Positive Organizational Behavior HR Seminar

Definition of POB The study & application of positive human resource strengths and psychological capacities that can be measured ,developed and effectively managed for performance improvement in today’s workplace What does this mean?

Definition It means studying psychological constructs that will allow us to improve at work. Such constructs are: Optimism Hope Happiness/SWB Resiliency Emotional Intelligence Self-efficacy (self-efficiency)

Optimism Characteristics of optimism: Perseverance Achievement Motivation leading to academic, athletic, occupational success.

Pessimism Pessimism leads to: Passivity Failure Social estrangement Depression

Dimensions of Optimism It is treated as a human nature and/or an individual difference. Optimism as human nature: many people especially those that are psychologically healthy people have a positive bias. Neurophysiologists consider optimism as inherent in the makeup of people-part of their basic human nature.

Dimensions of Optimism Modern psychology treats optimism as an individual’s difference People have varying degrees of optimism. It depends on how they were earlier treated ,people that were subjected to too much punishment are more prone to become pessimistic and learn helplessness.

How Optimistic & pessimistic people interpret personal bad events Pessimists: they make internal (their own fault) stable (will last long time) and global (will undermine everything they do) attributions. Optimists: make external (not their fault), unstable (temporary setback), and specific (problem only on this situation) attributions.

Three optimism issues Little VS. big optimism: People could be referred to as being a little optimist ,but a big pessimist and vice versa. Optimism VS pessimism: optimism and pessimism are mutually exclusive, people expect good outcomes and bad outcomes to be plentiful.

Three dimension issues Learning and sustaining optimism: Anyone including pessimistic people can learn how to become optimistic by following the social learning process of modeling by: Observing positive events in one’s relevant valued environment. Reducing and coping with bad events and stress helps to sustain optimism.

Optimism in the work place Optimism could be a positive force in the work force. They are motivated : to work harder Be more satisfied Have a high morale Have high levels of aspirations Set stretch goals Persevere in the face of obstacles & difficulties Tend to feel good both physically and mentally

Why should we hire optimistic people Studies showed the more optimistic the leader the more optimistic the followers Competent mangers attribute their failures to a correctable mistake. An HR executive recently states: “we don’t look for people with specific levels of education and experience. we look for one criterion for hiring: optimism ,we look for passion, excitement, energy. We want people to enjoy life.”

Construct no 2. HOPE Having hope means that a person will not give in to overwhelming anxiety or depression in the face of difficult challenges or setbacks. US found that those with higher hope human resources are more profitable Have higher retention rates Have greater levels of employee satisfaction and commitment

Construct no .3 Happiness/Subjective Well Being What is important is how people emotionally interpret and cognitively process what happens to them not what determines their happiness. It is not important to know who is happy but when and why people are happy and what the processes in that influence SWB

Happiness Personality Personality has been found to be one of the strongest and most consistent predictors of SWB. Some people may have a genetic predisposition to be happy or unhappy over the long run

Happiness The role of Goals: Recent Studies found that making progress toward goals is related to SWB especially if these goals were highly valued. Adapting and Coping: People that adapt to most conditions fairly quickly using problem focused coping leads to positive SWB

Happiness People that are happy with their lives seem to tend to find more satisfaction in their work.

Construct no.4 Resilience It is the capacity to rebound or bounce back from adversity, conflict, failure, or even positive events, progress and increased responsibility. This “Bouncing Back” Involves: Flexibility Adjustment Adaptability Continuous responsiveness to change one’s well-being over the long term

Resiliency Resiliency is a state like not a trait like, thus it could be trained and developed. It is defined as: the ability a body to resume to its original size and shape after being compressed, bent, stretched. In other words “elasticity”

Resiliency Resiliency could be enhanced through: The assets that a person posses Education Training Nurturing social relationships.

Adapting to resilience To adapt to resilience could be enhanced through: Self-efficacy, hope, optimism Teaching people how to use effective coping, stress management, problem –solving and goal setting strategies

Emotional Intelligence Studies show that career decisions are often based on emotions of happiness and affection or even fear, rather than on what is rationally best for one’s career.

Emotional Intelligence Emotions can also be conceptualized along a continuum Happiness-surprise-fear-sadness-anger-disgust. The key is that the closer the primary emotions are related to one another the more difficult it is for others to distinguish between them when expressed. Is she happy or surprised?

Emotional Intelligence Emotional Intelligence is the ability to identify, understand, and manage emotions.

The difference . In emotionally intelligent people they do not only read the expressed emotions of other people, they have the maturity to hold their felt emotions and not display undesirable ,immature negative emotions such as anger or disgust

Can we learn how to become EI? Yes we can . It is called maturity Intelligence is largely learned ,and it continues to develop as we go through life and learn from our experiences. IQ may get you hired but EI gets you promoted

Self-efficacy This contributes to the level of motivation and performance. It refers to one’s confidence about his/her abilities to mobilize the motivation, resources, of action needed to successfully execute a specific task within a given context.

Self-Efficacy People confuse between self-esteem and self-efficacy: Self-esteem: is a global construct of one’s evaluation and belief of overall worthiness. Self-efficacy; is one’s belief about a certain task specific capability

The process and impact of self-efficacy People tend to weigh, evaluate ,and integrate information about their perceived capabilities. This leads to expectations of personal efficacy: 1. The decision to perform the specific task 2.The amt of effort that will be expected to accomplish the task 3.The level of persistence that will be forthcoming despite problems, discomforting.

Self-Efficacy directly affects 1. Choice behaviors; how efficacious you feel towards the option 2.Motivational effort: When people enjoy high self-efficacy they tend to try harder and give more.

Self-Efficacy directly affects Perseverance: Those with high self-efficacy will bounce back when met with problems or even failure, those with low self-efficacy tend to give up when obstacles appear. Facilitative thought pattern: Those with high self-efficacy say to themselves: ”I know I can figure out how to solve this problem , low SE”I knew I couldn’t do this

Self-Efficacy directly affects Vulnerability to stress: Those with low self-efficacy tend to experience stress and burnout because they expect failure.

Three levels of self-efficacy It is a personal characteristic that can be changed or improved. The three levels: Task specific self-efficacy :efficient in performing a certain task. Domain efficacy: effectiveness for performance within an entire domain of tasks. General self-efficacy: one’s overall self-confidence for dealing with multiple domains in life.