Internal communication disruptions during the pandemic time of crisis in businesses in Cyprus

Abstract

COVID-19 pandemic disrupted the work activity of many organizations worldwide. Imposed governmental emergency legislations resulted in compulsory remote work conditions, for some or all employees of many organizations during lockdowns, which required changes, such as utilizing appropriate channels of internal communication, shifting towards digital means for communicating and collaborating in distance, to ensure effective internal communication and information flow within the organization. This dissertation aims to shed some light to the way internal communication of organizations changed, during COVID-19 pandemic in Cyprus, focusing mostly on the channels utilized and on the changes in frequency and direction of internal communication, before and during COVID-19 in Cyprus, during telework. In addition, this study aims to provide and account of the effectiveness of internal communication within organizations, as appreciated by participants and, also, investigate participants’ preferences in respect to channels used for internal communication and teleworking option in the future. In order to address the research questions of this dissertation, quantitative, nonexperimental descriptive research was employed, using survey as data collection method. Participants of this study were 93 employees working in organizations of various sizes and sectors of activities. The results of this dissertation reveal that there were some changes in the way channels of internal communication were utilized in organizations in Cyprus before and during COVID-19. Specifically, findings report that e-mails were used for sharing information regarding the organization, both before and during COVID-19, whereas richer channels of communication, such as face-to-face were utilized for solving issues and coordinating daily matters before the pandemic, but were replaced with online meetings and telephone during COVID-19. In addition, internal communication flow was in various directions with the most frequent communication taking place between coworkers of the same department and the least frequent with the organizations’ leader both before and during COVID-19. No changes were reported in preferences of sources used for receiving information regarding organizational matters and even though frequency of communication was decreased during COVID-19, the overall satisfaction of internal communication and its frequency remained in similarly high levels. Lastly, it appears that employees in Cyprus prefer face-to-face as the channel used for future internal communication and they prefer having the option for teleworking, but only for some days of the week.