Global Pandemic and Work Organizations: Impacts of Covid-19 on Work in Nigeria

International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science (IJRISS) | Volume VI, Issue IV, April 2022 | ISSN 2454–6186

Global Pandemic and Work Organizations: Impacts of Covid-19 on Work in Nigeria

Porbari Monbari Badom, PhD¹ and Barinem Wisdom Girigiri, PhD^2
1Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, University of Port Harcourt, 500272, Nigeria
²Rivers State University, Department of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Nkpolu Oroworukwo, Port Harcourt, Nigeria

Abstract: The COVID-19 pandemic has spread round the world with relative influence on various spheres of life in different countries. Nigeria is not an exception to countries where its debilitating effect is felt on humans in diverse ways. This had thus given the government a cause of concern and the federal government in the bid to contain the spread had enforced a compulsory lockdown, closure of the nation’s boundary and airports. This had no doubt affected the work organizations that mostly rely on trade and migrations. This study therefore examined the impact of COVID-19 on work in Nigeria. Considering that intellectual response in this area is scanty and this study therefore filled the gap in knowledge. The study is qualitative and thus collected data through secondary method of data collection, and thus relied on robust content analysis of secondary data for its analyses. The study concluded that COVID-19 has adverse impacts on the employment of workers of most organizations as workers lost their jobs and some were suspended. Most work organizations had their workers’ welfare also affected by COVID, and work organizations both in the private and public sectors have their productivity hampered by COVID-19 pandemic.

Keywords: Work, Pandemic, Impact, Globalization, Organizations, Workers’ Welfare, COVID-19.

I. INTRODUCTION

COVID-19 which was first discovered in Wuhan, a city in China in January 2020 is widespread round the globe thereby presenting a great health concern to people (Shereen, Khan, Kazmi, Bashir & Siddique, 2020). Thus, the World Health Organization (WHO) on January 30, 2020 declared the outbreak a public Health Emergency of International concern, thereby giving it the appellation COVID-19 (Iwuoha & Jude-Iwuoha, 2020). COVID-19 did not remain in China, where it was discovered. It rather got spread round the world. This is as a result of globalization. The free movement of people, goods, and services brought about by globalization has become a channel for the spread of disease. Okafor (2014) citing (Offiong, 2001; Onyeonoru, 2004; Okafor, 2005; Adepegba, 2003) succinctly observed that “globalization has become the major issue in the world today that has a lot of implications for work organizations. Globalization is defined as “the spread of worldwide practice, relations, consciousness and organization of social life” (Ritzer, 2008). It was this free movement under the aegis of globalization that aided COVID-19’s confirmation of first case in Nigeria on 27th February 2020 through a 44 year old Italian who was diagnosed with COVID-19 after which other cases were reported (Mirian & Danjuma & Amaonyeze, 2021).

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