99 Proactive Vitality Management, Work Engagement, and Creativity feel already rested. Second, most recovery activities are carried out during off-job time (i.e., in the evening or weekend, during vacation), while proactive vitality management can be done at any time, any place (e.g., during lunchtime at work, early in the morning at home, in the night while going out). Third, proactive vitality management aims at finding inspiration through small positive interventions in one’s daily work or private life. For example, people can try to find new inspiration through reading books (Bal, Butterman, & Bakker, 2011), using social media, and watching a TED-talk on You-tube during work, or by indulging in artwork at a fair – and they do not need to experience job stress to motivate them to engage in such activities. Recovery activities are aimed at detaching fromwork to reduce physical and psychological strain symptoms (Sonnentag & Fritz, 2015). The present study investigated the moderating role of goal orientation, but did not examine the role of the work environment. It should be noted that the participants in our study all had a reasonable work schedule in that they worked on average less than 40 hours a week. This may imply a built-in sort of slack resources in participants’ work life – they could afford time. If individuals have 60-hour workweeks, they may have less time for proactive vitality management, although such behaviors may be even more important for work engagement and creativity during long working hours. Long workweeks may also have important implications for when and where employees should proactively manage their vitality. Future research among other samples and in other cultural contexts may test the impact of context on proactive vitality management. Practical Implications Our findings have practical implications for individual employees and for managers. A first implication is that we should make employees aware of the importance of individual proactive vitality management. Organizations may want to offer professional training and smartphone applications through which employees learn what the best activities are for them to improve their vitality. In order to be creative, employees need to be engaged. Employees can proactively optimize their own levels of work engagement by engaging in a range of activities during work and during off-job time. For example, while at work, they can decide to have lunch with colleagues outside the office in order to get a fresh view on existing work problems. They may also take short micro breaks during the workday in order to increase their levels of energy (Trougakos &Hideg, 2009). 4
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTk4NDMw