By Louis Taylor (20-21)

Background: What is Overcommitment?

Many workers today are exposed to high levels of work-related stress in their job-roles, due to the changes in modern society putting pressure on workers to invest more time energy into their roles (Hakansson et al., 2020). In particular, individuals in high-profile roles, such as, managers, leaders, executives – are more exposed to stress at work (hyvonen et al., 2010). Due to their responsibility within organisations, it requires them to take more control over their work and make more decisions (Kinman & Jones, 2008).

However, some individuals are heavily invested into their roles, take on more than they can handle and it can be very overwhelming for them. But, they are trying to gain approval from others and build their esteem, which is why they are willing to put in the effort at work; this is known as overcommitment (Siegrist, 2001).

What’s the issue?

Overcommitment has been an important function to organisations, especially when those in higher positions that take on some of the characteristics of overcommitment, as these individuals are willing to exceed the amount of time and effort they put into their work (Siegrist, 2008). The issue with this is that it is affecting individuals negatively, especially their wellbeing, because they are exhausting themselves, and not leaving enough time to relax and restore their energy for work and socialising (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015).

Although, before this study, we were not aware of the experiences that managers have when they are overcommitted. But, due to their level of control and responsibilities within organisations it may differ from the negative effects that we already know overcommitment can cause. It is important to explore their feelings and experiences with being overcommitted, to be able to support leaders to thrive in their positions.

What we did: The study

The study conducted involved interviewing a range of high-profile managers, leaders, and executives across organisations who identified as overcommitted in their roles. 10 individuals were interviewed on zoom, and were asked a variety of questions that explored:

• Their experiences and demands at work
• Their effort and rewards, and if they were balanced
• Their personality characteristics at work
• Their wellbeing and what they did during their non-work time

The study gained in-depth insights from these individuals about their roles and explored their positive and negative experiences from their overcommitted tendencies. 

What we found: The results

The study identified key themes that emerged from the data:

The positive impacts of being overcommitted

• High control and autonomy at work

• Rewards and recognition

• Fulfilment from meeting demands

The negative impacts of being overcommitted

• Extensive responsibility at work

• Stressed and overwhelmed

• Frustration towards demands

The impact overcommitment has on recovery time

• Blurred boundaries between work and non-work

• Limited recovery time and work detachment

• Acceptance towards work-life-imbalance

What we found: The impact

The importance of what we found from the study is that high-profile managers, leaders, and executives are exposed to both positive and negative functions from their overcommitment tendencies.

Why is this important?

Whilst there has been significant research into the negative aspects of being overcommitted, we can now see that actually some individuals experience positive elements with being overcommitted.

The importance of this is that leaders are gaining fulfilment from their work, especially due to them investing a lot of their time to specialise in their roles, which we can recognise and praise. However, from knowing that they may still experience negative impact, whilst still being highly engaged at work, is important as organisations can support their leaders to help them thrive with the right support tools.

We understood that leaders struggled to disengage from their work and take time off to relax and restore their energy for the next day, but a lot of them accepted that as ‘part of the job’ -organisations can do more to make changes to that attitude, which will reduce the possible negative wellbeing impacts that can cost people their psychological health. Even their physical health too, such as their sleep quality or further impact their physical health, such as developing heart disease (Eddy et al., 2017).  Organisations need to act now to make effective changes.

What we recommend:

Organisations can do more to help their leaders, or even so leaders can use this information to help their colleagues, especially when they notice overcommitment tendencies.

Tips for organisations:

• Encourage leaders to take a break, reduce their screen times at work, restrict their access to emails after a certain time.
• Add additional time in their diary to reflect and pick up on additional tasks
• Practice recovery techniques through training interventions to support leaders, to take time recover and restore their energy for work
• Practice mindfulness: helping leaders become more aware in the moment with how they feel, can help them to combat the negative effects of their overcommitted characteristics

By organisations practicing some of these recommendations, it can protect the leadership teams within organisations, helping them to alleviate the negative impacts associated with their overcommitted tendencies. 

