Corporate Culture Challenges in the Wake of COVID-19: Alibaba Group Case

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic, having changed the organizational environment of the company, has become a serious test for the corporate culture. Unfortunately, there are not many studies devoted to how crisis situations affect the corporate culture of enterprises. The purpose of the study is to find out how the pandemic has affected the corporate culture of companies. The goal set required a deeper understanding of the concept and functions of corporate culture, as well as an analysis of possible problems of corporate culture management in crisis. The starting point for the study was the idea that without a well-formed corporate culture it is impossible to build a strategy for the sustainable development of the company. A hypothesis was put forward that with a change in the external environment, working conditions and organization of the workplace in a crisis situation, the basis of corporate culture, namely the values that make up its basis, remain unchanged. Using the desk research, we analyzed the measures taken by the leadership of the Chinese company Alibaba Group to solve the organizational problems caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and to find out whether these measures were in line with the corporate culture of the company. The study led to the conclusion that it was the preservation of the deeply-rooted values shared by all employees that allowed Alibaba Group to survive in turbulent times of crisis. These partial conclusions can be used to assess the possible global consequences of a change in corporate culture in pandemic, as well as lay the basis for future research.