This project will focus on how transitioning to a more digital work environment is affecting workers in the financial industry. We also cover the different ways in which companies are changing their business model to fit this new mold.
Gu, X., Ying, S., Zhang, W., & Tao, Y. (2020). How Do Firms Respond to COVID-19? First Evidence from Suzhou, China. Emerging Markets Finance & Trade, 56(10), 2181–2197. https://doi-org.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/10.1080/1540496X.2020.1789455
This academic article focuses on how businesses responded to the COVID-19 pandemic by looking at their electrical consumption. In doing this, the authors were able to conclude that the pandemic had hit some businesses harder than others. Companies in the areas of manufacturing were hit the hardest while firms related to construction, programming, and software transfer were positively affected. In looking at this article, we can see that how some companies in different sectors managed their businesses greatly affected their outcomes with the bottom line. We can use this information to then predict what future businesses can do to better counteract the negative effects of the pandemic.
Lawson, S. (2020). DFAS Meets COVID-19 Challenges. Armed Forces Comptroller, 65(3), 30–33.
In this article, Lawson identifies ways that the Defense Finance and Accounting Services have been able to continue working through the use of their VPN service. It is through the VPN service that all of their employees were able to continue working on the company’s mainframe without it failing due to the high concentration of people using it from all different locations. This kind of magnitude is something that will be useful more and more as the pandemic continues. Through the transition to working remotely, companies need a way for all their employees to be able to work simultaneously together on one server. In studying this article, we can learn ways in which companies can improve the working environments for employees with little to no lag or hiccups on the technology front
Banham, R. (2020). Virtual CFOs Have Their Day: The pandemic forced a grand work-from-home experiment on finance. But is an all-remote team really the future? CFO, 36(4), 28–33.
https://www.cfo.com/workplace-issues/2020/09/virtual-cfos-have-their-day/
This article is extremely relevant to our article as it focuses on the future of finance work remotely, and whether or not an in person experience is necessary. It’s especially relevant having been written in 2020. The author interviews several people who discuss the transition, and how it affected their overall performance as a team. He describes finance as being “data-intensive” and how it’s possible to make the change to remote because of it. It outlines how some companies had already started to use tools like teams and zoom to try remote work for some employees, and how that put them in a position to be ahead when companies had less of a choice to move all online.
Semuels, A. (2020). Does Remote Work Actually Work? TIME Magazine, 195(12/13), 42–47.
This article dives into the new “normal” of virtual meetings due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Workers everywhere are now having to meet with their co-workers through virtual platforms such as Zoom. Virtual meetings have always been around but were used as a last resort if a face to face meeting wasn’t possible, which was not that common. Problems arise when we start using virtual platforms as placeholders for face to face communication. In a virtual platform, it is harder to bond with your co-workers or have a genuine conversation. It is also harder to have conversations with multiple people through a virtual meeting because we don’t notice speaking ques or start to talk all at once. Face to face meetings are better when it comes to brainstorming, bonding, and communicating.
MORRIS, D. (2020). Teleworking as the “New Normal” Presents Challenges for Employers. Insurance Advocate, 131(6), 18.
This article is about how teleworking due to covid-19 presents HR and legal issues for the company and the employees. Wage and hour compliance is a lot harder when employees aren’t physically showing up and clocking into work day to day. It presents the issues of how companies keep track of the hours their employees are working and how they know the employees are being truthful and holding themselves accountable. Teleworking presents issues of employee productivity. How can companies track the work of their employees and make sure they’re getting their work done. The article also goes into invasion of privacy issues and workplace safety
https://www-sciencedirect-com.ezproxy.library.wwu.edu/science/article/pii/S0360131512002783
Hung Wei Tseng, Hsin-Te Yeh, Team members’ perceptions of online teamwork learning experiences and building teamwork trust: A qualitative study, Computers & Education, Volume 63, 2013, Pages 1-9, ISSN 0360-1315,
The study discussed in this article is about looking at how members of virtual teams perceived their experiences with the online collaborative learning environment. The study looks at a class very similar to how our management class is currently, groups of 3 or 4 people were required to complete a group project every 3 weeks all online. The study used a scale to measure how well the individuals thought they worked as a team. The four elements researchers used were communication, familiarity, trust, and cohesion. Although in this study there was not a direct correlation between project grades and how the teams rated their teamwork dynamic it was relevant. Companies who are able to create an environment in which their employees have better teamwork dynamics could see greater success when adapting to online work.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0268401220309890
Seetharaman, P. (2020). Business models shifts: Impact of Covid-19. International Journal of InformSeetharaman, P. (2020). Business models shifts: Impact of Covid-19. International Journal of Information Management, 54, 102173.
This study analyzes how Covid19 has initiated a trend for companies to adopt a highly digitized format and how this new format benefits the companies. Interestingly enough, it also touches on how early adopters of a largely digital format for their business were able to capitalize on it much more efficiently when the pandemic hit earlier this year in 2020. I rationalized that this would be a good article because it deciphers how this more online intensive business model is adopted as well as how companies utilize it for customers and employees.
By: Blake Gibson, Ethan Hulbert, Andrew Johnson, Kasia-Elizabeth Lizama, Cooper Schelbert