Unit 5 - Positive Organizational Behavior

6/24/2018
Positive Organizational Behavior

Positive Organizational Behavior (POB) is the study and application of
positively-oriented human resource strengths and psychological
capacities that can be measured, developed, and effectively managed
for performance improvement in today’s workplace- Luthans (2002).
 Instead of focusing on people’s weaknesses, POB encourages

managers and leaders to build on peoples’ strengths, rather than just
focusing on fixing weaknesses.
According to Luthans, besides being positive and a psychological resource

capacity, POB is constructed with the following operational criteria:
1. Based on theory and research: It is based on research not limited to the
theory. It is based on constantly building theoretical grounding and
continuing basic and applied research findings.
2. Valid measures: The construct of POB must have reliable and valid
measures.
3. Situation-based and open to development: The concept of POB is

situation based, open to learning, change, and development as opposed
to dispositional, relatively fixed across situations and time.
4. Managed for performance improvement. POB is concerned with the

workplace and how the positive psychological resource capacity can be
applied to improve human performance.
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The composition of POB
The composition (Constructs) of POB
Major Positive Constructs Other Positive Constructs

 Hope  Subjective Well-being
 Efficacy  Emotions
 Resiliency  Intelligence
 Optimism  Emotional Intelligence
Positive Psychological Capital

Luthans and his colleagues have identified Positive Psychological
Capital (PsyCap) as the critical component in Positive Organizational
Behavior. PsyCap is characterized by four qualities:
Hope
Efficacy
Resiliency
Optimism
(PsyCap) is seen as a valuable extension to the concepts of economic,
human, and social capital
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Hope:
A sense of energy to persevere towards your goals through proactive
planning.
 Synder and colleagues have precisely defined hope as- a positive
motivational state that is based on an interactively derived sense of
successful (a) agency (b) pathways.
Agency: goal-directed energy, willpower
Pathways: Planning to meet goals, Waypower
This definition of hope includes two important components- agency
and pathways.
Agency reflects someone’s determination that goals can be achieved.
Pathways describe the individual’s beliefs that successful plans can be
generated to reach goals.
considerable research over the past several years indicates it has a

very positive impact on academic achievement, athletic
accomplishment, emotional health, the ability to cope with illness
and other hardships.
human resources with higher hope are more profitable, have higher
retention rates, and have greater levels of employee satisfaction and
commitment.
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 Efficacy
Efficacy refers to capacity or power to produce a desired effect.
Self-efficacy is a concept developed by Albert Bandura within the
framework of Social Cognitive Theory.
He has defined self-efficacy as one's belief in one's ability to succeed in
specific situations or accomplish a task. One's sense of self-efficacy can
play a major role in how one approaches goals, tasks, and challenges.
Level of efficacy determines whether an individual is going to initialize a
behavior, how much effort he or she will contribute to the accomplishment
of the task, and how long he or she will persist in the effort.
Individuals who have a high sense of efficacy make a sufficient effort which
produces successful results, while individuals with a low sense of efficacy
are more likely to stop trying and thus fail in executing a task.
Persons with low self-efficacy generally tend to think negatively, and

see challenges as threats. Likewise, persons with high self-efficacy
realize their capacities and plan their actions to perform their work.
Impact of Self-Efficacy
A confident individual
Is more likely to make a choice to really get into the task and
welcome the challenge
Will give more effort and will be motivated to successfully accomplish
the task
Will persist for a longer time when obstacles are encountered or even
when there is initial failure.
Enters into potential stressful situations with confidence and are able
to resist stress reactions.
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Sources of Self-Efficacy (Where does self-efficacy come from?)

Albert Bandura has pointed out four sources of self-efficacy:
Mastery Experience
Vicarious Experience
Self-Efficacy
Social Persuasions
Emotional States
1. Mastery Experience: Bandura stated that the most effective way of

developing a strong sense of efficacy is through mastery experiences.
Employees who have previous experience on the job success have
more confidence to complete similar tasks.
2. Vicarious Experience: The second source of self-efficacy comes from
our observation of people around us, especially people we consider
as role models. For example- when an employee observes a coworker
successfully complete a task, they will feel more confident they can
also successfully complete a similar task.
3. Social Persuasions: Employees can be persuaded to believe that they
have the skills necessary to successfully complete a task. Influential
people in our lives such as parents, teachers, managers or coaches
can strengthen our beliefs that we have what it takes to succeed.
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4. Emotional States: The state you’re in will influence how you judge
your self-efficacy. Depression, for example, can reduce confidence in
our capabilities.
A person who expects to fail at a task, or finds the task too challenging
will experience a set of emotional cues: racing heart, blushing,
sweating, headaches, etc. If these physiological cues are persistent,
they create a sense of low efficacy in individuals.
Resiliency: is a ‘bouncing-back capacity’. It is one’s capacity to respond

