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Epidemics and pandemics tend to jolt people out of their ordinary living to a special state of crisis and suffering. The COVID-19 pandemic has not proven different, and this chapter and indeed the whole volume is a call to reflect on an ongoing state of volatility, uncertainty, complexities and ambiguity (VUCA). Where it is difficult to project an end to a pandemic as occurs presently, VUCA is even more significant, and the outcomes of these reflections can only augur well for present and future confrontations of a crisis. In this chapter, we have described our premises for understanding work values in a normative sense. Understanding the principles behind the stability and sustainability of these values will serve as a guide for the responsible management of changing workforce dynamics. While respecting the personal choices involved in work values, we outline some social and organisational factors that influence said dynamics.

Ethical principles play a key role in the attendant changes in the workforce ranging from rapid digitisation to remote working, to flexible work hours, and changing workspaces. New problems have arisen relating to the rising costs of working virtually, unequal opportunities in different economies, genders, and fields, and the rapid changes that are still ongoing. Some issues we have tackled include the challenge with employer–employee trust when supervision and workspaces are rapidly shifting, and the responsibility for well-ness and flourishing when the lines between work and the rest of life become blurred. We have recommended some attitudes that will promote integrity in all the stakeholders of a given workforce so that there is effective collaboration and individual growth.

The new post-pandemic normal reveals challenging features of living through a crisis, including a heightened sense of fear and the awareness of one’s limitations. Some of the challenges have been identified as relating to shifts in employer–employee interfaces or doctor–patient interactions; to increased effort to embrace rapid digitalisation while maintaining interpersonal relations; and to increased pressure to adapt flexibly to financial and structural changes. These are embedded in a greater (and mostly positive) consciousness of human and organisational interconnectedness.

This chapter looks at the parallel experiences of business and health systems as they endeavour to thrive during and beyond a pandemic. The authors recognise the intricate relationship between businesses and health as they feed each other’s overall growth directly or indirectly. Businesses create wealth through a healthy regard for the well-being of their stakeholders while healthcare systems are affected by their own business structures. In both cases, responsible leadership and fairness help to avoid an unhealthy prioritisation of profit.

This chapter reflects on the various routes businesses and health care can take to preserve fairness through ethical leadership. The authors focus on six stakeholders (employee, customer, shareholder, society or community, environment, and creditors) who need to be appropriately cared for and prioritised. The authors consider how promoting human competencies can affect skill acquisition, emotional intelligence, spiritual, and moral growth in both spaces. At the core of our discussion is the concept of self-leadership, which boosts the organisational leadership that in turn determines the kind of future we will have in the new normal.

Given the special challenges identified for businesses and health systems during a pandemic, the authors look in this chapter at various qualities and virtues that enable flourishing post pandemic. The classical virtues of humility, fortitude, and patience are discussed alongside others more specific to a post pandemic situation – endurance, adaptability, flexibility, and toughness – and necessary for sustaining healthy businesses and profitable health systems.

Having in mind how principles and practices can be value-driven and people-centred, the authors review the ethics and principles that have guided major medical decisions over time. Several of these are insufficient for human flourishing or eudemonia and, if the authors are to ensure that foundational principles for business and healthcare are fully oriented to moral ends, then a greater turn towards the right ethical standards for all human actions is important post pandemic.

In this chapter, the authors reflect on varying personal narratives of the pandemic experience, as well as the chapter content of the book contributors, to suggest collective lessons for humanity. The authors conclude that increased flexibility, with new ways to be accountable, sustainable, and ethical, is essential. The authors also identify that, to meet the challenges of remote working, including working from home, more team spirit, solidarity, and loyalty are needed.

Education towards understanding the ethical foundations of responsibility and sustainability is important. It would enhance the acquisition of virtues that move emotions, knowledge, choices, and action towards promoting the flourishing of and protecting human beings, human society, and planet, and towards increasingly orienting business profits towards the good.

One of the major issues with reflecting on the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on work values and dynamics is leadership and management of both material and human resources. We have started this chapter with the challenges of people management in government bodies, corporate outfits, health organisations and educational systems. Relationality and inter-subjectivity have been considered as essential ingredients in preparing for the future.

We have looked at the dimensions of preparedness as mimicking the dimensions of the human being so that there are physical, psychological and spiritual aspects. Physical preparedness directly involves the material resources that make it possible to handle the changes in work hours, technological needs and competence upskilling. Psychological preparedness has been discussed with resilience at the core so that health organisations, businesses and governance target specific aspects of resilience needed for people to thrive. Spiritual preparedness is briefly explained as a continual memory of the capacities of transcendence inherent to the human being so that rapid technological growth never becomes dehumanising. Recommendations are made based on a deeper understanding of these different dimensions in an individual and collective way.

There has been a widespread proliferation of digital technologies in the last few decades with worldwide usage increasing to 4.66 billion active internet users in 2021. This amounts to 59.5% or half of the overall population and is significant. On the one hand, the changing digital state of affairs means that there are greater opportunities for businesses, economies and societies to flourish since 92.6% (4.32 billion) access the internet through mobile devices (Statista, 2021). On the other hand, this digital revolution has not percolated equally, with women having less access to resources and capabilities to utilise digital tools. This phenomenon is known as the ‘digital gender divide’ (OECD, 2018). Correspondingly, the COVID-19 pandemic has not had favourable outcomes for women, with many losing jobs, downscaling their careers or leaving the workforce. Generally, it has disadvantaged women both economically and socially to the extent of slowing their progress towards gender equality and empowerment. With the new normal, following the COVID-19 pandemic and the acceleration of the digitalisation process, possessing digital skills and know-how will be an essential must-have. Digital working offers possibilities for women to become business owners, work flexibly and remotely, be connected to the rest of the world, and have easy access to information and education. For this to happen, the digital gender divide must be resolved by quick, concerted and inclusive pragmatic global policy-level actions to empower women to play a significant part in the digital landscape that would lead to economic prosperity and resilience, equal societies and a much better world.

Traditional African Health Systems (TAHS) is one of the earliest systems of health care known to humankind. It remains a sustainable practice in many indigenous cultures and in Africa accounts for the great majority of cures for illnesses despite the advent of Western Medicine. This chapter explores the concept of TAHS and the specialisations that constitute it. It looks at relational and contextual factors in the practitioners of TAHS within the continent that explain its viability. There are resources and knowledge passed on from generation to generation which make African Traditional Medicines a force to be reckoned with.

The authors look at the specific system of health education contained in the health-related adages which foster wisdom with respect to prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of ailments. Situating education in its cultural context is one of the factors that has promoted TAHS. The authors compare some of these factors with Western Medicine and outline the benefits of encouraging mutuality rather than the dominance of one over the other. TAHS will definitely be a practice in the future and prospects have to include continued research in the areas of pharmacognosy, medical ethics, responsible health care, and education.

Covid-19 has affected the way businesses carry out their activities. It has brought to fore the fact that business activities can be brought to a standstill very quickly, and spurred entrepreneurs and managers to have working alternatives to ensure business continuity. This chapter looks at the effect of covid on the management of small- and medium-scale companies, the challenges faced by most of these businesses and the attributes needed for business continuity. The case study approach is used: a local business that survived and even thrived during and post covid lockdown is examined. From studying the way this business was responsibly led through the difficult situation that arose, we see that, for a responsible business to be a going concern, especially in face of a pandemic, certain attributes are necessary: (i) principled entrepreneurship, (ii) entrepreneurial skills, (iii) clear organisational structure, (iv) strong organisational culture and (v) effective communication.