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Resilience at Work: Building Capability in the Face of Adversity
Abstract
Building on and extending beyond current definitions, we define resilience at work as a positive developmental trajectory characterized by demonstrated competence in the face of, and professional growth after experiences of adversity in the workplace. In this chapter, we: (a) review, consider and comment on the research history, nature, and consequences of resilience at work, (b) share our perspective on resilience at work and situate this in current debate, and (c) identify promising directions for future research. Our primary objective is to stimulate a productive conversation about resilience at work in ways that enable our research community to advance this important area of inquiry.
... An extensive body of research has examined the personal qualities, contextual conditions, and processes for promoting and strengthening resilience (Caza & Milton, 2012;DeCastro et al., 2013;Penley & Tomaka, 2002). ...
... A growing body of evidence suggests that people can increase their level of resilience over time (Caza & Milton, 2012;Youssef & Luthans, 2007). For example, interventions such as training and mentoring have been found to impact employees' resiliency (Cornum et al., 2011;Kao et al., 2014;Luthans et al., 2010). ...
... However, this definition suggests that career resilience is static rather than fluctuating and further ignores the various contextual factors that help people recover from career disruptions (Caza & Milton, 2012). Caza and Milton (2012) asserted that sustaining resilience during career transition requires a process or developmental trajectory. ...
A troubling shortage of K-12 Science, Technology, Engineer and Mathematics (STEM) teachers exists in the United States. One solution to increase STEM teachers involves recruiting STEM professionals to transition from industry to K-12 teaching. Research indicates that fostering resilience is one way to help new STEM teachers’ retention and persistence in the field. This study explored individual and programmatic factors that increase early career and early second career K-12 STEM teachers’ resilience. Moreover, this research examined how strategic initiatives and programs assisted STEM professionals to build resilience as they transitioned into K-12 STEM educators.
This study utilized mixed-methods design to examine resilience within early career STEM teachers (ECST) and early second career STEM teachers (ESCST). Ultimately, this study describes quantitative measures with qualitative interview data analysis. Quantitative measures intended to include inferential statistics analysis of survey data, one-way MANOVA, but the limited sample size prevented quantitative analysis with a significant level of confidence. Thus, quantitative analysis was limited to descriptive analysis and provided the means to select qualitative participants. Qualitative interviews employed a phenomenological design to collect and analyze the experiences and perceptions of eight early career and early second career STEM teachers.
The study findings indicate that teachers struggled with classroom management, a work-life balance, and leadership’s lack of student accountability for learning. In contrast, teachers benefited from professional and emotional support, improved their communication skills through teaching, and felt a sense of purpose in their teaching. These findings suggest that programmatic efforts to assist STEM professionals to transition from private industry into K-12 education can increase resilience.
Future research should include quantitative analysis with a significant level of confidence to confirm that ECSTs truly have higher social competency as compared to ESCSTs, and the role of family support for ECSTs and ESCSTs, examining the mechanisms through which social competency enhance teacher resilience, and investigating sense of purpose and motivation to pursue teaching, particularly among ESCST.
... However, we contend that if a work environment is resilient, it may also enjoy a more sustainable future (i.e., it can be maintained or kept going without depleting itself or damaging the social or physical environment in which it is embedded). For the purposes of this paper, we have conceptually separated Sustainable Future (e.g., Alas & Mousa, 2016;Blustein, 2011;Brown, 1987;Chaves et al., 2004;Foster & Foster, 2019;Wall, 2017) (e.g., Black et al., 2017;Carpio et al., 2018;Carvalho & Areal, 2016;Caza & Milton, 2012;Clark & Bailey, 2018;Coutu, 2002;Hiles Howard et al., 2015;Luthar et al., 2000;Oades et al., 2017;Vanhove et al., 2016;Wang et al., 2017) (e.g., AISC, 2017;Fam, et al., 2017;Mastura, 2017;Spreitzer et al., 2012;van der Laan, 2014;Wall et al., 2017;Zink, 2014) may (or may not) have if resilient, may lead to a may have a Work-Related Problem (e.g., Ackoff, 1979;Fergusson, 2019;Raelin, 2008) A B C D will experience Figure 1. Proto-theoretical model of primary research themes resilience from sustainability, but Walker (2013, p. 5) and others contend resilience and sustainability are "two-sides of the same coin", and, in keeping with our own conception, Jarzebski et al. (2016) maintain resilience is an 'indicator' of sustainability. ...
... However, resilience is not limited to individuals and their ability to cope. As noted earlier, organisations, too, can be more or less resilient (e.g., Carvalho and Areal, 2016;Caza and Milton, 2012;Oades et al., 2017). Indeed, research at some of the best performing U.S. companies suggests that those organisations which are the most resilient in times of crisis are also the best places to work and the ones which perform best during both growth periods and times of crisis, although 'reverse causation' (i.e., it is not clear whether organisations are resilient because they are good places to work, or whether they are good places to work because they are more resilient) may play a part in some studies on this subject (Carvalho and Areal, 2016). ...
... Indeed, research at some of the best performing U.S. companies suggests that those organisations which are the most resilient in times of crisis are also the best places to work and the ones which perform best during both growth periods and times of crisis, although 'reverse causation' (i.e., it is not clear whether organisations are resilient because they are good places to work, or whether they are good places to work because they are more resilient) may play a part in some studies on this subject (Carvalho and Areal, 2016). Caza and Milton (2012) define resilience at work as a "positive developmental trajectory characterized by demonstrated competence in the face of, and professional growth after, experiences of adversity in the workplace". It is of interest to note that generally when the literature speaks about organisational resilience, it is mostly talking about individual resilience, as testified by the following statement: "When times are tough [for an organisation], employees at great workplaces show the resiliency to pull through" (Carvalho and Areal, 2016, p. 479). ...
Purpose
This paper examines the relationship between work, resilience and sustainable futures for organisations and communities by considering the nature of work-related problems (WRPs) and the work-based research designed to investigate them. The authors explore the axis of work environment > work-related problem > resilience > sustainable futures as it might be impacted by work-based research.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper introduces two current real-world examples, one in Australia and one in Asia, of work-based research projects associated with higher education aimed at promoting resilience and sustainability, and discusses the research problems, questions, designs, methods, resilience markers and sustainability markers used by these projects.
Findings
Work-based research, when conducted rigorously using mixed methods, may contribute to increased resilience of organisations and communities and thereby seeks to promote more sustainable organisational and social futures.
Practical implications
Work-based research conducted in higher education seeks to investigate, address and solve WRP, even when such problems occur in unstable, changing, complex and messy environments.
Social implications
Resilience and sustainable futures are ambiguous and disputed terms, but if work-based research can be brought to bear on them, organisations and communities might better adapt and recover from challenging situations, thus reducing their susceptibility to shock and adversity.
Originality/value
While resilience and sustainability are commonly referred to in the research literature, their association to work, and specifically problems associated with work, have yet to be examined. This paper goes some of the way to addressing this need.
... Um eine weitere Bedeutungsdiffusion und die Gefahr der Zirkularität zu vermeiden, wird empfohlen, zwischen Einflussfaktoren der Resilienz (meist Persönlichkeitsmerkmale), vermittelnden Prozessen der Resilienz und deren Ergebnissen zu unterscheiden (Leipold & Grewe, 2009;Reinelt, Schipper & Petermann, 2016) und aufzuzeigen, auf welche Ereignisse bzw. Schwierigkeiten sich diese Einflussfaktoren, Prozesse und Ergebnisse beziehen (Caza & Milton, 2012). ...
... In Einklang mit aktuellen Konzeptualisierungen verstehen wir Resilienz bei der Arbeit als dynamischen Prozess, der durch einen erfolgreichen Umgang mit schwierigen Situationen gekennzeichnet ist (Caza & Milton, 2012;Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). Im beruflichen Kontext können solche Situationen in Form von größeren wie kleineren Schwierigkeiten innerhalb der Arbeitstätigkeit auftreten (z. ...
... Letztlich können auch positive Ereignisse, wie etwa eine Beförderung oder eine Änderung der Zielvereinbarungen schwierige Situationen darstellen, wenn sie mit neuen Anforderungen verbunden sind und eine Anpassung erfordern (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013). Aufgrund dieser breiten Auffassung von Schwierigkeiten gehen wir davon aus, dass eine erfolgreiche Anpassung nicht nur eine rasche Rückkehr in den Normalzustand, sondern auch einen Zugewinn an Arbeitsmotivation und ein persönliches Wachstum bedeuten kann (Caza & Milton, 2012). ...
Das Arbeitszufriedenheitsmodell von Bruggemann (1974) unterscheidet qualitative Arbeitszufriedenheitsformen (AZ-Formen), die sich auf das Befinden bei der Arbeit auswirken. Obwohl diese AZ-Formen auf individuellen Verarbeitungsprozessen basieren, wurden deren personenbezogene Einflussfaktoren bisher nur selten untersucht. Die vorliegende Arbeit überprüft diesbezüglich den Einfluss der individuellen Resilienz auf die AZ-Formen und untersucht deren Auswirkungen auf das Befinden bei der Arbeit. Hierzu wurden drei Studien mit insgesamt 477 Beschäftigten in drei Unternehmen durchgeführt. Außer den AZ-Formen wurden in diesen Studien die Arbeitsbelastung, personale Ressourcen der Resilienz (Selbstwirksamkeit, Optimismus und Achtsamkeit), resilientes Verhalten bei der Arbeit, Arbeitsengagement und psychische Befindensbeeinträchtigungen erfasst. Die Ergebnisse verdeutlichen die Bedeutsamkeit der Resilienz für die qualitative Form der Arbeitszufriedenheit und bieten Ansatzpunkte, wie AZ-Formen, die mit Befindensbeeinträchtigungen einhergehen, begegnet werden kann.
... We define relationship resilience as occasions in which, following adversity, the focal individual observes his or her relationship with the relational other as being stronger than it was prior to the adversity (see Caza & Milton, 2012;Masten & Reed, 2002;Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005;Thompson & Ravlin, 2016). Although transgressions can create relationship challenges, they can also serve as a catalyst for relationship resilience wherein the focal individual observes that the relationship is stronger and growing increasingly immune to future threats (Caza & Milton, 2012). ...
... We define relationship resilience as occasions in which, following adversity, the focal individual observes his or her relationship with the relational other as being stronger than it was prior to the adversity (see Caza & Milton, 2012;Masten & Reed, 2002;Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005;Thompson & Ravlin, 2016). Although transgressions can create relationship challenges, they can also serve as a catalyst for relationship resilience wherein the focal individual observes that the relationship is stronger and growing increasingly immune to future threats (Caza & Milton, 2012). Although resilience has previously been conceptualized as a stable personality trait (Block & Block, 1980;Block & Kremen, 1996;Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), it has also been characterized as a Bprocess encompassing positive adaptation within the context of adversity^wherein situational factors (e.g., the behavior of a relational other) play prominently in the adaptation process (Caza & Milton, 2012;Masten, 2001;Masten & Reed, 2002). ...
... Although transgressions can create relationship challenges, they can also serve as a catalyst for relationship resilience wherein the focal individual observes that the relationship is stronger and growing increasingly immune to future threats (Caza & Milton, 2012). Although resilience has previously been conceptualized as a stable personality trait (Block & Block, 1980;Block & Kremen, 1996;Tugade & Fredrickson, 2004), it has also been characterized as a Bprocess encompassing positive adaptation within the context of adversity^wherein situational factors (e.g., the behavior of a relational other) play prominently in the adaptation process (Caza & Milton, 2012;Masten, 2001;Masten & Reed, 2002). ...
