Resolution, Relief, And Resignation:A Qualitative Study Of Responses To Misfit At Work

Research has portrayed person–environment (PE) fit as a pleasant condition resulting from people being attracted to and selected into compatible work environments; yet, our study reveals that creating and maintaining a sense of fit frequently involves an effortful, dynamic set of strategies. We used a two-phase, qualitative design to allow employees to report how they become aware of and experience misfit, and what they do in response. To address these questions, we conducted interviews with 81 individuals sampled from diverse industries and occupations. Through their descriptions, we identified three broad responses to the experience of misfit: resolution, relief, and resignation. Within these approaches, we identified distinct strategies for responding to misfit. We present a model of how participants used these strategies, often in combination, and develop propositions regarding their effectiveness at reducing strain associated with misfit. These results expand PE fit theory by providing new insight into how individuals experience and react to misfit—portraying them as active, motivated creators of their own fit experience at work

Energy Management of People in Organizations: A Review and Research Agenda

Although energy is a concept that is implied in many motivational theories, is hardly ever explicitly mentioned or researched. The current article first relates theories and research findings that were thus far not explicitly related to energy. We describe theories such as flow, subjective well-being, engagement and burn-out, and make the link with energy more explicit. Also, we make a first link between personality characteristics and energy, and describe the role of leadership in unleashing followers’ energy. Following, we identify how the topic of energy management can be profitably incorporated in research from a scientific as well as a practitioner viewpoint. Finally, we describe several interventions to enhance energy in individuals and organizations

Authenticity at work: its shapes, triggers, and consequences

The concept of authenticity has been increasingly on the scholarly radar. While conceptualized in numerous ways, authenticity has been suggested to include some form of alignment of one’s internal sense of self (e.g., beliefs, values, motivations) and the external expression of it. State or felt authenticity has been defined as the sense of being one’s real self. Much evidence highlights the positive consequences of authenticity, both in general and at work. Yet, many questions remain. This special section consists of four articles that theorize and provide novel empirical evidence, including experiments and field studies, on antecedents and consequences of authenticity in the work context. The articles focus on behavioral, felt, and perceived authenticity, document intrapersonal and situational factors triggering authenticity. Moreover, the articles lay the foundation for novel research directions, integrating concepts such as identity integration, humility, and power into the authenticity at work discourse. Over the past decades, the concept of authenticity has been attracting the attention of both psychologists and the popular press (Cha et al., 2019). Even some recent high-level political successes and failures were in part attributed to the actors’ presumable authenticity or lack thereof (e.g., Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton; Hobbs, 2015, Miller, 2015). The increased interest in authenticity is not surprising given the rise of positive psychology, which grants authenticity a central position (Seligman & Csikszentmihalyi, 2000). Authenticity has been defined in numerous ways, but most definitions assume “the unobstructed operation of one’s true- or core-self in one’s daily enterprise” (Kernis & Goldman, 2006, p. 294), or acting in accord with one’s core values, beliefs, self-representations, and motivations (Caza et al., 2018, Cha et al., 2019, Deci and Ryan, 2000, Erickson, 1995, Lehman et al., 2019, Rogers, 1964). Echoing the alignment between the internal sense of self and the external expression of it, the feeling of authenticity has been defined as “the sense …that one is being their real self” (Sedikides, Slabu, Lenton, & Thomaes, 2017, p. 521). Authenticity has been shown to benefits facets of well-being such as self-esteem, affect, life satisfaction, meaning of life, and basic needs of relatedness, competence, and autonomy (Harter, 2002, Sheldon and Elliot, 1999, Thomaes et al., 2017, Wood et al., 2008). At work, authenticity has been shown to increase motivation, engagement, and job satisfaction (Cable et al., 2013, Martinez et al., 2017, van den Bosch and Taris, 2014). At the same time, many questions remain unanswered. For instance, what triggers authenticity, especially in the organizational context? In which specific work contexts behaving authentically is likely to be an asset? What makes some people to be perceived as authentic, and does perceived authenticity matter

The impact of flower harvesting on seedling recruitment in sea lavender (Limonium carolinianum, Plumbaginaceae)

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