Elasticity, Rigidity, and Resilience in Occupational Contexts

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

7-2024

Publisher

Society for Chaos Theory in Psychology & Life Sciences

Source Publication

Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences

Source ISSN

1090-0578

Abstract

The necessity for resilient responses in occupational contexts often takes the form of unusual levels of workload that could have a dramatic impact on the performance of individuals or teams. Empirical research with the cusp catastrophe model for cognitive workload and performance, which are reviewed here, has isolated a class of variables known as elasticity versus rigidity that act as bifurcation variables in the process. Elasticity-rigidity variables derive from five sources – affect, cognitive coping strategies, conscientiousness and impulsivity, fluid intelligence, and the degrees of flexibility that are afforded by the task itself. The resilience process for work teams presents additional workload demands requiring team coordination and communication efforts and back-up, redundancy, behaviors. Finer-grained nonlinear time series analyses of performance and its surrounding events revealed that team self-efficacy varies chaotically as the team responds to a series of challenging events. The two types of dynamics combine to produce chaotic hysteresis in team performance.

Comments

Nonlinear Dynamics, Psychology, and Life Sciences, Vol. 28, No. 3 (July 2024): 369-388. Publisher link.

Link to Full Text

Share

COinS