strongly to difficulties and problems.
 According to Luthans- “Resiliency is viewed as the capacity to rebound
or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure, or even positive events,
progress and increased responsibility.”
In relation to today’s business situations, resiliency is one of the most
necessary human resource qualities.
It is a valuable input in people’s efforts to interact with dynamic
environment and achieve desirable outcomes.
It is measurable and people can be classified as resilient, less resilient
and non-resilient.
People can be trained or taught to be resilient. It can be developed and
strengthened through systematic efforts.
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Optimism: is one of the major components of POB. An optimistic

person views, evaluates and accepts things positively.
When there are two options of equal significance, an optimistic person
always selects the positive one.
Optimism involves accepting positive outcomes about the past, present
and future events.
It is indicative of some positive characteristics such as hopefulness,
cheerfulness, confidence, enthusiasm etc.
Little vs. Big Optimism: Optimism differs in terms of its intensity and
level.
 Little optimism involves limited specific expectations about positive outcomes.
For example- I will pass the exams with good marks.
 Big optimism implies more generic and large expectations of positive outcomes.
For example- I will be a successful industrialist.
• Optimism Vs. Pessimism: Optimism and Pessimism are mutually

exclusive. For example, an optimistic man will take failures as a base to
work more rigorously while pessimistic man takes failure as a bad end.
In case of failure, a pessimistic person stops working in desperation.
• Learning and sustaining optimism: Optimism is not a hereditary
instinct. A child is not born with a specific degree of optimism.
Optimism can be learned. Even pessimistic people can learn the skills to
be optimistic. In the same way, it can also be sustained and
strengthened over time.
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Subjective Well-being (or Happiness):

The concept of subjective-wellbeing refers to an individual’s evaluation
of overall life satisfaction and feelings. It is also referred to as
‘Happiness’.
It is subjective feeling of pleasure and convenience. It is individual
feeling and it depends on a person’s mentality.
It is subjective because its degree or level depends on personal
expectations and personality characteristics.
Optimism is a basic input in happiness because only optimistic person
can be happy.
SWB is commonly conceptualized as containing both affective and
cognitive elements. Generally, the affective component is discussed in
terms of negative and positive affect (emotions such as anger or fear
and joy or gladness). The cognitive component is thought to be related
to measures of life satisfaction or evaluation of the domains of life.
Happiness contributes to positive organizational behavior. Job design,

goal setting process, working conditions, positive counselling, improved
welfare activities, and other such efforts can keep the employees happy
at the work place.
Happiness or wellbeing can be categorized as either Hedonic or
Eudemonic wellbeing.
Hedonic wellbeing emphasizes that wellbeing consists of pleasure. It
consists of three components-Positive emotions presence, Negative
emotions absence and life satisfaction.
 Positive emotions: Pride, Gratitude, Serenity, Interest, Love, Joy
 Negative emotions: Anger, Shame, Hatred, Embarrassment, Stress, Hate
The degree to which a person experience more positive and less
negative emotions determines his or her happiness.
 Life Satisfaction: degree to which an individual appraises his or her life as
good or bad. Results from self created life standards.
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Eudemonic Wellbeing: refers to effectiveness of an individual’s psychological

functioning in which individuals realize their true potential.
Psychologist Carol Ryff has identified six broad aspects of psychological
functioning : 1) self-acceptance; 2) positive relations; 3) autonomy; 4)
environmental mastery; 5) purpose in life and 6) a sense of personal growth.
Subjective wellbeing in workplace
Happiness leads to success in nearly every domain of our lives, including
marriage, health, friendship, community involvement, creativity, and our jobs.
Happy employees have higher levels of productivity, perform better in
leadership positions, and receive higher performance ratings and higher pay.
Happy employees enjoy more job security, and are less likely to quit or to
become burned out.
Those who are engaged and happy at work on average are better workers.

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6/24/2018

Positive Organizational Behavior

 Instead of focusing on people’s weaknesses, POB encourages

According to Luthans, besides being positive and a psychological resource

3. Situation-based and open to development: The concept of POB is

4. Managed for performance improvement. POB is concerned with the

The composition of POB

The composition (Constructs) of POB

Major Positive Constructs Other Positive Constructs

Positive Psychological Capital

considerable research over the past several years indicates it has a

Persons with low self-efficacy generally tend to think negatively, and

Sources of Self-Efficacy (Where does self-efficacy come from?)

1. Mastery Experience: Bandura stated that the most effective way of

Resiliency: is a ‘bouncing-back capacity’. It is one’s capacity to respond

Optimism: is one of the major components of POB. An optimistic

• Optimism Vs. Pessimism: Optimism and Pessimism are mutually

Subjective Well-being (or Happiness):

Happiness contributes to positive organizational behavior. Job design,

Eudemonic Wellbeing: refers to effectiveness of an individual’s psychological

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