It's the Little Things That Matter: An Examination of Knowledge Workers' Energy Management

Recently, Pfeffer (2010) called for a better understanding of the human dimension of sustainability. Responding to this call, we explore how individuals sustain an important human resource—their own energy—at work. Specifically, we focus on strategies that employees use at work to sustain their energy. Our findings show that the most commonly used strategies (e.g., switching to another task or browsing the Internet) are not associated with higher levels of human energy at work. Rather, strategies related to learning, to the meaning of one's work, and to positive workplace relationships were most strongly related to employees' energy.