Jonathon R. B. Halbesleben

The Conservation of Resources (COR) theory is one of the most widely cited models for understanding stress and motivation at work. Yet, a definitional problem remains when it comes to discerning what constitutes a resource, with personality trait constructs being particularly difficult to fit. In this paper, we assert that a resource should be conceptualized as (i) commonly valued; (ii) something that can be lost, depleted, or withdrawn; and (iii) unidirectional, whereby worth resides in one direction and loss or absence is indicative of a deficit. Using this criterion, we argue that personality traits—notably the five‐factor model (FFM) traits—are constitutionally different from resources, conceptualizing these instead as a new category of “resource catalysts” within COR. Resource catalysts (epitomized by FFM personality traits) are constructs that (i) serve other resources, (ii) have contextual and (iii) bidirectional value, and (iv) cannot be lost through use. Resource catalysts operate under different boundary conditions to resources and, when activated, will be used to galvanize, prioritize, and protect different resources in specific situations. We now encourage scholars to incorporate our (re)classification of resources and resource catalysts in future COR research to advance understanding of resource‐related activity at work.

The disruption and uncertainty associated with the COVID-19 pandemic led to myriad challenges as employees adapted to working remotely or, in some cases, not being able to work at all. However, as employees returned to their workplaces or adapted their work into a combination of remote and in-person work, a new set of issues emerged. The shifting conditions of the pandemic have created not just a “new normal,” but a continuously shifting set of new normals that employees and managers are forced to contend with. This chapter explores factors that can lead to negative responses to returning, that may contribute to burnout. That exploration highlights mechanisms for managing the return to the workplace that will hopefully reduce burnout for both employees and those managing them.

Purpose: The purpose of this paper is to extend the meaning maintenance model (MMM) by elucidating the meaning employees provide to both work and family during a furlough.Design/methodology/approach: The sample consisted of 180 state government employees, who completed four surveys, starting at a time before a furlough was initiated through returning to work following a furlough. The authors used random coefficient modeling of a mixed-effects model for discontinuous change.Findings: Findings suggest that a furlough is associated with increases in perceived psychological contract breach, an indication that the meaning of work is being threatened. Following the furlough, employees’ family identity salience significantly increased. Further, rumination about the furlough increased the shift in family identity salience.Research limitations/implications: This research tests the MMM in the context of furloughs and work-family implications. The results suggest that employees experience fluid compensation, a key facet of the MMM, during a furlough. Further, rumination of the experienced furlough can strengthen the fluid compensation process.Practical implications: The implications for organizations implementing furloughs and various methods for implementing furloughs are discussed.Originality/value: This research extends the MMM by empirically examining it in the context of furloughs and work-family implications. Further, it extends the MMM by examining the impact of rumination on the fluid compensation process.

Drawing from theories of attribution and perception, we posit that employees who are victims of rudeness are themselves (inappropriately) evaluated by leaders as being interpersonally deviant. We further theorize that employees who are themselves rude to others at work are evaluated negatively, but not when they have high-quality relationships with leaders or are seen as high performers. We tested our predictions across 4 studies. Our first study included 372 leader-follower pairs. Our second study extended to dyadic interactions among employees by using an employee roster method, resulting in paired data from 149 employees (2,184 dyads) across 5 restaurant locations. Our third and fourth studies utilized a policy-capturing design in which individuals provided performance evaluations for fictitious employees. We find that victims of rudeness are viewed by leaders as deviant, and that leaders are less likely to perceive rude employees as deviant when these perpetrators are seen as having high levels of leader-member exchange (LMX) or performance. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

Over the past 30 years, conservation of resources (COR) theory has become one of the most widely cited theories in organizational psychology and organizational behavior. COR theory has been adopted across the many areas of the stress spectrum, from burnout to traumatic stress. Further attesting to the theory's centrality, COR theory is largely the basis for the more work-specific leading theory of organizational stress, namely the job demands-resources model. One of the major advantages of COR theory is its ability to make a wide range of specific hypotheses that are much broader than those offered by theories that focus on a single central resource, such as control, or that speak about resources in general. In this article, we will revisit the principles and corollaries of COR theory that inform those more specific hypotheses and will review research in organizational behavior that has relied on the theory.

Psychological processes (e.g., cognition, motivation, emotions) have emerged as key to understanding entrepreneurial actions and success. Currently, we do not know enough about specific entrepreneurial psychological processes and particularly lack knowledge about their cumulative or interactive effects. Self-regulation offers some promise in understanding these issues. However, self-regulation in entrepreneurship has not been fully explored, which limits our understanding. We address this by introducing an integrated model of episodic self-regulation (the A-CEM-A model) to map the reciprocal regulatory effects of action, cognition, emotion, and motivation in entrepreneurship research and isolate a series of propositions stemming from the model. We further explore the resource implications of the A-CEM-A model for entrepreneurs managing several self-regulatory processes simultaneously. The A-CEM-A model offers a novel and unique insight into entrepreneurial action and psychological processes, and presents a roadmap for future researchers interested in adopting an episodic process perspective in entrepreneurship research.

Despite their increasing popularity, family‐friendly benefits are frequently underutilized. Drawing on literatures concerning social norms and pluralistic ignorance, this study examines the role of personal preference, group norm misalignment, and misperception of group norms on employees’ utilization of family‐friendly benefits. In 2 samples (154 firefighters and 440 nurses) across 3 data collection periods, we found that when employees’ preferences for benefit utilization were misaligned with the perceived group norm, they adjusted their family‐friendly benefit utilization in a manner congruent with the norm, even when that norm was misperceived. Further, we found that family‐friendly benefit utilization was negatively associated with work–family conflict. Together, our findings suggest that misperceived social norms regarding family‐friendly benefit utilization can lead to situations whereby employees do not utilize family‐friendly benefits because they mistakenly perceive utilization is not socially accepted and, as a result, experience higher work–family conflict.

Using a sample of 639 dual-career couples, we examined the role of work-related spousal support on work-family balance and subsequent outcomes for both the job incumbent as well as his or her spouse. We further investigated whether the resource of work-related spousal support contributed to greater balance for those couples who were work-linked (work in same organization, same occupation, or both) and those who were not. We found work-related spousal support contributed to work-family balance and subsequent improved family satisfaction and job satisfaction of the job incumbent. Furthermore, support crossed over to the spouse through increased work-family balance to decrease stress transmission to enhance family satisfaction and reduce relationship tension of the spouse. Implications for researchers and organizational leaders are discussed.