The Impact of the Epidemic Generated by the SARS-COV-2 Virus in the Context of the VUCA World

Abstract

In a volatile, uncertain, complex and ambiguous business environment (VUCA environment) organizations often face changes, being forced to update their strategy in order to maintain or increase their competitive advantage. In the context of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, all organizations regardless of their area of activity had to devise a fast-track action plan so that they could continue their work even in a new world - an uncertain world with many changes, from one hour to another. Therefore, the purpose of this paper is to reveal the connection between the VUCA business environment and the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic context, respectively the way in which organizational change analyzed through the VUCA world could influence the activity of organizations in the pandemic context. In order to achieve these objectives, a systematic review was conducted. Starting from the present studies and researches, this paper aims to present the main components of the VUCA world and how they influence organizational change, the implications that the pandemic context had on the activity organizations, changes in the style of coordination and leadership of organizations caused by SARS-CoV-2, as well as the new skills and competencies that employees of organizations must acquire in order to cope with an insecure and complex business environment. The results showed that taking into account the aspects characteristic of the VUCA world can play a decisive role when a crisis situation arises, such as that created by SARS - CoV-2.