ORGANISATIONAL IMPROVISATION AND ECONOMIC SUSTAINABILITY IN THE CORPORATE EVENTS SECTOR AS A RESPONSE TO COVID-19 RESTRICTIONS
Authors: Long, N. and Moital, M.
Pages: 134-145
DOI: 10.4324/9781003269311-15
Abstract:Organisational improvisation involves navigating unforeseen situations without prior preparation. It became an essential aspect to provide solutions to the pandemic restrictions, as the economic sustainability of the corporate events sector was severely affected. This chapter explores the outcomes of improvisation adopted by the corporate events sector in response to the challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. Data was collected in the form of semi-structured interviews from a purposive sample of seven managers of UK-based corporate events organisations who operated during the pandemic. The study found that improvisation can lead to five types of progressive outcomes covering 14 distinct outcomes: opportunity for strategic transformation, business expansion, enhanced product management, organisational capability building, and resilience and preparedness. However, there were also non-progressive outcomes, where the organisation did not capitalise on opportunities and instead aimed only for survival. Overall, this study highlights the usefulness of improvisation as a response to unexpected and challenging environments which threaten economic sustainability, which are not uncommon in the (corporate) events sector.
Source: Scopus