Resilience - The Ins and Outs of Bouncing Back
As part of Hauora’s Relational Performance Framework, resilience - “overcoming unexpected change or adversity” - is a foundational component of boldness. Given the dynamic and intricate nature of modern workplaces in the 2020s, being able to bounce back from challenging situations is crucial.
Resilience empowers the modern-day employee to cope with stress and challenges, maintain positive relationships with colleagues, and continue to perform well despite any obstacles they may face in the workplace. For example, a resilient employee might be able to bounce back from a negative performance review and use the feedback in a constructive way to improve their work, or maintain a positive attitude and strong work ethic even when faced with a tight deadline or unexpected change. It can also refer to the ability to maintain good mental and emotional wellbeing in the face of such challenges. Overall, being resilient can help an employee navigate the demands and pressures of the modern workplace and stay healthy and productive.
Additionally, being resilient can help you handle the challenges and stresses of the workplace in a healthy and productive way. This can include things like managing your time and workload effectively, dealing with difficult co-workers or customers, and adapting to change or unexpected events. It can also involve maintaining positive relationships with your colleagues and finding ways to support each other. Additionally, being resilient can involve taking care of your own wellbeing, such as by practising self-care and seeking support when needed. Moreover, being resilient can help you thrive in the modern workplace and continue to perform well, even in the face of adversity.
A plethora of longstanding and recent academic studies have reported positive associations between resilience and a host of positive personal and occupational outcomes, such as: psychological wellbeing and job satisfaction (Kaniasty and Norris, 1996); work performance and organisational commitment (Luthans et al., 2007); engagement (Cooke et al. 2019); and subjective wellbeing and life satisfaction (Han et al., 2021).
In addition to these findings, a highly-cited meta-analysis by Tugade et al. (2004) found that resilience was positively associated with psychological well-being and negatively associated with psychological distress, suggesting that resilience can protect against the negative effects of stress and promote well-being in the workplace.
Moving away from the workplace, it is also noteworthy that resilience had a positive relationship with mental health during the recent Covid-19 pandemic (Li et al., 2021).
There are several ways to quantify resilience directly or indirectly. For example, the Connor-Davidson Resilience Scale, Resilience Scale, and Brief Resilience Scale are self-report measures of an individual's overall resilience. In contrast, the World Health Organisation's Well-Being Index and Brief COPE Inventory use subjective wellbeing and coping strategies, respectively, as proxies for resilience. In this way, an employer can obtain useful information on the “bounce-back-ability” of employees, which could then inform a workplace intervention. Mindfulness practices (e.g., meditation, deep breathing), targeted training (e.g., stress management, resilience skills), and physical activity programmes can effectively bolster resilience. A supportive organisational culture is critical in helping employees overcome unexpected change or adversity, with flexible work arrangements, access to an EAP, family-friendly policies, generous reward and recognition systems, and ongoing professional development opportunities some of the influential factors prioritised.
As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said: “The only constant in life is change”. Therefore, it is the responsibility of employees, managers, and organisations to equip themselves with the knowledge and skills to be resilient if they want to achieve individual and collective success.
References
Cooke, F.L., Cooper, B., Bartram, T., Wang, J. and Mei, H., 2019. Mapping the relationships between high-performance work systems, employee resilience and engagement: A study of the banking industry in China. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 30(8), pp.1239-1260.
Han, Y., Chaudhury, T. and Sears, G.J., 2021. Does career resilience promote subjective well-being? Mediating effects of career success and work stress. Journal of Career Development, 48(4), pp.338-353.
Li, F., Luo, S., Mu, W., Li, Y., Ye, L., Zheng, X., Xu, B., Ding, Y., Ling, P., Zhou, M. and Chen, X., 2021. Effects of sources of social support and resilience on the mental health of different age groups during the COVID-19 pandemic. BMC psychiatry, 21, pp.1-14.
Luthans, F., Avolio, B.J., Avey, J.B. and Norman, S.M., 2007. Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel psychology, 60(3), pp.541-572.
Norris, F.H. and Kaniasty, K., 1996. Received and perceived social support in times of stress: a test of the social support deterioration deterrence model. Journal of personality and social psychology, 71(3), p.498.
Tugade, M.M., Fredrickson, B.L. and Feldman Barrett, L., 2004. Psychological resilience and positive emotional granularity: Examining the benefits of positive emotions on coping and health. Journal of personality, 72(6), pp.1161-1190.