The purpose of this research was to investigate the relationship between relational identification, forgiveness, and relationship resilience. We conducted two different studies: study 1 (n = 177) employed the critical incident technique to assess responses to offenses committed by a coworker; study 2 (n = 298) conducted a field study of working professionals to evaluate responses to offenses committed by a supervisor. Within both coworker and supervisor-subordinate relationships, those who identify with the relational other are more likely to forgive. Forgiveness facilitates relationship resilience such that the relationship becomes stronger than it was prior to the offense. We suggest that understanding the influence of relational identification and forgiveness on relationship resilience may be a key to unlocking stronger workplace relationships that become increasingly resistant to the negative effects of workplace offenses. Knowing that offenses can serve as an impetus toward stronger relationships (rather than a thrust toward impoverished relationships) is essential in dynamic work environments where offenses are inevitable. We examined how relationships that endure relational adversity well become stronger as a result of forgiveness. We replicated and extended our findings across methods and contexts, demonstrating the pervasiveness of the proposed relationships.
... This is particularly evident in the field of human resource development (HRD; Luthans et al., 2006). This lack of attention by HRD is puzzling as there is growing evidence indicating resiliency can be developed (e.g., Caza & Milton, 2012;Youssef & Luthans, 2007). For example, traditional HRD interventions such as training and mentoring have been found to impact employees' resiliency (e.g., Cornum, Matthews, & Seligman, 2011;Kao, Rogers, Spitzmueller, Lin, & Lin, 2014;Luthans, Avey, Avolio, & Peterson, 2010). ...
... A common theme in the literature on resilience is that there is little agreement on how to define the term (Caza & Milton, 2012). Our review of the CR literature uncovered that there are some major ambiguities with respect to the way CR has been defined and operationalized in the literature. ...
... These definitions tend to ignore the multitude of environmental or contextual factors that contribute to any individual's recovery from career disruptions. In addition, we all know from our personal experiences that our ability to recover from stressful disruptions is not a constant or a fixed attribute (Caza & Milton, 2012). ...
In this article, we review and synthesize the empirical literature on career resilience (CR) to develop a nomological network that describes the major components of the construct, and its relationships with other constructs. Specifically, we outline the antecedents and consequences of CR and describe their theoretical basis. We discuss the implications of the nomological network for future research on CR. Finally, we describe the practical implications of our model for individuals, managers, and organizations.
... 46 Resilience, which is defined as one's capacity or ability to adapt, to bounce back, or even to thrive after adversity, 47,48 acts as a buffer against stress and burnout. 49 The traditional view of resilience as a static character trait has been upended by theory 50,51 and evidence 52-54 that identifies its dynamic and transient quality. Thus, optimizing one's resilience could deepen empathy. ...
... 47,48 Consistent with contemporary conceptualization, we framed resilience not as an immutable trait but as an ability or capacity that is developable with the help of personal and social resources. 50,51 We assessed resilience using the 10-item abbreviated version 74 of the original Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale (CD-RISC), 75 which a review found to be 1 of 3 most reliable measures of this construct. 76 Inclusion of factors (eg, spirituality) that foster resilience but are not part of the construct limits the original CD-RISC's conceptual validity. ...
Objective:
To investigate structural relationships of latent constructs such as occupational wellbeing, resilience, work meaningfulness, and psychological empowerment with affective and cognitive clinical empathy among a community of physicians and advanced practice providers.
Methods:
We conducted a cross-sectional observational study. We gathered data by an anonymous self-administered multidimensional questionnaire disseminated electronically between March and May 2016. Participants were physicians and advanced practice providers belonging to the Health Texas Provider Network, a group private practice affiliated with the Baylor Scott and White Health system. We excluded allied health care staff (eg, nurses) and trainees (eg, residents, medical students). We pursued a 3-step strategy: (1) confirmatory factor analysis of a theory-driven measurement model, (2) a modified structural equation model from which pathways with nonsignificant path coefficients were deleted, and (3) multigroup analyses of the modified model.
Results:
Cognitive empathy was the strongest predictor of affective empathy. We observed modest positive associations of resilience with cognitive and affective empathy and of well-being and meaning with affective but not with cognitive empathy. Resilience, meaning, and psychological empowerment were surprisingly negatively associated with well-being, suggesting diminished self-care among practitioners. Effects of psychological empowerment on empathy and well-being were mediated by resilience and meaning.
Conclusion:
Cognitive empathy directly influenced affective empathy; well-being and meaningfulness exerted direct positive effects on affective but not on cognitive empathy, whereas resilience had direct positive associations with both empathy dimensions. Resilience and meaning manifested direct, negative associations with well-being, revealing clinicians' disproportionate focus on patient care at the expense of self-care.
... This suggests that participants struggle to build interpersonal relationships with their co-workers and doctors. Nurses will experience lower burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder when a positive working environment (Caza & Milton, 2012) and good relationships (Dos Santos Alves et al., 2017) with their co-workers and the doctors. ...
... Thirdly, the participants view resilience as having a positive mindset. Caza and Milton (2012) indicated that resilience incorporates behaviour, emotions, and psychological manifestation of active adaptation and professional growth in severe adversity. In developing a sense of resilience, the participants in this study used a psychological resilience approach when encountering any challenges by viewing the positive side of the challenges as they believe it benefits their performance quality. ...
Background: Resilience has become highly relevant for nurses working to avoid the negative impact of stress and maximise the positive benefits.
Objective: This study aimed to explore and describe experiences of resilience among nurses when they first started working in paediatric wards.
Methods: A qualitative, interpretive descriptive approach was used to guide the study. Purposive sampling was employed to recruit 8 participants, which proved sufficient to achieve theoretical saturation. Semi-structured individual interviews were conducted in 2020 and audio recorded. An inductive analytic approach was utilised.
Results: Three overarching themes arose from the analysis: (1) The transition period (2) Gaining the trust of others (3) Having a positive mindset.
Conclusion: This study found that nurses used multiple strategies of resilience in order to cope with workplace stress when they first began the transition period. However, as they become familiar with the workplace and gain the trust of others, this factor enables nurses to have a positive outlook toward job setbacks.
... Britt et al. (2016) defined the process of using resilience as the demonstration of individual resilience capacity. Resilience as a developmental trajectory has two elements: responding to the situation positively and learning from the experience (Caza and Milton, 2011). The developmental perspective suggests that there is a learning orientation in the resilience process (Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003) that helps individuals integrate learning into their personal development. ...
... The developmental perspective suggests that there is a learning orientation in the resilience process (Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003) that helps individuals integrate learning into their personal development. Caza and Milton (2011) iterates that resilience should encompass the emotional, psychological and behavioral levels. Specifically, the learning of the underlying emotional currents and the subsequent emotional regulation in individuals and groups empower individuals, and thereby their teams and organizations to contain problems with a resilient trajectory (Barton andKahn, 2019, Kay andMerlo, 2020;Stephens, 2020). ...
Individuals are subject to stressful events from daily chronic stress to traumatic life-changing experiences and the resulting impairment. Efforts to reduce stress or stressors are misdirected. Instead, bouncing back or recovering from such experiences, often called resilience is a far more potent way to ameliorate the ravages of chronic stress and move to a state of renewal, thriving and flourishing. Because we infect each other with stress or renewal through emotional contagion, each person's ability to manage their own emotions as well as those of others and their relationships becomes key to health. These capabilities are called emotional and social intelligence. At the trait level, they are personal dispositions but at the behavioral level they are patterns of behavior we call emotional and social intelligence competencies (ESI). This paper is a review addressing the role of emotional and social intelligence competencies in resilience. By focusing on the behavioral level of ESI, designs for more precise research and practical applications as to how to develop ESI and resilience are offered.
... For example, individuals with a high growth need strength want to learn and develop and focus strongly on opportunities and internal rewards at work Oldham 1976, 1980). Moreover, resilience at work is defined as a positive developmental progression after experiences of adversity at work (Caza and Milton 2012). It refers to the ability to cope with stressors and threatening circumstances and to use them as an impetus for further development and professional growth (Caza and Milton 2012;Lamb and Cogan 2016). ...
... Moreover, resilience at work is defined as a positive developmental progression after experiences of adversity at work (Caza and Milton 2012). It refers to the ability to cope with stressors and threatening circumstances and to use them as an impetus for further development and professional growth (Caza and Milton 2012;Lamb and Cogan 2016). Similarly, posttraumatic growth has been considered a form of personal growth that can be the consequence of coping with traumatic experiences and crises (Tedeschi and Calhoun 2004). ...
We examine whether the experience of personal growth at work changes over the course of one’s career. Interviews with 29 childcare providers revealed that personal growth was felt after mastering challenges. The nature and content of these challenges seemed to vary according to career phase. Early-career individuals considered their daily work challenging. Professionals in the middle of their careers focused more on social conflicts and their resolutions, while professionals at the end of their careers were more likely to see unique, non-routine tasks as challenges. This study suggests that personal growth cannot be fully understood independently of career phase. Implications are discussed.
... Work, in general, including teaching, is characterized by continual change. If the atmosphere is positive and focused on opportunities for development, reforms can be more easily accomplished (Barker Casa & Milton, 2012;Fredrickson, 2001). It is also important that teachers participate in planning and the realization of the changes in their work (Pyhältö et al., 2012;Vähäsantanen, 2015). ...
... Therefore, leaders and supervisors have an important role as buffers because they can make work at the personal or team level have as much clarity and autonomy as possible (see also Pyhältö et al., 2012). In a positive atmosphere, new opportunities and changes are easier to embrace (Barker Casa & Milton, 2012;Sekerka & Fredrickson, 2013). Moreover, it would be important that teachers participate in planning and executing changes in their work (Pyhältö et al., 2012;Vähäsantanen, 2015). ...
Context: Enthusiasm has been noted to increase productivity and quality at work. In teachers' work, this has a connection to student learning and motivation, as well as teaching quality. In the context of Finnish vocational education and training (VET), research on enthusiasm appears especially topical and relevant because of the ongoing wide reform with emphasis on productivity and efficiency. Approach: In this study, Finnish VET teachers' enthusiasm at work was studied qualitatively. Three research questions were set for this study: (1) How do VET teachers describe their enthusiasm?; (2) What factors strengthen their enthusiasm, according to their descriptions?; and (3) What factors weaken their enthusiasm, according to their descriptions? Altogether, 103 teachers who voluntarily participated in the study completed an online questionnaire on enthusiasm. The data were analyzed through qualitative content analysis. Findings: According to the results, the teachers who participated in the study were very interested in their work. They wanted to share how they experienced enthusiasm in their work. Their enthusiasm manifested as their willingness to develop their skills and expertise. It also showed in their dedication, good job performance, and positive feelings about their work. Student encounters, a positive atmosphere, and work interactions were the main sources of enthusiasm. Lack of resources, changes, cuts in the VET budget, and a lousy work atmosphere weakened enthusiasm. Conclusions: The study found that enthusiasm manifested itself in ways that correspond well with the current VET productivity and efficiency goals. Because enthusiasm was strengthened especially when teachers were working with students, it seems important to ensure a supportive work environment for students also after the VET reform. Positive interactions, collegial support, and working together can help teachers to succeed and to maintain enthusiasm in their everyday work. According to the results of this study, supervisors may play a central role in facilitating teacher enthusiasm. © 2018 European Research Network Vocational Education and Training. All rights reserved.
... The construct validity of the new scale was shown in positive correlations between its dimensions and measures of proactive coping and self-esteem, empirically confirming the link between resilience and psychological well-being. This finding addresses calls in the POB literature for constructs that influence both employees' performance and well-being (Caza and Milton, 2011;Luthans et al., 2010). Proactive coping involves capabilities such as personal control and self-regulation (Greenglass and Schwarzer, 1998), future-oriented qualities directed towards challenging long-term goals and personal growth rather than merely coping with current stresses. ...
