Vigor as a Positive Affect at Work: Conceptualizing Vigor,Its Relations with Related Constructs,and Its Antecedents and Consequences

Abstract

Vigor refers to individuals' feelings that they possess physical strength, emotional energy, and cognitive liveliness, and represents a moderate-intensity affect experienced at work. Though it has been assessed in past research as a mood state, vigor has hardly been the focus of any integrative theoretical treatise. I first provide a description of vigor's conceptual framework and also of past attempts to conceptualize and measure it. Then, a summary of vigor's relations with other attitudinal constructs to which it is related is provided. Next, based on the Conservation of Resources theory, I outline possible antecedents of vigor. Using the Broaden-and-Build theory, the next section depicts proposed consequences of vigor. The two theoretical perspectives are combined to construct a theoretical model describing vigor, its antecedents and consequences. I then suggest several open research questions concerning the study of vigor at work.

Keywords

vigor positive affect mood work

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Avolio

B. J.

(1999). Full leadership development. London, U.K.: Sage.

Baas

, De Dreu

C. K. W.

, & Nijstad

B. A.

(2008). A meta-analysis of 25 years of mood-creativity research: Hedonic tone, activation, or regulatory focus? Psychological Bulletin, 134, 779–806.

Bakker

A. B.

, & Demerouti

(2008). Towards a model of work engagement. Career Development International, 13, 209–223.

Bakker

A. B.

, & Xanthopoulou

(2009). The crossover of daily work engagement: Test of an actor-partner interdependence model. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1562–1571.

Baron

R. A.

(2008). The role of affect in the entrepreneurial process. Academy of Management Review, 33, 328–340.

Barsade

S. G.

(2002). The ripple effect: Emotional contagion and its influence on group behavior. Administrative Science Quarterly, 47, 644–677.

Baumeister

R. F.

, Bratslavsky

, Finkenauer

, & Vohs

K. D.

(2001). Bad is stronger than good. Review of General Psychology, 5, 323–370.

Beedie

C. J.

, Terry

P. C.

, & Lane

A. M.

(2000). The profile of mood states and athletic performance: Two meta-analyses. Journal of Applied Sport Psychology, 12, 49–68.

Benton

(2002). Carbohydrate ingestion, blood glucose and mood. Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, 26, 293–308.

10.

Boehm

J. K.

, & Lyubomirsky

(2008). Does happiness promote career success? Journal of Career Assessment, 16, 101–116.

11.

Brief

A. P.

, & Weiss

H. M.

(2002). Organizational behavior: Affect in the workplace. Annual Review of Psychology, 53, 279–307.

12.

Cacioppo

J. T.

, & Berntson

G. G.

(2007). Affective distinctiveness: Illusory or real? Cognition and Emotion, 21, 1347–1359.

13.

Cacioppo

J. T.

, Gardner

W. L.

, & Bernston

G. G.

(1999). The affect system has parallel and integrative processing components: Form follows function. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 839–855.

14.

Carmeli

, Ben-Hador

, Waldman

D. A.

, & Rupp

D. E.

(2009). How leaders cultivate social capital and nurture employee vigor: Implications for job performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1553–1561.

15.

Carver

C. S.

, & Scheier

M. F.

(1990). Origins and functions of positive and negative affect: A control-process view. Psychological Review, 97, 19–35.

16.

Chen

F. F.

, West

S. G.

, & Sousa

K. H.

(2006). A comparison of bifactor and second-order models of quality of life. Multivariate Behavioral Research, 41, 189–225.

17.

Chida

Y. C.

, & Steptoe

(2008). Positive psychological well-being and mortality: A quantitative review of prospective observational studies. Psychosomatic Medicine, 70, 741–756.

18.

Custers

, & Aarts

(2005). Positive affect as implicit motivator: On the nonconscious operation of behavioral goals. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 89, 129–142.

19.

Dahlsgaard

, Peterson

, & Seligman

M. E. P.

(2005). Shared virtue: The convergence of valued human strengths across culture and history. Review of General Psychology, 9, 203–213.

20.

Daniels

(2000). Measures of five-aspects of affective well-being at work. Human Relations, 53, 275–294.

21.

Davidson

R. J.

(2000). Affective style, psychopathology, and resilience: Brain mechanisms and plasticity. American Psychologist, 55, 1196–1214.

22.

Davidson

R. J.

(2004). Well-being and affective style: Neural substrates and biobehavioural correlates. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London Series B-Biological Sciences, 359, 1395–1411.

