Work as Meaningful and Menacing Phenomenon for South African Middle Managers During the COVID-19 Pandemic: The Role of Self-Transcendence in Cultivating Meaning and Wellbeing.

Aden-Paul Flotman

doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2021.650060

Abstract

Self-transcendence has become and remains an important research theme. Little is known about the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaningful work and its impact on the wellbeing of middle managers in the face of adversity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of this qualitative hermeneutic phenomenological study was to explore the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning middle managers attach to their work by investigating the role of self-transcendence in cultivating meaning and wellbeing in a cohort of seven South African middle managers employed in cross-boundary service industry settings. Data were collected through unstructured narratives. Findings confirm that self-transcendence serves as a coping mechanism during adversity and that it facilitates the re-negotiation of meaning, resulting in three potential shifts: the shift from a blame orientation to a work orientation, the shift from reflection to reflexivity and the shift from self-consciousness to other-consciousness. The findings also highlight how self-transcendence enables the exploration of the adaptive benefits of anxiety. The findings contribute new insights into the construct of self-transcendence and extend research on existential positive psychology. It is suggested that organizations invest in reflexive practices as a tool to promote deep learning and connectivity by exploring dialectical processes through reflexive work.

Highlights

“Lockdown” is officially the South African word for 2020
As we reflect on our brokenness and lament our suffering, it is argued that existential positive psychology is a useful theoretical lens with its unequivocal embrace of suffering as an inevitable human phenomenon (Vozza, 2020) and the subsequent search for flourishing by being mindful of the everpresent constraints of reality (Lomas and Ivtzan, 2016; Apter, 2020; Wong, 2020)
The COVID-19 pandemic has severely restricted employees in terms of the nature of their work and their need to interact with their colleagues

Summary

Introduction

“Lockdown” is officially the South African word for 2020. I write this article as the second wave of the COVID-19 pandemic continues to make itself felt across Europe and the United States. We have witnessed the excessive stockpiling of food and personal amenities, criticism about how in hindsight, the pandemic should have been managed and the increasing revolt against stringent lockdown regulations In this context, the dark side of our human existence is revealed (Wong, 2009). In the context of suffering and adversity, meaningfulness has an impact on individual, psychological and work-related outcomes (Haidt, 2013; Mayer et al, 2015; Wong and Bowers, 2018) This is applicable to the participants in this study, namely South African middle managers in cross-boundary service industry settings. The objective of the study was to gain in-depth understanding of the meaning middle managers attach to their work in the face of adversity, such as the COVID-19 pandemic This is done by investigating the role of ST in cultivating meaning and wellbeing. The theoretical framework of the article is provided, followed by the purpose and aim of the study and the research methodology

Objectives

Results

Discussion

Conclusion