August/September 2007

Spotlight on...

Positive Organizational Psychology

Since the early 90s, a charged-up group of psychologists has been deconstructing their profession’s focus on pathology and rebuilding it with the study of what can go right with people and institutions. They call themselves positive psychologists.

Positive psychologists don’t claim to have invented anything new or created a new profession. They distinguish themselves by their perspective. The value of positive psychology “lies in its uniting of what had been scattered and disparate lines of theory and research about what makes life most worth living,” writes Martin Seligman, a leading "positive" psychologist. (For more about Dr. Seligman, see Leading Lights below). University of Michigan professor Kim S. Cameron, a major voice on positive psychology in the workplace, says “…positive organizational scholarship will become embedded in the questions asked and the approaches used in a wide variety of organizational studies…”

Since 2000, authors and researchers have placed quite a bit of emphasis on positive organizational psychology as an application of this new perspective. There are institutes, degree programs, conferences, blogs, journals, and Web sites devoted to the topic.  As readers with an interest in human resources assessment and development, we thought you’d like to know about some of these resources.

Books:

Perhaps the most widely cited book on this topic in academic literature is Positive Organizational Scholarship: Foundations of a New Discipline by Kim S. Cameron. We haven't read that one, but can recommend Positive Organizational Behavior, edited by Debra Nelson and Cary Cooper. (See our review.) Other titles that develop this perspective are listed below:

Positive Psychology In Business Ethics And Corporate Responsibility focuses on positive environmental ethics in business.

The Handbook of Positive Psychology by C.R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez has a chapter on organizational behavior.

Psychological Capital: Developing the Human Competitive Edge by Fred Luthans, Carolyn M. Youssef, and Bruce J. Avolio explores the concept of psychological capital, as distinguished from the idea of human capital. Fred Luthans is one of the most prolific authors on this topic

Work, Happiness and Unhappiness by Peter Warr examines the problems of measuring happiness at work.

A Primer in Positive Psychology by Christopher Peterson is an excellent general introduction to the field, written in conversational style. Peterson acknowledges the current limits of the positive psychology movement, while at the same time explaining how much research has been accomplished and the results it is beginning to show. Character Strengths and Virtues: A Handbook and Classification by Christopher Peterson & Martin E.P. Seligman offers the positive psychologist's answer to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (a.k.a. DSMIII), a book widely used by psychologists and psychiatrists to classify mental pathologies.

We haven't read it yet, but Positive Psychological Assessment: A Handbook of Models and Measures by C. R. Snyder and Shane J. Lopez is on our list.

Conferences: 

The Gallup International Positive Psychology Summit will take place from Thursday, October 4 to Saturday, October 6, 2007 in Washington, DC. This is the 9^th summit of its type and about one-third of this year’s agenda is focused on management and leadership. In addition, there are a number of other applied positive psychology conferences being held around the world.

Videos on Positive Psychology

If video is your information M. O., no problem. There are several interview series with positive psychologists:

Online Interviews with Positive Psychology Scholars

Downloadable Interviews with Positive Psychology Scholars at ISQOLS Web site (Click on Oral History)

In-Depth DVD Interviews of Positive Psychology Scholars at Gallup Web site

PBS DVD: : Introducing Positive Psychology: Signature Strengths, Flow, and Aging Well; Personal Well-Being, Social Support, Health, and Aging Well. Contact:jackie_harrison@montanapbs.org or chris_seifert@montanapbs.org

Gallup DVD: “How to be Happy, with Ed Diener.” Contact Sheila Kearney at sheila_kearney@gallup.com

Journals

Journal of Positive Psychology

Journal of Happiness Studies

Online Assessments

Visit Martin Seligman's Authentic Happiness web site to chose from almost 20 free online assessments that relate to positive psychology. Perhaps the most famous of these for organizational applications is the Values in Action Signature Strengths, which measures 24 character strengths in action.  The Work-Life Questionnaire on the site measures Work-Life Satisfaction.. Please note: you must create a log-in to use any of the surveys, but they are all free of charge.

