By Fjolla Gashi (MSc 20-21)

Living out your calling can improve your organisational life. In recent years, work as a calling has become a major scholarly interest especially within counselling psychology. Those who are living out a calling tend to be the happiest, most committed and most engaged employees (Duffy et al, 2019). Most of the studies on a calling have been conducted quantitatively and within westernised cultures such as the USA and the UK (Dik and Duffy, 2013).

As most studies have been conducted within westernised cultures, there is conflict over how work as a calling should be defined as a whole. Work as a calling may differ across cultures, religions and socio-economic positions of countries. Westernised cultures have often identified with the broader meaning of work as a calling including moral duty, fulfilment and altruism (Bunderson and Thompson et al, 2009; French and Domene, 2010). Whilst some of these aspects have been found in non-westernised cultures, aspects such as collectivism and family influence have been associated with non-westernised cultures (Zhang et al, 2015; Nath et al, 2017).

Why study work as a Calling in Kosovo?

Kosovo is a country that is located in Southeast Europe. It only declared its independence from Serbia in 2008. Kosovo was under the occupation of Serbia for 109 years (Baleci, 2013) and experienced a war in 1999 which led to a number of economic, psychological and social problems that the population of Kosovo still deal with to this date. Currently, the unemployment rate is estimated at only 45% (Stiftung, 2012) and Albanians living in Kosovo are forced to accept low demand jobs within the construction or agricultural sector. Careers that are high demand, such as teaching, also experience major difficulties in Kosovo. Teachers have never given up on teaching despite the war and many changes to the curriculum which served as a political regime.

In order to understand the westernised and non-westernised conceptualisations of work as a calling, Gashi wrote, “studying work as a calling in a country such as Kosovo may bring fruitful results”. Kosovo is surrounded by neighbouring countries that are westernised and individualistic however, Kosovo differs to these countries as it is highly collectivist and 98% of the population are muslim. Additionally, due to the war, the population of Kosovo are extremely patriotic. Studying teachers would also bring about fruitful results as it is a profession that was still running during the war and have experienced major difficulties.

To best explore work as a calling within teachers in Kosovo, Gashi used qualitative methods in the form of semi-structured interviews conducted on 15 teachers living in Kosovo. The results were analysed using thematic analysis based on Braun and Clarke’s (2006) method of thematic analysis, core themes and sub-themes were derived from the transcripts.

The thematic review of the interview data identified three predominant themes in relation to how ‘Work as a Calling’ is viewed within the education sector in Kosovo, and what factors influence an individual to select teaching as their lifelong career. The themes identified were ‘Pursuing meaning’, ‘Altruism’ and ‘External Influences’. The most prominent sub-themes themes, which were mentioned by all of the teachers, were ‘role being more than a job’ and ‘family influence’. The diagram below shows the key themes and sub-themes derived from the transcripts.

Interestingly, the teachers repeatedly described their career ‘as a mission’ to impact society for the greater good. Thus, teachers take on huge responsibility and even take on the role of a psychologist, parent etc for their students.  For example, one teacher, described a situation whereby her student had grown so close to her that he began to refer to her as ‘mum’. The other teachers also explored similar situations whereby they had to expand on their role as a teacher and think about their role as a citizen of Kosovo and a human being.

Dik and Duffy (2009) propose that the meaning of a calling differs across cultures and countries that are collectivist place great meaning in social contributions. This was also found by the researcher as most of the finding were ‘in line with some of the findings and themes that emerged from studies of western cultures such ‘pursuing meaning’, ‘religious impact’ and ‘lasting impact”. However, Gashi wrote that on the other hand “Some of the findings are also similar to that of non-western cultures such as ‘moral duty to the country’ and ‘family influence’ as well as societal influence. Some of the findings were rather surprising and did not correspond with any previous research conducted in either non-western of western cultures such as the role that politics play in career choice and satisfaction outcomes. Some of the teachers reported being ostracised by other teachers based on their political standing.