... The growth perspective is consistent with some previous studies but is rarely made explicit in the psychological literature. A few organisational studies mention growth in passing, but see it as a response to milder forms of adversity at work (Caza and Milton, 2011;Luthans et al., 2006a), a focus that ignores the wider human context. Work goals exist within broader personal goals and life skills. ...
Growth-focused resilience: development and validation of a new scale
Purpose
This study argues that existing constructs of psychological resilience of employees focus too narrowly on recovery from adverse events. Therefore, this paper aims to present an alternative construct in which resilience reflects an intention to grow as a person when facing both opportunities and difficulties. Initial evidence for a measure of growth-based resilience is presented.
Design/methodology/approach
In Study 1, a six-step scale development procedure was used. Items were generated deductively, and an exploratory factor analysis on data from a sample of 167 Indonesian managers was used to refine the scale structure. Study 2 validated the Study 1 results using a two-step confirmatory factor analysis, including structural equation modelling, involving a second sample of 241 Indonesian managers.
Findings
Study 1 suggested a scale using 16 items reflecting two dimensions, Developmental Persistency, involving perseverance and commitment to growth, and Positive Emotion. Study 2 generally confirmed the structure of this measure and produced expected correlations with other theoretically related constructs. Overall, the findings support the reconceptualisation of resilience as a response to life challenges and opportunities focussed on growing as a person.
Research limitations/implications
Further testing of the validity of this construct is recommended, and its nomological network should be examined to clarify its relationship to related concepts such as hardiness, coping, thriving and similar qualities.
Practical implications
The growth-based perspective allows organisations to better assess and improve employee resilience as it more accurately reflects the nature of resilience as a fundamental “positive” dimension of human personality, where existing approaches focus merely on recovering from workplace adversities. An implication is that employee development efforts focussed more on personal development than specific work skills, or at least contextualising the latter in the person’s life context, will be more successful.
Originality/value
A more holistic view of resilience as the capacity for responding to life’s challenges and opportunities through personal growth resolves a number of issues created by existing recovery-based constructs.
Citation:
Muhammad Taufiq Amir, Peter Standen, (2019) "Growth-focused resilience: development and validation of a new scale", Management Research Review, https://doi.org/10.1108/MRR-04-2018-0151\
... The majority of the previous literature on workforce resilience has concentrated on leadership (Bargavi, James Daniel Paul, and Samuel 2016;F€ orster and Duchek 2017); organizational crises (Teo, Lee, and Lim 2017;Koh et al. 2020); digital disruptions (Caza and Milton 2012;Britt et al. 2016;Birkie, Trucco, and Fernandez Campos 2017); and, to some extent, the COVID-19 pandemic (Aldianto et al. 2021;Corrales-Estrada et al. 2021;Queiroz, Fosso Wamba, and Branski 2022). However, the forward-looking literature is scarce on workforce resilience in the post-COVID-19 era discussing topologies, such as the manufacturing-service orientation and firm size in a single study. ...
The devastating impact of COVID-19 on businesses has led to the redefinition of workforce resilience.
This study hence explores workforce resilience factors that will be important in the post-COVID-19 era.
It investigates whether these factors perform differently in the manufacturing vs. the service sector
and in small and medium enterprises (SMEs) vs. large firms. Sixty-five firms were studied in Malaysia
and analyzed through Rasch modelling. The results indicate that three workforce resilience factors
(positive thinking, sense of responsibility, and emotional control) are difficult to overcome in the manufacturing
sector. Regarding the SMEs and large firm contexts, six workforce resilience factors (positive
thinking, differentiation, degree of involvement, sense of responsibility, cognitive processes, and innovation)
are complicated for SMEs. In comparison, two workforce resilience factors (work–life balance
and decision-making) are difficult for large firms. Capitalizing on these findings, managers in various
organizations (manufacturing vs. service and SMEs vs. large firms) can adopt different strategies to
leverage workforce resilience post-COVID. Moreover, government agencies can use these findings for
policy-making when leading post-COVID-19 projects and initiatives.
... The second research question explored the mechanisms through which personal and career resilience can be developed, both at the individual and organizational levels. Both the quantitative and qualitative analyses confirmed the interconnection between individual and organizational resources (Caza andMilton 2012, Ungar 2011) in developing career resilience. Consistent with literature in other work contexts (e.g. ...
This study aimed to explore the personal and career resilience of project management practitioners working in the Architectural, Engineering, and Construction (AEC) industries and their organizational support in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic. The global pandemic offered a unique opportunity to explore resilience both as a state (using quantitative scales) and as a process (using qualitative responses) in the context of a shared transboundary disturbance in normal routines. A mixed methods approach was used to triangulate quantitative and qualitative data from an online survey which included established scales and open-ended questions. Informed by a total of 121 valid survey responses, hierarchical regression analysis of the scales provided insights into the relationship between career and personal resilience and how personal resilience contributed to greater career resilience and the ability to positively adapt to the pandemic’s consequences. The quantitative analysis was complemented by a thematic analysis of the open-ended responses to identify the forms of organizational support that were important for resilience building during the pandemic. Organizational resources, such as training, mentoring, increased communication, and greater management support fostered employee adaptation to the pandemic shock. Evidence-based recommendations are made for AEC organizations to facilitate better workforce preparation for future adversities through providing effective resilience-promoting support mechanisms. The findings add to the body of knowledge by providing a better understanding of the importance of personal and career resilience and the role of organizational support in the process of resilience-building during adversities.
... "it is an opportunity to become stronger," etc.), among other things (Padesky & Mooney, 2012). While counselors will help us learn these skills more systematically, these can even be taught and developed in organizations by supervisors, in schools, and colleges by teachers (e.g., resilience in the context of exam-taking), or even by new-age mind body guides-for example, yoga teachers, meditation centers, and motivational speakers (Caza & Milton, 2012). In the wake of 9/11 terrorist attacks, American Psychological Association launched its outreach program-APA's Resilience Initiative, sending psychologists to bring information about resilience directly to communities (Newman, 2005). ...
COVID‐19 turned the lives of all people across the world upside down. Everyone faced the threat of catching the virus and denial of access to the physical marketplace. For many, it also brought the threat of partial or full unemployment. This trinity of upheaval produced heightened anxiety. The purpose of this paper is to understand how consumers coped with anxiety during the pandemic and lockdown periods. We hypothesized that consumers coped with such anxiety by engaging in diverse creative and productive activities, which served as anxiety suppressors. In addition, we hypothesized that one’s enduring mind positivity provided resilience and helped consumers mitigate their anxiety. In survey data from a random sample of 550 consumers in U.S., we found support for these hypotheses. Consumers who engaged in voluntary productive activities suffered less anxiety. And consumers with higher resilience levels also felt lower levels of anxiety. Additionally, we found that enjoyment of shopping intensified the experience of COVID‐19‐induced anxiety. The research framework linking this specific set of antecedents to COVID‐induced anxiety and its affirmation in this study are new to the literature and therefore offer a notable contribution to it. These findings show two pathways to marketers: Organize and promote voluntary productive activities and offer means for consumers to cultivate personal resilience, on for‐profit and not‐for‐profit platforms. Also, we suggest a future consumer research agenda for when fate again brings us face‐to‐face with similar or even lesser catastrophes, which, according to scientific forecasters, it sadly but surely will.
... Overall, career shocks have been found to negatively influence the career development process (Bright et al., 2009) and can influence perceived employability (Blokker et al., 2019). However, research has shown that supportive relationships help people persevere through adverse circumstances (e.g., Caza & Milton, 2012). For example, scholars have suggested that workers experience more career resilience, insight, and identity when they have a stronger relationship with their managers, particularly managers who utilize coaching, provide feedback, and discuss development and career-related issues (London, 1985;Noe et al., 1990). ...
Mentoring is a valuable resource that enhances outcomes like career success. Applying conservation of resources theory, we examine the interaction effects of workers’ management aspirations and lengthy career interruption(s) on the mentoring-career success relationship. Utilizing 259 older professional workers, we test these relationships with both cross-sectional and time-separated data. Although the pattern of results was similar when comparing the cross-sectional data to the time-separated data, we found that relationships were stronger within the cross-sectional data, resulting in the support of two additional hypotheses. With the time-separated data, we found evidence of a three-way interaction. Specifically, mentoring is more valuable for the perceived career success of workers with higher management aspirations who had not experienced a lengthy career interruption than it is for workers with higher management aspirations who had experienced a lengthy career interruption or for workers with lower management aspirations regardless of whether they had experienced a career interruption.
... personality, career history; Mishra and McDonald, 2017) and can in turn be seen as a crucial resource-linking career events and even traumas to potential career growth (Vough and Caza, 2017). In other words, career resilience can be seen as a developmental trajectory (Caza and Milton, 2012;Mansfield et al., 2012) that reflects behaving in a resilient manner to changes and adversities and in that way generating opportunities for the future (Davis et al., 2009;Fletcher and Sarkar, 2013). That is why Mishra and McDonald (2017, p. 216) defined career resilience as "a developmental process of persisting, adapting, and/or flourishing in one's career despite challenges, changing events, and disruptions over time." ...
Purpose
To deepen the understanding of the process of growth and development of career resilience, this study aims to investigate the impact of career history and openness to change as antecedents of career resilience and the effect of career resilience on career self-management and career outcomes (salary and career satisfaction) over time using the Career Construction Theory.
Design/methodology/approach
The authors applied structural equation modeling with cross-lagged associations between career characteristics (number of employees, job seniority and missed promotions), openness to change, career resilience, individual career management (ICM) and career success (salary and career satisfaction) using three-wave data of 872 employees.
Findings
Openness to change had cross-lagged positive relationships with career resilience. The number of (previous) employers and missed promotions had a positive effect on career resilience, whereas job seniority was related negatively to career resilience. Furthermore, career resilience had a positive effect on individual career self-management in terms of networking, practical things and drawing attention over time. No effect was found on the individual career self-management dimension of mobility-oriented behavior over time. Finally, ICM had a positive effect on salary and career satisfaction over time.
Originality/value
Altogether these results suggest that career resilience is not only a way to stay active as an employee and cope with career changes, but it also enhances employees’ chances to achieve objective and subjective career success.
... As outlined by Bimrose and Hearne (2012), career resilience requires the development of coping strategies to manage to adapt, even to discouraging or disruptive circumstances (Goodman, 1994;Kohn et al., 2003;London, 1997). Such strategies might include emotional labor capacities to overcome structural and/or dispositional career barriers (Cordoso & Moreira, 2009;Jackson et al., 2007) such as developing a proactive personality (Chiaburu et al., 2006) and self-reliance (Collard et al., 1996;Fourie & van Vuuren, 1998), as well as competences (Caza & Milton, 2012) and well-being (Bimrose & Hearne, 2012). Career resilience affects career motivation (London, 1983) and can lead to improved career self-management (Chiaburu et al., 2006). ...
Sweden is known to be one of the most gender‐equal societies in the world. Thus, it remains an enigma why a large discrepancy continues to exist regarding the gender balance in career choice and progression in many professions. Drawing on Yvonne Hirdman's(1988) theory of gendered systems, in this paper we explore the role of career resilience in the career progression of women who choose to work in the male‐dominated IT sector. We draw attention to how the day‐to‐day process of practicing career resilience in a gendered workplacetends to evolve as women progress in their careers. Based on an interview study with 50 female IT professionals as well as a discourse analysis of 502 newspaper articles on women in this sector, we develop a process model of career resilience in gendered professions, outlining different coping strategies that allow women to develop and enhance such resilience over time. We conclude the paper by providing some practical recommendations.
This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... Resilience in the school context is a positive developmental trajectory characterised by demonstrated competence in the face of, and professional growth after, experiences of adversity in the workplace (Caza & Milton, 2012). As stated in Vuorikari et al. (2020) the majority of parents reported that during the spring 2020 lockdown, their child had acquired and gained new digital skills in using digital technologies for online school activities; the latter, thus, actually promote digital literacy. ...
