Positive Organizational Scholarship: Exploring Virtues, Relationships, and Thriving in the Workplace

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) represents a significant shift in how we understand and approach organizations. Instead of solely focusing on problems and challenges, POS directs our attention to the positive aspects of organizational life, exploring virtues, relationships, and the potential for synergy. This article delves into the definition of POS, its key topics, benefits, and some criticisms, while also highlighting its practical implications for creating thriving workplaces.

The Genesis of Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive Psychology emerged in 1998, during an APA convention, with a theme contrasting prevention research and problem-response research. It can be concisely defined as a "focus on strengths, solutions, and what makes life worth living". However, POS, which was kickstarted in 2003 by Jane Dutton, Kim Cameron, and Robert Quinn, wasn't created to counterbalance illness-based studies. Instead, POS sought to fill gaps in organizational research regarding virtues, relationships, and synergy.

Defining Positive Organizational Scholarship

POS "examines positive phenomena within organizations as well as positive organizational contexts themselves". It chases the heliotropic effect, which suggests that people are naturally drawn to what is life-giving and positive, and positive deviance rather than negative deviance. In essence, POS goes beyond mere financial profit, focusing on the overall well-being and positive impact of organizations.

Key Elements of POS

Focus on Positive States: POS seeks to understand positive states, such as resilience or meaningfulness, as well as the dynamics and outcomes associated with those states, like positive energy and connections.
Emphasis on Goodness: POS emphasizes goodness, or the best of the human condition, and positive deviance, or extraordinarily successful outcomes.
Organizational Context: POS focuses on positive processes and states that occur within organizational contexts.
Enablers, Motivations, and Outcomes: POS encompasses attention to the enablers (e.g., processes, capabilities, structures, methods), the motivations (e.g., unselfishness, altruism, contribution without regard to self), and the outcomes or effects (e.g., vitality, meaningfulness, exhilaration, high-quality relationships) associated with positive performance.

Core Topics in Positive Organizational Scholarship

Topics of POS span a multitude of feelings, abstractions, and actions that are positive. Subjects include "strength, resilience, vitality, trust, organizational virtuousness, positive deviance, extraordinariness, and meaning" of organizations, its people, and effects beyond the organization.

Ideal Relationships: The Epicenter of POS

Ideal relationships serve as an epicenter of POS. High-quality connections (HQC) help people flourish together. HQC energize people, create a feeling of being loved, and establish reciprocal participation and vulnerability.

Self-Leadership and Thriving at Work

POS also deals with self-leadership. Individuals have some control over their level of thriving at work. Thriving does not rest solely on the shoulders of leaders. Individuals can thrive through job crafting, and finding meaning in work is vital to thrive. Through job crafting, employees are empowered to make their work more meaningful, better use their skills, and minimize strain.

Benefits of Embracing Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positivity is its own reward. Nonetheless, the POS approach offers many more benefits. Across many types of organizations, the search for meaning, employee well-being, and personal and group thriving has shown an increase in profit, organizational functionality, and the retention, health, and happiness of the employees. Even insofar as economic benefits, POS represents an untapped resource waiting to ignite new gains. Hence, using POS strategies is not an either/or proposition.

Concrete Outcomes of POS

Increased Profitability: Organizations that prioritize meaning, well-being, and thriving often experience improved financial performance.
Enhanced Organizational Functionality: POS practices contribute to smoother operations and greater efficiency.
Improved Employee Retention: A positive work environment encourages employees to stay with the organization.
Better Employee Health and Happiness: POS fosters a culture of well-being, leading to healthier and happier employees.

Addressing Criticisms of Positive Organizational Scholarship

POS receives criticism for its bias toward the positive. Yet, Quinn addressed this by agreeing that POS is indeed inherently biased, but, he pointed out, all science biasedly leans toward homeostasis. As it turns out, if the goal is equilibrium, science often results in limitations and restrictiveness. Cameron and Spreitzer, too, proudly confessed POS’s bias toward vitality-bestowing elements.