So you may ask why this research is important? Well… by researching work as a calling in Kosovo and other cultures similar to that of Kosovo, they inform practical implications for counsellors and managers working with employees such as teachers. By identifying whether an employee views their job as a calling, it can inform the likelihood of that individuals’ engagement at work (Bunderson and Thompson, 2009). It can also provide valuable information about the fit between an employee and their work environment.

Moreover, research such as this can draw close attention to the ‘dark side’ of living a calling especially in collectivist cultures. Counselling interventions will need to be developed that help clients to frame the cause of their work struggles in an adaptive manner. By ‘documenting how the context is responsible for access to work counsellors can have an evidence based response for clients who are prone to blame themselves for work related challenges’ (Duffy et al, 2015).  The research also provides an insight onto how factors such as war and collectivism play a role in viewing a career as a calling. Thus, improving organisational life generally but especially within such cultures.

References

Baleci, F., & Heeman, H. (2013). Making Kosovo Work Again: Challenges and Opportunities for Young People. European Perspectives, 5(1/8), 64-81.

Braun, V., & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative research in psychology, 3(2), 77-101.

Bunderson, J. S., & Thompson, J. A. (2009). The call of the wild: Zookeepers, callings, and the double-edged sword of deeply meaningful work. Administrative science quarterly, 54(1), 32-57.

Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2015). Strategies for discerning and living a calling.

Dik, B. J., & Duffy, R. D. (2009). Calling and vocation at work: Definitions and pr

pospects for research and practice. The counseling psychologist, 37(3), 424-450.

Duffy, R. D., Douglass, R. P., Gensmer, N. P., England, J. W., & Kim, H. J. (2019). An initial examination of the work as calling theory. Journal of counseling psychology, 66(3), 328.

Duffy, R. D., & Dik, B. J. (2013). Research on calling: What have we learned and where are we going?. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 83(3), 428-436.

French, J. R., & Domene, J. F. (2010). Sense of” calling”: An organizing principle for the lives and values of young women in university. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 44(1).

Nath, V. (2017). Calling orientations of junior doctors and medical interns in India: cultural, occupational and relational perspectives. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 17(2), 143-163.\

Schwarz-Schilling, C. (2012). Europa und die Krise im Kosovo und westlichen Balkan. Zeitschrift für Außen-und Sicherheitspolitik, 5(2), 177-188.

Zhang, C., Dik, B. J., Wei, J., & Zhang, J. (2015). Work as a calling in China: A qualitative study of Chinese college students. Journal of Career Assessment, 23(2), 236-249.

By Jonathan Rose (MSc 20-21)

Improving our knowledge of what enables a healthy and productive workplace has long been considered an essential part of creating a successful organisation but the COVID pandemic has meant this understanding has become even more pressing as businesses set out into uncharted waters. In a new world typified by hybrid and remote working, unpredictable global events, fickle brand loyalties and even greater consumer demand, are we any clearer about how to find the balance between looking after our employees and improving the bottom line?

Business Success vs Employee Mental Health

The twin goals of employee well being and business productivity are often characterised as counteracting and contradictory; on the one hand there is the desire to protect employee mental health (by ensuring fair hours, holidays, rewards, rights etc) and on the other the shareholder driven expectation of continual growth and an ever increasing performance cycle. But is this ‘zero sum game’ a fair picture to paint? Are the drivers of performance actually any different from those that ensure a healthy workforce or is there a way that organisations can both protect their workers and gain a competitive advantage in the marketplace? Two of the most interesting, current, and elusive, elements of well being and work performance are employee engagement and innovative behaviour.

Innovation & Worker Engagement

‘Innovate or Die’ has been heralded as the mantra for the technological age and it is true that many of the world’s most successful companies pride themselves on their innovative product lines and inventive working methods. This pride is well founded, the link between innovative working and company success is clear – organisations that introduce workplace innovation practices can gain 20-60% improvements across a wide range of business indicators, from productivity to employee health, engagement and well-being ¹. What is less clear however is how do businesses encourage their staff to be innovative on a regular basis – what circumstances lead employees to go the extra mile and look for new solutions to improve work processes?