Key insights
• Digital learning environments (DLEs)
make it possible to maintain the operability
of schools while helping to extend the whole
concept of schools from the physical to the
sociotechnical sphere.
• Organisational and individual resilience
lies, among other things, in the strategic
ability to adapt to and use emerging
technologies. The response to the COVID-
19 pandemic was evidently about building
the resilience of schools as organisations
and of all individual actors – teachers,
parents, and students.
• DLEs provide more flexible opportunities for
learning, but only if sufficient infrastructure
and support for students are provided.
Under some circumstances, DLEs may
have a negative impact on learning
outcomes.
• The way to a flexible, inclusive, and
sustainable school involves using a hybrid
model of digital and physical learning
environments. The digitalisation of schools
is about taking the leverage of technology
and adopting high-end solutions in parallel
to those available in real life.
• Parents and guardians are key to the
success of remote learning in many ways.
Teachers should consider the limited time
resources and increased stress parents
experience and acknowledge that it may
require extra effort for many parents to
familiarise themselves with a situation that
differs dramatically from their own
experiences of attending school.
• Children and young people are the most
important stakeholders in the school
context. Students who do not have the skills
to participate and lack the skills to
understand the dynamics within digital
learning environments can
... The inclusion of this construct lies in the fact that it is seen as the most important positive resource to handle today's turbulent and stressful workplaces (Avey et al., 2009). Resilience at work involves behavioral, affective and psychological manifestations of positive adaptation and professional growth in face of significant adversity at work (Caza and Milton, 2012). ...
Purpose
The purpose of this conceptual paper is to trigger a transcendental concern toward building the spiritual capital (SC) particularly focused on the highly relevant domain of work. In doing so, this conceptual framework focuses on potential antecedents and outcomes of the SC.
Design/methodology/approach
Such an endeavor is premised on the Christian's teaching that advocates the need for gathering spiritual treasures (i.e. capital). Secondly, the foray into Spiritism Doctrine (SD) literature is due to the fact that this doctrine considers the spiritual construct as the cornerstone of its principles and tenets. Thirdly, it also examines the related perceptions and approaches from the fields of positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship, workplace spirituality and psychology of religion.
Findings
The model invites the individual to capitalize on salient virtues and remarkable human qualities so as to build a SC, namely: humility, compassion, forgiveness, empathy, positive emotions, connections/relationships and sense of cooperation. Finally, it is envisaged that the attempt to create a SC may lead the individual to a feeling of well-being and more resilience at work.
Practical implications
At last, the implications to develop a SC in the context of work are sizeable. After all, it implies to add more concerns to one's career much beyond those strictly functional or professional ones. Rather, it means to regard the work domain through unusual lens.
Originality/value
By bringing the conceptual framework of SC to the forefront of management, spirituality and religion studies through an interdisciplinary approach showed that it is not an elusive or mythical topic. On the contrary, this analysis revealed that this is a serious and surprisingly neglected issue that deserves further attention in light of the benefits that it can potentially yield.
... At both the individual and organizational levels of analysis, researchers have debated whether resilience is (a) an ability, activated in response to adversity, that enables a system to bounce back and achieve positive outcomes (Luthar, 2003) or (b) a process through which the system recovers from threats to its viability or development (Caza & Milton, 2012;Williams et al., 2017). Empirical studies emphasizing the former approach have identified the factors that promote positive adjustment in the face of adversity, that is, capabilities for durability (Williams et al., 2017). ...
... Despite these advances in the resilience literature in HRD and HRM in general and career resilience in particular for developing such capacity (Caza & Milton, 2012), this development is part of a trajectory including person-environmental inter-relationships and interactional fit (i.e., a process) Notably, prior and current studies have not sufficiently addressed a multiplicity of resilience building contexts which may lead to a more inclusive component definition of the term as highlighted by De Vos et al. (2020). This is partly due to the fact that the ability for humans to recover from different types of adversity is not fixed. ...
The Problem
Human resource development (HRD) research has sought to demarcate a human developmental problem by identifying learning interventions through which individuals can contribute towards group and organizational growth. However, there remains the fundamental problem, which is how to go beyond individualized employee development to a more collective resilience model building against workplace stress. Such lesser effectiveness has led to financial, emotional and psycho-social costs to individuals and collectives. Based on the theoretical analysis of human capital theory, HRD research and literature are lacking in how to more effectively operationalize collective resilience against workplace stress.
The Solution
A multi-faceted collective workforce resilience intervention conceptual model is proposed to enable both management and employees to overcome ineffective implementation of human development and thereby bounce back from workforce stress. Four aspects of the model’s practical operationalization are proposed as steps to help the HRD community of practitioners and scholars to engrain resilience as a workplace culture in resolving stress. Implications on (1) the identification of workplace stress, (2) the effective design and operationalization of development capacities. (3) the resilience intervention initiatives, and (4) the management of collective workforce resilience are highlighted.
The Stakeholders
The proposed model is designed for the HRD community, including scholars, practitioners, employees and managers in related HRD contexts.
... Career resilience (CR) has been defined a variety of ways with scholars often debating whether it is a trait, a capacity or a process (Caza and Milton 2012;Kossek and Perrigino 2016;Mishra and McDonald 2017). Yet most recognize that it is about adapting and persisting when faced with disruptions or adversity and acknowledge its importance in considering careers in today's turbulent economic environment. ...
There are few certainties in our visions of post-COVID-19 careers, but change is inevitable. This article will explore how HRD can be proactive in addressing the immediate needs of the post-pandemic workforce and workplaces, as they strive to recover and resume a productive future. Uncertainties about employment and employability, how workplaces will be configured, the future of some careers and the possibilities for new opportunities will weigh heavily on individuals as they navigate these challenges. Drawing on the career shock, resilience, and sustainable careers literature, we consider how both individual and contextual factors will impact people and their occupations moving forward.
... Sutcliffe and Vogus (2003) describe resilience as an individual's ability to absorb strain under adversities, such as a leadership crisis, major organizational change, and production pressures or to cope with external demands by stakeholders. Caza and Milton (2011) affirmed the importance of resilience as it makes an individual grow professionally through developing the necessary competence to face the adversity and challenges at work. Reivich and Shatte (2003) characterized resilience as the ability to conquer challenges while undergoing changes experiencing a different perspective of life. ...
Engaging in behavior that enhances the socio-psychological relations at the workplace provides a competitive advantage to organizations. Drawing from the emerging positive organizational behavior studies, the present research was designed to analyze the relationship between self-efficacy and resilience to promote workplace well-being. The main aim of the study was to examine the moderating role of resilience between self-efficacy and workplace well-being. About 527 full-time executives from the Indian public and private manufacturing industries participated in the study. Common method variance of the measure was carried out through one-factor test ( Podsakoff et al., 2003 ) using confirmatory factor analysis to understand the bias in responding to our questionnaire. Finally, we carried out a hierarchical regression analysis to test the interacting effect of resilience between self-efficacy and workplace well-being. The result of the study indicates a positive relationship between self-efficacy and workplace well-being. The moderation effect of resilience was also confirmed in the structural equation modeling output through LISREL. Results revealed that executives having higher self-efficacy and resilience will demonstrate a positive attitude toward workplace well-being. Self-efficacy and resilience are malleable in nature and get enriched through observation and learning. This study stands as one of the first few empirical works in positive organizational behavior studies that have been carried out on executives of manufacturing organizations in India. Hence, the findings of the study cannot be generalized beyond manufacturing organizations. The data are collected through random sampling method, hence due care need to be taken while generalizing the result in a larger population, so future research may be carried out on a large sample in diverse organizations and locations to have an appropriate comparison by addressing the effectiveness of resilience on other behavior constructs.
... For instance, they could change they perceive about the task, or see their job as a collective whole as opposed to a set of separate tasks. Other studies suggest it could be conducted through reframing the social purpose of work to aligning the employee's passion [15] or deliberately changing thoughts or beliefs about the job to cope with adversity [16]. Above ways of meaning in and at work may produce individual outcomes in ways of changing the meaning of work, positive experiences. ...
This paper reports the evaluation of positive meaning-making practices as one of the positive leadership strategies in a consumer good company. Four strategies of positive meaning and effort in strengthening culture and identity examined from secondary data and informal talk of participants. Two company's video, seminar presentations, and a book were used as main data. The results reveal that building a sense of community and strengthening the culture and identity as well as creating a positive impact are the most apparent feature of positive meaning strategy.The discussions contribute to the concepts of positive meaning in the domain of positive leadership, and the practices applied can be referred for managers. Index Terms-Positive meaning, positive impact, culture, sense of community.
... Resilience is among the factors that prevent ptsd from developing to its maximum impact. It is a person's 'ability to bend and not break' (Bridges 1995, 56); a process during which a person regains stability and levels of functioning, despite being confronted with severe adversity (Bhamra et al. 2011;Caza and Milton 2012). The phenomenon of resilience contains both, elements of personality traits but also individual resources that can be activated in view of traumatizing events, in order to adapt and to maintain mental stability (Vogus et al. 2014;Bonanno 2004). ...
Traumatology as scientific discipline has its roots in the early twentieth
century. The rise of Psychoanalysis and the atrocities of two
world wars, which victimized millions of soldiers and civilians
worldwide, represent the foundation of Traumatology. Symptoms
of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were observed and studied
systematically ever since. After introductory differentiations
regarding the terminology of PTSD and resilience, this paper offers
insight into organizational trauma. Both, the organizational
context of trauma and the processes of transmitting traumata within
organizations are described and analysed. This paper refers to a
single case study, carried out in Austria during 2017/2018, investigating
a collapsing mid-sized international bank and the traumatic
impacts across its organizational structures. Narrative methods
were used according to the study’s research design, in order
to explore how the traumatized employees ‘storied’ their experiences.
Narrative thematic segments reveal how persons endure,
cope with and eventually get over severe long-term traumatic experiences.
... Research found that resilience is positively related to innovation in an organization (Richtnér & Löfsten, 2014). Building on the process-outcome view of resilience theory, studies suggest that resilience can positively support organizational capacity building and service innovation (Akgün & Keskin, 2014;Caza & Milton, 2012). Thus, we predict that employee resilience positively influences service innovation. ...
With changing customer demand, fierce market competition, and uncertainties, service organizations are facing dynamic or even highly turbulent environments. Fostering employees’ ability to innovate is an effective business strategy that can enable firms to overcome market turbulence and cope with these challenges. Drawing on resilience theory, this study examines (1) the mediating effect of employee resilience on the relationship between market turbulence and service innovation, and (2) whether such mediating process was moderated by organizational readiness for change. Data were collected from employees in the hospitality industry in a developing country, Ethiopia, and the results indicated that employee resilience partially mediates the relationship between market turbulence and service innovation. Moreover, the indirect link was stronger for hotels with higher readiness for change than for those with lower readiness for change. Implications for managers and directions for further research are also discussed.
... Compassion may be a natural and embedded human response to suffering, but for individuals and organizations to effectively apply the compassion process, other POS traits must be present and applied as well. It is reasonable to think that organizations must employ individuals who display a disposition towards prosocial motivation, passion, hope, trust/trustworthiness, resourcefulness, and resilience under adversity (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012;Carlsen, Landsverk Hagen, & Mortensen, 2011;Caza & Milton, 2011;Felman & Worline, 2011;Grant & Berg, 2011;Mishra & Mishra, 2011;Perrtula & Cardon, 2011;Williams, 2011). The underlying POS trait that must exist is a calling in work (Cameron & Spreitzer, 2012;Wrezesniewski, 2011). ...