From taking an active approach through the above practical solutions, organisations can help train their leaders to utilise the positive aspects of their overcommitment. Leaders can also use these training tools to support their staff, which will help instil this into the organisation’s culture for all members.

Sources

Eddy, P., Wertheim, E. H., Kingsley, M., & Wright, B. J. (2017). Associations between the effort-reward imbalance model of workplace stress and indices of cardiovascular health: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Neuroscience & Biobehavioral Reviews, 83, 252-266.

Håkansson, C., Gard, G., & Lindegård, A. (2020). Perceived work stress, overcommitment, balance in everyday life, individual factors, self-rated health and work ability among women and men in the public sector in Sweden–a longitudinal study. Archives of Public Health, 78(1), 1-6.

Hyvönen, K., Feldt, T., Tolvanen, A., & Kinnunen, U. (2010). The role of goal pursuit in the interaction between psychosocial work environment and occupational well-being. Journal of Vocational Behavior, 76(3), 406-418.

Kinman, G., & Jones, F. (2008). A life beyond work? Job demands, work-life balance, and wellbeing in UK academics. Journal of Human Behavior in the Social Environment, 17(1-2), 41-60.

Siegrist, J. (2001). A theory of occupational stress.

Sonnentag, S., & Fritz, C. (2015). Recovery from job stress: The stressor detachment model as an integrative framework. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 36(S1), S72-S103.

An investigation into internet-use habits within the UK workforce.

By Chanel Burton (20-21)

A plague has hit employees, creeping in and taking over much like the COVID-19 pandemic… it’s known as CYBERLOAFING… not!

Cyberloafing is the act of using the internet for non-work purposes during working hours, for example having a scroll on social media, watching a YouTube video whilst typing a report or even a bit of online shopping. There is limited psychological research on cyberloafing, likely due to the fact that many gadgets and technologies that enable such behaviours have only emerged recently, such as smart phones and tablets. At first glance, what is described above sounds disastrous, leading to a lower level of productivity, however the evidence available actually appears to be mixed.

The Happy-Productive-Worker (HPW) thesis was penned by Cropanzano and Wright (2001). It describes how a happy worker is a productive worker. Happiness comes in many forms, but one that is often used in psychological research is the concept of psychological well-being. This is defined as having positive affect (happiness) and being able to function as an individual and in social settings (Deci & Ryan, 2008). Therefore, it can be said that, for employees to be as productive as possible, they must preserve their psychological well-being.

For some, the act of taking a short break from work to catch up with friends, let their mind wander and allow their stiff body to relax causes just that; an increase in their psychological well-being. This has been echoed by large-scale pieces of research from around the world, for instance by Wu and his team of researchers (2020) in China. Wu looked specifically at a form of cyberloafing known as social cyberloafing. This is cyberloafing for only solely social purposes, such as instant messaging or interacting via social media. After looking at the results from nearly 400 surveys, Wu and colleagues concluded that social cyberloafing was beneficial for psycholoigcal well-being… which means beneficial for productivity… Hooray! However, that was not all they found; interestingly, they also discovered such ahbits to cause fatigue. The authors provided a useful diagram of this, shown below in Figure 1.

Note. This model was created by Wu and colleagues to depict the relationship between social cyberloafing and mental health. From “The bright and dark sides of social cyberloafing: Effects on employee mental health in China”by Wu, J., Mei, W., Liu, L. & Ugrin, J. (2020), Journal of Business Research 112(1), p.61.

The results to this study can be explained by two different theories; the Effort-Recovery Model (ERM; Meijman & Mulder, 1998) and the Ego-Depletion Theory (EDT; Baumeister et al., 1998). The first describes how stressful work, including what’s required to be successful in a large organisation, can have negative effects on both the body and the mind. The authors suggest that taking short breaks helps to prevent these negative effects, promoting rest and recovery in small doses. In contrast to this, the EDT suggests the opposite. Baumeister suggested that the fact that social networking sites are so easily accessible creates a conflict within an individual, whereby they continually have to put effort into remaining on task rather than catching up with their friends. This can lead to fatigue as pressure is put on the individual, leading to lower psychological well-being and therefore productivity.

