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Striking a Balance Between Work Effort and Resource Regeneration

Vitality as a Sustainable Performance Concept

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Sustainability and Human Resource Management

Part of the book series: CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance ((CSEG))

Abstract

In this chapter an individual mechanism of sustainable work performance as opposed to high work performance is explored – theoretically and empirically. It is stated that sustainable work performance is a joint function of high resource levels (energy, time and competences) and the allocation of resources which also allows for resource regeneration. Building on Conservation of Resource theory (COR; Hobfoll, 1989) and proactive work behavior literature (cf. Parker et al. 2006) the notion of employee vitality is discussed as a representation of the dynamic interplay between employee vigor and proactivity. An important feature is that high vitality employees can overcome the resource constraints to sustainable work performance over time. They can perform sustainably because high effort expenditure does not drain their resources but is likely to protect and help employees to regenerate them. In order to test some of the assumptions of employee vitality as a sustainable work performance concept, analyses of survey data from nearly 2,000 Dutch employees give empirical support for the assumptions. We close the chapter with an elaboration on employee vitality as a touchstone for Sustainable HRM activities and discuss the role of HRM in providing the right circumstances for employee vitality to occur.

Perpetuum Mobile: The desire to develop a system of Perpetual Motion is an old quest which according to the laws of physics is one of the impossibilities of nature. Perpetual motion implies that continuously more new energy is created than the amount of energy that is invested in the actual motion. For physicists this is an infeasible phenomenon (business economists might just call the phenomena profit). Nevertheless, for ages, scientists have sought to mechanically generate this “free” energy in experiments with so-called perpetua mobilia. However, it was not until 1996 that the Norwegian polymath Reidar Finsrud actually did manage to build a device that keeps an iron ball in ongoing motion – although theoretical physicists are still skeptical of the basis of this device. Time will, literally, tell who is right.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. TNO|Research Institute for Work and Employment, Hoofddorp, The Netherlands

    Luc Dorenbosch

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  1. Luc Dorenbosch
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Correspondence to Luc Dorenbosch .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. , Louvain School of Management, Université Catholique de Louvain, Place des Doyens 1, Louvain-la-Neuve, 1348, Waals Brabant, Belgium

    Ina Ehnert

  2. , Cass Business School, University of Chester, Picts Lane 21, Princes Risborough, HP27 9DX, United Kingdom

    Wes Harry

  3. University of Kaiserslautern, Gottlieb-Daimler-Straße, Kaiserslautern, 67663, Germany

    Klaus J. Zink

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Dorenbosch, L. (2014). Striking a Balance Between Work Effort and Resource Regeneration. In: Ehnert, I., Harry, W., Zink, K. (eds) Sustainability and Human Resource Management. CSR, Sustainability, Ethics & Governance. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-37524-8_7

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