such as primary and secondary which has been used for the
present study(Cohen, and et.al., 2020). Under primary data collection methods, the information
is collected by conducting surveys through questionnaires, in which 20 senior management has
been chosen and for the secondary data various newspaper article, journal and books has been
analysed in order to find the effectiveness of the research study and develop brief thesis.

Data analysis: Data analysis is the process that includes the cleansing, inspecting and
transformation of the data for discovering the goals of discovering the relevant information that
will support the present research study(Mihas, 2019). In addition to this there are two methods
that is Thematic and SPSS that can be used in evaluating the data. Thematic analysis has been
undertaken for the present research study. Furthermore, several themes and graphs has been
designed on the basis of research objectives to present the research work in better way.
Sampling: It refers to the statistical analysis in which specific number of observation are taken
form the large population. In the present research study, random sampling method has been
adopted for gathering the relevant information related to the study(Lavrakas, and et.al., 2019.). In
this, 20 Senior Management managers has been selected that helps in determining their opinions
in order to gain the information related to the impact of Covid-19 on transformation of the
McLeod's organizational performance.
Ethical consideration: To conduct the study in accurate manner, it is essential to comply with
ethical principle. Researcher is required to collect the data that are not copied and that is why,
reference list has been added at the end of the report(Navalta, and et.al., 2019). The consent
form has been signed by the participant which highlights that the data collected is original and
reliable. Moreover during the research , the scholar maintained proper communication with the
participants.
Research limitation: In the present research study, the important limitations are time, money
and lack of resources. For completing the research study and collecting the reliable data, the
researcher has adopted the Thematic analysis for acquiring the information relevant to the study.
The research must focus on the relevancy of the whole research in order to find the desirable
results.
Validity and reliability: Validity and reliability is considered as the important part of the
research methodology. In the present research study, the scholar has used the information from
the reliable sources. In order to increase the reliability of the sources, current published data has
been used in the research. For completing the research various articles has been taken into
account. Moreover, for maintaining the validity of the sources form the researcher has been using

the data form the reliable copyright website which helped in collecting relevant information and
accomplishing the purpose of the study.
Data analysis
Theme 1: Majority of the respondents working from last 5 years
Particulars Respondent %
5 years 12 60%
3 years 7 35%
7 years 1 5%
Total 20 100%
Interpretation: On the basis of above graph, it has been analysed that majority of people
are working from last 5 years so they are aware about the position of the company. In
context to organisation context to company it has been analysed that employee can easy
to understand any situations of the company.
Theme 2: Majority of people are aware about pandemic transformation
Are you aware with
pandemic transformation on
McLeod? Respondent %
Yes 15 75%
No 2 10%

Don't know 3 15%
Total 20 100%
Interpretation: From the above pie chart it has been identified that majority of the employees are
aware about the pandemic transformation. On the other hand, only 25 percent of people are not
aware but changing the strategy help them for easy to understand the situation. Also, it is
necessary to focus on those who are analysing the impact.
Theme 3: Majority of managers are highly suffered due to changing customer need and
preferences.
Which of the following areas are
highly suffered during pandemic
transformation? Respondent %
Changing customer need or
preferences 8 40%
Digital transformation 4 20%
Employee turnover 6 30%
All of these 2 10%
Total 20 100%

Interpretation: On the basis of above graph, it has been identified that most affected area during
the pandemic transformations are changing customer need and preferences. The rate of customer
needs and preference are declined because at those times people are supposed to visit outside for
buying the product or services. Also, the second major thing is affected is employee turnover
because it impacted in such a way where organisation not able to support employee and fire them
due to scarcity of work and resources. There are very less people who are thinking that digital
transformation is affected due to pandemic because remote working prefer by employees.
Theme 4: Most of the people are positively impacted regarding profitability and employee
turnover
What is the impact on
McLeod’s performance
regarding profitability and
employee turnover? Respondent %
Positive 15 75%
Negative 3 15%
Both 2 10%
Total 20 100%

Interpretation: From the above graph it has been analysed that there was positive impact have
seen on McLeod’s performance regarding profitability and employee turnover. Due to
transformation employees get digital transformation training in order to participated in remotes
working also it help to provide flexible work hour to employee so that they can more work on
enhancing the knowledge and focus on improving the productivity.
Theme 5: Majority of people are know about termination or fire policy at workplace.
Does your company follow
any employee fire policy at
the time of Pandemic? Respondent %
Yes 15 75%
No 2 10%
Don't know 3 15%
Total 20 100%