As cyberloafing is only a recently emerging area of research, there is little information availble focusing on general forms of cyberloafing nor the effect is has on the employee and therefore on productivity. This led to the formation of the current explorative study.

Participants were asked to complete a short survey, lasting around ten minutes, in order to assess their cyberloafing rate (how long they cyberloafed for, on average, within a week) and how this effected their psychological well-being, as well as their cyberloafing habits (what websites they tended to visit when they cyberloafed) and if this changed the relationship between cyberloafing rate and psychological well-being. In total, over 150 participants took part in the survey from all walks of life, with ages ranging from 18 to people in their 60s, a variety of work industries and a mix of educational levels.

On average, participants cyberloafed for 1-2 hours in a week and have a psychological well-being score of around 40, which is average. The most popular cyberloafing activities were visiting non-job related websites, using instant messaging sites, checking non-work-related email and visiting social networking sites.

Unfortunately, the results were not as expected. It was found that cyberloafing rate did not have a significant relationship with psychological well-being. This means that the amount of time someone spends cyberloafing does not affect one’s psychological well-being. Moreover, only one of the most popular cyberloafing activities was shown to have a relationship psychological well-being. Visiting non-work-related websites was shown to have a slight negative relationship with psychological well-being level, meaning that the more someone visits these websites, the worse their psychological well-being is likely to be. Perhaps this is due to employees looking at holiday destinations, wishing they were there… you can dream!

Whilst these results appear to be redundant, they are actually the opposite. What these results suggest is that cyberloafing has a non-effect on happiness, and therefore it can be suggested that it has a non-effect on productivity. Participants estimated that they cyberloaf on for an average of 1-2 hours per week; this is a measly 12—24 minutes a day, which is unlikely to largely effect the amount of work an individual can complete. As a result, employers needn’t worry themselves with implementing policies to reduce cyberloafing nor work on campaigns to promote the short breaks that cyberloafing induces. It is simply an acceptable behaviour. Moreover, they give employees the confidence to continue doing what is currently working for them, with little to no consequence on their own happiness.

Nonetheless, this study does demonstrate the increasing need for cyberloafing research. There were very few studies to compare the results too, hence one cannot be entirely confident that what was found in the current group of people is typical in a larger population. Moreover, the mixture of results in the current psychological literature suggests more in-depth research is required before one can draw a conclusion on whether cyberloafing is a help or hindrance.

So in conclusion, continue watching that YouTuber you enjoy, continue posting about your long day on social media, but most importantly, make sure your boss doesn’t see!

References

Baumeister, R. F., Bratslavsky, E., Muraven, M., & Tice, D. M. (1998). Ego depletion: Is the active self a limited resource? Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 74(5). https://doi.org/10.1037/0022-3514.74.5.1252

Cropanzano, R., & Wright, T. A. (2001). When a “Happy” Worker Is Really a “Productive” Worker: A Review and Further Refinement of the Happy-Productive Worker Thesis. Consulting Psychology Journal. https://doi.org/10.1037/1061-4087.53.3.182

Deci EL, Ryan RM: Hedonia, eudaimonia, and well-being: An introduction. Journal of Happiness Studies 2008, 9, p.g. 1–11. 10.1007/s10902-006-9018-1Return to ref 2008 in article

Meijman, T. F., & Mulder, G. (1998). Psychological aspects of workload. In Handbook of work and organizational psychology.

Wu, J., Mei, W., Liu, L., & Ugrin, J. C. (2020). The bright and dark sides of social cyberloafing: Effects on employee mental health in China. Journal of Business Research. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbusres.2020.02.043

By Molly Day (20-21)

Much research shows us the positive effects that coaching can have on people (Fontes and Russo, 2020, Soderhjelm et al, 2018, Pimpakorn and Patterson, 2010). Coaching is involved within a large number of areas including sport, workplaces, personal lives etc. It’s the process of the intention to inspire, energise and facilitate the performance and learning of others (Taie, 2011). Through focusing on the effects coaching can have in the workplace, we can understand how we can help employees. The particular interest in this current study is if coaching can improve the confidence in performance for work employees within financial institutions. Within this blog, it will also be discussed the ways in which companies can utilise the information so as to improve working environments for their employees.