Children all over the United States currently endure food insecurity, which presents significant issues for their academic performance and general quality of life. This paper examines how the generosity of compassionate individuals and agencies helps to improve the wellbeing and self-motivation of students who go without food. To this end, we review the literature on compassion, particularly how it is theoretically described by positive organizational scholarship (POS). We also review some of the major programs and agencies that have arisen in recent decades to counter the problem of food insecurity and its related concerns-programs such as the Backpack Food program, which exists in many rural and urban cities across the United States. We specifically consider the case of Kentucky, which utilizes backpack programs to aid starving children and families. It appears that compassion can promote higher self-esteem among students and thereby help counter low academic achievement. Ultimately, addressing hunger highly correlates with academic performance and achievement.
... Please cite this article as: Degbey, W.Y. & Einola, K. (in press Brodsky and her colleagues (2011, p. 233) asserted that "a focus on the individual is not enough", as individual and collective outcomes are intertwined. Therefore, resilience is best enhanced by jointly cultivating it at individual, social and organizational levels, with a great emphasis placed on the role of social support in such endeavors (Caza & Milton, 2012). ...
Resilience, or the capacity to bounce back from adversity strengthened and more resourceful, can be considered an important quality of virtual teams in the contemporary working world. A team is the basic organizational unit many modern firms are composed of—and, the virtual ones are those conducting teamwork over distance using a combination of telecommunications and information technologies to accomplish an organizational task. Yet, we know little about how these teams with members who rarely meet in person can build resilience. We develop further the notion of resilience from the traditional focus on significant adversity to also include mundane yet crucial events that can become key for building resilience in virtual teams. Our study focuses on team dynamics and builds on an experimental research setting using a longitudinal, qualitative and interpretative research design to examine five anatomically similar, well‐performing virtually working teams over their life cycle. Our findings show that team members in two out of the five teams engaged in specific reflection and action mechanisms—self‐reflective practices, regulation of emotional expression and engagement in concrete actions promoting team inclusion—that in turn helped these teams become more robust and prepared to face new adversities. Implications for practice and research are discussed. This article is protected by copyright. All rights reserved.
... For complex changes and challenging environments, the importance of resilience as a strength-focused concept has been recognized (Luthans, 2002;Caza & Milton, 2012). It is not just a personal capacity, but also a characteristic of successful organizations and teams. ...
Teachers' competence in launching and managing pedagogical change collaboratively is crucial for the continuous development of their work as well as for meaningful student learning. However, research on how teachers can thrive in their profession in the changing higher education environment is limited. This study investigated the experiences of teachers in managing pedagogical innovation when working as a team and implementing integrated competence-based learning modules. Strength-focused concepts like collective efficacy and resilience were used to extend the understanding of the phenomenon. Five teacher teams were analyzed in relation to the change itself, as well as to protective and risk factors that had an impact on teachers' collective efficacy and resilience to the change. The data consisted of group interviews and individual questionnaires collected during the process. The findings indicate that stronger collaboration creates significant changes in teachers' work and students' learning, and success is based on teacher teams' capacity to craft their common work practices.
... Career resilience reflects the persistence component of career motivation and is characterized by a strong ability to adjust to a changing environment and cope with adverse circumstances (Noe, Noe & Bachhuber, 1990). As a result of their high level of persistence and adaptability, individuals who are career resilient are better equipped to overcome career obstacles and disruptions (e.g., impediments to achieving career goals, uncertainty, poor relationships with coworkers; Caza & Milton, 2012;Gu & Day, 2013). Having its roots in motivational concepts, including self-efficacy, need for achievement, and hardiness, career resilient employees tend to engage in more effective career management behaviors (London, 1983;Mishra & McDonald, 2017). ...
Drawing on the “top-down” view of life satisfaction, this study investigates the influence of employee career resilience on life satisfaction and examines mediating effects of indicators of career success (i.e., salary, job level, job satisfaction) and work-related well-being (i.e., work stress) on this relationship. Data were collected from a sample of 527 working professionals from various organizations across the central United States. Results revealed that career resilience was positively associated with life satisfaction. Two indicators of career success (job satisfaction and salary) and work stress were found to mediate this relationship. Taken together, these findings signal that career resilience contributes to employee subjective well-being and that both career success and work stress are instrumental in explaining this relationship.
... At both the individual and organizational levels of analysis, researchers have debated whether resilience is (a) an ability, activated in response to adversity, that enables a system to bounce back and achieve positive outcomes (Luthar, 2003) or (b) a process through which the system recovers from threats to its viability or development (Caza & Milton, 2012;Williams et al., 2017). Empirical studies emphasizing the former approach have identified the factors that promote positive adjustment in the face of adversity, that is, capabilities for durability (Williams et al., 2017). ...
... Questa intende l'organizzazione come il contesto in cui sviluppare le risorse individuali che possono favorire il benessere soggettivo, più che intendere come un unicum il benessere organizzativo e quello del lavoratore, come nella prospettiva della Occupational Health Psychology. Alcuni dei temi evidenziati in relazione al benessere sono così la valorizzazione e il sostegno del capitale psicologico (PsyCap: Culbertson, Fullagar & Mills, 2010), la resilienza (Caza & Milton, 2012), il fluorishing, la gratitudine (Michie, 2009;Di Fabio, Palazzeschi & Bucci, 2017), le relazioni positive al lavoro, la leadership «positiva» (Kaplan & Kaiser, 2010), l'atteggiamento di «presenza» (mindfulness: Marianetti & Passmore, 2010). ...
The study presents a brief review on Organizational Wellbeing studies in the Italian public sector, and a secondary analysis of existing data collected with the questionnaire proposed by the National Anti-Corruption Authority and administrated to technical and administrative workers in some Italian Universities. This analysis was aimed to: compare to the main wellbeing theoretical models the dimensions included in the questionnaire; assess the psychometric properties of the questionnaire; identify the semantic structure underlying the participants' answers, apart from the preconceived structure proposed by CIVIT/ANAC questionnaire.
... Questa intende l'organizzazione come il contesto in cui sviluppare le risorse individuali che possono favorire il benessere soggettivo, più che intendere come un unicum il benessere organizzativo e quello del lavoratore, come nella prospettiva della Occupational health psychology. Alcuni dei temi evidenziati in relazione al benessere sono così la valorizzazione e il sostegno del capitale psicologico (PsyCap: Culbertson, Fullagar & Mills, 2010), la resilienza (Caza & Milton, 2012), il fluorishing, la gratitudine (Michie, 2009;Di Fabio, Palazzeschi & Bucci, 2017), le relazioni positive al lavoro, la leadership «positiva» (Kaplan & Kaiser, 2010), l'atteggiamento di «presenza» (mindfulness: Marianetti & Passmore, 2010). ...
Nel corso degli ultimi anni si è diffusa in Italia, sulla base di alcune normative in seguito ricordate, la prassi di monitorare le condizioni di benessere dei lavoratori e delle lavoratrici all’interno delle Pubbliche Amministrazioni (PA). Tale prassi, vincolata all’uso del questionario di cui verranno presentate le dimensioni soggiacenti e le proprietà psicometriche, segnala, al di là dei limiti degli strumenti, l’attenzione posta anche in seno alle organizzazioni pubbliche per un tema di grande interesse per gli psicologi e per quanti si occupano di salute negli ambienti di lavoro fin dagli anni’70-’80 del secolo scorso (Spaltro, 1995; Cooper, Dewe & O’Driscoll, 2001).
... We can thus immediately understand that the viability of every organization public and privatebe it a government, a firm, a state-owned entity or a charityand its effective resilience and survivalas the capacity to appreciate, transform and utilize knowledge for adaptive purposes (Zahra and George, 2002) make it more than ever necessary for managers to adopt Systems Thinking, not only as a technique but also primarily as a discipline for efficient and effective thinking, learning, communication and explanation regarding the dynamics of the world (Folke et al., 2002;Sutcliffe and Vogus, 2003;Caza and Milton, 2012). ...
Purpose
Accepting the assumption that our intelligence depends on the ability to construct models which may allow us to acquire, update and transmit our knowledge, this paper aims to highlight the role of Systems Thinking in developing the “intelligence” of managers for all types and sizes of organization.
Design/methodology/approach
Four relevant contributions for improving the “intelligence” of managers will be examined: the ability to understand and model dynamic systems, the structure of Control Systems, the rules of the decision-making process and the identification of systems archetypes.
Findings
The paper will show that Systems Thinking, through the logic of Control Systems, offers managers a comprehensive representation of the problem-solving and decision-making processes, teaching them how to distinguish problems from symptoms and to acquire a leverage effect. Additionally, Senge’s system archetypes will be presented and new archetypes will be added to Senge’s list.
Practical implications
The viability of every organization and its effective resilience and survival make it more than ever necessary for managers to adopt Systems Thinking, not only as a technique but also primarily as a discipline for efficient and effective thinking, learning, communication and explanation with regard to the dynamics of the world.
Originality/value
The message of the paper is that by continually applying the rules and language of Systems Thinking, managers develop the capability to continually adapt their models to the dynamics of the world, increase their learning capacity and better gauge their consequent judgments, decisions and behavior, thereby removing the mental impediments to intelligence (inappropriate mental models, defensive routines, judgmental biases, rules, etc.).
... The American Psychological Association (2011) defines resilience as "the process of adapting well in the face of adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress." Similarly, in the context of work, individual resilience involves positive adaptation after experiences of adversity in the workplace (Caza & Milton, 2011). In contrast, thriving at work is not a response to an external event, and may occur in the absence of adversity. ...
Indications are that older workers may want to extend their careers and delay retirement, which raises the question as to the kind of late careers they will experience. One view is that older workers just maintain their careers or disengage during late career. The alternative may be a late career in which older workers thrive-continue to learn, improve their skills and knowledge, and feel energized and alive as they do so. The purpose of this qualitative descriptive study was to examine older workers' experiences of thriving at work, and to gain understanding of the impact of these experiences on their intention to continue working. Thriving at work is a psychological state in which individuals grow in a positive capacity, experiencing both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning. Data were collected through narrative interviews with 20 Canadian workers aged 55 and over, in fulltime permanent employment. The older workers in this study thrived when they (a) added value and had an impact, (b) experienced or learned new things, or (c) achieved success. During the process of thriving at work, they were immersed in the task or interaction, figured out issues, and related to people. They sustained thriving through exercising control and choice, and recharging their energy resources. Participants experienced feelings of joy, fulfillment, and energy. They also felt appreciated and validated when they were recognized for their help, advice, knowledge, and experience. The older workers drew on their experience, knowledge, maturity, and wisdom as resources in their thriving experience. Their thriving at work was ii also supported by them having a learning orientation and positive personal attributes, like being optimistic, confident, and motivated to do well. The organizational context which contributed to their thriving included enjoyable work aligned with their strengths and life purpose, connections with respectful and engaged colleagues, a supportive and encouraging manager, and a constructive work environment. In general, the older workers intended to continue working as long as they were thriving at work. Key words: Thriving at work, older workers, late career iii Copyright by MARITHA PEENS 2017 iv ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
... Kremen, 1996), betonen jüngere Quellen, dass das Ausmaß an Resilienz durchaus variieren kann, je nachdem in welcher Situation sich die Person befindet oder in welchem Lebensbereich die Herausforderung auftritt (z. B. Caza u. Milton, 2012;Luthar et al., 2000). Resilienz umfasst sowohl allgemeine personale Ressourcen als auch spezifische resiliente Verhaltenswisen. ...
