Description
Symposium: Adaptive Behavior at WorkAbstract:
Which individual and contextual factors contribute to adaptive behavior at work? This question has great importance owing to the dynamic and changing environments organizations are facing today. Increased competition, changing markets, innovation, and rapid advances in technology are some of the forces that require organizations to continuously change their strategy and work processes, and require workers to increasingly adapt to new or changing work environments. Although the concept of adaptive behavior is not new, researchers and practitioners have become interested in understanding and enhancing employee adaptation only recently. This symposium aims to contribute to the understanding of adaptive behavior at work by focusing on the resources and processes underlying employee adaptation. Four empirical studies are presented that explore both individual and contextual resources of adaptive behavior. In the first presentation, Karoline Strauss and Sharon Parker show how hope, as an individual resource, relates to task adaptivity (both self-reported and other-reported) of employees in the police and health services. In the second presentation, Karen van Dam explores the concept of adaptive orientation, and demonstrates relationships with positive outcomes, such as job satisfaction and well-being. The third presentation, by Cornelia Niessen, Katharina Gurtler, and Lena Burkat, fo- ¨ cuses on the role of self-regulatory skills for employee adaptation to a new work-role. In the fourth presentation, Alicia Walkowiak, Jonas Lang, and Fred Zijlstra demonstrate the importance of work environment complexity for employee adaptation to unforeseen changes. Finally, the discussant, Beatrice van der Heijden, will Friday 16:30-17:45 434 EAWOP Conference 2011 provide an overall framework for adaptive behavior that incorporates the propositions put forward by the presented papers, and discuss the implications of this symposium for future research and practice. In summary, with a rich variety of studies from different countries, using different methods, the proposed symposium aims to further our understanding of adaptive behavior in changing and uncertain environments. The papers also have practical relevance by suggesting how organizations and individuals can increase adaptive behavior, and by illuminating possible effects of individual adaptability. Because we expect that the papers will raise a number of questions, there will be ample time for dialogue between presenters and audience.
| Period | 27 May 2011 |
|---|---|
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Maastricht, NetherlandsShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |