Human Energy in the Context of Work-Nonwork Interface: A Look at the Everyday

Abstract

In the modern workplace, employees are increasingly faced with high work demands, long work hours, and intensive time pressure, all of which present challenges for employees’ use and management of their personal resources at work. To better understand human energy in work organizations and its implications, we need to examine human employees’ energy management strategies in dealing with everyday demands — that is, human energy is influenced by practices, activities, experiences, and small actions that would seem rather ordinary and mundane in people’s routine work and life (e.g., eating, recovery activities at or off work, or reattachment). Specifically, it is important to understand the blurry boundary between work and personal domains in modern society, due to the prevalence of communication technology (e.g., the Internet, Smartphone, and PC). In other words, employees’ workplace experiences (e.g., stressors) could influence their personal domain activities, and vice versa. Thus, this symposium aims to stimulate a scholarly conversation and move forward our understanding of human energy in organizations using the lens of the everyday work- and non-work spillover effects. Employing diverse sets of methods and contexts, papers in this symposium reveal how energy-related activities, practices, experiences, and small actions in people’s everyday routine in both domains may involve unique individual choices, shape individuals’ experiences and behavior, and even influence workplace outcomes that do not appear to directly relate to energy. In line with this year’s Academy Meeting theme “Broadening our Sight”, our symposium also highlights a purpose of organizations that goes beyond pursuing economic profit and lies in constructing positive human experiences and fulfilling human capacity potential in the workplace. The Hidden Costs of Challenge Stressors: Differential Effects of Stressors on Snacking at Work Presenter: Anita Keller; U. of Groningen Presenter: Chu-Hsiang Chang; Michigan State U. Managing Energy at Work for Recovery at Home Presenter: Stacey L. Parker; U. of Queensland Presenter: Hannes Zacher; Leipzig U. Presenter: Nerisa Dozo; U. of Melbourne Presenter: Sooyeol Kim; National U. of Singapore (NUS) It Is Important What My Leader Experienced at Night: A Daily Dyadic Study of Follower Creativity Presenter: Seonghee Cho; North Carolina State U. Presenter: Sooyeol Kim; National U. of Singapore (NUS) Presenter: WonJoon Chung; Department of Management and Marketing, The Hong Kong Polytechnic U. A Self-Determination Theory Perspective of Morning Reattachment to Work Presenter: John P. Trougakos; U. of Toronto Presenter: Allison S. Gabriel; U. of Arizona Presenter: Juliana Badovinac; Queen’s U. Presenter: Jason Dahling; College of New Jersey