The role of organizational mindfulness on Covid-19 crisis management: A case study of health tourism SMEs

Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

1 Graduate School of Management and Economics, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran

2 Assistant Professor at Graduate School of Management and Economics, Sharif University of Technology, Tehran, Iran.

3 Associate Professor, Graduate School of Management and Economics Sharif University of Technology

Abstract

Abstract
The COVID-19 pandemic has created enormous challenges for many businesses, specifically small and medium-sized enterprises. This research investigates how organizational mindfulness can enable small and medium-sized enterprises which are engaged in health tourism in an emerging market to manage the crises they have faced during Covid-19. Organizational mindfulness involves noting changes in the environment, understanding them, and adapting to them. It is built upon the two key concepts of anticipation and containment. ‘Anticipation’ has three aspects: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, and sensitivity to operations; ‘containment’ involves a commitment to resilience and deference to expertise. This research has employed a qualitative, multiple-case study approach. Interviews were carried out with 11 top managers. Our findings illustrate the benefits of "increasing organizational reliability through pre-crisis preparation and capacity-building", "creating a learning culture, "change management and inspirational leadership", "prioritizing innovation and making the best use of the organization's capacity”, and “the need to maintain organizational agility in responding efficiently to environmental turbulence”.
 
Introduction
The COVID-19 pandemic has created innumerable challenges for many businesses around the world, specifically small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs). In this research, we focus on health tourism SMEs and investigate how they can avert crises and respond to unforeseen incidents. To answer this question, we employ the concept of organizational mindfulness. Organizational mindfulness refers to the understanding of everyday activities, noting environmental changes, collecting information about changes, and being open to embracing new information and adapting to unpredictable environmental changes. In this research, we follow the conceptualization of Weick & Sutcliffe (2001), who explain that organizational mindfulness is built upon the two key concepts of anticipation and containment. According to them, ‘anticipation’ has three aspects: preoccupation with failure, reluctance to simplify, and sensitivity to operations; ‘containment’ involves a commitment to resilience and deference to expertise. We have employed this theoretical perspective to understand how being a mindful organization supports SMEs in dealing with the COVID-19 crisis.
Methodology
To conduct this research, qualitative research has been used. Multiple case study research has been employed and 11 semi-structured interviews were conducted with the top managers of health tourism SMEs in Iran. Interviews were recorded and transcribed. To analyze the interviews, thematic analysis was utilized, and key themes were identified.
Findings
The findings of this research shed light on how organizational mindfulness can support health tourism SMEs to tackle crises. Our interview analysis revealed five main themes. These included "increasing organizational reliability through pre-crisis preparation and capacity-building", "creating a learning culture, "change management and inspirational leadership", "prioritizing innovation and making the best use of the organization's capacity”, and “the need to maintain organizational agility in responding efficiently to environmental turbulence”.
Conclusion
Theoretically, our research contributes to the health tourism literature by highlighting how SMEs in this industry can effectuate post-crises management. In addition, we add to the organizational mindfulness theory. While this theoretical perspective has mainly been applied to the context of highly reliable organizations, we apply it to the context of health tourism SMEs and reveal specific aspects of this theoretical perspective that are critical for SMEs. Managerially, our research offers new insights into health tourism SMEs on how to manage the COVID-19 crisis.

Keywords

References

منابع فارسی
نصیری، م.، حسینی استارایی، ف. س.، شرفی زاده، د.، (1395)، اقتصاد کسب و کارهای کوچک و متوسط در ایران، سومین کنفرانس بین المللی یافته های نوین علوم و تکنولوژی، قم
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