- Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Memoriam: Remembering C. R. Snyder: A Humble Legacy of Hope
- Preface
- A Case for Positive Psychology
- Positive Psychology: Past, Present, and Future
- Positive Emotions
- Classifying and Measuring Strengths of Character
- Positive Psychology Applications
- Positive Psychology Within a Cultural Context
- Stopping the “Madness”: Positive Psychology and Deconstructing the Illness Ideology and the DSM
- Widening the Diagnostic Focus: A Case for Including Human Strengths and Environmental Resources
- Toward a Science of Mental Health
- Modeling Positive Human Health: From Covariance Structures to Dynamic Systems
- Positive Ethics: Themes and Variations
- Resilience in Development
- Positive Psychology for Children and Adolescents: Development, Prevention, and Promotion
- The Positive Youth Development Perspective: Theoretical and Empirical Bases of a Strengths-Based Approach to Adolescent Development
- Aging Well in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities
- New Territories of Positive Life-Span Development: Wisdom and Life Longings
- Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction
- Flow Theory and Research
- Positive Affectivity: The Disposition to Experience Positive Emotional States
- The Social Construction of Self-Esteem
- Coping Through Emotional Approach: Emerging Evidence for the Utility of Processing and Expressing Emotions in Responding to Stressors
- The Positive Psychology of Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional Creativity: Toward “Spiritualizing the Passions”
- Creativity
- The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning
- Mindfulness Versus Positive Evaluation
- Perspectives on Time
- Optimism
- Optimistic Explanatory Style
- Hope Theory
- Self-Efficacy: The Power of Believing You Can
- Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment
- Self-Determination
- Curiosity and Interest: The Benefits of Thriving on Novelty and Challenge
- Courage
- Relationship Connection: A Redux on the Role of Minding and the Quality of Feeling Special in the Enhancement of Closeness
- Compassion
- Adult Attachment Security: The Relational Scaffolding of Positive Psychology
- Empathy and Altruism
- Forgiveness
- Furthering the Science of Gratitude
- Love
- For Richer … in Good Times … and in Health: Positive Processes in Relationships
- What's Positive About Self-Verification?
- Reality Negotiation
- Humility
- The Motive for Distinctiveness: A Universal, but Flexible Human Need
- A Role for Neuropsychology in Understanding the Facilitating Influence of Positive Affect on Social Behavior and Cognitive Processes
- Toward a Biology of Social Support
- The Central Role of the Heart in Generating and Sustaining Positive Emotions
- Toughness
- Family-Centered Positive Psychology
- Positive Schools
- Positive Psychology on Campus
- Positive Workplaces
- Positive Institutions, Law, and Policy
- Meditation and Positive Psychology
- Spirituality: The Search for the Sacred
- Sharing One's Story: On the Benefits of Writing or Talking About Emotional Experience
- Benefit-Finding and Growth
- Making Sense of Loss, Perceiving Benefits, and Posttraumatic Growth
- Happiness, Resilience, and Positive Growth Following Physical Disability: Issues for Understanding, Research, and Therapeutic Intervention
- The Promise of Sustainable Happiness
- Meaning in Life
- The Future of Positive Psychology: Pursuing Three Big Goals
- Index
Abstract and Keywords
Over the years, both management practitioners and academics have generally assumed that positive workplaces lead to desired outcomes. Unlike psychology, considerable attention has also been devoted to the study of positive topics such as job satisfaction and organizational commitment. However, to place a scientifically based focus on the role that positivity may play in the development and performance of human resources, and largely stimulated by the positive psychology initiative, positive organizational behavior (POB) and psychological capital (PsyCap) have recently been introduced into the management literature. This chapter first provides an overview of both the historical and contemporary positive approaches to the workplace. Then, more specific attention is given to the meaning and domain of POB and PsyCap. Our definition of POB includes positive psychological capacities or resources that can be validly measured, developed, and have performance impact. The constructs that have been determined so far to best meet these criteria are efficacy, hope, optimism, and resiliency. When combined, they have been demonstrated to form the core construct of what we term psychological capital (PsyCap). A measure of PsyCap is being validated and this chapter references the increasing number of studies indicating that PsyCap can be developed and have performance impact. The chapter concludes with important future research directions that can help better understand and build positive workplaces to meet current and looming challenges.
