The COVID-19 Pandemic and How Brazilian Organizations Faced Its Challenges

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic brought many challenges to people, organizations, and governments, and businesses were impacted by social isolation measures and falling consumption. To cope with this situation, it was not only necessary to send the workforce out of offices into remote working or telecommuting, but it was also imperative to innovate to retain customers. In this context, this exploratory study was elaborated to better understand teleworking, workers' behavior, and the usefulness of agile management methods to innovate and help companies stay competitive in the Brazilian scenario. The chapter discusses the results of three surveys conducted during the most critical period of the pandemic, which showed that working from home, despite its great economic and social advantages, needs the companies' attention to employees' potential health problems, and that companies that adopted agile management earlier were able to adapt and innovate faster to overcome the challenges imposed by the pandemic.