Positive Organizational Scholarship

Review of Positive Organizational Scholarship

Gulnaz Shahzadi

Positive Organizational Scholarship (POS) tends to explain the positive behaviors of organizations and that enhance the functioning and capabilities of the firm. It is primarily concerned with positive behaviours, phenomena and characteristics of the companies and their members. It is not based on a single theory rather it includes the worldly describes dynamics including resilience, excellence, abundance, and thriving. It incorporates consideration to the enablers, the inspirations and the results or effects linked with positive processes. POS can be understood in three facets including flourishment, growth of competencies and positive organizing.

The first aspect deals with positive relationships and the positive meaning at personal, group and macro level and pertains to personal level flourishing and showed by growth, thriving and resilience (Fredrickson & Losada, 2005) and for groups resilience, inventiveness, electivity, and development specify it collectively (Gittell, Cameron, Lim & Rivas, 2006; Hargadon & Bechky, 2006).

The second aspect of POS emphases on the building of competencies at manifold levels as a source of positive deviance (Cameron et al., 2003) and embraces the personal and organizational virtues as a collective achievement and collective wisdom and collective courage (Quinn & Worline, 2007; Weick & Putnam, 2006). The third part of POS focuses on the positive processes and phenomena that explain flourishing and generates the capabilities across the levels identifying the moments of sociability and positive dynamics.

Assumptions of POS

POS is based on four basic assumptions. First human development base on context undertaking that context is main point in generation, building and modification of capabilities in the organizations that’s why POS is involves in the investigation of firms that produce positive outcomes. Second it assumes that negative and positives procedures are not essentially unequal rather they could be synergetic (Roberts, 2006) and try to balance the inclination towards negative condition in the existing literature (Wang & Thompson, 2006). POS broaden the existing positive set of behaviors in the organization but does not focus on the exclusion of negative states. Researchers identify that positive and negative states co create the flourishment at personal and group level (Fredrickson and Losada, 2005).

Third, it assumes that resources in the organizations are dynamic and can be generated and developed including hope, knowledge and energy by using various dynamics. POS scholars identified that unlocking the hidden resources can increase the current capabilities and skills (Dutton et al., 2006; Spreitzer et al., 2005). POS exhibits that positive relations at job strengthen the health system of the employees (Heaphy and Dutton, 2008). It also adds the value at organizational level as identified by Glynn and Wrobel (2007) that families are identification with the firm enhances the social capital of the company. Fourth assumption of POS consider that normative factor in organization should be studied as that factors per institutional theory infuse the value in the companies (Selznick, 1957). This normative assumption includes the inherent challenges in the definition of good and requires the study of culture in the firm. As the definition of good is different in different culturesand these studies should be less focused to comparisons. Anyhow some of the good virtues are same across the cultures including wisdom, courage and humanity in China, South Asia, and Western countries (Dahsgaard, Peterson and Seligman).

Contributions

POS contributes in the organizational literature by adding new constructs, variable and procedures including compassionate organizing (Frost, Dutton, Maitlis, Kanov, Lilius & Worline, 2006), organizational resilience (Sutcliffe & Vogus, 2003), courageous collective action (Quinn & Worline, 2007), cascading vitality (Feldman & Khademian, 2003), peace-building (Spreitzer, 2006) and virtuousness (Cameron, 2003;2006).

It also generates connection among the existing non relevant variables offering the clarifying instrument. For example, a POS lens assimilates old topics such as creativity (Drazin, Glynn & Kazanjian, 1999; health (Karasek & Theorell, 1990), leadership (Selznick, 1957) mindfulness (Weick, Sutcliffe & Obsfeld, 1999), and wellbeing inter alia.

POS also digs deeper to explain the capacity building processes at personal and group level. This can help the body of research to examine the impact of connected contexts and dynamics explain the organizations by focusing on positive connections at work. It also provides the basis for empirical investigation of Appreciative Inquiry that pertains to organizational change and advancement having an embedded assumption of network of relatedness and the liveliness of these networks. POS offers the scholars to do likewise and reflect on practices as organizational scholars, considering not only how our research impacts the field but also ourselves as researchers. POS highlights that professional procedures of research and instruction can be ways that foster knowledge, inventiveness, development, or aspects of vigorous functioning (Dutton, 2003).

Advantages of POS

POS provides the new lens to watch the old organizational literature and makes the invisible things visible. It supports the idea that improvement in human conditions is a universal desire and to achieve this desire some processes should be positively unlocked and organized. POS focuses on generative dynamics and provides the grounds on which organizations can achieve sustainable competitive advantage.

Recent Research in POS

Positive organization scholarship (POS) view has been rooted in organizational research in many from ways; various established fields in previous studies have been observed at indicators of
cultivation or prosperous of strengths e.g satisfaction, empowerment, integrity, and justice. Latest research has started to map the POS field empirically and theoretically. Researchers are trying to identify and explain POS related themes/areas that can help to strengthen flourishing at work.

Prosocial Motivation

Prosocial motivation is defined as “the desire to benefit other people or groups” (Grant, 2007). Prosocial motivation is a significant motivator or reason behind many collective as well as individual accomplishments at workplace. As Ciulla in 2000 imitated, “On a day-to-day basis most jobs can’t fill the tall order of making the world better, but particular incidents at work have meaning because you make a valuable contribution or you are able to genuinely help someone in need.” A review on prosocial motivation conducted by Grant and Berg in 2012 reveals that prosocial motivation strongly predicts the persistence, productivity, performance, citizenship behaviors and strengthen the creativity and performance evaluations. Prosocial motivation is considered as significant indicator of some facet of employee’s flourishing.

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