The Effect of Covid-19 Pandemic Period on the Organizational Culture of Public Relations Agencies

Abstract

Covid-19 pandemic has spread to the whole world from Wuhan, China in December, 2019 and seriously changed the daily life. While various measures have been taken to fight against the global pandemic in the whole world, transformations have occurred in business manners in many countries including Turkey. The public relations sector, which is an applied communication discipline managing the communication processes between the organization and target audience, has been affected by this process. Thus, how the pandemic period has affected the business manners of agencies and how the public relations profession has been actualized in agencies have been an object of interest. The main question of this study is how the pandemic period has affected the organizational culture in public relations agencies, and will these effects cause permanent changes in business manners in the agencies after the pandemic. The fact that most people have started making grocery shopping online due to Covid- 19 has increased the share of e-trade in the sector of Fast Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG), which are also known as packaged consumption products. Public relations agencies serving in this sector have accelerated their communication activities especially during the pandemic. A semi-structured interview technique was applied to the representatives of seven public relations agencies serving in the fast moving consumer goods sector within the framework of the questions formed in line with the factors affecting the corporate culture according to Mondy (communication, motivation, leadership, management process, organizational structure and management style) in this study. The study found that hybrid working order (telecommuting/office working) was adopted by agency employees, the concept of office hours disappeared in agencies, the service process became 24/7 by the agency, digital communication tools accelerated the communication processes, and the business capacity of agencies increased. It is observed in line with these factors that pandemic period has caused both positive and negative permanent behavioral changes in the organizational culture of agencies.