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.
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2021 Aden-Paul Flotman 21 citations
During the COVID-19 pandemic, self-transcendence helped seven South African middle managers find meaning and maintain wellbeing at work. Through unstructured narratives, the study found that self-transcendence acts as a coping mechanism in adversity, enabling managers to renegotiate meaning in three ways: shifting from blame to a work orientation, from reflection to reflexivity, and from self-consciousness to other-consciousness. Self-transcendence also allowed exploration of anxiety's adaptive benefits. The findings extend existential positive psychology and suggest organizations invest in reflexive practices to promote deep learning and connectivity.