The Impact of Covid-19 on Employees, Leadership Competencies and Human Resource Development

Abstract

The aim of this paper is to investigate the impact on of Coronavirus on employees and leadership competencies and the new role of human resource development. In crisis, employees are greatly affected and subsequently require a large amount of support from organizational leaders and human resource development (HRD) practitioners. Furthermore, in times of crisis leaders are asked to respond effectively and develop completely new competencies in order to deal with the crisis at hand. As such, HRD is seen as the success element, which aids the organization’s resilience during a crisis. The research objectives guiding this paper included determining the effects of crisis situations such as COVID-19 on employees and understanding how HRD can assist in minimizing the crisis effects such as COVID-19 for employees. Further research objectives are to ascertain the leadership competencies required during normal situations and crisis situations such as COVID-19 and lastly to understand how HRD can support leaders and the relevant leadership competencies during crisis situations such as COVID-19. The study was essential as there has been limited research done on the effects of COVID-19 on HRD. The research methodology used for this study was desktop research due to time constraints and COVID-19 restrictions. The researcher undertook a comprehensive literature review by utilizing recent data, findings and made useful recommendations and conclusions.

Keywords: Coronavirus, Leadership, Competencies, Human Resources Development.