Identities Hidden in Challenges: The Sequential Mediation of Thriving at Work and Employee Investment

Abstract

The present study explores the influence of challenge stressors on identity orientation directly and via thriving at work and employee investment. Drawing on the broaden–and–build theory of positive emotions, this study proposes challenge stressors as a critical predictor of identity orientation. The purpose of this article is to explore if a particular identity is salient in different contextual factors, and this study suggests that challenge stressors stimulate personal, relational, and collective identities to respond to a situation. The relationships hypothesized in this study were tested using a sample of 225 employees from the banking sector of Pakistan. A time-lagged research design consisting of two waves of data collection was employed. A structural equation modeling technique was used to test the hypotheses regarding the relationship between challenge stressors and identity orientation, including the role of thriving at work and employee investment as intervening mechanisms of this relationship. Results showed that challenge stressors had a significant positive relationship with identity orientation. The results also confirmed the sequential mediation of thriving at work and employee investment in the relationship between challenge stressors and identity orientation. The findings suggest that the positive side of stress as a strength motivates employees for continued self-development. Importantly, challenge stressors enhance employees’ ability to thrive at work and, in turn, they invest in the work more and identify themselves strongly with their organization and work.

Associations among Challenge Stress, Hindrance Stress, and Employees' Innovative Work Behavior: Mediation Effects of Thriving at Work and Emotional Exhaustion

“…Individuals with high levels of thriving at work had more positive expectations and higher goal‐setting, and in pursuit of improved personal performance and long‐term development, they may adopt innovative work behavior as an effective way (Park, 2019). Thriving at work was found to mediate the relationship between challenge stress and proactive behavior in R & D personnel in the military industry (Xuan, Zhang, Li, Zhou, & Zhou, 2020), and the effect of challenge stress on identity orientation among employees in the e‐banking sector (Saleem, Humayun, Latif, Iftikhar, & Sharif, 2020). Innovation involves a cognitive need for complexity and requires the ability to think in combination with one's own experiences and task requirements (Gilson, Mathieu, Shalley, & Ruddy, 2005), so individuals who experience thriving at work are more likely to develop innovative work behaviors.…”

The Impact of Empowering Leadership on Employee Improvisation: Roles of Challenge-Hindrance Stress and Psychological Availability

“…Furthermore, when psychological availability is high, employees exhibit higher degrees of dependence on their work and emotional commitment to the organization. 42 Coping with challenge stress allows employees to identify with their organization/work, 43 and high psychological availability contributes to strengthening the organizational/job identity generated by challenge stress. Employees may be more likely to implement improvisation under these circumstances.…”