Sarkar & Fletcher (2014)
Sarkar & Fletcher (2014)
Sarkar & Fletcher (2014)
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2 authors:
Mustafa Sarkar
Nottingham Trent University
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David Fletcher
Loughborough University
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David Fletcher
Although resilience has been referred to as ordinary magic (Masten, 2001, p. 227)
that is more common than once thought, the majority of research in this area has
sampled individuals who have been required to react to potentially traumatic events
outside of their control. The findings of this work, however, are not easily applicable
to those who actively seek to engage with challenging situations that present opportunities for them to raise their performance level. The purpose of this study was,
therefore, to identify and explore resilient qualities that enable high achievers to thrive
and perform at extraordinary levels. Thirteen high achievers (9 male and 4 female) from
11 professions were interviewed in the United Kingdom, and interpretative phenomenological analysis was used to identify resilient qualities that enabled the participants
to thrive in pressured environments. Results revealed 6 superordinate themes that
characterized resilience and thriving: positive and proactive personality, experience and
learning, sense of control, flexibility and adaptability, balance and perspective, and
perceived social support. The data highlights the multifaceted nature of resilience
comprising a constellation of personal qualities that enable high achievers to excel in
demanding contexts. The themes are discussed in relation to previous research findings
and in terms of their implications for practicing psychologists. It is anticipated that
these themes will provide practitioners with an insight into the distinct features of
resilience and thriving in high achievers and help individuals to attain success and
well-being in their careers.
Keywords: excellence, human performance, protective factors, resilient qualities, work stress
Supplemental materials: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/spy0000003.supp
Resiliencethe capacity to cope with stress and catastropheis the hottest new topic in psychology, medicine and social sciences . . . Resilience is a critical
skill. In a stressful, fast-changing world it can even
Comments such as the above by Liz Hoggard, a journalist based in the United Kingdom,
illustrate that resilience is gathering popularity
as a topic of inquiry in the psychosocial sciences. In her seminal paper, Masten (2001) discussed resilience processes in human development and concluded that contrary to popular
mass media and scholarly work portrayal, resilience is a common phenomenon. She argued
that resilience does not come from rare and
special qualities, but from the everyday magic
of ordinary, normative human resources (p.
235). Bonanno (2004) supported this perspective, reviewing evidence indicating that the majority of individuals exposed to potentially traumatic events do not exhibit chronic symptom
profiles and that many show the type of healthy
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study demonstrates the processes by which explanatory style affects sport performance, it is
not without its limitations. First, the study focused on a single psychological attribute (viz.
explanatory style) that precluded participants
from providing a more complete insight into
resilient qualities. Second, the findings of this
work were based on recreational athletes and it
would not be appropriate to generalize to athletes who perform at higher competitive levels.
Turning to the business context, researchers
have sought to identify the factors that promote
organizational resilience (see, e.g., Gittell et al.,
2006; Lengnick-Hall, Beck, & Lengnick-Hall,
2011). These qualities include a climate of reciprocal trust and interdependence, problem
solving processes tied to organizational learning, and human resource flexibility. Regarding
studies that have searched for the attributes that
protect employees from the stressors they encounter, only a limited number of articles have
been published and these have typically lacked
an underpinning evidence-base (see Coutu,
2002; Sonnenfeld & Ward, 2008). To illustrate,
based on her personal musings and a cursory
perusal of the literature, Coutu (2002) concluded that resilient employees possess three
main characteristics: the ability to face reality
with staunchness, to find meaning out of hardship, and to improvise solutions.
Researchers have begun to investigate the
construct of resilience in the law enforcement
and medical services (see, e.g., Ablett & Jones,
2007; Jackson et al., 2007; Miller, 2008; Paton
et al., 2008). For example, Miller (2008) identified a core set of protective factors in police
officers such as a learning attitude toward the
profession, adequate emotional control, a sense
of optimism, and the willingness to seek help
from others. Moreover, in a study of operating
room nurses, five variables (viz. hope, selfefficacy, coping, control, and competence) were
found to explain 60% of the variance in resilience (Jackson et al., 2007). However, 40% of
the variance was still unaccounted for and,
therefore, the authors recognized the need for
more idiographic research to gain a better understanding of resilience in medical personnel.
In an attempt to address this issue, Ablett and
Jones (2007) identified and explored the resilient qualities of palliative care staff using the
qualitative method of interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). Ten themes emerged
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In this study, an interpretative phenomenological approach (Smith & Osborn, 2003) was
utilized to explore individuals subjective experiences. The aim of IPA is to investigate how
people make sense of their personal world and
has its origins in phenomenology, hermeneutics, and
idiography (Smith & Osborn, 2003). The approach
stems from a phenomenological tradition that
seeks to explore the meaning participants impart on the phenomenon being investigated
(Brocki & Wearden, 2006; Reid, Flowers &
Larkin, 2005). It involves a two-part interpretation with hermeneutic influences whereby the
participants are trying to make sense of their
world, and the researcher is trying to make
sense of the participants trying to make sense of
their world (Smith & Osborn, 2003). IPA is
idiographic in its commitment to analyze each
case in detail, and attempts to provide an indication of theme convergence and divergence.
