The Effect of the COVID-19 Pandemic on the Australian Data Analytics Company

NB: We do not resell your papers. Upon ordering, we do an original paper exclusively for you.

NB: All your data is kept safe from the public.

Introduction

The COVID-19 pandemic had a considerable impact on business ventures, with many employees being requested to work remotely. This course of action led to the dynamics of human resource (HR) management and corporate culture changing significantly. This case study will consider the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the Australian data analytics company. It will assess what strategies can be employed to promote a healthy work-life balance and corporate culture. For this case, the survey and interview data collection methods are recommended to comprehensively evaluate the situation.

Business question

The organization under consideration is a company that provides its customers with data analysis services and data-based solutions. The company delivers different analyses, including identifying and predicting business sales trends and conducting product performance analysis as well as employee-related analyses. The business operates in Australia only and does not provide services for international ventures. Currently, the organization faces several pandemic-related challenges that should be urgently addressed. Due to employees working remotely, the company experienced significant declines in corporate culture, burnout, stress, and productivity problems. It can be argued that difficulties with maintaining a healthy work-life balance contributed to these issues.

Key organisational objectives and business question

The primary organizational objectives are to strengthen the corporate culture within the company and to assist employees in maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Therefore, the business question should address the strategies that can be implemented to achieve the stated objectives to enhance the employee experience, job satisfaction, and retention. In addition, the indicated organizational objectives are expected to have a positive impact on job [performance and financial results of the company.

Table 1.1: Summary of key organisational objectives

	Objective	Expected impact on business
1	To improve the work-life balance.	Enhanced job performance and satisfaction.
2	To strengthen corporate culture.	Increased employee retention and financial results.

Table 1.2: Business question

What internal and virtual processes can be implemented to ensure a healthy work-life balance and consistency in corporate culture is maintained for employees during the remote working period.

Statement of the adopted data collection instruments

For the purposes of the case study, it is important to employ both qualitative and quantitative data collection instruments to obtain comprehensive data sets relating to the current challenges of the company. Thus, a survey and a semi-structured interview can be utilized to collect quantitative and qualitative data, respectively. A survey can be defined as a method of collecting information through a set of relevant structured questions from a sample to understand the target population as a whole (Online Surveys, 2022; Story and Tait, 2019). Meanwhile, an interview is a method of gathering data through a structured, semi-structured, or unstructured dialogue of a researcher with the study participants (Barrett and Twycross, 2018). The use of two data gathering techniques will allow a better understanding of the challenges the company faces and will help develop more efficient solutions to them.

Critical evaluation of these instruments

A Likert scale survey is an appropriate method of collecting information on the companys current issues. This attitude scale allows the respondents to indicate the degree of agreement or disagreement with a statement (Taherdoost, 2019). A survey with a 7-point Likert scale can provide invaluable numerical data on the phenomena under investigation. Such surveys are simple to construct and can yield a reliable attitude scale with a data set that is easy to analyze (Taherdoost, 2019). However, research shows that respondents often tend to avoid extreme responses, leading to a central tendency bias (Taherdoost, 2019, p. 4). In addition, the scale is vulnerable to social desirability bias, with the participants giving answers they feel are desirable.

An interview can also be utilized to gather information to evaluate the effect of the COVID-19 pandemic on the company. A semi-structured interview is recommended as it allows to ask questions concerning the core elements of the studied occurrence while permitting the respondents to elaborate (Barrett and Twycross, 2018). Flexibility is the primary advantage of a semi-structured interview as a tool utilized to build a data set. Face-to-face and online interviews conducted using video calls allow the interviewer to account for non-verbal cues such as facial expressions and body language. However, the semi-structured interview procedure also presents several limitations, including it being time-consuming (Hawkins, 2018). Lack of anonymity also presents a concern, as the interviewees may provide disingenuous answers to protect their position in the company.

Table 1.3: Comparison of the adopted data collection instruments

Type of data collection instrument	Strengths	Weaknesses	Applicability to the chosen case study	References to literature
Survey	Simplicity; easy-to-analyze data set.	Central tendency and social desirability bias.	Survey of employees is an appropriate method to assess the current work-life balance and corporate culture.	Taherdoost, 2019
Interview	Flexibility, opportunity to assess non-verbal signals.	Time-consuming method, lack of anonymity.	Interview is an applicable method to detect the causes of employees issues with work-life balance and low corporate culture.	Barrett and Twycross, 2018; Hawkins, 2018

Potential limitations and issues associated with the proposed approach to data acquisition

Survey and interview data collection methods have potential limitations related to validity and reliability. Surveys are highly reliable and valid; however, the internal consistency and construct validity of the survey are dependent on the questions included being well-developed (Story and Tait, 2019). Survey respondents may show self-report bias as well as non-response bias. Interviews are characterized by high reliability and validity, specifically content validity that can be easily assessed by creating a pool of items (Clark and Watson, 2019). Nevertheless, interviews are vulnerable to the answers being evaluated through the interviewers perspective or subjective face validity (Clark and Watson, 2019). Thus, both methods have certain advantages and limitations to their implementation.

Table 1.4: Evaluation of the chosen data collection instruments

	Chosen data collection instrument	Advantages	Limitations	References to literature
1		High internal consistency and construct validity.	Self-report bias.	Story and Tait, 2019
2		High validity and reliability.	Subjective face validity.	Clark and Watson, 2019).

Reference list

Barrett, D. and Twycross, A. (2018) Data collection in qualitative research, Evidence Based Nursing, 21(3), pp. 6364. doi: 10.1136/eb-2018-102939.

Clark, L. A. and Watson, D. (2019) Constructing Validity: New Developments in Creating Objective Measuring Instruments, Psychological Assessment, 31(12), pp. 14121427.

Hawkins, J. (2018) The practical utility and suitability of email interviews in qualitative research, The Qualitative Report, 23(2), pp. 493501.

Online Surveys(2022). Web.

Story, D. and Tait, A. (2019) Survey Research, Anesthesiology, 130, pp. 192202.

Taherdoost, H. (2019) What is the best response scale for survey and questionnaire design; Review of different lengths of rating scale / Attitude scale / Likert scale, International Journal of Academic Research in Management, 8(1), pp. 1-10.

Click Here To Order Now!