Abstract:

Due to the COVID19 pandemic, employees in many countries have switched to distant work by telecommuting. Those who had to choose this work format, already called the “new normal” [Deloitte 2020], face psychological problems caused by sudden organisational changes, unprepared ‘home office’, interpersonal challenges and family difficulties, according to a survey of employees in 28 countries conducted by the international research company Ipsos on request of the World Economic Forum. Overall, most employees around the world have reported increased levels of stress and anxiety.

In Russia, as in the average for all countries, the greatest psychological pressure was associated with anxiety about the stability of employment: 53% of employees reported an increase in fear of losing their jobs. Also, about a half reported the stress caused by changes in the organization of the usual work processes and that it became difficult to maintain a balance between work and personal life [Econs 2021].

The majority of university teachers in Russia and abroad noted facing a significant (and sometimes excessive) increase in the workload along with reduced motivation of students, with some trying to take advantage of the disturbances in the habitual patterns of organizational communication in universities caused by forced distancing and to ‘reduce their workload’ by ‘avoiding’ their educational responsibilities by disrupting communication with their teachers.

The COVID-19 pandemic has had a greater impact on university faculty and managers around the world over the past year. Based on the research conducted, the presentation highlights the current impact of the pandemic on educators and middle managers.

The paper aims to clear up the consequences of the pandemic in HE, internal university organisational communication (OC) to be precise, in three major domains:
(1) at the level of university departments – between department managers and university teachers,
(2) within the hierarchical relationships between the university top management and departments, and partly,
(3) within the relationships between teachers and students.

The research based upon a survey engaging teachers and middle managers at two universities in the EU and Russia, employing a 5-point Likert scale, as well as semi-structured interviews with a number of colleagues, coupled with a preliminary thorough literature review.

The presentation focuses on:
(a) a number of issues including general improvement of digital sustainable development in HE due to current changes in universities’ OC,
(b) changes and challenges in university digitalized OC provoked by the pandemic, and
(c) university employees’ perceptions and attitudes to the aforementioned changes and challenges.

The starting point for the pilot study was:
(i) current changes arising in the practice of teachers and middle managers (heads of departments and staff of dean's offices), for example, work from home, virtual teams, and
(ii) organizational and socio-psychological consequences of the pandemic (changes in internal OC). In addition, potential factors were identified that hinder positive changes in the digital organizational communication of universities. Based on the results of the study, underpinned by a systemic approach, the paper offers a model encompassing real and potential consequences of the pandemic for universities’ digitalized OC, as well as possible problems for future research and ideas for finding solutions.

Keywords:

COVID19 pandemic, digital organizational communication of universities, university staff, work from home, distance learning, motivation.