The setup of the study involved structured interviews of ten employees who all ranged in age, gender, and position within their company. The interviews lasted less than an hour each and were all completed online through a video conferencing software program. Once the interviews were completed, the results were coded into different categories to help visibly see results.

Within the results, several categories were populated. These were separated into influences, confidence, individual impacts, and coaching pitfalls.

There were several factors which influenced how effective coaching sessions were. The coach needed to be seen as professional and trustworthy. This allowed for more productive sessions as employees felt comfortable speaking with those they trusted and whom they believed had strong knowledge and experience. Another influence was employee’s prior perspectives of coaching. Many employees who had no prior knowledge or experience with coaching appeared to get most out of the experience. Those who had positive expectations knew the direction they wanted the session to go in and this played a large part.

The category of confidence was a strong one as all employees interviewed felt a strong increase in confidence in performance. This confidence grew in areas which not all employees expected it to, but which became realised over time. Employees talked about how being recognised and praised for their efforts helped to improve their confidence in their ability to complete work tasks.

Another category of individual impacts showed how coaching has a different influence on everyone. A lot of employees discussed how they felt that coaching needed to be tailored to everyone’s individual needs. When coaches discussed mandatory practices and discussed things which were not specific to that employee but were general for the whole team – they found the sessions to be unhelpful. Being able to discuss individual, personal elements was useful for employees as they said how outside situations could affect how they felt during work. Coaching sessions which allowed employees to discuss all matters which affect their confidence in performance was beneficial.

The results demonstrated how coaching has a huge part to play in the confidence in performance for employees within financial institutions. Limitations of any research is imperative as it allows us to see the flaws which may underline unreliability within the results. A strong problem for this research lies in the lack of being able to use the results within a large application. Coaching is fundamentally a western concept and our definition of this may differ from that within eastern regions on the world. Not only this but work practices and the way employee work varies which means applying research based in western organisations may not be reliable to other regions of the world. This makes the results less reliable.

As well as this, the research study may be bias towards those who see a positive side of coaching. Those who have had bad experiences in coaching within the workplace may not wish to spend an hour discussing negative feelings. This may have been what led to such a positive result – due to having only employees who enjoy coaching and see it’s benefits taking part. Another restriction around the type of participants who took part was that mostly base-level workers were involved. We, therefore, cannot assume that the results of this study can be applied to workers who are higher level in companies. Coaching may only demonstrate to be so effective for workers who are lower in the work chain.

Implications of the study include a positive investment idea for companies who are looking to improve the confidence in ability for employees. This research found how respect and trust built up between lower-level employees and senior members of staff which would also encourage the amount of experience and knowledge being shared between employees. A further strength of this is the idea that employees who are provided time for coaching will strengthen the ides that employees are valued within the company they work for.

This research provides a strong basis for organisations to help build their workforces’ confidence in their ability to complete their work. It also encourages a strong build between lower-level and senior members of the team. The study also provides help to companies who already have coaching programmes implemented. It’s important to have coaches who have strong professional backgrounds with good experience and knowledge in the employee’s area of work in order to provide them with stronger guidance. It is essential to also tailor the coaching to the employee – making it personal and providing individual goals, rather than generic advice and guidance. If companies take on the advice and results shown through the current study, they may be able to improve the confidence within performance for their employees within the organisation.

Appendix:

        Fontes, A.F & Russo, S.D.R. (2020). An Experimental Field Study on the Effects of Coaching: The Mediating Role of Psychological Capital. Applied Psychology. 70(2); 459-488.

        Pimpakorn, N.P & Patterson, P.P. (2010). Customer-oriented behaviour of front-line service employees: The need to be both willing and able. Australasian Marketing Journal. 18(2); 57-65.

        Soderhjelm et al. (2018). The importance of confidence in leadership role: A qualitative study of the process following two Swedish leadership programmes. Leadership and Organizational Development Journal. 39(1); 114-129.

        Taie, E.T. (2011). Coaching as an Approach to Enhance Performance. The Journal for Quality and Participation. 34(1); 34-38.