Individuals react to environmental changes and try to adapt to survive. Changes to normal routines and processes require individuals to change their norms too. These changes have implications for individuals within the society. For instance, employees faced with new technologies must learn how to use them, and individuals who must deal with individuals from other cultures must be able to do so in an effective manner.

If the technology or culture one is encountering is new or different from what he or she has experienced before, the individual must adapt to these changes. This is called adaptability, which refers to an individual’s capacity to constructively regulate psycho-behavioural functions in response to new, changing and uncertain situations, environments and circumstances.

Four perspectives of adaptability

There are four perspectives of adaptability.

1) As adaptive performance or adaptation, which is a task as a result of change or transfer of skills from one to another.

2) As generalised knowledge and skills from one task to another.

3) As tolerance for uncertainty; and

4) As acquisition and application of knowledge to new situations.

Undoubtedly, the Internet has become very influential in our current society and is the backbone of almost all daily activities in our lives for both work and personal purposes. With the Internet, online technology has become more appealing to users, which refers to a group of technologies that allow users to access information and communication over the World Wide Web (Web browsers, FTP, e-mail, associated hardware and, Internet service providers).

In short, online technology is the usage of the Internet in accessing information and communication to perform work-related and personal tasks. As Internet technology continues to grow exponentially, individuals must become more and more adaptable to keeping up with the constant changes of acceptable routines within the society.

Being somewhat online adaptable is required to function in our world of changing technology. Thus, the term online-technology adaptability can be used to explain the ability to learn and comprehend Internet technology with confidence and without fear to perform work-related and personal tasks.

The new coronavirus disease (COVID-19) has affected many facets of society in most countries around the world. The World Health Organisation (WHO) declared COVID-19 a pandemic on March 11, 2020, due to the increase in the number of cases and countries affected by the virus worldwide.

Malaysia is not spared from this global health crisis. As a national measure to help break the chain of COVID-19, our government announced a national Movement Control Order (MCO) which started on March 18, 2020. At the time of writing, Malaysia is already into the fourth phase of the MCO, albeit conditional, which will end on June 9.

New normal in operations

As a result, all Malaysians practise social distancing (physical distancing), which means keeping space of at least one metre between one another outside their homes. They are encouraged to stay at home during this period.

Those working in the non-essential service sectors are required to work from home (WFH) and businesses are forced to adopt the new normal in their operations. These have created abrupt changes to the norms among the people in the society who need to adapt quickly to the changing routines caused by the MCO.

They now need to learn many new skills to perform their tasks which include communicating, purchasing essential goods, providing services, and attending school, college or university sessions.

As a result, more online-technology skills are required by the people to adapt themselves to the sudden change. The use of online meeting applications such as Google Meet, Microsoft Teams and Zoom are unavoidable. This is in addition to the existing instant messaging applications such as WhatsApp, Telegram and Instagram.

Society has been forced to look for alternative methods in their activities and communication with other people. The online technology adaptability is crucial to ensure that society will continue to survive in its pursuit of a livelihood.

Thus, the people need to respond to the changing environment more quickly and be prepared to equip themselves with the right online skills to be an online-adept society.

-- BERNAMA

Dr Noor Ismawati Jaafar is an Associate Professor at the Faculty of Business and Accountancy, University of Malaya (UM) in Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Mohd Yahya Mohamed Ariffin is a Professor at the Faculty of Leadership and Management, Universiti Sains Islam Malaysia (USIM) in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.