187 Summary and General Discussion I have argued that proactive vitality management may be a valuable behavioral strategy that can help reduce physical and mental health issues in the long term. The findings from Chapter 6 provide some indication for this, by showing that proactive vitality management relates to lower exhaustion and functional limitations and absenteeism over time. Perhaps that individuals who use proactive vitality management on a regularly or even daily basis may also have a lower risk of developing burn-out because they act in a timely manner, maintaining adequate levels of physical and mental resources that help to prevent future resource losses (cf. Bakker & Costa, 2014; Hobfoll, 1989). In contrast, failing to undertake such anticipatory action may relate to poorer well-being and performance at work in the short term. Moreover, over time, this may result in a resource ‘loss spiral’ where individuals, over time, may act more and more in a passive and reactive manner. In turn, maladaptive and destructive behaviors, such as self-undermining, may cause health impairment to progress (Bakker & De Vries, 2021; Bakker & Wang, 2020). Future studies may examine more closely the development of physical and mental strain at work – potentially resulting in higher risk of burn-out – and how the proactive use of vitality management strategies may protect against such a development. In contrast to the aforementioned ‘loss spiral’, proactive vitality management may also activate a ‘gain spiral’ or ‘upward spiral’ (Hobfoll, 1989; Strauss & Parker, 2014) where proactive vitality management may relate to more physical, affective, and cognitive resources, in turn stimulating more proactive vitality management, eventually structurally resulting in higher levels of performance at work over time (Tisu & Vîrga, 2022). On the other hand, while I postulate that the regular use of proactive vitality management strategies should relate positively to optimal functioning at work, sometimes there can be too much of a good thing. Based on the idea of “no such thing as an unmitigated good,” Grant and Schwartz (2011, p. 62) suggested that future research needs to identify the inflection points at which the effects of positive phenomena may turn negative. Building on this, Lam et al. (2014) showed that there is a curvilinear relationship between positive affect and proactive behavior, emphasizing the importance of aiming for intermediate levels of positive phenomena. In a similar vein, with regards to proactive vitality management, at some point there may be costs that outweigh the benefits (Grant & Schwarz, 2011). For example, while proactive vitality management may involve small efforts and actions, it may still be time-consuming. 7
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