Developing Social Support in Employees: Human Resource Development Lessons From Same-Career Couples

Abstract

The problem and the solution. In light of research suggesting significant links between social support and human resource outcomes, managers have become increasingly concerned with how to develop social support. One solution is to examine the experiences of a group of employees with extremely high work-life integration, same-career couples, to develop lessons for human resource development. Samecareer couples are employees who work in the same workplace or in the same occupation as their partner. From their experiences and research concerning social support resources in organizations, the authors suggest mechanisms to develop social support with the intention of improving human resource outcomes.

Emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion among hotel employees in Nigeria

“…The relationship between emotional dissonance and emotional exhaustion is also developed based on the COR theory, which has been developed to understand the mechanism underlying stress (Halbesleben and Rotondo, 2007). Once employees invest their scarce resource reservoir, they expect that they will harvest the anticipated rate of return.…”

The costs and benefits of working with one's spouse: A two‐sample examination of spousal support, work–family conflict, and emotional exhaustion in work‐linked relationships

“…This study extends research on work‐linked relationships in the context of the boundary theory and COR by emphasizing the integration of work and family. It suggests, as previous authors on the topic of work‐linked employees have (e.g., Halbesleben and Rotondo, ), that being in a work‐linked relationship, whether sharing workplaces, occupations, or both, allows for the attainment of additional motivational resources because resources are more easily moved across work and family role boundaries. In this study, we found support for the notion that the more integrated work–family roles of work‐linked employees can be associated with greater social support, lower emotional exhaustion, and reduced time‐based and behavior‐based work–family conflict.…”

“…Although the practical concerns of romantic relationships in the workplace, as well as management interventions to address such relationships, have been well documented (cf., Foley and Powell, ; Schaefer and Tudor, ), the increases in work‐linked employees and the benefits of such relationships merit continued examination. As noted by Halbesleben and Rotondo (), understanding the manner in which work‐linked employees manage the work–family boundary may offer opportunities for managers to develop interventions that benefit employees more generally. For example, they suggest greater integration of the work and family roles in order to develop greater spouse support among all employees; this can be carried out by encouraging employees to share their work experiences with family.…”

Causes, Contingencies, and Consequences of Disengagement at Work: An Integrative Literature Review

“…In other words, the phenomenon as well as the extant literature, map well with the COR framework. Second, COR theory has been argued to have important implications for the domain of HRD (Halbesleben & Rotondo, 2007). COR theory holds that loss of a resource is more salient than its gain (Hobfoll, 2001).…”