Succeeding Crisis Management at the Organizational Level: The Importance of Agility and Digital Transformation in Business Continuity

Abstract

The Covid-19 crisis has deeply impacted the functioning of organizations, forcing them to completely rethink their operations. Indeed, this health crisis has accelerated the digitization of tools and the restructuring of internal processes. However, it is important not to overlook the significant challenges this profound change entails in terms of team management.

This unprecedented crisis has truly disrupted the status quo, prompting managers to fundamentally reconsider work organization and demonstrate adaptability, creativity, and leadership to successfully overcome these unprecedented challenges. As a result, human resource managers are faced with a major challenge: implementing new forms of steering, management, and innovative strategies, placing digital transformation at the core of their concerns.

Furthermore, it is crucial to consider the impact of this transformation on individuals, placing the human factor at the center of reflections. This study aims to analyze the contribution of digital transformation to the field of human resource management, specifically focusing on the advantages of agile management and digitalization in ensuring business continuity during crises, particularly the Covid-19 crisis.

This research adopts a positivist epistemological standpoint, utilizing a hypothetico-deductive reasoning approach and employing a quantitative research methodology to explore our research questions. The study is based on questionnaires completed by 44 key individuals from various Moroccan banks who willingly participated in our survey.

The analysis of the results highlighted the contribution of digital transformation to HR management in crisis situations. Indeed, organizations that had already embraced digital transformation prior to the Covid-19 crisis were able to seamlessly ensure business continuity during this challenging period, which would not have been possible without digital technologies. Thus, this crisis served as a wake-up call for organizations that had not yet embarked on their digital transformation journey.

However, it is important to acknowledge that this research has certain limitations. Specifically, our study focuses specifically on the banking sector, which means that the findings cannot be generalized to other sectors, particularly the public sector, which often adopts different management approaches compared to the banking sector.

Keywords: Human resources management - Banking sector - Crisis situation/Health crisis - Covid 19- Digital transformation - Agility

JEL Classification : 015

Paper type : Empirical research