Editorial: Sustainability and Resiliency in Organizations During Times of Crises: Addressing the Challenges of COVID-19

The pandemic caused by COVID-19 affected markets on all continents and resulted in incalculable losses for countries, organizations, and individuals. The crisis quickly set in. Crises can be initiated, among other factors, by economic, military or environmental issues, such as earthquakes, droughts and floods, tsunamis, etc. In general, crises are geographically restricted. The year 2020 brought us a new global crisis factor, the pandemic. As in other crises, countries, organizations, and people looked for ways to return to normality. Likewise, the management of organizations faced several restrictive factors. They have ranged from economic difficulties to problems with suppliers, and markets and distribution.

In this context, it was decided to develop a Research Topic that focused on consequences of COVID-19 regarding sustainability for organizations. The objective of this Research Topic is to understand how organizations, whether public, private, or mixed, addressed the challenges posed by COVID-19 and how organizations' sustainability efforts were affected. Research Topic provides insights into how organizations intend to become more resilient in the face of the challenges of the COVID-19 crisis and any challenges that may arise in the near future.

This special collection started in 2020 and ended in 2021, with four guest editors and more than 50 reviewers who have dedicated their time and expertise to bring you a significant contribution to the field of study.

The selected articles offer some new insights into known issues, but analyzed for the first time through the prism of the pandemic. Issues such as gender and resilience and risk in supply chains appear in a new guise. It also discusses how the pandemic affected people and the work environment. In addition, how this leads many people and organizations to consider spirituality in this context. Remote work has been in the spotlight, but in many cases, the patchy infrastructure has shown that there is much room for improvement. The expectations of stakeholders with the progress of the pandemic and the prevention measures taken by governments are also analyzed. In other words, here we have five articles that will give you a great opportunity to review discussions that are always interesting and now up-to-date.

Five articles were ultimately published from the ones received.

The paper “Entrapment Between Narratives: The Millennial Voice and Degendering Organizational Resilience” (Witmer) discusses how organizations respond to sustainability challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The paper explores the implications for degendering and the incorporating masculine and feminine constructs into organizational resilience. The paper focuses on data from millennials and their workplace experience. The paper provides insights into cross-cultural gender perspective of organizational resilience.

The paper “The Impact of the Coronavirus Pandemic on Supply Chains and Their Sustainability: A Text Mining Approach” (Meyer et al.) analyses how text mining can provide insights on the impact of sustainability on global supply chains, with a particular focus on risk, resilience, and sustainability. The paper focuses on three stages: (1) the onset of the crisis; (2) the peak and lockdown; and (3) managing supply chains during the crisis. The research provides a base for further research into supply chains during times of crises.

The paper “Resilience Meets Sustainable and Spiritual Background Into an Initial Review for the New Normal After the COVID-19 Pandemic” (Bella et al.) proposes a basis for a of the strategic structuring of values that impact the perspective of planning at its different levels within the scope of organizational human relations. The paper emphasizes an intersection between organizational resilience and spirituality at work. The paper highlights the correspondence of the identity of the human being with enabling the development of a predictable planning environment in the aspects of motivation and engagement to overcome moments of crisis.

The paper “Surviving the Pandemic: Remote Working in the Maltese Public Service During the COVID-19 Outbreak” (Bezzina et al.) examines how human resources in the Maltese Public Service adopt new work practices in response to COVID-19 public health measures during the first wave of the pandemic. The paper discusses how adopting remote working modes unveiled inherent weaknesses in the Public Service IT infrastructure that added additional strains on a Government's centralized IT support function, especially when Public Service employees adopted tools not supported by the centralized IT support. The paper posits that in times when organizations respond to immediate and unprecedented change, human resources seek to adapt by relying on tacit knowledge that is shared among people in known (often informal) groups of people with a common interest or role.

The paper “Auditing of SARS-CoV-2 Contagion and Transmission Protocols as a Stakeholder Management Tool” (Muncinelli et al.) discusses how governments and companies in countries affected by COVID-19 have taken measures to prevent. The papers shows, on the one hand, the rapid spread of the virus among the population, and, on the other hand, the measures to alleviate the economic and commercial consequences of the crisis that is already changing the daily functioning of the population and the companies. The paper highlights that stakeholders' expectations and interests are connected to this issue and can be aligned through an Audit of Contagion and Transmission Protocols of SARS-CoV-2.

Author Contributions

All authors listed have made a substantial, direct, and intellectual contribution to the work and approved it for publication.

Conflict of Interest

RL was employed by the company Organisational Sustainability, Ltd.

The remaining authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

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