Abstract

Each communicational process consists inseparably of three aspects: the linguistic (which means the whole language content of the message), technical (which states the form of the message) and the social (meaning social relations, emotions, behaviours). The recent COVID-19 pandemic deeply influenced several layers of our lives. But the main aim of this chapter is to focus on the communicational processes that normally take place in organisations. We conducted a qualitative study based mostly on in-depth interviews and observations among managers and management students. The analysis revealed the enormous expansion of technical dimensions of communication, where personal direct communication was often replaced by indirect ones, supported by the usage of modern tools like internet communicators and interactive software. This resulted in abnormal reduction of the social – highly needed and obviously important – dimension. Such ‘new normal’ organisational reality forced the HR managers to re-think the flow and quality of existing communicational processes within which they are always situated, also considering its deep, multidimensional influence on the existing social relations. This chapter presents the results of qualitative studies from in-depth interviews, structured interviews and focus group interviews from 2012 to 2020. We aim to answer the question of the changes which were brought into organisations by the pandemic as our long-term research allows to follow the changes. As a result, we received characteristics of the organisational changes and the shift in expectation from the role of a manager in the altered social reality. Practical implications are included in this chapter and provide guidelines for communication in crisis situations while maintaining a high quality of interpersonal relations.

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