Building A Resilient Workforce: The Power of Hope And PsyCap

Harnessing hope, resilience, and more for workplace well-being

Earlier this month, I wrapped up my post-grad certificate program at the University of Sussex on the Psychology of Kindness and Wellbeing at Work. One concept in particular stuck out as something that is both timeless and timely. I have worked in the field of “human capital management” for longer than I care to admit, and have witnessed it evolve from a focus on compliance and control to enablement and empowerment of people to reach their full potential. As the world of work continues to benefit from the pandemic-induced focus on workforce well-being, a new capital is emerging that deserves attention: psychological capital (PsyCap). 

While most of us are familiar with more common concepts of economic or financial capital, there is a growing realization that focusing exclusively on the bottom line has limiting effects for both individuals and organizations. PsyCap grew from the relatively nascent field of positive psychology, and emphasizes the opportunity to enhance employee health and wellbeing through the study and application of “positively oriented human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace” (Luthans, 2002). Like any good theory, it has an easy-to-remember acronym to describe its core components: HERO. 

The psychological strengths associated with PsyCap include 
Hope (a belief that things will get better)
Self-efficacy (confidence that we can be successful)
Resilience (ability to overcome obstacles), and 
Optimism (positive expectations for the future). 

While I would love to dig into all of them, I try to keep these posts short and I admittedly have a runaway favorite: hope. 

Back in the olden days (the 1990s), I enrolled in a course at the University of Kansas on The Psychology of Hope. This course was taught by Rick Snyder, a pioneer in the positive psychology movement who was well known for his research on the topic. After completion of my course with Dr. Snyder, I was convinced that hope should be at the base of Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs before air, water, and food. As I dusted off my psych skills upon enrolling in this new program at the University of Sussex, I found myself once again gravitating toward the vital importance of hope. 

Defining and measuring hope can be challenging, but Snyder (2001) defined it as a cognitive process that motivates us as individuals to
a) hold and believe in a sense of personal agency to affect our personal goals; and
b) create alternative pathways to achieve our personal goals and overcome barriers. 

In other words, it is about willpower and way-power. 

For one of my recent assignments, I conducted a systematic literature review and discovered that hope is a correlate or determinant of a number of positive dimensions of life including mental health and longevity (Graham and Pinto, 2019; O’Connor and Graham, 2019), academic and athletic success in young adults (Synder, 2002) and even proactive economic behavior (Duflo, 2012; Reichard et al. 2013; Flechtner, 2014; Lybbert and Wydick, 2018). Research has also demonstrated a highly significant positive relationship between PsyCap and the “intentions to stay” and commitment to the mission, values, and goals of healthcare organizations (Luthans et al., 2005). That seems fitting considering our repeated references to nurses during the pandemic as heroes.  

Marcus Mossberger is the Future of Work Strategist at Infor.