23.

Davis

M. C.

, Zautra

A. J.

, & Smith

B. W.

(2004). Chronic pain, stress, and the dynamics of affective differentiation. Journal of Personality, 72, 1133–1160.

24.

de Rivera

, & Possell

(1989). Distinguishing elation, gladness and joy. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 1015–1023.

25.

Dickman

S. J.

(2002). Dimensions of arousal: Wakefulness and vigor. Human Factors, 44, 429–442.

26.

Diener

, Suh

E. M.

, Lucas

R. E.

, & Smith

H. L.

(1999). Subjective well-being: Three decades of progress. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 276–302.

27.

Elfenbein

H. A.

(2007). Emotions in organizations. The Academy of Management Annals, 1, 315–386.

28.

Fisher

C. D.

(2002). Antecedents and consequences of real-time affective reactions at work. Motivation and Emotion, 26, 3–30.

29.

Folkman

(2008). The case for positive emotions in the stress process. Anxiety Stress and Coping, 21, 3–14.

30.

Forgas

J. P.

, & George

J. M.

(2001). Affective influences on judgments and behavior in organizations: An information processing perspective. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 86, 3–34.

31.

Fredrickson

B. L.

(2001). The role of positive emotions in positive psychology: The broaden-and-build theory of positive emotions. American Psychologist, 56, 219–226.

32.

Fredrickson

B. L.

, Cohn

M. A.

, Coffey

K. A.

, Pek

, & Finkel

S. M.

(2008). Open hearts build lives: Positive emotions, induced through loving-kindness meditation, build consequential personal resources. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 95, 1045–1062.

33.

Fredrickson

B. L.

, & Joiner

(2002). Positive emotions trigger upward spirals toward emotional well-being. Psychological Science, 13, 172–175.

34.

Fredrickson

B. L.

, & Losada

M. F.

(2005). Positive affect and the complex dynamics of human flourishing. American Psychologist, 60, 678–686.

35.

Frijda

N. H.

, Kuipers

, & ter Schure

(1989). Relations among emotion, appraisal, and emotional action readiness. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 57, 212–228.

36.

Gable

S. L.

, & Haidt

(2005). What (and why) is positive psychology? Review of General Psychology, 9, 103–110.

37.

Gendolla

G. H. E.

(2000). On the impact of mood on behavior: An integrative theory and a review. Review of General Psychology, 4, 378–408.

38.

George

J. M.

(1991). State or trait: Effects of positive mood on prosocial behaviors at work. Journal of Applied Psychology, 76, 299–307.

39.

George

J. M.

, & Brief

A. P.

(1992). Feeling good-doing good: A conceptual analysis of the mood at work-organizational spontaneity relationship. Psychological Bulletin, 112, 310–329.

40.

Grant

A. M.

(2008). The significance of task significance: Job performance effects, relational mechanisms, and boundary conditions. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 108–124.

41.

Grant

A. M.

, & Ashford

S. J.

(2008). The dynamics of proactivity at work. Research in Organizational Behavior, 28, 3–34.

42.

Grant

A. M.

, & Sonnentag

(2010). Doing good buffers against feeling bad: Prosocial impact compensates for negative task and self-evaluations. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 111, 13–22.

43.

Gray

, & Watson

(2001). Emotion, mood, and temperament: Similarities, differenced, and a synthesis. In Payne

R. L.

& Cooper

C. L.

, Emotion at work (pp. 21–45). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.

44.

Gray

J. A.

(1970). Psychophysiological basis of introversion-extraversion. Behaviour Research and Therapy, 8, 249–262.

45.

Hackman

J. R.

, & Oldham

G. R.

(1980). Work redesign. Reading, MA: Addison Wesley.

46.

Haidt

(2000). The positive emotion of elation. Prevention & Treatment, E-Journal, 3. URL: http://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1037/1522-3736.3.1.33c

47.

Halbesleben

J. R. B.

, Harvey

, & Bolino

M. C.

(2009). Too engaged? A conservation of resources view of the relationship between work engagement and work interference with family. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 1452–1465.

48.

Heaphy

E. D.

, & Dutton

J. E.

(2008). Positive social interactions and the human body at work: Linking organizations and physiology. Academy of Management Review, 33, 137–162.

49.

Hobfoll

S. E.

(1989). Conservation of resources: A new attempt at conceptualizing stress. American Psychologist, 44, 513–524.