Resilienz umfasst personale Ressourcen und resiliente Verhaltensweisen, die unter hohen Anforderungen die psychische Gesundheit schützen und stärken. In einem Online-Training zu Resilienz im Arbeitskontext nahmen Beschäftigte über drei Wochen hinweg täglich an kurzen Einheiten zur Steigerung der personalen Ressourcen Achtsamkeit, Selbstwirksamkeit und Optimismus teil. Die Evaluationsergebnisse zeigen, dass das Training positiv bewertet wird sowie einen Lerneffekt bei den Teilnehmenden bewirkt. Unterstützt werden kann die Resilienzförderung mit Präsenzschulungen durch betriebsinterne Handlungsexpertinnen und -experten, sogenannte „Resilienz-Lotsinnen und -Lotsen“. Diese Schulungen beinhalten Lernaufgaben und -situationen, damit Mitarbeitende resiliente Handlungsstrategien erwerben. So kommt im Unternehmen ein ganzheitlicher Prozess betrieblichen Resilienz-Managements zustande, der neben personenbezogenen Trainingsmaßnahmen auch die Gestaltung betrieblicher Rahmenbedingungen umfasst.
Although career resilience (CR) research has revealed insights about the conditions under which individuals overcome obstacles and achieve career success, it has not explicated the nature of CR processes or considered how CR processes may be unique to particular social groups. Based on interviews with 41 women who self-identified as being in the early stages of traditionally male careers (TMCs), this study integrates CR with the communication theory of resilience to elucidate how women persist in/ TMCs despite facing gender-based marginalization. Findings reveal three broad categories of CR processes that (a) engage gendered discourses (using stereotypes, defying stereotypes, justifying behavior, proving worth), (b) challenge gendered discourses (building confidence, direct confrontation, engaging with network) or (c) both engage and challenge gendered discourses (organizational belonging). These themes provide a more robust understanding of CR and suggest future research directions.
Satisfaction with life is a core dimension of well-being that can be of great importance in the workplace, in light of the close link between worker health and organizational success highlighted by the perspective of healthy organizations. This study aimed at analyzing the factors associated with satisfaction with life, focusing on the role of resilience, career adaptability, self-efficacy, and years of education. A sample of 315 workers (67% women; Mage = 34.84 years, SD = 12.39) filled out the Satisfaction with Life Scale, General Self-Efficacy Scale, Career Adapt-Abilities Scale, the 10-item Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, and a demographic questionnaire. Data were analyzed by implementing a chained mediation model. Results showed a significant and positive relationship between resilience and satisfaction with life, partially moderated by the chained effect of career adaptability and self-efficacy, controlling for education. When inserted as a covariate, education showed a significant and negative association with satisfaction with life. Such findings contribute to enriching the field of research on the factors that contribute to the well-being of workers and may have important practical implications for interventions in organizations.
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to study the role of task, relational and cognitive job crafting on the relationship between resiliency and meaningfulness in work.
Design/methodology/approach
This study used path analysis under the framework of structural equation modeling to test the hypotheses using a sample of 374 law enforcement employees.
Findings
Results from the analysis revealed a direct effect of resiliency on meaningfulness. This study also found that relational and cognitive crafting partially mediate these relationships.
Practical implications
Understanding the proactive strategies resilient employees can use to build meaning in work will help managers develop better training programs. The findings emphasize the importance of building social relations and positive reframing of work as a mechanism to bounce back from adverse circumstances.
Originality/value
This paper provides empirical evidence of the proactive actions resilient employees implement to build meaningfulness in work.
O presente trabalho tem por objetivo mostrar
que o Espiritismo, dado o seu escopo doutrinário e interesses,
pode nos dar ajudar na direção de desenvolvermos e
aperfeiçoarmos nossas organizações, instituições e sistemas de
gestão, atrelando-os a princípios espirituais saudáveis.
Ademais, ao longo da vida somos instados a tomar importantes
decisões. E nossas escolhas e ações têm considerável efeito
sobre a nossa evolução. Todavia, nem sempre ponderamos
adequadamente seus efeitos. No calor do momento ou da
situação fazemos – não raro – opções infelizes, que podem nos
custar muito em termos de perda de harmonia e paz interior.
Purpose – This paper investigates the levels of career resilience and self-efficacy of the principals of primary
school units, identifies the relationship between them and determines the effect of the demographic elements of
the sample on their career resilience and self-efficacy.
Design/methodology/approach – The convenient sample of this study was 165 principals from public
schools across the prefecture of Central Macedonia.Atotal of 422 questionnaires were mailed to all principals of
kindergarten and elementary schools, accompanied by a personal letter to inform them about the procedure
and the purpose of the survey. A pilot survey took place to check the adequacy of and get feedback on the
questionnaire. The questionnaire used in the study consisted of three parts: The Career Resilience Scale (CRS)
by Kodama (2015), the Principal Self-Efficacy Scale (PSES) by Tschannen-Moran and Gareis (2004) and
demographic questions.
Findings – The results of the survey showed that principals have high levels of career resilience and very high
levels of self-efficacy. There are four factors that form the levels of career resilience: (a) problem-solving skills
(b) social skills (c) interest in innovation and (d) optimism for the future. Demographic factors play a role in
shaping career resilience as they affect two of the four factors. There are two factors that shape levels of selfefficacy:
(a) self-efficiency in administration and (b) self-efficiency in moral leadership. Demographic factors
play a role in shaping the factor of self-efficacy that refers to administration. Finally, there was a high positive
correlation and a causal relationship between career resilience and self-efficacy.
Research limitations/implications – The convenient sample used in the present study is a limiting factor,
as it may not be representative of Greek primary school principals. Also, research is based on self-evaluation
questionnaires, which may show a lack of objectivity, as the answers may reflect the personal worldviews of
leaders and particular needs of educational institutions (Sarid, 2021). This fact may not allow us to generalize
the results.
Practical implications – The present study showed that resilience and self-efficacy have a causal
relationship and that one enhances another, making their relation pivotal for a successful educational
leadership. Regarding the professional development of school leaders, educational leadership training
programs could be designed and offered by the Greek Ministry of Education (Dexter et al., 2020). Coaching
programs and practices that help principals develop social skills, coping mechanisms, emotional capacities and
confidence in one’s knowledge should be widely introduced. Governments have to take the necessary initiative
to ensure that, particularly in adverse contexts, education stimulate and nurture resilience and self-efficacy
among citizens, by promoting appropriate lifelong learning programs and by ensuring the continuous training
of employees (Renko et al., 2020).
Social implications – Career resilience and self-efficacy ensures economic prosperity in times of crisis,
globalization and rapid technology development and may be the best way to create strong and successful
leaders. Coaching programs and practices that help principals develop social skills, coping mechanisms,
emotional capacities and confidence in one’s knowledge should be widely introduced. The results of the present
research could prove helpful in developing strategic plans, building networks between organizations to
improve communication and flow of information, through employee exchange programs.
Need-threat is the central mechanism underlying the deleterious effects of workplace ostracism. The literature acknowledges that employees respond to the thwarted needs differently. However, there is little insight into individual differences in the front end of the process — perceiving workplace ostracism as a need-threat. The present study examined self-compassion, an individual difference variable, as a buffer to the effect of workplace ostracism on appraisal of need-threat. We found that employees high in self-compassion appraised workplace ostracism as less of a threat to their psychological needs. Additionally, we also found that self-compassion also affected the coping/reaction stage following need-threat appraisal by buffering the effect of need-threat appraisal on employee work proactivity and psychological strain. Two independent studies produced convergent findings. In conclusion, we found evidence that self-compassion is a psychological strength that helps employees ward off the threat of workplace ostracism.
This article investigates how auditors come to make a longer-term commitment to their profession through coping with the demands and intensity of working in the Big Four firms. Through analysis of ethnographic data and thirty-one interviews, we show that the difficulties of team work and the complexity of audit engagements can lead auditors to develop emotional qualities of constructive pedagogy, pragmatic self-abnegation, and collective resilience. These qualities may help auditors to manage the intensity of the negative and positive emotions triggered by their work, and to find longer-term strategies for dealing with the constraints inherent in auditing. Our study does not aim to suggest unduly that all auditors are capable of developing these emotional qualities, but rather to shed light on the dynamic of emotions that drives some auditors to bond with each other, and thus in some cases commit to the profession for the longer term.
We present an illustrative model of entrepreneurial resilience that identifies key antecedents (individual differences and social factors), mediators (positive emotions, adaptive coping, commitment to the venture), moderators (economic conditions, control over circumstances, and conflict), and outcomes (for entrepreneurs, their firms, and the region). We argue that, due to the general level of adversity and specific difficulties in daily business operations, the model may be particularly valid in developing economies.
Perceptions of failure have been implicated in a range of psychological disorders, and even a single experience of failure can heighten anxiety and depression. However, not all individuals experience significant emotional distress following failure, indicating the presence of resilience (Johnson J, Wood AM, Cogn Ther Res, 2015). This chapter synthesised studies investigating resilience factors to emotional distress resulting from the experience of failure in organisational settings. For the definition of resilience, the Bi-Dimensional Framework for resilience research (Johnson J, Resilience: the bi-dimensional framework. In Wood AM, Johnson J (eds) Positive clinical psychology. Wiley, Chichester, 2016; Johnson J, Wood AM, Gooding P, Taylor PJ, Tarrier N et al, Clin Psychol Rev 31:563–591, 2011b; Johnson J, Jones C, Lin A, Wood S, Heinze K, Jackson C, Psychiatry Res 220:217–225, 2014) is used, which suggests that resilience factors are those which buffer the impact of risk factors, and outlines criteria a variable should meet in order to be considered as conferring resilience. This chapter introduces the impact of failure experiences and conceptualises resilience-based approaches (Bonanno GA, Am Psychol 59:20–28, 2004; Masten AS, Am Psychol 56:227–238, 2001; Masten AS, Powell JL, A resilience framework for research, policy, and practice. In: Luthar SS (ed) Resilience and vulnerability: adaptation in the context of childhood adversities. Cambridge University, New York, pp 1–25, 2003). The Bi-Dimensional Framework of resilience research is deliberated. This chapter concludes by discussing the implications for psychological resilience-building interventions in response to failure, error or mistakes for individuals and teams in organisations.
This work presents two of the most important results from the
application of Systems Thinking (as developed in Peter Senge (2006)
and Piero Mella’s (2012) works): highlighting the structure of Control
Systems and the role of the systems archetypes. Control Systems with
feedback represent the most effective control for the purpose of
causing (forcing, guiding, compelling, etc.) a variable to take on a
predetermined value or to follow a predetermined dynamics. The
systemic archetypes are standard structures of systems which are
simplified and easily recognizable and which frequently recur in
various situations and in different environments in all types of
organizations, even in our individual and family life. Their aim is to
rapidly increase the capacity of the manager-decision-makercontroller
to grasp the systemic problems and recognize the
structures that determine them. In his excellent work, Peter Senge
proposes a list of 10 archetypes. The present study adds new
archetypes to that list.
The purpose of this paper is to provide an overview about the insightful Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) concept, which is considered as one of the most important management theoretical developments over the past decade. Therefore, it reviews the meaning, scope, domains, major constructs, outcomes, and theoretical overlaps related to POS, as well as providing a critical analysis of this umbrella concept. In doing so, it is expected to contribute to further understanding of POS theoretical richness as a path to the improvement of workplaces. Despite the difficulties and problems discussed here (e.g., few empirical work, validity issues, and some theoretical intersections) under the relatively new POS concept has ever gathered germane knowledge that has helped to explain how organizations improve their dynamics and general outcomes by adopting more constructive approaches. On the other hand, it is exciting to find that POS concept researchers have worked with a sizeable number of constructs, topics, and ideas. This review contributes to the POS concept by closely examining some of its major constructs (fundamentally those ones that are more theoretically and empirically developed) such as compassion, connections and relationships, cooperation, courageous, flourishing, forgiveness, meaningful work, positive deviance, positive motions, resilience, thriving and virtuous aspects. The results reveal a richer understanding about their benefits and challenges, as well as emphasizing new possibilities for future studies.
