Unraveling the What and How of Organizational Communication to Employees During COVID-19 Pandemic: Adopting an Attributional Lens

In 2020, the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in a massive, unexpected, and sudden disruption to billions of employees around the world. Organizations and employees have been forced to transform their operational routines virtually overnight. This has resulted in unprecedented demands on managers to make decisions in very uncertain conditions. In times of crises such as those employees turn to organizational leaders for information, which heightens demands for effective communication of critical decisions (Van der Meer et al., 2017; Van Zoonen & Van der Meer, 2015). In general, in the “new normal” resulted from the COVID-19 pandemic many white-collar and professional employees are working from home. This presents a whole range of communication challenges. In response, organizations have adopted technology-driven solutions, where managers communicate time-critical information via multiple channels including but not limited to email, intranet, video conferencing, and other tools.