Management and Labour Studies

Management education has undergone significant changes owing to the COVID-19 pandemic. The classroom delivery has moved from an offline mode to a completely online mode, unravelling many pedagogical challenges and constraints. This study explores the pedagogical challenges faced by academicians and the innovative remedial measures adopted by them. This study follows an inductive approach using qualitative interviews and uses the cognitive apprenticeship model as the theoretical underpinning. Findings indicate that all domain aspects of the cognitive apprenticeship model are not equally relevant in an online teaching scenario compared to offline teaching. Findings also indicate that the interpersonal and communicational aspects of the learning environment have gained more prominence in online teaching. This article contributes to the existing literature by bringing early evidence on the challenges and innovations in online teaching. In addition, this study also contributes to the understanding of the cognitive apprenticeship model in an online scenario. Even though the scope of the study was limited to academicians from the finance and accounting area, the findings are globally relevant. They have practical implications for other disciplines as well.

JEL Codes: M0, I20, I29, Y7

The most crucial determinant of success in any service environment is the perception of the customers about the service quality or the product quality as it derives satisfaction and loyalty. Considering this imperative, the present review focuses on the service quality of online teaching, which has become a new normal during the pandemic. The pandemic has resulted in a paradigm shift of imparting education from brick to click classrooms. Hence, this article reviews the literature on the factors influencing service quality of click classrooms and mentions the parameters that lead to learners’ satisfaction. The systematic review helps in understanding how the research in this field has progressed. It is evident from this review that creating an interactive learning environment, giving prompt feedbacks, providing rich digital resources and course content, competent and skilled faculty members and continuous student support play a crucial role in enhancing the service quality of click classrooms leveraging learners’ satisfaction. The findings of this study support the educational institutions towards developing a sound and sustainable online learning environment by comprehending the students’ expectations about the service quality of an online learning environment. The study aims to propel future research works towards improving the service quality of click classrooms and enriching learners’ experience to impart quality education for all the stakeholders.

The novel coronavirus pandemic has disrupted almost all industries across the globe. The higher education sector in the Middle East too witnessed drastic changes in the teaching and learning process. Digital education, which authorities contemplated would take years to implement, was enforced overnight in the region. However, transformation to the online mode of learning posed many obstacles. As a finance educator in the region, I narrate here my experiences with respect to the challenges faced in managing the disruption, methods adopted to engage students, and the different techniques used for online assessments & student feedback. Finally, a reflection on factors which resulted in the successful delivery of the module is also provided.

JEL Codes: A2, I21

In real life scenarios, an individual comes across myriad situations that are marked with ambiguity and uncertainty. How do we prepare ourselves to embrace ambiguity and think critically in such situations? With the COVID-19 global pandemic, industry experts and academicians are referring to live with a crisis once in every 5 years, as the new normal. Each crisis is unique and so is the COVID-19 pandemic. As an educator and faculty, a mere lecture on critical thinking will not be enough and nor can the students be stirred towards critical thinking with few sessions. Curriculum reforms are required, and students need to go through experiential learning. The classroom teaching should not become part of the problem, but part of the solution in future.

JEL Codes: M0, I20, I29, Y7

This piece of contribution is the experience sharing from the finance educators teaching various finance courses at Indian Institute of Management Sirmaur.

The COVID-19 pandemic led to an expansion and increase in the demand for online teaching and learning across the globe. Online teaching and learning is attracting a large number of students for enhanced learning experiences. However, there are many challenges and hindrances that pose a problem in the smooth learning. The impediments in the learning process are suppressing the advantages that may aid the learners with augmented learning sessions. The article presents some challenges faced by teachers and learners, supplemented with the recommendations to remove them.

JEL Code: A20

The article discusses the impact of COVID-19 on the education sector in India and aims at providing suggestions to build a resilient Indian education system. The findings and suggestions highlighted in the article are based on the personal experiences and learning of the author during this pandemic. Lack of awareness of technology, a lack of administrative support toward the implementation, a lack of an attitude towards transforming the education system, a lack of support from the government on the financial front and a lack of willingness among students to accept online learning are found to be major hurdles in the path of shifting from face-to-face learning to online learning during this crisis. Given that the level of proactive and disciplined learning is lower in online learning when compared with traditional learning in emerging nations, the article strongly recommends the need for educational application development to carry out the teaching-related practices and proliferate the impact of the pandemic on the education sector.

JEL Codes: I21, I23

The coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic is a stress test for the finance educators around the world. With students forced to stay home, finance educators are constantly on their toes to ensure that classes continue and that even the most vulnerable one is not left behind. As the cases of coronavirus (COVID-19) in India rose in early March 2020, more and more management institutes adopted to a virtual setting of teaching. This shift from traditional to online mode was sudden. Many different approaches are being taken by different institutes both domestically and internationally to learn from each other and make online teaching more engaging and effective for the students. The pandemic has brought all the finance educators together in sharing their experiences with virtual teaching and trying to adopt what suits them best given the infrastructure at their disposal. All finance educators are in their own way trying to mitigate the effect of the pandemic and giving their best in these challenging times. This short article illustrates my experiences of teaching finance and accounting in the virtual setting at the B-School I teach.