In today’s workplace, the hierarchy of authority in organizations is loosening (Daft (2015b) Organization theory and design. Boston: Cengage learning). Therefore, managers should use smart power (combining resources of soft and hard power) in order to supervise their subordinates more effectively. This chapter first reviews definitions of power, while suggesting a refined one based on resources, and secondly reviews the changes in the workplace that potentially undermine the traditional forms of managers’ authority. Those changes necessitate adopting soft power built on resources that can attract employees to cooperate. Thirdly, the chapter presents a process model in which psychological capital is a key element of managers’ power inventory. Psychological capital is defined as “an individual’s positive psychological state of development that is characterized by (1) having confidence (efficacy) to take on and put the necessary effort to succeed at challenging tasks; (2) making a positive attribution (optimism) about succeeding now and in the future; (3) persevering toward goals and, when necessary, redirecting paths to goals (hope) in order to succeed; and (4) when beset by problems and adversity, sustaining and bouncing back and even beyond (resiliency) to attain success” (Luthans et al. (2015) Psychological capital and beyond. New York: Oxford, University Press). According to this model, psychological capital widens the repertoire of resources needed especially to establish and conserve expert and referent bases of power. While increasing their own power, managers empower their employees and indirectly improve the performance of the entire unit. This improved performance increases the power of the managers and so forth.
A link for the chapter in google books, can be found at:
https://books.google.co.il/books?id=plxCDwAAQBAJ&pg=PA80&lpg=PA80&dq=redefining+management+edna+rabenu&source=bl&ots=VZszhPLeOZ&sig=yZMZSk2TcrjjrJruSIpA5cmG5ZE&hl=iw&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwjGkMubhvrYAhWBZFAKHY9iC1YQ6AEIKTAA#v=onepage&q=redefining%20management%20edna%20rabenu&f=false
Through a six-year qualitative study of medical residents, we build theory about professional identity construction. We found that identity construction was triggered by work-identity integrity violations: an experienced mismatch between what physicians did and who they were. These violations were resolved through identity customization processes (enriching, patching, or splinting), which were part of interrelated identity and work learning cycles. Implications of our findings (e.g., for member identification) for both theory and practice are discussed.
In this chapter, resilience in later adulthood and old age is investigated from the perspective of life span development. According to this view, human development is characterized by multidirectionality, multifunctionality, plasticity, and permanent change of the individual's experiences of gains and losses. The activation of resilience constitutes a central interface between life span development and developmental psychopathology, two domains that we aim to connect more closely in this chapter. Resilience as a product of person-conxtext interaction is described. A theoretical framework for succssful aging is presented. Perspectives for research and intervention are offered. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
In this article the author responds to comments made in this issue (see records
2005-03019-010;
2005-03019-011;
2005-03019-012;
2005-03019-013; and
2005-03019-014) responding to his original article entitled
Loss, trauma, and human resilience: Have we underestimated the human capacity to thrive after extremely aversive events? (see record
2004-10043-003). The author notes that in his original article he focused on three crucial points: Resilience among adults represents a distinct and empirically separable outcome trajectory from that normally associated with recovery from trauma; resilience is more prevalent than generally accepted in either the lay or professional literature; and there are multiple and sometimes unexpected factors that inform adult resilience. Owing to the brevity of the article, the author could only touch briefly on many of the more nuanced and complex issues suggested by the resilience construct; this left plenty of room for critique. Fortunately, the comments are generous and insightful and for the most part compatible with the driving goal of the article. As might be expected, of course, there were statements peppered throughout the comments that the author deemed worthy of rebuttal or correction. He considers four points that seemed to beg most urgently for response. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Abstract It has been a decade since an international group of scholars came together to discuss and debate the construct of job burnout. That conference, which took place in Krakow, Poland in 1990, was a major turning point in the development of this field. Not only did it bring together a wide range of theoretical perspectives and empirical data, it generated new directions for the work that needed to be done in the future (Schaufeli et al., 1993). Now that we are 10 years into that future, it would be worthwhile to assemble a new group of international scholars and discover what progress has been made. In essence, that is what the editors of this Special Issue have done. They have invited several of the leading burnout researchers from several continents to contribute their newest studies on this important social phenomenon. Thus this Special Issue affords us the opportunity to assess the strides that have been made since that first meeting in Krakow. So what have we now learned about burnout and its relation to health?
Organizational learning is an important means for improving performance. Learning is a process, that is, often relational in the sense of relying on interactions between people to determine what needs improving and how to do it. This study addresses the question of how the quality of work relationships facilitates learning behaviours in organizations through the ways it contributes to psychological safety. Data collected from 212 part-time students who hold full-time jobs in organizations operating in a wide variety of industries show that capacities of high-quality relationships (measured at time 1) are positively associated with psychological safety, which, in turn, are related to higher levels of learning behaviours (measured at time 2). The results also show that experiences of high-quality relationships (measured at time 1) are both directly and indirectly (through psychological safety) associated with learning behaviours (measured at time 2). These findings shed light on the importance of quality relationships in the workplace for cultivating and developing perceptions of psychological safety and ultimately learning behaviours in organizations. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Two studies were conducted to analyze how hope, resilience, optimism, and efficacy individually and as a composite higher-order factor predicted work performance and satisfaction. Results from Study 1 provided psychometric support for a new survey measure designed to assess each of these 4 facets, as well as a composite factor. Study 2 results indicated a significant positive relationship regarding the composite of these 4 facets with performance and satisfaction. Results from Study 2 also indicated that the composite factor may be a better predictor of performance and satisfaction than the 4 individual facets. Limitations and practical implications conclude the article.
The development of competence holds great interest for parents and society alike. This article considers implications from research on competence and resilience in children and adolescents for policy and interventions designed to foster better outcomes among children at risk. Foundations of competence in early development are discussed, focusing on the role of attachment relationships and self-regulation. Results from studies of competence in the domains of peer relations, conduct, school, work, and activities are highlighted. Lessons are drawn from studies of naturally occurring resilience among children at risk because of disadvantage or trauma and also from efforts to deliberately alter the course of competence through early childhood education and preventive interventions. Converging evidence suggests that the same powerful adaptive systems protect development in both favorable and unfavorable environments.
This paper presents a critical appraisal of resilience, a construct connoting the maintenance of positive adaptation by individuals despite experiences of significant adversity. As empirical research on resilience has burgeoned in recent years, criticisms have been levied at work in this area. These critiques have generally focused on ambiguities in definitions and central terminology; heterogeneity in risks experienced and competence achieved by individuals viewed as resilient; instability of the phenomenon of resilience; and concerns regarding the usefulness of resilience as a theoretical construct. We address each identified criticism in turn, proposing solutions for those we view as legitimate and clarifying misunderstandings surrounding those we believe to be less valid. We conclude that work on resilience possesses substantial potential for augmenting the understanding of processes affecting at-risk individuals. Realization of the potential embodied by this construct, however, will remain constrained without continued scientific attention to some of the serious conceptual and methodological pitfalls that have been noted by skeptics and proponents alike.
The vast majority of bereavement research is conducted after a loss has occurred. Thus, knowledge of the divergent trajectories of grieving or their antecedent predictors is lacking. This study gathered prospective data on 205 individuals several years prior to the death of their spouse and at 6- and 18-months postloss. Five core bereavement patterns were identified: common grief, chronic grief, chronic depression, improvement during bereavement, and resilience. Common grief was relatively infrequent, and the resilient pattern most frequent. The authors tested key hypotheses in the literature pertaining to chronic grief and resilience by identifying the preloss predictors of each pattern. Chronic grief was associated with preloss dependency and resilience with preloss acceptance of death and belief in a just world.
In less turbulent times, executives had the luxury of assuming that business models were more or less immortal. Companies always had to work to get better, but they seldom had to get different--not at their core, not in their essence. Today, getting different is the imperative. It's the challenge facing Coca-Cola as it struggles to raise its "share of throat" in noncarbonated beverages. It's the task that bedevils McDonald's as it tries to restart its growth in a burger-weary world. It's the hurdle for Sun Microsystems as it searches for ways to protect its high-margin server business from the Linux onslaught. Continued success no longer hinges on momentum. Rather, it rides on resilience-on the ability to dynamically reinvent business models and strategies as circumstances change. Strategic resilience is not about responding to a onetime crisis or rebounding from a setback. It's about continually anticipating and adjusting to deep, secular trends that can permanently impair the earning power of a core business. It's about having the capacity to change even before the case for change becomes obvious. To thrive in turbulent times, companies must become as efficient at renewal as they are at producing today's products and services. To achieve strategic resilience, companies will have to overcome the cognitive challenge of eliminating denial, nostalgia, and arrogance; the strategic challenge of learning how to create a wealth of small tactical experiments; the political challenge of reallocating financial and human resources to where they can earn the best returns; and the ideological challenge of learning that strategic renewal is as important as optimization.
Many people are exposed to loss or potentially traumatic events at some point in their lives, and yet they continue to have positive emotional experiences and show only minor and transient disruptions in their ability to function. Unfortunately, because much of psychology's knowledge about how adults cope with loss or trauma has come from individuals who sought treatment or exhibited great distress, loss and trauma theorists have often viewed this type of resilience as either rare or pathological. The author challenges these assumptions by reviewing evidence that resilience represents a distinct trajectory from the process of recovery, that resilience in the face of loss or potential trauma is more common than is often believed, and that there are multiple and sometimes unexpected pathways to resilience.
Comments on George Bonanno's article entitles Loss, Trauma, and Human Resilience: Have We Underestimated the Human Capacity to Thrive After Extremely Aversive Events? (see record 2004-10043-003). The author of this comment notes that Bonanno's article is a compelling analysis of several different reactions to extremely aversive events. With regard to major stressors, such as the death of a loved one or the experience a life-threatening circumstance, there is, notably, not only the psychopathological breakdown (e.g., posttraumatic stress disorder [PTSD] or depressive disorder) that has been emphasized but also the less recognized resilient response, in which there is little or no loss of functioning. Whereas the emphasis in the breakdown response is understandably on treatment that facilitates recovery, the resilient response may require little but the person's own ongoing efforts in life to continue effectively. Indeed, Bonanno suggested that the typical treatment efforts following traumatic events might actually undermine the resilient person's adjustment efforts. Bonanno's conceptualization and supportive research evidence advance our understanding of individuals' reactions to massive stressors. Further, Bonanno (2004) argued that there are multiple pathways to resilience under stress, and he identified personality hardiness as one of them. His presentation of hardiness accurately emphasizes its interrelated attitudes of commitment (rather than alienation), control (rather than powerlessness), and challenge (rather than threat) but does not cover how this concept has evolved over the last 25 years. Coordinating theory, research, and practice over this period of time, the author has concluded (Maddi, 2002) that hardy attitudes amount to the courage and motivation to face stressors accurately (rather than to deny or catastrophize them). This courage and motivation lead to coping by problem solving rather than by avoiding and to interacting with others by giving and getting assistance and encouragement rather than by striking out or overprotecting. Thus, personality hardiness is emerging as a pattern of attitudes and actions that helps in transforming stressors from potential disasters into growth opportunities. The author concludes that Bonanno's exciting position has opened the way for such comparative analytic research through which researchers can further their current knowledge concerning how resilience under stress comes about.
This article describes the concept of posttraumatic growth, its conceptual foundations, and supporting empirical evidence. Posttraumatic growth is the experience of positive change that occurs as a result of the struggle with highly challenging life crises. It is manifested in a variety of ways, including an increased appreciation for life in general, more meaningful interpersonal relationships, an increased sense of personal strength, changed priorities, and a richer existential and spiritual life. Although the term is new, the idea that great good can come from great suffering is ancient. We propose a model for understanding the process of posttraumatic growth in which individual characteristics, support and disclosure, and more centrally, significant cognitive processing involving cognitive structures threatened or nullified by the traumatic events, play an important role. It is also suggested that posttraumatic growth mutually interacts with life wisdom and the development of the life narrative, and that it is an on-going process, not a static outcome.
