Entrepreneurs’ means of organizing work with evolving complexity strategies in an environment of COVID-19-related restrictions

This study examines sole, micro-, and small-business entrepreneurs organizing their work in the business operations of taxi services under publicly restricted operating conditions during the first wave of COVID-19. For a deeper understanding and theoretical content, the concept of entrepreneur organizing is considered from the perspective of complexity strategies of simplification and complexification, which has not been addressed in the literature on the management of enterprises. Simplification and complexification are evolving management strategies that have been studied in the context of public policymaking, governmental organizations, and public policymakers in normal times. Due to the novelty of the theoretical approach combining organizing and complexity strategies and the early stages of the exceptional pandemic crisis, qualitative methods based on a data-driven approach were used in the study. Authentic data were collected via open interviews with entrepreneurs (N = 32) who worked in the taxi industry in the Helsinki Metropolitan Area, Finland between March 17, 2020 and July 16, 2020. The qualitative data analysis results showed that the participants organized their work based on complexity strategies of simplification and complexification. Instead of employing a single means of organizing, the entrepreneurs simultaneously implemented economic, knowledge-based, and/or innovative organizing, which strengthened, enabled, and/or limited their business operations. This organizing required that entrepreneurs adapt quickly to find ways to sustain their business. Utilization of complexity strategies of simplification and complexification can help prepare for and target means of organizing more effectively in a crisis-ridden business. The results complemented the organizing work by its dimensions and strategies.