Social courage promotes organizational identification via crafting social resources at work: A repeated-measures study

Abstract

What may individuals themselves do to enhance their identification with their employer organization? Does being socially courageous promote such formation of identity? If so, does this process occur because those who are socially courageous also proactively foster positive relationships and collaboration amongst co-workers and thus enhance social resources at work? Answering these questions is essential given that positive relationships and identification at work are essential for employees’ motivation and well-being and organizations’ success. Using conservation of resources theory, we expected that increases in workplace social courage would strengthen organizational identification via boosting increases in two types of relational job crafting, namely crafting relationships and collaboration, which in turn were expected to increase three social resources at work: meaningful relationships, relational identification, and social support. Findings based on a sample of 2919 employees who participated in the study twice, in late 2019 and late 2020, largely supported our hypotheses. Findings suggest that crafting social aspects of work can increase social resources and help maintain positive attachment with one’s workplace, and such relational crafting may be fostered by being socially courageous at work. This applied similarly to those who increasingly teleworked because of the COVID-19 related social restrictions and those who did not.