We examine interpersonal congruence, the degree to which group members see others in the group as others see themselves, as a moderator of the relationship between diversity and group effectiveness. A longitudinal study of 83 work groups revealed that diversity tended to improve creative task performance in groups with high interpersonal congruence, whereas diversity undermined the performance of groups with low interpersonal congruence. This interaction effect also emerged on measures of social integration, group identification, and relationship conflict. By eliciting self-verifying appraisals, members of some groups achieved enough interpersonal congruence during their first ten minutes of interaction to benefit their group outcomes four months later. In contrast to theories of social categorization, the interpersonal congruence approach suggests that group members can achieve harmonious and effective work processes by expressing rather than suppressing the characteristics that make them unique.
Drawing from social categorization theory, we found that greater demographic heterogeneity led to group norms emphasizing lower cooperation among student teams and officers from ten business units of a financial services firm. This effect faded over time. Perceptions of team norms among those more demographically different from their work group changed more, becoming more cooperative, as a function of contact with other members. Finally, cooperative norms mediated the relationship between group composition and work outcomes.
Examines relationships between employment status (working full‐ or part‐time), age, gender, and career motivation variables (career resilience, insight, identity and desire for recognition). Study one focused on individuals in mid and late career. Subjects were 172 employees (mean age = 57.8, ranging from age 43 to 87) from a variety of organizations. Among the 76 men, age was related positively to career resilience and insight. Also, career resilience was higher for men working part‐time than full‐time. Among the women, age was related negatively to desire for recognition, especially for women working part‐time. Study two was conducted to determine the reliability of these relationships for a sample of full‐time employees, including younger as well as older workers. Subjects were 96 employees, 29 of whom were women, in a public utility company. Levels of resilience, insight, identity, and desire for recognition were comparable to the first study. Consistent with Study one, women′s need for recognition was related negatively to age. Also for women, career resilience increased with age. The results are discussed in terms of the stability of the motivational constructs across age groups and the practical implication that employers should expect high levels of motivation from late career employees, whether they work full‐ or part‐time.
We use an established model of organizational identification to try to understand the voluntary cooperative behavior of professionals in organizations. We examined the relationships among physicians' assessments of the attractiveness of a health care system's perceived identity and construed external image, strength of system identification, and cooperative behaviors. We surveyed 1,504 physicians affiliated with three health care systems and collected follow-up data from 285 physicians a year later. Attractiveness of perceived identity and construed external image were positively related to physicians' identification with the system, which in turn was positively related to cooperative behavior. Extensions to the model of organizational identification are suggested.
Organizations in the health care industry and beyond face pressures to lower their costs while maintaining quality, resulting in high levels of stress for their workers. In a nine-hospital study, this article explores the role that relationships play in enabling resilient responses to external pressures and the organizational practices that enable workers to respond in a resilient way when organizational change is required. The article argues that relational coordination—communicating and relating for the purpose of task integration—is a resilient response to external threats that require a coordinated collective response across multiple functions or roles. Findings suggest that workers engage in higher levels of relational coordination when they perceive this type of threat but that the presence of a particular type of high performance work system—a relational work system—greatly strengthens this resilient response.
The traditional literature on stigma focuses on identifying factors contributing to the harmful impact of stigmas on the lives of stigmatized individuals. This focus, however, cannot explain the many cases of individuals possessing a stigmatized identity flourishing in our society. This article investigates the processes that successful stigmatized individuals use to overcome the harmful consequences of stigmatization. Specifically, this article reviews three processes: (1) compensation; (2) strategic interpretations of the social environment; and (3) focusing on multiple identities that have been identified in the literature to help stigmatized individuals handle prejudice and discrimination. Moreover, successful individuals adopt an “empowerment” model as opposed to a “coping” model when dealing with stigma. In other words, successful individuals view overcoming the adversities associated with stigma as an empowering process, as opposed to a depleting process. This discussion underscores the importance of adopting a new approach to gain a fuller understanding of the experience of being stigmatized.
The meta-theme of this book is integration of diverse perspectives on culture and on organizations. In this book, we bring together various cultural perspectives, main-stream theories of organizations, and empirical work from various social science disciplines on cultural phenomena in organizations. The inclusiveness of our approach allows us to tell many stories about organizational cultures.
Any attempt to conceptualize social structure must ultimately confront the dilemma posed by the problem of agency. The emerging consensus among sociologists is that society consists of both powerful, determining structures and actors that posses a degree of efficacy, freedom, and creative independence. This paper is an attempt to aid in developing an approach to role theory that is more versatile and more capable of addressing the agency-structure duality. First, a definition of role as a "cultural object" is proposed. This new conceptualization views roles as resources in the production of both agency and structure. Second, two dimensions of role varience are introduced: role type and role use. It is argued that this distinction between the types of resources and the uses of resources can serve as a theory of the middle range, directing and enhancing empirical research.
Under the "new" work covenant, employer and employee share responsibility for maintaining and enhancing the individual's employability inside and outside the company. The agreement gives employees the opportunity to develop their employability in exchange for better productivity and a degree of commitment to the company. (JOW)
This chapter provides an overview and summary of the other chapters of editors M. D. Glantz and J. L. Johnson's (see record
1999-04168-000) book. This chapter examines the history and future direction of behavioral and social sciences research on resiliency. The signs of the transition from a first generation of resiliency research to a second generation are described, ranging from the intensity of the criticisms of the construct of resilience to the demands for theory and process-oriented methods. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
Investigates literature that seeks to identify "protective" factors that seemingly enable individuals to circumvent life stressors. These factors include the dispositional attributes of the individual, family affectional ties, and external support systems. The patterns of high achievers include frequent school contact initiated by parents; the child's exposure to stimulating, supportive school teachers; and infrequent family conflict. The attributes of competent, Black disadvantaged children include social skills, a self-perception founded on a sense of power rather than powerlessness, and cognitive skills and styles that differentiate them from their less competent peers. Schools that enhance cognitive and social competence show concern with academic and work-oriented goals, express appreciation of good work, and maintain a prosocial atmosphere. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
This article summarizes the major findings of a longitudinal study that traced the developmental paths of a multiracial cohort of children who had been exposed to perinatal stress, chronic poverty, and a family environment troubled by chronic discord and parental psychopathology. Individuals are members of the Kauai Longitudinal Study, which followed all children born in 1955 on a Hawaiian island from the perinatal period to ages 1, 2, 10, 18, and 32 years. Several clusters of protective factors and processes were identified that enabled most of these high-risk individuals to become competent and caring adults. Implications of the findings for developmental theory and social action programs are discussed, and issues for future research are identified.
This article reviews the research on resilience in order to delineate its significance and potential for understanding normal development. Resilience refers to the process of, capacity for, or outcome of successful adaptation despite challenging or threatening circumstances. Three resilience phenomena are reviewed: (a) good outcomes in high-risk children, (b) sustained competence in children under stress, and (c) recovery from trauma. It is concluded that human psychological development is highly buffered and that long-lasting consequences of adversity usually are associated with either organic damage or severe interference in the normative protective processes embedded in the caregiving system. Children who experience chronic adversity fare better or recover more successfully when they have a positive relationship with a competent adult, they are good learners and problem-solvers, they are engaging to other people, and they have areas of competence and perceived efficacy valued by self or society. Future studies of resilience will need to focus on processes that facilitate adaptation. Such studies have the potential to illuminate the range and self-righting properties of, constraints on, and linkages among different aspects of cognitive, emotional, and social development.
Integrating social psychological and network theory, this field study demonstrates a positive association between identity confirmation-based networks and cooperation and performance in work groups. Mutual identity confirmation (of positive and negative identities) increased cooperation in work group dyads. With position in conventional social networks controlled, structural equivalence in identity confirmation networks also increased cooperation. Advantageous positions in identity confirmation networks enhanced performance through greater cooperation, and identity confirmation mediated effects of race-based diversity.
Job burnout continues to plague organizations and individuals, resulting in costly consequences. In examining the antecedents to job burnout, prior research has primarily focused on role stressors present in the job environment. with little attention given to individual characteristics. The purpose of this field study was to examine the extent to which dimensions of an individual's personality have differential efects on the 3 components of burnout (emotional exhaustion, depersonalization. and diminished personal accomplishment) among nurses working in a hospital. After controlling for several demographic variables and 3 role stressors, findings indicate that specific dimensions of personality do significantly and differentially impact the experience of the 3 components of burnout.
Although there is marked variation in how people cope with interpersonal loss, there is growing recognition that most people manage this extremely stressful experience with minimal to no impact on their daily functioning (G. A. Bonanno, 2004). What gives rise to this resilient capacity? In this paper, we provide an operational definition of resilience as a specific trajectory of psychological outcome and describe how the resilient trajectory differs from other trajectories of response to loss. We review recent data on individual differences in resilience to loss, including self-enhancing biases, repressive coping, a priori beliefs, identity continuity and complexity, dismissive attachment, positive emotions, and comfort from positive memories. We integrate these individual differences in a hypothesized model of resilience, focusing on their role in appraisal processes and the use of social resources. We conclude by considering potential cultural constraints on resilience and future research directions.
The usefulness of a psychological training for health professionals dealing with terminally ill cancer patients is beginning to be widely recognized, but little has been done to elaborate its content and form. The study of the effectiveness of brief psychological training groups is of special interest for the quality of treatment to be achieved. The principal aim of the training group, assessed here, was to develop a better understanding of death and dying issues and ways to cope with them. Subjects (n = 122) who attended the training groups were compared to a control group (n = 43). Attitudes about oneself, toward illness and death, occupation, personal growth, and professional relationship were assessed with a semantic differential questionnaire before and after training. Results show a significant change in attitudes for the trained subjects. Subjects reporting more negative attitudes at the beginning of the training were those which benefit the most. The attitude change is a first step aimed at assessing the effectiveness of psychological training; it will be completed by the assessment of long term attitudes and behavior modifications of the health care professionals trained.
Reviews the status of a number of ongoing or recently completed investigations of children vulnerable to schizophrenia as the 2nd half of a 2-part monograph. Various issues in risk research are then discussed. The increasing commitment to the study of the development of schizophrenia is considered to represent an appropriate stage in the evolution of psychiatric research. The main issue in risk research is held to be the demarcation of invulnerable, stress-resistant children born of a schizophrenic parent from those who will manifest maladaptation. It is suggested that the ultimate goal of risk research should be the generation of an intervention program to deter the occurrence of schizophrenia in children who have been identified as particularly vulnerable. (9 p ref) (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
The goal of primary prevention of psychiatric disorder is a laudatory one, which unfortunately can not be realized in the absence of scientific knowledge about etiology. This paper focuses on an emergent strategy for acquiring such knowledge: the study of children who are vulnerable to the development of psychopathology in adulthood. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2013 APA, all rights reserved)
Two objectives provided the focus for the Conference on Community Violence and Children's Development that was jointly sponsored by the National Institute of Mental Health and the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. One was to examine the evidence for deficit behaviors that characterized children reared in poverty; the second was to identify the characteristics of children who sustained their competencies despite being reared in comparable environments. These dual objectives took this form: "What can we conclude from studies of children, their families, and environments about characteristics that predispose children to maladjustment following exposure to violence, and about characteristics that protect children from such adjustment problems following, or in the midst of, violence exposure?"
Interaction effects are the defining feature of resilience and resilience research and are responsible for the unique contributions of this field of study to our understanding of human development. The methodological and statistical challenges posed by interaction effects do not, by themselves, undermine the value of resilience as a construct.
