Adapting to change: how has COVID-19 affected people’s work and personal goals?
Adapting to change: how has COVID-19 affected people’s work and personal goals?
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the global economy and affected millions of people’s work and personal lives across the world. The purpose of the present study was to better understand how individuals’ work and personal goals have been affected by the pandemic and how they have adapted to these changes. We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 48) and surveyed participants (n = 200) weekly for 5 weeks. Both methods revealed similar themes regarding the adaptation and pursuit of goals (social support, handling unpredictable situations, logistics, solving problems creatively, goal postponement, and no changes). Survey responses also showed that most individuals experienced their goals as more difficult (79%; 13% easier; 9% no change) and found that many had had to adapt or postpone their work and personal goals, often due to logistical difficulties. Businesses and governments should do more to help individuals adapt their goals to the new circumstances.
Covid-19, Performance Adaptation, Work, adaptability, goals
Vowels, Laura
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Francois-Walcott, Rachel
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Carnelley, Katherine
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Checksfield, Emily
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3 February 2022
Vowels, Laura
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Francois-Walcott, Rachel
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Carnelley, Katherine
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Checksfield, Emily
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Vowels, Laura, Francois-Walcott, Rachel, Carnelley, Katherine and Checksfield, Emily
(2022)
Adapting to change: how has COVID-19 affected people’s work and personal goals?
PLoS ONE, 17 (2 February), [e0262195].
(doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0262195).
Abstract
COVID-19 has had a devastating impact on the global economy and affected millions of people’s work and personal lives across the world. The purpose of the present study was to better understand how individuals’ work and personal goals have been affected by the pandemic and how they have adapted to these changes. We conducted qualitative semi-structured interviews (n = 48) and surveyed participants (n = 200) weekly for 5 weeks. Both methods revealed similar themes regarding the adaptation and pursuit of goals (social support, handling unpredictable situations, logistics, solving problems creatively, goal postponement, and no changes). Survey responses also showed that most individuals experienced their goals as more difficult (79%; 13% easier; 9% no change) and found that many had had to adapt or postpone their work and personal goals, often due to logistical difficulties. Businesses and governments should do more to help individuals adapt their goals to the new circumstances.
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pone.0262195_forAU_2
- Accepted Manuscript
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journal.pone.0262195
- Version of Record
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Accepted/In Press date: 20 December 2021
e-pub ahead of print date: 3 February 2022
Published date: 3 February 2022
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Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Vowels et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Keywords:
Covid-19, Performance Adaptation, Work, adaptability, goals
Identifiers
Local EPrints ID: 455003
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/455003
ISSN: 1932-6203
PURE UUID: 899c6860-1932-4336-ae82-bde71fbf0a34
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Date deposited: 03 Mar 2022 17:41
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 02:52
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Author:
Laura Vowels
Author:
Rachel Francois-Walcott
Author:
Emily Checksfield
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