Group Project

A Case of Change management in a law firm operating online during the covid -19 pandemic

Maria-Rosa Khoury
Andrea Gemayel
Farah Miari
Lara Masri Chouman

May 4th, 2023

MRHM309
Dr. Nathalie Saade
The sudden emergence of Covid-19 has changed individuals’ perspectives on the way they live,

in terms of communication, leadership, teamwork, and more. Organizations and different

institutions have shifted from on-site and physical work to remote work, and how they dealt with

such a shift will reveal their good management methods and strengths. This is when remote

work, T&D, interviews, and more became the new norm and were known as “digital solutions”

(Almeida, et al., 2020). This shift has been very difficult for both companies and individuals

which has led to burnout, stress, worry, and anxiety in times of uncertainty and ambiguity. This

scenario has occurred in a multinational law firm known as “Your Justice” which has a local

office in Lebanon. Your Justice is one of the best workplaces to work at since it values its

employees’ contributions, inclusion and diversity, teamwork, work-life balance, and job

engagement. However, once Covid-19 hit, Your Justice, just like any other organization, suffered

greatly and went into a crisis management mode when its employees began to lose motivation to

work due to the lack of work-life balance and their constant thoughts of losing their clients if

they shift to remote work. In addition, employees began exhibiting “quiet quitting”, feelings of

worry and unfairness, and an inability to cope with the company’s demands. Your Justice was

not able to handle this abrupt change effectively and therefore began taking very quick decisions,

which is an issue itself. Management sent out a mass email to all employees about the sudden

news of shifting remotely, however, it was not mentioned that a plan was developed to

implement such a change or any analysis to determine the impact of such change on

stakeholders. Moreover, monitoring was not held to ensure such a rapid change was

implemented smoothly while making sure that the organization is achieving its goals and

objectives. Also, guaranteeing employees have adapted to change is as important as managing

change, and this is when management implemented virtual meetings by reiterating their

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announcement and stating that “We are all in this together”. This is the stage where upper

management and HR should mainly focus on retaining their employees and clients to maintain

Your Justice’s reputation, in addition to the employees’ and stakeholders’ loyalty.

Therefore, we have decided to tackle this problem by conducting qualitative research.

1. Research Design Selected

because it produces factual, trustworthy outcome data that can typically be applied to a larger

population.(Marja J. Verhoef). In addition, it gives employees a safe place to share their unique

experiences and provides upper management with the chance to express their understanding of

the current situation and communicate their drawbacks. This approach also helps in overcoming

self-consciousness which can inhibit quick responses and reactions.

It is crucial that the HR shares the concerns noticed collected from the employees with the upper

management to reassess the crisis management technique used by them and improve the

communication channels linking the to lower levels. This would reemphases the company

culture Your justice has created before that promotes open communications between levels and

to reassure employees that their voices are being heard and understood, in addition to ensuring

that proper actions will be taken.

To assess the given case, we realized that the reason behind employee burnout and quiet quitting,

and deterioration of company culture is the poor implementation of change management. The

core problems include a lack of coordination between departments, employees, and clients which

has resulted in a lack of work-life balance. For instance, employees had to take work calls

anytime during the day or night. Another problem is the way they have communicated this

change; they sent a brief email with minimal instructions with no clear guidelines for the action

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plan. They could have held a meeting with employees to communicate this change and to also

listen to their concerns to ensure a smooth transition to online work. Also, they could have sent

employees an anonymous form to collect employees’ feedback. Moreover, there was a lack of

training and resources such as unstable Wi-Fi connections. 

2. Research Objectives

This study is useful and timely since it will provide a better understanding and perception on

employee engagement, motivation, satisfaction, and work-life balance during remote work. To

find a solution for the mentioned problems faced at the company, this research aims to   identify

the impact of this change on employees and the company in order to create practical

considerations to maintain the company's performance and healthy culture. Secondly, this

research will explore the concerns of employees and ensure a safe place to express themselves

and their suggestions. In addition, it will identify the needed resources to improve the

communication channels and ensure employee engagement. Also, this research aims to find ways

to communicate what is happening to upper management and to understand what practical

considerations should be taken. Finally, this research will help identify how to increase retention

and decrease turnover. The results derived from the study will present a consistent, structured,

and objective evaluation of the gathered data. Therefore, the  results will help in determining the

implications of remote work and how it is affecting the employees’ productivity and balance, and

in what ways retention can take place by keeping employees and clients satisfied. 

