한국생산성학회

Although almost a year has passed since a new virus called COVID-19 hit the world, the number of confirmed cases and death toll is still exploding in many countries. Due to COVID-19, major changes have occurred in the work and life of organizations and individuals. As a result, efforts to overcome crises and adjust to new changes have become important tasks for maintaining productivity of individuals and organizations. The spread of COVID-19 continues to be a pandemic situation. even in advanced countries in the United States and Europe. Among many other countries, Korea has received international attention for its exemplary case in dealing with COVID-19, and the role of “citizens” has been regarded as an important factor in Korea's quarantine performance. If the role of citizens is important, what specifically enables individuals to actively participate in efforts to overcome the COVID-19 crisis and productively continue their daily life even in changed situations? How and in what circumstances can people's efforts be further promoted? In order to answer this question, based on identity theories, this study attempted to clarify the role of civic identity in the COVID-19 crisis situation. Civic identity refers to the degree to which an individual perceives himself as a member of a social community, an actor contributing to the welfare of the community, and a participant with rights and responsibilities. Many organizations faced major changes due to COVID-19, but one of the areas of organization that was greatly affected was the education area, and universities across the country had a major disruption in the academic calendar and education methods at the time of the initial spread of COVID-19. For college students, particularly, maintaining productivity by continuing one's work and daily life in a changed situation is a big challenge. Moreover, participation in community activities to overcome the COVID-19 is desirable but difficult task. Therefore, this study explored the factors that influence college students' efforts to overcome the COVID-19 crisis. Specifically, it focused on two aspects: 1) participation in COVID-19 prevention, such as following government guidance, and 2) adaptivity, which represents the degree to which individuals have adapted to the changes that have occurred in their tasks. In addition, it was expected that the effect of students' civic identity and collective efficacy in the COVID-19 situation will depend on the support of the organization to which students belong. Thus, the effect of perceived organizational support(i.e., how appropriately the university provided support to students in the coronavirus situation) was also investigated. The data in this study were collected from college students taking classes during the COVID-19 period. In order to reduce the possibility of common method bias, the survey was conducted twice at different times. Multiple regression analyses were conducted. Result showed that, first, higher the civic identity of individuals, the greater the collective efficacy over coronavirus, which in turn increases students’ participation in quarantine. This is meaningful in expanding the existing research by revealing that civic identity plays a role in facilitating efforts to overcome not only citizen participation in general situations, but also community crisis situations. Second, students' perceived organizational support has been shown to strengthen both the positive effects of collective efficacy on participation in quarantine and adaptivity. The findings show the important and positive roles of civic identity and organizational support for college students in efforts to overcome COVID-19, suggesting that efforts to develop civic identity are needed not only for the development of the community but also for the overcoming and resilience of the new crisis.