Preparing for the future: understanding collective grief through the lens of the Kubler-Ross crisis cycle

Abstract

PurposeThis paper explored collective grief through the case of a Business Management College which suddenly and unexpectedly went into administration. The aim was to gain and apply insight to future crises in collective grief such as what occurred during Covid 19.Design/methodology/approach120 EVRE submissions with weekly reflective journal entries and 121 Capstone submissions including reflections were analysed as secondary textual data using content-thematic analysis and inferential statistics.FindingsThis study confirms the theory that grief is not linear. However, even though no positive correlation was found between two different cohorts (EVRE and CAPP submissions), who did experience the same crisis in different ways, those people did all seem to share the stage of avoidance.Research limitations/implicationsThe textual data was limited in scope as not all students chose to express their grief through the written submission or the Kubler-Ross lens.Practical implicationsThis research does suggest that initially, institutional responses to collective grief should address initial stages of “avoidance”.Social implicationsIn responding to collecting grief, such as Covid 19, institutions need to recognise the non-linear process of grief and not expect a “one-size-fits-all” approach to be a viable solution.Originality/valueThere is not much research available looking at student experience and emotional pressures (if at all) collectively during a crisis.

Coincidental discovery of HIV and pregnancy positive status in primary healthcare facilities

“…Some had gone to the extent of disclosing their status to their partners and to their family members. These two phenomena of acceptance and transformation reflect a model of grief and bereavement by Kübler-Ross (Gerhardt & Puchkov 2023 ; Payán et al 2019 ). It is evident that the women need to be supported emotionally and psychologically in response to the fact that they experience loss on discovering their HIV and pregnancy status without being prepared for this (Madiba 2021 ).…”