Indeed, Smith (2011) asserted that the best IPA
studies are concerned with . . . not only presenting both shared themes but also pointing to the
particular way in which these themes play out
for individuals (p. 10). The importance of the
narrative portrayal remains paramount in IPA
with the final analysis providing a detailed
interpretative analysis of themes; this is in comparison with content analysis, which can produce a quantitative analysis of discrete categories from qualitative data (Brocki & Wearden,
2006). Furthermore, studies using IPA tend to
employ purposive sampling; that is, the experiences of the most appropriate persons for the
research question being addressed are sought
(cf. Ritchie, Lewis, & Elam, 2003). This is in
contrast to other qualitative methods, such as
grounded theory, which employ theoretical
sampling where the focus of the recruitment is
largely based on the emerging concepts until
data saturation (Brocki & Wearden, 2006; cf.
OReilly & Parker; 2013).
Participants
In relation to the main focus of the research
study, participants were recruited based on them
demonstrating high levels of functioning, and
encountering everyday challenges and major
life events during the course of their careers.
Guiding the recruitment of the sample was the
definition of a high achiever as an individual
who had achieved at a high level in his or her
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Procedure
Following institutional ethical approval, a database of potential participants who met the
selection criteria was systematically created,
and contact details for each potential participant
were acquired. Potential participants were subsequently contacted by e-mail. This correspondence informed them of the purpose of the
study, what it entailed for participants, and invited them to participate in an interview. All of
the potential participants accepted the invitation
and were recontacted to arrange a mutually convenient time and location to meet. All of the
participants provided informed consent before
the start of data collection. Semi-structured interviews were conducted face-to-face by the
first author. More specifically, a phenomenological interview was employed to identify and
explore resilient qualities that enabled the participants to thrive in pressured environments.
This approach was chosen to collect descriptions of the participants everyday world and to
elicit the meaning of the described phenomena
(viz. resilience and thriving) as it was experienced by the participants. In a phenomenological semi-structured interview, as Kvale and
Brinkmann (2009) noted, the interviewer seeks
to interpret the meaning of central themes in the
participants everyday world while attempting
to obtain open nuanced descriptions of different
aspects of both the participants daily life and
specific situations.
To better understand the participants subjective experiences and facilitate the interview process, an interview schedule was developed. A
guide was produced in advance to help the
interviewer explicitly think about what might be
covered in the interview (Smith & Osborn,
2003). Consistent with IPA guidelines (Smith &
Osborn, 2003), this schedule did not represent a
rigid document, but rather a flexible set of evolutionary questions depending on the direction
taken by the participant during the course of the
discussion (contact the corresponding author for
a copy of the full interview guide). This flexible
approach was used, within a semi-structured
format, to facilitate the participants ability to
tell their own story in their own words, a central
premise of IPA (Brocki & Wearden, 2006). As
Smith and Osborn (2003) stated, [because] IPA
researchers wish to analyze in detail how participants perceive and make sense of things which are
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emerging sub-themes were clustered into superordinate themes, the transcript was constantly
reviewed to ensure that the interpretation was
consistent with what the participant actually
said (i.e., an iterative form of analysis). This
entire process was repeated for each transcript
using the superordinate themes from the first
participant to help inform the subsequent analysis, with the analyst also being open to identifying additional themes. After the analysis had
been conducted on each transcript, patterns
were established across participants and documented in a list of themes for the sample.
Research Quality
Although some scholars have opposed the
development of permanent unvarying standards
for qualitative research (cf. Guba & Lincoln,
2005; Sparkes & Smith, 2009), Tracy (2010)
argued that guidelines and best practices serve
as helpful pedagogical tools, provide a path for
expertise, and encourage dialogue with the scientific community. Eight criteria were employed to judge the quality of this study: worthy
topic, rich rigor, sincerity, credibility, resonance, significant contribution, ethics, and
meaningful coherence (Tracy, 2010). These criteria were chosen because they make distinctions between common end goals of strong research (universal hallmarks of quality) and the
variant mean methods (practices, skills, and
crafts). As Tracy (2010) noted, this conceptual
discrimination of qualitative ends from means
provides an expansive or big tent structure for
qualitative quality while still celebrating the
complex differences among various paradigms
(p. 839).
