Structural Changes of Organizational Maturity during the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Case of Lithuania

Abstract

Organizational maturity is a dynamic construct and a change that depends on both internal and external conditions. The COVID-19 pandemic provides an opportunity to examine, from the perspective of organizational maturity, what challenges companies faced during the economic slowdown, when decisions had to be made quickly, but very responsibly. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on organizations and their activities has led to a response from organizations to find solutions that are sustainable and not only able to survive the economic downturn, but also able to achieve/maintain a higher level of organizational maturity. Although information on the changes in the organizational maturity structure observed in organizations during the COVID-19 pandemic is already available, there is little research in this area. Thus, the purpose of the paper is to reveal changes in the organizational maturity structure during the COVID-19 pandemic. Authors used a qualitative research strategy to identify which indicators of organizational maturity elements and sub-elements occurred in the companies surveyed before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The sample of experts in both studies consisted of 24 top executives from 24 companies, 12 at each stage before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. The research disclosed that, during the COVID-19 pandemic, the companies made sustainable decisions and they greatly strengthened the hard areas related to technology, work processes, and contributions to the organization’s operations. Meanwhile, the soft areas, related to employee competencies and, on the other hand, behavioural processes have become more vulnerable.