Building employee resilience through wellbeing in organizations

• Author: Joana C. Kuntz,Sanna Malinen,Karen Tonkin,Katharina Näswall
• Published date: 01 June 2018
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/hrdq.21306
• Date: 01 June 2018

QUANTITATIVE STUDY

Building employee resilience through wellbeing

in organizations

Karen Tonkin | Sanna Malinen | Katharina Näswall | Joana C. Kuntz

University of Canterbury, Christchurch,

New Zealand

Correspondence

Sanna Malinen, University of Canterbury,

Private Bag 4800, Christchurch, New Zealand.

Email: sanna.malinen@canterbury.ac.nz

The resilience of employees has been recently identified as essen-

tial to organizational adaptability in uncertain and dynamic busi-

ness environments. Yet little is known about how the resilience of

employees can be developed. The present study investigated the

effect of a wellbeing intervention on two forms of individual resil-

ience: employees' stress-coping ability (personal resilience) and

resilient workplace behaviors (employee resilience). All participants

(n= 209) completed an online wellbeing and resilience survey, and

a subset of 145 participants took part in a workplace wellbeing

intervention for a period of one month, followed by a second sur-

vey. The results indicated that personal and employee resilience

are two related, but distinct, constructs. Further, following the

wellbeing intervention, personal resilience remained stable, but

small increases were noted in levels of employee resilience and

aspects of wellbeing. Theoretical and practical implications of this

research to employee resilience development are discussed.

KEYWORDS

ANOVA, applied HRD, employee wellbeing, occupational safety,

quasi-experiment, repeated measures, scholar–practitioner,

survey, workforce development

1|INTRODUCTION

To remain viable, organizations must respond to resource scarcity, external pressures from customers and suppliers,

technological advances, changes in government policy, and emerging ethical issues of production or supply

(Dunphy, Benn, & Griffiths, 2014). These demands are exacerbated by events such as natural disasters and financial

and humanitarian crises, highlighting the often unpredictable and changing environment in which organizations

operate (Dunphy et al., 2014). Employees play a central role in their organization's ability to be agile through their

attitudes and behaviors, including openness to organizational change (Griffith & West, 2013) and the ability to sus-

tain high performance through change and uncertainty (Neubert & Cady, 2001). When faced with change, individ-

uals who are deemed to be resilient present with more positivity in both their thinking (Cooper, Flint-Taylor, &

DOI: 10.1002/hrdq.21306

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Pearn, 2013) and work attitudes in general (Youssef & Luthans, 2007), and experience lower levels of psychological

distress (Min et al., 2013). Resilient employees recover better and more quickly from disruptions than non-resilient

employees, and are more adaptive and responsive to organizational changes necessary for organizational success

(Shin, Taylor, & Seo, 2012).

Advancing this theme, contemporary researchers increasingly argue that organizations need to emphasize

employees' ability to cope with the emotional upheaval caused by continuous change, but also make a deliberate

investment in approaches that target the development of resilience in employees (Kuntz, Näswall, & Malinen, 2016;

Luthans, Vogelgesang, & Lester, 2006). This view underscores that individuals and organizations share responsibility

for demonstrating effective responses to change, and organizations can develop the resilience of employees through

the availability of workplace resources and interventions (Bardoel, Pettit, De Cieri, & McMillan, 2014; Luthans,Avey,

Avolio, & Peterson, 2010). Wellbeing interventions represent an underexplored avenue for developing resilience in

the workplace. Indeed, organizational researchers (Page & Vella-Brodrick, 2013; Pipe et al., 2012) have begun dis-

cussing the organizational benefits of employee wellbeing, highlighting its reciprocal relationship with personal resil-

ience and employee productivity (Wood & De Menezes, 2010). However, interventions that target resilience in the

workplace involve considerable time and costs (Vanhove, Herian, Perez, Harms, & Lester, 2015), and their effect on

intended individual and organizational outcomes is seldom evaluated. Hence, there is a need to provide further

empirical evidence for the impact of interventions aimed at promoting wellbeing at work on the resilience of

employees.

The purpose of this study is to investigate whether supporting the wellbeing of employees at work promotes

resilience among employees. To that end, the effects of a wellbeing intervention will be tested on two individual-

level resilience constructs: employees' stress-coping ability (personal resilience) and adaptive employee behaviors

(employee resilience). In addition, we sought to understand the nature of the relationship between employee and

personal resilience.

2|DEFINING RESILIENCE

The following section introduces the concepts of personal and employee resilience.

2.1 |Personal resilience

A growing body of research has challenged the traditional view that personal resilience is a stable trait (Block &

Block, 1980; Connor & Davidson, 2003; Linley & Joseph, 2005; Luthans et al., 2006; Luthar & Cicchetti, 2000;

Masten & Obradovic, 2006). This research suggests that resilience is an outcome of the processes that underlie

effective human responses to adversity, including gene and environment interaction (Rutter, 2006). Proponents of

this ecological perspective of resilience argue that individuals' social and physical environments should be consid-

ered when trying to understand the protective factors that contribute to resilience in the face of adversity (Schoon,

2006; Ungar, 2012). The authors of two extensive literature reviews (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2013; Windle, 2011) of

over 270 resilience research articles share a common view of resilience: Resilience is a combination of assets and

resources within the individual and their environment that facilitate the individual's capacity to adapt in the face of

adversity. This definition acknowledges psychological mechanisms and contextual factors that contribute to

resilience.

In the context of work-related resilience, the resilience conceptualizations have best been summarised by

Connor and Davidson (2003) who state that “it is possible to perform well in one area in the face of adversity

(e.g., work) but to function poorly in another (e.g., interpersonal relationships)”(p. 81). Resilience falls on a contin-

uum, can be exhibited at differing degrees across multiple life domains (Gillespie, Chaboyer, & Wallis, 2007;

Pietrzak & Southwick, 2011), and should be viewed as context dependent (Southwick, Bonanno, Masten,

108 TONKIN ET AL.