JEL Codes: Y30; I21

This article aims to provide a descriptive account of the pros and cons of teaching finance online during the COVID-19 pandemic, based on the insights gained from the author’s experience as an educator.

JEL Code: I2

The recent crisis of COVID-19 poses a serious threat to the smooth functioning of the finance education in Indian business schools. Both general and specific pedagogical issues related to finance education crop up. However, innovation at institute and individual instructor level mitigates such threats to large extent and successfully maintains the desired learning environment for students in the ‘virtual’ mode.

Student engagement is critical to creating a collaborative and involved learning environment. The pandemic brought the class room engagement between the faculty and the students to a halt. We tried to find different avenues for the students to reach out to the faculty and to have an open forum to facilitate discussions among themselves. This approach helped us in increasing engagement and also allowed students who would normally not speak during the class hours to contribute to the overall learning during the course.

JEL Codes: I20, I23, I29

The continuing COVID-19 crisis is informing global investors, chief finance officers, risk managers, policymakers, regulatory bodies and the public at large that natural disasters can cause economic/financial damage on a previously unprecedented scale. It is different from a potential nuclear war that no one can survive or climate risk that is slow-moving or even localized disasters (Goodell, 2020, Finance Research Letters, Vol. 35, p. 101512). One thing is for sure, for researchers and academics in finance, the crisis brings in challenges that require investigation in almost all disciplines that spin out of core corporate finance and risk management.

JEL Codes: G1, G10, G21, I20, I23, I26

Among the many disruptions caused by the COVID-19 Pandemic was the sudden move to online teaching in colleges and universities across the globe. In this paper, we provide a brief overview of existing literature on the effectiveness of online college programs relative to traditional in-person programs. We argue that pre-pandemic studies may have drawn overly pessimistic conclusions about online teaching in higher education. We highlight two important limitations of pre-pandemic studies, namely endogeneity bias and the use of older instructional technology. The data that will emerge from the forced shift to online instruction during the pandemic will help correct several of these biases and provide a more accurate picture of the hopes and challenges of online higher education. Finally, we also provide some preliminary evidence on virtual instruction and evaluation methods using a survey of online undergraduate and graduate classes. We find that large undergraduate classes benefitted greatly from the online format, while smaller graduate classes faced significant challenges. Empirical studies of post-pandemic data will help in identifying when and how online instruction can provide the effective instruction to students to address both the short-term goals of course and degree completion and long-term outcomes in the labor market.

I began teaching finance ‘online’—or ‘virtually’—long before the pandemic. It was in 2004 that I first taught on a virtual platform; and I continued teaching on various virtual platforms right up to 2019, the year before the pandemic. The programs offered on these platforms were mostly targeted at working executives. The classes were beamed during the evenings, or on weekends. Each student was participating in a maximum of three hours of classes per day.

Online mode of instruction has become the new normal since 2020. Despite the pros and cons, it has become the only way to cater to educational fulfilment during the most stressful times. While most of them may deem it the most unaccepted mode of education, considering the hard fact of huge fees paid towards the institutes and not making the most out of it, it might bring in some good vibes to know about the positives of distance education environment. One such positive about the online mode of education is its continuity despite the panic in society, which ties back to the need for education in a country like India, which strongly believes that today’s children are tomorrow’s future. This article provides an overview of the challenges faced by the most important stakeholders of an educational institute (students and faculty of finance-related courses) during online classes. First, it takes a closer view of its impact on finance education, followed by the possible ways to ensure students and faculty stay engaged and connected online.

The purpose of this article is to provide a first-hand account of how human resources (HR) practitioners from India are revisiting their traditional perceptions of managing HR in the wake of the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic. This study applies an in-depth interview method to probe the mindset of 13 top-level HR practitioners from India. The time duration of each interview ranged between 45 minutes and 1 hour. The data generated from the qualitative interviews are analysed through latent thematic analysis. The findings throw light on how HR managers in India are rethinking their traditional practices to adjust to the new normal. The themes point to a shift towards a virtual organizational structure, with emphasis given to developing virtual empathy and virtual team building. There is also the resonance of being more future-ready for the potential recurrence of such types of economically disruptive shock events. There is more willingness to hire gig workers and freelancers now given the increased risk of overstaffing in the post-pandemic market. This study provides practitioners with a lot of validity about the way forward in the new world of work-from-home and virtual employment contracts. This is a novel exploration of what some of the senior HR practitioners from India are doing to counter the challenge of the COVID-19 pandemic-induced workplace disruption.

The rationale of this article is to study and evaluate the stress faced by individuals, especially Indian working women within their families, during the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic. Through this study, the authors aim to highlight the impact of the pandemic on Indian women grappling with mental and emotional distress. For this study, primary research techniques have been used. A survey instrument was constructed and circulated among women working from home or employees of any firm. Based on the survey, focused group interviews were conducted with randomly selected females. The total responses for this study were 203. The study results were collated and a statistical analysis of multivariate regression was used to conclude the findings. From this study, three factors contributed to the overall stress levels faced by working women induced by the COVID-19 pandemic: depression, nervousness and anxiety. Many studies have examined healthcare workers and their stress levels during the global pandemic. However, there is little literature on Indian working women, especially those working in I.T. and manufacturing companies. This article aims to identify the factors that can lead to stress and burnout in Indian working women specifically during the COVID-19 pandemic.