CHAPTER SIX: THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK GUIDING THIS STUDY
6.2 Conservation of Resources (COR) theory
The conservation of resources (COR) theory was suggested as a consolidated stress theory which explores an individual’s interior and exterior processes by equally and considerably measuring them (S. E. Hobfoll, 2001). Additionally, Hobfoll (2001, p. 338) reports that the theory incorporates the individual-nested in family-nested in tribe, and set in a social context.
Hence COR centrally depends on the constructive and socially interpreted characteristics
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embedded in the surroundings in ascertaining stress development instead of the individual’s peculiar analysis. This implies that the theory considers the individual in conjunction with family, tribe and society. However efforts to separate one of the elements in the set in any analysis without referring to the whole (individual, family, tribe, society), could result in an inadequate forecast (Hobfoll, 2001). He describes tribes as the complicated social aggregates commonly known as groups other than the family such as friends, colleagues, organisations and communities.
Shore (1996) hypothesises that people look for balance among challenges (strains) and means through the instrument of bringing down the rate of demands (strains) and/or finding ways of increasing resources (means) to be able to manage present strains (Hobfoll, 1988, 1989, 1998, 2011; Grandey et al., 1999). This theory predicts that the major determinant variable in stress development is the loss of resources (Hobfoll, 2001). Hobfoll (2001, p. 337) states that these are “those objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies that are valued in their own right, or that are valued because they act as conduits to the achievement or protection of valued resources” (Diener, Smith, & Fujita, 1995; Hobfoll, 2001). The prediction of this theory is that stress is inevitable where resources are perceived to be vulnerable, lost, forfeited and uneven, or, if people as individuals or groups are unable to see the way of enhancing and securing their resources either by personal or collaborative efforts (S. E. Hobfoll, 2001).
Individuals perceive the world as a place naturally inherent with threats and therefore demands an arrangement of an individual’s abilities, networks and ethnicity for anyone to survive (Hobfoll, 2001; Pyszczynski, Greenberg, Solomon, Arndt, & Schimel, 2004). Hobfoll (2001) reports that stress occurs: a) while a person’s resources are under the threat of loss, b) when a person’s resource gets lost, or c) if people are unable to gain enough resources from a major outlay.
According to Hobfoll (2011a), COR theory asserts the constructive veracity of the factors of danger and loss as well as the shared evaluations of individuals who are connected biologically, culturally or by workplace. The theory was initially proposed to explore main stress events in life (Freedy, Saladin, Kilpatrick, Resnick, & Saunders, 1994; Hobfoll, Canetti-Nisim, &
Johnson, 2006; Norris, Perilla, Riad, Kaniasty, & Lavizzo, 1999). But it has evolved into a major theory in the study of burnout (Brotheridge & Lee, 2002; Buchwald & Hobfoll, 2004;
Freedy & Hobfoll, 1994; Freedy, Hobfoll, & Ribbe, 1994; Neveu, 2007) and difficult work
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situations (Halbesleben & Bowler, 2007; Jawahar, Stone, & Kisamore, 2007; Zellars, Perrewé, Hochwarter, & Anderson, 2006). The COR theory is based on various tenets.
6.2.1 Basic tenets of COR theory
Due to the fact that people try to receive, keep, enhance and secure everything that is maximally valuable (Hobfoll, 1988, 1998a), it implies that they will use important resources to manage themselves, their engagements in social relationships as well as the way in which they arrange themselves to behave and align with the larger society (Hobfoll, 2011). Things that constitute primary value according to COR are wellness and health, home, peace of mind, preservation of self and an affirmative sense of self. Hobfoll (2011) suggests that organisations have to set their systems to work in harmony with the foregoing motivation. Failing to do this may be effective in the short run, but in the long run, may not be maintained because people will either leave or break down. The tenets of COR as stated in various studies on stress and trauma (Hobfoll, 1989; Hobfoll, 1998, 2001; Hobfoll, Jackson, Lavin, Britton & Shepherd, 1993) are:
6.2.1.1 Tenet 1: The supremacy of the loss of resource
This tenet suggests that the loss of resource is unduly more important than the gain of resource.
It considers that the effect of loss of resource is not only disproportionate in the aspect of levels but also rapidity. For instance, the swift manner in which enormous losses resulted from the global recession in 2008 at both work and market places witnessed the immediate crumbling of organisations that were thought to be strong and cohesive. Therefore, if loss takes a focal position in the individual mind, especially if such losses are from investments that were thought through and constructive, the sense of loss will dominate both individuals and the organisation.