Another erroneous criticism contends that POS neglects problems that organizations must urgently fix. Quite to the contrary to this argument, POS points out that positivity is essential to addressing negative phenomena.

POS is Not About Ignoring Problems

Bias is Inherent: All scientific inquiry has biases; POS acknowledges its focus on the positive.
Positivity Aids Problem-Solving: POS emphasizes that a positive approach is crucial for effectively addressing negative issues.

Positive Organizational Behavior (POB)

Positive psychology in the workplace encompasses various concepts such as positive organizational behavior or positive organizational scholarship. They are united in their focus on strengths and flourishing but have differing perspectives. The focus of positive organizational behavior is on the individual within the organization. Positive organizational behavior in this sense is measurable and meets the open-to-development criterion. It is therefore open to individual learning and change. Three of these positive organizational behavior capacities are self-efficacy, optimism, and hope. All three are part of the overarching concept of Psychological Capital (PsyCap), including resiliency besides self-efficacy, optimism, and hope.

Read also: Exploring PEP Job Opportunities

Psychological Capital (PsyCap)

PsyCap was developed as a work-related concept and is defined as “a core psychological factor of positivity in general, and POB criteria meeting states in particular, that go beyond human and social capital to gain a competitive advantage through investment/development of ‘who you are’”. PsyCap influences a variety of outcomes, such as job satisfaction and commitment or reduced absenteeism. Individuals high in PsyCap perform better than those low in PsyCap since they can draw upon more resources to pursue goals. Furthermore, PsyCap is linked to an improved psychological and physical well-being.

Key Components of PsyCap

Self-Efficacy: Self-efficacy is a dispositional resource used for coping with all kinds of demands and challenges and can be defined as “one’s beliefs about his or her ability to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action necessary to execute a specific action within a given context”.
Optimism: Optimism includes not only the dispositional optimistic look towards the future, but also global positive expectations. Optimistic persons expect positive things to happen and therefore believe in a positive future.
Hope: Hope is “a positive motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of successful agency (goal directed energy) and pathways (planning to meet goals)”. Hopeful individuals are able to generate alternative routes in an adaptive way.

The Link Between PsyCap and Well-being

Self-efficacy correlates to and influences well-being positively and reduces depression. Practicing optimism leads to increased well-being. Hopeful individuals are motivated to energetically pursue goals and to consider alternative routes to achieve them, and this enhances their well-being.

Flexible Goal Adjustment as a Mediator

Goal regulation strategies have been frequently discussed as possible mediators between optimism and well-being. Flexible goal adjustment can be seen as passive accommodative coping, as changing personal preferences due to situational restrictions, which seems to be especially relevant in later life. The flexible management of personal goals is associated with well-being. By disengaging old goals when necessary, reengaging new goals and accepting this change by adjusting to the situation, people can stay optimistic and hopeful despite witnessed difficulties and are more satisfied with their lives.

Practical Applications of Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive organizational behavior focuses on individual strengths and resources, optimism, hope and self-efficacy being prominent examples. All three are related to positive aspects from an individual perspective but also from an organizational perspective.

Strategies for Implementing POS

Assess Strengths: Select a psychometrically validated strengths-assessment tool you can use to assess your employees, team, or leaders.
Align Strengths: Consider whether you can put employees with differing and complementary strengths on the same team.
Measure the Effects: Be sure to measure the effects of any initiative you implement.

Creating a Positive Work Environment

Promote Intrinsic Motivation: Employees will exhibit greater intrinsic motivation when engaged in work that aligns with their values.
Minimize Stress: Cultures embedded with the principles of POS help minimize stress and increase mental health among employees.
Ensure Positive Feedback: People may differ in how they receive feedback.

Taking steps to ensure a positive work environment is especially important when individuals’ work is highly interdependent.

Read also: Creating a Positive Classroom

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