Article
Organizational Strategies and Their Impact on Employee
Commitment during the Health Emergency
Cecilia Ramos-Estrada
1
, María Teresa de la Garza Carranza
2,
* , Jorge Armando López-Lemus
1,
* ,
Quetzalli Atlatenco-Ibarra
3
and Edgar René Vázquez-González
1
Citation: Ramos-Estrada, C.; de la
Garza Carranza, M.T.; López-Lemus,
J.A.; Atlatenco-Ibarra, Q.;
Vázquez-González, E.R.
Organizational Strategies and Their
Impact on Employee Commitment
during the Health Emergency.
Sustainability 2021, 13, 13089. https://
doi.org/10.3390/su132313089
Academic Editors: João Carlos de
Oliveira Matias and Paolo Renna
Received: 11 October 2021
Accepted: 17 November 2021
Published: 26 November 2021
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4.0/).
1
División de Ciencias Económico Administrativas, Universidad de Guanajuato, Guanajuato 36000, Mexico;
cecyramos@ugto.mx (C.R.-E.); edgar10@ugto.mx (E.R.V.-G.)
2
Departamento de Ciencias Económico Administrativas, Tecnológico Nacional de México en Celaya,
Celaya 38010, Mexico
3
Independent Researcher, Mexico City 09310, Mexico; qatlatenco@yahoo.com.mx
* Correspondence: teresa.garza@itcelaya.edu.mx (M.T.d.l.G.C.); lopezja@ugto.mx (J.A.L.-L.)
Abstract:
The emergence of a new coronavirus that causes COVID-19 has generated multiple con-
sequences that have affected the lives of all human beings, imposing a new normal where social
distancing and mobility restrictions have become the norm. This situation has also affected orga-
nizations forcing them to create or strengthen strategies to respond to the situation to guarantee
their survival and growth, which has made it essential to have full commitment from employees.
Structural equations were used to design an instrument that was used with managers and middle
managers at 130 Mexican companies. Once reliability and validity were tested and confirmed, the
study found that there is a positive and significant relation between organizational strategies applied
during the health emergency and employee commitment with the organization.
Keywords:
COVID-19; organizational commitment; internal communications; organizational
ideology; infection-spreading prevention
1. Introduction
The global COVID-19 epidemic caused by the new SARS-CoV-2 virus has affected
people in many ways in all areas of their lives. On 11 March 2021, the World Health
Organization (OMS) declared COVID-19 a pandemic because of three main reasons: the fast
spread of the disease, the severity of the disease and the lack of action from governments [
1
].
Each country’s government responded in a different way initially, from a position of
ignorance, disbelief or negation. Measures taken in most countries were insufficient, but
they made it possible to handle the situation despite a great number of deaths and adverse
health effects in those who have been infected. At the time of writing, the WHO has
determined the existence of four concerning variants of SARS-CoV-2 and five variants of
interest [
1
]. This requires caution to prevent the spread of the infection as each variant must
be studied to understand how it is transmitted and how it affects people’s health. Vaccines
have been created and used, but not in large enough numbers to reach the so-called heard
immunity threshold. Therefore, the end of the world pandemic is not in sight yet, and it
is necessary to adapt to a new reality. The COVID-19 pandemic has imposed changes in
most people’s daily lives around the world and humanity is still trying to understand and
grapple with the consequences.
For the first few months of the spread of the health emergency, companies took volun-
tary “business closure” measures voluntarily depending on their type of business which,
for the most part, affected employees. According to [
2
], the main strategies companies
considered to face the contingency caused by the pandemic were as follows: working
from home, social distancing, adopting new technologies, changing production plans,
reevaluating the supply chain, identifying key workers, digitalising delivery systems,
Sustainability 2021, 13, 13089. https://doi.org/10.3390/su132313089 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/sustainability
