Positive Organizational Scholarship

Positive organizational scholarship (POS) is concerned primarily with the study of especially positive outcomes, processes, and attributes of organizations. POS does not represent a single theory, but it focuses on dynamics that are typically described by words such as excellence, thriving, flourishing, abundance, resilience, or virtuousness. POS represents a perspective that includes instrumental concerns but puts an increased emphasis on ideas of goodness and positive human potential. It 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. POS is distinguished from traditional organizational effectiveness studies in that it seeks to understand what represents and approaches [Page 1261]the best of the human condition. In seeking to understand such phenomena, POS has a number of biases. These biases can be understood in terms of each of the three concepts in the label—positive organizational scholarship.

Positive. POS seeks to understand positive states—such as resilience or meaningfulness—as well as the dynamics and outcomes associated with those states—such as positive energy and positive connections. This does not mean that traditional organizational research is accused of focusing on negative or undesirable states, only that especially positive states, dynamics, and outcomes usually receive less attention in traditional organization studies. POS encompasses the examination of typical patterns of behavior and exchange, but it also tends to emphasize the realization of potential, patterns of excellence, and especially positive deviance from anticipated patterns. POS tends to emphasize the examination of factors that enable positive consequences for individuals, groups, and organizations. More often than not, POS focuses on that which is unexpectedly positive. The interest is in exceptional, virtuous, life-giving, and flourishing phenomena. Positive, in other words, has three general referents: (1) an affirmative bias (away from negative phenomena), (2) an emphasis on goodness, or the best of the human condition, and (3) positive deviance, or extraordinarily successful outcomes.

Organizational. POS focuses on positive processes and states that occur in association with organizational contexts. It examines positive phenomena within organizations, as well as positive organizational contexts themselves. POS draws from the full spectrum of organizational theories to understand, explain, and predict the occurrence, causes, and consequences of positivity. POS expands the boundaries of these theories to make visible positive states, positive processes, and positive relationships that are typically ignored within organization studies. For example, POS spotlights how virtuousness in organizations is associated with financial performance in the context of downsizing, in contrast to a more typical focus on how organizations try to mitigate the harmful effects of downsizing; or, how organizational practices enable organization members to craft meaningful work through fostering callings, in contrast to a more typical focus on employee productivity or morale; or, how the cascading dynamics of empowerment create broader inclusion of stakeholders in public organizations, in contrast to a focus on the political dynamics of stakeholder demands; or, how building on strengths produces more positive outcomes in a diverse array of settings such as classroom learning, employee commitment, leadership development, and firm profitability, in contrast to a more typical focus on managing or overcoming weaknesses. A POS lens is intended to expose new or different mechanisms through which positive organizational dynamics and positive organizational processes produce extraordinarily positive or unexpected outcomes—not merely effective outcomes.

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