| Abstract [eng] |
The purpose of this thesis is to determine the governance practices, their change and its impact on the performance of Vilnius city‘s enterprises that provided services of general interest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Theoretical framework is based on three complementary theoretical approaches – resilience theory, adaptive governance and agile governance. Four features of resilient governance are identified and analyzed: cooperation, decentralization, learning, digitalization and innovation. It is being analyzed whether COVID-19 pandemic had an impact on the application of these resilient governance practices. Also, the possible impact of these practices on companies’ COVID-19 performance results are being examined. This thesis is based on qualitative research method – a case study of Vilnius city‘s enterprises that provided services of general interest during the COVID-19 pandemic using a semi-structured interview methodology. Four features of resilient governance were operationalized in to 36 different governance practices that were evaluated during interviews. COVID-19 performance results are measured by three different perspectives - financial, service quality (customer service) and pandemic management (COVID-19 cases inside organization, the percentage of vaccinated employees). Based on the research data, it can be stated that the COVID-19 pandemic increased the level of resilience in Vilnius City’ companies that provided services of general interest. Study concluded that cooperation, decentralization, learning, digitalization and innovation practices increased in these organizations. This allows to confirm the hypotheses H1, H2, H3 and H4 raised during this study. The highest average of changes was achieved in the field of learning, the lowest – in cooperation. It is worth noting that the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated changes not only among routine management practices, but also at the strategic level. Comparing the practice of applying resilient management with the results of COVID-19 management, several things can be observed. Those companies which applied all four resilient management features wider than an average, achieved better service quality indicators than those companies that have less widespread application of these practices. From financial performance perspective, this trend is only observed for learning and decentralization features. The trend in cooperation and digitization features is vice versa - companies that have applied these governance practices wider achieved poorer financial results. The latest statistics analysed are COVID-19 cases inside organization and the proportion of vaccinated workers. In this case, companies with better application of three resilient governance features (cooperation, decentralization and innovation) achieved better results – fewer cases of COVID-19 inside the company and bigger percentage of vaccinated employees. However, it cannot be stated that the application of resilient governance practices has led to better COVID-19 management outcomes, as the study does not take into account variables that could have impacted statistical COVID-19 management outcomes. Comparison of the structural variables with the management results of COVID-19 shows that the number of COVID-19 cases inside organization correlates with the size of the company (number of employees). Also, the financial results correlate with the structure of industry and revenue - depending on the activity of the analysed companies the financial indicators of companies also change. With these factors mentioned, it can be concluded that hypothesis H5 was not confirmed. |
