Building resilience in health and social care teams
| Published date | 05 September 2016 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/PR-04-2014-0095 |
| Pages | 1132-1155 |
| Date | 05 September 2016 |
| Author | Janet McCray,Adam Palmer,Nik Chmiel |
| Subject Matter | HR & organizational behaviour,Global HRM |
Building resilience in health and
social care teams
Janet McCray
Department of Childhood, Social Work and Social Care,
University of Chichester, Chichester, UK
Adam Palmer
Department of Business and Management, University of Winchester,
Winchester, UK, and
Nik Chmiel
Department of Pyschology, University of Chichester, Chichester, UK
Abstract
Purpose –Maintaining user-focused integrated team working in complex care is one of the
demands made of UK health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees that are
resilient, resilience being the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to adverse
situations (Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1). Grant and Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a
complex and multi-dimensional construct that is underexplored in social care team work. The
purpose of this paper is to capture the views of managers in H&SC to explorethe making of resilient
teams, identify factors that influence team performance and inform organisational workforce
development strategy.
Design/methodology/approach –A general inductive approach (Silverman, 2011) was applied.
Five focus groups were facilitated (n¼40) each with eight participants all of whom were leaders and
managers of teams in H&SC, working in the integrated care context in the UK.
Findings –Findings indicate that further investment in strategies and resources to sustain and
educate employees who work in teams and further research into how organisational systems can
facilitate this learning positively may contribute to resilient teams and performance improvement. The
authors note specifically that H&SC organisations make a distinction between the two most prevalent
team types and structures of multi-disciplinary and inter-professional and plan more targeted
workforce development for individual and team learning for resiliency within these team structures.
In doing so organisations may gain further advantages such as improved team performance in
problematic care situations.
Research limitations/implications –Data captured are self-reported perceptions of H&SC
managers. Participant responses in the focus group situation may have been those expected rather
than those actually modelled in the realities of team work practice (Tanggaard, 2008). Further, in the
sample all participants were engaged in a higher education programme and it is possible participants
may have been more engaged with their practice and thinking more critically about the research
questions than those not currently undertaking postgraduate study (Ng et al., 2014). Nor were the
researchers able to observe the participants in team work practice over time or during critical care
delivery incidents.
Practical implications –The preliminary link made here between multi-disciplinary and inter-
professional team type, and their different stress points and subsequent workforce intervention,
contributes to the theory of resilient teams. This provides organisations with a foundation for the focus
of workplace learning and training around resilience. H&SC practitioner views presented offer a
greater understanding of team work processes, together with a target for planning workforce
development strategy to sustain resilience in team working.
Originality/value –This preliminary research found that participants in H&SC valued the team as
a very important vehicle for building and sustaining resilience when dealing with complex H&SC
situations. The capitalisation on the distinction in team type and individual working practices
between those of interprofessional and multidisciplinary teams and the model of team learning, may
Personnel Review
Vol. 45 No. 6, 2016
pp. 1132-1155
©Emerald Group Publishing Limited
0048-3486
DOI 10.1108/PR-04-2014-0095
Received 30 April 2014
Revised 25 September 2014
20 January 2015
20 March 2015
11 May 2015
31 July 2015
Accepted 14 September 2015
The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:
www.emeraldinsight.com/0048-3486.htm
1132
PR
45,6
have important consequences for building resilience in H&SC teams. These findings may
be significant for workforce educators seeking to develop and build effective practice tools to
sustain team workin g.
Keywords Qualitative, Health and social care, Resilience, Teamwork, Multidisciplinary,
Integrated care, Interprofessional
Paper type Research paper
Introduction
In the UK integrated care underpinned by team work practice and joint working is seen
as one model that can be of benefit to service users (Brown et al., 2003). Maintaining this
user-focused team working in complex care delivery situations is one of the demands
made of health and social care (H&SC) organisations who need employees tha t are
resilient, resilience being “the ability to persevere and thrive in the face of exposure to
adverse situations”(Rogerson and Ermes, 2008, p. 1).
As lessons are learned from public inquiries into poor care standards in the UK,
for example, in the Mid-Staffordshire National Health Service Foundation Trust
(Francis, 2013), the UK industries that report the highest rates of total cases of work-
related stress (three year average) are human health and social work (Health and Safety
Executive, 2013). Howard (2008) identifies the significance of resilience in protecting
employers from the impacts of employee work-related stress. Munro in her report on
the current state of UK social work practice acknowledges the presence of stress and
occupational burn out in social work and identifies one means of addressing these is the
need for organisations to build the resilience of professionals (Munro, 2011). Grant and
Kinman (2012) write that resilience is a complex and multi-dimensional construct that is
increasingly seen as relevant to those in emotionally challenging and complex
occupations and is underexplored in social care work. Subsequently a focus on
resilience of staff in teams is an important topic for research in H&SC organisations,
with lessons for other H&SC providers globally.
This paper presents the results of a UK study with H&SC managers. Data collected
from five focus groups (n¼40) were used to explore resilience and its usefulness in
H&SC teams. The research objectives were to capture the views of team leaders and
managers working in integrated health care settings to examine:
(1) the place of resilience in the team work setting in H≻
(2) the making of resilient teams and factors that may influence their performance; and
(3) how these findings can assist organisations in their workforce development strategy.
Resilience
The development of the idea of “mental capital”in relation to positive psychology in the
workplace includes resilience at its core (Luthans, 2002). Positive organisational
behaviour (POB) is the “application of positively oriented human resource strengths
and psychological capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed
for performance improvement in today’s workplace”. Relevant psychological capacities
are efficacy, optimism and resilience (Luthans, 2002, p. 695). The Oxford Encyclopaedic
English Dictionary (Pearsall, 1995) defines “resilient”as relating to a person “readily
recovering from shock”and “buoyant”, and these ideas have been reflected in the
literature on psychological resilience. For example, Tugade and Fredrickson (2004)
suggest resilience is the ability to bounce back from negative emotional experiences,
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Building
resilience in
H&SC teams
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