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Resiliency development of organizations, leaders and employees: Multi -level theory building and individual-level, path -analytical empirical testing
Abstract
The need for understanding the development of resilient organizations, leaders and employees—those able to adapt, bounce back, and flourish despite adversity—has never been greater. Although receiving attention in clinical psychology, to date little is known about resiliency in organizational settings. Drawing from the positive psychology, positive organizational scholarship (POS), and positive organizational behavior (POB) movements, this dissertation explores the role of resiliency, in conjunction with self-efficacy, hope and optimism, in enhancing performance, job satisfaction, work happiness, and organizational commitment. For the first time, a multi-level resiliency development model is introduced and conceptually supported. The model offers various antecedents (assets, risk factors and values), mediators (buffering processes at the organizational level, and hope, optimism and self-efficacy at the individual leader level), and outcomes (employee performance, job satisfaction, work happiness, and organizational commitment) for the resiliency development process. The model is then empirically tested using path-analysis, and informed by the results, an alternative model is conceptualized and supported using a second data set. Results of testing the individual (manager and employee) level of the initial model using 137 managers and 411 employees (effective N = 341 dyads) from 90 different organizations support the overall fit of the resiliency development model. The causal linkages within the model were mostly supported, indicating there are causal relationships between managers' hope, self-efficacy, and resiliency, as well as between employees' resiliency and their performance, job satisfaction, work happiness and organizational commitment. Results of post-hoc analyses of the above data set (N = 522 managers and employees), as well as testing the positive psychological capital model (Luthans, et al., 2004; Luthans & Youssef, 2004) as an alternative model using another data set of 484 managers and employees from 45 different organizations, provide strong support for the model, explaining over 30 percent of the variance in outcomes. Moreover, resiliency is supported as providing a foundational, additive, synergistic, and complementary role to that of self-efficacy, hope and optimism, in enhancing performance and attitudinal outcomes.
Subject Area
Management|Occupational psychology|Social psychology
Recommended Citation
Youssef, Carolyn M, "Resiliency development of organizations, leaders and employees: Multi -level theory building and individual-level, path -analytical empirical testing" (2004). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI3131572.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI3131572