Managing Employee Well-being and Resilience for Innovation

Evidence from Knowledge-intensive Service Industries

Vidya S. Athota, Ashish Malik

• Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
• Year: 2019
• Print ISBN:
  9783030061876
• eBook ISBN:
  9783030061883
• Topic: Business
• Subtopic: Business Strategy
• Index: Business

This book employs a multidisciplinary and multi-level perspective to understand how well-being and resilience can influence innovation in knowledge-intensive contexts. Building on the authors' work in the areas of innovation management, human resource management and the psychological aspects of employee well-being, rich empirical data is presented and analysed in order to develop a conceptual framework. An interdisciplinary and  insightful read for those studying HRM, innovation and psychology, this book is aimed at scholars who are interested in examining the relationships between micro- (individual) and meso-level (organisational and managerial practices) influences on innovation outcomes.

© The Author(s) 2019

Vidya S. Athota and Ashish MalikManaging Employee Well-being and Resilience for Innovationhttps://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-06188-3_1

Begin Abstract

1. Why Well-being, Resilience and Innovation?

Vidya S. Athota¹ and Ashish Malik²

(1)

School of Business, University of Notre Dame Australia, Sydney, NSW, Australia

(2)

UoN Central Coast Business School, University of Newcastle, Ourimbah, NSW, Australia

Vidya S. Athota (Corresponding author)

Email: [email protected]

Ashish Malik

Email: [email protected]

Keywords

Well-beingResilienceInnovationMultidisciplinaryMulti-level perspective

End Abstract

The overall aim of this book is to analyse the relationship between employee well-being, resilience and innovation. Well-being is a $3.7 trillion market industry. With an increasing incidence of the globalisation of work, there is emerging evidence also of work intensification, for not just blue-collared workers but also knowledge workers.

Increased levels of workload lead to stress which has an adverse impact on an individual’s well-being outcomes. The concept of well-being has become a subject of great interest for management scholars and policymakers in order to improve quality of life. Subjective well-being of individuals is valuable at an individual level as well as societal level (Diener & Seligman, 2004). Adopting a multidisciplinary and multi-level perspective, this book brings to the fore the relationships between employee well-being, resilience and innovation by integrating learnings from the fields of innovation management, psychology and Human Resource Management (HRM). Building on our work in the areas of innovation management, HRM and psychological aspects of employee well-being and resilience, this book develops a multi-level multidisciplinary conceptual framework for scholars to research the relationships between micro- (individual) and meso-level (organisational and managerial practices) influences on innovation outcomes such as product, process and business model innovation. The book begins by identifying the micro-level foundations of employee well-being and resilience, and how these are related to individual creativity and innovation. Next, it highlights how certain managerial practices create a context where innovation outcomes can be effectively managed. The book will elaborate on the organisational and managerial practices that are critical in creating an environment that supports employee well-being and resilience, which are the critical aspects in achieving innovation. While most HRM research adopts an economic and performance improvement approach, this book highlights that by paying attention to both micro-level factors such as employee well-being and resilience and supporting practices in a firm’s business context, one can deliver win-win solutions or mutually rewarding outcomes for achieving innovation outcomes.

It is not surprising to witness recent and renewed interest in the topic of employee well-being and resilience (Boxall, Guthrie, & Paauwe, 2016; Van De Voorde, Paauwe, & Van Veldhoven, 2012; Vanhove, Herian, Perez, Harms, & Lester, 2016). Such a review and synthesis is timely as not only will it result in generating new knowledge through recombination of existing and disparate bodies of knowledge, the new understanding in the form of a new framework will be beneficial to both academics and practitioners. Increased levels of workload often lead to stress that has an adverse impact on an individual’s subjective well-being outcomes. This stream of scholarship is timely in the area of HRM as the majority of research on resilience has been undertaken in the field of psychology, with little knowledge transfer in the field of HRM. We are most interested in questions that focus on how people can increase their well-being and resilience in the workplace about achieving better innovation outcomes.

To this end, through this study, we aim to explore how well-being, organisational context and resilience impact organisational ambidexterity (OA ) and innovation outcomes. We think of how well-being and resilience are pivotal for the successful design and implementation of high-performance work practices, which create a favourable basis for innovation. A stated aim of this book is to explore the interactions between micro-level and meso-level foundations of innovation outcomes. To this end, and keeping in line with the title of the book, Managing Employee Well-being and Resilience for Innovation: Evidence from knowledge-intensive service industries, a related aim of the proposed book is to explore how the micro-foundations of human capital facilitate well-being and resilience, and create a ground for innovation. Thus, we will attempt to provide a scientifically based, rigorous, yet accessible, treatment of the subject, aimed at students and academics as well as individuals in the business arena. We begin the first chapter by exploring the literature on why well-being and resilience matter. The first chapter will set the importance of Eudaimonia, which (in Greek) translates into “happiness” or “well-being” and how it is related to employee creativity and innovation.

Exploring current issues in well-being theories, the second chapter will examine the influence of subjective well-being on individual and corporate well-being (Diener & Seligman, 2004). This chapter also establishes a ground for the importance of well-being and resilience at the workplace. The second chapter offers a comprehensive review of the literature on the topics of the micro-level foundations of well-being and resilience. This chapter provides a thorough review of the foundations of happiness and well-being and resilience, and connects this review with what we know about how this applies to knowledge workers and innovation. Also, we explore the biological, moral and philosophical foundations of well-being. Research suggests that genetics plays an essential role in well-being. Our hedonic methods make individuals happy to an extent. Eudaimonism is based on morality and Aristotle’s view of virtues. Hedonic well-being refers to pleasure-oriented well-being. The notion of the hedonic treadmill operates with the set-point theory of happiness. Furthermore, we explore emotional intelligence and the impact of stress on well-being, and provide evidence-based argument on how neuroplasticity can assist in promoting lasting well-being and resilience. This chapter also explores the literature on innovation and its association with resilience and well-being.

Chapter 3 reviews the literature on how bundles of the HRM practices (meso-level influences), which are known to influence the creation of either an expansive or a restrictive workplace environment, can affect the extent to which employees feel high or low levels of well-being and resilience. Extant research suggests that increased levels of workload often leads to stress which has an adverse impact on an individual’s subjective well-being outcomes. This stream of scholarship suggests that most research in the area of HRM, on the topic of resilience has been undertaken using theoretical lenses psychology. There exists a limited understanding of how this knowledge transfers to the field of HRM. This research is especially important as the literature on strategic management notes that organisations are purposive entities...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Front Matter
• 1. Why Well-being, Resilience and Innovation?
• 2. Theoretical Foundations of Resilience, Well-being and Innovation
• 3. Meso-level Influences on Well-being, Resilience and Innovation: Creating an Ambidextrous Context Through HRM
• 4. Quantitative Analysis
• 5. Within-Case Qualitative Analysis
• 6. Discussion and Conclusion
• Back Matter