A "GRRR" goal orientation process-model: Workplace long-term relationships among grit, resilience and recovery

Abstract

The spark that ignites passion, tenacity and perseverance is defined as Grit. It encourages individuals to achieve long-term professional goals, especially when they become challenging. Over time, workers develop the main coping ability for reacting quickly to challenging situations: Workplace Resilience is a learnable skill that helps individuals to rebuild the personal resources needed for achieving long-term goals through Recovery strategies. These construct-relationships (i.e., Grit X Resilience X Recovery) are analyzed in the present contribution, with the aim of testing a model named "GRRR", for the better understanding of workplace goal orientation processes. Model testing is based on a three-waves longitudinal data collection (12 months) in which a sample of 582 workers from five Italian companies have been surveyed. Results reveal a mediated relationship among these constructs and a progressive causal enhancement over time. The quasi-trait Grit predicts the development of Resilience, which in turn predicts the development of Recovery strategies. Results and contributions to the scientific literature are discussed in both the frameworks of WOP Psychology and the Personality development paradigm. Practical implications suggest strategies of interventions for enhancing goal orientation through the GRRR process-model.