Inspired to perform: A multilevel investigation of antecedents and consequences of thriving at work

• Author: Meiliani Meiliani,Everlyne Misati,Fred O. Walumbwa,Michael K. Muchiri,Cindy Wu
• DOI: http://doi.org/10.1002/job.2216
• Published date: 01 March 2018
• Date: 01 March 2018

RESEARCH ARTICLE

Inspired to perform: A multilevel investigation of antecedents

and consequences of thriving at work

Fred O. Walumbwa

1

|Michael K. Muchiri

2

|Everlyne Misati

1

|Cindy Wu

3

|

Meiliani Meiliani

4

1

Department of Management and

International Business, Florida International

University, Miami, Florida, U.S.A.

2

School of Management, College of Business,

RMIT University, Melbourne, Victoria,

Australia

3

Hankamer School of Business, Baylor

University, Waco, Texas, U.S.A.

4

Faculty of Business and Economics,

University of Bengkulu, Bengkulu, Indonesia

Correspondence

Everlyne Misati, Department of Management

& International Business, Florida International

University, 11200 SW 8th Street, MANGO

Building, Miami, Florida 33199, USA.

Email: emisa001@fiu.edu

Summary

Emerging research evidence across multiple industries suggests that thriving at work is critically

important for creating sustainable organizational performance. However, we possess little under-

standing of how factors across different organizational levels stimulate thriving at work. To

address this gap, the current study proposes a multilevel model that simultaneously examines

contextual and individual factors that facilitate thriving at work and how thriving relates to pos-

itive health and overall unit performance. Analysis of data collected from 275 employees, at mul-

tiple time periods, and their immediate supervisors, representing 94 work units, revealed that

servant leadership and core self‐evaluations are 2 important contextual and individual factors

that significantly relate to thriving at work. The results further indicated that thriving positively

relates to positive health at the individual level, with this relationship partially mediated by affec-

tive commitment. Our results also showed that collective thriving at work positively relates to

collective affective commitment, which in turn, positively relates to overall unit performance.

Taken together, these findings suggest that work context and individual characteristics play sig-

nificant roles in facilitating thriving at work and that thriving is an important means by which man-

agers and their organizations can improve employees0positive health and unit performance.

KEYWORDS

core self‐evaluations, performance,positive health, servant leadership,thriving

1|INTRODUCTION

In today0s fast growing and competitive knowledge‐based service

economy, a thriving workforce is essential for an organization0s

competitive advantage and sustainable performance (Fritz, Lam, &

Spreitzer, 2011; Prem, Ohly, Kubiceki, & Korunka, 2017; Spreitzer &

Porath, 2012, 2014; Spreitzer, Porath, & Gibson, 2012). This is because

thriving at work—defined as “the psychological state in which

individuals experience both a sense of vitality and a sense of learning

at work”(Spreitzer, Sutcliffe, Dutton, Sonenshein, & Grant, 2005, p.

538)—helps mitigate problems such as absenteeism that may result

from burnout, stress, low morale, disengagement, depression, and

other illnesses, and may cost organizations up to about $84 billion

annually in lost productivity (Forbes, 2013; Gallup, 2013). Indeed,

emerging research suggests that thriving at work relates to a number

of important organizational outcomes, such as performance, low

burnout or stress, job satisfaction, and organizational commitment

across different industries (Gerbasi, Porath, Parker, Spreitzer, & Cross,

2015; Parker, Gerbasi, & Porath, 2013; Spreitzer & Porath, 2012,

2014; Spreitzer et al., 2012). This research further suggests that

thriving people tend to be healthier, miss much less work, and report

significantly fewer doctor visits, which translates into health care

savings and a reduction in lost time for their organizations (Porath,

Spreitzer, Gibson, & Garnett, 2012; Spreitzer et al., 2012).

Although scholars have highlighted the importance of thriving for

organizations (Gerbasi et al., 2015; Spreitzer et al., 2005; Spreitzer

et al., 2012; Spreitzer & Porath, 2012), “research on thriving at work

has been quite sparse”(Niessen, Sonnentag, & Sach, 2012, p. 468).

For example, although “how much thriving potential is realized

depends on the organizational context”(Spreitzer et al., 2012, p.

158), the role of the work context in enabling employees to thrive

We thank the Action Editor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable

comments, feedback, and guidance. An earlier version of this manuscript was

presented at the 2016 annual meeting of the Academy of Management in Ana-

heim, CA, USA, and an abridged version was published in the best paper

proceedings.

Received: 20 April 2016 Revised: 23 June 2017 Accepted: 5 July 2017

DOI: 10.1002/job.2216

J Organ Behav. 2018;39:249–261. Copyright © 2017 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.wileyonlinelibrary.com/journal/job 249