In the case that the loss surrounds an organisation, then, the cycle of creating and maintaining resources will be difficult (Hobfoll, 2011).
6.2.1.2 Tenet 2: Resource investment
This principle is based on the assumption that individuals make investments in resources so as to secure themselves from the loss of resources, regain what is lost and improve resources.
Another angle to this is that individuals with more resources are least threatened by the loss of resources and most capable of reinventing resource gain. In this study, it is assumed that an individual with strong SOC may have a lesser perception of the impact of work and family stressors, as a result of the use of WLBS in place at the municipality.
136 6.2.1.3 Tenets 3 and 4: Resource loss and gain
These tenets posit that the cycle of gaining or losing resource happens in continuously stressful situations, if the organisation and people lack resources, and if a main stressful event happened.
These cycles increase with more power and rapidity as people, units, and establishments either gain resources in order to exploit novel challenges or lose the resources required to solve problems. This implies that an individual can lose resources to cope with stressors or achieve WLB. According to Hobfoll (2011), family and work competitively make demands on the resources available to individuals. Additionally, he asserts that the degree to which resources are laid up in one sphere affects the simplification of the other sphere. For instance, motivating individuals for what they stand to gain or the prevention of loss of resource (Hakanem, Peeters
& Perhoniemi, 2011) could be used as a mutual plan. Otherwise, investing resources in achieving WLB may affect the management of work and family stressors.
In the workplace setting, investing in resources depends partially on the total resources in the organisation and the capacity of the workers as individuals and/or groups to access and use them. Effective organisations make available for their employees, an array of common resources, and simplify the exchange of those resources towards achieving organisational goals. If an establishment does not make these resources available, it affects employee performance and effectiveness (Hobfoll, 2011). Additionally, he suggests that organisations create what he calls caravan passageways. These are conditions associated with the environment of work that supports, enhances, augments and secures individuals’, units, or departmental resources or deviates, destabilises, hinders, or bankrupts individuals’ or group resource tanks. He further opines that there is a high level of association among resources.
Similarly, Winkel, Wyland, Shaffer and Clason (2011) clarified by Penney, Hunter, and Perry (2011), conceptualised an alignment of resource and time. They particularly outlined the manner in which investment in resource could assist individuals to acquire and secure resources, or meet the need to achieve organisational goals. The COR model is presented in Figure 6.1 below.
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Figure 6.1: Conservation of Resources (COR) model
Resource path Action path
Source: Adapted from Hobfoll (2001, p. 358) Broader life
condition Strategy based
on anticipated outcomes
Chronic & acute losses
Investment of resources
Resource pool
Unsuccessful adaptation
Successful adaptation
Secondary losses
Secondary gains
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The diagram above is presented in this study to clarify how individuals manage situations around resources. It shows that the total conditions of life and constant and severe loss of resource situations result in the development of resource conservation situations. When the circumstances of resource lack are evident, it tends to create or facilitate the process of resource loss. If there is a loss, people utilise the tactics of conserving resources, through which they make use of available resources to cope successfully in every way possible. For instance, where work stressors are high, individual employees may tend to conserve resources to cope with the stressors and this could lead to the neglect of family stressors or achievement of WLB. By successfully adapting, individuals generate novel resources that conversely store their resource collection and deletes the event that created the severe and constant loss of resources.
Adjustments that were not successful, on the other hand, give rise to unwanted emotional and behavioural outcomes as well as reduction in the invested resources. This kind of failed adaptation goes on to create higher level resource losses that multiplies the severe and constant loss situation and reduces the strength of the resource pool (S. E. Hobfoll, 2001).
Therefore, the present study adopts the COR theory in the exploration of the connection between WLB and SOC. The assumption of the study is that individuals will strive (journey) to achieve WLB when they understand the value that it will add to their health, wellbeing, family and workplace relationships, peace and performance. Individuals with strong SOC will look for ways of coping with work and family stressors. Additionally, Hobfoll’s (2011) caravan passageways and analysis of the reservoir of resources accessible and available at the workplace support the present study design that WLBS crafted to be relevant in addressing the work and family stressors among employees which will enhance employee SOC and result in the achievement of WLB.