50.

Hobfoll

S. E.

(2002). Social and psychological resources and adaptation. Review of General Psychology, 6, 307–324.

51.

Izard

C. E.

(2009). Emotion theory and research: Highlights, unanswered questions, and emerging issues. Annual Review of Psychology, 60, 1–25.

52.

Kaplan

, Bradley

J. C.

, Luchman

J. N.

, & Haynes

(2009). On the role of positive and negative affectivity in job performance: A meta-analytic investigation. Journal of Applied Psychology, 94, 162–176.

53.

Karasek

, & Theorell

(1990). Healthy work: Stress, productivity, and the reconstruction of working life. New York: Basic Books.

54.

Keltner

, Gruenfeld

D. H.

, & Anderson

(2003). Power, approach, and inhibition. Psychological Review, 110, 265–284.

55.

Lane

A. M.

, & Lane

H. J.

(2002). Predictive effectiveness of mood measure. Perceptual and Motor Skills, 94, 785–791.

56.

Larsen

R. J.

, & Ketelaar

(1991). Personality and susceptibility to positive and negative emotional states. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 61, 132–140.

57.

Latham

G. P.

, & Pinder

C. C.

(2005). Work motivation theory and research at the dawn of the twenty-first century. In Annual review of psychology (Vol. 56, pp. 485–516). Palo Alto, CA: Annual Reviews Inc.

58.

Lazarus

R. S.

(1991). Emotion and adaptation. New York: Oxford University Press.

59.

Lazarus

R. S.

(1999). Stress and emotion. New York: Springer.

60.

Lucas

R. E.

, & Fujita

(2000). Factors influencing the relation between extraversion and pleasant affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 1039–1056.

61.

Luthans

, Avolio

B. J.

, Avey

J. B.

, & Norman

S. M.

(2007). Positive psychological capital: Measurement and relationship with performance and satisfaction. Personnel Psychology, 60, 541–572.

62.

Lyubomirsky

, King

L. A.

, & Diener

(2005). The benefits of frequent positive affect: Does happiness lead to success? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 803–856.

63.

Maridakis

, Herring

M. P.

, & O'Connor

P. J.

(2009). Sensitivity to change in cognitive performance and mood measures of energy and fatigue in response to differing doses of caffeine or breakfast. International Journal of Neuroscience, 119, 975–994.

64.

Maslach

, & Leiter

M. P.

(2008). Early predictors of job burnout and engagement. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 498–512.

65.

Maslach

, Schaufeli

W. B.

, & Leiter

M. P.

(2001). Job burnout. Annual Review of Psychology, 52, 397–422.

66.

Matthews

, & Jones

D. M.

(1990). Refining the measurement of mood: The UWIST Mood Adjective Checklist. British Journal of Psychology, 81, 17.

67.

McNair

D. M.

, Lorr

, & Droppleman

L. F.

(1971). Manual: Profile of mood states. San Diego, CA: EdITS.

68.

Morris

J. A.

, & Feldman

D. C.

(1996). The dimensions, antecedents, and consequences of emotional labor. Academy of Management Review, 21, 986–1010.

69.

Neumann

, & Strack

(2000). “Mood contagion”: The automatic transfer of mood between persons. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 79, 211–223.

70.

O'Connor

P. J.

(2004). Evaluation of four highly cited energy and fatigue mood measures. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 57, 435–441.

71.

Ong

A. D.

, Bergeman

C. S.

, Bisconti

T. L.

, & Wallace

K. A.

(2006). Psychological resilience, positive emotions, and successful adaptation to stress in later life. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 91, 730–749.

72.

Pastor

J. C.

, Mayo

, & Shamir

(2007). Adding fuel to fire: The impact of followers' arousal on ratings of charisma. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1584–1596.

73.

Payne

R. L.

(2001). Measuring emotions at work. In Payne

R. L.

& Cooper

C. L.

, Emotions at work (pp. 107–133). Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.

74.

Peterson

, & Park

(2006). Character strengths in organizations. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 27, 1149–1154.

75.

Peterson

, & Seligman

M. E. P.

(2004). Character strengths and virtues: A handbook and classification. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

76.

Phelps

E. A.

(2006). Emotion and cognition: Insights from studies of the human amygdala. Annual Review of Psychology, 57, 27–53.

77.

Pressman

S. D.

, & Cohen

(2005). Does positive affect influence health? Psychological Bulletin, 131, 925–971.

