PARADIGM CHANGE OF "MANAGEMENT FUNCTIONS" DUE TO THE REMOTE WORKING CONDITIONS CAUSED BY THE COVID 19 PANDEMIC
Authors: Aroshidze Paata 
Published: August 2023

Paata Aroshidze

E-mail: aroshidze.paata@bsu.edu.ge

Associate Professor, Batumi Shota Rustaveli State University

Batumi, Georgia

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5723-8261

Abstract. The main challenge of the Covid-19 pandemic crisis was the perfection of remote work, which lasted not a few days, but several months and even a year in some organizations. In this research, the main focus is not on legal entities under public law and the impact that remote work has brought, but on private structures as legal entities independently performing management functions.

During the pandemic, the functioning of organizations underwent significant changes. Some organizations have remained on the market with limited functions, some have changed their profile, and some have completely disappeared from the business arena. Despite the fact that on May 5, 2023, the World Health Organization declared the end of the global health emergency related to the Covid-19 pandemic, obviously, the changes caused by the pandemic in the new understanding of paradigms of "management functions" have not yet been analyzed.

The paper examines the impact of forced remote work on "management functions". Organizations of various directions, which were forced to switch to remote work during the pandemic, were included in the research.

The in-depth interview method was adopted as the research methodology. The majority of organizations have more or less preserved their organizational structure and managerial hierarchy, although it was not uncommon to optimize stuff. The goal of structural optimization was mainly to reduce costs, not to improve the communication process and to better perform the duties assigned to a small number of employees. According to Geostat (National Statistical Service of Georgia), the number of employees during the pandemic period (2020-2022) decreased the most in the industry sector (141.3 thousand - 137.2 thousand), in the field of accommodation and food supply (36 thousand - 33.4 thousand), arts, entertainment and recreation field. These are the areas that suffered the most from the so-called "Lockdown" process. The first period of remote work for the Horeca sector turned out to be relatively easy because, due to seasonality, the number of employees was already reduced to a minimum. As a result of analyzing the data, it was determined that in the conditions of remote work, the function of leadership and control decreased the most. Also, the motivation of remotely working employees decreased, which resulted from the reduction of the control function. It turned out to be quite difficult to maintain the leadership function and implement it perfectly. The number of employees involved in the planning and decision-making process has also decreased.

As can be seen from the table, remote work had less impact on the planning function since most of the research organizations make their planning only involving upper management levels, and lower management levels are less involved in this process. In many cases, employees in non-managerial positions do not know the overall plan of their company and do not understand the mission and vision. Such an approach contributed to the fact that the work performed outside the place of employment has affected lees on the management function of planning.