The COVID-19 crisis in the words of human resources professionals: the use of internet latent corpus

Abstract

This paper focuses on the use of latent corpus from the internet to explore HR professionals’ work experience when Portugal first declared a state of emergency in March 2020 due to the pandemic outbreak. Given that little is known about the experience of human resources (HR) professionals in managing the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in organisations and work, we conducted a study with a qualitative design, using latent corpus from HR specialty magazines and journals, retrieved from March to June 2020. Data was analysed with the support of NVivo, using a categorical content analysis to identify recurring themes and patterns. The analysis resulted in five main key themes, namely (1) responses to deal with the COVID-19 outbreak, (2) impact of the pandemic, (3) the orientation of HRM, (4) learnings, and (5) difficulties for the HRM. Results show that HRM professionals were mainly focused on employees and the community. They were also oriented to guaranteeing the future of the business. In this paper, we explore the use of data retrieved from the internet and through technologies, particularly in times of a societal crisis, which has become a major issue among qualitative researchers.