The negative relationships between employee resilience and ambiguity, complexity, and inter‐agency collaboration

Dados Bibliográficos

ID11962050
AutoresGeoff Plimmer (0000-0003-2985-3851, School of Management Victoria University of Wellington Wellington New Zealand, autor correspondente), Joana R C Kuntz (0000-0003-3399-8324, School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand), Evan Berman (Fundação Getúlio Vargas (FGV), Department of Public Management Sao Paulo School of Business Administration (EAESP) Sao Paulo Brazil), Evan M Berman (0000-0003-0336-6713, Fundação Getulio Vargas), Sanna Malinen (0000-0003-2203-7464, Department of Management, Marketing and Entrepreneurship University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand), Katharina Naswall (0000-0001-6737-6625, School of Psychology, Speech and Hearing University of Canterbury Christchurch New Zealand), Esmé Franken (0000-0001-6869-3155, Edith Cowan University Perth Western Australia Australia)
Ano2023
Volume82
Fascículo2
Páginas248-270
Data de publicação2023-05-10
Peer ReviewedSim
Open AccessSim
TipoARTICLE
PeriódicoAustralian Journal of Public Administration (JOURNAL)
Identificadores do periódicoISSN: 0313-6647 • E-ISSN: 1467-8500
EditoraWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1111/1467-8500.12587
OpenAlexW4376140270
IdiomaEN
Citações recebidas3
Referências citadas108

Employee resilience (ER) is often needed to face demands inherent in public sector work. Some types of demands, however, may hinder its development, rather than provide the type of challenging adversity from which resilience can develop. Public sector job demands have been a long‐standing issue for public workplaces and employees but are also growing in salience as organisations face an increasingly variable, uncertain, complex, and ambiguous environment. Drawing on the Job Demands–Resources model and the challenge/hindrance stress literature, this multi‐level study of Aotearoa New Zealand civil servants ( n = 11,533) in 65 public sector organisations shows that ER is negatively affected by demands such as job insecurity, unclear job and organisational goals, and inter‐agency collaboration. However, organisational resource constraints are positively associated with ER. This study identifies core PA job and organisational demands that hinder ER and offers practical implications and suggestions for further research. Points for practitioners Job role ambiguity, job insecurity, unclear organisational goals, and inter‐agency collaboration are common job and organisational demands in public sector workplaces. For employees, these demands are stressors that employees do not feel they control, and may therefore hinder employee resilience: the ability to learn, adapt, and leverage networks in the face of challenges. Surprisingly, resource constraints, where employees have to ‘do more with less’, might help employees develop ER. While inter‐agency collaboration has potentially many benefits, it appears to have negative spillover effects on employees unaware of it or not involved in it. To encourage ER, agencies should clarify both organisational and job goals, and assure job security, control, competency development, and supervisor support

Agency (philosophy · Ambiguity · Business · Employee voice · Job design · Job performance · Job satisfaction · Political science · Psychological resilience · Public relations · Public sector · Salience (neuroscience · Sociology · Stressor · Job Satisfaction and Organizational Behavior · Occupational Health and Safety Research · Psychology · Social Psychology · Supply Chain Resilience and Risk Management