Adaptive performance in refugees after trauma: how relevant are post-traumatic stress and post-traumatic growth?

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1108/IJWHM-12-2021-0230
• Published date: 26 August 2022
• Date: 26 August 2022
• Pages: 711-727
• Subject Matter: Health & social care,Healthcare management,HR & organizational behaviour,Human resource policy,Employee welfare
• Author: Lukasz Stasielowicz

Adaptive performance in refugees

after trauma: how relevant

are post-traumatic stress

and post-traumatic growth?

Lukasz Stasielowicz

Institute of Psychology, Osnabr€

uck University, Osnabr€

uck, Germany

Abstract

Purpose –Wars can lead to massive migration waves, e.g. the Syrian Civil War that began in 2011 led to the

European refugee crisis. Discussions about labour integration often accompany huge spikes in asylum

applications. Since many refugees experience traumatic events, such as torture, health problems must be

considered in the work context. Unfortunately, the relevance of the post-traumatic experiences of refugees to

specific job performance facets has mainly been ignored. To close the research gap, a study with refugees living

in Germany was conducted to examine to what extent trauma-related variables are relevant to performance

variables.

Design/methodology/approach –The relationship between post-traumatic stress (PTS), post-traumatic

growth (PTG) and adaptive performance (social and task-oriented adaptive performance) was examined as,

nowadays, many activities require dealing with changes (e.g. new colleagues, new technologies). Sixty-nine

people met the inclusion criteria (e.g. refugee status, traumatic experiences) and completed the survey. Data

were analysed using the Bayesian approach.

Findings –Bayesian analyses revealed that PTG might promote both social and task-oriented adaptive

performance. In contrast, PTS was negatively related to task-oriented adaptive performance. Furthermore,

there was no substantial evidence that PTG moderates the relationship between PTS and adaptive

performance. Furthermore, there is preliminary evidence that refugees do not differ substantially from the

general population with respect to social adaptive performance.

Originality/value –The present study demonstrates for the first time the relevance of post-traumatic

experiences to the adaptive performance of refugees.

Keywords Post-traumatic stress, Post-traumatic growth, Trauma, Adaptive performance, Refugees

Paper type Research paper

Since the beginning of the Syrian Civil War in 2011, several million people have applied for

asylum in the European Union, with a peak of ca. 1.3 million first-time applications in 2015

(Eurostat, 2021). Discussions often revolved around the integration of refugees (Alencar,

2018;Moris and Kousoulis, 2017). Hitherto multiple studies have been conducted (Donato and

Ferris, 2020) that examine social integration (e.g. political participation) and economic

integration of refugees (e.g. employment) across continents. While labour integration may be

hindered by traumatic experiences of refugees (e.g. torture), some people experience positive

transformative change after traumatic events, which could promote labour integration.

Unfortunately, the relevance of post-traumatic growth (PTG) to specific performance

dimensions was neglected in the past (Maitlis, 2012,2020). To help close the research gap,

Adaptive

performance in

refugees after

trauma

711

The author would like to thank Lea von Atens for her help with data collection. Furthermore, the author

is grateful to Rawan Alsaker and Waheed Alsaker for help with translations. The acknowledgments do

not imply that the mentioned people endorse the views presented in the current manuscript. The author

remains solely responsible for the views expressed in the present study.

Funding: This research received no specific grant from any funding agency in the public,

commercial, or not-for-profit sectors. Disclosure of interest: The author reports no conflict of interest.

Data availability: Data, R code and output are available at https://osf.io/9gyjz/.

The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available on Emerald Insight at:

https://www.emerald.com/insight/1753-8351.htm

Received 15 December 2021

Revised 11 July 2022

Accepted 9 August 2022

InternationalJournal of Workplace

Health Management

Vol. 15 No. 6, 2022

pp. 711-727

© Emerald Publishing Limited

1753-8351

DOI 10.1108/IJWHM-12-2021-0230

both post-traumatic stress (PTS) and PTG and their relationship with performance will be

examined in the present study.

The current study was conducted with refugees living in Germany, where approximately

50% of the 2.5 million first-time EU asylum applications were made during the peak (2015–

2016) of the European refugee crisis (Eurostat, 2021). However, the present study is not only

relevant to European countries. After all, due to persisting and new conflicts, spikes in

asylum applications can also be observed on other continents. To illustrate, in 2020 (UNHCR,

2021), many refugees were hosted in Asia (e.g. Pakistan), Africa (e.g. Uganda) and America

(e.g. Colombia). Because refugees are a minority that face particular challenges in the work

context, an overview of research devoted to labour integration of refugees is provided in the

next section before describing the present study.

Refugees and labour integration

Refugees are (Lee et al., 2020)“individuals, regardless of their legal status, who have fled their

home country to seek protection and security in another country and cannot safely return due

to a well-founded fear of the prevailing circumstances in their country of origin”(p. 195).

Many refugees experience traumatic events before or during migration, such as torture,

sexual assault or loss of relatives (Frank et al., 2017), which can result in mental health

problems. This, in turn, can impede integration into the labour market (Lee et al., 2020). To

illustrate, in one German study, approximately 75% of surveyed refugees reported

experiencing or witnessing traumatic events (Georgiadou et al., 2018). Thus, it is not

surprising that the prevalence of mental health disorders, including depression or PTS

disorder, often oscillates around 30–40% for refugees, which is substantially more than in the

general population (Hoell et al., 2021;Lindert et al., 2009;Naja et al., 2016;Slewa-Younan et al.,

2015). Some prevalence estimates for refugees are even greater (Morina et al., 2018).

Finding a job can be challenging for refugees due to health problems, language problems,

regulations and discrimination (Colic-Peisker and Walker, 2003;Lee et al., 2020;Newman

et al., 2018). Furthermore, job descriptions and requirements can change rapidly due to

technological advances or globalisation. Adaptability in the workplace is regarded as an

important criterion in personnel selection (Ryan and Ployhart, 2014). After all, adaptive

behaviours can be helpful when dealing with typical challenges and also during an

organisational crisis (Marques-Quinteiro et al., 2019). Accordingly, it should be considered in

discussions and interventions centred around integrating refugees into the labour market.

However, there is a lack of research on the relationship between health and adaptive

performance in refugees with traumatic experiences. The present study aims at addressing

this research gap. The following paragraphs provide a short description of adaptive

performance, followed by the hypotheses linking PTS and PTG to adaptive performance.

Adaptive performance

Adaptive performance refers (Pulakos et al., 2000)to“altering behavior to meet the demands

of a new situation, event, or set of circumstances”(p. 615). Because many work-related

activities require adaptive performance, such as dealing with new software and establishing

relationships with new co-workers or clients, adaptability is currently viewed as one

important criterion in personnel selection (Ryan and Ployhart, 2014). Thus, it is one of the

aspects that need to be considered when addressing the labour integration of refugees.

Initially, eight dimensions of adaptive performance have been proposed (Pulakos et al.,

2000): (1) solving problems creatively, (2) dealing with uncertain or unpredictable work

situations, (3) learning new tasks, technologies and procedures, (4) demonstrating

interpersonal adaptability, (5) demonstrating cu ltural adaptability, (6) demonstrating

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