Description

The covid 19 pandemic has been globally taxing. The city of Melbourne has surpassed Buenos Aires and has gained the world record title for the time most spent in lockdown. The residents of Melbourne have faced a challenging period with a total of six lockdowns spanning from March 2020 to October 2021, totaling 260 days of restrictions. These prolonged lockdowns have had a significant and distressing impact on the state’s economy. Additionally, it’s worth noting that in April 2020, a substantial portion of Australians from different sectors reported experiencing mental distress, highlighting the widespread psychological toll of the situation. This quantitative study aimed to examine the impact of self-efficacy and optimism on Melbourne business owners’ post-traumatic growth, thus understanding the varying degrees of both personal and business success post pandemic. Correlations demonstrated that there was a significant positive relationship between general self-efficacy and post-traumatic growth, and age and gender also contributing to this positive relationship. Optimism demonstrated a markedly weak association with post-traumatic growth. Training programs can be designed and implemented in the workplace to support the growth and development of self-efficacy and optimism in times of crisis.