Agile Coping in the New Normal Post-COVID Career Space: Does Your Cognitive Orientation Matter?

ABSTRACT

With the onset of the global coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, what was once considered normal has forever been changed. The nature of people's work, jobs and careers has drastically changed to adapt to the now so-called "new normal” work environment. In order for employees to survive within and cope with the new normal employment context, rapid upskilling and agile flexible adaptation is essential. The pressure to continuously change and adapt to the drastic shifts impacts the well-being of employees. To constructively deal with the changes in the workplace as well as the complex interactions between individuals and their employment context, employees need to have career agility. Career well-being and career agility as agile coping attributes seem to be a consequence of individuals' cognitions about, and the affective behaviour flowing from, the individuals' work environment's interactional experiences. Several researchers have found that cognitive orientation influences individuals' ability to cope with stressful events, such as sudden changes. This chapter explores the influence of employees' cognitive orientation on agile coping attributes amidst the global COVID-19 pandemic. Based on these findings and recommendations, human resource (HR) practitioners and industrial psychologists can design and implement effective coping interventions that consider the unique and diverse cognitive orientations of a diverse workforce. © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022.