Exploring Organizational Changes and Perceived Productivity Shifts Driven by COVID-19: A Comparative Study

The COVID-19 pandemic abruptly impacted construction organizations’ operations and working conditions worldwide, leading to diverse responses in different countries. For instance, the United States (US) implemented stay-at-home directives and workplace closures to stop the virus from spreading quickly. In contrast, South Korea (SK) implemented strict social distancing and contact tracing measures without imposing an extensive lockdown. Because of these distinct measures, differences in adaptations and strategies are expected between companies in the two countries. As such, we seek to answer the research question: How did domestic contexts during the pandemic affect organizational change and adaptation within construction firms, and consequently, employees’ perceived productivity? This work leverages 245 survey responses from construction white-collar professionals working across organizations in the US and SK in November 2022. Survey respondents were asked to select changes that they experienced from a list of 21 widely implemented pandemic-related changes (e.g., remote work, increased use of technologies) and compare their current perceived productivity levels to prepandemic productivity. The survey data were then analyzed using two inferential statistics approaches, i.e., the chi-square test of independence and lasso logistic regression for descriptive and predictive analytics, to compare different adaptations and their subsequent effects. The results indicate that US respondents perceived experiencing changes to a greater extent than SK respondents. Substantially higher percentages of professionals in the US reported perceived productivity increases compared to respondents in SK. This exploratory comparison of professionals’ perceptions in the two countries suggests that perceived productivity was influenced by pandemic-related organizational changes and differing national contexts, including government policies, construction market conditions, and cultures at work. The study’s findings offer valuable insights into the possible dynamic interplay of internal and external factors that may shape construction professionals’ perceptions of productivity.