Work engagement is characterised as a state of being in which workers are energised by the tasks that they perform, identify with their role and essentially find meaning in the work that they perform. It is considered as a key indicator of a healthy work life and often discussed as the antithesis of the notorious ‘burnout’ – a state of exhaustion, cynicism and apathy towards one’s job. No wonder quantifying it is often the underlying measurement of many of the employee surveys beloved of HR departments the world over, but what exactly creates employee engagement?

A recent study set out to investigate whether encouraging innovative behaviour and enhancing employee engagement was actually related to a combination of the characteristics of our jobs alongside elements of our individual personalities. It was expected that jobs that were seen as challenging and complex would motivate individuals to engage more and employ innovative behaviour, whereas jobs that were restrictive, either through lack of personal control or an absence of support, would be associated with disengagement and an absence of innovation. In addition the study looked at the effect of a little known aspect of personality known as ‘psychological flexibility’.

What is Psychological Flexibility?

Developing psychological flexibility is the key aim of a relatively new form of behaviour therapy known as ACT, or acceptance and commitment therapy ². ACT encourages us to be presently aware of thoughts and behaviours, and then act in a values oriented way ³. The cultivation of psychological flexibility involves the development of 6 distinct processes: acceptance of difficult thoughts and feelings, defusion which allows a distance between the individual and their psychological content, present moment awareness, self as context perspective taking, values development and committed action towards those values. Aside from being used in clinical settings to help people with anxiety, depression and a whole raft of other difficulties, ACT, when given as a training, has been shown to help performance and improve learning. Drawing from this research the study expected to find that individuals who had higher levels of psychological flexibility would have higher levels of work engagement and would also tend to work in a more innovative way whether confronted by challenging or restrictive job environments.

The Findings

Perhaps the most exciting was the confirmation that psychological flexibility did indeed predict levels of both worker engagement and innovative work behaviour. Individuals who reported higher levels of psychological flexibility also reported that they were more engaged with their work and also behaved in more innovative ways than those who recorded lower levels. This backs up previous studies into the effect of psychological flexibility on learning new skills^{4, 5} which suggest that the ability to ‘defuse’ from psychological content and be presently aware allows us to better recognise the ‘reinforcement contingencies’ that surround us and use them to modify our behaviour in line with our values (in this case do our jobs more effectively). Surprisingly perhaps, and contrary to the author’s expectations, challenging jobs were no more likely to be related to outcomes than restrictive ones and in fact neither type was related to how engaged workers are nor whether individuals responded by innovative working styles. In this study at least, it all came down to individual differences.

The research provides additional evidence to the growing claims of the strength of psychological flexibility as a predictor of numerous health and performance outcomes in the workplace. What is probably most fascinating about this, for business in particular, is that ACT, which has been shown to increase psychological flexibility, is a technique that can be taught as a short workplace intervention in the form of a series of half day sessions, evening workshops or online classes. That is to say that psychological flexibility is not a fixed trait that we are born with but is rather something that can be enhanced by practice. The potential incorporation of ACT training into organisational development sessions should be welcomed by human resources departments looking to maximise both employee mental health benefits and wider company productivity and performance.

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References:

1. Totterdill, P. (2015). Closing the Gap: The Fifth Element and Workplace Innovation. European Journal of Workplace Innovation, 1.

2. Hayes, S. C., Strosahl, K. D., & Wilson, K. G. (1999). Acceptance and commitment therapy: An experiential approach to behavior change. Guilford Press.

3. Harris, R. (2019). ACT Made Simple: An Easy-To-Read Primer on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (2nd ed.). New Harbinger Publications.

4. Bond, F.W., Hayes, S.C., & Barnes-Homes, D. (2006). Psychological flexibility, ACT, and organizational behaviour. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 26, 25-54.

5. Bond, F. W., & Flaxman, P. E. (2006). The Ability of Psychological Flexibility and Job Control to Predict Learning, Job Performance, and Mental Health. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 26(1-2), 113–130. doi:10.1300/J075v26n01_05