78.

Puetz

T. W.

, O'Connor

P. J.

, & Dishman

R. K.

(2006). Effects of chronic exercise on feelings of energy and fatigue: A quantitative synthesis. Psychological Bulletin 132, 866–876.

79.

Quinn

R. W.

, & Dutton

J. E.

(2005). Coordination as energy-in conversation. Academy of Management Review, 30, 36–57.

80.

Reed

, & Ones

D. S.

(2006). The effect of acute aerobic exercise on positive activated affect: A meta-analysis. Psychology of Sport and Exercise, 7, 477–514.

81.

Reich

J. W.

, & Zautra

A. J.

(2002). Arousal and the relationship between positive and negative affect: An analysis of the data of Ito, Cacioppo, and Lang (1998). Motivation and Emotion, 26, 209–222.

82.

Riketta

(2008). The causal relations between job attitudes and performance: A meta-analysis of panel studies. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 472–481.

83.

Robinson

M. D.

, & Clore

G. L.

(2002). Belief and feeling: Evidence for an accessibility model of emotional self-report. Psychological Bulletin, 128, 934–960.

84.

Roseman

I. J.

, & Evdokas

(2004). Appraisals cause experienced emotions: Experimental evidence. Cognition and Emotion, 18, 1–28.

85.

Ross

C. E.

, & Mirowsky

(2008). Age and the balance of emotions. Social Science & Medicine, 66, 2391–2400.

86.

Rozanski

, & Kubzansky

L. D.

(2005). Psychologic functioning and physical health: A paradigm of flexibility. Psychosomatic Medicine, 67, S47–S53.

87.

Russell

J. A.

(2003). Core affect and the psychological construction of emotion. Psychological Review, 110, 145–172.

88.

Russell

J. A.

, & Carroll

J. M.

(1999). On the bipolarity of positive and negative affect. Psychological Bulletin, 125, 3–30.

89.

Russell

J. A.

, & Steiger

J. H.

(1982). The structure in persons' implicit taxonomy of emotions. Journal of Research in Personality, 16, 447–469.

90.

Ryan

R. M.

, & Frederick

(1997). On energy, personality, and health: Subjective vitality as a dynamic reflection of well-being. Journal of Personality, 65, 529–565.

91.

Salovey

, Rothman

A. J.

, Detweiler

J. B.

, & Steward

W. T.

(2000). Emotional states and physical health. American Psychologist, 55, 110–121.

92.

Schaufeli

W. B.

, & Enzmann

(1998). The burnout companion to study and practice: A critical analysis. Washington, DC: Taylor & Francis.

93.

Schimmack

, & Reisenzein

(2002). Experiencing activation: Energetic arousal and tense arousal are not mixtures of valence and activation. Emotion, 2, 412–417.

94.

Seligman

M. E. P.

, Steen

T. A.

, Park

, & Peterson

(2005). Positive psychology progress: Empirical validation of intervention. American Psychologist, 60, 410–421.

95.

Seo

M. G.

, Feldman-Barrett

L. F.

, & Bartunek

J. M.

(2004). The role of affective experience in work motivation. Academy of Management Review, 29, 423–439.

96.

Shirom

(2004). Feeling vigorous at work? The construct of vigor and the study of positive affect in organizations. In Ganster

& Perrewe

P. L.

, Research in organizational stress and well-being (Vol. 3, pp. 135–165). Greenwich, CN: JAI.

97.

Shirom

, Toker

, Berliner

, Shapira

, & Melamed

(2008). The effects of physical fitness and feeling vigorous on self-rated health. Health Psychology, 27, 567–575.

98.

Shirom

, Toker

, Jacobson

, & Balicer

(2010). Feeling vigorous and the risks of all-cause mortality, ischemic heart disease and diabetes: A 20-years follow-up of apparently healthy employees. Psychosomatic Medicine, 72, 727–733.

99.

Shirom

, Toker

, Melamed

, Berliner

, & Shapira

(in press). Vigor, anxiety, and depressive symptoms as predictors of changes in fibrinogen and C-reactive protein. Applied Psychology: Health and Well-Being.

100.

Shraga

, & Shirom

(2009). The construct validity of vigor and its antecedents: A qualitative study. Human Relations, 62, 271–291.

101.

Shrout

P. E.

, Herman

C. M.

, & Bolger

(2006). The costs and benefits of practical and emotional support on adjustment: A daily diary study of couples experiencing acute stress. Personal Relationships, 13, 115–134.

