‘Resource Banks’ help resolve work-family conflict for engaged employees
Engaged employees apply themselves totally to their job roles – physically, mentally and emotionally. Since the idea of employee engagement was introduced to management practitioners and researchers, organisations have been interested in what drives employee engagement and what they can do to entrench the drivers into their organisational environment on a continuous basis. This interest is justified because highly engaged employees are the main source of competitive advantage to organisations in a business environment in a constant state of flux and ever-increasing complexity.
Research results and case studies on organisational implementation of the drivers of engagement have both demonstrated the huge benefits derivable from highly engaged employees1. In addition to being the main source of competitive advantage for organisations, highly engaged employees are very innovative and have positive work attitudes. They have positive effects on operational cost, quality and customer satisfaction and they grow profit and revenue 3 times and 43 percent more than other employees respectively.
The major driver of the excellent performance of engaged employees is their willingness to carry out organisational citizenship behaviour (OCB). OCB is a discretionary behaviour which is not captured in the organisational reward system but is very important in moving a good organisation to an excellent one. Engaged employees are active in OCB, through which they move the profitability of their organisations from good to excellent. The performance of OCB by engaged employees needs high level of resources. The dilemma arises because high use of resources, according to the conservation resources theory, leads to high level of stress.
Thus, highly engaged employees have high level of work-family conflict2. Work-family conflicts occur when intense involvement with work makes it difficult for employees to fulfil required family roles. Thus, a desirable construct, employee engagement, leads to an undesirable construct, work-family conflict. This is the dilemma that management practitioners are facing. I call this the dilemma of “throwing away the baby with the bathwater”.
A recent study I carried out has indicated that this dilemma can be avoided if individuals can build adequate “resource banks” to tap into in times of huge demand of resources associated with being highly engaged. A resource bank is the combination of psychological and tangible resources that employees can draw from in time of high engagement. The resources include relational energy, core self-evaluation, job autonomy, training and technology, and organisational culture that favours work-life balance of employees. A resource bank works in the same way that a bank account works when individuals are faced with huge demand for funds.
An individual with a bank account can draw on it so as to make up any shortfall in periods of increased expenditure. The research result shows that the work-family conflict level for highly engaged employees can be reduced if they possess “resource banks” funded from organisationally provided and personally provided resources. The research discovered that having these resources reduces the level of the work-family conflict experienced by highly engaged employees and helps them to achieve work-life balance, while remaining highly productive for their organisations. Leadership style and behaviour provides a common ground for the development and acquisition of these resources.
One of the organisational resources I find very interesting is the relational energy generated during positive interactions between leaders and their subordinates. Positive energy possessed by leaders is transferred to subordinates through the process of contagion, and helps employees to manage high energy demand arising from being highly engaged. Through this research, organisations have data-based solution to apply in ensuring that highly engaged employees do not suffer high level of work-family conflict. The good news is that these resources will not add to the cost of business since they already exist within the organisation. What is required is for organisational leaders to be aware of what their style and behaviour does to the availability of these resources so they can make conscious efforts to make interactions with their subordinates more positive and enduring. This awareness can be achieved in a well-planned training seminar.
Okechukwu Amah
Okechukwu Amah facilitates sessions in Management Communication, Human Resources, Leadership and Human Behaviour in Organisations at Lagos Business School. He is a member of the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Nigerian Academy of Management, American Academy of Management, Society of Human Resources Management and Southern Management Society.