Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings: A Commentary

 

Conservation of Resources

Steven E. Hobfall


Individuals hold on to the things that are central to their perceived wellbeing and safety. Objects, personal characteristics, conditions, or energies when “threatened, lost,[or] believed to be unstable" are recognized as having value and are perceived to be of value. When "individuals and groups cannot set a path to the fostering and protection of [these] resources through their joint effort” stress is experienced (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 342); when such conditions persist, the "stress resistance" within the individual or the group is compromised. Furthermore, a persistent loss of resources contributes to further loss of resources, enabling a cyclical process referred to as a loss spiral, leaving individuals and groups even more vulnerable (Hobfoll, 1998). In such times of loss, individuals and groups take great effort to adapt in ways to conserve and utilize available resources. If such adaptation is successful, there is an opportunity to replenish their resource pool and offset acute and even chronic resource depletion. 



COR theory posits that the encounter of self with stress is within a social context (Hobfoll, 2001). Stress is a condition, a common appraisal, held jointly by "people who share biology and culture, or in the case of work and organizational settings, who share a workplace” (Hobfoll, 2011, p. 116): an objective reality. Hobfoll contends that individuals and groups can protect and strengthen stress resistance by investing in particular social, emotional, and economic resources- the objective elements of threat and loss. Hobfoll also contends that resources are linked and have a tendency "to travel together over time" (p. 350). Hobfoll refers to this “retinue of resources” as a Resource Caravan. (Hobfoll, 2011, p. 349)(Hobfoll, 2001; 2011): "constellation of resources influenced by inner and outside forces."


Self-efficacy and COR:

Self-efficacy, optimism, and self-esteem serve as single and major stress resistance resources and contribute “to a maintenance of strong resource reservoirs" (Hobfoll, 2001, p. 350). Chan and Drasgow (2001) explored the motivational influence of self-efficacy and personal resources of leaders in a time of crisis to develop a measure of crisis leader self-efficacy.


Hobfoll, S. E. (2011). Conservation of resource caravans and engaged settings. Journal of occupational and organizational psychology, 84(1), 116-122.

Image: https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/conservation-of-resources


Psychological Resource Theory

Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory is one of two leading frameworks for understanding stress.

Lazarus and Folkman (1984): Psychological Stress and Coping Theory




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