102.

Slovic

, Finucane

M. L.

, Peters

, & MacGregor

D. G.

(2007). The affect heuristic. European Journal of Operational Research, 177, 1333–1352.

103.

Song

Z. L.

, Foo

M. D.

, & Uy

M. A.

(2008). Mood spillover and crossover among dual-earner couples: A cell phone event sampling study. Journal of Applied Psychology, 93, 443–452.

104.

Sonnentag

, & Niessen

(2008). Staying vigorous until work is over: The role of trait vigour, day-specific work experiences and recovery. Journal of Occupational and Organizational Psychology, 81, 435–458.

105.

Spector

P. E.

(1986). Perceived control by employees: A meta-analysis of studies concerning autonomy and participation at work. Human Relations, 39, 1005–1016.

106.

Spreitzer

, Sutcliffe

, Dutton

, Sonenshein

, & Grant

A. M.

(2005). A socially embedded model of thriving at work. Organization Science, 16, 537–549.

107.

Stajkovic

A. D.

, & Luthans

(1998). Self-efficacy and work-related performance: A meta-analysis. Psychological Bulletin, 124, 240–261.

108.

Steel

, Schmidt

, & Shultz

(2008). Refining the relationship between personality and subjective well-being. Psychological Bulletin, 134, 138–161.

109.

, Cote

, & Saavedra

(2005). The contagious leader: Impact of the leader's mood on the mood of group members, group affective tone, and group processes. Journal of Applied Psychology, 90, 295–305.

110.

Taylor

S. E.

, Klein

L. C.

, Lewis

B. P.

, Gruenewald

T. L.

, Gurung

R. A. R.

, & Updegraff

J. A.

(2000). Biobehavioral responses to stress in females: Tend-and-befriend, not fight-or-flight. Psychological Review, 107, 411–429.

111.

Thayer

R. E.

(1996). The origin of everyday moods. New York: Oxford University Press.

112.

Thayer

R. E.

(2001). Calm energy. New York: Oxford University Press.

113.

Thoresen

C. J.

, Kaplan

S. A.

, Barsky

A. P.

, Warren

C. R.

, & Chermont

D. K.

(2003). The affective underpinnings of job perceptions and attitudes: A meta-analytic review and integration. Psychological Bulletin, 129, 914–945.

114.

Totterdell

, Wall

, Holman

, Diamond

, & Epitropaki

(2004). Affect networks: A structural analysis of the relationship between work ties and job-related affect. Journal of Applied Psychology, 89, 854–867.

115.

Tsai

W. C.

, Chen

C. C.

, & Liu

H. L.

(2007). Test of a model linking employee positive moods and task performance. Journal of Applied Psychology, 92, 1570–1583.

116.

Vautier

, Steyer

, Jmel

, & Raufaste

(2005). Imperfect of perfect dynamic bipolarity? The case of antonymous affective judgments. Structural Equation Modeling, 12, 391–410.

117.

Ware

J. E.

, & Sherbourne

C. D.

(1992). The MOS 36-item short-form health survey (SF-36). I. Conceptual framework and item selection. Medical Care, 30, 473–483.

118.

Watson

(2000). Mood and temperament. New York: Guilford Press.

119.

Watson

(2002). Positive affectivity: The disposition to experience pleasurable emotional states. In Snyder

C. R.

& Lopez

S. J.

, Handbook of positive psychology (pp. 106–120). New York: Oxford University Press.

120.

Watson

, Wiese

, Vaidya

, & Tellegen

(1999). The two general activation systems of affect: Structural findings, evolutionary considerations, and psychobiological evidence. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 76, 820–838.

121.

Weiss

H. M.

, & Cropanzano

(1996). Affective events theory: A theoretical discussion of the structure, causes and consequences of affective experiences at work. In Cummings

L. L.

& Staw

B. M.

, Research in organizational behavior (Vol. 18, pp. 1–74). Greenwich, CT: JAI Press.

122.

WHOQOL Group. (1994). Development of the WHOQOL: Rationale and current status. International Journal of Mental Health, 23, 24–56.

123.

Zautra

A. J.

, Affleck

G. G.

, Tennen

, Reich

J. W.

, & Davis

M. C.

(2005). Dynamic approaches to emotions and stress in everyday life: Bolger and Zuckerman reloaded with positive as well as negative affects. Journal of Personality, 73, 1511–1538.