Topic: Motivation and Meaning; How People Will Find Motivation and Meaning In

Their Work Post-Covid-19

Management: Professional Organizational Behaviour

Introduction
According to Karl Marx (1919), there are different kinds of alienated labour, among which
include the alienation of the worker from other workers (Marx & Engels, 1919). Here, Marx
laments that if work is simply taken as an economic practice, it is likely that the social
elements of production will go unrecognised. “Alienation from work is a complex negative
mental state associated with the destruction of interpersonal communications, expressed in
the perception by employees of powerlessness” (Kozhina and Vinokurov, 2020). These
Marxist sentiments have become especially relevant in the wake of the Covid 19 outbreak
when the business world was ushered into turbulence and uncertainty following the March
2020 WHO pandemic declaration. Business organizations across the globe were forced into
adopting new methods of operation in adherence to government-imposed outbreak
containment directives such as social distancing, travel restrictions, and lockdowns; thereby
disrupting the operation and performance of most industries. Accordingly, both employers
and employees across the globe were confronted with a range of unique and fundamental
challenges resulting to massive employee lay-offs or furloughs; some employees such as
supermarket and emergency room medical personnel being turned overnight into ‘essential’
or ‘life sustaining’ workers; and widespread adoption of work-from-home arrangements.
Given the disruptive adverse impacts of the Covid 19 pandemic on labour productivity across
industries, this paper investigates how people will find motivation and meaning in their work
during the post-Covid-19 period.

under the COVID-19 period, a

new form of alienation
emerged, rather than organizing
the production according to social
needs, it is organized within the
scoop
of better control of workers and
consumers through technologies
under the COVID-19 period, a
new form of alienation
emerged, rather than organizing
the production according to social
needs, it is organized within the
scoop
of better control of workers and
consumers through technologie
Conclusion
The Covid pandemic has altered the manner in which organizations operate. More
employees today are working remotely and the restrictions implemented by authorities have
an effect on their motivation and performance. Meaning and work motivation will change in
the post-Covid period which calls for the implementation of new measures to ensure
employee performance is not greatly affected. Creating new tools for measuring the
performance of employees which does not just look at the number of hours will be needed.
More workers are now working remotely and this will continue in the period after Covid.
Team work which was the main way of ensuring better performance has been impacted by
the socially distanced work environment. As a result, new ways of bonding will be need to
ensure employees find meaning and motivation in the new work environments.
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