In two studies drawing from social identity theory and the creative-cognition approach, we found that higher levels of identity integration—perceived compatibility between two social identities—predict higher levels of creative performance in tasks that draw on both identity-relevant knowledge domains. Study 1 showed that Asian Americans with higher identity integration were more creative in developing new dishes using a given set of ingredients, but only when...

We develop theory about how growing at work is an interpretive accomplishment in which individuals sense that they are making progressive self-change. Through a study of how employees interpret themselves as growing at three organizations, we develop a theoretical account of how employees draw from contextual and personal resources to interpret their growing in ways that embed their idiosyncratic experiences within an organization. The data...

This research investigated how experiences in a particular boundary-spanning context (community outreach) affected members' organizational identity and identification. Multimethod panel data from 219 participants showed that intergroup comparisons with clients (emphasizing differences) and intragroup comparisons with other organization members (emphasizing similarities) changed how members construed their organization's defining qualities. Intergroup comparisons also enhanced the esteem members derived from organizational membership, which, in turn, strengthened organizational...

This article introduces a tool to help students learn to better manage their energy. The tool asks students to assess their energy levels for each waking hour over at least 2 days in order to identify patterns of activities associated with high energy and with depleted energy. The article describes how to use the tool in the classroom by articulating the learning objectives, providing background...

While there is growing recognition about the role of informal networks in organizations and the importance of energizers in the workplace, chances are that managers and organizations are missing a potentially devastating expense: de-energizers. Over the past decade we've studied the effects of negative or de-energizing ties, defined as enduring, recurring set of negative judgments, feelings, and behavioral intentions towards another person. While de-energizing ties...

Recently, Pfeffer (2010) called for a better understanding of the human dimension of sustainability. Responding to this call, we explore how individuals sustain an important human resource—their own energy—at work. Specifically, we focus on strategies that employees use at work to sustain their energy. Our findings show that the most commonly used strategies (e.g., switching to another task or browsing the Internet) are not associated...

This article responds to the need to synthesize theory and research in educational psychology by introducing the Thriving with Social Purpose (TSP) conceptual framework. TSP results when the four components of human motivation—goals, capability beliefs, context beliefs, and emotions—are amplified in dynamic, mutually reinforcing patterns. The centerpiece of the TSP motivational pattern is an active approach goal orientation informed by a fundamental concern for others...

Thriving is defined as the psychological state in which individuals experience both a sense of vitality and learning. We developed and validated a measure of the construct of thriving at work. Additionally, we theoretically refined the construct by linking it to key outcomes, such as job performance, and by examining its contextual embeddedness. In Study 1, we conducted second‐order confirmatory factor analyses in two samples,...

Thriving describes an individual’s experience of vitality and learning. The primary goal of this paper is to develop a model that illuminates the social embeddedness of employees’ thriving at work. First, we explain why thriving is a useful theoretical construct, define thriving, and compare it to related constructs, including resilience, flourishing, subjective well-being, flow, and self-actualization. Second, we describe how work contexts facilitate agentic work...

As mindfulness research advances on a variety of fronts, it has become increasingly important to carefully define and measure the construct. In this commentary, we draw from our recent research experience on these topics in addressing four issues of primary concern to Bishop et al: The nature of mindfulness, the role of acceptance in the phenomenon, the relation between mindfulness and meditation, and the measurement...