Abstract:
The problematic situation this doctoral research project investigates concerns
how the quality of a person’s lived subjective experience is affected by differing
degrees of challenge: a product of pressures and demands that overwhelm a
person’s knowledge, skills and experience (capability). The cost of stress and the
ways stress make people vulnerable to illness is well documented. Therefore, the
purpose of this doctoral research project is – to identify the thresholds (points)
where the balance between challenges and capability moves to imbalance.
This study uses Flow Theory and Complex Systems Theory as the foundation for
this research. A literature review of flow theory pertaining to the research problem
identified deficiencies in the models, methods and practices. As a result, the
project is divided into two sections. The first section developed a new synthesised
model of experience using an innovative suite of methods. The insights gained
from this model were used to inform the second phase of the research project.
The second phase utilises a novel multi-paradigmatic design strategy grounded
in a realist philosophy of science. This approach facilitated the development of a
quasi-experimental protocol and construct elicitation method to investigate the
individual participant's subjective experience of varying degrees of challenge in
the sensory and affective domains, respectively.
This project contributes to the knowledge gap in two distinct yet complementary
ways. Firstly, the research identified a relational link between challenge and
subjective experience. Secondly, as experienced by the individual, challenge is
incremental and cumulative. Moreover, this doctoral research project realises the
overarching research objective by developing a codebook and a new synthesised
model of experience. When the model and codebook are combined, they can
identify when a person’s challenges and capabilities are aligned and misaligned
through the various instances and absences of experiential states. This
contribution represents a proof of concept. Future work is required to develop the
method's applicability in organisational environments to support and enhance
people’s lived experience of work.
