How Work Groups Cope with Understaffing

Today, many organizations struggle with understaffing. Past research has demonstrated that understaffing can have various adverse effects on organizations. Some research has found that understaffing has a negative impact on work performance. Other research has shown that understaffing can lead to burnout and dissatisfaction. 

There are two main types of understaffing: manpower understaffing and expertise understaffing. Manpower understaffing occurs when the number of employees is not enough to complete the team’s tasks. Expertise understaffing refers to an organization not having enough employees with the relevant knowledge, skills, and abilities to complete tasks.

The majority of research on understaffing has viewed understaffing simply as a challenge that employees passively tolerate. However, recent research in the Journal of Occupational Health Psychologyexplored how understaffing can be a challenge in which employees actively cope. The researchers examined teams across four different organization. They first assessed the teams’ understaffing level, leadership, and team member quality. Three months into the research, the researchers assessed team performance and levels of burnout.

The results revealed various coping mechanisms that organizational leaders used to deal with understaffing. When faced with manpower staffing, management tended to clarify work roles and expectations. They also tended to organize group activities for the team. However, when faced with expertise understaffing, management tended to demonstrate more concern with the well-being of team members. In addition, team members tended to strengthen the quality of their working relationships. These types of strategies alleviated the effect that understaffing had on burnout and team performance. Overall, the research revealed that management showing considerate behaviors alone was not enough to prevent burnout from manpower staffing. This type of behavior had to be accompanied by quality working relationships among team members.