Afridi Kainat, Turi Jamshid Ali, Zaufishan Barirah, Rosak-Szyrocka Joanna
Public Information & HR Professional, United Nations Information Centre, Islamabad, Pakistan.
University of Tabuk, Tabuk, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.
Heliyon. 2023 Jul 5;9(7):e17941. doi: 10.1016/j.heliyon.2023.e17941. eCollection 2023 Jul.
The pandemic has made the world witness an overnight transition from traditional to digital space owning to a lockdown, affecting everyday life. During the lockdown, the business community and people switched to online communication tools for survival. The behaviour towards adopting online communication tools during the pandemic has opened a new direction for researchers to study. This study aims to understand how during the covid-19 lockdown, digital communication tools affect project efficiency. It also explored to what extent project performance (PP) has been affected by digital communication during the lockdown. The study has used a cross-sectional quantitative-based approach. Moreover, a convenience sampling technique was adopted to collect. The target respondents are the project staff and employees of humanitarian organisations comprising international non-profit organisations (INGOs), UN agencies, and local non-profit organisations (NGOs) based in Pakistan. The survey was shared with 400 employees, and only 302 respondents responded. The results show that the user behaviour towards adopting digital communication tools is high; digital communication tools have an impact on project performance, while ease of use significantly moderates the relationship between digital communications tools and project performance compared to top management support. The research helps study employees' struggles in adopting change and advising organisations to devise practical digital communication strategies and business continuity plans to cope with crises.
由于封锁措施，这场疫情使世界见证了从传统空间到数字空间的一夜转变，影响了日常生活。在封锁期间，商业界和人们转向在线通信工具以求生存。疫情期间采用在线通信工具的行为为研究人员开辟了一个新的研究方向。本研究旨在了解在新冠疫情封锁期间，数字通信工具如何影响项目效率。它还探讨了在封锁期间项目绩效（PP）在多大程度上受到数字通信的影响。该研究采用了基于横截面定量的方法。此外，采用了便利抽样技术进行数据收集。目标受访者是人道主义组织的项目工作人员和员工，这些组织包括总部位于巴基斯坦的国际非营利组织（INGO）、联合国机构和当地非营利组织（NGO）。该调查共向400名员工发放，只有302名受访者做出回应。结果表明，采用数字通信工具的用户行为较为积极；数字通信工具对项目绩效有影响，与高层管理支持相比，易用性显著调节了数字通信工具与项目绩效之间的关系。该研究有助于了解员工在接受变革方面的困难，并为组织提供建议，以制定切实可行的数字通信策略和业务连续性计划来应对危机。