Keywords: human resource development, positive organizational behavior, positive organizational scholarship, psychological capital, workplace positive psychology
Fred Luthans, Department of Management, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, Lincoln, NE, USA
Carolyn M. Youssef, College of Business, Bellevue University
Access to the complete content on Oxford Handbooks Online requires a subscription or purchase. Public users are able to search the site and view the abstracts and keywords for each book and chapter without a subscription.
Please subscribe or login to access full text content.
If you have purchased a print title that contains an access token, please see the token for information about how to register your code.
For questions on access or troubleshooting, please check our FAQs, and if you can''t find the answer there, please contact us.
- Oxford Handbook of Positive Psychology
- Oxford Library of Psychology
- About the Editors
- Contributors
- Foreword
- Foreword
- Memoriam: Remembering C. R. Snyder: A Humble Legacy of Hope
- Preface
- A Case for Positive Psychology
- Positive Psychology: Past, Present, and Future
- Positive Emotions
- Classifying and Measuring Strengths of Character
- Positive Psychology Applications
- Positive Psychology Within a Cultural Context
- Stopping the “Madness”: Positive Psychology and Deconstructing the Illness Ideology and the DSM
- Widening the Diagnostic Focus: A Case for Including Human Strengths and Environmental Resources
- Toward a Science of Mental Health
- Modeling Positive Human Health: From Covariance Structures to Dynamic Systems
- Positive Ethics: Themes and Variations
- Resilience in Development
- Positive Psychology for Children and Adolescents: Development, Prevention, and Promotion
- The Positive Youth Development Perspective: Theoretical and Empirical Bases of a Strengths-Based Approach to Adolescent Development
- Aging Well in the 21st Century: Challenges and Opportunities
- New Territories of Positive Life-Span Development: Wisdom and Life Longings
- Subjective Well-Being: The Science of Happiness and Life Satisfaction
- Flow Theory and Research
- Positive Affectivity: The Disposition to Experience Positive Emotional States
- The Social Construction of Self-Esteem
- Coping Through Emotional Approach: Emerging Evidence for the Utility of Processing and Expressing Emotions in Responding to Stressors
- The Positive Psychology of Emotional Intelligence
- Emotional Creativity: Toward “Spiritualizing the Passions”
- Creativity
- The Role of Personal Control in Adaptive Functioning
- Mindfulness Versus Positive Evaluation
- Perspectives on Time
- Optimism
- Optimistic Explanatory Style
- Hope Theory
- Self-Efficacy: The Power of Believing You Can
- Problem-Solving Appraisal and Psychological Adjustment
- Self-Determination
- Curiosity and Interest: The Benefits of Thriving on Novelty and Challenge
- Courage
- Relationship Connection: A Redux on the Role of Minding and the Quality of Feeling Special in the Enhancement of Closeness
- Compassion
- Adult Attachment Security: The Relational Scaffolding of Positive Psychology
- Empathy and Altruism
- Forgiveness
- Furthering the Science of Gratitude
- Love
- For Richer … in Good Times … and in Health: Positive Processes in Relationships
- What's Positive About Self-Verification?
- Reality Negotiation
- Humility
- The Motive for Distinctiveness: A Universal, but Flexible Human Need
- A Role for Neuropsychology in Understanding the Facilitating Influence of Positive Affect on Social Behavior and Cognitive Processes
- Toward a Biology of Social Support
- The Central Role of the Heart in Generating and Sustaining Positive Emotions
- Toughness
- Family-Centered Positive Psychology
- Positive Schools
- Positive Psychology on Campus
- Positive Workplaces
- Positive Institutions, Law, and Policy
- Meditation and Positive Psychology
- Spirituality: The Search for the Sacred
- Sharing One's Story: On the Benefits of Writing or Talking About Emotional Experience
- Benefit-Finding and Growth
- Making Sense of Loss, Perceiving Benefits, and Posttraumatic Growth
- Happiness, Resilience, and Positive Growth Following Physical Disability: Issues for Understanding, Research, and Therapeutic Intervention
- The Promise of Sustainable Happiness
- Meaning in Life
- The Future of Positive Psychology: Pursuing Three Big Goals
- Index