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 3. Methodology, Sample, and Interviews:

We will be using the grounded theory method, meaning that we will be interviewing 20 to 30

employees from different departments. The data collection method that we chose is standardized

online interviews,  since structured interviews give us the chance to collect unique and original

data directly from the source . They also make it possible to survey a sizable portion of the target

employees and upper management  and guarantee sample control. The process is simple and

produces trustworthy results quickly. Compared to mailed surveys, which are only appropriate

for literate respondents, the structured interviews will allow employees to dive more deeply into

their unique experiences and elaborate on the points they find more important.

We will be interviewing the employees in different levels and departments  in order to hear their

concerns and if they have any suggestions, in addition to members of the upper management to

understand their level of awareness about the situation of employees and their opinion of their

results, in addition, to their understanding of terms such as quit quitting, burnout and employee

engagement. And finally, about the steps they took in order to tackle the situation.

4. Research Questions: 
 How can the company improve its change management approach to maintain the well-

established company culture? 

 How can communication be improved to ensure proper understanding in all company

departments?

5. Interview Questions for employees: 

2. How well do you think the business explained the switch to online work?

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3. In what way do you think the decision-making for the change took your feedback into

account?

4. Since the shift to online work, how have expectations and the workload changed?

5. In what ways do you feel you have been given the tools and assistance you need to

operate productively from home?

6. What steps did the business take to help your mental health and wellness during the

change, in your opinion?

7. How do you think the business has managed to keep an atmosphere of community and

connections among employees during the transition?

8. What adjustments would you advise the business to do to enhance the change

management procedure and preserve the corporate culture?

9. How can the business better include its workers in communication and decision-making

during times of change?

6. Interview Questions for upper management:

1.  What actions did you take to get prepared for the COVID-19 shift to online work?

2. How did you inform the staff about the changes and explain if it was successful?

3. How did you make sure that workers received the proper instruction and assistance

during the transition?

4. Explain whether you think a healthy work-life balance is crucial for a workforce's

happiness and job satisfaction? If so, how would you rank it in our organization

5. Describe the term “Quiet- quitting” if you are aware of it.

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 6. Validity

We will  refrain from asking interview questions that are irrelevant to the position or could elicit

biased answers to guarantee a fair and bias-free interview process. To guarantee objectivity and

consistency in the evaluation process, it is also crucial that we score each candidate's responses

according to a set scoring formula.

To validate the efficacy of the interview process and provide additional data points for making

informed hiring decisions, we might want to think about incorporating other selection methods in

addition to interviews, such as aptitude tests or work samples.

We will also evaluate the outcomes and feedback from the interviewers and candidates, pinpoint

any areas that need improvement, and then make the necessary adjustments to improve the

interview process' effectiveness. This will help to increase the validity of the interview process.

7. Conclusion:

Based on the problems faced, Your Justice faced a lot of decreased productivity and

employee morale. As a team of HR researchers, we recommend that the implication of such

major changes should be well communicated. In fact, one of the major issues resulting from this

decrease is the lack of well-communicated instructions. For starters, HR should send a well-

explained email to communicate all the new steps and instructions.

Also, in such scenarios, it is very important that the upper management familiarizes itself with

the possible outcomes of any change in its operating models in addition to the specific terms

such as “quiet quitting” . We recommend that the upper management creates a well-established

action plan to ease up the implementation of shifting all operations into remote work. It is also

advisable to create training workshops so that all employees familiarize themselves with the

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remote work setting. In addition, to always provide motivation to the employees and clear

guidance.

8. References:
Almeida, F., et al. (2020). The Challenges and Opportunities in the Digitalization of Companies

in a Post Covid-19 World. IEEE Xplore. Retrieved from:

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/abstract/document/9153093

Formica, S. & Sfodera, F. (2022). The Great Resignation and Quiet Quitting paradigm shifts: An

overview of current situation and future research directions, Journal of Hospitality Marketing &

Management, 31:8, 899-907,

 DOI: 10.1080/19368623.2022.2136601 

Sullivan, Kenneth & Kashiwagi, Dean & Lines, Brian. (2011). Organizational change models: A

critical review of change management processes. COBRA 2011 - Proceedings of RICS

Construction and Property Conference. 256-266.

Verhoef, M. J., & Casebeer, A. L. (1997). Broadening horizons: Integrating quantitative and

qualitative research. National Library of Medicine, 8(2), 65–66.

https://doi.org/10.1155/1997/349145

White, K. M., Dudley-Brown, S., & Terhaar, M. F. (2019). Translation of Evidence Into Nursing

and Health Care, Third Edition. Springer Publishing.

Retrieved from:  https://doi.org/10.1891/9780826147370

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