The Need for Human Resource Management in the Novel Coronavirus (COVID-19) Crisis;A Meta-Synthesis Study

ABSTRACT

Background. The crisis caused by the novel coronavirus in 2019 has caused challenges and problems in most organizations and created difficulties for employees who are the most important organizational resource. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to identify the components of human resources (HR) during the new coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis, based on previous researches in this field. Material. This is a Meta-Synthesis study. Using the 4 keywords of human resources, human resource management, coronavirus, COVID-19, the researchers explored literature databases of Proquest, The Scientific Information Database (SID), Web of Science, Emerald journals as well as Google Scholar, the specialized search engine, in 2019-2021. The number of sources initially found was 1,029, of which 921 articles were rejected because of the title. The total number of screened s was 108, 16 of which we rejected on the basis of the s and 27 of which we rejected in view of content, leaving us with 65 final articles to be reviewed. Three universal themes, three constructive themes, 11 basic themes and 117 codes were extracted. Results. Based on the findings of this study social opportunities and threats are the biggest challenges for human resources. The HR unit should also focus on issues such as virtualization of work and work environment, the degree of external environment support for the organization's employees, how to restructure jobs, health, and psychological challenges, as well as economic and internal challenges. Conclusion. In dealing with the coronavirus, human resource managers should pay special attention to components such as virtualization of work and work environment, support of the external environment for employees of the organization, restructuring of jobs, health and psychological requirements and challenges, whether they be social, economic, or intra-organizational.