The topic of the research was deemed to be
worthy, interesting, timely, and relevant for a
variety of audiences. To achieve rich rigor, the
study used appropriate and well-established
data collection and analysis procedures, and
provides abundant rich data from significant
and distinctive participants. Specifically, this
study meets Smiths (2011) criterion for good
IPA studies because for larger sample sizes
[greater than 8] researchers should give illustrations from at least three . . . participants per
theme (p. 24). Furthermore, in line with a
recommendation by Smith (2011), the study
points to the specific nuances of certain themes
(viz. balance and perspective, perceived social
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53
Sense of Control
Ive actually been quite good at detaching myself emotionally from issues and thats in a sense of feeling that
actually I chose to do this job. You know, nobody
made me do this job, I chose to do this job and I came
into it with my eyes wide open about the realities. So
I was aware that I had to be dealing with things that
were personally challenging, which were distressing,
which could be emotionally challenging but [I had] a
sense of actually, I chose to do it and that [thinking]
has helped me.
All of the high performers stated that displaying positive responses was a critical aspect of
their resilience and thriving. The following
quote demonstrates how a world-renowned
sports coach took charge of a potentially stressful situation during his tenure as director of
coaching:
Its funny the different things that motivate you in life
but the [employment] contracts in those days were for
2 years, you were on probation for 2 years basically.
And I got it into my head that if these guys cant work
out that Im the best coach in the world by that time
then its their stupidity not mine. So I put my head
down, went flat out at the changes that had to be
[implemented and] bought coach education into a different dimension to the United Kingdom and it started
what . . . was . . . the best period of athletic success that
Britain has ever had from [year] through to [year].
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Discussion
Using IPA techniques, this study identified
and explored resilient qualities that enable high
achievers to thrive in pressured environments.
The findings revealed six superordinate themes
that characterized resilience and thriving: positive and proactive personality, experience and
learning, sense of control, flexibility and adaptability, balance and perspective, and perceived
social support. The data highlights the multifaceted nature of resilience comprising a constellation of personal qualities that enable high
achievers to excel in demanding contexts. It is
anticipated that these themes will provide practicing psychologists with an insight into the
distinct features of resilience and thriving in
high achievers and help individuals to attain
success and well-being in their careers.
There are, perhaps, two overarching messages to emerge from this study and the findings. The first message is that, during pressured
times, high achievers appear to take personal
responsibility for their thoughts, feelings, and
behaviors. For example, the positive and proactive personalities of the participants stimulated
them to identify opportunities in the environment and underpinned their strong drive toward
action. Previous research has found a proactive
personality to be an important characteristic in
predisposing one to higher levels of performance in various work settings, including politics (Deluga, 1998), business (Rauch & Frese,
2007), and sport (Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012).
More specifically, research has found that a
proactive disposition protects individuals from
the potential negative effect of stressors (i.e.,
resilience; Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012) and also
leads to consistently higher levels of functioning (i.e., thriving; Erdogan & Bauer, 2005;
Rauch & Frese, 2007). In the current study, the
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high achievers proactive personality traits appeared to facilitate career-related behaviors, including career planning, the implementation of
new ideas, and the gaining of information regarding power structures within an organization. Interestingly, Seibert, Kraimer, and Crant
(2001) found that a proactive personality indirectly
related to objective (salary and promotions) and
subjective (career satisfaction) indicators of career success through behavioral processes, including actively managing ones own career,
creating innovative solutions to problems, and
taking initiative in understanding the political
landscape.
Another example relating to the notion of
individual accountability is high achievers propensity to maintain a sense of control during
challenging circumstances intertwined with a
belief that they possessed, or were able to access, the necessary resources to withstand the
demands they encountered. They typically perceived that a variety of social agents, from
within and outside their performance domain,
would provide support and assistance if needed.
Specifically, tangible support from colleagues
and mentors together with emotional support
from family and friends were instrumental factors in them withstandingand thriving on
pressure. Although the perception of support
from family and friends has been identified in
various performance domains in the context of
resilience (see, e.g., Fletcher & Sarkar, 2012;
Jackson et al., 2007; Miller, 2008; Reis et al.,
2004), the participants in this study also believed that specific support from colleagues and
mentors related more directly to their thriving
capacity. In line with the identified features of
successful family physicians (Jensen, TrollopeKumar, Waters, & Everson, 2008), the high
achievers felt that they were assisted by competent staff, benefited from operating within
multidisciplinary teams, and obtained good
mentoring. By taking responsibility for their
thoughts, feelings, and actions, high achievers
rarely passively react to the stressors they encounter; rather, they make deliberate and decisive decisions relating to their particular performance context.
A second overarching message to emerge
from this studys findings is that high performers appeared to be committed to personal development and mastery. To illustrate, to raise their
performance level, high achievers actively en-
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