Positive Psychology Approach to OB |  |
Chapter SummaryThis chapter is concerned with three important positively-oriented psychological variables that have been around the field of psychology for awhile but are just emerging in organizational
behavior—optimism, emotional intelligence, and self-efficacy. Most closely related to the recent positive psychology movement is optimism. Although optimism has been around for a long time and is associated with many positive things in life, its use as a psychological construct and its application to the workplace are relatively recent. Both motivated and motivating, optimism has some evidence not only of being part of human nature, but also more support for contributing to individual differences. The pioneering work of Seligman treats optimism in terms of cognitively determined expectancies and causal attributions (i.e., explanatory style). Specifically, pessimists make internal, stable,
and global attributions of bad events, whereas optimists make external, unstable, and specific attributions. Although there can be some dysfunctional consequences such as stress from pursuing unattainable goals and there are some cases where a mild pessimist may be needed in organizations (e.g., safety engineer or accountant), in general, realistic optimism is very beneficial in life and in the workplace. Research is just starting, but evidence from Seligman’s extensive work with sales agents at Metropolitan Life indicates the very positive impact that optimism can have on human performance in organizations.
Besides optimism, in the positive psychology movement, the closely related concepts of hope and happiness/subjective well-being (SWB). As used in psychology and its potential applicability to organizational behavior, hope is more than the sunny advice of “hope for the best.” Although both Goleman and Seligman talk about hope in relation to
EI and optimism respectively, the work of Snyder on hope as a stand alone construct is most recognized. He defines hope not only in terms of the person’s determination that goals can be achieved, but also as the beliefs that successful plans can be formulated,
pathways identified, and self-motivation exhibited in order to attain the goals. There has been such strong evidence of the relationship between hope and academic, athletic, and mental/physical health positive outcomes that the carryover to the workplace seems very
promising for the future. The same is true of happiness or what positive psychologists prefer to call subjective well-being or SWB. Unlike hope, there have been some work-related studies in the SWB research literature. In particular, the work of Diener is most
closely associated with SWB. As with the other positive constructs in this chapter, he is concerned with the underlying processes that influence life satisfaction, satisfaction with important domains (including work satisfaction), positive affect, and low levels of negative affect. Particular attention is given to the processes of personality, goals, adaptation,and coping. Unlike the other constructs, SWB has been extensively researched across
cultures. As a domain of SWB, there have been studies related to work and the work-place. In particular, it has been found that SWB is a significant predictor of job satisfaction, and unemployment causes lower SWB.
Emotional intelligence or simply EI is first discussed in terms of its major components of emotion (feelings) and intelligence. Intelligence in particular has played a very minor role in organizational behavior. If recognized at all, the old, fixed dimensions of mathematical/logical and verbal/linguistic were assumed. The multiple intelligences, and emotional intelligence in particular, have only recently received attention. Broadly popularized by Goleman, EI is the capacity for understanding and managing one’s own and others’ emotions. There is increasing evidence that the characteristics of EI (e.g., self-awareness, self-motivation, empathy, and social skills) are not only superior
to traditional IQ in predicting future life success, but in the workplace may also have considerable untapped potential for successful performance.
The last third of the chapter is devoted to the theory, research, and application of self-efficacy. The most comprehensive positively-oriented approach, social cognitive
theory, posits that environmental, behavioral, and personal cognitive dimensions are in interaction and the self-reflective human capacity serves as the major theoretical under-pinning
of self-efficacy. Defined as the belief one has in his or her abilities to mobilize the motivation, cognitive resources, and courses of action necessary to successfully execute a specific task within a given context, self-efficacy is a state, not a trait. Through this theory building and extensive research of Bandura, four major sources of information to cognitively determine self-efficacy have been identified. These are, in order of importance, mastery experiences or performance attainments, vicarious experience or
modeling, social persuasion, and physiological or psychological (emotional) arousal. Each of these can be used in training and development to enhance self-efficacy. Self-efficacy started off as a clinical technique to change client behavior, but soon was successfully applied to many other health, educational, and athletic pursuits. Unlike the other positively-oriented constructs, there is also a considerable research-derived body of knowledge on the strong positive relationship between self-efficacy and work-related performance. The Stajkovic and Luthans meta-analysis (114 studies, 21,616 subjects) found a highly significant .38 weighted average correlation that transforms to an impressive 28 percent gain in performance (higher than the results of meta-analyses of
other popular organizational behavior interventions). With such substantial theory and research backup, there are important implications for effective practical applications of
self-efficacy. Besides training and development to enhance self-efficacy and thus help the transfer of training to the job and increase performance, the measurement of self-efficacy
could be used in the selection process. Self-efficacy can also be used to make job design, goal setting, teams, and stress management more effective. In total, as this chapter clearly indicates, the time has come for a positive psychology approach to join the mainstream of organizational behavior theory, research, and practice. |
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2002 McGraw-Hill Higher Education