Degree Programs

Claremont Graduate University has just launched two degree programs in positive organizational scholarship in the School of Behavioral and Organizational Sciences. They are: 

• (Masters) Co-Concentration in Positive Organizational Psychology & Evaluation,

• (PhD) Concentration in Positive Organizational Psychology.

The opening semester is fall 2007.

In addition, two other universities offer degrees in positive psychology:

• Master of Applied Positive Psychology at the University of Pennsylvania

• MSc Applied Positive Psychology at the University of East London, UK.

Neither of these appears to be specialized to the study of positive institutions. Given the energy in the field, however, it seems likely that more such degrees will be offered.

Institutes:

The Drucker School of Management at the Claremont Graduate University started the Quality of Life Research Center in 1999 under the direction of Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi.

The Values in Action (VIA) Institute provides information on positive psychology, as well as the classification system and measurement tools of character strengths that serve as the backbone of this developing scientific discipline.

The Centre for Applied Positive Psychology is an independent, not-for-profit organization affiliated with the University of East London and located at the University of Warwick campus in the UK.

The European Network for Positive Psychology is a collective of European researchers and practitioners with shared interests in the science and practice of positive psychology.

The Center for Positive Organizational Scholarship is located at the Stephen M. Ross School of Business, University of Michigan.

The American Psychological Association has a Psychologically Healthy Workplace Practice (see) and award program.

Leading Lights in Positive Psychology

Dr. Martin Seligman, University of Pennsylvania, is one of the most visible thought leaders on positive psychology. Seligman’s work on depression, “learned pessimism” and “learned optimism” earned him a solid reputation long before he became a proponent of positive psychology. Since the early 1990s, he has focused on the study of positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. During his term as president of the American Psychological Association Seligman promoted the study of positive psychology.

Dr. Mikhail Csikszentmihalyi (“just call me Mike”), Claremont Graduate University, is another key thought leader. Csikszentmihalyi is the author of the best selling Flow: The Psychology of Optimal Experience, as well as numerous scholarly and popular books and articles. He led the establishment of the first positive organizational psychology degree programs at Claremont Graduate University and runs the university's Quality of Life Institute.

As specialists in industrial-organizational psychology, we are always watching for trends in the creation of thriving workplaces. The refreshing perspective offered by this field has a great deal of appeal and we expect that its messages will make continuous inroads in the practices of our profession.

Readers Ask ...

When Should We Conduct Exit Interviews?

Question: On your web site you state that it is best to do an exit interview survey with a former employee two to three months after the employee has left the company. Do you have any research confirming that the results of a delayed exit survey are more valuable than survey results from a leaving employee on or around their last day?

Paul Connolly Answers: This statement was based on my analysis of broker turnover among Securities Industry Association members over an 8 year period. Like so much of our work in applied industrial psych, especially when conducted for a client, it never made it into a published journal.  However, it was very clear that statements people made once they were settled in their new jobs were much more likely to deal with delicate interpersonal types of situations (e.g. problems with manager) that would have been more difficult to deal with at the time of termination.

So often, once someone decides to look, they say they are going for more money. They tend to cite this as a nonconfrontational excuse when asked at the time of departure. However, in the study discussed above, the people gave much more honest and meaningful answers when they were asked several weeks later.

We have reproduced this many times over the years with other clients. However, the time span for when to ask changes depending on the job.In general, the time spans have been shrinking.  It is probably more in the three-to-five week range now, rather than the 8 week range that was the "sweet spot" in those earlier studies.

If you ask on day of departure, unless the exit interviewer is VERY skilled, you typically get non-emotional reasons. If you ask by e-mail too soon, you will get much of the same. But if you wait too long, people no longer feel obligated to respond. So the work is finding the right time window and invitation method (mail, email or phone).

Do you have a question you'd like to have answered? Submit a question for our Industrial Psychologists.

Reviews:

Books for HR Professionals

Since the early 90s, a charged-up group of psychologists have established a category of inquiry they call positive psychology. Their work addresses three topics from a unique perspective: positive subjective experience, positive individual traits, and positive institutions. Their inquiry into positive institutions has led to several books and many articles on the related topic of positive organizational psychology. One of them is Positive Organizational Behavior, a highly recommended book which pulls together current research and emerging vocabulary.

To continue, click here for the full book review.

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