188 Chapter 7 When individuals are constantly working on their physical and mental energy – through outside walks, work breaks, and social interactions – this may ironically go at the expense of job performance at a certain point. Future research may focus on how and when proactive vitality management may activate resource gain spirals, and may aim to identify the inflection point at which the costs of proactive vitality management may outweigh the benefits. In addition, the occasional distancing from work may be beneficial too. For example, creative performance may benefit from periods of incubation (Wallas, 1926) and intermediate levels of psychological detachment fromwork may benefit mental health (Shimazu et al., 2016). Accordingly, a potentially interesting avenue for future research lies in the interplay between reactive behaviors, such as distancing oneself fromwork, and proactive strategies, such as proactive vitality management. While there is a clear distinction between the two, they do not have to be mutually exclusive, and individuals may benefit from alternating the two strategies over time. Future research may aim to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the potentially non-linear or curvilinear effects of proactive vitality management as well as the relevant boundary conditions that may influence this process. Finally, future research may bring more detailed insights with regards to the specific actions people proactively undertake to manage their vitality. The proactive vitality management scale itself is a relatively generic measure that I developed to be able to investigate the behavioral phenomenon andmap its occurrence, and to gain insights into surrounding factors and consequential processes. However, throughout the chapters included in this dissertation, I provided numerous examples of proactive vitality management strategies, of which most – if not all of them – came from qualitative research I conducted during the development of my proactive vitality management research project. The examples that individuals mentioned when asked about their proactive vitality management behaviors ranged from sports activities before work to become energized, and listening to preferential music genres during work to become relaxed or focused – to more specific, idiosyncratic actions they had discovered worked for them, such as playing pool or other games in between work sessions to clear their mind, taking a different route to work for inspiration, or having lunch outside the office for a change of scenery. While there are thus numerous actions individuals may
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw