Abstract

Social disengagement and disconnection have a price, and it's not merely morale; 16% lower profitability and 65% lower share prices are correlated with social disengagement in organizations. In the age of COVID-19, organizations must reinvent the way they accomplish tasks and a new take on the sense of belonging for their employees where no physical colocation exists. The online tools for accomplishing the work also must be leveraged for an overemphasis on social interactions replacing scheduled meetings and chance encounters at the workplace. The solution could be that managers must spend a much greater portion of their time reaching out and connecting individually with members of their work teams, and given the consequences of the alternative, that might be exactly what is required for organizational success.