Sustainable work: The significance of good and bad

Sustainable work:
The significance of good
and bad work experiences
Mari Kira ([email protected])
Aalto University School of Science, Finland
Universities of Giessen and Marburg, Germany
6.11.2014
Foundation Seminar Series, Session Two:
Devising a long term strategy for inclusion and competitiveness
Sustainable work
Work is a goal-oriented
activity that requires
worker’s mental and/or
physical effort
(Ransome, 1996).
Employees’ resources may either
develop or become consumed
at work.
Sustainable work throughout
the life
InFSS:
sustainable
work,
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and
competitiveness, Leuven,
6-7
employees’
resources
develop!
Nov 2014
Cognitive, emotional,
and behavioral
reaction
Work
engagement
Thriving
Flourishing
Psychological
experience:
Good or bad
Positive
emotions
Work:
Content
Practices
What are bad
experiences and
how do they
build resources?
Employee:
Identity
(Who I am)
Resources
(What I have)
Support from
organization:
job and social
resources
The development
or consumption of
employee’s
resources
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
Personally meaningful work:
A good experience (Pratt & Ashforth, 2003)
Work
membership:
Where do I belong
to?
Work:
Content
Practices
Employee:
Identity
(Who I am)
Resources
(What I have)
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
The study

Merger in a municipality in Finland
◦ Merger of several municipalities and other regional public sector
organizations.
◦ New organization, new work processes and tasks, changes in the
leadership, new council and its members, and The Economy!

Data:
◦ Interviews with the executives, highest managers, and
leading experts of the municipality.
◦ Three interview waves
 4 months prior to merger; N = 16
 8 months after the merger; N = 15
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
 2 years after the merger; N = 12 inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
During the merger

Good work experiences:
◦ Meaningful work: In the right job!
◦ Meaningful work: Work practices that
make sense!
Energy, Learning, Self-esteem!

Bad work experiences:
◦ Meaningless work: In the wrong job!
◦ Meaningless work: Work practices don’t
make sense!
FSS: Sustainable
work throughout
the life
Losing energy, Frustration,
No
learning,
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Becoming cynical
Nov 2014
Growing in meaningless work???
I had a pretty strong will, I didn't give up. I don’t know
if someone else could’ve taken it. […] I knew that this
is a totally terrible situation and place. But you do
what you have to do and when you succeed in a
situation like that and you get your job done, so you
come out stronger from it.
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
2 years after the merger:
Struggle with the negative

Focusing on the best at work:
◦ Recognizing and building on the elements of work that still
resonate with one’s work identity; Emphasizing successes.

Focusing on the social aspects of working:
◦ At least I have great colleagues and boss!
◦ Focusing on the positive image of the organization: At least
we as an organization pulled the merger off!
◦ Focusing on the role of the workplace in one’s life: At
least I can work and live here in my home town!

Questioning one’s identity:
◦ Should I redefine myself when the
doesn’t
FSS: work
Sustainablecontext
work throughout
the life
course:
a
step
towards
a
strategy
for
anymore validate the way I’m used
to defining myself?
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
Personally meaningful work
(Pratt & Ashforth, 2003)
Work:
Content
Practices
Demands
Resources
? ?
Work
membership:
Where do I belong
to?
Employee:
Identity
(Who I am)
Resources
(What I have)
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
Resources growing from adversity

Becoming stronger as I am!
◦ Stronger professional competence.
◦ Becoming a better leader
 Capable of recognizing employees’ needs and difficulties.
 More aware of one’s insights and intuitions, sticking to them!
◦ Strengthening as a person.
 If I can take this, I can take anything...
Self-knowledge and –efficacy.

Becoming more flexible:
◦ Gaining wider perspectives of how various
stakeholders think and which FSS:
alternatives
there are
Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
for structuring, leading a municipality.
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
Two processes of sustainable work
Work and
identity
align
Good
experience:
Meaningful
work
Work and
identity
misalign
Bad
experience:
Adversity
Support from
organization,
managers,
employee
representatives?
Struggle
to adjust
Finding
something
positive
Energy!
Self-efficacy!
Becoming
stronger,
Becoming
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course:more
a step towards
a strategy for
flexible
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014
Promoting sustainable work

People seem to struggle for meaningful work and grow while so
doing, but the path can be unnecessarily painful!
◦ How to design and craft jobs that are meaningful?

Social support is a vital condition for the adversarial growth to
take place!
◦ Nevertheless, in my study the informants were quite alone: Don’t we
recognize people going through work-related adversities?
◦ What kinds organizational practices, actions by closest managers, and
interventions from employee representatives can offer support?

People, in general, strive towards well-being and to ‘bouncing back’
from adversities. This tendency can be nurtured by fostering sense
of competence, autonomy, and relatedness at work: selfdetermination (Joseph & Linely, 2005).
◦ What can various stakeholders do to foster employees’ sense of
competence, autonomy, and/or relatedness when they are going through
adversity?
FSS: Sustainable work throughout the life
course: a step towards a strategy for
inclusion and competitiveness, Leuven, 6-7
Nov 2014

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